Amazon Time

06.25.2003

I've been wanting to get some new reference books lately. I've been delving into the world of Cascading Style Sheets at work, and I've been wanting to know more about how to properly use them, as opposed to hacking stuff until it looks right. A couple of weeks ago I flipped through Eric Meyer on CSS while over at Jerry's and was impressed with the bit that I read. It's been in my Amazon shopping cart ever since, so today I went ahead and bought it.

While making sure it was in my cart, Amazon suggested a website optimization book. I usually ignore their suggestions, but this time I took a look. While working on various sites I've hard a hard time getting them to load fast enough, and the reviews for this book looked promising. The kicker was thatthe author runs both webreference.com and javascript.com, both of which I have used on a semi-regular basis.

So now I'll have books on how to make life better and easier, I've just got to set aside the time to read them.

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Stupid Highway Construction

06.24.2003

For the past 3 months or so, there has been construction going on at the intersection of Hwy 72 and Jeff/Slaughter Rd. It looked like maybe they were going to widen the road, which would be good since that intersection becomes a choke point in my commute to and from work every day.

So for months there has been an additional slow down through the intersection as they've closed one lane to make room for their construction. It wasn't too bad, it would usually only slow me down for 10 or 15 minutes. As long as I didn't realize that my usual commute was 15-20 minutes, everything was ok.

Last week they finished the construction and I could see what they were working on. Going east and west on 72 they moved the inside turn lanes. About 6 feet. To the center. Not enough room for a full extra turn lane, although what good 2 turn lanes going onto a 2-lane road would do, I don't know. They didn't widen the highway any. No shoulder added to the road. It'slike they spent 3 months mulling around to not do anything that would make much of a difference.

This morning, there was a van stalled in the left hand lane right beside the new turn lane! It would have been a good time for an emergency lane to have been added. A quarter mile ahead, there was a truck unloading sod on the right side of the road, but they were still in the right hand lane. A shoulder for them to pull over on would have been nice.

So if you're going down 72, pull over to the side and see todays new camtoon instead. Hah! And Jerry thought I was going to forget.

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Napster BAD!

06.23.2003

At the end of last week, I said one of those phrases in front of Jerry that sent us back a couple of years. In this case, it was "Napster BAD!!!"

I said it out of the blus, and I really can't remember why I said it, but it harkened back to a time when Metallica was suing Napster for copyright infringement. There was a site that had some pretty funny Flash cartoons that were poking fun at the whole thing.

Saturday, Jerry re-found the site that had said cartoons. I watched them again over the weekend and started laughing all over again.

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Telemarketer Fun

06.19.2003

The other day, Elaine told of having fun with a telemarketing call by telling them she didn't have a phone. It seems there's a family in Grand Forks, North Dakota that also have a good way to handle telemarketers. Last night I had a little fun of my own.

At 6:30 the phone rang. I picked it, there was nobody on the other end.

At 7:00 the phone rang. I picked it, there was nobody on the other end.

At 7:05 the phone rang. I picked it, there was nobody on the other end.

At 7:30 the phone rang. I picked it, there was nobody on the other end.

At 8:05 the phone rang. I picked it, there was somebody on the other end!

Somebody on the other end: Hi, is this Russell?
Russell: Yeah.
Somebody on the other end:Hi, I'm Tammy from Gatlinburg Vacation(something something that I was really listening to). How are you doing tonight?
Russell: Ok. Can I as you if you have an automatic dialer?
Tammy from Gatlinburg:Uhm, yes we do.
Russell:You may want to check it. I've been getting calls all night with no one on the other end.
Tammy from Gatlinburg:Ok. well, that might have been somebody else trying to call, too.
Russell:Maybe, but they've been pretty regular.
Tammy from Gatlinburg:Ok. Well, would like a vacation in Gatlinburg?
Russell: No, not really.
Tammy from Gatlinburg: Ok. Well, I hope you have a good night. Bye Bye. [click]

I never was rude, just asking questions.I guess I threw hew far enough off her script that I didn't have to listen to the sales pitch. I wonder if that'll work even if the phone doesn't ring umpteen times before they get a hold of me?

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Disco Baby Remix 2

06.18.2003

Last week I fiddled with Jer's pictures of Helen. This week I continue as I present the sister-picture to the original. I give you Disco Baby Remix II!!!

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