Excellent Customer Service: Petmate

It is a sad state of affairs when I have sunk to a level where I am shocked when a company gives me excellent service and truly seems to be looking out for me. But that is the truth.
Last night I went on-line looking for a replacement part. We have an elderly diabetic cat who [...]

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In Praise of Coffee

Coffee, the elixir of life…
When I was in college, I couldn’t stand the taste of coffee. But I needed the caffeine as I entered my second year of engineering school, was unable to stomach much soda, and hadn’t discovered tea. I started with the “foo-foo” coffee, the flavored stuff in the cans, and was able [...]

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Regrets…

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”
Wondering what could have happened if one had taken different action can become an obsession. How many people I know carry major regrets in their lives and are fixated by them! I have heard people blame their current circumstances completely [...]

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Jokes

I don’t know why, but I love jokes about religions. I recently finished reading the Reader’s Digest joke edition, and really got the biggest kick out of religion jokes. For example:
A priest, a minister and a rabbi go fishing. At one point the priest says “I need a soda,” and hops out of the boat, [...]

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Getting Past Writer’s Block with Coding Techniques

I read something a couple of weeks ago that has been noodling around in my brain. The author was talking about how writer’s block doesn’t really exist – that it is a fear of something instead. He held up the lack of existence of painter’s block as an example.
As I sat here this morning, wondering [...]

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Autumn

I love autumn. Even here, where autumn does not come as fast as where I was raised, I find myself enjoying the cooler temperatures, and the rustle of dying leaves on the trees. I am thoroughly enjoying having the outside air be cool on the skin. The windows have been opened, and I wake to [...]

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Tips for a better (working) life

In an article from July, Adrian Savage talked about tips for a better working life. I was struck by these tips, but I think they can be applied to the whole of life, not just working. Here are the main points of the tips:

Quit reading e-mails except at specified points during the day
Set aside at [...]

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Nothing Like A Good Virus to Take the Wind Out of My Sails…

It’s been a non-week here. On Monday of the long weekend I came down with something, and Tuesday I left work early. Wednesday came, and I called in sick. I didn’t feel terrible; I just felt off. Oh yes, I was all stuffed up.
I decided to lay down for an hour before logging in to [...]

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Summer is Over

The official end to the summer season has come and gone – Labor Day has passed. Children will be going back to school today, and all the teachers are gearing up for another year of hard work. For me, it means the philosophical end of summer only – the weather will still be warm for [...]

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Why Do I Have to Put In CDs…

This morning I’m going to rant a little. I installed Visual Studio 2005 (VS05) this weekend, so I could start working with it. This morning I went to open a spreadsheet in Excel, and now I’m being prompted to put in my VS05 CDs in order to use my spreadsheet.
I fail to understand WHY I [...]

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