My life is becoming a James Bond movie...
I took Dad to the eye doctor this morning. Farthest he's had to walk since he got back on his feet. Drove to the doctor's office, Dad used the walker to walk into the building and down the hall to the exam room. It was clear in the back. He was moving slowly and I was following close behind in case he lost his balance. The exam room was clear in the back, so it took a long time to get there. I am doing this very slow swing step, trying to see if I can move smoothly and continuously at this slow rate, and I realize I have seen this in a movie somewhere...
It was an early James Bond film that was set in New Orleans. There was a funeral procession coming down the street, band was playing, ladies were wailing, and they were all moving very slowly, very similar to what I was doing moving down the hall.
Yesterday they were hooting and hollering up at the front of the office so I went to investigate. They were laughing at some clips from "You're the man now, dog" website. Seems there was an outtake from "Finding Forester" where Sean Connery points at his black co-star, and says "You're the man now, dog", so some guy used the phrase to found a web site. Their version of the Llama Song doesn't have the original images, a very poor copy it is. The original can be found here: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php
Previously Dad had been using two kinds of eye drops to control the pressure in his eye. The doctor says they do the same thing but work through different mechanisms. Dad has only been using Timolol for about a week, but the doctor says the pressure in his eye is fine. We only got the Timolol, because Dad mentioned that his vision was getting worse. Doctor asked him to
come back in four months for a more thorough exam. Dad's vision isn't great, but he claims he can read newsprint with his reading glasses. I don't know if that is true, but it might be.
I'm talking to some of guys at work today and Neil, our accountant, comes up and starts doing this side step thing. I'm not quite sure what it's about but it looks just like Odd Job from Goldfinger. There is the fight scene at the end of the movie where Mr. Bond and Mr. Job are locked inside Fort Knox with all the gold and the nuclear bomb. Odd Job is beating the tar out of James until James picks up Mr. Odd's hat. All of sudden Odd Job's demeanor changes. Before he was a contemptuous bully, now he is wary, stepping very carefully, and that is exactly what Neil looked like.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Monday, October 10, 2005
Sales
I for one like Budweiser, or at least I did before I lost my taste for alcohol. These days I drink a shot of cheap white wine in a full glass of water. I used to drink micro-brews but it gave me terrible gas (blue smoke paint peelers, as an acquaintance in Phoenix termed it).
There was a parable circulating back in the 90's, maybe in the 80's, that said if you wanted to succeed in business, you had to be like a duck: all calm and serenity above the water (where it shows), but paddling furiously beneath the surface. I thought it was a stupid idea. I still think it is a stupid idea, but now I am beginning to understand.
Communicating with people can be difficult and time consuming, especially if they are you superiors. If people think their status is higher than yours, then they don't have to listen to you, you have to listen to them. They may want to tell you a long story, or just deliver terse comments. If they are polite, they may listen to you for a short while, or they may ignore you completely. They are not going to sit patiently while you go on and on about something that bores them, and anything you say will be boring because you are not as important as they are.
So if you are trying to get your superiors to do something, like approve your project, it is going to be very time consuming and tedious on your part. You will have to listen to them drone on as long as they like, and pitch your project whenever you get a chance. If their status, real or imagined, is much higher than yours, you will get maybe a minute to speak for every hour you spend with them. So if may take weeks to get your idea across, and then it will probably get rejected because of something their girlfriend/boyfriend said over the weekend.
There was a parable circulating back in the 90's, maybe in the 80's, that said if you wanted to succeed in business, you had to be like a duck: all calm and serenity above the water (where it shows), but paddling furiously beneath the surface. I thought it was a stupid idea. I still think it is a stupid idea, but now I am beginning to understand.
Communicating with people can be difficult and time consuming, especially if they are you superiors. If people think their status is higher than yours, then they don't have to listen to you, you have to listen to them. They may want to tell you a long story, or just deliver terse comments. If they are polite, they may listen to you for a short while, or they may ignore you completely. They are not going to sit patiently while you go on and on about something that bores them, and anything you say will be boring because you are not as important as they are.
So if you are trying to get your superiors to do something, like approve your project, it is going to be very time consuming and tedious on your part. You will have to listen to them drone on as long as they like, and pitch your project whenever you get a chance. If their status, real or imagined, is much higher than yours, you will get maybe a minute to speak for every hour you spend with them. So if may take weeks to get your idea across, and then it will probably get rejected because of something their girlfriend/boyfriend said over the weekend.
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Roman, Saturday
Anne and I took Roman for a ride in the van today. All that fuss about technique for loading him in the car was for naught. They got Elfinish (a 95 pound Ethiopian woman) to help me, and she had never loaded anybody into a car before. It was a bit of a struggle, but we managed. Using the van made it a little easier because there was room for her inside so she could pull while I pushed. Drove over to Cornelius, checked the house, picked up the trash in the yard (there are always a few small pieces of trash in the yard. The wind blows it in), picked up his mail, his address books and a pair of shoes. Stopped by two foster care houses. The woman at one of the houses came out and talked to him. Took him to Burger King for a Whopper Junior. He called Uncle Lee from the parking lot using Anne's cell phone (free long distance). He looked up the number in his address book and I dialed it. Took him back to Rehab.
I stopped by rehab on Thursday and talked to the occupational therapist about Roman. She said he was the most motivated she had seen. The have a set of parallel bars, like railings, about 12 feet long. She said he had managed to walk the length three times, which is a big improvement for him.
He is still a long way from living on his own, but he might be walking again in a few months.
If I had known back in July what I know now, I would have voted against using a general anesthetic when they tried to relocate his hip joint.
He has a roommate who has the same doctor (Kuklinski). This guy is wearing this frame on his shoulders that holds his head in place. He told me today that they are planing on fusing 6 (or was it 8?) vertebrae. He was supposed to have an operation yesterday, but they postponed it two weeks. Too much risk of loss of life. He is much younger that Dad, might be 60 something.
I stopped by rehab on Thursday and talked to the occupational therapist about Roman. She said he was the most motivated she had seen. The have a set of parallel bars, like railings, about 12 feet long. She said he had managed to walk the length three times, which is a big improvement for him.
He is still a long way from living on his own, but he might be walking again in a few months.
If I had known back in July what I know now, I would have voted against using a general anesthetic when they tried to relocate his hip joint.
He has a roommate who has the same doctor (Kuklinski). This guy is wearing this frame on his shoulders that holds his head in place. He told me today that they are planing on fusing 6 (or was it 8?) vertebrae. He was supposed to have an operation yesterday, but they postponed it two weeks. Too much risk of loss of life. He is much younger that Dad, might be 60 something.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Better Medical Billing
I have an idea for an accounting related business that I think has good prospects.
Basically the idea is that I hate having to deal with medical bills. If I
hate it, that leads me to suspect that there are other people who hate it
too. It's something many of has have to deal with, any many of us hate. So
maybe there is a business opportunity here.
The idea is collect all of a persons medical bills and insurance statements
and verify that they agree, and then send one monthly bill to the person for
them to pay.
To make this a viable business you would need to be automated as possible,
which would mean computers and someone to keep them operating. You would
also need someone who knows the ins and outs of medical billing.
How would you make any money off of this? One way would be to combine it
with a credit card. As soon as the bill is verified as correct, we would pay
the Doctor's. They might be willing concede one or two percent for prompt
payment.
On the other hand, people who have to deal with these bills might be willing
to pay a monthly or annual fee to have these issues resolved.
The big question is how many people would be interested, and how many would
be willing to pay a fee?
Basically the idea is that I hate having to deal with medical bills. If I
hate it, that leads me to suspect that there are other people who hate it
too. It's something many of has have to deal with, any many of us hate. So
maybe there is a business opportunity here.
The idea is collect all of a persons medical bills and insurance statements
and verify that they agree, and then send one monthly bill to the person for
them to pay.
To make this a viable business you would need to be automated as possible,
which would mean computers and someone to keep them operating. You would
also need someone who knows the ins and outs of medical billing.
How would you make any money off of this? One way would be to combine it
with a credit card. As soon as the bill is verified as correct, we would pay
the Doctor's. They might be willing concede one or two percent for prompt
payment.
On the other hand, people who have to deal with these bills might be willing
to pay a monthly or annual fee to have these issues resolved.
The big question is how many people would be interested, and how many would
be willing to pay a fee?
Friday, May 20, 2005
What's happening
Took the boys to see the latest Star Wars movie last night. We all enjoyed it thoroughly.
Mutual Materials (what kind of name is that?) is delivering 6 pallets of concrete bricks to the house today. Landscaper is finishing the base (4 inches of gravel) today and laying bricks tomorrow.
Owner where I work is scurrying aroung trying to get ready for a trip to HIF next week. HIF: Hydrological Instrumentation Facility, government operation in Mississippi. They have a working scale model of the Mississippi river basin.
Manufacturing is trying to find a printer that will print labels with individual ID numbers for some BlueTooth radios we build. Tried to find one once before, but couldn't get a printer vendor interested in talking to us. Owner said he was going to take care of it, but it's been three months, and he hasn't done diddly, and now the situation is getting critical. I expect we will have an explosion here before the end of the day.
Went by Aaron Brothers art supplies last weekend and picked up a do it yourself metal frame for a poster of "Middle Earth" a vendor dropped off at work. It's a cool poster, 160 degree panoramic view of New Zealand farms and mountains. Picture measures 36" by 8". Had to go back to the store and exchange the rails because I got the wrong size the first time.
Anne & Ross & I saw "Kingdom of Heaven" last weekend (two weeks ago?). Tremendous movie.
Reading "Blood of Victory", spy novel about trying to disrupt the supply of Romanian oil to Germany in 1940.
War, war and more war. If you have too much peace, make up a war, war on drugs, war on poverty, war on education.
Subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. Interesting reading.
Still don't have a real good idea just how the world works, but I'm working on it.
Ross is rehearsing a play.
Daughter has rehearsal today and performances tomorrow (dance).
Mutual Materials (what kind of name is that?) is delivering 6 pallets of concrete bricks to the house today. Landscaper is finishing the base (4 inches of gravel) today and laying bricks tomorrow.
Owner where I work is scurrying aroung trying to get ready for a trip to HIF next week. HIF: Hydrological Instrumentation Facility, government operation in Mississippi. They have a working scale model of the Mississippi river basin.
Manufacturing is trying to find a printer that will print labels with individual ID numbers for some BlueTooth radios we build. Tried to find one once before, but couldn't get a printer vendor interested in talking to us. Owner said he was going to take care of it, but it's been three months, and he hasn't done diddly, and now the situation is getting critical. I expect we will have an explosion here before the end of the day.
Went by Aaron Brothers art supplies last weekend and picked up a do it yourself metal frame for a poster of "Middle Earth" a vendor dropped off at work. It's a cool poster, 160 degree panoramic view of New Zealand farms and mountains. Picture measures 36" by 8". Had to go back to the store and exchange the rails because I got the wrong size the first time.
Anne & Ross & I saw "Kingdom of Heaven" last weekend (two weeks ago?). Tremendous movie.
Reading "Blood of Victory", spy novel about trying to disrupt the supply of Romanian oil to Germany in 1940.
War, war and more war. If you have too much peace, make up a war, war on drugs, war on poverty, war on education.
Subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. Interesting reading.
Still don't have a real good idea just how the world works, but I'm working on it.
Ross is rehearsing a play.
Daughter has rehearsal today and performances tomorrow (dance).
Monday, May 9, 2005
Kingdom of Heaven
Saw "Kingdom of Heaven" this weekend. I enjoyed it. Problem I have, as I have with many historical films, is I want to know just how accurate it is. I spent a few minutes searching the web this morning and this is what I found:
From imdb.com: All characters, except Godfrey, existed in real life. In reality, Baldwin, the leper king, died in 1185 at the age of 24, a year before the start of the story.
From the Christian Science Monitor: The two university scholars who read the script did not agree on its historical accuracy. Father George said that the 12th-century Crusader state was, as shown in the film, relatively tolerant, and that Saladin did in fact order his troops to give no quarter in the fighting in Jerusalem, an order he later rescinded. But Mr. Fadl said the Crusader state was by its nature discriminatory and oppressive of other religions. He said that the Muslim knights took the idea of granting quarter very seriously, and that the notion that Saladin would thank Balian for teaching him chivalry, as the script had it, was laughable. "Pick up any book on chivalry, it's exactly the opposite," he said. "The whole idea of knighthood and chivalry came from Muslims and was exported to Europe." He noted, as did Father George, that at the time of this Crusade, science and scholarship were far more advanced in the Islamic world than in Europe.
From imdb.com: All characters, except Godfrey, existed in real life. In reality, Baldwin, the leper king, died in 1185 at the age of 24, a year before the start of the story.
From the Christian Science Monitor: The two university scholars who read the script did not agree on its historical accuracy. Father George said that the 12th-century Crusader state was, as shown in the film, relatively tolerant, and that Saladin did in fact order his troops to give no quarter in the fighting in Jerusalem, an order he later rescinded. But Mr. Fadl said the Crusader state was by its nature discriminatory and oppressive of other religions. He said that the Muslim knights took the idea of granting quarter very seriously, and that the notion that Saladin would thank Balian for teaching him chivalry, as the script had it, was laughable. "Pick up any book on chivalry, it's exactly the opposite," he said. "The whole idea of knighthood and chivalry came from Muslims and was exported to Europe." He noted, as did Father George, that at the time of this Crusade, science and scholarship were far more advanced in the Islamic world than in Europe.
Tuesday, May 3, 2005
Computer Business
I see two big problems in the business world today, and that includes the computer industry.
The first is the Republican free market fixation on driving down costs. Witness Bill Gates request for more visas for foreign engineers, and the outsourcing of code development to India.
The second problem is boss's. I used to give people who were in charge the benefit of the doubt. I assumed they knew what they were doing, because the people who put them in charge knew what they were doing. It took me years to realize that most of the people I worked for were terrible managers. Maybe I have had a string of bad luck, or maybe I haven't been as discriminating in where I work as I should have been.
Maybe there are a few companies around with some good managers, and maybe some of these companies reward their employees with compensation commesurate with their worth. I would like to find one of these companies. I certainly have never worked for one. But then I can be "difficult to work with". Among my troublesome characteristics is that I "don't suffer fools gladly".
I find it very difficult to evaluate a prospective job from an interview, even a lengthy one. And it usually doesn't make any difference. If they offer me a job, I'll take it.
Recently I was thinking that I needed an agent, someone to promote me and my skills. It used to really bug me that employment agencies got these huge commissions for doing virtually nothing. But now I am beginning to understand.
I recently came up with the idea of using a 32-bit microprocessor for our next product instead of the 8-bit processors we have been using. I am the only developer here. My rational is that it is easier to develop an application using a cpu with a larger address space than having to manage exteneded memory using a small chip.
There are numerous reasons from the standpoint of software development to use a bigger, faster chip. If we were building millions of units, it would probably be worth it to expend the extra effort to write the program to run on an 8-bit chip. Since our total volume can be measured in hundred's, the development cost will far outweigh the extra cost of the bigger processor.
The first is the Republican free market fixation on driving down costs. Witness Bill Gates request for more visas for foreign engineers, and the outsourcing of code development to India.
The second problem is boss's. I used to give people who were in charge the benefit of the doubt. I assumed they knew what they were doing, because the people who put them in charge knew what they were doing. It took me years to realize that most of the people I worked for were terrible managers. Maybe I have had a string of bad luck, or maybe I haven't been as discriminating in where I work as I should have been.
Maybe there are a few companies around with some good managers, and maybe some of these companies reward their employees with compensation commesurate with their worth. I would like to find one of these companies. I certainly have never worked for one. But then I can be "difficult to work with". Among my troublesome characteristics is that I "don't suffer fools gladly".
I find it very difficult to evaluate a prospective job from an interview, even a lengthy one. And it usually doesn't make any difference. If they offer me a job, I'll take it.
Recently I was thinking that I needed an agent, someone to promote me and my skills. It used to really bug me that employment agencies got these huge commissions for doing virtually nothing. But now I am beginning to understand.
I recently came up with the idea of using a 32-bit microprocessor for our next product instead of the 8-bit processors we have been using. I am the only developer here. My rational is that it is easier to develop an application using a cpu with a larger address space than having to manage exteneded memory using a small chip.
There are numerous reasons from the standpoint of software development to use a bigger, faster chip. If we were building millions of units, it would probably be worth it to expend the extra effort to write the program to run on an 8-bit chip. Since our total volume can be measured in hundred's, the development cost will far outweigh the extra cost of the bigger processor.
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