Thursday, April 26, 2007

Finals week.

Instead of studying last night, I went to a show at The Granada (Granasty?), because it was Drew's first concert.  Rich and Drew waited patiently while I played hockey before going to the show.  The game went to a shootout and my team eventually won.  Despite the delay, we arrived just in time for the headliner to begin.  Perfect timing.  I had seen Victor Wooten before, a few times, so I knew it would be good.  I played hookie from work today to prepare for the project presentation, which I nailed, and the final exam, which I aced.  I'll make up my hours next week, for sure.  I'm hoping for an A in that class.  It was a great class.  So, school's out for the. . . weekend.  The next term starts Monday.  I didn't register.  I'm taking the next 8 weeks to focus on work.  There is a lot of travel coming up, so if I do take a class, it will have to be an online course.  The online courses are more expensive, so I'll look at the offerings tomorrow to see if I can identify something which is worthy of taking online.  Otherwise, I'll just let the financial aid folks know I'm taking a break.

Tonight, I'm baking.  I volunteered to help the Kansas City Curling Club with their 4th Annual BBQ Bonspiel (curling tournament) this weekend.  That involves being signed up to bring food.   Betty Crocker to the rescue.  I had signed up as an alternate.  I got put onto a team which needed a fourth, so I'll be curling all weekend.  It'll be a great change of pace.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Crazy days

A lot has happened and I have a lot to do over the next few days.  My hockey team won the league championship.  I scored a goal in the third period of the final game. . . not the game winning goal, but the other team sort of gave up after that.  So, this past Sunday there was no hockey to punctuate the weekend.  Oh well, this week is already hectic.  It is finals week.  I have a paper coming due.  Work is nuts.  I have social items wedged into my calendar edgewise.  I'll be glad when this week is over.  I'm planning a lot of travel in May.  I will be in Nevada, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and New York in a matter of 3 weeks.  I'll try to take pictures and keep the site updated.


Thursday, April 19, 2007

Risk Mitigation versus Depravity

I've been reading about the Virginia Polytechnic shooting spree, which prompted an hour long discussion in my Risk Mitigation class.  You really can't shut down the world because someone might snap.  I think that noticing people who are alienated and feeling enraged and disconnected from humanity and at least starting a conversation with them can diffuse a lot of terrible behavior.  Aside from those measures, you're more likely to get struck by lightning than get shot by a psychotic mass murderer.  I think if you spent the money that would be spent on metal detectors and served free breakfast, more deaths could be prevented.  That said, they really needed a better incident response plan at that school to reduce the amount of damage a random shooter could cause.  Couldn't someone have pulled the fire alarm?

In my reading on the topic, I found the writings of Michael Welner, who studies these kinds of individuals who go off the deep end and conduct a catastrophe.  He has developed a survey which ranks crimes as to whether they fit the community standard of "depraved"or not.  It is becoming the legal definition, and he the foremost expert.  His site explains it better than I can.  The goal is to make the sentencing guidelines less arbitrary when people are convicted of "heinous" or "evil" acts.  I found it mega interesting.  http://depravityscale.org/

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Yay!   Dress Code
Monday-Friday- JEANS

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

In New Jersey, it's not drunken driving if it involves a Zamboni.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17930215/

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Infrequent postings

I've been slacking on the post frequency, but I'm enrolled in a class which I really enjoy and I'm working a lot of hours.  As of this morning, I'm back in the gym, too.  And, my team made it to round two of the playoffs in the Pepsi Ice Midwest Adult Hockey League.  This Sunday we'll be playing a team who has beaten us every time we've played them this season.  We're gunning for them.  It's going to be a good one.

I finally received my "free" Sirius radio (with the purchase a six month subscription) which I ordered in mid-December.  The coupon was also good for a deeply discounted radio with the ability to pause, rewind, or store songs.  I ordered it so I could have satellite tunes at the gym.  After a few weeks of wondering, I gave them a call.  According to UPS tracking, it was signed for by "PORCH" just before Christmas.  I would consider that pretty much stolen in transit, because I never found it.  I wonder whose porch they left it on.  I called.  They verified that the radio they shipped had been activated, but not by me. They said they would ship a replacement.  Nothing showed up for a few weeks, so I called again.    They apologized and generated an order for a S50 and a home docking kit.  I received only the home docking kit.  I called to find out when the radio would arrive and they realized that only part of the order was entered.  The radio itself was out of stock.   They have another model which is better, so they gave me an RMA number to ship the S50 docking kit back.  They said to give them the tracking number when I ship it and they'll generate an order for the replacement, a Stiletto 10 with a home docking kit.  I shipped the S50 kit back, but I lost the receipt with the tracking number.  I think the wind took it when I was getting out of the car.  I would have to wait for my FedEx bill to arrive to get the tracking number.  A few days later it dawned on me that I could find it on the FedEx web site.  I called them with the tracking number and they said they would get the order going once they verified that they received it.  A couple of weeks passed, so I called again.  The order had shipped.  When I got it, it was another S50 home docking kit.  I immediately called again.  This time I got someone competent.  I explained what had transpired and that I was goingto contest the charges on my credit card and/or involve a lawyer.  He assured me that I would get my radio as soon as possible.  I reminded him that it was the fourth time I had heard that.  He put me on hold for a very long time.  Then he said they were shipping an S10 with a home docking kit and a free car docking kit.  I asked him for an RMA number for the S50 home docking kit, which is useless to me.  Later, I checked my email for the order confirmation, and it was there with UPS tracking numbers for each of the parts.  As far as customer service goes, they eventually got it right, but their system has flaws.  The radio I got usually costs about 5 times what I paid.  It stores up to 10 hours of audio.  I bought the 2 year subscription and gave it to the owner of my gym.  The music at the gym is a thousand percent better, and the annoying DJs and commercials are history.  Mission accomplished, but what a hassle.