Yea, politics!

I figure I’m probably not the last person online to see “Obama Girl.” Nope. There are maybe 25 others of ya out there, too.

Car Trouble

We bought a 2003 VW Passat GLS wagon about a month ago. It is beautiful (when you ignore the scratches and stains) and a joy to drive. Pictures and more flowery praise are forthcoming. But for now, the car (The Wife and I are leaning toward calling her [the car] “Merlot”) has engendered a curious combination of relief and WTF in me.

Apparently yesterday, in the parking lot of the Washburn IGA, the fuel pump went out. That’s about as perfect a place for it to happen as any I can think of, since it’s four blocks from work, it didn’t happen while we were driving, and it didn’t happen on the eight-day road trip we’re about to take out east to the sister-in-law’s wedding.

Now granted, the car has almost 100k miles on it, so I could expect the pump (and maybe some other smallish things) to be in less than perfect shape. But in the course of researching this business online, The Wife started finding all kinds of accounts of fuel pumps in VWs from 2000-2003 giving out between 20k and 35k after they were put in. And there’s been no recall, or even any peep from VW about the issue. WTF?

The car is presently at Kenny’s House of Automtive Goodness: Home of the Cheap and Lasting Fix. The guys there are:

• Lifesavers
• Damn good at what they do
• Maybe just the teensiest bit ignorant of the power of the Web

As far as I know, they’re still looking for a replacement fuel pump. In about 38 seconds, the Wife found a couple options we could have overnighted to us, and I called the guys to let them know we had lines on both OEM and aftermarket parts, but they’re pretty invested in doing things through their channels at the moment. But as the wife pointed out, if we let them find their own parts, they’ll guarantee ‘em. Yea, guarantee!

Fun with e-mail

It’s toward the end of the day, and I just finished writing a bitchy e-mail to some of the middle managers at work. There’s a small group of folks who just won’t stop downloading and installing games on their work computers. And then, to top it off, at the end of last week, one of the people in this group actually installed WinAntiVirus Pro.

*sigh*

Sometimes, you just gotta bite the bullet and send off an e-mail; damn the torpedoes, and all that. But somewhere in the middle of the North Atlantic, my torpedo sprouted a clown nose; see for yourself:

In a perfect world, we’d figure out how to get enforcer to run without each dispatcher being a power user on the workstations. This way, we can still allow dispatchers access to the Internet without them being able to install software. Chief, Paul H. said you had started to look into this in the past; would it be something you’d be willing and able to pursue again? Also, there’d be lots of happy children running about, playing with butterflies.

In a less perfect world, we’d leave the workstations wide open, but dispatchers would contact the IS staff before installing *any* software so we have a chance to give a thumbs up or down. They’d honor my request to not install games from the Internet to the local machine. Also, we’d all know there’s a chance that any of us could be hit by an out-of-control bus at any moment, but we’d decide to ignore that for now in order to look on the bright side of things: most of us work in reinforced buildings.

In a semi-reality-based dystopian near-future universe, I’d be castigated for daring to suggest change, the dispatchers would all ostracize me, and I’d end up on the streets on the run from a pack of killer robots controlled by a ruthless, psychotic, yet bleakly charming techno-overlord. And all that would happen in the rain, of course.

Pushme pullyou

All I really want to do is collate all my blog posts and comments here.

What I *have* been doing is a really good job breaking my weblogs.us blog. I’ve been trying to install phpMyAdmin so I can backup, then export, the database that stores all the content over at weblogs, but even though I’ve followed the instructions the fine weblogs folk posted (here they are, if you care), I’ve still got no joy.

I figured I’d be clever and just kind of… bypass… the database backup and install the WP 2.2 files over the top of what’s already there because WP 2.2 has an “export” feature, then I can turn around and “import” that stuff here.

Update

Yeah, so I went back and actually, you know, *read* the directions for the WP upgrade, and ding: the lightbulb went on. Oh, you mean I actually have to run the upgrade script? Let that be a lesson to all ya’ll — get good ‘n’ frisky with caffinated beverages before you read the directions. Then, maybe, you’ll see the words in front of you.

Synapse misfire

I still say the “Spank & Bank” is a *great* name for a fertility clinic.

An Unfortunate Fold

Originally uploaded by theaj42
Um, yeah. Way to go Mars Candy.

So the full story on this little gem is that I was at work, fixing someone’s computer, and another co-worker walked into the office and lobbed a couple pieces of candy at us. This is the one I got.

Notice how the little candy dude even has an appropriately self-satisfied smirk as he gives you the ol’ goose-stepping raised-arm salute? Zowie!

Liar

Yeah, that’s me – a big, fat liar, liar, pants on fire.

I figure we all probably knew if wouldn’t last, but it was really nice of ya’ll not to call me on it.

At any rate, I’m back to blogging again, for a variety of reasons, but I’ve moved my home on last time. Everything’s still in boxes or in the basement or garage, and I have a whole heck of a lot of redecorating to do, but come over anyway; bring sangria!

I may post one last note here as directions to ajvanbeest.com, but all the interesting (here’s hoping!) stuff will be happening over there.

PS: I’m also turning off comments here, because, you know, I’ve moved.

Blogly changes

It looks like I’m back in blogland. I’ve been thinking a lot about “what I want to do when I grow up” and also looking at what I’ve already done, and I think my talents really lie in the realm of creative communication. So that’s where I’m going to try to head, with a healthy helping of electronic geekdom to spice things up.

Be that as it may, here’s the scoop on what’s going on. I’m in the middle of trying to get access to my old blog at weblogs.us so that I can upgrade it, export it, import it here, and then move on with my blog but have it based here at ajvanbeest.com. I’ve already consolidated my Blogger blog here, so if you want to flip through those pages, help yourself.

Once I figure out exactly how I’m going to design my little world here, I’ll post plans so you can can oooh and aaaah over my new windows and hottub directory structure.