recalled

There are a lot of settings in Microsoft Office that I do not fully understand, but probably the one that perplexes me the most is the recall functionality. On rare occasion, and typically when the email is sent to a large number of people, I will get an email followed by a recall request from some random person. Either someone wrote something they regret or they passed along inaccurate information.

The problem is that as soon as I get a notification that someone wants to recall an email, I get really curious about why the email is being recalled. I typically check the old email to see what in it to cause the author to want to recall it. All the recall request does is draw attention to the errant email.

The uselessness of the recall functionality was on display in the news in the past week. Apparently, a Congressional clerical worker sent an email to a whistleblower distribution list for Justice Department employees with and placed the list in the "To" field rather than the "BCC" field. This was the distribution list for people who had submitted complaints to a whistleblower website. This way, everyone who had submitted a complaint on the whistleblower website saw the email address of everyone else who submitted a complaint on that website. The person who made the error tried to recall the email, but all this succeeded in doing was to resend everyone's email address to the distribution list.

From my perspective, a better process to follow when you realize that you shouldn't have sent a specific email is just to reply to the bad email to correct what was wrong with the first email. What is so difficult about that?

key mistake

In most of the things that Golden and I do, we compliment each other well. Our routines around the house work simply work well together. There is one area where this is not the case, though.

When I transport things out of the car and/or into the house and have to pop the trunk or unlock a door, I put the keys back in my pocket immediately. Golden typically leaves the keys in place and grabs them when she closes the trunk or the door. Neither process is better or worse than the other, but we have learned that the when they do not work well when combined.

On Saturday we were sitting at a red light when three or four of the driver around us started honking at us and signaling for my attention. I rolled down my window and someone behind me shouted that we had keys hanging out of our trunk. Golden had started emptying the trunk when she got back to the house with groceries, but did not get the keys out of the trunk. I took over unloading the car, but did not think to check for the keys in the trunk when I closed it.

This sort of thing has happened with some frequency in the past but I don't think we have ever gotten on the road before discovering it. So, if you want to visit us some time you should be able to let yourself in. Don't bother checking under the fake rock or the suspicious (since we don't have a dog) dog poo. The key will be in the door.

cake in a dishwasher

I was talking with someone at work about how good of a job we do in loading the dishwasher. When I do it, I think I do a reasonably good job. He probably does the dishes more frequently, but he said that he doesn't usually bother rinsing them before putting them into the dishwasher. Then he mentioned a commercial that has intrigued me in the past. He pointed out that at least in some scenarios you can wash a cake in the dishwasher, so why rinse?

I don't know if everyone remembers this but a couple of years ago Cascade started marketing a detergent called Cascade Complete. In one of the commercials they placed an entire angel food cake into a dishwasher then showed that it disappeared after going through a full wash cycle.

The commercial was effective in that I was impressed that a detergent could do that. It was ineffective in that I could never remember which detergent the commercial was for. I would expect that the packaging would say something to the effect of, "This detergent dissolves a cake!" How can you get people to buy something when they don't remember what it is?

In looking around the Internet I actually found a web page detailing how someone tried to duplicate the commercial with mixed success. Maybe it will be worth trying Cascade Complete out some time. It may have trouble actually dissolving a cake, but in our house it shouldn't need to.

off the bridge

Week seven: Did you really assume
I'd find some solace from the letter in your room?
Next life, could you kindly refrain
From throwing yourself at the mercy of a train?

Silence all, nobody breathe
How in the world could you just leave?
You promised you would
Silence that evil with good- Newsboys ("Elle G.")

I tried to kill the pain
But only brought more
So much pain
I lay dying
And I'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal
I'm dying, praying, bleeding, and screaming
Am I too lost to be saved?
Am I too lost?- Evanescence ("Tourniquet")

This past weekend I watched a documentary entitled Bridge, which is applicable to this site for more than just the name. It is about the people who actually jump off the bridge. The film captures people as they attempt to commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Most succeed.

In most of the Christian traditions of which I have some knowledge, suicide has been viewed as a kind of unforgivable sin. Logically, this does appear to make some sense. How can someone be right with God when in their last moments they ended a life?

I have always wondered about the state of the soul of the person who commits suicide. While this does not describe all suicides, I would guess that most frequently it is something reserved to people who are chemically imbalanced. For this and other reasons, I am not convinced that suicide is an unforgivable sin. No one is perfect when they die, so maybe grace can cover suicide.

I have also always wondered about what goes through the head of someone intending to commit suicide. What is the trigger that makes someone think this is the best option available? One man in Bridge said that after he jumped off the bridge he immediately regretted the decision and decided he did not really want to die. Is this regret universal?

What about people who decide to end it all for other reasons? This treads into political waters, but I honestly don't know how I feel about people who are terminally ill who want to end their lives early. Is that death merciful or is it a selfish approach that ignores the importance and value of life? How would I feel if I had to make that decision?

In my mind, if suicide is unforgivable it has to be because it is because it is somehow a selfish or cowardly act. I already know that giving your life for someone else is about the most God-like thing a person can do. Maybe the ultimate selfless act can also be the ultimate selfish act as well once all of the altruism has been removed.

Even though this blog is about me figuratively jumping off the bridge, I cannot even fathom ever being at the point where I would want to literally do so. Not even if everyone else was doing it.

fat fingered

On Monday I went bowling as part of a team-building activity at work. I was reminded of a question I always have had when trying to find a suitable ball. Who is it whose fingers are so much skinnier than mine who still wants to use a 16 pound ball?
I generally look for a ball in the 14 to 16 pound range because I rely heavily on the weight of the ball pushing the pins around. I am not accurate enough to use a lighter ball. I would figure that, since I am looking for bowling balls on the heavier side of the scale, the finger holes in the bowling balls that I check would tend to be larger. As a general rule, people with smaller fingers should want to use a lighter ball.

This is apparently not the case. More often than not I pass up a ball because my fingers do not fit. I have often wondered if anyone actually uses those heavier bowling balls with the smaller finger holes. Maybe there are a lot of people with skinny fingers. Or maybe I just have fatter fingers than I thought.

farewell, old friend

I have always likely reclining around the living room with a blanket. Around the house, I am a lot like Linus from the Peanuts. I actually also use this blanket in bed as well. I should probably be a little embarrassed about my blanket, but I am not.

The blanket that I have used for the last seven years is a light quilt that my grandmother gave us for our wedding. It got a lot of use over the last seven years and it shows it. There are uncountable tears in the blanket and it is threadbare from use. Golden has been annoyed about me using such a worn out blanket as of late and has been letting me know that we need to throw it out. I finally relented and started breaking in a replacement blanket last night.

The new blanket may have a hard time performing up to the old standard, because the old blanket set the bar high. It won't really matter whether the new blanket is up to snuff, though, because by the time I issue a final ruling the old one will be long gone.

honey do

While I was taking classes Golden was patient and did not ask me to do much. While there were things that she did want me to get to around the house, she was nice and decided not to burden me with them.

Now that I am through with classes for a while, I have a list of things that Golden wants me to do. I also have a list of things I want me to do, which might be as long.

When I was in class I would see something that needed done around the house and get frustrated that my time was limited to deal with those things. Now I am frustrated that I don't have an excuse not to work on them.

Maybe I'll come down with something.

jump

I generally like scary movies. Not really because I like the scariness, but because they usually are difficult to predict. Lately, I have liked watching scary movies alone, if only for the fact that I am jumpy.

It is usually easy to identify when a character is going to run into a shocking situation, but I always involuntarily jump back when something jumps out at the screen or at a character on the screen. When I saw Independence Day in the theater, I felt pretty embarrassed because I almost left my seat when the alien comes to life while it is being cut open at Area 51. I knew that was what was going to happen, but I didn't have control over my reaction.

My jumpiness carries over into real life as well. When I turn a corner and almost run into someone going the opposite direction, I am sure I am entertaining to watch. I startle real easily when people come up behind me as well.

As susceptible as I am to it, I also used to like jumping out at people to get a reaction when I was younger. I guess that just means I deserve what I get now.

the shallow end

This past week I came across a story about a wannabe gold digger more than one news source. There is a little doubt as to whether both postings are real, but they are both believed to be likely be serious posts.

In a nutshell, a woman posted on Craig's List asking for advice on how to land a husband making $500 thousand a year, because she has only been able to date guys making in the $200 thousand range. She believes that she is beautiful and cultured enough to land a better guy, so what is she doing wrong? Someone claiming to match the woman's qualifications then responded with a biting explanation of why she may not be having much success.

If there is something I am judgmental about, it is regarding shallowness. I used to be even worse than I am right now. In case it is not already painfully obvious, I hate to see people make decisions about others' value based on looks, popularity, wealth, and anything of that nature. The problem for me, though, is where should the line be drawn.

What qualifies as shallowness? The definition that I used to follow was that shallowness is making a decision about whether I want to have a relationship (friendship or otherwise) based on something that that person either has no control over or that results from that person being fake. Now, I don't hate that definition, but I don't think it is perfect, either.

Most of the time when I hear shallowness mentioned, it is in reference to appearance, money, or social position. Are these things inherently shallow, though? For example, I used to think that plastic surgery was incredibly shallow in all circumstances. I now think that if others judge based on appearance, maybe the surgery is to address others' shallowness rather the shallowness of the person having the surgery. Or at a less extreme level, I don't think it is naturally shallow for someone to use makeup, and I think most people agree with that.

I do think that what society deems as shallow and not shallow is often inaccurate. However, I don't always have a good reason for why I think that something is shallow in comparison to something else that I do not think is shallow.

So, this is another one of those posts where I ask for reader opinions. What is shallow and what isn't shallow? Is there a line to cross or is there gray area?

road hogs

In the past week I have had a few instances with overly aggressive motorcyclists on the road. Normally this is not a big deal, but I always wonder about people who aggressively drive their bikes on the highway.

Recently, I ran across two behaviors that I have seen quite a bit in the past. First, for a stretch of about a mile, and through a few lights, a guy in a motorcycle tailed me very closely. Eventually, he passed me, but before that he was close enough that I didn't see his tires. Second, I was driving down the highway at the speed limit when a cyclist blew past me weaving back and forth through traffic that was just about bumper to bumper. Both of these guys were wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

What I don't understand is why, if there is no safety mechanism in place in the case of an accident except for maybe a helmet, anyone would drive a motorcycle aggressively. If I am in the right mood I can be aggressive on the road as well, but I have an air bag in front of me and a steel frame around me to at least make me think I am safe. I also am easier to see and don't have to be concerned about balancing my car on two wheels. If a cyclist crashes at seventy miles an hour and is fortunate to not run into or under another vehicle he or she is still looking at a very serious case of road rash.

Normally, my opinion would be that if someone else wants to take their own life in their hands let them. One of my greatest fears on the road, though, is getting into an unavoidable accident with a motorcyclist that seriously hurts or kills him or her. Even if it is 100% the motorcyclist's fault, there is no way being in an accident where someone else is killed will not psychologically leave a mark on me as well. This is an admittedly selfish line of thinking, but it does explain why I care.

the week in review

Golden already mentioned that my sister visited this week. I'll just add that it was nice having her visit, but that I wish I would have had a little more freedom in my schedule. She will stop by for a few hours on Sunday as well, so that should be enjoyable.

NJ came down with a cold on Monday. Golden and I both started showing symptoms Wednesday morning. I really wish there was a good way to keep from getting what NJ gets without avoiding him completely. It is starting to look like we will be getting every bug that hampers kids his age for the next few years.

I completed the two classes I am taking this semester on Monday and Tuesday. I had a harder time committing to this semester than usual, partially because I knew I would have a three-month break after the classes were complete and partially because I did not feel like the summer ended yet.

We trimmed NJ's hair again tonight. That is not really noteworthy other than to say that he did significantly worse this time than last time. He was completely inconsolable for probably fifteen minutes after the haircut was complete. I think the trimmers startled him. I know he didn't trust me for a half hour to an hour after I gave him the cut.

I think that is it. I'll get back to enjoying my first weekend without homework again.

not your father's movie

More like your father's father's father's father's movie.

I was looking around YouTube last night and came across something of historical significance. Without context, the video is not very interesting at all, but there was a time when people paid money to see it run. This is because the short, starting with a bit called Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, is considered the first work of cinema ever produced. The Lumière brothers created this film and presented it to audiences in 1895.



What gives me pause is that almost all of the people in this film were old enough to be my grandparents' grandparents. The baby who shows up midway through the flick would be close to the oldest person alive if he or she were still alive today. Looking at this, for me, is like a peek into a completely different and alien world.

I have said this all before, but not from this specific perspective. A mere hundred years can make all the difference in the world.

well plate

Two-and-a-half years ago Golden and I welcomed a new member into our family. No, this was before NJ. About that long ago I got my car at Carmax.

Ever since purchasing the car, any time I walk around the front of the car I get a little irritated that I am a driving billboard for Carmax, as the front license plate holder contains a brightly colored cardboard Carmax plate. The problem is that I don't have anything good to replace it with.

There is not much I care about enough to advertise it on my car but care little enough about that I don't mind people associating that thing with my bad driving. As an example, I had a Jesus fish on my last car, but I regretted putting it on many times due to minor imperfections in my driving habits. I would rather people generically curse out Ford drivers than curse out God when I cut them off.

I considered sports team license plates, but I am still debating if that is how I would want my car to be identified. I have considered getting a fake vanity plate made as well, but for the money I would want it to have some meaning. I have not thought of a good vanity message that meets all of the specifications of what I am looking for just yet. So, until I make up my mind, I'll just have to continue to advertise for Carmax.

cram session cut short

As I have griped to just about everyone who would hear me this week, I have a final on Monday and one on Tuesday. They both cover quite a bit of material, so I have been studying more than usual the last few nights. This is odd, because I usually just cram for tests the day or two before they occur.

Since I normally cram, I am currently presented with a scenario that I am not used to. It is midnight, and I am considering going to bed rather than studying more. I usually do my best studying at night because there are fewer distractions and I think better at night, but tonight I am so tired it may not be worth trying. In the past I have just toughed it out because I am worthless trying to study in the morning. I think I might give it a shot this time, though.

I must be getting old, because sleep has rarely won out in the past.

the great pumpkin

"There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."- Linus (It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown)

I hate conflict. I also love conflict. It just depends on what type of conflict it is.

I don't necessarily dislike discussing traditionally taboo topics like politics, religion, or even the Great Pumpkin. I don't mind arguing with someone or someone arguing with me, either. I can actually get quite a kick out of people disagreeing with me under specific circumstances. What I hate the most about conflicts is that there is often very little circumspection.

To be circumspect is to approach an issue cautiously and with an interest in all of the implications of the issue. So if someone wants to argue with me about my views about anything from the political to the spiritual, the first thing I want to know is if that person has truly attempted to understand an opposing viewpoint or at least thought through the strengths and weaknesses of his or her position. I even feel queasy when someone agrees with me on a serious issue without thinking through the implications of that position.

I know that I sometimes fail on this front as well, so I am a little hypocritical to judge on circumspection, but it is a good way for me to know whether discussing a contentious topic is likely to result in mutual understanding or frustrated shouting.

This is probably an example of the neurotic behavior that I am currently trying to address. Right now probably the easiest way to get me worked up is to just state a strong opinion that uses stereotypes or that belittles rather than addresses any opposing rationale. After that, I will almost definitely not be my normal, calm Bruce Banner self.

thud

Since our office was redesigned this summer, I have had a rude awakening just about every time I try to go through the door from our office to the main hallway. The door is very sensitive and it must be opened in a very deliberate motion. If I push on the door wrong when I am trying to open it the door sticks and there is a distinguishable thud as I run shoulder or face first into the door.

I used to get real frustrated at this, but now I just act irritated. My office is near this door, so my minor frustration is more than offset by the entertainment I get from the sound of other people running face first into the door. At least one person decided that kicking the door in retaliation was a good idea.

I believe that someone actually tried to address this, but apparently WD-40 is not strong enough to keep the door from sticking. For now, I'll just have to deal with getting an occasional chuckle every time I hear a thud.

the bathroom comfort scale

I have been thinking lately about the fact that I don't like to follow people into public bathrooms. Sometimes I have to, but I am a little uncomfortable doing this. I have also given a lot of thought to how standard certain bathroom discomforts are. As such, I have devised a grading scale. It is specific to the men's room because that is the one I use. For the record, my comfort level is no higher than four.

• Comfort Level 1: Unwilling to use the public restroom at all if anyone else is in it.
• Comfort Level 2: Will use urinal when in need.
• Comfort Level 3: Will use a stall if no one else is in the restroom.
• Comfort Level 4: Will use a trough urinal when other people are in the restroom.
• Comfort Level 5: Will use a stall even if there are other people in the bathroom, but will take a stall toward the back of the bathroom.
• Comfort Level 6: Not at all uncomfortable about using a trough urinal.
• Comfort Level 7: Will proudly march to an open stall with newspaper even when all other stalls are used.
• Comfort Level 8: Will strike up conversations with the person in the next stall.

I am sure that I missed some steps in my scale and I know that it does not take women's bathrooms into account. Still, it works for my purposes.