SUKRATA

A heartwarming story from Gen Con

While we were at Gen Con last weekend, my friend and I saw the same homeless guy several times inside the convention hall walking around.  He didn’t have a Gen Con badge, but he wasn’t hassling or interacting with anyone as far as we could tell.  He was a 25ish year old black man with short hair.  He had on an average pair of shorts and an average t-shirt.  And though there are a lot of odd looking people at the Con, only a few really stand out.  He shuffled rather than walked and had something different about his face.  It looked rather like a blind person’s face would, but not quite exactly the same.  I couldn’t tell if he was truly homeless, or if he would live in some sort of assisted living kind of place.

We saw him being escorted out by security a couple times.  They were always very gentle and were simply guiding him toward the exit each time they found him.

The last time we saw him, we were in line to get a snack.  A large well built bald man in a black polo shirt was with him this time.  I got the feeling that this security guy was the HEAD of security.  Instead of throwing him out again, he was guiding him over to the food line.  He was very gentle and patient and took his time.  I stepped aside to let them go first.  It took a little time to figure out what the homeless dude wanted to eat because he didn’t communicate clearly and he spoke so softly that I barely ever heard what he said.  The security dude ordered a personal pan pizza and some other stuff.  The homeless guy didn’t want the M&Ms, so the security guy put them back and ordered another pizza.

The security guy paid for the meal with his credit card - $22.50.  While he was paying, he raised his hand and called for the two other low level security dudes that were just hanging around waiting.  He told the two other dudes in a very clear way that they were to escort the homeless guy outside, find a nice shaded place (outside) for him to eat his meal.  The tone was clear as well - be nice - be kind.

I paid for my meal and headed out as I saw the two security guards gently and patiently guiding the homeless man to find a nice place to sit and eat.

The whole exchange made me feel good.  It also made me wonder a little bit why I didn’t do, or even think of doing, the same thing.

Kudos to you Mr. Head Security Man!

Congratulations to Michael Phelps!

Last night, Michael Phelps swam his way to Olympic history (again).  Last night he became the most medalled Olympian in history.  Yesterday he tied the record with his 9th career Olympic medal.  He gained numbers 10 and 11 (career) last night.  He now has 11 career Olympic medals and is predicted to get several more in this Olympics. 

Or at least that’s what it sounds like on the news.  I’m slightly confused about the whole thing because each time I hear about it on the news they say something different.  I’ve heard “most GOLD medals ever” and “most medals (of any kind) ever” and even other accounts.  News people: Please get it straight.

If he gets gold in every event he’s in, he will beat Mark Spitz record for the most gold medals in any one Olympics.  That’s a pretty tall freaking order, but after watching this guy swim, I think he can do it.  In certain events, he makes all the rest of the best swimmers in the world look like slightly better than average swimmers.

If he medals in all his events, he will have a total of something like 14 or 15 medals.  Actually, I just searched for his medal info on the web and I wasn’t able to find a succinct record of his current and possible medals.  It may be that I suck at web searching, or it may be that there’s so much info out there about him that it’s just hard to find, or it may be that it’s a weird thing and it’s just not out there.

In any event - He’s cemented himself as one of, if not THE, greatest swimmer(s) of all time.  Congratulations Michael Phelps!

A Great Olympic 400m Comeback

The men’s 400m relay was last night.  It was great.  It was the definition of great hype with a great race and a great come from behind victory.

The announcers had all but given the race to the French team.  At least one of them announced over and over that the American’s couldn’t beat the French team.  The French team talked a little trash before the race saying they were going to trash the American team”.

It started out good for the American team, Michael Phelps swam the first leg and handed off a small lead to his teammate.  The French team pulled ahead shortly after that and by the last turn they led by about a 1/2 body length.  The French swimmer looked pretty strong and as they started the final leg, I thought the predictions were going to be right. 

It looked pretty bleak for the American team until the final American swimmer seemed to abandon all form on the final leg and went with an all power approach.  It worked.  At one point it looked like he was starting to come out of the water he was working so hard.  He started catching up to the French swimmer, then evened out and at the very last moment had a better reach than his French counterpart.  He managed to touch the wall 8 hundredths of a second ahead of the frenchie.  It was an amazing comeback and was the fastest “split time” ever recorded.  I think split time means 50 a meter leg.  I can believe that because that man was really moving!

NBC got about as much mileage out of it as they could.  They replayed it a couple dozen times from different views and angles.  The final touch was so close that even with NBC playing it in slow motion, and me playing it at 1/2 speed via my DVR, I could hardly see who touched first.

I’m glad I saw it happen live.

Driving for MPGs

I’ve heard for a long time that slight adjustments in the way you drive your car can significantly raise the miles per gallon your car gets.  The Ratman got a new car that has an instant average gas mileage calculator.  He started playing the “how high can I get the mileage” game.  By adjusting his driving habits, he was able to raise his gas mileage.

He inspired me to do the same.  I have a car that has one of the average miles per gallon calculator on it as well.  Though my wife generally drives it, whenever I drive it, I play the MPG game now to see how high I can get it.

Before playing the game, our average was 19.5 MPG.  Now my average is between 24 and 25.  That might not seem like all that much, but that’s 25%!  Last night I drove 30 minutes to get somewhere and averaged 24.8 on the way there and 26.8 on the way back!

For anyone that complains about the price of gas, simply changing driving habits could reduce the cost of gas by 25%.  That is a significant amount.  It’s almost the same as paying $3 a gallon instead of $4 per gallon.  It’s also almost the same as getting a 1/4 tank of gas free with every fill up.

Adjusting my driving habits was pretty easy.  Here’s basically what I did:

• Ease off the line - don’t gun it.
• Keep a little extra distance from the car in front of you
• You’ll brake less often (which makes a big difference)
• Helps keep your speed consistent
• Keep your speed as constant as possible
• Unnecessary braking kills your mileage.
• When there’s a red light ahead, ease off the gas and coast to it instead of gassing to the end and then braking.

My Company’s Power Outage

Some powerful Thunderstorms rolled through the area Monday night and left a ton of people and businesses without power.  Power was out from 7pm Monday night until about 8:30am Wednesday morning.

Since I was already at work yesterday morning and we didn’t know how long the power would be out, I decided to stay until something official was communicated by management in terms of when we could go or what the expectations were.  (Those of you that know my company should be giggling at my foolishness right now). 

Being a good little employee, I tried to make productive use of my time.  All power and phones were out.  This included the refrigerator.  Since it hadn’t been cleaned in 8 months, I decided now was the perfect time.  I recruited some help, got the supplies, and set to work.  It was nasty and foul, but not as bad as you might imagine because people do actually use it daily, so when something smells, they generally toss it.  The nasty slime at the bottom was pretty gross though - and for me to say it was gross is really saying something.

With that job done, I gabbed a bit and then decided I’d organize my desk and clean out old files.  So I did that.  There were a few old interesting things I dug up from a couple years ago.  It was fun to look through them.

After a while, the CEO sent out a note to let everyone know that power was out and asked us to “hang in there” as long as possible.  What’s funny is that he sent an email (I’m not sure if he had power due to backup generators, or if he was off site).  No one else still at the office had power to get the email.  In it, he complained that it was 74 degrees in his office and he was about to lose it.  It had been 74+ in our office since 8am and was getting closer to 80 when he sent the note.  I know, I know… It’s tough to be the CEO…

Last time we had a power outage, Ratman told me that according to OSHA rules, you could only keep people in a building to work for 3 hours without a functioning air delivery system.  It was past 3 hours and we had no other official word from any management on what the plan was/is/would be.  A few people simply left.  Some went to lunch a little early - I’m sure with the idea they weren’t coming back.

Finally, we had an official communication from one the the managers.  She walked around and told everyone we could go for the day and to try to log on from home if we could.  Of course, I tried, but things were still hosed, so I stopped trying.

This morning, I checked email hoping to find an update on the power situation.  (Again - those of you that know my company should be giggling at my silliness right now)  There were a few new emails in my in box, so email was definitely up and working, but there was nothing related to the power; no updates whatsoever.  I found out that power was indeed still out and notified a couple co-workers that lived farther away so that they could avoid a long drive for no reason.  Then I set about having a “free” day.  I figured I’d check email a couple times through the day just in case.

Not too long into my free day (ok, actually about 30 minutes into it), I got a text from a co-worker that said power was back on.  So I hauled my sorry but into work.

If I had to grade my company on its communication during this outage, I’d give it a C- and that makes me feel very generous.  The only reason it got above a D- was that regular (non-management) employees like me took the initiative to text and call each other to provide updates.  Sadly, the only lessons from this I see being learned are that now we employees have more of the other employees cell #’s so that if we have another problem like this, we can more efficiently communicate among ourselves.

Restaurants of the World

In America, I see plenty of restaurants that feature foreign cuisine.  There are all kinds of the following types of restaurants all over America:

• Mexican
• Italian
• Chinese
• French
• Indian
• etc

But I don’t know of any:

• Russian
• English
• Scottish
• Danish/Finnish/Swedish
• Australian
• etc

Why is it that there are many of a few types, but none of many other types.  Is it that those that don’t have restaurants have food that sucks?  Is it that I just don’t know about those restaurants?  Is it a function of that foreign population in a given area?

Also, I wonder if there are those different restaurant styles in other countries.  I know there are McDonalds and stuff, but is there a “Joe’s Steak House”? or like a Lou Malnoti’s pizza type of place over there?  Or are there Chinese take out places in Italy and Rome like there are here?

I need to retire so I can travel the world to answer my questions.

Batman - The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is the latest Batman movie and it is awesome.  I’ll put it on the list of the top 5 best movies I’ve ever seen.

My thoughts on the actors:

• Heath Ledger was really really good. 
• Christian Bale was really good as Bruce Wayne, but I think his Batman could have been better.  I still think I like Val Kilmer’s portrayal of Batman the best. 
• Whoever played the DA was pretty good too. 
• Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel (the old flame) was the only cast character that I’ve heard people question. 
• Gary Oldman rules at whatever he does.  I liked him as Gordon.  Because of the state of Gotham City, he was pushed/pulled into his position instead of wanting it.  I always felt like Oldman portrayed that feeling about his position and being awkward about it very well.

There was a lot of talk about Ledger’s performance before the movie because of his death.  I wish I hadn’t heard it because I spent the first part of the movie critiquing it instead of watching it.  The hype was justified - he rocked.

There was also a lot of talk about how the movie was filmed and that every shot that could be done for real, was done for real.  If a building blew up - it blew up in real life.  If Batman got taken off a building via a c130 hookup, he REALLY did!  I think that “gritty realism” showed through very well.

The pace of the movie was also superb.  Whenever something partially unbelievable happened, the pace of the movie kept me from dwelling on it.  Whenever the pace slowed down, the pieces just before the slowdown were all unquestionable.

It was without a doubt a great movie.

The Red Light Camera near us

A few people I know have been ticketed via a red light camera at a local busy intersection.  The camera is only focused on the right hand turn lane and busts people for not coming to a complete stop on a red light.

“Someone I know” recently got a ticket via that camera.  The question is not so much of whether the person is guilty of the violation or not, the question is who (or what) is responsible for that violation.  Is it the car that’s responsible?  I highly doubt it.  So, it must be the person that’s driving the car, right?  NOT SO FAST…

The person ticketed for the violation is the person who the car is registered to - regardless of whether that person was the driver responsible for the violation.  I have great issue with that.  The person driving the vehicle is responsible for the rules of the road that they break, NOT the person to whom the vehicle is registered.  I vehemently suggested that the “someone I know” should contest the ticket.  

We’ll see how far the “wasn’t me” defense goes for the “someone I know”.  I hope it goes all the way!

PS - I’m OK with those cameras if the intention is to increase the safety of the intersection.  I am decidedly NOT OK with them if the intention is to increase revenue to the city.  That distinction is a great question in my mind.  I’ve written my local alderman to find out the intention of the light and if it was ’suggested’ by an independent firm specializing in traffic and road related studies.

Prince Charles Awesome "Oops"

Prince Charles met a woman at a high class polo tournament at the sort of place where the royalty hangs out.  They chatted and it turned out that she was a dancer.  According the Prince Chuck, Prince Harry “loves a good dance”.  So Prince Charley hired her for his son’s birthday party.

Here’s the best part of the article (from dailystar.co.uk)-

“her act involves giving a rhythmic biology lesson in a giant martini glass and doing the sort of things to a massive olive which are illegal in most countries.”

Interviewees that were at the party said based on Charles reaction to the “show” she put on that he genuinely had no idea about her act.  They said he was so embarrassed when he found out what he’d done that he nearly swallowed his fist or gnawed his knuckles off.

I prefer to believe that he really didn’t know that “dancer” meant “exotic” or in her case - “super high style bordering on illegal exotic”.  It’s just more fun to me to think of him squirming that way.

THIS GUY can’t stand being caged?

I resisted writing about the Hungarian crazy man that abducted his daughter and force kept her in a super bunker under his house while fathering several kids with her.  I resisted because it was so foul that I didn’t want to give more attention to it. 

A couple weeks ago, I read another article about the guy.  He’s in jail and they’re trying to figure out what to do with him.  The article said that he didn’t like being in jail and the “he couldn’t stand being cooped up like that”.

I’m confused by that statement.  Does he mean that he doesn’t like being confined, like he confined his daughter and children/grandchildren for 24 years?  Hmm, TOO F’n BAD!  Normally, I’d call for a head shot on this guy.  But knowing that it causes him this much “pain” to be locked up, I suggest he spends the rest of his life behind bars.  I’d couple that with NO CONTACT to his family ever again.

If he gets sick, let him get tot he point that he slips into a coma (like he did to one of his own daughter/granddaughters before getting him any medical attention.  That, or let him know that he gets no medical attention beyond a band-aid or two.

I also wonder what prison life is like over there.  I’ve heard that in our prisons, dudes with crimes related to children are treated very poorly by the other inmates while the guards look the other way.  If it’s the same way over there, maybe leaving him in the general population would take care of the problem the way Jeffery Dahmer’s problem was taken care of.