The second annual Dilbert weasel awards are out (see them
here). The usual suspects “win” so maybe it’s not as
interesting as it could be but I did download a couple of
kewl wallpapers so maybe all is not lost.
Speaking of which, the President of the
United States is arriving in our town tomorrow. Due to
security concerns, his itinerary is not being released by the
Secret Service. However, yesterday’s TV newscast had a
programming note saying they would go live at 8:00am tomorrow
to show the arrival of an un-named personage. Said personage
would then be viewed at the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor
around mid-morning and later in the afternoon, be seen at a
$1,000 to $2,000 a plate Republican political fund raiser at
the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The personage would then be
leaving for the mainland, in his custom painted Boeing 747,
around 7:00 or 8:00 pm that night.
Of course, due to security concerns, it would be
inappropriate to release his name or itinerary.
My back has been acting up lately and
kicked into full gear last night. It started with a muscle
spasm and next thing I knew I could barely walk.
I think it even affected my sleep as I had the Student’s
Nightmare. You know the one where you forget about your final
test in a class until it’s already started so you come
tearing into the classroom totally unprepared. Well, mine had
a slight twist to it, not only did I come in late, but
because I did, I didn’t get the professor’s instructions.
Said instructions were that each person had been assigned a
different topic to write on. Not knowing that, I did not
write on the correct topic.
Speaking of school remembrances, I may have talked about
this one before but it seems kind of appropriate so bare with
me while I whip it out again. In undergrad school I had to
take an introductory class in history. Since it was a
introductory level class, and the professor understood it was
required of all students, the difficultly meter was set more
to the left than the right. In fact, tests were simple
regurgitations of as much stuff that you could remember. No
analysis. No showing you understood the underlying concepts.
Just straight, wrote writing of what you had memorized. The
more stuff you wrote, the higher the grade. You didn’t even
need to write in sentences and paragraphs – bullets or
outlines were okay.
As it so happened, I had something like three or four
finals in one day and, since I was not the best of
undergraduate students, there was no way I could cram for
that many classes in such a short time. I mean, there just
wasn’t enough room in short term memory for that much
information so it would just sort of drain out before the end
of the day. Fortunately, the history professor had given us a
list of five topics that would be covered on the test. Three
of the five would actually be chosen by the professor but he
would not tell us which five until we were in class. Since I
was trying to minimize studying working on assignments
that did not return high value for my investment of time, I
looked at the list of five, chose the three I thought were
the ones the professor would choose, and studied those three.
Fortunately for me and my future career, such that it is, I
guessed right because if I hadn’t, I would not have been
prepared to answer any of the others. [Kids, don't do this at
home. Go to your friends house instead - Ed.]
I’ll be at work today but who knows if I’ll make it in
tomorrow. If I don’t, I probably won’t post as I’ll be flat
on my back in bed.
Aloha!
