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Project Insomnia

Project Insomnia is many things, but in this context it is simply a "braindump" of whatever I happen to be thinking/reading/watching/doing at the moment. Parental guidance suggested.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The Police to reunite for Grammy Awards

The Police to reunite for Grammy Awards -- SFGate/AP
The Police will reunite to perform at this year's Grammys ceremony, the Recording Academy announced Tuesday.

The award-winning group, which won five Grammys and turned out hits such as "Roxanne" and "Every Breath You Take," will open the event — 23 years after breaking up amid internal conflict.
Rumor has it that they will tour after this performance. I would definitely go.
|| Andrew, 12:04 PM || || link ||

Monday, January 29, 2007

Adventures in Jury Duty 3

Time: 3:35
Battery life remaining: ~30 minutes
Posted with Vagablog from the Treo, laptop asleep.

Jury room manager said the court would want 60 people shortly. Judge just came in and said ALL 31 cases on today's docket settled! He's explaining that the presence of potential jurors impels both sides to settle because it's always easier than a trial.

So now I'm leaving.
|| Andrew, 3:42 PM || || link ||

Adventures in Jury Duty 2

Time: 2:34
Battery life remaining: 1:32

At 1:00 the staffer running the jury assembly room told us that we might be called into a courtroom around 3:00 but that nothing would happen before 2:30 at the earliest. There are probably 100 or so people in here, most reading books but more than a few have laptops. The room also features a desk in one corner with four desktop machines; I'm sure examining the Internet Explorer history and cache would be most instructive, but I'm not bothering.

For a long time, nothing continued to happen.
-- paraphrased from Douglas Adams
|| Andrew, 2:35 PM || || link ||

Adventures in Jury Duty

Got a summons to jury duty, to report today at 12:45 in South San Francisco. Of course the Redwood City complex would be much better for me--ten minutes away instead of 35--but due to some bullshit bureaucratic nonsense they can't assign people to the court closest to where they live.

Arrived 30 minutes early (good planning) and remembered to leave my Leatherman in the car. At the security checkpoint I had to take off my belt, but I could leave my boots on. Found the jury assembly room and woke up the machine to find that YES, the San Mateo County court system is at least in the 21st century in this regard--open wireless access point.

So now I'm hanging out in the jury assembly room listening to people blabbing on the cellphones. I of course set the Treo to silent mode, being the kind and considerate person that I am.

More later if anything interesting happens.
|| Andrew, 12:33 PM || || link ||

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Office pantry quiz

Question 1: You open a new bag of Lay's Salt & Vinegar chips and help yourself to a few. Do you then:
  1. Apply a bag clip or roll up the top of the bag

  2. Leave the bag wide open, perched on the edge of the shelf waiting to fall and empty itself


Question 2: You have a sweet tooth so you go looking for some cookies. You find two packages of Keebler Fudge Shoppe® Fudge Stripes; one open and one still sealed. Do you:
  1. Take a few from the open package

  2. Open the new package


Question 3: You dig down in a box of Triscuits and discover that you've eaten the last one; the box is now empty. Do you now:
  1. Toss the box in the cardboard recycling bin after removing the interior plastic bag

  2. Leave the open, empty box on the shelf for the next person


Question 4: It's delivery day, and that means a new bag of Fun-Size candy bars. Do you:
  1. Enjoy one or two, perhaps even one of each variety

  2. Stuff as many as possible into your mouth, your pockets and your jacket
|| Andrew, 1:36 PM || || link ||

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The Wheels of Justice are apparently those tiny miniature spares...

... but they do turn. Ex-Cendant Chairman Gets Over 12 Years:
Former Cendant Corp. Chairman Walter Forbes was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years and seven months in prison and ordered to pay $3.275 billion in restitution for leading the largest accounting fraud of the 1990s.

In October, a jury found Forbes guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of making false statements in a massive fraud scheme that cost the travel and real estate company and its investors more than $3 billion. He was found not guilty of a fourth count, securities fraud.
I was working for Davidson & Associates, which became Knowledge Adventure, which became CUC Software, when CUC merged with HFS to form Cendant and Cendant was promptly rocked with this scandal. I think what's left of that software group was absorbed into Universal before they were bought by NBC a few years ago.
|| Andrew, 11:55 AM || || link ||

Saturday, January 13, 2007

An Evening With Colin & Brad

We're in row "N" in the Orchestra section at the Flint Center, De Anza College, San Jose. Arrived about 40 minutes early. Until two tall hairy people sat down in front of us, we had a great view of the stage as you can see.

|| Andrew, 7:43 PM || || link ||

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Rock You Like A Hurricane

Scorpion Stings Vermont Man on Airplane:
Sullivan, a 46-year-old builder from Stowe, was aboard the United Airlines flight on the second leg of his trip home from San Francisco, where he and his wife Helena had been visiting their sons. He awoke from a nap shortly before landing and noticed something strange.

'My right leg felt like it was asleep, but that was isolated to one spot, and it felt like it was being jabbed with a sharp piece of plastic or something.'
New TSA regulations: all poisonous arachnids weighing less than three ounces must be carried in separate zip-top bags.
|| Andrew, 11:22 AM || || link ||

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