Author Archives: Randy Peterman

The Fish Formerly Known as Shody

Shody went to be with his parents this morning. Abby had this little pet for less than a week. We don’t know exactly what killed Shody, but we’ll be replacing him/her/it with a gold [orange] goldfish tomorrow afternoon. Shody was flushed around 9:30 and showed very little resistance to the swirling drain. He/She/It will be missed for a short while until the new fish comes into play. Abby was upset when I said that Shody went to be with his parents. She said:

But Shody asked his mommy and daddy if they could come play with Abby. They said, “Yes, Sweety.”

Jessica and I were really, really sad when she said that, it was very disturbing for her to lose her first pet so soon.

Supersize My Upsell

This morning I took my Honda in to get its oil changed. I took it to the neighborhood Jiffylube because that’s the nearest oil changing station. When I arrived they asked me to go inside where an older man was glad to start chatting with me. I didn’t mind the company but he was really far too interested in the price of my house. Then, a woman called me out to the oil changing bay to ask me about my personal information so that they’d know what size socks to send me at Christmas. OK, not really. She wanted my home address and phone number. I told her I was married, but that didn’t deter here.

Then the big up sell scheme came in. They didn’t want to change my oil. No, just changing the oil was going to be too little for them. Instead they spent 4 minutes walking me through very nicely done graphical screens showing happy little icons saying, “Pick me!” However, because I’m in no way going to buy their schpiel on how I will get better gas mileage if I pay them an extra $30.00 I passed on everything. They would have to show me the prettiest charts with large doctoral dissertations proving that my $30.00 would save me $40.00 in the long run.

With the time they wasted trying to upsell me they could have finished my oil change and I could have gone onto the grocery store and stood in the long lines there sooner. But I’m getting whiney, so I’ll stop now 😉

The Brothers Grimm Beats Eks Vs. Sever

However, its not much better. This movie had potential. However, however… blah, blah, blah. Don’t go see it. Save your money for something else. It’s dark, only sort of intense, and the transformer/werewolf thing was a weird-wolf. The rapunzel witch looks like she dated Yoda when they were both several hundred years younger.

Sorry, I’d put more energy into this review, but its not worth it. Just don’t go see it. Listen to me, the reviewers on rottentomatoes.com and your wallet: you have better things to do with your currency.

News: Government is Paying for Studies That Are Unneeded

In yet another dumb report a study shows fast food restaurants cluster near schools. I could have told you that simply by driving anywhere near a school in any town between Denver and Sacramento California (I’m choosing that direction to avoid driving through Kansas). There is not a lot of mystery behind this decision. I present the following [invalid] syllogism:
1) Cafeteria food is horrible
2) Teens have spending money [from selling drugs]
Therefore McDonalds wants in on part of the [drug] money action and builds restaurants near the schools.

I would always walk home for lunch, but I lived 2 blocks from the school. Plus I could then get away from the insanity of the cliques simply be having my friends come over and have fun with me.

Rice + Chicken = BFF

Apologies for the BFF reference. Since we all know that forever doesn’t last very long with food, I suppose I could hvae written Rice + Chicken = BFWSL. But I digress. When Jessica is gone at lunch time I like to make a tasty treat for myself. I grab whatever leftover meat products I have in the fridge (if you’re a vegetarian you could use Tofu based meat substitutes you have left over), I throw them into a lightly cooking oil sprayed pan and then let them warm up a bit. Then I add leftover rice (we usually have some of that around here, thank the Lord) and some salsa (usually we have the industrial sized Pace sitting in the back of the fridge for when Jess doesn’t make salsa fresca). I usually add water to help the rice moisturize (after exfoliating and washing of course) and put the lid on to help trap the steam. I often stir the ingredients to help assure that all is well and nothing burns or gets funky on me.

When I’m about to eat the food I plunk it onto a fine eating surface (read: a plate) and add some cheese (read: mozzerella or cheddar – again, if you’re vegitarian you could use tofu based cheese-like products) and then head down to my TV and turn on the food network to see if I can pick up any hot tips (Not hot chicks, unless you’re referring to other hot chicken dishes) on how to make more yummy food.

All Your Words Are Belong To Us

We have magnetic words on our ‘fridge. At Abby’s party someone grabbed some of them and build ‘custom’ sentences. However, they’re not English, they’re rather Engrishy. Witness:
Butt Storms Need Essential Base
I don’t know who put that together but it has caused a smile to cross my face more than once 🙂

Google Talk

I use Trillian because it allows me to chat with various IM clients. However, Google Talk is out and I’ve just downloaded it. My buddy Craig works at Jabber – its great software – and its what Google Talk is based on. Google Talk looks like its riding on a custom Mozilla implementation. If you look at the options screen the text and widgets are right out of Firefox. I think good things are happening. In fact, Google Talk also checks in on your GMail.

However, it doesn’t stop there. It’s got VOIP built in. How cool is that? I can VOIP just like I could with AIM, only know I can do it with a tiny less than 1MB download rather than with AIM’s larger download. It’s a wee early to tell, but it could be good as well. I need to find someone else on Google Talk to try talking 🙂 Add me to your list: randy.peterman@gmail.com.

Update: I am having troubles with Google Talk. I may not be online simply because they refuse to show me as such 🙂

I Used the Phone Book Today

Don’t tell anyone. This has to stay between you and me. I used the phone book today. Google just wasn’t cutting it for finding a local waste removal service. The City of Aurora’s web site suggested (gasp!) that I use a phone book. So I went upstairs, grabbed one out of our pile of 7 phone books we’ve got and called Waste Management. Their courteous operator took my order, set me up with my schedule and BAM! [to quote a certain sterile chef] I’m going to have my garbage picked up by WM tomorrow instead of the other company. Also, I’ve got recycling now, which is handy since recycling is good for the environment or something.

But like I said, dont’ tell anyone I actually opened up the phone book. I’m going to put the other 6 phone books into the recycle box next week so that WM can collect them and then take them to the recycling elves who will make our worldly posessions new again simply by waving their magic wand at them and turning them into cookies.

Do You Need This Feature?

A client has been evaluating various bug tracking software, and one of the packages, Mercury Quality Center, is written with many Active-X controls. Strangely enough they have a thesaurus button on the bug entry dialog. My co-contractor and friend Matt had the following to say:

Did you notice that the defect entry screen in mercury has a thesarus button?
Why do you need a thesarus when entering a defect… to find another meaning “the darn thing doesn’t work”?

I agree whole heartedly and want to know why someone would put a feature like that in a piece of software that requires clarity and precision for entering in bugs. Quality assurance means reproducing the bug, the developer fixing it, and then quality control confirming its fixed. A thesaurus is not needed for that processes.

I Love Cats… They’re Delicious

No, this post was not inspired by my sister-in-law’s blog about her trips to China. Instead it is about our neighbor’s cats who have been making our house, their home. I’m allergic to cats and so dont’ find myself drawn to them, even cute little kitty cats don’t hold an attraction for me. Abby’s birthday party this past weekend generated a lot of trash – which I dutifully bagged into large trash bags so as to facilitate my job of moving trash to the curb, and our trash men’s job of moving it from my curb into never-never land where all garbage goes.

This morning (20 minutes ago) I went out to move the trash to the curb but Alas! the cats had ripped into my garbage and had a hey day with it! So I spent some time picking up after the cats and getting most of the things that needed to be disposed of to the curb. Next time I hear one of those cats making sounds liek they’re in heat I’m going to find them and… let Abby pet them – she’s brutal on cats.