Crikey!

I like to watch people. I also like to listen to public conversations (we call this conversation paratrooping). Both together often give me little bits of strangers lives—I sometimes wonder how the people I’m watching got where they did, and wonder how they are going to end up. I think it’s related to my love of short stories—I get a peek into someone’s life, never to see or hear about them again. I find it absolutely fascinating.

Sometimes, however, I come across a slice of life, and wish I could know how things turned out. This evening was like that.

We were walking through Sears when I saw her. Her hair a little too dark, and a little too long, an odd contrast to her long denim skirt and button-up shirt. I half expected to see a kerchief. Second I noticed her face. It wasn’t precisely a look of panic, but she definitely looked frantic, desperately scanning the aisles, looking for someone. She was walking very quickly, that walk/run that you do when you’re in a hurry in public, and then she did that soft yell at a pre-teen boy wandering in the men’s department. She called to him to find his sister, and when he went over to her, they spoke quickly and quietly together. She called out to him as he dashed off, to find his sister, and not to say anything at all to his grandmother.

My first thought was that they’d lost his baby sister—the mother looked like she might have a pre-teen son as well as a toddler, but then the boy found his sister, who couldn’t have been much more than a year or two younger than he was. She was in the direction we were walking, and I continued to watch was we walked towards the exit. I overheard bits of what he was saying to his sister, “…terrible accident…they life-flighted her…whatever you do, don’t tell Grandma.” And then they were off, dashing towards the exit after their mother.

And I’ll probably never know what happened, or how things turn out. They were just random strangers, whose lives may have been turned inside out in one quick moment at the mall.

All I can do is finish their story for myself, giving it a happy ending, and hoping that their story turns out to be the same story I wrote in my head.

ADDENDUM the First: This may be part of that story.

Microsoft is still evil. Ran into a new problem today: when trying to do a mail merge of class grades, even though in Excel the data is rounded to two decimal points, it appears in Word out to 8 places.

This is stupid. And we never found a solution.

Finally got around to read Tennyson’s Lady of Shallot. Thanks Tom!

Now that we’re into that fun school schedule, I’m on an exercise binge. Which is good, because I’ve gained about 10 pounds since the last time I was on a scale. I walked about 50 minutes this morning before work (Michael has to be at work at 7. Rather than lie abed, I’m getting up and going to the Rec Center to exercise.) Some with Ali, and some with my really cool new mp3 player.

Why is my mp3 player so cool? Because it’s also a USB KEY! Isn’t that the COOLEST? No? Well I like it anyway.

So this morning I got to listen to Prince and Adam Ant. What more do you need to start your day off right?

So what is the point of having security guards without guns or anything else that would allow them to stop an art theft that occurred in broad daylight?

You can’t even believe how much I hate Microsoft.

I have some data that I want to sort by date, so I copy the data into Excel, run the sort, and then discover that Excel has put the column in alphabetical order.

No good.

So I spent an hour playing with the formatting in Excel and Word, trying different varations of Paste Special. Nothing. Only a handful of dates will format as ‘date’ the rest remain formatted as text. Just as I’m about to (loudly) lose my mind, I realize that all the data that formatted correctly has something in common: all those dates are after 1900.

Apparently Excel doesn’t recognize dates before 1900.

How STUPID is THAT? I mean REALLY? HOW FROGGING STUPID IS THAT?

So I had to put my data back into Word, and run the sort there, because WORD recognizes dates before 1900.

Grrr……

ADDENDUM the First: This is what I was trying to do.

This may be it for the fun reading for awhile.

Which is why, of course, we went to three bookstores this weekend and bought more books. But really! I needed to replace my copy of Steven Brust’s The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars.

The Blackie Ryan Mysteries by Andrew M. Greeley

Although I like Andrew M. Greeley’s writing, I don’t necessarily recommend a reading marathon of the Blackie Ryan mysteries, primarily because he has written the books to stand alone, so each book gives you an explanation of the nickname punk, Blackie’s relationship with Mary Kate, and why Mike the Cop is called Mike the Cop. Those things aren’t bad in and of themselves, but they get a little old if you’re read the same line three days in a row. He does, however, get a little better about this as the series continues, which is good, because I was getting a little tired of reading about Sean Cardinal Cronin’s gallowglass laugh.

Read More about the Blackie Ryan Mysteries

I just redid the front page of the site. It is a significant change from the previous page–just so you’re forewarned.

I probably won’t leave it this way for long, but it’s Saturday morning, I’m stuck at work (don’t even ask) and bored out of my mind, so it was something to do. If you have any opinions, please let me know.

ADDENDUM the First:
Oh good, I broke half the hyperlinks. How exciting.

ADDENDUM the Second:
I fixed it. Not an elegant fix, but it works. Now if I only understood why they broke in the first place.
Oh yeah, I also changed the picture at the top of this page.

Scientists in China say they have discovered a highly virulent strain of bird flu virus in pigs.

An official at the China National Avian Flu Reference Laboratory said the H5N1 virus strain had been found in pigs at several farms in the country.

I’ve been morbidly fascinated with this Avian flu since it first appeared in 1997. I’ve always wondered and worried about the pandemic potential of this flu strain.

The discovery of the virus in pigs is important, because typically, the bird flu is not contagious in humans. Pigs, however, can be infected by both avian and human strains of the flu, which means that they can become a mixing ground that would allow an avian flu to become contagious to humans.

Since I first started learning about the flu and the number of deaths it can cause I was amazed that so few people worry about it at all. I was also shocked to discover the devastation of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic–that a disease could be so deadly, and yet so unknown. (An excellent book on the subject is Gina Kolata’s book Flu : The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic.)

Will the Asian flu become a deadly worldwide threat? We can hope that the strain doesn’t mutate to spread rapidly in humans. We can also hope that the emergency preparedness that was put into place following September 11th and the Anthrax letters will allow medical personnel to respond quickly to a deadly flu strain, and keep the spread limited.

We can hope.

1) UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS PREDICT ANOTHER RECORD ENROLLMENT, NO PARKING AVAILABLE UNTIL SPRING

Okay, so I made the second part up. But it’s still true.

How to fold a t-shirt
(via Making Light)

The 20-year wait is over. America has its new Mary Lou, and her name is Carly Patterson.

Twenty years? What do you mean twenty years? It can’t have been twenty years! I clearly remember Mary Lou! (Okay, I’m from West (by God) Virginia. We’re required to remember Mary Lou.) How can it be twenty years already? That makes me feel… old!

Bah!

There’s something here that’s not quite right. The semester starts in just a few days, but instead of feeling excited and rejuvinated and ready to take on the world, I mostly feel tired and slightly sick.

Yeah, yeah, yeah… It’s been a busy summer, work is hectic right now (my boss left for another job two weeks ago).. still, it hardly seems fair. Especially since I’m particularly excited about one of my classes this semester: Ethical and Legal Issues in Public Health (All the gerontology classes are offered during the day, at times when I can’t attend.)

Of course there is the fact that I’m being forced to learn FrontPage, because one of us will have to teach that class now. (retching noise) Hey! That’s it! I’m allergic to FrontPage! That explains everything!

And now, I’m off to go read–I’ve got just a few days left of reading for fun, so there’s no time to waste!

Does anyone know anything about, or have any experience with, XM radio?

I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with portions of my local public radio broadcast, and just discovered that as of 1 September, XM radio will have a public radio channel, where I can hear Mountainstage, Afropop Worldwide, Riverwalk Jazz, and Echoes.

It’s 10 bucks a month, which is a little less than my monthly pledge to WVPR, and far less than cable. And it would be really nice to be able to hear Echoes again.

So I’m curious, is it worth it? Anyone?

“I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our overextended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today.”
— Tom Delay

“So what they are doing here is they are voting to continue an unplanned war by an administration that is incompetent of carrying it out. I hope my colleagues will vote against the resolution.”
— Tom Delay

(via Philosoraptor)