Monday, Monday

Craig just poked his head in my door with a bemused expression -- he's the chief engineer for WSYR-TV, channel 9 in Syracuse, and has the office next to mine.

"Just got a call from a lady in Minoa," he started.

"Oh?"

"She said she likes to watch our channel 5 news but it's all staticy. I told her that this is channel 9, and she said that oh, channel 9's bad too."

I sat back and grinned; I've been down this road before.

"I asked if she was on cable and she says no, she gets everything from her indoor antenna. When I asked if she had tried moving the antenna she said, 'No, can I do that?'"

Brief pause as we roll our eyes.

"I said, yes, try moving your antenna. After a moment the noise in the background went away and was replaced by normal audio. She comes back on the phone and says that it's much better now, but is it okay to do that? Yes, I told her, feel free to move your antenna whenever you want to."

And the FCC expects these people to transition to DTV in 2009?

It's all in your perspective.

A foggy grey morning today; I've backed my car up the driveway and Hannah has hopped in -- school is on my way to work. She looked down and pronounced, "Crap... there's a run in my stocking!"

"Could be worse," I replied, which only evoked a glum look.

"It's better than having to say, 'Run, there's a crap in my stocking'."

Maybe she will think it's funny later.

Why you don't upset the backhoe operator...

A shameful week

"Everything is permissible" – but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible" – but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24, NIV)

This Monday the world saw the handiwork of a young man whose deranged self-involvement resulted in the traumatic death of 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty, and has left countless others forever scarred.

This Wednesday the world saw the handiwork of a corporation whose institutionalized self-involvement led them to publish the video and rantings of a mass murderer. Who can say what the consequences of such gross irresponsibility will ultimately be? NBC management attempted to justify their decision by offering the notion that society can learn something from this; precisely what lesson are we to derive? We already knew that one insane individual is fully capable of producing unspeakable damage and hurt to those around him. Even if history did not abound with examples, the truth of this is intuitively obvious. The true lesson, which NBC surely had not intended to teach, is how a respected and influential corporation can inflict damage and hurt to an entire society... and then attempt to rationalize their acts as some kind of public service.

How far we come

When my office phone rings, it's generally one of six things, in order of preference:
• Laurie, looking to have lunch;
• John (my boss), with a question;
• The control room, with a problem;
• Viewers, convinced we're putting the word "STOP" on their TV screen;
• Vendor wannabes, trying to sell toner cartridges;
• Overseas call centers, renewing my free subscription.
So you see, I answer the phone with some reluctance.

Ten minutes ago I was greeted by the magazine call center, remarkably enough a pleasant woman who speaks clear English and gets right to the point. I answered her several questions and made it to the final query:

"For verification purposes, what is the first letter of the city in which you were born?"

"S," I replied, then adding, "as in Syracuse."

A brief pause, then the quiet observation: "You don't go far, do you?"

After I stopped laughing she apologized, that she had no idea what made her say such a thing. She seemed mightily relieved when I replied that it was easily the best subscription renewal call I've ever gotten.

Good enough to bump them up the scale, edging out vendor wannabes.

Prior planning prevents...

Someone taped an ad from today's newspaper on the hallway leading to the newsroom:

THINKING ABOUT CREMATION?

Consider pre-planning.

And exactly what would the alternative be? Being cremated before you expect it?

Computer logic

Just a couple of "moments" from my day today...

KEYBOARD FAILURE -- PRESS F1 TO CONTINUE
How, pray tell?

PLEASE WAIT -- CHECKING FOR NECESSARY DISK SPACE
Who decides which space is necessary or unnecessary? What happens to the latter?

HARDWARE MALFUNCTION -- CALL YOUR HARDWARE VENDOR FOR SUPPORT
How convenient! There's a TrueValue store just down the street.