WTF??!?!

My boss and I walked into one of our server rooms to look at a modem that was not working. This room also contains some machines used and maintained by the database group; we try not to touch their machines and let them take care of them.

As we walk in we hear a faint muffled sound, as if someone were speaking. It sounded vaguely like a telephone intercept message, so we figured maybe someone connected a telephone in the room and it was off hook.

As we tracked down the source of the problem, we found it. It was a newish machine which was sitting nestled among a bunch of older machines on the database group's rack.

I pressed my ear to it, and it was saying, repeatedly:

"Your keyboard and mouse may have a problem."

Nevermind that there was no keyboard and mouse even attached to the system; it was being used as a server. I went to talk to one of the database group managers and showed her the machine. She was as boggled as I was, and talked to her tech staff to come shut it up.

So yep, computers have talking BIOSes now. And they sound just like Jane Barbe.

I was nearly plowed in the side by a huge SUV that decided to lane change across four lanes of traffic without looking. I sounded my horn as the vehicle came too close and had to slam on the gas and swerve to the right in order to get out of its way. The driver saw me and jerked back into his/her lane (I didn't identify their gender), nearly losing control of the SUV in the process. I don't recall the model but I think it was an Escalade.

At times like this I'm glad my driving instructor obsessively pushed into my head "be aware of your surroundings at all times". If I were one of those drivers that only looks forward and never around, I'd still be sitting on SW 107th, my Honda badly smashed and possibly injured.

Drive safe, folks. Idiots are out there, and they outnumber us.

There was an *opossum* eating out of the food bowl I leave for the neighborhood cats on the patio.

I shit you not. I didn't even know there were opossums around here. I also didn't know they like cat food. And I realize "pics or it didn't happen", but of course it was gone by the time I got my camera.

I guess leaving the food out overnight is going to be out of the question. I don't mind feeding the few neighborhood cats that come along, but I'd like to keep my charity confined to a single species.

How long until we have a few dozen students trapped on the second floor, unable to figure out how to go "down"? ;)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55213

This woman is going insane over breaking a single compact fluorescent light bulb in her daughter's room. She's afraid of the miniscule amount of mercury in the bulb, and claims to have to pay $2000 to get it cleaned up.

What the hell? Are people crazy, is that what it is?

The media has gotten people so paranoid about the environmental impact of various things that they're flipping out over harmless amounts of mercury in a light bulb. Hell, when I was a kid I had a bead of mercury I played with for a while; this was before me or my parents knew it was dangerous, and I had a lot of fun messing with it. Am I suffering ill effects? NO!!! And that was probably THOUSANDS of times as much mercury as is in a CFL lamp.

I'm all for saving the environment, but the truth is, you do a lot more for the environment by using CFL lamps (a 13 watt CFL puts out as much light as a 60 watt incandescent bulb) than you do by worrying about the microscopic amounts of mercury in the things. Even if all the CFL lamps in use right now were to break at once, the negative environmental impact would likely be less than that of all the additional energy use required to feed equivalent incandescent lamps.

Wake up, people; don't be stupid. It's called *priorities*. Unfortunately, some people would do anything to come up with a soapbox to get attention, regardless of how negatively it affects everyone else.

-Zorin the Lynx, avid CFL lamp user

I appreciate the compliment, but I'd love to know who you are? I received a voicemail at work this morning...

The message went: "Hello I'm looking for Zorin? Very very cute."

If it was anyone here, don't be chicken and pipe up! Oddly I don't believe I've given anyone my work number...

Here's the voicemail...

Seen on campus...

This looks expensive to fix. The damn thing has been in that spot for a week, too. Those tires look damn tough; I wonder what they did to puncture it. Click for ridiculously huge versions.

Notice how the rim is severely bent on the bottom there:

I'm trying to figure out what could have have happened here. This is on a pedestrian walkway where no vehicles are allowed. Either University employees hit it with a golf cart, or someone got *really* pissed off and kicked it over.

Either way, it's an impressive looking hazard with the exposed wires and wet concrete; I'm surprised it's still working.

I ain't touching it! I called public safety about it two days ago but it's still there, untouched.

-Z

In reference to an old posting about 93.1...I must say that I, as well as many of you out there, miss this radio station dearly..

I know there was a cd that 93.1 made, I just can't remember the name and have been to several music stores trying to find it, but to no avail.

If there is anyone out there who knows the name, Can you plz reply here, or to my email @ hippomt33@yahoo.com..

Will Greatly appreciate it!

From the Second Life blog:

Ooooooooh-kayyy....

Gee, maybe you should try making a living doing something besides being a virtual whore!

It sounds like a joke, but knowing some of the folks I've seen on Second Life, it probably isn't!

Heh...