Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Ogooglebar

Who knew there is a Swedish Language Council?  Not me.  But there is and like our own dictionary words get added each year.  Who selects our words?  Is there an English Language Council?  I don't know.  I don't remember having a vote on the new words for our dictionary so i guess somebody somewhere picks the words.

Anyway, I digress.  Let's get back to the Swedes, they added a new word to their language and that word is ogooglebar which means ungoogleable.

Seems google did not like this and had those tall people remove ogooglebar from their word list.  How much power does google have anyway?  And who at google even speaks Swedish?

They can take pictures anywhere in the world.

They can make cars that drive themselves.

They are gods for petes sake and they don't like a word so now an entire country can't use it.

I am going to use it just to piss them off.  What are they going to do?  Take me off google maps?  Take my house off of google street view?  Not let me use chrome?

Well, go ahead google.  Maybe I'll just go back Explorer and use Bing.

Ah who am I kidding, I promise I will never use ogooglebar again.


Travel Chick & me

This is Travel Chick and I in Thailand a few years ago.  I don't like a lot of pictures with me in them, but I do like this one.

Commute Karma

It is a well known fact that if my morning commute is good then my afternoon commute will suck.

If my morning commute sucks, my afternoon commute will suck even more.

However, if my morning commute does not suck and my afternoon commute does not suck what does that mean.

I am afraid of what this means.

Am I going to be stuck in commute hell for the next two days?

Will it take me hours to get to work and then hours to get home.

Commute Karma it is real and I am going to get it.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Out of office, leave a message

Where I work part of my job is sending out a newsletter once a week to lots of people, don't worry they have all subscribed to this so I am not spamming them.

Anyway some people use their out of office message, sometimes it is informative:

I am out of the office until next Thursday, I will respond them.

Some people rub in the fact they are on vacation:

I am out of the country on vacation and will not have access to email, please call my assistant in my absence or else I will read your mail when I return. (this one sounds remarkably similar to my own favorite out of office message).

Some people just think they are so important that you need to know where they are every minute:

I have left for two hours, please excuse my delay in responding to you. Please contact Bill at XXXXXXX for this issue. Please contact Sally at XXXXXX for that issue. Please contact ... you get my point.

But then there are the pretentious ones:

Please know that I am out of the office for the Executive Leadership Program at Harvard Business School with limited ability to access email or phone until March 25, 2013. Should you need immediate assistance during my time in Boston please contact ...

OK, I am sure your mother is proud of you.

Walking thoughts

Walking at lunch always gives me things to think about.

The turtle that lurked right under the water with his little nose sticking out until I pulled out my camera and then he disappeared. Shy?

Then the sign on the bus stop that said:

For information call 511 ask for this line and hear predictions.

Predictions? To me that makes me think of some gypsy sitting in a room somewhere with a turban on saying things like:

Well, this bus might show up sometime today.

This line is having a difficult time with mercury in retrograde, so don't count on it.

Predictions? Really. When I want to know if the bus is going to be on time I want facts not predictions.

Then another thing I wondered

Do ducks go on vacation?

Because while I am not an expert on ducks, these two look remarkably similar to two I wondered about while in Paris last month.



Sunday, March 3, 2013

Just a suggestion

I am just curious. Are red lights just a suggestion to stop?

Tonight I went out for about 20 minutes, during that time a big ole cadillac with a handicap plate slowed down at one point and then went right thru a red light.

This is not the first time in the last few days I have seen this. On my way to work last week, I got off the highway at my usual spot and a person got off at the same time. They pulled up next to me at the light and then when they went forward they seemed unsure where they should go. They ended up in front of me still rather confused.

Now, the street I get off on has four lights. The one right at the top of the exit and then three more before I go left.

So, this person is in front of me, hesitates at the second light, slowing just enough that the light goes yellow, still slowing, then the light goes red, still slowing right thru the intersection and they keep going. I think what the hell, you slow down and still go thru the red light.

So I watch them go thru the 3rd light and the 4th light, all going red as the pass under them.

By this time I am coming up on the 3rd light and see them pull into a parking lot or something way down the street. I think great, at least they are off the road.

Wrong. I see they have turned around. I am stopped at the 3rd light at this time watching as they start coming back up towards the 4th light, the one they just went thru.

And they continue thru the light towards me. Towards me! It is a one way street and they are coming at me, in my lane going the wrong way. People are beeping their horns and they just keep coming.

I did not know what to do? Do I just sit here and let them plow into me? Do I lay on the horn and hope for the best? Do I try to get out of the way some how?

Well, they in the blue Toyota realize they are going the wrong way on a one way street and pull over to the curb. I am able to drive by them. The driver is staring straight ahead, both hands on the wheel, not looking at anyone as we drive by. The passenger, from what I could see was petrified. I went on my way and wondered all day if they got to their destination or if they died.