Showing posts with label reasons to say no to a frontal lobotomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reasons to say no to a frontal lobotomy. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Change Me
Why do people give change as bills first, then coins? If you get the coins in your hand you can hold on to them securely while you take the bills in your fingers. If the coins are on top, you're forced to try to hold the whole thing flat until you can get the other hand free to rescue the coins and airlift them away to safety. This is like the New Orleans disaster plan enacted out in the world of commerce, a billion times a day... we must be able to do something!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Traveling Man
Well, I'm home again, but just barely. I got back on Saturday, and head out again tomorrow morning to be working in the US for a couple of weeks. I've been more or less on Calgary time since getting here, so it won't be too hard to re-adjust, I hope. Packing is easier, since I'm not quite completely unpacked yet. Hooray.
I've spent the day with an also jet-lagged little chick... she wasn't around on Monday, so I took today off instead, and when she gets it, I can see a bit of a family resemblance: she gets a little weepy, isn't quite sure what she wants to eat, and wants a lot of cuddling. Thankfully, all things we can deal with. I think that "Hug!" was the word that she said the most today, and I figure that for a two year-old, that's not too bad.
The reason I thought of writing this (besides the fact that it's been way too long and I need to get in the groove of posting again) is because I saw a really interesting guy on the train. He was talking animatedly to the man next to him, gesticulating all over the place, and they were both laughing. Then (I guessed - I was listening to the new Carrie Underwood album) his phone rang. And he had the coolest case on it... it looked like a wooden, fold-up measuring stick, what they use here instead of tape measures. He talked some then put it away. Then it went again. And again.
And again.
And, eventually, I realized that it wasn't a phone camouflaged as a measuring stick. It was a measuring stick.
And he was crazy.
Still, he was fun to watch. And I couldn't help but wonder if train isn't, perhaps, the perfect form of travel - at least in Switzerland. I mean, when you drive, you never get to see crazy people. Either that or, if you happen to be related to one, you see a little too much of them. On the plane, there are far fewer than on the train; or maybe it's just my Geneva-Lugano route - it could be that if I was flying NY-San Fran I would meet a few of the more interesting kind.
So, I'm off tomorrow morning. In seat 24c. And I'm hoping to get someone with an imaginary cell phone in 24a, mostly just cause I can't imagine how the attendants would handle it...
I've spent the day with an also jet-lagged little chick... she wasn't around on Monday, so I took today off instead, and when she gets it, I can see a bit of a family resemblance: she gets a little weepy, isn't quite sure what she wants to eat, and wants a lot of cuddling. Thankfully, all things we can deal with. I think that "Hug!" was the word that she said the most today, and I figure that for a two year-old, that's not too bad.
The reason I thought of writing this (besides the fact that it's been way too long and I need to get in the groove of posting again) is because I saw a really interesting guy on the train. He was talking animatedly to the man next to him, gesticulating all over the place, and they were both laughing. Then (I guessed - I was listening to the new Carrie Underwood album) his phone rang. And he had the coolest case on it... it looked like a wooden, fold-up measuring stick, what they use here instead of tape measures. He talked some then put it away. Then it went again. And again.
And again.
And, eventually, I realized that it wasn't a phone camouflaged as a measuring stick. It was a measuring stick.
And he was crazy.
Still, he was fun to watch. And I couldn't help but wonder if train isn't, perhaps, the perfect form of travel - at least in Switzerland. I mean, when you drive, you never get to see crazy people. Either that or, if you happen to be related to one, you see a little too much of them. On the plane, there are far fewer than on the train; or maybe it's just my Geneva-Lugano route - it could be that if I was flying NY-San Fran I would meet a few of the more interesting kind.
So, I'm off tomorrow morning. In seat 24c. And I'm hoping to get someone with an imaginary cell phone in 24a, mostly just cause I can't imagine how the attendants would handle it...
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