Cold Showers

I actually don´t mind cold showers that much, they certainly do help you "perk" in the morning - and it wasn´t ice-cold... in fact that is probably my real complaint (not that I´m looking for one) but you can´t seem to get cold water from the tap here - it´s always tepid - which, being one that enjoys my water cold is a bit of a downer.

The work here is good - in that I mean there is lots of it, I know how to do it, and it´s not completely mindless. Like many (read all) telecommunications companies I´ve been to their records of where their circuits actually go and how they get there are completely messed up. This may come as a bit of a shock to those of you who have never worked in this industry - you pick up the phone and it works - so how could they not know how it gets from A to Z... well, having spent close to 7 years in network inventory and modeling for large scale telecommunications companies - looking to track their networks in databases I can tell you - I am AMAZED every time I make a call and it actually goes through ;) Seriously though - it´s fun trying to track it down - which is what I´m basically up to.

I saw some of that Starbucks liquour yesterday - but (and with the Starbucks logo emblazened on it I wasn´t surprised) it cost twice as much as the larger bottle right next to it - so I left it on the shelf, my thriftyness getting the better of my curiosity.

I did see something I have never seen before though - and at a Walmart of all places: Self Serve Checkout. This actually made me do a double-take - there where three isles with little strolbe lights to attract attention to themselves labled as "Self Checkout" where customers were dilligently scanning their own purchases. An attendant was stationed a bit past the isles who I assume get´s a bill from the scanner and collects payment.

This all got me to thinking About why such a thing would be good for anyone but the store - the store saves money - three checkout isles - only one attendant... but the un-skilled customers doing the scanning were not very speedy - so it was taking a very long time - I actually counted 5 people go through a normal checkout while one of the self-servers was still scanning.Ah well, progress...

PS: a daily laugh for all you geeks out there http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8124627492.html

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