I’m not sure if a cat purring is really therapeutic or not. Why a cat purrs is a different matter altogether.

I know, that also I’m allergic to them – when the cat sits right on top of chest and looks you in the face and starts purring, it’s kinda calming.. Then of course, I start to struggle to breathe and all sense of calm is lost.

Never fear! Now you can get a dose a virtual cat purring to relieve that midweek tension — sans sneezing.

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I just can’t stand it anymore. My head is going to asplode…

I just had a tech support call from two individuals (secretaries) who told me that when they were updating their files the other person wouldn’t see the change.

My first thought was that one had a local copy and one had a network copy. Or that one was working with an email attachment and making changes to it. I could *almost* forgive either of those as being accidentally stupid. I’ve seen people save a local copy for changes, and then in the future open it from the recent files list rather than the original location, so they accidentally have the wrong version.

Nope it wasn’t that. The two secretaries share a departmental folder. I assured “Mary” that if they were saving the changes that the changes were saved. If “Abby” didn’t see them, then was something else going on in the process and that they weren’t working on the same file.

She told me that they were. I opened it. Made a change. Saved it. Opened it on the other computer, and the change was there. See? Works every time. I wonder why it didn’t work for us. I’m not sure. Why don’t you show me what you are doing. Ok.

As soon as Abby goes to open the file I have to bite my tongue before exploding. THEY AREN’T THE SAME FILE YOU ~!@#~@#!$!. Abby and Mary each made a folder under the common “Office” departmental folder. One was called ‘Abbys Files’ and one was called ‘Marys Files’. They each had a copy of the file in question within their own directory. And each would open up their own copy and make changes. When the other one didn’t have them, they would call the other one and have the changes reentered.

I also discovered their brilliant process for taking meeting notes. Open the Excel file. Delete all the information from the previous week. Save it (over the same name erasing everything previously). Print a copy. Open Word. Open Last week’s file. Retype the minutes for individual ‘sections’ (roughly 30 of them). Print it. Clear the document. Type the next section. Print it. Clear the document. Repeat 28 times.

Now they have the end result they wanted. Printed copies of each weeks notes in summary and broken down on individual pages stored in the appropriate physical folder. If they ever need to refer back to any meeting, they have to go and find the single physical copy that was printed out. Heaven forbid it’s ever lost or damaged.

I can’t handle it.

Current Mood:  annoyed

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Somehow in my ‘haste’ to return to a normal working week after my training a few weeks ago, I forgot one of the best things I brought back.

Compliments of my friend Erich, I would like to introduce you to:
Will it Blend

{video}

http://revver.com/watch/180341/flv/glow-sticks/

I chose to show you that video, but I highly recommend watching both the Don’t Try This @ Home and Try This @ Home series of videos. You can see interesting blends such as Bic Lighters, an iPhone, Chuck Norris, a Crowbar, a Rake, and of course the Tilapia.

Now, I’m not sure I’d ever buy a blender that costs hundreds of dollars, but as far as a marketing gimmick to get you talking about their product, this is a good one. I won’t say never. However, while I can justify spending that kind of cash on a Dyson vacuum which I use regularly and know it’s worth the price, making the occasional peach smoothie doesn’t cut it for me.

Current Mood:  impressed

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It’s that magical time of the year when Jones Soda Co. releases their holiday pack. Previous Holiday packs include such wonderful flavors as Broccoli Casserole and

Smoked Salmon Paté.

This Sunday, soda lovers will have the choice of two different limited edition packs.

First, you can go with the Christmas pack, including the ‘favorites’ of Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham.

For those that celebrate Hanukkah, do not despair! You too have your very own pack this year: Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and Latke.

I’m thinking I might temporarily convert, because those flavors look better. While I might put Sugar Plum up against Apple Sauce, you’ve got to agree that Christmas Tree is probably beaten out by everything.

Feel free to pick some up at their online store, because it’s not likely your local Shop and Save is going to have them.

Current Mood:  okay

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So I got myself zapped by electricity, not once, but twice yesterday.

The first one was all fun and games. Jason and I were installing some phone lines and computer wiring and had been joking about the fact that phone lines carry a small current.

Most times, you don’t worry about it, because the <40V doesn’t really bother you if you touch it together. If you happen to be working on it when the phone rings, then you could get up to <=150V and really catch your attention.

When I was in college, such a thing happened to me, and we were laughing that it might happen to us. So to play it safe, we would just disconnect at the source while doing the splicing.

Trying to strip the casing off the copper with our tools was getting cumbersome, so we started using our teeth. Sharper and stronger than fingernails, we could expose the end copper in under a second.

* Fun electrocution #1 *

After testing the line once, we went back to splicing. We forgot to disconnect at the source, and I bit into the end wire, while the other hit my hand, thus completing the circuit and giving me a little ‘ha ha” jolt, which was repsonded to be “you left the phone line plugged in fu***er”. Standing on the ladder, fan times were had by all.

* Not so fun electrocution #2 *

About 20 minutes later, we finished all our primary splices and were running the last extension. It required going across some HVAC ducts and under the stairs. I was just ‘blind’ pushing the phone cable over the duct, but it didn’t come out the other end. I reached up to try and push it over, and BLAM. Bright white flash, knocked me off the ladder and I fell to the ground, sweating and unable to speak for about 15 seconds.

My first (and only thought) was that there was a exposed electrical wire over the top of the HVAC system. We looked and couldn’t see anything. We then thought one of the other pipes or something was shorted and carrying a current. Nothing there either.

What we finally surmised (and hopefully was correct), is that the HVAC ducts acted like a capacitor. They are all covered with foil and insulation, and there is a ‘chance’ that as I was pushing the phone line across it, that a charge build up. When I reached up to push the phone line, my head hit the HVAC duct causing the discharge. It was more painful then because of the contact with the head.

In any case, I proceeded to let Jason finish the rest of the wiring, and I went to work on the Access Point. He worked as if he was dealing with razor blades for the rest of the night… just in case…

Now, Mythbusters has confirmed that under the perfect circumstances you can get electrocuted on the phone in a lightning storm, and even CSI had an episode about it.

But I don’t think they considered the hazards of the HVAC system in their analysis!

Snopes aside, I was on the receiving end of it.. so I know it’s possible.

Current Mood:  restless

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