Task Writing

08.21.2006

Did you ever have one of those weeks where you have a lot to do, and actually it's a lot that you want to do, and the one thing that seems to get in the way is work? I think I'm going to end up having one of those weeks.

Last week I made a list of things to do over the course of the week, including the weekend. When I made the list, I looked at it and said to myself that even while trying to be reasonable with the time I had allotted, there was no way I was going to get it all done. In fact, there were notes by some of the tasks that said if I get around to it.

I've taken to making a list early in the day to try and plot out the things I want to accomplish that day and a plan for the next couple of days. It sounds like a Jerry-ish thing to do, what with his list-making obsession and low tech stack of index cards, but it works. At least it works better than nothing, since if I go to the trouble of writing something down, especially multiple times over the course of a few days, I'm more apt to try and get it done, or at the very least decide it's not worth doing right now and should be rescheduled for later, as opposed to not thinking I've got anything to do as I plop down on the couch and watch Star Trek all weekend.

I managed to get a lot of the little things done I've been putting off for a while, most of which were little tweaks or fixes for various websites that I'm either maintaining or working on. I haven't gotten the headway I've wanting on making the big switch from Paint Shop Pro to Photoshop. I've got some Poser projects that need some file organization before I can really get started there. I've committed myself to either finally learning Flash (I get stuck at about the same point in any of the 4 or 5 Flash books I've got) or I'm just going to give it up completely.

So today I will write out a new list. Some of the items from the old list will fall to the wayside. Some will get pushed off until next weekend. A few get marked off as DONE! Part of me wants to make this an administrative web tool, but I would have to schedule the time to write it on my list. How's that for a quandary? Or is it more of a conundrum? I could always just use what's out there, but where's the fun in that?

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Mail From The Motherland

08.17.2006

It's been a while since I got a good piece of spam to amuse me.

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FROM THE DESK OF DR ABUDULAHI ISA,
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)
OUAGADOUGOU-BURKINA FASO.

Ever want to take a vacation to OUAGADOUGOU? Use our special coupon code "Ooga Booga" for savings now!

Dear Friend,

I'm a friend of a bank manager! In Africa!

I am the manager of Auditing and Accounting department of BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$15m dollars (FIFTEEN MILION US DOLLARS)

I wonder if there was this pile of money just laying in the floor?

in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER from Munich, Germany)

Looking at Google, this guy gets around...

who died along with his entire family in Jully 2000 in a plane crash.

It's best to not fly in Jully. Or Junne.

For more information about the crash you can visit this site:( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm)

I would have put up a link to the bbc page, but it doesn't exist any longer.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it

Any type of body will do.

as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlings and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash

I think this was the plot of King Ralph. I never knew King Ralph was a documentary!

leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Six years, the money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foriegn account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 60% would be for me

Oddly enough, that really is 100%.

Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you arranged,you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased with a text of application form that i will send to you when i hear from you,so i will like you to send to me your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where in the money will be remitted.

For easy communication, I will receive the text of application form through my private telephone. I think Yoda is really a bank manager in Africa!

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application . I will not fail to bring to your notice this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.

I am now free of all fear atoms and him hitch free.

You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.

Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours Faithfully,
DR ABUDULAHI ISA,
MANAGER AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT
BANK OF AFRICA.

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This came from abudulahi_isa20@hotmail.com. So there's (probably) at least 19 other Abdulahi's out there. I wonder if they all have $15 million that was currently found? I should step forward as next of kin for them all and collect $300 million. Or 30% of $300 million.

Permalink random

Crud

08.15.2006

Over the weekend, and in to yesterday, I had a case of what my grandmother would always call "the crud". It being the 70's, when grandparents were automatically bestowed with an MD on the birth of the first grandchild, I always though of the crud as an actual illness. I felt bad. I was sick. I had the crud. I was given medicine and then I would feel better. Now that I'm older, I wonder just what the medicine that cures the crud is.

I only know I have the crud (maybe it should be "Crud"?) because it's not a cold, not a flu, not an upset stomach. It's some weird combination that, were I to ask my grandmother, she would almost immediately diagnose as the Crud (yes, I believe in this case "Crud" is more appropriate than "crud"). She would then give me the medicine for the Crud, which she would always have in a cabinet. Perhaps the Crud is cured by whatever left over medicine that is present in the cabinet? If so, I wonder if expiration dates are important?

It's been a while since I fell before the onslaught of the Crud. I guess I had gotten to the point of thinking of it more like a childhood malady, such as Chicken Pox, Polio, or the Black Plague. I remember often being diagnosed with "a bad case of the mully grubs" by my grandmother. The only cure I really remember for this was eating cookies at the kitchen table. I wonder if the Crud was immune to the healing properties of the cookie?

Slightly less fatal during my childhood were cases of:

• money burning a hole in my pocket - usually solved by buying whatever toy I couldn't live without.
• I'm bored - Mom's cure for this was to bring up some chore I had not yet done, such as cleaning my room. Over time, I learned that by simply not telling anyone I was suffering from this affliction I could avoid the suggested cure. I was still bored, but at least I wasn't doing something I didn't want to do! This was mostly contracted during the summer break from school.
• Acutely timed bowel movements - Every time I returned from the grocery store with Mom, I would have to run immediately to the bathroom, unable to hold "it" in anymore, where I would spend 15-30 minutes. 90% of the time, this would last until the groceries had been unloaded from the car.

I hope I can avoid the rest of my childhood illnesses. Maybe I need to go raid my grandmother's cabinet for some medicine?

Permalink random

Trying To Take The Next Step

08.08.2006

I love playing around with computer graphics (or maybe that should be "graphics on the computer"). I always have. I've never been an expert, but I like to think I'm just a little better than the average person. The majority of my graphics work has been done using versions of Paint Shop Pro. Paint Shop Pro is now up to version 10, and I bought version 7 a couple of years ago and more than got my money's worth out of it - especially after using the trial of version 5 long after was "legally" allowed. With the latest version of Paint Shop Pro, it's changed ownership from Jasc to Corel. A couple of months back I got the upgraded version 10 and played around with it a little, but found myself going back to version 7 more often than not. It seems I just don't like Paint Shop Pro 10.

There's nothing really wrong with Paint Shop Pro 10 (or Paint Shop Pro 7, other than it's a little dated), there's just some subliminal part of the program that turns me against it. I've also been finding that there are things I want to try to do, or learn to do, that are difficult in Paint Shop Pro since all the cool kids are using Photoshop, hence most of the tutorials and explanations are Photoshop-centric.

I've put off diving into the Photoshop world due to the learning curve of getting me to my Paint Shop Pro-level of knowledge, but the more I look at what I would be able to do after that initial learning period is making me ready to commit myself to making the switch. So last night I went out downloaded a trial version of Photoshop to see how painful this is all going to be. Hopefully I'll survive. I just have to try not to fall back on Paint Shop Pro 7 too quickly.

Permalink programming/interweb random

Pow Bam Snikt!

07.29.2006

Back in March I came across the what type of D&D character you are quiz, finding out to no ones surprise that I'm a Chaotic Evil Human Barbarian. For a change of pace I took a Which Superhero Are You quiz, even though there's about 10,000 of them out there. Here's what the first one told me:

Your results:
You are Batman

Batman 65% Green Lantern 60% The Flash 55% Robin 52% Spider-Man 50% Catwoman 50% Hulk 50% Iron Man 45% Supergirl 40% Superman 35% Wonder Woman 30%

You are dark, love gadgets and have vowed to help the innocent not suffer the pain you have endured.

Batman. That's pretty cool, I like Bats. I could handle being Batman as a superhero - just don't tell my parents what will happen to them. I wonder what a different test would tell me?

Wolverine You scored 23% Batman, 23% Superman, 20% Spiderman, and 60% Wolverine! The gruff Canadian with an unknown past. He kicks ass and takes names, but he also has a gentler side. A loner who can never settle in one place.

So now I'm Wolverine. I've got the "gruff" part of "gruff Canadian" down most when I need it - I think Jer refers to that side of me as "surly". Evidently my Wolverine-ness has dropped me to only 23% Batman as opposed to 65% on the first test, but I can twist that logic and combine the two to become 88% Batman! Maybe I'm an amalgam of Batman and Wolverine. I guess that would make me Dark Claw. Dark Claw doesn't sound as cool as Batman or Wolverine. Sounds a little too much like Darkwing Duck for my tastes.

Next I must find out what villian I am!

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