Observations From Home

10.23.2006

For a good chunk of the past couple of weeks I've been working from home (more on that later in the week). As such, I've gotten a chance to see/hear some of the things that happen around the house while I'm usually away.

I'm on some type of automated call list. Some days, starting promptly in the 10:30-10:50 range, the phone will ring. I answer with a self assured "Hello" and hear nothing except a few eventual clicks. If I wait long enough, I eventually get a dial tone (I guess there's a time-out period where the dialer eventually hangs up). 90 minutes later the phone will ring again. 60 minutes later the phone might ring. If not, it's an extra 90 minutes before the phone rings. Whenever I answer, the same clicks to eventual ring tone are found.

One time while listening to the clicks I tried just punching numbers on the keypad to see what would happen. I heard a few more clicks and then a ringing on the other end. Not just any kind of ringing, but the old, rotary phone style ring. You know, the kind that you heard when you used to call Granma. After a couple of rings, someone actually answered! A woman, who I swear was someone's grandmother, answered in an elderly voice "Hello?". "Hello" I answered back. "Hello?" she said again. Again I said "Hello". Undaunted, she again said "Hello?". It was obvious that while we both heard each other, neither of us knew what was going on. So I hung up.

Thursday after patiently listening to clicks and pops after answering, I was (surprisingly) greeted by Ali Ali Ocksen-Free from BellSouth. He was telling me how I had been such a good customer and how they could add lots of neat things to my already over priced phone service. I told him how that sounded neat, but I really wasn't interested. Ali Ali started to tell me even more neat things I could add, but I really wasn't in the mood to listen (I was still sick, after all) so I reiterated my lack of interest and hung up. I think the Granma I had been saying "Hello" to understood me better.

Saturday was the semi-annual fund raising visit from the Volunteer Fire Department. I don't know if this counts as one of those normally unobserved visits since they traditionally come by on weekends. They either have a fund raiser every 6 months or so, or the Fire/Rescue Squad is a separate entity. They both sale portrait sessions for one of the local photographers - is it selling if they give it to you for a contribution?

Today I returned home from a grocery shopping jaunt to see a woman standing in my driveway. My driveway is far off the beaten path, so it's not often I see someone standing there, especially someone I don't know. There was a car farther down the gravel road I share with 2 other houses backing up in my direction, so I guessed that the woman standing in my driveway was waiting for the car that was backing up. I pulled into the driveway and started unloading my groceries as the woman got into the now-backed-up car, and off to the more travelled path they went. As I continued putting up groceries, I wondered just what had brought these people down my less travelled path. Neither of them had said anything to me as I unloaded the car. Curious. Wait, many times when the people you want nothing to do with come by they leave something on your stoop! Now that the groceries were up I went to the front door! Attached to the door was a flyer from the local chapter of Mormons. Most of the time when confronted with Mormons, the local Alabamian gets caught in an hours long religious discussion from which they valiantly attempt escape. In my case it seems they just loitered in my driveway.

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Google = Gazillions

10.18.2006

Previously I was wondering how Google managed to buy YouTube for $1.65 BILLION dollars. Thanks to being sick and channel surfing, I found out a little more about Google that I didn't know.

One of the financial channels was reviewing Google stock. At the time, a share of Google was selling for around $430 (Today it's down to the $420 range). That's a lot for a share of stock. Microsoft is only going for $28.31/share. One of my old employers, ITC Deltacom, is selling for $2.50/share (it was up around $6 when I was there - see how important I am to a company!). So, it seems Google gets a ton of money from stock sales.

The review also mentioned that Google was expecting $4 BILLION in revenue from advertisements for the year. $4 BILLION! No wonder they can spend $1.65 BILLION on YouTube. The cost of YouTube is the equaivalent of the fries in a happy meal when you look at the advertising income.

But do you wonder (like I did) how much Google is really worth? Almost $14.4 BILLION dollars. Definitley the little search engine that could.

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Sick

10.17.2006

I caught a cold/sore throat over the weekend. Besides the sneezing and sniffling, I seem to get worn out after about an hour of doing anything besides watching tv, then I'm ready for a 3 hour nap.

I hope all these drugs I'm taking will kick in so I can be a little more productive thanan hour at a time.

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XXXVIII

10.13.2006

Today is the Dr Blondie's birthday #38, important because she is (as every year) the first to get older. I think Dr Blondie is off in Europe galavanting like the world traveler she is. So just s she's older doens't mean she sits around the house like the old fart I am all the time.

Now to find an e-Card with an annoyingly catchy tune to send to her!

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Disposable Income

10.11.2006

Google bought YouTube for $1.65 BILLION dollars. Where does Google get $1.65 BILLION dollars? Even more important, where do they manage to buy something for $1.65 BILLION dollars and still (theoretically) have operating money left over, somewhere? Granted, that's only a weeks worth of Bill Gates allowance, but how do you rationalize spending $1.65 BILLION dollars? And I thought the $100 Legos were outrageous...

Last weekend, Christies auctioned off $7 MILLION dollars worth of Star Trek memorabilia. My favorite tidbit was that the high item, an Enterprise prop that was expected to be the high item estimated at around $25,000, sold for just over half a million.

A male nurse just won ~$47 MILLION (USD) in the German lottery.

The time is ripe to come up with that million dollar idea. Now, how to combine the needs of German male nurse YouTube Star Trek fans?

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