prone to enthusiasms….
It was probably our second rehearsal. We’d stumbled badly on a run-through, and Warland was isolating the technical problems. We worked on the rhythms for a time, added the words when he was confident we’d mastered the counts, and finally fit the music to the section. I’d forgotten I’d sung this at Mac. But I’d not forgotten Dale’s teaching methods.
Filed under
Dear Old Macalester
Life's Stories
Musicks
Yarns and Tales
Posted on
May 31st 2004
Already in 1881 the Tombstone tale was known to be so bizarre that it generated preposterous coverage, and distance from the events hasn’t improved the situation. The “primary” sources are biased, contradictory, and sometimes just wrong. So are many of the websites, and much of the printed material. Some sources which seem to be reliable are largely fiction.
Filed under History Scrapbook Posted on May 27th 2004
Meantime, the folks around me were running through the same routines for the servers they watch. Alice is responsible for three systems, but only one was affected. Christine’s main damage was the (same) lost sub-net, so today she got off easy. From outside our group, I had a brief contact with Lucy, who runs another FileNet system, and wanted my take on something; from Will, who was echoing me on his efforts to recover our COLD system (running OK in different server room, but on the lost sub-net); and from Tina, who was coordinating with the network people and calling whichever of us she supposed might need help. We’ve all been here before; we know the drill, have checklists to guide our actions, have routines to follow.
Filed under
Bureaucratic Whimsy
Semi-Geekery
Posted on
May 25th 2004
Doug Pappas, chair of SABR’s Business of Baseball committee, has passed away. Doug, a knowledgeable, sardonic, and passionate expert on baseball’s economics, was often quoted in the press on baseball’s business follies. Commissioner Bud blessed him with a not-particularly-convincing phone call during the contraction controversy. He was also a fine researcher, and SABR’s expert on players and managers ejected from ballgames.
Filed under
Baseball CrankSpace
Passing On
Posted on
May 22nd 2004
Maria, who answers one of our phones, got an obscene earful from an abusive customer yesterday morning. The caller had received an email from our office on Saturday, and wanted to know why someone was working on the weekend “if the State really has a budget shortfall.” Marie hardly knew how to respond; as far as she knew, the message was automatically sent by a computer.
Filed under Bureaucratic Whimsy Posted on May 20th 2004
Scott’s been using the app for several weeks, and we’d had some prior contact. Because his usage pattern is unusual, he finds different stress points than most users. One of his questions ended up in the online FAQ, and others have generated discussions with the programmers. Fortunately for us, he thinks like a beta tester, so he’s comfortable helping us solve his problems; this is particularly important because we anticipate other users adopting his usage patterns as they grow comfortable with the system. When Margie checked her voicemail on Wednesday morning, one of the messages was from Scott.
Filed under Bureaucratic Whimsy Posted on May 15th 2004
Oh, to have been in Boulder last weekend….
Filed under
Dear Old Macalester
Life's Stories
Musicks
Yarns and Tales
Posted on
May 14th 2004
In the past eight years the team’s been sold three times (one fell through), and the owners have arranged/agreed to move the team twice (both fell through). Making an emotional investment in this franchise is foolhardy, except for the hardest core of fandom.
Filed under Baseball CrankSpace Posted on May 9th 2004
Both scenarios result in duplicate processing, and generate two billings. The users typically figure out there’s a problem when they reconcile their bills. We don’t yet know the scope of either problem, but the second scenario needs to be extremely rare to avoid becoming a major concern for a system with a normal workload approaching a thousand transactions each day. Scoping those details out will be another project for next week.
Filed under
Bureaucratic Whimsy
Semi-Geekery
Posted on
May 8th 2004
It’s not often I feel sympathy for Scott Adams’ idiot Pointy Haired Boss, so yesterday’s edition deserves a comment.
Filed under Bureaucratic Whimsy Posted on May 5th 2004
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