Caught my funny bone.

I don't know why because it is not that funny but I saw this headline on CNN.com and had to laugh.

Smoking room Disaster!!!

First of all, I am not a smoker. However, smoking or smokers do not bug me at all. So, I am completely neutral on the subject.
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Here is a picture of the smoking room entrance to our building. Note that to get to it, you must go through 2 doors. Well, we got a global email saying that there was a scent of smoke at a cubicle that was believed to have come from this smoking room. Keep in mind that the nearest cubicle is about 40 yards away and you must pass the elevators, bathrooms, and a minor maze of corridors to get to the nearest one. Now, once this scent was reported, the company went into action and temporarily closed the smoking room pending an investigation. The results of the investigation found that this room was not in compliance with the Oregon Smoke-free laws and permanently closed this room and people have been routed to the other areas throughout the campus.
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So, the company locked the doors and posted the appropriate signs. Just yesterday, they added an orange warning cone in front of the door. I am scared to think of why that had to be added. Dollars to donuts says that someone got injured trying to open the door or slammed into it thinking it was open. Sigh.

Its included in the price... Why not?

Patty was busy doing something so I took the kids to Sweet Tomatoes. You know, the salad bar, soup, buffet restaurant. It was the kid's choice. One thing I noticed are these signs like the one I posted here. You place this card on the table to tell the table bussing staff that you will be back and you are not leaving the building. Why do they have these? Because people are pigs! The Bus staff have no idea if the full plates of food that are sitting there are to be thrown away or not. They need this sign to help them determine that. Why? I noticed that when people come into this place an eating mentality changes modes. They can load up their plate, sample a couple of things on it, then toss it out for another round of sampling. My kids tried this. They loaded up a big salad plate, then went for some macaroni and cheese and pizza. They sit down, nibble a little bit of each then attempt to head off for the dessert. Ummmm....Hold on there boys... We are not going anywhere. Finish everything you chose THEN you are free to get some dessert. They were not pleased but they did it.
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Listen, I don't see many people go to a sit-down restaurant and order a plate of food, sample it then dump it out for another plate. Nope, that is expensive. But for some reason it is OK here. I think the best thing they could do to save us some time here is to have garbage cans at the end of every buffet station. That way, after you load up your plate, you can conveniently throw it away immediately. That saves you the effort from having to carry it to your table and saves the bussing staff some time.
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Cedar Mill - Extreme Makeover

If you happen to be an old building and you happen to live in the Cedar Mill Area, watch out. You are probably going down. Looks like the area between Murray and Saltzmann on Cornell road is being renovated. The picture here is the ancient strip mall on the corner of Murray and Cornell. It contained all the important things that we could not live without like a courier service, a coin/trading card shop (which mysteriously burned down one night), a defunct computer repair shop, Manacurist, etc. There was also an apartment complex on the 2nd floor. Anyway, this place was falling apart and will be good to see some progress being made here. The kids and I are sad to see a detached building called Humdinger burgers go but maybe it will get replaced with something just as good but as they say "its hard to beat a humdinger" (at least I say that).

Perhaps the ugliest Car in the world

Quite a coincidence. I was driving into work today and saw one of these cars (Pontiac Aztek) and I have to laugh about how ugly these cars are. What the heck was GM thinking? Anyway, about a minute later Adam Corolla on the radio goes off about how stupid these cars are. Again, Quite a coincidence.

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Did a little search on this car and found an article from Time magazine highlight the worst cars ever. Here is what they say:

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"I was in the audience at the Detroit auto show the day GM unveiled the Pontiac Aztek and I will never forget the gasp that audience made. Holy hell! This car could not have been more instantly hated if it had a Swastika tattoo on its forehead. In later interviews with GM designers — who, for decency's sake, will remain unnamed — it emerged that the Aztek design had been fiddled with, fussed over, cost-shaved and otherwise compromised until the tough, cool-looking concept had been reduced to a bulky, plastic-clad mess. A classic case of losing the plot. The Aztek violates one of the principal rules of car design: We like cars that look like us. With its multiple eyes and supernumerary nostrils, the Aztek looks deformed and scary, something that dogs bark at and cathedrals employ to ring bells (cf., Fiat Multipla). The shame is, under all that ugliness, there was a useful, competent crossover."

Timmyopolis Turns 2000!

What a better way to celebrate this monumental occasion than to show a picture of the Windows 2000 logo.

So, Seeing I am at 2000 hits I am pretty much considered the big leagues now. The big leagues implies the parties, celebrities, the untethered vacations in paradise, the Paparazzi, you know.... it's all good.

This milestone made do some research (stuff that big websites have to do.... Sigh) and decided to compare my hits with Google:

Timmyopolis: 2000 hits in 3 months
Google: 112 million searches per day.

To normalize the data produces:

Google: 1296 searches per second
Timmyopolis: .00025 hits per second

+/- a few decimal points. We are about the same.

Racial Profiling.... I am sick of it.

The amazing story of flight 1549. The ability to land in the water and get everyone to safety is one for the books for sure. Now the work continues for determining the reason for the crash. Well, yesterday, federal investigators announced that they found remains of birds inside of the engines and is a possible culprit. OK. Here is where I start to get a little ticked.....

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From Newsday.com:

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"A DNA analysis done by scientists with the Smithsonian Institution's Feather Identification Laboratory identified the remains as Branta canadensis - Canada geese, according to the National Transportation Safety Board."

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Now, why in the heck did they have to bring up the Canadian part? Why did that actually matter? Does the investigation change if they were English Geese or Zimbabwe Geese or Cuban Geese? I am guessing not. But here we are, profiling us Canadians and our geese as the reason for everyone's problems. Lets just stamp a Maple leaf on all Canadians (people and Animals) so everyone will know and the media and you profilers can have your kicks and grins by making us feel bad. This makes me sick! Don't get me started with the Panda Bear. The country of Panda are equally upset!

Revenge of the Peanut Free Table

Well, if you have not heard yet, there seems to be a "minor" problem with peanut based products. Turns out Peanut Corporation of America sells a lot of peanut products to a lot of product customers. If you don't beleive me, head to www.fda.gov and you will actually find a Widget you can install that keeps you updated on all products being recalled. That is a good sign that this is a serious situation. I was eating a protein bar last week and as a I finished it I thought about the peanuts in it and went to the website just to find out that bar was a recalled product. Yikes.

Anyway, I have a parallel thought to this recall. The peanut free table. Anyone with kids in school has heard of this. Its a table that kids can sit at knowing that all food at that table contains no peanut products. Thinking about this, I am positive that there was no peanut-free table when I was a kid. Is this peanut allergy a relatively new thing or were the peanut allergies back in my day more of a closet allergy? Don't get me wrong, kids with this allergy is a serious and potentially deadly thing but how did it get so serious in the last 20 years and why is that table at school so full?

Lets put this all together. If you read ingredients of a lot of packaged products, you will see a disclaimer on most of them saying that this product was processed in a facillity that may have tree-nuts, dairy, or wheat products. This seems to be a generic comments to cover themselves against any lawsuit regardless if they use the ingredients or not. That must make things tough if you are trying to find food for peanut allergy people. This recall stuff could be the ultimate revenge of the peanut-free population.

Peet's or Starbucks?

I am not a coffee connoisseur by any means. In fact, one year ago I never even drank coffee. My trip to Costa Rica last year got me started on drinking coffee. Anyway, I have been making trips to Starbucks here and there and enjoying their coffee. Its not bad in my opinion and we all know that access to a Starbucks is easy. Especially around here. I will never know how 2 or 3 Starbucks can successfully exist in the same shopping complex but they do it all the time. Has anyone seen the movie 'Best in Show'? There is a funny scene with Parker Posey as her and her husband explain how they met at Starbucks. Not the same one mind you, they went to different Starbucks across the street from each other and found each other looking through the window.

Anyway, Patty has always stated that Peet's is a far better place to get coffee. I was sure I would not tell the difference but wow. Their coffee is much better. People should try it out and see for yourself. I only know of Peets being downtown and at the Tannasbourne shopping center. I got some coffee their today and noticed the long drive through line at Starbucks across the street and only a short line at Peets. Suckers!!!