- UP: I went to the career fair, spoke with several interesting companies. And in the “it’s a small world category” one of the frat brothers was recruiting.
- DOWN: Frat brother could get me a plant manager/engineer job, but he warned I would be severely underpaid.
- UP: I scheduled an interview with the US patent office.
- DOWN: They prefer candidates with lower grades and low ambition.
- UP: I can be paid well enough to become ambitionless.
- DOWN: I saw a string of about 8 cars make illegal left turns and I didn’t get to hit any of them.
- UP: I sold a used book for $75.
- DOWN: On the way to the post office to ship the book, my pen leaked all over my nice shirt. I have to spend $35 on a new shirt.
- UP: I will still have $40 leftover for beer.
9/21/2006
It turns out I’ve been taking the wrong approach to my school work. Indepedent work, what’s all that about?
I should be embracing the ethics of my peers. “54 percent of graduate engineering students admitted to cheating.”
9/20/2006
Some Southeast Missouri State University students did something I always thought would be cool: break into the tunnel systems beneath a university and check things out. It never seemed as though entrance to the tunnel system would be a challenge — often it was just a matter of lifting a manhole cover. Rather it seemed that getting caught might cause an abrupt end to my college career.
These kids also videotaped their journey. And then they posted it on YouTube with their names. That was pretty stupid of them, but I’m more stupefied by facilities director.
“It was a shock to me. I was not aware they were doing that. We try to keep all the locations secure,” Scott Meyer, Facilities Management Director
Maybe SMSU doesn’t have easy access manhole covers, but methinks Scott Meyer is lying.
He doesn’t understand why anyone would want to explore the utility tunnels that span most of the campus, connecting under many of the buildings.
He certainly can’t imagine why any student would call it a school tradition, as the videographer explained it to me.
Maybe people want to explore them because they “span most of the campus, connecting under many of the buildings.” Maybe it’s a school tradition because kids have been doing it for decades.
I’m betting that Scott was either born a 60 year-old man, or he knew what was going on all along and is now desperately trying to cover his manhole.
Walking to work this morning, I passed a flyer flier for a “fire and ice” party being held by one of the engineering fraternities. Upon reading it I quipped, “they’ll have to get some methane hydrate.”
9/18/2006
Yahoo has an AP article about what I find to be a pretty neat technology. Cities are pumping samples of their drinking water into tanks inhabited by bluegills. The fish’s bodies react when toxins are in the water, and those reactions are monitored. I’m impressed because it seems like such a great idea that I doubt I would have thought of.
But then the writer throws in this gem toward the end of the article.
They do have limitations. While the bluegills have successfully detected at least 30 toxic chemicals, they cannot reliably detect germs. And they are no use against other sorts of attacks — say, the bombing of a water main, or an attack by computer hackers on the systems that control the flow of water.
At least, I hope the writer has a sense of humor. Otherwise I can just imagine Marcus Wohlsen asking curiously, “well can the fish detect computer hackers?”
When Wal-Mart comes to town the drums start to beat in defense of the local businesses.
Here’s a question for ya, why are local businesses better than national businesses?
Some similar comments have been made over at Cvillenews about the announcement of a new, local Wal-Mart.
Tim McCormack says, “by buying something at a locally owned business, your money stays in the area. WalMarts suck the money out of a town. (This goes for Target and the other big box stores as well, of course.)”
Cville_libertarian echoes that: “as Tim says, the local business keeps the money in the local economy. The small local business owner lives and spends in his community.”
Is that true all the time? Are all Yale grads geniuses?
Are the local businesses actually owned by someone who lives in the community? Does that owner really go out of his way to spend in the community?
If I were that owner, do you think I would overspend as a matter of principle? You’re damn right I wouldn’t. Maybe you would overspend. Maybe your friends would overspend. But I bet that you know plenty of people that you would not trust to do that. I certainly don’t feel better giving money to a local jackass I know instead of a faceless jackass somewhere else in the country. (Of course a lot of the anti-Wal-Mart types believe that giving the distant federal government more money is a great thing… distant, ever-efficient, wealth generating, mega-organizations = bad; distant, slow, wealth-redistributing, leviathon-organizations = good.)
And before I finish out this post, I’ll leave with an anecdote. I worked as a busboy a lot in my teens. I started at Sara Jane’s Restaurant in my hometown of Monroe. I was paid $4.25 an hour in 1994. Sara Jane’s was very local, with only 2 or 3 stores, all located in Southwest Ohio. Of course the owners didn’t live in Monroe and likely didn’t spend any money there. And I didn’t trust the managers, who did live locally, any further than I can throw them. By ‘96 or so I was working for Bill Knapp’s, which was a regional restaurant chain. I was earning $3/hr from the company and about $3.50/hour in tips. By ‘98 I was working for the Olive Garden earning $5.15/hr base with about $5/hr in tips.
