How in the heck did they do that?
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Well, that's...impossible!
Since my most recent previous post was about a documentary regarding shoes on power lines, I this photo I just found would be appropriate.
How in the heck did they do that?
How in the heck did they do that?
Friday, August 16, 2013
Walk Off The Earth: "Royals"
Note: I've been posting various musical tidbits to a Tumblr blog, but every few days something else happens to makes posting to it difficult (latest thing: absolutely will not let me log in unless I turn Ghostery off completely). So I'm giving up on it and will just use my old standby here at Blogonomicon to post anything that strikes me as interesting/amusing/enjoyable. And I will be re-posting about 40 or so things from the Tumblr blog over here. I'll just create a new category here for musical stuff: eat the music, which was the name of my Tumblr.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
A story
5 Criminals Who Took Police Chases to Embarassing New Lows
It reminds me of a story. When I was a kid, someone escaped from the prison in Kenedy and stole a car to make his getaway. I heard that he was doing over 100 mph when he went through Stockdale; a co-worker of my dad saw him fly through on highway 123. Police were, as they say, in hot pursuit, but not doing so well. The escapee doubled back on some dirt roads and came out on FM 1107. About that time, his stolen car either ran out of gas or broke down or something, so he abandoned it and took off on foot across a field.
A field that I at times had helped to harvest squash and cucumbers from, and which I also sometimes dove-hunted on with my dad, my uncle and cousins. The field belonged to my uncle. My uncle's house was on the other side of the field, and the outlaw found it. This was in the middle of the day, so no one was home at the time. It was an old house surrounded by acres upon acres of fields, and I don't even think it was possible to lock up--it was quite ramshackle. He went inside the house, stole my uncle's old straw hat that he wore when working out in the fields (for some reason), and also took one of my uncle's shotguns and grabbed a few shells. Then he fled, still on foot, through the corn field behind the house. This was where the cops finally caught up to him, so he attempted to fight. But when he tried to load the shotgun, he discovered to his misfortune that he had grabbed a 20-gauge shotgun and 12-gauge shells. So...the shells wouldn't go in the gun. At his point, he dropped the gun and surrendered.
It reminds me of a story. When I was a kid, someone escaped from the prison in Kenedy and stole a car to make his getaway. I heard that he was doing over 100 mph when he went through Stockdale; a co-worker of my dad saw him fly through on highway 123. Police were, as they say, in hot pursuit, but not doing so well. The escapee doubled back on some dirt roads and came out on FM 1107. About that time, his stolen car either ran out of gas or broke down or something, so he abandoned it and took off on foot across a field.
A field that I at times had helped to harvest squash and cucumbers from, and which I also sometimes dove-hunted on with my dad, my uncle and cousins. The field belonged to my uncle. My uncle's house was on the other side of the field, and the outlaw found it. This was in the middle of the day, so no one was home at the time. It was an old house surrounded by acres upon acres of fields, and I don't even think it was possible to lock up--it was quite ramshackle. He went inside the house, stole my uncle's old straw hat that he wore when working out in the fields (for some reason), and also took one of my uncle's shotguns and grabbed a few shells. Then he fled, still on foot, through the corn field behind the house. This was where the cops finally caught up to him, so he attempted to fight. But when he tried to load the shotgun, he discovered to his misfortune that he had grabbed a 20-gauge shotgun and 12-gauge shells. So...the shells wouldn't go in the gun. At his point, he dropped the gun and surrendered.
Heh heh
I guess I've been doing a lot of work blogging lately, but lately it seems that the subject has been ripe for the picking. So here's a story that I've just got to tell because it amuses me so mightily.
To start at the beginning, when I was first hired, our department had two supervisors. Eventually, one of them was moved to another department. The true motives behind this move are still unknown but rumors are rife, but that's not what this story is about. More time went by, and the remaining supervisor applied for and got a position in another department, so the other supervisor was brought back. So we still had only one supervisor. But then the big water company took over the little water company, which brought all of their meter readers into our department and put our total of employees up to about 50. So they decided we needed to go back to two supervisors.
There were a lot of applications for this position. Both of the guys who were our "lead meter readers" applied. One of them didn't even make it through the H.R. gantlet and wasn't interviewed. He immediately quit. The other one did get interviewed, but wasn't chosen. The guy who did get the job had no supervisory experience, but then the lead meter readers didn't either. The guy who did get the job had less seniority than the other lead meter reader--however he did have previous meter reading experience. In spite of being continually told that our company is merit-based--that is, you get raises and promotions based on your performance, not on your seniority--everyone still thinks that EVERYTHING SHOULD BE BASED ON SENIORITY, regardless of actual competence.
Well, the lead meter reader who didn't get the job filed a grievance because he didn't get the job. So, since this company is made up of such a bunch of spineless managerial types, they created a third supervisor position, even though it isn't needed and there isn't really much of anything for a third supervisor to do. This third position was created solely to give that lead meter reader the opportunity of applying for and possibly getting a supervisor position.
So once again, there were a lot of applicants. Out of them all, only three survived to be interviewed. We'll call them 1, 2 and 3. 1 was from another department, has no supervisory nor any meter reading experience, and didn't really want the job but only applied because he was being pressured to apply for a higher position by management. 2 is the lead meter reader, who has no supervisory experience but does have meter reading experience. 3 is someone who has been a supervisor on two previous jobs, so he has supervisory experience. He also has about five years meter reading experience (partly electric & gas, partly water). However, he has the lowest seniority of the three. This position is supposed to be primarily a field position, responsible for training and various other out-in-the-field supervisor requirements. One of 3's previous jobs was as a field supervisor for electric & gas meter readers.
So who got the job? 3 did, of course. Which means that the position that was created only so 2 could have a shot at a supervisor position went to someone other than 2.
This whole situation still makes me smile every time I think about it. And, full confession, the guy who got the job was my supervisor in both of those previous jobs, and in one of them I was his assistant supervisor. I've known him for about 20 years now, and count him as a friend because we've seen so much stuff together.
Heh heh.
To start at the beginning, when I was first hired, our department had two supervisors. Eventually, one of them was moved to another department. The true motives behind this move are still unknown but rumors are rife, but that's not what this story is about. More time went by, and the remaining supervisor applied for and got a position in another department, so the other supervisor was brought back. So we still had only one supervisor. But then the big water company took over the little water company, which brought all of their meter readers into our department and put our total of employees up to about 50. So they decided we needed to go back to two supervisors.
There were a lot of applications for this position. Both of the guys who were our "lead meter readers" applied. One of them didn't even make it through the H.R. gantlet and wasn't interviewed. He immediately quit. The other one did get interviewed, but wasn't chosen. The guy who did get the job had no supervisory experience, but then the lead meter readers didn't either. The guy who did get the job had less seniority than the other lead meter reader--however he did have previous meter reading experience. In spite of being continually told that our company is merit-based--that is, you get raises and promotions based on your performance, not on your seniority--everyone still thinks that EVERYTHING SHOULD BE BASED ON SENIORITY, regardless of actual competence.
Well, the lead meter reader who didn't get the job filed a grievance because he didn't get the job. So, since this company is made up of such a bunch of spineless managerial types, they created a third supervisor position, even though it isn't needed and there isn't really much of anything for a third supervisor to do. This third position was created solely to give that lead meter reader the opportunity of applying for and possibly getting a supervisor position.
So once again, there were a lot of applicants. Out of them all, only three survived to be interviewed. We'll call them 1, 2 and 3. 1 was from another department, has no supervisory nor any meter reading experience, and didn't really want the job but only applied because he was being pressured to apply for a higher position by management. 2 is the lead meter reader, who has no supervisory experience but does have meter reading experience. 3 is someone who has been a supervisor on two previous jobs, so he has supervisory experience. He also has about five years meter reading experience (partly electric & gas, partly water). However, he has the lowest seniority of the three. This position is supposed to be primarily a field position, responsible for training and various other out-in-the-field supervisor requirements. One of 3's previous jobs was as a field supervisor for electric & gas meter readers.
So who got the job? 3 did, of course. Which means that the position that was created only so 2 could have a shot at a supervisor position went to someone other than 2.
This whole situation still makes me smile every time I think about it. And, full confession, the guy who got the job was my supervisor in both of those previous jobs, and in one of them I was his assistant supervisor. I've known him for about 20 years now, and count him as a friend because we've seen so much stuff together.
Heh heh.
"You get all the loonies on your routes"
That's what a co-worker told me today after I described the following encounter to him.
Today I had that all-alley cycle 11 route which I have mentioned before. At one house, an ancient little old lady came out, trying to ask me something. Her dogs were making a furious uproar; she yelled at them in German, which I found to be so funny I almost couldn't suppress myself.
So eventually I heard her ask me why I read meters when the houses are vacant. I told her the simple truth: "Because it's there, and it's my job." "But why? If dere's no one (von) in de house?" "Because it's my responsibility. I get paid to do it, and my employer requires me to do it." "But why..." This went on for a few more minutes, with her refusing to understand the simple reason "because it's there."
Then she said, "What happened to de regular guy?" "I am the regular guy." "No, you're not. De odder guy...you know..." "Ma'am, I've been reading this route almost every month without exception for the last six years." "No. You haven't."
So I gave up and walked away. She was still yelling at her dogs in German.
Today I had that all-alley cycle 11 route which I have mentioned before. At one house, an ancient little old lady came out, trying to ask me something. Her dogs were making a furious uproar; she yelled at them in German, which I found to be so funny I almost couldn't suppress myself.
So eventually I heard her ask me why I read meters when the houses are vacant. I told her the simple truth: "Because it's there, and it's my job." "But why? If dere's no one (von) in de house?" "Because it's my responsibility. I get paid to do it, and my employer requires me to do it." "But why..." This went on for a few more minutes, with her refusing to understand the simple reason "because it's there."
Then she said, "What happened to de regular guy?" "I am the regular guy." "No, you're not. De odder guy...you know..." "Ma'am, I've been reading this route almost every month without exception for the last six years." "No. You haven't."
So I gave up and walked away. She was still yelling at her dogs in German.
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
Well, good
10 Artists Who Hated Their Biggest Hit
I was quite gratified to read that Chrissie Hynde hates that song, because that has got to be the WORST SONG THE PRETENDERS EVER RECORDED!!!
I don't think I can accurately convey how much I hate that whiney song. I don't know what's wrong with the people who like it, but it must be something pretty bad.
I was quite gratified to read that Chrissie Hynde hates that song, because that has got to be the WORST SONG THE PRETENDERS EVER RECORDED!!!
I don't think I can accurately convey how much I hate that whiney song. I don't know what's wrong with the people who like it, but it must be something pretty bad.
Monday, August 05, 2013
An incident
I said in my last post that I had to work mandatory OT last Saturday. What I didn't mention is that I was bitten by a dog that day.
It turned out to not be a serious bite; my pants protected me from the worst of it so all I got was a really scary-looking bruise. But it was a totally unprovoked bite. I didn't even know the dog was there. It must have come out of a yard across the street and it bit me from behind (lower right leg) without ever barking, growling, or anything.
The thing was, I completely lost it. When I was a kid, people learned to be very wary of my rage. I'm not boasting, in fact I'm kind of ashamed of it, but I had no control when I lost my temper. On certain occasions, it actually saved me because I was a frequent target for bullies when I was a kid, and although I would try and try to just get away from being beaten up on, eventually I would snap. After enough people saw what happened when this snap occurred, they stopped picking on me. It was a lot like when Ralphie lost it in A Christmas Story, except that there was usually more bleeding involved. It also saved me once when I was attacked by one of our sow hogs when I was a teenager. That was a bad bite that ripped a big hole in my pants and took a hunk of skin with it. I stopped the attack by braining the sow with a cedar fence post, which briefly knocked it senseless so I was able to get out of the pen. That was a bad one, though. After the adrenaline wore off and the pain kicked in, I discovered I had dislocated my shoulder from swinging the fence post.
And that's what happened with this dog, the only difference being that I wasn't able to catch it after it realized it had made a huge mistake. Then the idiot customer came out and told me to calm down. This made me about a thousand times madder, and I let fly a string of profanity that I am not proud of.
So I had to file a dog bite report and today I went and asked my supervisor if there had been a complaint about me from the customer. He said, "Why, did you beat the sh*t out of it?" "I tried," I said, "but I couldn't catch it." Then I told him about the customer telling me to calm down and he gave me a look that seemed to say, "You gotta be sh*tt*n' me!" I went on to tell him something like, "I cussed her out pretty hard." "Her dog was loose in the street," he said, "I don't care what you told her."
So that makes me feel better. From now on I guess I'll drive that one block instead of walking it.
It turned out to not be a serious bite; my pants protected me from the worst of it so all I got was a really scary-looking bruise. But it was a totally unprovoked bite. I didn't even know the dog was there. It must have come out of a yard across the street and it bit me from behind (lower right leg) without ever barking, growling, or anything.
The thing was, I completely lost it. When I was a kid, people learned to be very wary of my rage. I'm not boasting, in fact I'm kind of ashamed of it, but I had no control when I lost my temper. On certain occasions, it actually saved me because I was a frequent target for bullies when I was a kid, and although I would try and try to just get away from being beaten up on, eventually I would snap. After enough people saw what happened when this snap occurred, they stopped picking on me. It was a lot like when Ralphie lost it in A Christmas Story, except that there was usually more bleeding involved. It also saved me once when I was attacked by one of our sow hogs when I was a teenager. That was a bad bite that ripped a big hole in my pants and took a hunk of skin with it. I stopped the attack by braining the sow with a cedar fence post, which briefly knocked it senseless so I was able to get out of the pen. That was a bad one, though. After the adrenaline wore off and the pain kicked in, I discovered I had dislocated my shoulder from swinging the fence post.
And that's what happened with this dog, the only difference being that I wasn't able to catch it after it realized it had made a huge mistake. Then the idiot customer came out and told me to calm down. This made me about a thousand times madder, and I let fly a string of profanity that I am not proud of.
So I had to file a dog bite report and today I went and asked my supervisor if there had been a complaint about me from the customer. He said, "Why, did you beat the sh*t out of it?" "I tried," I said, "but I couldn't catch it." Then I told him about the customer telling me to calm down and he gave me a look that seemed to say, "You gotta be sh*tt*n' me!" I went on to tell him something like, "I cussed her out pretty hard." "Her dog was loose in the street," he said, "I don't care what you told her."
So that makes me feel better. From now on I guess I'll drive that one block instead of walking it.
Sunday, August 04, 2013
Update
The uke now has white strings. The original strings were black. I had said before that I had read that my particular model of ukulele would be better with better than the factory original strings, and so I would probably restring it sometime. I recently made a trip up to the Sam Ash store for some band supplies for the kids, so while I was there I bought a set of Aquila strings, because that was the brand that was most often recommended in various online uke forums. It was only $8 for the set of strings.
It took me quite a while to do it--probably about an hour and a half to two hours, but I wasn't paying close attention to the clock. I had special trouble with the E string for some reason. One odd thing I noticed is that the original strings all look identical, but the new strings have visibly different widths except for the A and G strings--they're too close. According to what I've read and seen in some instructional videos, it should take a couple of weeks before the strings settle down and quit stretching so they hold their tuning better. I had already noticed this with the factory strings when I first got it. I just hope I got them wound correctly so they don't slip. If that happens, I might have to go back to Sam Ash and have one of their techs string it for me. That would be embarrassing, but might be necessary if my job is inadequate. I have replaced a couple of broken guitar strings before, but they were easier than this. Maybe because they were wire and these were "nylon." Aquila actually calls them Nylgut, because they're supposed to be like some kind of synthetic gut and are better than plain nylon. They feel like nylon to me.
I downloaded a sampler of this band a while back from Noisetrade and this song was on it. It immediately became a favorite of mine, and yesterday it turned up on my phone shuffle while I was working (mandatory OT Saturday). Nowadays, whenever I hear a song I like I always think about how to play it on the uke. So when I got home I looked it up and found that they have the chords for it on their official website, but for some reason in certain places the chords were wrong. Anyway, it was easy to fix and last night I played it over and over for a long time. This is another of those four chord songs and it's very simple. The original is in E♭, so I transposed it down to C to make it easier for me to play and so it would fit my vocal range better. The E♭ chord itself is one I'm still working on playing smoothly; it has an easy fingering but requires some finger stretching. However, the B♭ chord is still a problem for me and A♭ is just impossible so far.
I had already begun working on E♭ because I've been playing "Rain" by Uriah Heep. It's originally in C, but I transposed it down to G for my voice, and in G it uses an E♭.
One of my FB friends had posted that "four chord" video the other day, and one of their other friends commented that that chord progression has become so clichéd that it should be retired. I only commented that as long as people like hearing it, there's no reason to stop using it. But beyond that, it just seems like a dumb thing to say, because you could say that about everything in music.
Anyway, the new strings seem to be better than the old ones so far, except that they don't hold their tuning very well yet.
It took me quite a while to do it--probably about an hour and a half to two hours, but I wasn't paying close attention to the clock. I had special trouble with the E string for some reason. One odd thing I noticed is that the original strings all look identical, but the new strings have visibly different widths except for the A and G strings--they're too close. According to what I've read and seen in some instructional videos, it should take a couple of weeks before the strings settle down and quit stretching so they hold their tuning better. I had already noticed this with the factory strings when I first got it. I just hope I got them wound correctly so they don't slip. If that happens, I might have to go back to Sam Ash and have one of their techs string it for me. That would be embarrassing, but might be necessary if my job is inadequate. I have replaced a couple of broken guitar strings before, but they were easier than this. Maybe because they were wire and these were "nylon." Aquila actually calls them Nylgut, because they're supposed to be like some kind of synthetic gut and are better than plain nylon. They feel like nylon to me.
I downloaded a sampler of this band a while back from Noisetrade and this song was on it. It immediately became a favorite of mine, and yesterday it turned up on my phone shuffle while I was working (mandatory OT Saturday). Nowadays, whenever I hear a song I like I always think about how to play it on the uke. So when I got home I looked it up and found that they have the chords for it on their official website, but for some reason in certain places the chords were wrong. Anyway, it was easy to fix and last night I played it over and over for a long time. This is another of those four chord songs and it's very simple. The original is in E♭, so I transposed it down to C to make it easier for me to play and so it would fit my vocal range better. The E♭ chord itself is one I'm still working on playing smoothly; it has an easy fingering but requires some finger stretching. However, the B♭ chord is still a problem for me and A♭ is just impossible so far.
I had already begun working on E♭ because I've been playing "Rain" by Uriah Heep. It's originally in C, but I transposed it down to G for my voice, and in G it uses an E♭.
One of my FB friends had posted that "four chord" video the other day, and one of their other friends commented that that chord progression has become so clichéd that it should be retired. I only commented that as long as people like hearing it, there's no reason to stop using it. But beyond that, it just seems like a dumb thing to say, because you could say that about everything in music.
Anyway, the new strings seem to be better than the old ones so far, except that they don't hold their tuning very well yet.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
I have honestly read some of these
20 Books You Pretend to Have Read
A couple of things on this list I'm surprised by. I guess movie fangrrls might pretend they've really read LotR.
3. Moby-Dick: Most definitely. I remember being surprised by how interesting and "readable" this book was. I know there are a lot of so-called "classics" that are just an onerous chore to plow through, but this is not one of those. If you haven't read it, don't waste any more time and just do it.
5. The Bible: Okay, I have not ever read the Bible cover to cover. I did listen to it on CD completely through, which took me several months, a little at a time, because the CD collection I have runs about 75 hours. But I was exhaustively taught the Bible through many years of church Bible classes when I was growing up. I'm one of the few who would actually want a Bible category on Jeopardy, because I'm always surprised at how ignorant the contestants are on this topic.
6. 1984: Yes, I read it, on my own, not because of an assignment, although I was still in high school. The second most depressing book I've ever read. The most depressing book was We the Living by Ayn Rand.
7. The Lord of the Rings: Good grief. I might even say...well, duh!
10. Catcher in the Rye: Didn't read this one until I was a grown-up, more or less.
19. Harry Potter: Only the first three. I'll read the rest someday when I get around to buying them all.
20. A Tale of Two Cities: Because it was a high school reading assignment. This was one of those so-called classics that was an onerous chore to plow through.
I've always wanted to read Catch-22. Just never got around to it. I've never even seen the movie, except for little bits here and there (somehow).
A couple of things on this list I'm surprised by. I guess movie fangrrls might pretend they've really read LotR.
3. Moby-Dick: Most definitely. I remember being surprised by how interesting and "readable" this book was. I know there are a lot of so-called "classics" that are just an onerous chore to plow through, but this is not one of those. If you haven't read it, don't waste any more time and just do it.
5. The Bible: Okay, I have not ever read the Bible cover to cover. I did listen to it on CD completely through, which took me several months, a little at a time, because the CD collection I have runs about 75 hours. But I was exhaustively taught the Bible through many years of church Bible classes when I was growing up. I'm one of the few who would actually want a Bible category on Jeopardy, because I'm always surprised at how ignorant the contestants are on this topic.
6. 1984: Yes, I read it, on my own, not because of an assignment, although I was still in high school. The second most depressing book I've ever read. The most depressing book was We the Living by Ayn Rand.
7. The Lord of the Rings: Good grief. I might even say...well, duh!
10. Catcher in the Rye: Didn't read this one until I was a grown-up, more or less.
19. Harry Potter: Only the first three. I'll read the rest someday when I get around to buying them all.
20. A Tale of Two Cities: Because it was a high school reading assignment. This was one of those so-called classics that was an onerous chore to plow through.
I've always wanted to read Catch-22. Just never got around to it. I've never even seen the movie, except for little bits here and there (somehow).
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Directions
I hate it when people ask me for directions. It happens often, because a lot of lost people assume I know the entire city like the proverbial back of my hand because I'm a meter reader or something. But that's not why I hate it. The reason I hate it is because the vast majority of people don't know how to take directions. There seem to be a lot of people who want to hear directions like: go to where the Best Buy is across from the Wal-Mart and then find the Pizza Hut next to the green house. My wife is one of these. Recently we were going somewhere, with her driving, and she asked where she should exit. I told her the exact exit number. "Is that where that Mexican restaurant is?" she asked. "I don't know," I screeched, "just take exit number so-and-so." I don't remember the number now.
By the way this is another flat tire story.
So today I was doing my regular cycle 17. This is actually two routes bundled together, and it is usually done by two people. However, the other guy is on vacation this week, so they gave it to me to do in 2 days instead of one. So yesterday I did pretty much all the hard stuff and left all the easier stuff for today. This is a common tactic. You have to work longer and harder the first day but it means you have a really easy day coming up the next day.
This route starts way down on South Presa, south of Berg's Mill, then goes down Southton Road to Shane Road, where it does a couple of neighborhoods and finishes up on Villamain about where the "haunted" tracks are. Somewhere on S. Presa I must have hit something with my right rear tire. About the time I turned onto Southton, the low tire pressure idiot light came on but it wasn't a fast leak so I kept going until I could park in a good spot on Bobbie Allen Way, where I could walk the neighborhoods. I called the office and they dispatched the tire guy--this was at 7 AM (I got an early start, read my first meter at 6:30)--and he said he'd be there "within the hour." I knew this was b*******, but I hoped for the best. I did the neighborhood on the south side of Shane Road because the houses there are very densely packed and I could (and did) do close to 200 meters per hour, which pretty much finishes it off. So at 8 AM, the tire guy still wasn't there. I called in and told them that he wasn't there yet. So they sent one of our "team leads" or whatever they call them now with another truck that I could take, and he was going to sit there with my truck until the tire guy fixed it, then drive it back to the office. So he called me and asked where I was.
This is where I groaned aloud. I knew this was going to be a cluster****.
Knowing that he was leaving from the office, I told him, "Go south on South Presa until you get to Southton Road, then turn right and call me for more directions."
So he asked, "Is that off of 410 down there?"
"Uh, yeah," I answered. "Just go south on South Presa until you get to Southton Road, then turn right and call me for more directions."
Well, although that neighborhood on the south side of Shane is very dense, the neighborhood on the north side of Shane is not. In fact, it is so not-dense that I always motor it ("motor" in this case being a verb that means I drive through it). The difference is that although I can do 200 meters per hour on the south side, there are only about 70 meters on the north side and it also takes a whole hour. So I knew I was going to be stuck walking that side. I drank some water from my truck and took off. About 30 minutes later I came back within close enough sight of my truck that I could see it was still flat. I called in again and told them the tire guy still wasn't there. About that time the team lead guy called me again and asked if I was over there in the place back behind Stinson Field. Holy...
It is true that I was in the same general area of Stinson Field, in the same way that the Alamodome is in the same general area as the AT&T Center. I said, "Well, I never come from that direction. Just go south on South Presa until you get to Southton Road, then turn right and call me for more directions."
I should mention here that ALL EMPLOYEES ARE ISSUED MAPSCO MAP BOOKS, which old-timers still refer to as "the Ferguson."
See that look on Bud's face at 1:08? That's how I looked most of this morning. There are always a couple of spare books kept in the office for occasions exactly like this. Also, if you walk in the front door of our office, go straight ahead until you either have to hit the wall or turn right, and turn right, you will see sweepingly huge maps of our entire service area covering the hallway walls. Or, for the rest of you, it's at that place where the women's restroom is across from those big offices that are empty all day. If I had been this team lead, I would have asked what street the guy was on and he wouldn't have heard from me again until I was pulling up next to him. But then, I am apparently not an idiot.
Another 30 minutes went by, which made it 9 o'clock. I finished everything that I could possibly walk, and then dead-walked (walking a long distance without reading any meters) back to my truck. Lo and behold! there was the tire guy. I stood there for less than 10 minutes while he finished up, and as I was signing the receipt for the job, the team lead guy drove up. "Man, I've never been down here before. I was lost!" I just shrugged, but what I really wanted to do was scream, "That's because you didn't go south on South Presa until you get to Southton Road, then turn right and call me for more directions, you ******* imbecile!!!"
It wasn't a big deal, because I had an easy day anyway and I only lost about 30 minutes from having to walk instead of drive. But still, when I give someone explicit directions, why can't they just follow them instead of driving all over the frikkin south side for an hour trying to figure out where I am? Sheesh.
By the way this is another flat tire story.
So today I was doing my regular cycle 17. This is actually two routes bundled together, and it is usually done by two people. However, the other guy is on vacation this week, so they gave it to me to do in 2 days instead of one. So yesterday I did pretty much all the hard stuff and left all the easier stuff for today. This is a common tactic. You have to work longer and harder the first day but it means you have a really easy day coming up the next day.
This route starts way down on South Presa, south of Berg's Mill, then goes down Southton Road to Shane Road, where it does a couple of neighborhoods and finishes up on Villamain about where the "haunted" tracks are. Somewhere on S. Presa I must have hit something with my right rear tire. About the time I turned onto Southton, the low tire pressure idiot light came on but it wasn't a fast leak so I kept going until I could park in a good spot on Bobbie Allen Way, where I could walk the neighborhoods. I called the office and they dispatched the tire guy--this was at 7 AM (I got an early start, read my first meter at 6:30)--and he said he'd be there "within the hour." I knew this was b*******, but I hoped for the best. I did the neighborhood on the south side of Shane Road because the houses there are very densely packed and I could (and did) do close to 200 meters per hour, which pretty much finishes it off. So at 8 AM, the tire guy still wasn't there. I called in and told them that he wasn't there yet. So they sent one of our "team leads" or whatever they call them now with another truck that I could take, and he was going to sit there with my truck until the tire guy fixed it, then drive it back to the office. So he called me and asked where I was.
This is where I groaned aloud. I knew this was going to be a cluster****.
Knowing that he was leaving from the office, I told him, "Go south on South Presa until you get to Southton Road, then turn right and call me for more directions."
So he asked, "Is that off of 410 down there?"
"Uh, yeah," I answered. "Just go south on South Presa until you get to Southton Road, then turn right and call me for more directions."
Well, although that neighborhood on the south side of Shane is very dense, the neighborhood on the north side of Shane is not. In fact, it is so not-dense that I always motor it ("motor" in this case being a verb that means I drive through it). The difference is that although I can do 200 meters per hour on the south side, there are only about 70 meters on the north side and it also takes a whole hour. So I knew I was going to be stuck walking that side. I drank some water from my truck and took off. About 30 minutes later I came back within close enough sight of my truck that I could see it was still flat. I called in again and told them the tire guy still wasn't there. About that time the team lead guy called me again and asked if I was over there in the place back behind Stinson Field. Holy...
It is true that I was in the same general area of Stinson Field, in the same way that the Alamodome is in the same general area as the AT&T Center. I said, "Well, I never come from that direction. Just go south on South Presa until you get to Southton Road, then turn right and call me for more directions."
I should mention here that ALL EMPLOYEES ARE ISSUED MAPSCO MAP BOOKS, which old-timers still refer to as "the Ferguson."
See that look on Bud's face at 1:08? That's how I looked most of this morning. There are always a couple of spare books kept in the office for occasions exactly like this. Also, if you walk in the front door of our office, go straight ahead until you either have to hit the wall or turn right, and turn right, you will see sweepingly huge maps of our entire service area covering the hallway walls. Or, for the rest of you, it's at that place where the women's restroom is across from those big offices that are empty all day. If I had been this team lead, I would have asked what street the guy was on and he wouldn't have heard from me again until I was pulling up next to him. But then, I am apparently not an idiot.
Another 30 minutes went by, which made it 9 o'clock. I finished everything that I could possibly walk, and then dead-walked (walking a long distance without reading any meters) back to my truck. Lo and behold! there was the tire guy. I stood there for less than 10 minutes while he finished up, and as I was signing the receipt for the job, the team lead guy drove up. "Man, I've never been down here before. I was lost!" I just shrugged, but what I really wanted to do was scream, "That's because you didn't go south on South Presa until you get to Southton Road, then turn right and call me for more directions, you ******* imbecile!!!"
It wasn't a big deal, because I had an easy day anyway and I only lost about 30 minutes from having to walk instead of drive. But still, when I give someone explicit directions, why can't they just follow them instead of driving all over the frikkin south side for an hour trying to figure out where I am? Sheesh.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Weird voice mail
Just thought I'd share this one. I can't understand all of it, but apparently a French/German evil villainess wants my social security number and two large pepperoni pizzas. I can just see her sitting there stroking her little white dog.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Top 10 Most Dangerous Vocations
Top 10 Most Dangerous Vocations
I didn't expect to see roofer at #10, but I won't argue with it. I've never done roofing--not professionally--but I did spend a little while installing alarm systems in houses under construction, and I had some fairly precarious times climbing through rafters running wires. I was always confident about it, though, and never felt worried while doing it. The only time I got scared was when I was at the top of an extremely high ladder putting a motion sensor at the peak of a cathedral ceiling. I thought that ladder was going to flip over at any second.
The real reason I mention this is because once when I was reading meters in an alley I came upon a house that was being re-roofed. One of the roofers looked down at me and said, "I don't envy you your job." It struck me as odd, because I thought surely he had a rougher job than I did. I replied, "I don't envy you yours either."
I didn't expect to see roofer at #10, but I won't argue with it. I've never done roofing--not professionally--but I did spend a little while installing alarm systems in houses under construction, and I had some fairly precarious times climbing through rafters running wires. I was always confident about it, though, and never felt worried while doing it. The only time I got scared was when I was at the top of an extremely high ladder putting a motion sensor at the peak of a cathedral ceiling. I thought that ladder was going to flip over at any second.
The real reason I mention this is because once when I was reading meters in an alley I came upon a house that was being re-roofed. One of the roofers looked down at me and said, "I don't envy you your job." It struck me as odd, because I thought surely he had a rougher job than I did. I replied, "I don't envy you yours either."
My recent flat tire experience
Dave of Living Out Here recently said something on FB about a flat tire experience. I recently had one, too, which was quite annoying.
When I bought my current vehicle, I looked under the seat to see where the jack was, and saw it was there. Unfortunately--and this was entirely my own fault for being assumptive--I did not remove it to verify that every piece was included.
So I had a flat tire. It wasn't totally flat yet, but getting there. I went to change the tire and discovered that two pieces of the jack handle were missing--one of the extension pieces and the handle/lug wrench. So I managed to, shall we say, acquire an extension piece and a handle/lug wrench that would fit the existing pieces so that I could change the tire. The handle/lug wrench I acquired did fit the lug nuts on all the tires.
Except the spare. Whoever had this vehicle before I did had, for some reason, changed the nuts on the spare to a different size (larger), so I couldn't remove the spare from its mount. WTF?!
So I drove to that big tire-fixin' place on Rigsby which I can't remember the name of just now and found that my going-flat tire was pretty well worn out anyway, and I bought a used tire to replace it. I didn't feel to bad about this; it's par for the course with tires. They all have to be replaced eventually and if this was an original, it had over 100,000 miles on it.
I asked the tire guy if they could sell me a couple of new lug nuts for my spare. He said yes. But he had a hard time finding the right size. It took him four tries before he finally got the right ones.
So, the new tire cost me $35 and the two new lug nuts for the spare were $1.50 each (I splurged for the more expensive lug nuts). I had no problem with the expense. I think I got off easy.
But those missing jack pieces and the odd-sized lug nuts? I say again, WTF?!
When I bought my current vehicle, I looked under the seat to see where the jack was, and saw it was there. Unfortunately--and this was entirely my own fault for being assumptive--I did not remove it to verify that every piece was included.
So I had a flat tire. It wasn't totally flat yet, but getting there. I went to change the tire and discovered that two pieces of the jack handle were missing--one of the extension pieces and the handle/lug wrench. So I managed to, shall we say, acquire an extension piece and a handle/lug wrench that would fit the existing pieces so that I could change the tire. The handle/lug wrench I acquired did fit the lug nuts on all the tires.
Except the spare. Whoever had this vehicle before I did had, for some reason, changed the nuts on the spare to a different size (larger), so I couldn't remove the spare from its mount. WTF?!
So I drove to that big tire-fixin' place on Rigsby which I can't remember the name of just now and found that my going-flat tire was pretty well worn out anyway, and I bought a used tire to replace it. I didn't feel to bad about this; it's par for the course with tires. They all have to be replaced eventually and if this was an original, it had over 100,000 miles on it.
I asked the tire guy if they could sell me a couple of new lug nuts for my spare. He said yes. But he had a hard time finding the right size. It took him four tries before he finally got the right ones.
So, the new tire cost me $35 and the two new lug nuts for the spare were $1.50 each (I splurged for the more expensive lug nuts). I had no problem with the expense. I think I got off easy.
But those missing jack pieces and the odd-sized lug nuts? I say again, WTF?!
Saturday, July 06, 2013
On the topic of that Bigfoot allegedly shot in San Antonio
I have just spent a while watching this full playlist: The Man Who Cried Bigfoot. It's a home-made, from-the-ground "documentary" about that spot in S.A. where Rick Dyer claims to have shot a Bigfoot. I find it interesting. Some of the homeless people who are living here are interviewed. You can take or leave whatever they say.
I would like to point out that in the first clip he points out large clumps of "scat" lying around and says that they are old but there are no cattle there. I can conclusively state that there were cattle there up to about 2 years ago, long before any of the people living there now where there. I know because I read the water meter at this property every month and I used to see cattle there all the time. I didn't see many, maybe only 3 or 4 head. The water service that was installed there was for the sole purpose of filling a cow trough. After the cattle were removed, the trough was also removed, but the hydrant is still there (it hasn't used any water since the trough was removed). If you watch closely in the video below you can see a white pipe sticking up out of the grass to the right of center at about the 2:50 to 2:53 mark; that's the hydrant. [Correction: it's visible in my original video, but after uploading too much resolution is lost; you can't see it.]
I'm not going to say that Bigfoot exists or not. As a true skeptic (not an active disbeliever), I have seen no proof either way so I won't draw any conclusions. However, in spite of everything the interviewees state, I think that Bigfeet (Bigfoots?) living in this little patch of forest is highly unlikely, given the amount of food and water a pair of Sasquatches would probably require.
I made this collection of video clips with my phone the last time I read this route, primarily for the purpose of showing how much activity is going on around here. How on earth could a pair of Bigfeet(?) live here and not get hit by cars out on 1604 or 151? They would have to roam to find enough food. For that matter, I would think that there would be a lot more sightings just because they would have to be scavenging in people's garbage, and a lot of people live around here.
By the way, when they say that they've seen mountain lions here, I completely believe them.
I would also add that if I were the owner of this property, and someone was going around claiming to have shot a Bigfoot on it, they would be in a hellish nightmare of legal trouble.
Anyway, here are a bunch of short clips from around the area that I took with my phone and patched all together into one video. On the subject of that, I used the software Avidemux and it's a pretty cool tool. I think I might have to make more little videos like just for fun.
I would like to point out that in the first clip he points out large clumps of "scat" lying around and says that they are old but there are no cattle there. I can conclusively state that there were cattle there up to about 2 years ago, long before any of the people living there now where there. I know because I read the water meter at this property every month and I used to see cattle there all the time. I didn't see many, maybe only 3 or 4 head. The water service that was installed there was for the sole purpose of filling a cow trough. After the cattle were removed, the trough was also removed, but the hydrant is still there (it hasn't used any water since the trough was removed). If you watch closely in the video below you can see a white pipe sticking up out of the grass to the right of center at about the 2:50 to 2:53 mark; that's the hydrant. [Correction: it's visible in my original video, but after uploading too much resolution is lost; you can't see it.]
I'm not going to say that Bigfoot exists or not. As a true skeptic (not an active disbeliever), I have seen no proof either way so I won't draw any conclusions. However, in spite of everything the interviewees state, I think that Bigfeet (Bigfoots?) living in this little patch of forest is highly unlikely, given the amount of food and water a pair of Sasquatches would probably require.
I made this collection of video clips with my phone the last time I read this route, primarily for the purpose of showing how much activity is going on around here. How on earth could a pair of Bigfeet(?) live here and not get hit by cars out on 1604 or 151? They would have to roam to find enough food. For that matter, I would think that there would be a lot more sightings just because they would have to be scavenging in people's garbage, and a lot of people live around here.
By the way, when they say that they've seen mountain lions here, I completely believe them.
I would also add that if I were the owner of this property, and someone was going around claiming to have shot a Bigfoot on it, they would be in a hellish nightmare of legal trouble.
Anyway, here are a bunch of short clips from around the area that I took with my phone and patched all together into one video. On the subject of that, I used the software Avidemux and it's a pretty cool tool. I think I might have to make more little videos like just for fun.
Friday, July 05, 2013
Debunk this
I came across this graphic at Who Forted, a blog about strange (Fortean) phenomena. I was going to post it at FB, but I know that many of my FB "friends" would find Bigfoot's implied gesture to be offensive, so I'll just post it here because it's too funny not to share somehow.
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Update
I'm on vacation this week. Well, last Friday the A/C bit the dust. Someone came out by Saturday afternoon and made enough minor repairs to get it cooling again, so we only went about 24 hours without it, but what a bad 24 hours it was! It was the hottest day of the year so far, with outside temps hitting somewhere around 110 here. The digital thermometer in my bedroom got up to 99.7 by the time he got cold air blowing about 3:00 PM. About 9:00 that night when I was ready to go to bed, the inside temp had dropped to about 86. Yesterday a couple of other guys came out and made all the more extensive repairs required to keep it running indefinitely. Fortunately I was able to get it financed so I don't have to pay for it all at once.
My wife is still working this week, but she has an irregular schedule and is off today and tomorrow. So today we took a trip to the Texas Snake Farm and Exotic Animal Park in New Braunfels. For those who don't live around here, back when I was a kid this place was just called the Snake Farm--they had mainly snakes plus some other reptiles. It was recently bought by a new owner and has been expanding, so that they now have quite a lot of other stuff, both various birds and mammals, and the new owner has also bought 30 additional acres behind the current park which he is going to expand into even further, so we'll have to go back again in a few years and see what's been added.
Unfortunately, I found it just about impossible to get any decent photos of the snakes because of the wire frames that kept people away from their cages plus the glass fronts of said cages. What few good pix I took I'll be adding to my photo blog With Camera Eye later on, but I'll upload some here that didn't make the cut for the photo blog. Click all images for larger versions.
Of all the snakes around here, the copperhead is the one I've seen most often in the wild and is the one I'm most familiar with. They had this magnificent specimen which is one of the largest I've ever seen. Of the dozens I've encountered in the wild, I've probably seen only one or two the size of this one. I'd say it was probably around 30 inches long. I can say that the longest copperhead I ever actually went to the trouble of measuring after I'd killed it was 28 inches long. I know they can get much larger than that in other parts of the country, but that's pretty big for around here. They also had a coachwhip, another snake I'm very familiar with from encounters in the wild, but conversely it was the smallest--even tiniest--coachwhip I'd ever seen. I couldn't get a good photo of it.
Some kind of rattlesnake.
I think this was some kind of cobra. You can see that he had looped back over himself a few times. He was quite long.
A black mamba.
This is "the snake pit." Those are all rattlesnakes coiled up down there. Sometimes you can see them get fed, but not today.
By the way, they have three mountain lions but I just couldn't get a decent photo of them because of the fences. One of the females was in heat, and was getting a lot of unwanted attention from the male. On the plus side, we all got to hear what a mountain lions sounds like. Plenty of vocalizations going on with that one female.
One of their two gray wolves. This looks blue because I forgot to switch over to outdoor lighting and still had it set on tungsten for the snake shots. It was the only good, clear shot I got of her face.
An African serval. The guy who worked there said it was kind of like the African version of the bobcat.
And this is my daughter holding a ball python. My son couldn't summon up the courage to actually hold it, but he did at least touch it.
After we left there, we went up the highway to San Marcos and went to the Aquarena Center, which used to be a theme park called Aquarena Springs. Pretty much all the old fun stuff is gone now. I had been to it twice before when it was still a theme park, once when my wife and I were first married, and once on a school trip when I was in fourth grade. The biggest thing they have there now is the glass bottom boat ride. They also have a small aquarium and a floating wetlands boardwalk. So we weren't there for very long, but the kids thought the boat ride was pretty cool.
Another by-the-way, they also have two hyenas at the Snake Farm. I got some pretty good video of them being fed, but the file turned out quite large, around 500 MB, so I might try to upload it later on. It will take me a while to upload even with my fairly-high-speed service. I also got an excellent shot of a capybara, but I'm saving that one for the photo blog.
My wife is still working this week, but she has an irregular schedule and is off today and tomorrow. So today we took a trip to the Texas Snake Farm and Exotic Animal Park in New Braunfels. For those who don't live around here, back when I was a kid this place was just called the Snake Farm--they had mainly snakes plus some other reptiles. It was recently bought by a new owner and has been expanding, so that they now have quite a lot of other stuff, both various birds and mammals, and the new owner has also bought 30 additional acres behind the current park which he is going to expand into even further, so we'll have to go back again in a few years and see what's been added.
Unfortunately, I found it just about impossible to get any decent photos of the snakes because of the wire frames that kept people away from their cages plus the glass fronts of said cages. What few good pix I took I'll be adding to my photo blog With Camera Eye later on, but I'll upload some here that didn't make the cut for the photo blog. Click all images for larger versions.
Of all the snakes around here, the copperhead is the one I've seen most often in the wild and is the one I'm most familiar with. They had this magnificent specimen which is one of the largest I've ever seen. Of the dozens I've encountered in the wild, I've probably seen only one or two the size of this one. I'd say it was probably around 30 inches long. I can say that the longest copperhead I ever actually went to the trouble of measuring after I'd killed it was 28 inches long. I know they can get much larger than that in other parts of the country, but that's pretty big for around here. They also had a coachwhip, another snake I'm very familiar with from encounters in the wild, but conversely it was the smallest--even tiniest--coachwhip I'd ever seen. I couldn't get a good photo of it.
Some kind of rattlesnake.
I think this was some kind of cobra. You can see that he had looped back over himself a few times. He was quite long.
A black mamba.
This is "the snake pit." Those are all rattlesnakes coiled up down there. Sometimes you can see them get fed, but not today.
By the way, they have three mountain lions but I just couldn't get a decent photo of them because of the fences. One of the females was in heat, and was getting a lot of unwanted attention from the male. On the plus side, we all got to hear what a mountain lions sounds like. Plenty of vocalizations going on with that one female.
One of their two gray wolves. This looks blue because I forgot to switch over to outdoor lighting and still had it set on tungsten for the snake shots. It was the only good, clear shot I got of her face.
An African serval. The guy who worked there said it was kind of like the African version of the bobcat.
And this is my daughter holding a ball python. My son couldn't summon up the courage to actually hold it, but he did at least touch it.
After we left there, we went up the highway to San Marcos and went to the Aquarena Center, which used to be a theme park called Aquarena Springs. Pretty much all the old fun stuff is gone now. I had been to it twice before when it was still a theme park, once when my wife and I were first married, and once on a school trip when I was in fourth grade. The biggest thing they have there now is the glass bottom boat ride. They also have a small aquarium and a floating wetlands boardwalk. So we weren't there for very long, but the kids thought the boat ride was pretty cool.
Another by-the-way, they also have two hyenas at the Snake Farm. I got some pretty good video of them being fed, but the file turned out quite large, around 500 MB, so I might try to upload it later on. It will take me a while to upload even with my fairly-high-speed service. I also got an excellent shot of a capybara, but I'm saving that one for the photo blog.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Rant mode on
Here is a great example of the kind of weird, stupid stuff I have to deal with sometimes. I did my regular cycle 14 route today, which covers a huge swath of area up Foster Road, down FM 78, and all kinds of stuff. We had two "niners" on it. I think I've explained niners before, but the short explanation is that they are new meters that have never been on the route before.
Now, meters that were installed many years ago were installed by people who mostly knew what they were doing, and recorded good and accurate location information. For example, last week I was looking for an old meter on a route I'd never done before and the location information was something like "36 feet from the corner and 6 feet in from the street." This is by far the best location info I have ever heard for any meter.
The people who install meters now are complete morons. The info I got was "near the corner at the intersection of Woodlake Parkway and Windfield Gap." In the above map, you can see where Woodlake Parkway is. The other street is very small and wasn't labeled unless you zoomed in really tight, so I put a little red dot on it to show where it is. See it? Now, someone please explain to me exactly where the intersection of Woodlake Parkway and Windfield Gap is.
Well, we eventually found the two meters we were looking for, sort of. By the way, a much more accurate description of the location would have been "near the intersection of Windfield Gap and Binz-Engleman." By sort of, I mean that one of them was the right meter with no problems. However, the other meter was a complete mess. It was supposed to be a 2-inch meter, but it was in a huge vault that is usually reserved only for very large meters because they are connected to very large pipes. Indeed, this vault had a very large (I'd guess an 8-inch) pipe in it, but the meter was on a very small bypass pipe and was only a 5/8-inch meter. Also it had the wrong serial number. The only thing that was correct about it was the manufacturer. I wrote everything down about it that I could think might be important and turned it in to my supervisor, so now it's somebody else's problem.
Once, there was a large meter that suddenly disappeared. I mean, it had just been removed so that there was only a straight pipe. This happens occasionally, but it's usually just a plain old residential meter and it's because someone decided they'd be sneaky and get rid of the meter because they think this way they can get free water (they don't). However, this was a large industrial pipe at a big company and I didn't think they were doing anything stupid like that. I kept skipping it and turning it in as a straight connection, and my "superiors" kept telling me it was still there. Eventually they even gave me a map of where it was, as if I was some kind of imbecile. This made me snap a little, and I and my supervisor had a rather heated exchange about it. "I've been reading this route every month for 5 years, and I know where every single meter is. But that one is not there anymore," I told him. So finally, and this was after about 7-8 months, an "investigator" was sent out to "investigate." (P.S. Don't even get me started on investigators). The investigator discovered...that the meter was gone. It took a few more months to get all worked out, but eventually someone discovered that someone else in the company had decided to make this pipe a fire line and therefore the meter was removed. Whoever that person was hadn't bothered to inform anyone else in the company about the decision.
Rant mode off...for now.
Monday, June 17, 2013
A song, illustrated
A song that I've liked for a long time popped into my head today for no particular reason--or for a reason that I was not conscious of. So of course I looked it up and strummed through it a few times while singing as is my wont these days.
While looking these towns up to see where they actually are, I discovered that there is also a Tonopah in Nevada. But since I've actually driven almost that exact route in the bottom map before, I decided to use the one in Arizona. I must've driven through Tonopah, AZ quite a few times without noticing it. I probably just thought it was part of Phoenix. I must've driven through Tucumcari a few times, too.
And Winslow. Made a lot of drop & grabs in Winslow. But that's a different song.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
A brief comment on an article at Cracked
4 Commonplace Technologies That Every Movie Still Gets Wrong.
They missed one, which has always aggravated me because I like to get aggravated about inconsequential things. I noticed this one all the time back before cell phones in the Age of Pagers.
I should point out that pagers are still in use, mostly in a single industry: that is, the medical industry. Hospitals still use pagers to call doctors in hospitals because they can just page them with the location they need to get to. Back when I used to work on pagers, we occasionally worked on voice pagers and we would test the audio by simply opening the door to our Faraday cage and listening to hospital transmissions to see if they sounded good. I mention this because I've recently been watching Scrubs on Netflix and although this show was made after the Age of Pagers was pretty much good and gone, the doctors on that show all carry the Bravo Plus. This was a numeric pager made by Motorola and was the best pager they ever made. It was probably the best pager ever made by anyone. You can see a picture of one here. By the way, God help you if you ever got hold of something in the Advisor family (original Advisor, Advisor Gold, Advisor Elite--especially the Elite--man, if you got one of those you were frikkin' doomed--here's a photo of one during one of its brief spasms of actually powering on). The LX was one of the last generations of numeric pagers and wasn't completely horrible, but they were nothing like the Bravo Plus. The LS350 was total junk.
Anyway, the thing they get wrong is this. Whenever someone on a TV show/movie gets a page with the ubiquitous Bravo Plus, the sound effect we hear is not a page alert. It is the power-up alert. It still bugs me. I've probably pointed it out to my wife at least 500 times. She still hasn't left me.
They missed one, which has always aggravated me because I like to get aggravated about inconsequential things. I noticed this one all the time back before cell phones in the Age of Pagers.
I should point out that pagers are still in use, mostly in a single industry: that is, the medical industry. Hospitals still use pagers to call doctors in hospitals because they can just page them with the location they need to get to. Back when I used to work on pagers, we occasionally worked on voice pagers and we would test the audio by simply opening the door to our Faraday cage and listening to hospital transmissions to see if they sounded good. I mention this because I've recently been watching Scrubs on Netflix and although this show was made after the Age of Pagers was pretty much good and gone, the doctors on that show all carry the Bravo Plus. This was a numeric pager made by Motorola and was the best pager they ever made. It was probably the best pager ever made by anyone. You can see a picture of one here. By the way, God help you if you ever got hold of something in the Advisor family (original Advisor, Advisor Gold, Advisor Elite--especially the Elite--man, if you got one of those you were frikkin' doomed--here's a photo of one during one of its brief spasms of actually powering on). The LX was one of the last generations of numeric pagers and wasn't completely horrible, but they were nothing like the Bravo Plus. The LS350 was total junk.
Anyway, the thing they get wrong is this. Whenever someone on a TV show/movie gets a page with the ubiquitous Bravo Plus, the sound effect we hear is not a page alert. It is the power-up alert. It still bugs me. I've probably pointed it out to my wife at least 500 times. She still hasn't left me.
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