All by myself...

I am soooooo bored.  I have been gone from my wife and kids for a full 24 hours now, I was at work for 10 hours and asleep for 7.  So I am amazed that I already miss them... I guess that I really do love them. 

Dance recitals

I don't want to get carried away here, but I don't think that I have ever been to a dressed rehearsal for a dance recital before now in all my life... and life was good. This is the most disorganized mess that I have been apart of that has been called a rehearsal. We have a program, but I don't think the people on charge know that there is a program. Amusing...

And the parents of these young girls, I was in a fraternity for a minute during my freshman year, but I just don't roll that way. As I look around it is like a sorority party.

All of that aside my point is this, I dont like reciatals, of any kind. But I do have an issue with the guy behind me. The woman said to the man, " is this supposed to be entertaining?". To which the man responded, "we have to watch all the little kids that suck so we can get to the older kids who can really dance". First, call me crazy, but in watching this, none of these girls are going to ever be a prima ballerina. I guess he was a dad of one of the older kids. I just think that insulting the younger kids was a bit harsh, but I may be taking more offense than I should because my daughter was on stage when he made the comment.

But this is getting off the subject, recitals suck, it is not the dancers. And to anyone who is attending a reciatal anytime soon, my sympathies, but if you insult the children, pleas do it only in your own infantile little mind.

I like your car...

So, we were leaving walmart when it happened. I had put the newbie in
the back seat and was putting the groceries in the back of the car
when a group of teenagers walked up. There were three girls and a
guy,all between 16 and probably 18. As I grabbed the watermellon to
put it in the back the one that looked the youngest said, "I like your
car... And I like your baby.". A little odd but whatever. Then the
guy that was with them made the comment, "she's not a criminal or
anything."

I guess that that is one of the differences between now and when I was
younger. Even if I ever walked up to a complete stranger and
complimented their car and their baby, I don't think that I or any of
my friends (except one) would need to clarify that we were not
criminals.

I hear people say all the time that children are our future, judging
by the youth around here, that is a scary thought.

Which way the wind is blowing

Ok, so here is the deal, I spent most of my formative years is Oklahoma. I am telling you this because, as the title of this blog says, I am adrift in the great state of Kansas now. Well, you may be asking yourself "what does that have to do with which way the wind is blowing?".  I'll tell you.

We are sitting at home watching the "excellent" coverage of some severe storms that are moving through the area. And by severe, I mean the meteorologist is in the middle of his wildest fantasy. They love this stuff up here, but the coverage is pathetic when compared to the coverage-gasms that occur in Oklahoma City when there is even a sniff of a storm. I remember one day a few years ago when Rick Mitchell broke in to some show I was watching repeatedly to tell me that the weather was NOT severe, it was just raining. While that was annoying, at least the meteorologists spoke to the audience like we were adults that potentially could understand big words.  In fact the coverage in OKC, with the national severe storms lab in Norman, and one of the top meteorological schools in the country, is about as good as it gets.  An incompetent meteorologist would not stand a chance in that market. 

Which brings me to my point and KAKE meteorologist, Jay Prater.  Shortly after moving to the Wichita area in 2007 there was a storm. This was no big deal, then Jay started talking. Well actually what he was saying was not that bad, a little simplistic maybe, bit OK. Then he began to switch between radar modes. I was used to terms like reflectivity and wind velocity, but I was totally blindsided. He used what is now one of the terms that makes my body convulse every time I hear it. He said, and I quote, "let's flip over from the how hard it's raining mode to the which way the wind is blowing (aka how hard the wind is blowing, if there is no rotation) mode." We had just gotten our first DVR and I had to rewind several time to make sure I was not crazy. Later they mentioned another mode the radar had, "the how big the hail is mode". While all of these are descriptive, it shows the dumbing down of all information to appease, how can I put this tactfully... well, I don't know a better way to put this, stupid people. Actually, I do not think people are that much smarter in Oklahoma, but if you speak to them as adults, the might just understand. If they don't get it they will probably ask someone.

Well, I am not sure if this has gotten my frustration with these people across to you, but I hope it has. I guess I am going to go, I need to watch the coverage on TV so I will know which way the wind is blowing.

Excel... or are you?

Today I had a long "discussion" with a guy at work about Excel.   You know... that little spreadsheet that is made that that little company in Seattle.  He is under the impression that all those calculations that the spreadsheet can do are not reliable.  

A little background:  this discussion is ongoing and began about a year ago when a specific spreadsheet was thrust on us.  He started by saying, "I've seen when .45 was rounded to .5 and when .45 was rounded to .4."  To him the discussion was now over and he proved his point that Excel was a poor program that can not do simple math functions.  I have tried and tried to explain the what you see in the cell is not always exactly what is there, and that you can show as many or as few places past the decimal as you want to and the .449 which can be displayed as .45 would round to .4 and .451 which can also be be displayed as .45 will round to .5.  Lets just say he didn't get it.

Conversations like this have happened many time since and all I can do is walk away shaking my head. Which brings me to today.  I went to discuss the spreadsheet with him again, and about halfway through the conversation I thought I was making headway... he was agreeing with me that Microsoft would not sell a program that did not work and that we needed to validate the spreadsheet, not the program.  I got excited and told him that I was done.  I thought great, now I can move on with my life and get out from under this project.  I handed him the 356 page report (for a three page spreadsheet) and he started to flip through it.  He saw one of my PostIt notes and that when he freaked.  " What are you trying to pull, you haven't done half of this.  Where are your calculation for this page or this one" as he flipped through the packet. "I hope you don't think this will get by me."  Just to clarify for all of my many readers, I left the verifications of the Excel functions blank.  As I tried to explain to him, as he just had said "Microsoft would not sell a program that did not work".  Have I mentioned yet he is the head of the IT Validation department.  The moral to the story is if you work for a company long enough, it doesn't matter what you don't know, you can still be a department manager.

Gotta go...I need to CALL Microsoft to see if the have PROOF that Excel can actually do the calculations they claim it can.  Sometime you just have to smile and nod.