What's mildly amusing you today?

[footfootfoot]

As my friend is fond of saying:
"Live simply so that I don't have to."

[HungLikeJesus]

I grew up in Miami and we didn't have AC.

[Clodfobble]

We were part of a program like that back when we lived within Austin utilities. The deal for us was you got a free programmable thermostat to replace your crappy old one. Aside from the free hardware and installation, you could then of course program it so it wasn't cooling when people weren't home during business hours, thus saving yourself the money that way rather than getting a specific discount each month.

They were very detailed about when and how they could cut off the A/C--it would never go off completely, the temp would just be set to a max of 82 degrees, for no more than 30 minutes at a time. In the three years we were on it, I only happened to see the under-remote-control display kicked on once, and never actually noticed a temperature difference at any point.

[glatt]

I was curious how it worked.

I'm exaggerating of course when I say they turn off your AC. But I understood I would be giving them the authority to take full control of my AC and in theory that was up to and including turning it off completely. It would make sense for them to just tweak it a little bit, since people would drop out of the voluntary program if their AC was turned off entirely for large stretches of time.

[Clodfobble]

Well that's just the contract that Austin Utilities drew up, it's surely a different system in Virginia. It also helps that there are a ton of Earthy/green folks around here who are all signed up on the program, so the burden is split between a lot more houses. If only a small percentage of your area has agreed to it so far, those houses could very well be suffering on a regular basis.

[footfootfoot]

We had a similar arrangement when I was a kid; my dad would shout "Goddammit, this electricity isn't free, turn out the lights when you leave the room!"

Then he would think he was getting over on the power company by installing 55watt bulbs instead of 60s. Despite being a very smart person, occasionally his calculations skipped a step or two.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

I grew up in Miami and we didn't have AC.

yes, but it was a dry heat.

[infinite monkey]

I just opened a can of diet coke and a cow orker clear on the other side of the room said "I just heard a beer open!" I said we were having brews and cooking shish kebabs on the grill, come on over!

Well, later on I'll be doing that.

[infinite monkey]

I was mildly amused at the Wally World the other day. A fairly big woman, in her 40s (who could walk quite well, thank you very much) was complaining to the greeter that she'd walked all over the store looking for a riding scooter, but they were all out. Hmmmph.

I thought "keep looking, you'll add years to your life."

I know I know. There are issues I couldn't know about; she might really be suffering. (Prolly "fibromyalgia")

Next time I'm going to go in and get a riding scooter because I'm too depressed to shop.

[Aliantha]

Max and I are watching Funniest Home Video's, and at the end of every video Max says, 'He fall down' then laughs.

It's just funny.

[zippyt]

every now and then we do some work for the USPS ( United States Postal Service ) ,
Its ALLL WAYS a Pain in the ass ,
Back in the day the USPS Scale shop would call Bytoching that we wernt Authorized to TOUCH Their scales , etc,,,,, Even though the Post master had called us in to fix what The Scale shop couldn't,,,,,,

fast forward to 2 years ago , we got the contract to check Lots of Post Offices scales , at 1 location After they had let me in and i had checked the scales the Post master said " Who Autherized you to be here ???"
My responce , I have No idea , My Boss told me to come here and check your scales and what to charge you , i assume we have a contract with the state , well he started going off , i dont get paid to put up with that shit so i left , as I was leaving 2 police cars come Blazeing up to the Post office , i just left the area ,
my Boss didnt believe that the cop cars came , untill today

when he had to call the CEO to call the Postmaster of the State to have one of my co workers released from Police custody !!

HA HA !!!

[ZenGum]

That may explain why "going postal" is so popular.

I'm mildly amused by the titles of some philosophical papers.

Can Time Pass at the Rate of One Second Per Second?

The No-No Paradox is a Paradox.

The Error in "The Error in the Error Theory".

That last paper is a criticism of an earlier paper, and alas, when the original author replied, he merely called it "Errors upon errors: a reply". Pfft. Spoilsport.

[infinite monkey]

Because the mail never stops.

[Lamplighter]

Tonight I received a strange email from my daughter...

Long story. I gave my students their final writing assignment for the semester.
We spent most of the class period today discussing the assignment.
They are to interview someone who is at least 50 years old and who has a 4 year degree
- preferably a family member or close family friend, close associate,etc
They are to ask their interviewee about campus life, academics, diversity and funding issues.

The paper should compare and contrast their interviewee's
experience with their own as transfer students at UnivXX.
One of the questions I want them to explore is what kind of political issues
were prevalent when their interviewee were students.

I used you as an example and mentioned the Vietnam War,
as well as the story you told me last year (?) about having
to sign a loyalty oath in exchange for federal funding.
Bragging about you I mentioned your work with Gxxxxx and PXX screening.

One of my students with a smart phone (who's in a genetics class this semester)
googled "Mxxxxxx Gxxxxx PXX" and asked if your first name is William.
I'm not sure if he didn't believe me or was just bored and playing around on the internet.

Gotta love those damn smartphones in the classroom.
Guess I should have been glad he wasn't just checking facebook.
Wow, Dad, 1967 - that research is older than I am - and I'm old.
love you,
rmb

[classicman]

lol. nice