Not my job....

As I was driving down Ford Road today, I was contemplating the usual Road Kill Rodeo: raccoons (they must be the stupidest of animals, they're the most frequent victims), deer, squirrels, possum, etc etc etc. I was also contemplating the bright, new, yellow stripes and rumble strips recently placed down the middle of the road.

I also contemplated how at least three or four of those unfortunate animals now had double yellow stripes painted down the middle of their remains. The road workers couldn't be bothered to nudge the little corpses out of the way before applying paint to the road. I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt; perhaps the painting is automated and they can't see the carcasses to move them. If that's the case, shouldn't someone invent a cowcatcher-type device to reduce interference? Otherwise, some time in the near future there will be little animal corpse-sized gaps in the yellow lines, and that can't be good.

Still, on a hot and humid day like today I am very glad that road-kill picker-upper is not my job. If your curious what that job is like, and you've never seen the awesome show that is Dirty Jobs on Discovery, take a look at the first half of this video, and be glad no one has yet perfected Smell-o-Vision:

Beat down by acronyms

I'm not going to be posting much over the next two weeks. Next week I'm going to be in Ft. Lauderdale at the AAU Taekwondo National Championships, trying not to vomit competing in sparring and forms with all the other ladies old enough to know better. I'll probably have internet access, but maybe not much free time, between the competing and coaching and cheering my teammates and moving hotels and lying by the pool. I will try to report results as I get them, though.

As for this week, I'm struggling to meet a deadline for a project, one completely different than what I'm used to doing. Give me a biography or a historical essay and I can bury myself in research and come up with something fairly literate. This time, though, I'm writing a biography of a company ... and it's a company that provides IT services, so I have absolutely no background on the subject. I know what VoIP means (voice over internet protocol, that Skype thing), but I keep having to look up dozens of other acronyms: SBX, SIP, LDAP, IVR, CPBA—the list goes on and on. What's worse, half the time I look up the acronym, change the letters into words, and still don't understand what the heck they're talking about.

So if there's nothing new here, it's because I'm either puzzling out acronyms or kicking my sparring bag, trying to be ready for the next two weeks. Hopefully when I return in July, I'll have my life back—unless my editor assigns me another company that loves acronyms.

Photo of the Week--6/15/09

It may be torture on your bottom, but you can't beat seeing the Grand Canyon by mule-back. From this angle, you may think the path looks way too small for a mule (which is taller than you'd think) to traverse. It wasn't, but it sure felt that way during the switchbacks. I just had to trust him to find his way; in the end, the view was worth the acrophobia and the chafing!