Friday - Oct. 25, 2002

Now

Then

October 25, 2002 - Friday

Boondoggle

Maybe it’s the change in humidity or the cooler mornings but when I got to work, my computer was making noise. The power supply fan had taken on an annoying, un-ignorable rattle. Technically it’s not a big problem and I’ve changed power supplies and fans many times on my computers at home. My problem here is that it happened at work where simple repairs become more complicated. Work Order Control, computer services and network technicians all want to attend the dance. Well, they don’t really want to attend but if you get their attention, they’ll insist on being there.

It cost $10 but I bought and installed the fan myself. I’m not complaining or bragging. I got to fiddle around with the computer and spend an hour at Comp USA. I do that anyway in my spare time for fun.

While I was at the computer store I bought a switch that allows the use of one monitor on two computers. Now when I want to see what’s going on with the computer that runs my weather station, I click a switch and the monitor switches automatically to that computer. I can use the same keyboard and mouse as well. The gadget works well but I was amazed at the tactics the company used to suck me in. $129 for the switch but they don’t provide the wires necessary to make it work. Those are $40 extra. No word at all about this on the box and I had to make an extra trip to Comp USA for the wires. At least they didn’t insult me with one of those phantom rebate boondoggles.

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Today I raced in the Physical Plant Pinewood Derby. My car made a respectable finish though I didn’t win. If not for the injuries, everything would have been perfect. Amazingly, there were two injuries that required police reports and medical attention. For those who aren’t familiar with the race, the cars are whittled from blocks of wood and you attach wheels to complete the vehicle. It’s an activity that is normally done by the Cub Scouts as a way to teach creativity and competition skills. You couldn’t find a more benign activity and our only variation was that we had no restrictions on car weight or means of propulsion. It doesn’t take a great leap to imagine what a bunch of trades people are going to attempt when given a contest with such liberal rules. Anyway, the sulfur powered rocket car lost control and sailed into the spectators where one person was cut in the face and another received 2nd degree burns on the neck. No rockets allowed next year.

Track & Spectators
No one is looking at the track where the cars are supposed to be.

May 3, 1966 - Tuesday

There’s nothing really new now going on. I hope that the events leading up to our leaving space themselves out a lot. If things don’t happen so fast it’s not hard to get used to it.
I’ve heard a lot about Japan in the last few days and I’ve met quite a few people who have lived there. None of them say anything discouraging about it. They all say that Japan is a lovely place and how lucky I am to be going. I hope after I’ve lived there a few years I can say the same thing.

Ray Whitby, a friend of my parents, says that we couldn’t be luckier. According to him the Japanese are so polite it gets on your nerves. For instance you get in a cab and say, “I want to go to Tokyo and Main”. Then the cab driver nods his head, bows to you and drives merrily on his way. About fifteen minutes later he stops and it turns out you're five miles from your destination. The cabby was so polite he didn’t want to ask any questions and not understanding a word of English he just made a wild guess and took you anywhere.

Mother checked out the airplane tickets today and we’ve run into a little problem. First of all Barry and I are going to take a ship to Hawaii. This the government will pay for but then we want to take a side trip to Samoa and that costs about 300 dollars round trip. Since there aren’t any planes or ships going from Samoa to Yokohama we have to go back to Hawaii. The government pays for everything but the side trips like ours. I really want to go to Samoa so I’ll probably have to clean out my savings account which consists of about $235, and with some help of my parents I should make it. Barry has no problem, he has $2000 in his savings.

I should have something more interesting to write in a few days.