I thought he was just going to sing "Instant Karma"

Perhaps you have heard about the "seance" held with John Lennon recently on pay-per-view television. My disclaimer right from the get-go is that I don't buy into this stuff. The reason is pretty simple. Among them, whenever I have seen/heard these things, they usually with another person. I've heard that the best of these are really very skilled at reading subtle messages given by the living interviewee. So one of these usually ends up like this:

Madame Wienerschnitzel: Do you own a house?
Unsuspecting Customer: Why, yes, I do!
Madame Wienerschnitzel: Udish, your Mesopotamian ancestor, told me so.
[now makes careful judgments about consequence of owning a house]
Madame Wienerschnitzel: Udish also says your house...has a front door?
Unsuspecting Customer: [brief pause]...yeah, I think it does!
Madame Wienerschnitzel: He also says...now this is interesting, that your social security number has nine digits?
Unsuspecting Doofus: Yeah! It's [removed from transcript]!
Madame Wienerschnitzel: He finally says to not check your credit report for a few years.

Anyway, I believe it took quite an effort to come up with something John Lennon might say...and sure enough, it was.

I will rebuild this blog ONE ENTRY LONGER!

What?!? That is SO surprising!

In other news, this is strange. But I just wonder - what could one possibly use that paperclip for?

Finally, for those who may have gone to Purdue, you probably remember our issues with squirrels. They ran wild on campus, mugging people and causing general chaos. There was even that one incident with the group of squirrels who took over a bulldozer from one of the many constructions sites and, long story short, it was a good thing I learned sinusoidal steady-state response from EE 201 (wow, Prof. Tan still teaches it) or else Heavilon Hall would need to be rebuilt another brick higher.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Kind of like that one time in central Austria when...oh...right. Anyway, I present to you this.

Cows are awesome

I think this speaks for itself.

In other news, I have parted ways with my old Chevy Beretta. *SIGH*, it seems like only yesterday, it left me stranded in a left-turn lane on the way to work. In more late-breaking news, there is a refrigerator near my cubicle, and I have no idea why.

It must be re-runs for the news

Because I'm pretty sure I've seen this before.

Oh, how I wish for free-range engineering!

As I was getting ready to type this blog, I realized something. I don't feel like I have much to type about. That's not to say that nothing goes on here at work that's funny; it's just that it's all been said before. The vending machine that is supposed to vend an orange drink gives you lemonade while the vending machine which should have the lemonade has none to offer. The new and improved water cooler still tastes the same as the old water cooler, although I was asked many times how I thought they compared. I still talk to people on the phone about as well as a moderately-trained chimpanzee. And yet, it just seems normal now. I have come to realize that I am now desensitized from all the things which I used to think were so bizarre.

On the plus side, a lamp we've made can survive -50°F, in case someone needs to go rescue some Emperor penguins or something.

Also, I'd like to mention that I'm changing my name (again). Thanks to Becky for finding me a good new name.

Fun with legal departments

Nine-year-old Shea will likely not be a lawyer when she grows up.

Help Wanted

Position: Babysitter
Location: Capitol Hill

(I bet you were expecting something totally different)

Position: Athlete
Location: In front of a computer

Key quote: "...any competition is a sport."

Move over, Teddy Ruxpin

The real engineering feat would be to get these to NOT seem so disturbing.

I hope you have FLASH!

You'll need it here

Bad Omens in Project Design

Recently, I've been designing as part of a project we've been taking on here at work. While it took a couple tries and retries to get things how I wanted them, I felt that I had a circuit that would accomplish just what I needed it to. That was until I started going to fetch more detailed information on components used. The information itself was good; it was in retrieving it that I began to have second thoughts.

For instance, I am using a certain chip in this design. While contacting the company for information, they couldn't find anyone who knew anything about this chip.

Then while getting my information, we had the following (paraphrased) exchange:

Me: I'm engineer at [my company name here].
Her: Is that in [city that is identical to my company name], California?
Me: [silence]..um, no, it's in [city whose name in no way resembles company name], Indiana.
Her: [laughter]

I was given a number for another branch somewhere else, and told they could help me. Well, they couldn't either, but they had a number for someone who could. After giving me a number with no area code, I asked what the area code was. Confused, she asked me where I was from; apparently, she figured I was a local customer.

Lastly, I had to get a mechanical component for this as well, which brought about this (also paraphrased) exchange:

Me: I'll need [a relatively large number] per year.
Him: [silence]...Really?

Well, it's been real. Now time to finish up [haha] those pesky taxes!