TomMasz

Demand was elastic until it wasn’t.

I have a closely cropped beard. I grew it in the pandemic just to see if I could. It didn’t look too bad and my wife didn’t object so I kept it. Beats shaving every day.

What could possibly go wrong?

Mid/late-90s, a woman who was having an affair with one of the managers gets a huge promotion despite not even being qualified for the job she had. No question as to why. Proceeds to embarrass herself at every turn, yet manager thinks she’s great. Meanwhile, truly deserving people are overlooked.

Mid-2000, same woman is now in charge of a new product team. I’m working as a technical consultant and evaluating products for purchase by GSA (Government Services Administration, the buying arm of the US Federal government). Her product is on the GSA-approved list but has never been evaluated for compliance. Lying to the Feds subjects you to the False Claims Act and can result in fines and being blocked by GSA from selling to the government. I alert company management to this. Not only is it a danger to the company, she had to have lied about it to launch the product in the first place. Lawyers get involved. I hurriedly evaluate the product. Luckily, it qualifies. We cross our fingers no one from GSA ever asks to see the paper trail.

A month later she’s leaving the company to start her own catering business (I’m not making this up).

It didn’t last a year.

And I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. So what?

I assume this means encrypted P25 . Public service agencies have been using it for years, though not all of them encrypt.

Plus overweight, bearded, and balding with a ponytail.

I will vote for Democrats for every position and hope like hell it all works out.

And I just washed the floor!

“Democratic race against Biden”? Uh, are you sure about that?

One-handed clap.

Rock ‘n’ Roller in the streets
Astrophysicist in the sheets

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry” - The Sheep

I don’t anymore. Besides an (unrelated) injury I no longer enjoyed it. Too many distracted drivers and it’s only getting worse.

I hit a deer while riding my motorcycle. I saw it crossing the road from my left, tried to evade it, heard the bang of my fairing hit it, and next thing I knew I was lying on my back looking up at the sky. I ended up with a shattered collarbone, broken ribs, and some road rash on my left side. I have absolutely no memory of falling or sliding at all (and I’m okay with that).

The most likely explanation for why I survived was that I was only going 30 mph (50 kph). That same day another rider wasn’t so lucky. There was a husband and wife in one of the cars behind me that were both EMTs and I got experienced care right away. Plus, I was wearing boots, gloves, a leather jacket, and a full-face helmet. The road rash was from my jeans wearing through during the slide.

If there was ever an opportunity to wear a monocle, this was it.

Mac: Firefox is my primary, Edge for things that don’t work in Firefox, Safari for things that don’t work in Edge.

PC: Firefox and Edge.

It would be fine for audio work, for instance, but the overall size and resolution could make measurements a challenge.

There’s a manual?

I write in cursive with a fountain pen in a Mnemosyne notebook. It’s tantamount to code due to my poor handwriting 😀