I beat her in today!

I managed to get to work well before the Librarian Spinster but I didn't wait around to stare and wave at her. I got to work about an hour before she normally shows up and I figured that me sitting in my car for an hour would probably look bad to company security.

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So my phone rang at 4;30 this morning and the robotic voice at the other end of the line informed me that one of the programs I support had failed. I hate robotic voices. I really hate robotic voices that insist I do something like "Push 3 to respond to this message". I really, really hate robotic voices that wake me up at 4:30 in the morning and insist I do something.

In the case of my job, the robotic voice is a system called "AlarmPoint".

Whenever I have to call the data center, they always answer the phone by saying, "This call is being recorded". When they say that, I always respond by saying, "Thanks for recording this call. AlarmPoint sucks!"

Several months ago I was contacted by a vice president who explained that they were able to eliminate three jobs by installing AlarmPoint and asking me to stop saying it sucked on the recorded line.

He said that as if I was suppossed to think it was a good thing...

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I have only one thing to say about the Kevin Youkilis trade - It's about damned time.

Now all they need to do is figure out what to do with Carl Crawford and David Ortiz.

Carl Crawford, a guy who can't hit or throw, will be looking to come back and replace Daniel Nava, a guy who not only hits well, knows how to throw to a cutoff man as well as make a throw home if he's in close enough.

As for Ortiz, he's been hitting lately but I still contend that since that's all he really can do, he's taking a spot on the roster that could be filled with an everyday player. Most American League teams use the DH spot as "day of rest" for their infield. One day, the third baseman is the DH, the next day it's the short stops turn followed by second and then then first.

In other words, you don't lose a roster seat to a guy that only hits and you can give your players some much needed rest without actually sitting them on the bench for a game.

Once they figure those two out, they might finally field a team that wins more baseball games than they lose.

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Here are a couple of links that you can click on if you want:

• I would not ask the nut case realians what they were thinking. I would ask the pilot what he or she was thinking. What brain damage did they suffer that made them think it was okay to do that?



• Our school administrators in action.