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January 31, 2005
They make it too easy
So, I have this natural predilection towards picking on the French. Well, here's one more reason to make fun of them. It seems they have a national agency to fight for the preservation of the French langauge that is demanding that TV shows change their names into the french version.
This strikes me as funny because 1) who ever thought the French language was so great it was worth saving 2) what about the languages that formed the basis for French, why didn't you save those and 3) this is the same agency that created a word for the CD so as not to infect thier language with more Anglo-centric jargon. We invented the CD, why shouldn't we get to name it? (sorry, can't find a link for his one but I remember it from somewhere).
ps. They also axed email from the French language.
Posted by bucjos at 04:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Don't be unemployed in Germany
My friend from work Wil sent my this link cronicallying an unemployed IT workers issues with the government.
Apparently Germany legalized the practice of "escorts", ala Nevada, 2 years ago. They pay taxes, give benefits and all that jazz. Well, this out of work IT worker stated she'd be willing to waitress or work at a club in her file. She was given a number to call and found it to be a brothel. She refused to work there and may lose some of her unemployment benefits as a result. In Germany any out of work female under the age of 55 can be forced to take a job if they're been out of work for over a year.
No way this holds up but it does seem like, technically, they could force her into this new "profession". Man is this a PR nightmare just waiting to explode. "Hi, we're the new, friendly Germany. Send us your out of work, female IT workers and we'll find employment for them ;)"
Posted by bucjos at 12:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
A fitting tribute
Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series, has had a comet named after him posthumously. He was a great author and you should read him if you haven't already. A big thanks goes out to Mooney for being the one to enlighten me to his works.
Posted by bucjos at 10:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 24, 2005
Busted antenna and why I love my iPod
Well, I snapped the antenna off of my car via a car wash on Saturday. I kinda feel like a tool but, it happened, so there it is.
I also spent a while poking with my powerbook but, as a result, I cleared out my ipod and reloaded some tunes on it. I really like my iPod. It's just handy, easy to use and does what it does really well. I'm not looking to peck a fight in regards to "player xyz is better because of
Right now I'm listening to Matt Pond PA. I like it. They have a few mp3's for download on their site so check it out if you want. Brooke picked up a few cd's after we heard them at her brother's house in Phoenix when we were out there for his wedding during xmas break. I can make a mess like nobodys business is good stuff, brooke describes it well as "very similair to Swiss Army Romance". (If you follow that link you have to go to bands and then choose the band you want).
Oh, I'm heading out to CA with brooke in a little under 2 weeks for her bday. Should be a good time, it was last year. I'm excited to play with the dogs, always a good time. Rumor is we're taking them to a dog park. I've never been to one but I'm assuming it's just a park with lots of dogs. If anyone knows any differently, like if there's a secret dog park handshake that is requisite to stand by the "in" dog owners, let me know.
Posted by bucjos at 01:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 21, 2005
A bad idea
read this and you'll agree.
UPDATE: Austin pointed out that the old link was busted. Here's the text of the story to make up for that.
Some US Airlines Outsource Maintenance to Central America (01/21/05)
There's more outsourcing of jobs -- now it's the airlines industry.
The latest, preferred location for airline maintenance? El Salvador.
The Wall Street Journal reports at least two airlines -- Jet Blue and America West -- send their planes to El Salvador for "long distance" maintenance, outsourcing the work to cut costs.
Air safety experts are said be concerned that it jeopardizes safety and makes scrutiny by regulatory agencies more difficult.
Posted by bucjos at 02:05 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
I'm a rocket man....
I just read this story, also linked off of slashdot, about a scientist who devoted 18 years of his life to setting up an experiment. He had instruments on the Huygens probe, which landed on one of Saturn's moons recently, which was to measure the wind on the moon. During the decent the commander forgot to give the order for the instrument to begin trasmitting data. Some of it came through on a crappy, backup channel but still, 18 years down the drain. That's a rough deal.
Posted by bucjos at 10:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 20, 2005
Hillbillies and their magical horse
Wow, Nelson send me this link and I'm just dumbfounded. The horse orders cheeseburgers, gets beer and sleep in a bed. They even rigged out an old caddy, or something of that size, for him to ride in it. I'm fairly convinced that the horse is smarter than the two guys though.
It's a .wmv file so you'll need windows media player.
Posted by bucjos at 02:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 17, 2005
Links of Fury
This one is just a bad idea. Something don't belong on the internet.
Kruck sent me this link to a new, limited edition Star Wars Mr. Potatoe head. I dig it.
Also, I sold my civic, kinda out of the blue, so now I'm in the market for a new car. After "pounding the pavement", as Nelson puts it, I'm really leaning towards this car. It's a good deal, seems like it's in great shape and I really like it. Let me know if any of you have any thoughts.
Keep on rockin' for the kids.
Posted by bucjos at 12:45 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
An actual update
Well, here goes a real update for once.
Firstly, I can't believe the Vikings beat Grean Bay. I know this is tantamount to treason normally but I believe it's warranted this year. I just feel the Vikings have played poorly this year, lack discipline and don't deserve to be in the playoffs at all, let alone win a game. There have been many years in the past where they've had good seasons, played hard and deserved to get in and didn't. Just feels wrong.
Secondly, so apparently a new ice age will be descending on MN just when brooke's getting back into town. Word on the street is the coldest temps in the last seven years. Daytime highs in the minus degree catagory, without wind chill. Good times ;)
My family's dog passed away on Sunday. She was a good dog and she lead a decent life. I believe she was nine or ten when she passed. We adopted her from the local shelter many years ago and really enjoyed the time we had with her. She'd been pretty sick before she passed so it's for the best ultimately. Thanks for the good times cuddles. ( I did not pick that name but it fit pretty well).
Life in general is pretty good. Works usually a good time and I still really dig my job. I'm taking another ill-advised attempt at growing a beard. Travis is in New York, working with a Bethel prof. to get all the stuff setup for an art program that is being taught out there spring semester. I spoke with him late last week and he sounds like he's having a good time.
Steve Jobs announce several really cool new things from Apple. A new mini mac, a ipod and, for some reason this is the one I was the most impressed with, all the video editing software will be in high definition. Good stuff. Head over to apple's website and check it all out.
Posted by bucjos at 10:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 11, 2005
I love the internet
I'm sitting in my office and, due to a series of recent events, it dawns on me to turn on the NPR webcast. Turns out Ice-T is on. I'm listening to Ice-T on NPR. For some reason that's intrinsicallyfunny to me.
Oh, and Josh gave me a rev. b airport base station. Thanks Josh.
UPDATE: As I've been typeing this it turns out NPR is actually interviewing Ice Cube. I tend to get the two names confused. This whole time I was thinking, "they keep talking about Boyz in the Hood but I don't remember Ice-T being in that". Being it's Ice Cube it's a little less humorous but hey, I already typed it so tough.
Posted by bucjos at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 04, 2005
I'm back....
Well, Arizona was awesome. The weather is great, think fall here. Wore my flip-flops most of the time, and that was sweet.
The two days leading up to the wedding was a lot of getting stuff ready and trying to help/stay out of the way. Things went well and I was able to spend New Year's with brooke, brad, anna and two of brad's friends. Definately a good time.
The wedding went really well. It was outdoors, at a walnut orchard. There were about 120 guests, which seemed like a decent number but not too many. The only hiccup was that the groom, brooke's brother brad, was sick. He held it together really well until the end, when they did communion. After that they presented the coupld and the coupld bee-lined it to the back where brad proceded to puke in some bushes.
After lunch and the cake cutting, the couple rode off on these vintage beach cruiser bicycles that had the cans and the "just married" signs attached to them.
Spent another day and a half in Phoenix, hanging out with brooke and her family. It was a good time.
On the way into Phoenix I'd finished the book I was reading, lullaby.
It's a great book by the author of Fight Club. I recommend it highly. I've heard another one of his book's, choke, is even better so that's on my "to read" list. Because I'd finished that book I started reading The Fellowship of the Rings. I've never read it before and I'm really excited to read the series.
Not too much else from me. I'm home sick today. All the business of the wedding and traveling kicked my butt. Man I'm a nancy some times :)
Posted by bucjos at 01:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack