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Marcumzilla
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Name: Greg
Country: United States
State: Ohio
Metro: Toledo
Gender: Male
Interests: God, friends, family, sports, Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers, Cincy Reds, Pittsburgh Penguins, Simpsons, Family Guy, Battlestar Galactica.
Expertise: Programming, databases, putting your foot in your mouth, and timing taking a shot at a girl horribly.
Occupation: Senior Software Developer
Industry: Research
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
9/11/2005
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| I don't know if this means I'm coming back to blogging. I may try, but the work firewall makes it harder to throw up a quick one during a break, and I'm on the PC less at home.
Anyway, I've been hearing so much lately about congressional earmarks and corporate bonuses, and it got me thinking. My idea seemed to revolutionary and so simple. I really don't know if it would work as well as the theory (probably not), but it could be a step to help. There's been the talk of a line-item veto to help with it, but I think mine would cut them even more. The idea...
A bill is only intended for one thing. NO amendments.
Working as a developer, a good rule of thumb is that a function should only do one task. (For non-developers, you then use these as building blocks.) Why not use the same principle for politics? That way we won't have this crap of "House Bill 12345: Motion to say that children, puppies, and ice cream are all good things." with the attached rider of "$50B to study how different foods affect the characteristics of the smell of flatulence.", which people vote against because of the stupid amendment, and opponents then say, "He's against children! He kicks puppies! He pees in your ice cream!". Nope. One bill = one function, that way people would have to explicitly vote for the stupid stuff, and it would be very obvious and the public record. The biggest hitch I see would be "Bill 54321: All of our spending".
As for bonuses: Seriously now, you don't make the bonuses contingent on performance (individual and/or company)? I've never seen a guaranteed bonus. That's why they are called a "bonus", and not "salary". (The big problem is that executives set executive pay due to sitting on the boards for each other and scratching each others' backs. I think the answer, if you want to legitimately tone down excessive corporate bonuses, would be for the shareholders (hint: everyone with a 401(k), etc.) to rise up and actually use some of the voting power. It would take some organizing, though).
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| Finally got my main PC unpacked, so time to catch up some. I've now been living in the Nashville area for close to three weeks.
Well, now for the main part of this post. Brandi had a long weekend and came down, and the two of us headed to the Smokies. Saturday morning and afternoon was spent finding a time and place to get married. We ended up with October 25 at a nice little place just outside of Pigeon Forge. That weekend is supposed to be the premier weekend for those coming down to see the autumn leaves, so it should be beautiful. It'll be a smaller wedding, with a couple informal receptions to follow, likely in Toledo and Anderson.
After the business part of the trip was done, we did a little bit of the touristy site-seeing. We took the Sky Lift (a ski lift basically) up to the top of a smaller mountain for a nice view. The next day, we stopped by a place called Wonder Works, which is basically like COSI (somewhat like the Museum of Science and Industry) in a building that looks like it's upside-down. Neat exhibits, and I set the daily high score on their version of Simon and an 80s TV name-that-theme-song game (was actually pretty easy - especially when it was the A-Team!).
Now, it's back to the learning the ropes at the new job. They do some interesting things with technology, and there's some techniques and practices I'll be learning as a result.
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| An idea struck me yesterday as we sang "Days of Elijah" (bleh) once again. Since it talks so much about the year of jubilee, I have a proposal - we only sing it every fifty years. It's not my favorite option (never singing it again), nor my second favorite (taking the good parts, rewriting the rest, and keeping the catchy tune that is the reason I'm convinced people like it so much); but it's better than singing it once (or more - yikes!) each month.
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| Yesterday evening I asked Brandi to marry me. She said, "yes" (er, "of course" to be truly accurate).
The picture doesn't show the ring's design super well, but if any of you can't wait to get a better look, I can find another of the design.
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| For those who don't knowing, a prank on the internet for a handful of months or so is when you Rickroll someone. Mostly in the internet, but it has happened in real life by hiring a singing telegram or once over the jumbotron (and with someone lip syncing) at a college basketball game.
Yesterday was a co-worker's last day. He's leaving for Borders corporate headquarters. Borders is looking for a buyer. A little social engineering, and I sent an email that resulted in several people in the office being Rickroll'd in spectacular fashion.
Lo and behold, I call Discover Card that very evening, get placed on hold, hold music comes on.... and I've been Rickroll'd by Discover over the phone!
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