aubreyturner.org

In an earlier posting I mentioned that a new shooting range is being planned for Roanoke.  One of the people involved in opening the range added a comment giving updates on their status as well as a link to their website.

I noticed that their yearly membership is $300 for individuals and $500 for families.  At first, this seemed a bit steep to me, but then I realized that the individual membership is the same price as 38 trips to the range at Bass Pro, so I’d be saving money over the course of a year by buying a membership.  They’re also offering a lifetime (family) membership for $3500 to the first 100 applicants (it will be $5000 after that).  That’s a bit steep for individuals like me (especially after buying a house).  It would be nice if they offered a less expensive individual life membership (with the option to upgrade to a family membership if things changed).

According to their site, they will also offer gun rentals and sales, classes (CHL and safety) and a gunsmith.

I look forward to checking them out once they’re open.

It appears that people have come up with a new way to share music.  It’s a bit low-tech, but it’s more social than the usual P2P applications.  I guess you could call it face-to-face peer-to-peer networking.

Link via Slashdot.

The other day I stopped by Target to pick up a power-strip/surge protector and a desk lamp.  While making my way through the store I was accosted by a store employee who wanted me to open a Target Visa account.  I got the same thing from the young woman at the checkout (who tried to dangle a 10% discount in front of me as an enticement).  Frankly, given that I’ve just bought a house, opening a new credit account is the last thing I need to be doing.  But in general I prefer to go about my business without being accosted by people pushing various things at me. 

At home I can put up a “No Solicitors” sign to tell people to leave me alone (and to not bother wasting their time and mine with a sales pitch that will just piss me off).  It occurred to me that it would be convenient if we had a button that was understood by convention to mean that this person isn’t interested in sales pitches.  It could be as simple as a button that says “No Thanks!”  That way, the customer isn’t bothered by sales pitches and the salespeople won’t waste their time on people who aren’t going to respond to the pitch.  Of course, this doesn’t apply to actual sales scenarios.  If someone is looking at a product, then it’s understood that they’re fair game for a salesperson to approach them.  The whole point here is to be able to deflect unwanted sales pitches and avoid irritating customers like me (who may choose to avoid a store if it does too much unsolicited marketing).

When we moved to the new site a lot of people who were in offices had to move to cubes.  I got lucky in that my manager got me into an office (mainly because I spend a lot of time on the phone).  As part of the move, a lot of people ended up having to ask for a whiteboard, since there wasn’t one in their cube or office.  I saw a cart of them in the hallway earlier.  One of them had the following on it:
    “So long, farewell”
      “If you need me”
        “I’m in Cube Hell”

This was followed by a frowny face with tears running down its face.

I guess I have a weird sense of humor since this amused me.

My first question whenever I hear some advocacy group demanding changes to product labeling to address their particular pet issue is “How much will it cost?”  These groups always seem to airily dismiss these costs as inconsequential, especially given how serious their perceived problem is (“If it saves just one life….”).  After finishing up at the range last night my coworker and I got into a discussion about a proposed change to product labeling requirements to indicate the number of calories per container (for containers likely to be consumed as one serving) versus the number of calories per serving (which is what is currently on there).  My first reaction was why should companies have to spend millions of dollars to change these labels because people are too stupid to do simple math (i.e. third grade multiplication).

In an interesting bit of synchronicity, today’s Atkins email newsletter had an article on food labels that mentioned a new requirement to list the trans-fat content of food in 2006.  In doing some research on the topic I also came across another new change that is coming soon.  Last year, Congress passed a law requiring that all meat products identify their country of origin by September 30, 2004.  It turns out that this requirement is pretty costly.

Last month, the USDA estimated the mandatory labeling program would cost American food makers up to $3.9 billion in its first year.

Good grief!  $3.9 billion isn’t just petty change.  Given an estimated 270 million people in America, that’s $14.44 per person in the first year.  Since money doesn’t grow on trees, you can be assured that this cost will come directly to all of us (well, except those loony PETA fools who don’t eat meat). 

It turns out that these labeling requirements can be even more expensive than I imagined.

My company has a phone system that allows people who work at home to have their company phone routed to a home phone.  Further, there are ways to set it up so that your home phone can dial directly into the internal phone network.  But to avoid interfering with the existing home phone service they recommend getting a second phone line.  All that’s required is a basic local phone line.  You don’t need call waiting (the system routes callers to voice mail if you’re already on the line) or voice mail (they actively discourage using non-company voice mail systems). 

So I called Verizon yesterday afternoon to inquire about the costs of a second phone line.  Their most basic service is $21.25 per month (before all of the fees, surcharges, and other annoying overhead crap).  I also wanted to get Caller ID to deal with the annoyance of telemarketers (I got three of them within an hour while working at home on Wednesday).  If you want Caller ID ‘ala carte’, it’s an additional $7.95 per month (bringing the total to $29.20).  Further, if you get just the basic service there will be a $50.00 “installation” fee (which is just for connecting the outside wire to your network interface box; no inside wiring is included).  However, if you get their handy bundle of services for $34.95 per month you can get free installation and it includes Caller ID (along with a bunch of other crap I didn’t need).  This is a great scam.  It entices you into spending more per month for services you don’t really want and for services that don’t cost them much to provide.  I have a hard time believing that it costs them anywhere near $7.95 per month to provide Caller ID.  But by pricing it there it helps steer people into their bundled services, which provides them with a nice monthly revenue stream.

I also asked them about having their technician run a new jack into my office.  I’ve done my own phone wiring in the past, but it’s kind of a pain in the butt and I don’t like traipsing around in the attic.  They told me that they can do it, but they charge $91.00 for the first half-hour and $53.00 for each half-hour after that.  Damn.  At that rate I suppose I’ll just do it myself.

After work yesterday a coworker and I went to the range at Bass Pro.  We took separate vehicles and upon arrival he announced to me that there had been almost no traffic on the way (especially at the 635-Bass Pro exit) (we’ve all been discussing the traffic situation a lot here now that we’re in this new office).  My perception had been that while cars were still moving (albeit slowly) that there was too much traffic.  The main difference between us is that he was raised in Chicago and I grew up in the country (where the biggest traffic hassle was the occasional loose cow or a slow-moving tractor).  I think what bugs me the most about these situations is the squirrely stupidity that a lot of drivers exhibit.  There’s a lot of jockeying for position and last second (unannounced) lane changes (like the idiot this morning who crossed FOUR LANES of traffic on 114 to try to get on the exit for 635).

Anyhow, I suppose it’s all about how we perceive these things.  In terms of distance my commute to the new location isn’t that much further than I used to have from Denton to the old office (22 miles vs. 18 miles).  However they couldn’t be more different in terms of quality of driving.  The old commute was mostly in the country while the new one is all in town.  Further, it didn’t really matter what time of day I left on the old commute, while with the new one I have to leave at the butt-crack of dawn (i.e. 6:15am or so) or it turns into a hellish stop-and-go nightmare.  Anyone who lives in the Southlake/Keller area and who has driven 1709 in the morning or evening knows what I’m talking about.

This whole commuting business has me seriously considering working from home full time.  The only benefits I see to working in the office are the network (i.e. true high-speed networking without any silly upload speed cap) and having contact with some of my coworkers.  If I worked at home I wouldn’t have to drive amongst the Andretti-wannabes, I wouldn’t have to dress in uncomfortable clothes (I think I mentioned previously that I hate tucked-in shirts), and I wouldn’t waste an hour or more each day commuting.  The downside is that I imagine that I’d start to get a bit stir-crazy spending at least 9 hours per day in my home office (my company requires me to bill at least this much to a project to meet their “productivity” quotas; it’s really to support all the management overhead).  Maybe I could get a dog to keep me company during the day.  At least the dog would let me vent about some of the stupid policies I encounter…

I’m going to give this location another month or two to see if I get used to it.  In the meantime I’m going to be doing a few things to make my home office more useful for those days I work there (i.e. getting a second phone line, etc).  If I’m still pissed off from dealing with traffic and getting up early I may just start working from home full time early next year.

One case (1000 rounds/20 boxes) of PMC .45ACP 230gr FMJ. 

You did buy your ammo today, didn’t you?  (Exceptions made for those poor souls who live in socialist hellholes.)

From the stupid human tricks department comes this story about a fraternity stunt gone wrong.

A 21-year-old student at Southern Methodist University remained hospitalized in critical condition Monday after chugging water in an off-campus competition with fraternity members.

Braylon Curry, a pledge with Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, drank an unknown amount of water from a gallon container early Saturday morning and was hospitalized hours later after becoming dazed and incoherent, Dallas police said.

I never knew that drinking too much water could be bad for you.

Excessive consumption of water can be fatal, causing pulmonary edema, a condition in which water enters the lungs, and hyponatremia, a sodium imbalance brought on by excess fluid consumption.

The average person can consume up to 15 liters of water in a 24-hour period, but drinking too much too quickly can swell brain cells and cause head pressure, said Dr. Greg Blomquist, an emergency room doctor at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

I guess you learn something new every day.  However, in retrospect, the idea of a contest to see how much water you can drink does seem a bit silly.

Please note that calling me a “crazy bitch” and saying that your “webiste[sic] rufutes[sic] all yur[sic]  shite” in my comments isn’t exactly the most cogent way to make your arguments.  However, it is an excellent way to get your IP banned.