Two sort of interesting things

happened today at work. First off, we got to talking about new things to add to the Intranet. One of which was a blog, possibly for senior management. So we got to talking about blogs a bit, and I kept my mouth shut about my own little corner of heaven here. No point in making it easy for folks to see this crap - especially as one of our number has recently been outed. I just thought it was a funny conversation to be having, but I couldn't tell anyone else.



The other bit was the next part of that same conversation, where it appears our merry band of intranet geeks will soon be starting a podcast for our employees. It actually sounds like it could be a lot of fun, and my two partners in crime are more gung-ho about this than almost anything else we've done. I don't imagine it will be treasured by history as a podcast for the ages, but it still seems like it will be fun for us to do and I hope interesting for the audience.



I don't know which box we're trying to think out of, but I hope we're making some progress.

Busy Week

to say the least. My first full week back since the ear surgery, and frankly I feel like I've been running from one end to the other.



The ear thing is part of the problem. I have times where I feel like I can hear less than before, times when I can hear a pin drop (or my kids pounding on a window in their room, which actually happened), and a lot of time when I feel like I'm inside a tin can. I saw the doc on Tuesday and he says everything looks great, and I'll see him again in three weeks (though I can't play hockey until then - grrrr), but in the meantime I'm feeling a bit frustrated. It's actually hard to be in crowded, noisy areas - I'm getting sensory overload.



Which, naturally, is why I was in a succession of crowded, noisy places this week. I went to services at the high school near work, and while I knew the kids were yakking during services, I didn't realize just how loud they could be. Happily it quieted down, but still...



Tuesday was the big day. I went to a conference in Manhattan on streaming media, largely as one of my colleagues was presenting. We ended up schmoozing for a while on the vendor floor, and boy oh boy was I surrounded by noise. I was still able to follow the conversation, but it was a bit rough after a while. We made up for it (despite my elevated cholesterol) at the kosher steakhouse I go to when I can, which was a lot less crowded than usual (there was a recent controversy over the kosher practices there which have killed a lot of their business, apparently.)



Followed that with a visit to the old job to see a buddy, and the elevator ride to the 48th floor added to the weird ear thing. That was capped off with a dinner for my kid's school, where the noise levels were both disconcerting and not quite bad enough to drown out several unfortunately long thank you speeches by the financiers honorees. We did, however, win something in the raffle, which made up for the fact that they got my name wrong.



A 26" flat screen TV will make up for a lot.



It does lead to the "give a mouse a cookie" situation where we could really use HD cable service to take advantage of the TV, but I think I can survive until next hockey season starts up again (oh, and the Rangers really could've won that series with Buffalo, but them's the breaks.) Regarding the raffle, I don't feel like we're particularly lucky on these things, but we've now won something the two times we've gone to this school dinner thing, so I think we'll keep buying tickets every time we go.



The rest of the week has been work stuff and arguing with IT and all the usual crapahoola. Oh, and our neighbor had a baby last Saturday, so we had their older kids after they called us at 2AM to say they were going to the hospital. And we made them dinner on Sunday as well while mom & baby were still in stir. So it's been a long week.

T3 Potpourri

Last of the season, apparently.



1) If you could hang out with a famous living person for a day, who would it be, and why?

I guess Mark Knopfler would be my pick of the "celeb" world - he seems like a decent guy, and maybe in the course of a day he could teach me to play guitar like him. I'm not terribly good at this kind of question, partly because I feel guilty for not picking a Torah scholar or something. Some parts of my schooling are hard to shake off.



2) What sort of plans do you have for summer vacation?

Lots of family weddings, none of which are actually involving kosher food or simple Shabbat arrangements. No big plans otherwise.



3) Blake or Jordin?

Blake? Or Jordin? I'll pick Blake - definite Hall of Fame candidate, and Jordin's a third line player at best.

MOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!

I must be feeling better if I can handle a Thursday Three.



1) What three things do you think are (or were) your mom's best characteristics?.



She is remarkably generous with her time; she's talented at a number of things including sewing and baking; you can have an extremely intelligent conversation with her on most things.



2) And although we're trying to honor Mom, we still have to know--what is one thing she does (or used to do) that drives you absolutely insane?.



To quote Daffy Duck in Birth of a Notion, "You're a Slovenly Housekeeper." 'Nuff said..



3) If your mom is still in circulation, do you have any plans to do anything special for her this weekend?.



No - we never seem to make a big deal about it. Maybe if I'm up to it we'll take a trip to Brooklyn to say hi.

Lego Update

Well, here I am, not much the worse for wear. I feel surprisingly good to this point - no dizziness, and relatively little pain. My ear still feels like the novocaine from the dentist's office, but as things go I feel alright.



Not going to work tomorrow anyway, but I feel OK.



Mrs. is currently sleeping next to me, so I'm blogging in a high-risk zone. We had to be there at 6AM local time, and we're all a bit wiped out. Since I slept for two hours during the Main Event, I guess I have a little more energy. Heck, I sent out an email to work buddies right after I got home. We were in the recovery area for a while, but home by 12:30 or so, and I guess things went well.



Though the doc said I have small ears for my size, whatever the heck that means.



In any event, there may be some blogging during recovery after all. Dunno if there were prayers for me out there in Blogovia, (not that any of you were obligated to), but I guess the Lord has plans for me yet, for which I am grateful.



With any luck, those plans will involve me hearing whatever instructions I am to follow.

Sad Obit

Astronaut Wally Schirra, fifth American in space, dies at 84



I admit my first awareness of him was on Actifed commercials in the 1980's, but he frankly deserved a longer obit than what he gets on CNN. It's the only no-register link available that I could see, so I'm posting it anyway.



Hat tip to Tony Kornheiser on WaPo radio for tipping me off to this news.



UPDATE: Let me note that the NY Times has a much more detailed obit (Click here for help with registration), and I didn't know Captain Schirra was from New Jersey.

Whew

Some times you catch a break, and the Rangers did last night. They played, on the whole, a wonderful game. Attacking offense, stifling defense, great goaltending.



Until. Until.



King Henrik, their otherwise outstanding goaltender, made a purely boneheaded move by going behind the net with about 20 seconds left when the Sabres had an extra man on. More importantly, he had a defenseman already headed towards the puck. I love Lundqvist, but he's done this a couple of times and it nearly bit them last night. Drury made a smart play, and probably had a goal. Thanks to replay, which was inconclusive, no goal for Buffalo and the Rangers get a win that I think they deserved on the whole.



Other comments? Poor choices by the rest of the Rangers in the last minute - they had more than one opportunity to clear the puck properly - get to center ice and fire towards the empty net. Either you get the goal, or you force them to go the length of the ice to attack again. Instead two players (Avery was one and I forget the other) ice the puck the length of the rink and force two faceoffs right in their own end. C'mon fellas, think - each faceoff creates more trouble, and it nearly cost them.



Buffalo looks average. Best team in the league all season, most goals, yadda yadda yadda. I said this about their series with the Islanders - they didn't look like a team that could steamroll an 8th seed, they looked ordinary. Certainly they won in 5, but they gave the Islanders every chance to stay in that series, but happily the Islanders suck and didn't take advantage of it. The Rangers have taken advantage twice, and I think if Buffalo doesn't get some urgency they're going to find themselves in a tough spot, and I still believe they can lose this series.



I certainly hope that's the case.

Word to the Wise

be careful what you put on the internet - it can come back to haunt you, or at least make people look at you funny.



A colleague points out a young person who recently joined the organization. Apparently, YP decided to announce on their Myspace Page that they had joined the organization.



Independently, an announcement of a new position naming the company and a myspace page with personal information are perfectly acceptable. The combination of the two, however, is a bad idea. Your new colleagues should probably not know certain things about you, and your employer may not wish to be associated with those things.



Skinnydan's First Law of the Internet - Don't publish anything there you would not be comfortable sharing with your mother, grandmother, daughter, or other genteel relative. These things always come back to bite you, and they never, ever disappear.