At any rate, I finally broke down and went to the doctor yesterday.  I tried a new guy because I was tired of the same ‘ole thing from my other doctor.  His response to some of my ailments were along the lines of “yep”.  Not to mention that he had nothing really helpful for the cough.

The new doctor, on the other hand, seemed very intreagued that this happened every year.  His current leading theory is that it’s some type of allergy.  Sound plausible to me because I’m allergic to about 97% of the things on this planet.  I guess my body gets tired of watery eyes and a runny nose and decides to use a cough during the fall/winter.

So, now I have some codeine to treag the cough and some nasal spray to try to help with the allergies.  Let’s hope that both work!

Why in the world do church’s put up those “cute” sayings on their signs?  For instance “God answers knee-mail”.  Is the intent to bring people into the church based on the cleverness of the pun?  I want to know how many people have been driving down the road, looked over at one of these signs and said “Oh my goodness, what wit and charm!  I shall attend here on Sunday morning at 10:00 for Sunday School, 11:00 for Worship Service and again at 7:00 for Evening Services.”

Aren’t these signs really “inside” jokes.  If you’re in the church, you get it.  If you’re not, then it’s not going to impact you.  To me, it’s kind of like a bunch of computer programmers inviting people to learn the benefits of programming, but sending out the invitations in C++.  If the invitation doesn’t make much sense, why would I attend?

Maybe we should do something completely crazy and attract people into churches by our actions instead of our silly puns.  NAh, that won’t work.  Let’s stick with “knee-mail”…that’ll bring ‘em in by the thousands.

Our office’s organizer sent out an e-mail this morning to report the results and thank everyone for their help in raising money.  Here’s the first response to hit the inbox:

Pulling something 12 ft in 9.1 sec from a dead stop means the average acceleration was 0.29 ft/sec^2. The newspaper said the 727 weighed 175,000 lb, so mass and acceleration gives 1,580 lb force to accelerate it. But the guys also would have had to overcome rolling resistance of the tires. That’s roughly 0.5% of the load they carry, and 0.5% of 175,000 lb is 875 lb. So the total force exerted must have been about 2,450 lb, or about 200 lb each.

2,450 lb over 12 ft is 40 kilojoules of energy expended in 9.1 secs, and that works out to about 4,400 watts of power, enough to power about 3 hair dryers!

Not bad enough, you say?  How about the fact that since then, there have been at least 10 more e-mails discussing the initial assumptions and other factors such as ergonomics and the effects it has on force applied.

Some days I leave work just happy to be going home.  Today I leave work happy that I’m not that bad.

http://www.google.org/flutrends/

See what I mean?  They know a lot more about you than you think.  Think I’m wrong?  Google it and see what you find.

What I need is some motivation.  What I don’t have is a good idea of what kind of motivation I need.  Arby’s or Moe’s would certainly get me off the couch, but they would defeat the purpose.  Maybe a work-out partner…any takers?  No?  Maybe I should just face the facts that engineers aren’t ever known for their muscular physiques, just their intelligent minds.  Looks like I lose either way. *sigh*  At least my Halo friends appreciate me!

Let’s suppose for a moment that I am a Spanish-reading customer.  I would like to order my food from a menu printed in Spanish.  Excellent! The top portion of this sign utilizes Spanish to inform me that a menu is available.  But why….why in the world is there an English interpretation under it?  If I need a Spanish menu to read, then I can figure out the Spanish portion of the sign.  If I don’t understand Spanish, then the English translation simply informs me that there’s a menu that I won’t understand, either.  Is that English translation really necessary?

And why in the heck is the part of the sign that informs you about large print written with the smallest print of all?  It’s a good thing they make such good biscuits at this place or I’d protest their stupidity by not buying their over-priced gifts and trinkets.

Chick-Fil-A #1 (modified):

Photo is compliments of Flickr. Thanks, Flickr, for making me want another one!

- Chick-Fil-A Sandwich, no pickles, add cheese
- waffle fries, value size
- Sweet tea to drink (I don’t think there’s another option here…unless you’re a communist!)
- Side of “Spicy Dressing” to dip the fries in

I’ve heard that there are some parts of our great nation that don’t have Chick-Fil-A.  This disturbs me.  I want to know what our president-elect is going to do about this great travesty.  If he doesn’t address it, then my platform in 2012 will be “A Chick-Fil-A in every county”.  It’s the only American thing to do.

So if you had to eat one meal from a fast food place every day for a week, what would it be?

The term “monkey” comes to mind.  This young ‘un is everywhere and she LOVES to climb on or swing from things that could spell imminent peril for her.  Butterfly was always timid when it came to trying new things.  Ladybug/Monkey is usually off inventing new things to try before we can catch her.  We’ve become accustomed to sprinting across the yard or house in order to stop her from falling from something that’s too high or pulling down a heavy item.

One example is the slide on the playset in our backyard.  It took Butterfly months before she try it and then a couple more before she would do it without us catching her.  Ladybug/Monkey saw no problem in trying to climb the ladder and had no second thoughts of the effects of gravity at the top of the slide.  She’s fine with trying to climb the small rock wall that leads up the other entrance.  (Luckily I’ve been right behind her on the times when she’s decided to quit halfway through.)

Like Father, Like Daughter

A few weeks ago, we were visiting with some friends and magically, Monkey fell into my lap giggling and laughing.  I wondered where she came from…but not for long.  She got up, ran to the coffee table, climbed up on the top and onto the back of the couch.  Then, she tumbled onto the cushions and rolled into my lap.  This “activity” went on for at least 10 minutes.

Our house has no furniture, gates, or barriers.  Only things that are to be climbed over, swung from, toppled onto, or crawled under.  She’s even figured out how to push chairs from one room to another so that she can get into or onto whatever she pleases.  I think Little Monkey could teach us all a valuable lesson about life.  Unfortunately, I can’t figure out what it is because I’ve got to go see what she’s gotten into (or on top of) now.