Second Nature

My last cigarette was almost 2 months ago. I forgot about the fact that I had quit smoking.

No. No kidding.

I feel, today, as though I have always been a non-smoker.

That's an endorsement, folks, from somebody who has probably smoked for the majority of his life.

Freedom is good.

I once had a student, in one of my electronics classes, who happened to have a personal emergency for which he requested permission to use my desk phone in my classroom. On that single occasion of his stated personal emergency, I granted him the single instance of permission to use my telephone--a variance from a clear and standing rule prohibiting student use of school telephones--for that one phone call.

This is known as an instant case exception. Generalized rules are never extrapolated from such "one-offs". Not if you are intelligent, at any rate.

The next day, I returned from assisting another instructor with an issue, to find this student lounging (with his very wide posterior in my chair) with his feet up on my desk blotter. There were fireworks to be had.

His instant defense was that I gave him permission to use the phone, for which he found himself, as well as the shallowness of the end of the gene pool from which he emerged, soundly insulted; forcing him into the corner from which he could only emerge by calling me a "player hater"--for which he should have been soundly caned (pity that America doesn't have the spine anymore).

Sorry kids. Once you've resorted to using "player hater" as a pejorative against somebody, you lost the argument long ago. Run. Fast.

I cleared up the misunderstanding by informing him that I had no problem with "players" who play by the rules; however I do despise ignorant, egotistical, weak, spineless, pigs--totally devoid of class and self respect. I despise such sub-humanoid lifeforms with every fiber of my being. I despise them so much that I terminated his course enrollment--on the spot--and sent him home.

He was followed by two of his friends, reeking of the smell of pot. Too bad (for them) that this fascination with pot was against the rules they were probably too blitzed to remember signing. Predicated upon their odoriferous departure, their enrollments were terminated before they made it to the parking lot--a definite surprise to them the next morning--and the class and I got back to the teaching/learning thing.

Mind you, there was never any shouting on my part. Such things sting these animals far more when delivered with a conversational tone and volume--kind of like administering a whipping with a flagellum whilst singing The Barney Song.

I find it tragic that parents no longer instill in their children, even the barest sense of propriety and civil behaviour, whilst in the public eye. Furthermore, the understanding of the concept that taking anything--tangible or intangible--which does not belong to the receiver, without first asking, is theft and should be treated accordingly.

This detriment is so profound, so widespread, that I find myself--once again--having to reassert my claim to certain courteous bits of conduct with respect to our cell phone and landline services...so, here we go again. CAMS students, please pay attention.

The Rules

1. 1. Don't call me unless I, or my wife, says that it's OK to do so. If you have to wonder about it, we haven't told you, because we tend to make this blatantly and painfully, over-the-top clear to people. Permission to call for a single instance is not permission for life. Have some class.



2. 2. If you call me, and I don't answer, it's probably because I am away from the handset and didn't make it to said handset before voice mail kicked-in. If I immediately call you back, you'd damn-well better answer. If I call you back 5 or so times and don't get a response, you've just royally pissed me off. Therefore, don't call me unless you can be bothered answering a call back if I can't freaking run fast enough to beat voice mail.



3. 3. Never give out any of our cell phone numbers to anybody!



4. 4. If you are under 28 years of age, not a blood relative of mine or my wife's, or have been TOLD NOT TO, do not call any cell phone number in our plan. Period. If we want to be bothered with calls from you, most particularly if you happen to be a teenager, you probably have our landline number.



5. 5. Speaking of the landline...Use it with the understanding that I do not run a messenger service, and please have the self respect to politely introduce yourself by name and clearly state who it is you wish to speak to for the next 5 or 6 minutes; instead of mumbling something unintelligible--to be deciphered by me into the name of somebody actually living in my home. If I cannot understand what you are saying, I'm no longer going to work at trying to figure out what it is you are trying to say. (This includes the use of Urban English--the verbal crutch of the abysmally ignorant, and l137-5p33|<--the verbal crutch of the inexcusably insecure.) I will simply tell you that you have the wrong number.



6. 6. NO! You may never "borrow" my cell phone, so don't ask, unless you are in the mood to be beaten to a bloody pulp.



7. 7. NEVER call our cell phones or residential landline number after 20:30 (GMT-08), or, during Daylight Saving Time...oh forget it...don't call us after 04:30 GMT. You do the math for your own timezone and, if you can't, don't call us--ever.



8. 8. If you call any of our cell phones, looking for one of the children, and I tell you that the cell phone you called does not belong to the person you are looking for; take it as the only polite hint that I will give you that you are to never call the number you dialed ever again, and you are to delete said number from any and all records you may possess, germane to the person you are attempting to contact. (Please see: #s 1 and 4, above.)



9. 9. Do not propose to me that which you think is "fair", "unfair!" or "not fair!". This is real life, not one of your school yard games, and the way it works in real life is this: Those who pay the bills make the rules. Since you don't pay our bills, the rules apply to you without exception. Those who don't form a clue--quickly--will be added to our incoming call block list.

How many of you have seen this yet?

Talk about an absolute riot.

Item 3.01 Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule or Standard; Transfer of Listing.
On April 23, 2007, The SCO Group, Inc. (the “Company”) received a letter from The Nasdaq Stock Market (“Nasdaq”) indicating that the bid price of its common stock for the last 30 consecutive business days had closed below the minimum $1.00 per share required for continued listing under Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(4). Pursuant to Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(8)(D), the Company has been provided an initial period of 180 calendar days, or until October 22, 2007, to regain compliance. The letter states the Nasdaq staff will provide written notification that the Company has achieved compliance with Rule 4310(c)(4) if at any time before October 22, 2007, the bid price of the Company’s common stock closes at $1.00 per share or more for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days, although the letter also states that the Nasdaq staff has the discretion to require compliance for a period in excess of 10 consecutive business days, but generally no more than 20 consecutive business days, under certain circumstances.
If the Company cannot demonstrate compliance with Rule 4310(c)(4) by October 22, 2007, the Nasdaq staff will determine whether the Company meets The Nasdaq Capital Market initial listing criteria set forth in Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4310(c), except for the bid price requirement. If the Company meets the initial listing criteria, the Nasdaq staff will notify the Company that it has been granted an additional 180 calendar day compliance period. If the Company is not eligible for an additional compliance period, the Nasdaq staff will provide written notice that the Company’s securities will be delisted. At that time, the Company may appeal the Nasdaq staff’s determination to delist its securities to a Listing Qualifications Panel

It really is too bad that poetic justice is so slow in cases such as this.

Isn't it, Darl?

We thought that we had to go for 3 days-worth of the SAT-9 batteries, but discovered that we only had to do the first 2 days of testing this year.

No biggie.

LBUSD is still messing-around with this nonsense and (most likely) erasing and re-marking the answer sheets to boost their numbers.

Pointed remark to a certain LBUSD administrator type:
I find it strange how SAT-9 scores suddenly dropped at a certain school site when the state came in to audit and proctor the SAT-9s last year.

Yes, I can be a jerk, but LBUSD has given me plenty of material to work with over the years; and it never is un-PC to observe and speak the truth--no matter who hates the truth, and the revelation of same.

Time for me to get back to work and redeem this extra day that I have.

We went to fulfill the kids' SAT-9 testing obligations today. Well, at least the first day of testing for CAliVA, that is.

According to the kids' mention to me, SAT-9's take two weeks to three and a-half weeks to get through in the brick-n-mortar environment. We'll be losing only 3 days to this testing obligation.

I like this CAliVA thing.

Afterwards, we headed over to Bill's house so I could get a new wireless network adapter installed into his machine, because of the death of the old WLAN adapter.

No biggie, except the death of the Linksys adapter, also nuked the PCI card slot it was installed in; so I did a bit of chasing the proverbial tail on the post-replacement configuration, before discovering that I had to open upo the machine cabinet again.

Apropos to the immediately preceding:
When dealing with windoze xp (provided you can't get out of dealing with it in the first place), always remove (as administrator) any and all 'awareness" of the hardware in question, then shut down the machine and open it up. Also, install replacement hardware in a different PCI expansion slot. If the slot is good, it's a wash time-wise and you've lost nothing; however, if the PCI slot was damaged by a catastrophic failure of the hardware component you are replacing, you've just saved yourself quite a bit of time and irritation.

Blow-out the expansion slot connector with canned air first, though.

When you're in a machine like this (crippled with the curse of any microsoft software), do the machine owner a favor and at least explore how receptive they may be to the idea of establishing a dual-boot scenario on their machine. If they are antagonistic toward the idea of such a 'progressive' idea; at least leave that person with a Live-Bootable Linux CD, and sternly caution them to use only the Live-CD to do ANYTHING financial online, and to purge their xp or vista installation of any and all identifying and/or sensitive information.

If they don't heed your advice, it's completely "on them" when the inevitable happens.