bastone.org

Author: joemama

  • A Quick Rant

    So I’m killing time here at Panera waiting on three things to be be done to my car: an oil change, an inspection, and a cable replacement on the emergency brake. When we first moved into the house, the car sat on a hill quite a bit, and stretched out the cable, so the car won’t pass inspection now.

    I call VW on Monday, and made an “appointment” for Wednesday. I rattle off the three things I need done, they ask when I want to come in, I tell them Wednesday. I inquire how much the cable would cost, and I’m transferred to the parts department. Everything seemed fine, and I went on my way.

    Of course, it hasn’t been so far. I get to the dealer, and they don’t seem to have any idea what I am talking about. I repeat what I need done. It’s not a big deal as it’s not very busy, so I give them my info and I’m off to Panera.

    After reading about the sad state of the Justice Courts in the NYT (it was a very interesting read, read all three parts), I get a call, and they tell me that they don’t have a cable in stock.

    Wouldn’t it make sense to find out if that part needed is in stock before making me waste my afternoon? Now I need to repeat this whole bit on Friday, when when they actually have the part. I can understand it if there is an unexpected repair, or they are not sure of what they need. I would think that by making an appointment, and with them knowing what they needed, the parts would be here.

    Quite the concept, making parts to service appointments. What am I missing here?

    [tags]VW, Volkswagen, Service[/tags]

  • New TSA Rules

    I’m glad to see that the TSA has finally come to their senses and started allowing shampoo and toothpaste back in carry-on luggage. It’s also nice to see that they are allowing people to bring liquids that are purchased after going through security.

    But there’s some oddities too. Like it all has to fit in a quart-size “zip-top” bag. Where did that come from? I mean, it just makes sense that you would want to keep all that stuff segregated anyway, in case something leaks. But to mandate it? Weird.

    [tags]TSA, travel, zip-top bags[/tags]

  • A Picnic

    We went on a picnic yesterday at the park, and attempted to put Julia in a swing. Naturally, she didn’t take too well to it.

    While on a walk, I notice a bunch of blue lockers near a trailhead. I looked a little closer, and there were bikes inside, apparently provided by Dasani. It sounds like a great idea. You give them a deposit, and you can take a Trek Criuser bike out all day.

    After a little bit more research, this program isn’t very widespread. You can check out Dasani’s website, but it’s all flash, so there’s no links from here. All in all, it looks pretty neat.

    [tags]Dasani Blue Bikes[/tags]

  • Site Redesign

    So I’m finally happy (for the most part) with the site redesign. I’ve bumped up the size of the thumbnails. And with the new theme, the shadow doesn’t have that annoying line in the bottom right corner.

    What do you think? Any comments on what does and doesn’t work?

  • Smoking Manners

    Don't SmokeI stumbled upon this site earlier and found the graphics to be hilarious. I don’t know any Japanese, but it looks like they are trying to tell you to be considerate to others when you do smoke.

  • Picture Showcase #9

    So I’ve uploaded many more pictures to the gallery. Since I’ve last mentioned Julia, she has learned many new things, like:

  • Crawling, sort of
  • Standing, against something
  • Babbling
  • Crying while Teething (my favorite!)

    • So all is going well with Julia. She’ll be walking before we know it!

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  • Baby Food Pundit

    We were grocery shopping last week and ran upon a box of baby cereal with a sticker on it.

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    Now I’m not one to read into political commentary gathered from the baby food aisle. However, I found this quite amusing, and as luck would have it, we had the camera with us.

  • My Sandbox

    I’ve been tinkering around with a site redesign for the last couple weeks. It’s nothing ground breaking or revolutionary, but I do think it gives the site a cleaner look.

    What do you think? Let me know in the comments. One more thing, can you include the browser and OS you are using?

  • Should I Get an MBA?

    I have been facing a dilemma for the last few weeks. I have had a nagging feeling that I want to do something more than what I am doing now. An obvious path is to go back to school. But what would I go back to school for? To get an M.S. in Chemical Engineering?

    Currently, I don’t use much of my ChemE degree. So getting an M.S. in that wouldn’t really do much. So I thought about maybe pursuing a different engineering degree. What degree, I don’t know. Maybe an EE degree.

    I could also get an MBA. UNCG has an MBA program. I’m only about 15 minutes away, and I can get a tuition reimbursement from work. The only downside is that it would take about four years, taking a couple classes at a time.

    The only problem with that? I’m not really planning on being here another four years, especially four years, starting August 2007. Then again, I wasn’t really planning on being here five and a half years, either.

    What do you think? Is getting an MBA really worth it?

  • The New Ivies

    According to Newsweek, RPI is among 25 “new Ivies.” Well, I can tell you that if tuition costs alone were taken into consideration, RPI has been an Ivy League school for quite some time.

    But I do admit it is pretty nice to see that RPI getting some attention in the national press. Maybe people won’t just give me blank stares when I tell them I went to RPI. Here’s a typical exchange:

    Them: Where did you go to school?
    Me: RPI.
    Them: RPI? Where’s that?
    Me: New York.
    Them: Oh. Rochester…
    Me: No, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
    Them: …
    Me: It’s an engineering school.
    Them: Oh. Okay.

    Now maybe it’s just a southern thing. And I don’t have this same exchange with everyone that asks. But it is a bit disconcerting when you go to a top engineering school, and very few people around have heard of it.