My own little corner of cyberspace
Glenn Reynolds Says
"I wish I was half as articulate as Susie. Indeed."
Email me: GevKaffeeGal at att.net
If you copy and paste my address, please remember to substitute "@" for "at".
Come check out the new digs! Practical Penumbra MT
Proud Member of the Alliance
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About Susie:
I love movies, mystery novels, and good coffee.
I am the eldest of seven siblings (hence, bossy and opinionated).
I am a European-American.
I currently manage a movie theater.
I am working on my MSM.
I am old enough to know better, but still young enough not to care.
I think Liberals are stupid.
Any questions?
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Saturday, May 17, 2003
Hurray!!!! I think I have comments now!!!! Now both my readers can instantaneously respond!
12:03 PM
I'm so excited! (sung to the tune of the Pointer Sisters...) Ambient Irony has named me Blog of the Day! This means my readership has doubled!!!! Whoo hoo!!! Thank you Pixy Misa!!!
10:59 AM
My Reader graciously took the time to email me again. One of the interesting points he made was:
By the way, watch out for Frank. Monkey headed children would be scary.
Yikes! I never thought of that! Thanks! (And it just gave me an idea for Frank's caption contest)
8:47 AM
Friday, May 16, 2003
I usually make the Emperor my second stop of the day (after Frank). This morning he directed our attention to some islamofascist ravings, and after reading the article I went on to the next news story where I read this:
Meanwhile, the human rights group Amnesty International said it had found 20 Iraqi prisoners of war who alleged they had been tortured by US and British troops in the country.
Amnesty said that the torture methods described by the 20 people -- half of whom were civilians -- included beatings, electric shocks and the breaking of teeth.
I have a couple of questions. Gosh, where do I start?
Did the American and British conduct this torture in a joint operation, or were they separate incidents?
Under what circumstances did the torture occur? For example, were the prisoners being questioned, or were they agitating and got smacked in the mouth with the butt of an M-16, zapped by a taser, or whacked with a truncheon so they would behave?
Why is it pointed out that half of the prisoners were civilians, as if implying that had they all been soldiers torture would have been ok?
What percentage of prisoners are reporting this behavior? I seem to recall there were at least 2000 POWs in Iraq--but I recall that number from the early days of the war, so I really have no idea. So if there were 30 prisoners and 20 of them reported being tortured I would say we've got a problem. But if there are 3000 prisoners, and 20 are reporting torture, well, I really have to wonder how much of this is wishful thinking on A.I.'s part.
Scenario #1: A.I. : "So, what happened to your teeth, prisoner of war?"
P.O.W: "I was tortured and they broke my teeth ".
(A.I. wanders off to accuse the U.S. without asking who "they" are.)
Scenario #2: A.I. : " Prisoner of war, I see you have no teeth--were you tortured by the Imperialistic Western Aggressors?"
P.O.W.: "Umm, yeah, sure....."
A.I.: "What other heinous crimes did they commit against you when they tortured you?"
P.O.W.: "Well, they, uh, fed me oreos..."
A.I.: "Oh Sweet Jesus....the inhuman monsters....."
Torture is bad. Let me restate that: Torture is appalling, atrocious, and unforgivable. If any American or British troops used torture to extract information from prisoners of war they should be court-martialed and imprisoned. But how can we know that from this news report?
11:54 AM
I got an email from my brother; he knows I enjoy language and its nuances, and he sent me a definition of the word (phrase?) "hugger-mugger" with this preface:
"This is from my "Dictionary.com Word of the Day" subscription...
I thought it was very interesting because it has a myriad of
meanings but no known source of origin (kind of like when liberals
try to use statistics to support their ideas)".
I laughed out loud.
10:09 AM
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Many people have asked me why I called my blog "Practical Penumbra." (Actually, that's a blatant lie; no one has asked. But I'm sure a lot of people are wondering........ok, maybe not a lot. But I digress......).
I have always enjoyed saying the word "penumbra". It is, however, a difficult word to slip into daily conversation. I have therefore always wanted to name something "Penumbra" for that very reason, but having no offspring (unless Frank decides to take me up on my offer to bear his children), and an adopted kitty who came with his own perfectly good name already, I have never had the opportunity to name anything "Penumbra". But just "Penumbra" seemed a little lacking, so, having long been a great fan of alliteration, "Practical" sounded like an excellent adjective.
Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
11:58 AM
Poor blogspot takes a lot of grief. I would provide links, but I'm too lazy this morning. Okay, here's one.
People---it's free!!!!!! Whaddaya expect for nothin'? Rubbbber bisssssquit........??? (Okay, my Jake Blues impression is not very good, but you get the idea). How often in this world do you actually get something for nothing? Even when the grocery has a "buy one get one free" promotion you still have to buy one!
Ok, so there are archive problems. I just noticed that some of mine have disappeared. And if I was actually paying for this service I would be really ticked off. But it's FREE. And that means that it fits my budget for entertainment expenses to the penny!
Maybe sometime I will decide that I really want to get serious about blogging--serious enough to actually pay somebody to let me do it. But in the meantime, I'm just happy to have my own little corner of cyberspace in which to spout off.
Thank you, blogspot.
9:40 AM
The Emperor once again shows admirable restraint in posting his opinion of the New York Times fiasco. I tremble at the thought of ever seeing His Imperial Highness truly angry.....
9:16 AM
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Nobody in my management class wants to fire anybody. Except for one other person, they all wanted make HR do it, or transfer the dead weight to another department. Sheesh. What weenies. A couple of them wanted HR to do it so they wouldn't get sued, or have union problems, but most just seemed to think that compassion, understanding, and human dignity were the main concerns, and these could best be accomplished by passing along the problem to someone else. I wonder if this explains the Enron scandal--that those bozos were guys somebody was too compassionate to fire, and just kept promoting them to get rid of the problem. I wouldn't be at all surprised.
10:04 AM
Frank didn't answer my question today, so I still don't know how stupid that is.
9:49 AM
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
More proof there are too many lawyers in the world.
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES
SAN FRANCISCO, May 13 — A lawyer who says he has spent much of his life enjoying Oreo cookies has sued Kraft Foods Inc., seeking to ban the much-loved cookies in California because they contain trans fat, an ingredient he says is inedible and dangerous.
How stupid is this?
Hmm....I think I will ask Frank.
2:53 PM
This is my day off this week, and instead of doing my homework like a good little Grad Student I am playing in the blogosphere. Reading chapter 2 for Business Reaserch Methods can probably be done between movies tomorrow. But answering another Stupid Discussion Question for the class on Managerial Communications...I tried to work on it last night but I just could not get my mind to bend to this "touchie-feelie" school of management thought.
Here is the question: "Based on Chapter 1, what areas of developing self-awareness in management (personal values, learning style, orientation toward change and interpersonal orientation) can you identify as strengths to assist you in dealing with this difficult situation?" The situation has to do with a "very tenured employee" whose work over the course of six months has deteriorated to the point that "unit customer service and unit morale" have been effected, and my "efforts toward counseling have no effect and termination is the only alternative."
So what is the big deal here? I have to fire someone who is not only NOT pulling their own weight, but also is dragging the rest of the company down. Sheesh!
Me: "Bob, you're fired."
Apparently not the correct touchie-feelie way to do it.
Like Bob didn't see this coming after all the "counseling" I did?
And why the heck did it take me six months to get rid of this dead weight?
Should I answer the question honestly? or shoot for the good touchie-feelie grade?
Ah! I've got it! I will answer honestly using the touchie-feelie reasons to explain why it took me six months to jettison the dead weight. Good grades often require compromise.
12:27 PM
I thought I would give a boost to one of the Multicellular Microorganisms in the Blogosphere Ecosystem, but it took me awhile to find one that a)had an interesting name and b) wasn't stupid. So without further ado, please visit Opinionated Jerks. I enjoyed it and I hope you do too.
11:53 AM
Pardon me if I babble---the hot water is still gurgling its way through the ground-up beans and until some of it is ingested and re-inflates my brain cells, sentence composition is a challenge.
I am excited to announce: I have a reader! I know this because he sent me an email! This is SO cool!
But all of a sudden, I am now self-conscious.....someone other than myself has read my muddled musings (hey--cool title for a blog--why didn't I think of that one?) and I have an audience; the weight of this gives me pause.....
Ok, I'm over it.
I haven't read Frank yet today, but I am providing a link anyway. Even on his worst day he is funnier than most humans and all other primates. And even though he is much too young for me, I asked him to have my children. Wait--should I have asked, "can I have your children?" Although actually I think it should be "may I have your children?" No, it should be "may I bear your children?" Nevermind......cybersex is not my forte.
10:57 AM
Monday, May 12, 2003
Frank posted the transcript of Buck the Marine's interview on Fox and Friends! You can read it here. I wonder if Buck has a girlfriend.....
10:17 AM
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: The movie theater is NOT your babysitter.
When you drop off your 8 and 11 year olds to see a movie, and some pervert sits down behind them in the theater and makes crude remarks to them, it is not the fault of the theater, its owner, manager or employees. It is your own fault for not supervising your children. When you come to pick up your 10 and 12 year olds at 11:30 pm on a school night and cannot find them in the theater, it could be because the manager found them asleep in the lobby, took pity on them and let them use the office phone to call their parents for a ride. It is not the manager's fault you weren't home and grandma came to get them. (At least, the manager hopes that's whose car the sleepy children seemed to recognize and climb into......). But there are other, more sinister possibilities of why you cannot find the children you dropped off alone, in a public place, three hours earlier, and as a parent it is your RESPONSIBILITY (yes, damn it, the "R" word) to consider all possible outcomes of leaving your children unsupervised.
Let me reiterate: the movie theater is not your babysitter! This has been a Public Service Announcement.......
10:03 AM
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