Analog Coast

Andrew Carol has designed and built a working Babbage Difference Engine out of LEGO. That’s just fuckin’ cool.

~ via slashdot.

Here’s something to give you a chuckle and enhance your time-wasting experience.

www.chucknorrisfacts.com

Just an update on the wonderful world of work. I feel the need to post something, since I have time…and the need to be word-ish for a bit. Where to begin with tales of woe?…errr…work? One and the same, really. Oh, first off, I am no longer the only person you all know who has managed to catch Bronchitis, the disease which was a rampant killer or settlers in that classic game, Oregon Trail. No, I am now the only person you know to get it TWICE. That’s right, once more my lungs have apparently decided they don’t enjoy me very much, and have revolted against good health, and gone over to the side of “Couch couch…hack…sputter…cough…fuck, I wanna’ SLEEP…cough, hack.” I don’t like that side. But, anyway, it’s all good, as I’m not on enough prescription medications that, had I any Olympic dreams, they would be shattered when I had to go for my random pee test. “Uhhh, sir? I’m sorry, but your urine tested positive as a drug itself. You’re disqualified.” Oh, and I think you know you have a really good drug plan at work when the pharmacist himself does a double take upon seeing that you only owe him 4 bucks for, like, 200 dollars worth of drugs. Good stuff. Oh, and the looks of respect I received from the many elderly people standing there to get THEIR heavily subsidized prescriptions filled were awe inspiring. “Hear that, Martha? That young man gets a better rate on his dope than we do!” “There is hope in the world!” I’m sure a few of them were, in fact, plotting against me in anger, but it was still an empowering moment, nonetheless. Well, not really, but after spending half an hour reading magazines I have never heard of before in the waiting area before seeing the doc, it SEEMED rather heavenly. (Seriously, do you know ANYONE who actually subscribes to Omni, Time or People? I think these publications are produced solely to be shipped to medical waiting rooms 6 months after they were current!) Aside from that, the powers that be (Our feudal lords in Japan) have thrown the whole corporation in to the new inventory system, Great Plains. It’s terrible. None of the sales people know what they’re doing. It takes them aboiut 2 hours PER ORDER…oh, and the few they managed to dribble out this morning were all wrong. So, it ain’t exactly been a thrill a minute around here. Of course, there ARE the 65 skids of crap for the bastards at Wood Buffalo to keep us busy. Yes, the district of Wood Buffalo ordered more than 30 copiers…just in time for the new system to cause everyone with order-entering responsibilities here to begin cursing like drunken pirates. I think I may start a little pool amongst the techs. Who will be the first person to totally snap and drive a fist in to their monitor? Or perhaps their head? Someone is going to die within the week, I can feel it coming. The whole building is filled with a refreshing…bloodlust that makes for an interesting work environment. I’ve heard more people urge their fellow peons (like me) to “Keep your head down.” than in every Vietnam movie ever made put together. You’d think we’re in the Balkans, circa ‘93, here. Anyway, I’ve got nothing else, really. I’ll see many of you, hopefully, at the viewing of Le Bowl de Super this Sunday. Ir should be a decent game, since both teams are actually pretty good.