Okay, this quiz is really different!

I was looking for a couple of other things and found this quiz, which will delight all the lawyers in the crowd:

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Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?

YOU ARE RULE 8(a)!

You are Rule 8, the most laid back of all the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. While your forefather in the Federal Rules may have been a stickler for details and particularity, you have clearly rebelled by being pleasant and easy-going. Rule 8 only requires that a plaintiff provide a short and plain statement of a claim on which a court can grant relief. While there is much to be lauded in your approach, your good nature sometimes gets you in trouble, and you often have to rely on your good friend, Rule 56, to bail you out.

Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?

brought to you by Quizilla

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The Babe laughed when she heard this but wasn't surprised. Rule 56 is "summary judgement" for those of you who aren't up on these. BTW, the Babe got Rule 11, which shouldn't surprise anybody who knows her.

Okay, this quiz is really different!

Fun on Friday

I just spotted this on 13GB.com.  It's fun, it's tacky, it's Friday. 

Fun on Friday

Susan emulating the cat

Susan was looking at the various cat pix that I've got on my Flickr account and was impressed at Yang's consistency... which is to say, he's always been able to fall over and sleep at a moment's notice. I explained to her that it was a case of gravity just sucking him to the floor and not letting go. She liked his ability to be instantly somnolent so much that she figured that she'd try it out for herself.

When I came out of the kitchen a few minutes ago, she was lying on the floor of the living room. I asked "Are you being Yang?" She said "Yes, that's it exactly." Well, cool!

So, I guess these pix show that the only thing that differentiates her from your basic TV murder victim is that there's no blood on the floor.

Susan emulating the cat

Just stuff

Life's pretty good today.  I'm working on a magazine article on government purchasing of laptops and PDAs, doing some research so I have a better understanding of the facts.

I got back from the STC Board meeting in Atlanta, which was very productive, and am finally rested up and recovered.  Most of it was just getting rid of the last bits of this cold, which kept me coughing and snurfling all through the Board meeting, much to my embarrassment (and probably the annoyance of my fellow Board members--I'm sorry!).  The Babe and I were very glad to see each other again.  I hate being away from her.  I've been feeling really exceptionally goopy and romantic and it was wonderful to be back where I could see her once again. 

Susan reported that BC had also been missing me while I was gone: he'd rowdle around the house and sound plaintive.  He's back to fine health as best I can tell and his fur is growing back on the large shaved patch on his side.  (BC is asleep on the warm part of the top of the monitor at the moment.  Yang joined him right after I typed that.  Here's a picture of the two of them; they immediately started striking photogenic poses.)

Just stuff

Dealing with insurance companies

I was talking to a friend on the phone today who's getting boned by her health insurance company for bogus costs on an annual physical. Like so often happens, they're procrastinating on the payment because it's miscoded (which would be her problem because why?). As usual, though, they're being difficult about correcting this and they won't answer questions.

One of the most important things I learned for dealing with insurance companies (or other bureaucracies, for that matter) was to describe the problem and then ask "Do you have the power to say 'yes' to this?" Very often, you'll find that the person doesn't and their only function in life is to wear you down or otherwise buffer you. You can then say "I need to talk to someone who does" and sooner or later you'll get to someone who has this power. You may or may not be successful in your quest at that point, but you'll at least be talking to someone who's not a waste of your life.

Dealing with insurance companies

Joke du jour

A lady walks into a drug store and tells the pharmacist she needs some cyanide. The pharmacist said, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?"

The lady then explained she needed it to poison her husband. The pharmacist's eyes got big and he said, "Lord, have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband! That's against the law! I'll lose my license, they'll throw both of us in jail, and all kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not, you cannot have any cyanide!"

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture, then reached below the counter and pulled out a bottle and said, "Well, now, you didn't tell me you had a prescription!"

Joke du jour

Good to be home once again!

My flight from Atlanta departed at 9:55PM Sunday evening and didn't get home until about 2:15am Monday. Oy oy oy! But I'm back on the West Coast and, as Elisabeth Knottingham has said, my bed is the most wonderful object in the universe since matter condensed out of energy after the Big Bang.  And the Babe was here, and that makes it even better. 

I spent part of the day sleeping.  I'm going to go off to bed now, actually, even though it's early.  I'm just acclimated enough to Eastern time that it feels like it's after midnight.  I'll get back to reality quickly, I imagine. 

Good to be home once again!

Notes from the STC Board meeting

Here in Atlanta on Friday morning at the pre-Board session on educational issues. It’s lovely that the hotel has given us a really ~nice~ plate of cheeses along with the more typical breakfast fare. And I just went to get a little fruit: being in Atlanta, we apparently have access to decently ripe cantaloupe and honeydew in January. (Oh, gawd, ripe strawberries and blackberries and raspberries, too!)

I’ve been suffering this cold for some days and was still whorfling heavily yesterday, but as the day wore on, I was feeling a good deal better. This morning, I actually felt almost well. Hurrah! I figure I’ll be in even better shape tomorrow. It’d certainly be nice not to have to blow my nose or clear my throat every 5 minutes.

The Atlanta Hyatt hotel where we are is a very good hotel, although being not so keen on heights, I’m not happy with the completely open “airshaft” style of the hotel. I hug the walls a bit when I’m walking from my room to the elevator (which, as luck would have it, is diametrically opposite the elevators… which are themselves the open glass “outside” elevators so you can see going up and down).

It’s a trifle frustrating that, where we are in the International Ballroom downstairs from the lobby, there is no wireless connectivity. We’re under too much metal and concrete, so I have to wait until I get upstairs to make any connections. I’m also less than pleased that this is an open wireless network, completely unsecured: I feel nervous about doing things online because there’s just no telling who’s snooping my passwords. Hell, I felt kinda chary about entering my credit card information on the form to start all of this up. Hmmmm….

We’re discussing what we like and don’t like about the conference right now. I’m pleased that I’m not the only one with some of my concerns and there is a shared view of the kinds of things we can do better. I am also enormously buoyed by the opportunity we’re seeing for change and progress now. I know we’d never have managed this a year ago, but I think that things are going to happen now.

Notes from the STC Board meeting

If you're reading this...

...please take a moment right now to share my blog with a friend. You can tell 'em whatever you like about it, but please ask them to come take a look at it. I'm having fun with this and I'd love to have more people stopping by and (dare I say it?) even make comments. :)

If you're reading this...

The mother of all blonde jokes

A blonde calls her boyfriend and says, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get it started." Her boyfriend asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?" The blonde says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a tiger." Her boyfriend decides to go over and help with the puzzle.

She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says, "First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger."

He takes her hand and says, "Second, I want you to relax.  Let's have a nice cup of tea, and then...." He sighed "....let's put all the Frosted Flakes back in the box."

The mother of all blonde jokes

A different kind of computer game

Susan is using the other computer here in the office at the moment and she reminded me of something I want to mention here.  She's playing a game off of Orisinal.com (no, I've no idea what the word means).  Orisinal has a few dozen games that are... nice.  They're sweet.  Nothing gets killed, bashed, splattered, punched, kicked, or even yelled at.  The games are very gentle.  And they're fun!  The games have really good graphics and nice background music.  As an example, a recent addition to the list is "A Daily Cup of Tea," wherein you join two little mice in their quest of making a perfect afternoon tea. 

If you'd like something that's nice without being mawkish or cloying, try

Orisinal.com.

A different kind of computer game

Click Here, You Idiot

The art of writing sales letters is one that's always fascinated me.  It's a sort of horrified fascination, I grant you, but it's a knack that I haven't really developed.  This guy, however, is in the Master class of sales letter writing.  It's worth reading all the way through: he keeps up the patter throughout without actually repeating himself. (Quite a trick, as you'll see.)

Click Here, You Idiot