Slightly Off KIlter

Normal is overrated

  • Boo!

    The Friday 5 for this week concerns Halloween What was your first Halloween costume? What was your best costume and why? Did you ever play a trick on someone who didn't give you a treat? Do you have any Halloween traditions? (ie: Family pumpkin carving, special dinner before trick or treating, etc.) Share your favorite… Continue reading

  • Does size matter?

    I was recently asked about my experience with different sizes of companies — I’ve worked for many different companies, from one with 30 people when I started to two with thousands of employees worldwide. I was asked what I think of company size and how would I feel working for a very small company? My… Continue reading

  • Fall Back Day

    Daylight Spending Time? As of 02:00 (am) Sunday, Oct. 27 (less than 2 hours away as I write this), the U.S. is officially back on "normal;" time. Except for Hawaii, parts of Indiana, and most of Arizona, we all "sprung forward" on the first Sunday of April. As opposed to that Sunday, this is one… Continue reading

  • Cone of Silence

    Do you work in "Cubeland"? Do your neighbors use the speaker phone, crack their gum, have meetings in their cubicles, talk loudly when on the phone, talk to themselves while working, "visit" with each other during the day? Are you bothered by the sounds of the nearby printers, ringing phones, coffee machines, air conditioning? Consider… Continue reading

  • Sunrise, Sunset

    I have a temporary contract job in the South Bay — an hour's drive from my house. In order to put in a full day (and I'm putting in 9 hours each day so that I have a small "time bank" to handle possible contingencies), I leave the house at 7:30. I get up between… Continue reading

  • Take Back Your Time Day

    Friday, October 24, is Take Back Your Time Day (US). The first annual TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY falls on October 24, 2003 . Why? If you lived in Western Europe, you’d be done working for the year! On average, Americans work nearly nine full weeks (350 hours) LONGER per year than our peers over… Continue reading

  • Random silly thoughts while programming

    Many many moons ago, I started calling my test programs “bagel”… I did this after a memorable occasion when I had used the Bourne shell ‘test’ command in a script that a co-worker ran from her test script which she named… “test”. Can you say “recursion“? Oy! The two of us made a deal after… Continue reading

  • Name 5 things

    I recall a George Carlin routine from many years ago: Honey? What's this? I don't know… what does it look like? Um… could be meat… could be cake… Looks like meatcake?! Put it back. Someone might want it! The Friday 5 for this week is like that 😉 Name five things in your refrigerator. Name… Continue reading

  • Sweet Tooth

    I couldn't quite decide if this was commentary or not, so I posted the same article to both of my weblogs; only the teaser paragraph is here; you can read the rest at vlb.typepad.com/commentary. Saccharin. Cyclamate. Aspartame. Sucralose. Tagatose. Alitame. Xylitol. Maltitol. Lactitol. Isomalt. Erythritol. Mannitol. Sorbitol. If it tastes like sugar, but it's not…… Continue reading

  • Sweet Tooth

    Saccharin. Cyclamate. Aspartame. Sucralose. Tagatose. Alitame. Xylitol. Maltitol. Lactitol. Isomalt. Erythritol. Mannitol. Sorbitol. If it tastes like sugar, but it’s not… People like sugar; people like sweet foods. Unfortunately, sucrose (“table sugar”) is, well, fattening. It also promotes tooth decay, increases your blood glucose levels, and triggers the insulin reaction. For decades, dieters, diabetics, and… Continue reading