Where I work there is frequently a breakdown of communication that often results in frustration and frequently results in a failure to accomplish the desired goal.  Read that again, several times.  Please be absolutely sure you understand what I am saying.

I work for a 911 answering point.  When you call 911, my co-workers are supposed to communicate with you to get you the life saving help that you need.  Therefore is is reasonable for you to assume that all of the people I work with are experts in communication.  If not expert, they should at least be pretty darn good at it.

Sadly this is just not the case.  We screw up communication around here all the time.  I am a horrible example.  My failures in communication have cost time and money, ended friendships and ignited or fueled wars.  At least, so far, I don't believe that my failure to communicate well has cost any lives.

Example:  A user (dispatcher) was recently attempting to do something for which they did not have the necessary tools.  Specifically they were attempting to send a document to someone that some recipients couldn't read due to a lack of compatible software and other recipients found confusing to read because document formatting was not maintained.  This was the third such instance of this I had seen in as many weeks.  So I submitted the following to the help desk:

Yesterday Yahoo carried this story: 

SC sheriff: No pot charge for Phelps after photo

I'm not quite sure if this was all a publicity stunt designed to ruin Mr. Phelps endorcement career or if Sheriff Lott is just an idiot.  As always I'm sure you're now scratching your head and wondering what I'm on about.

Once again, I think I'm the only one in the nation who sees the flaw here.  Unless the sheriff backed down because his prosecutor took the time to explain things to him, I guess I can hope for that.

But suppose Sheriff Lott had decided to pursue this to the end.  Just how would that work?  What we have here is a photo, just a photo, of Phelps doing something with a bong.  Anything beyond that is just an assumption.

Leave North Carolina for a moment and head for California.  Imagine yourself in law enforcement there.  Now imagine that, off duty, you go to see a movie with your family.  That one event is likely to keep you busy for quite some time if you're like Sheriff Lott.  He would go nuts!  I've seen movies where they kill people, I think they call these murder mysteries.  There are movies with bank robberies, adultery, assult and even illegal parking. As a cop in the Hollywood area you might actually see some of these people in the course of your work.  Imagine Sheriff Lott hooking up George Clooney for robbing those casinos.  Oh happy day!

Playing around in the kitchen again.  It's as if I had a clue as to what I was doing, once again I've come up with a winner.  This was inspired by Alton Brown but I modified heavily.  And I'm cooking like my mother-in-law, not measuring much of anything.

Take four to six pounds of onions, skin them and quarter them.  You can do a mix of different types or you can do all sweet onions.  If you mix, lean toward the sweet.  For example, this time more than half of the onions were sweet yellow onions and the rest were mostly white and then one large red.

Put one stick of butter in a large dutch oven or stock pot.  Set the heat for medium high and watch the butter melt. The moment it is all melted, cover the bottom of the pot with a layer of onion.  Then sprinkle a pinch of kosher salt.  Add another layer of onion and sprinkle with salt...and so on, and so on until you have all the onion in the pot.

Leave the heat where it's at and DON'T stir. Don't even touch it for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you can stir it up a bit. Let it do it's thing for 5 to 10 minutes or so and stir again. Don't worry about burning it, the whole object of this is to caramelize the onions. Keep at this until it's all reduced to about 2 1/2 cups or so of dark mahogany heaven.

A word of caution here. That's caramelized onion in that pot. Of course it smells good. Obviously it's going to taste good too. But if you taste it, two things will happen. The first is that you will burn yourself, and that's not good. The second is that you won't be able to stop eating it and you won't be able to make soup. So just resist and your patience will be rewarded.

Bill Gates Unleashes Swarm of Mosquitoes on Crowd

This has nothing to do with my disagreement with him on software, this is about life.  Bill Gates makes his point to the rich and famous.  I just wanna give him a big hug.

He's right though, anyone can get malaria.   Being rich or making movies doesn't impress the mosquito.  Being poor isn't the cause of malaria and doesn't make it ok to die.

Shocking for sure.  Let's please give Mr. Gates 100 points for proper use of showmanship.

“The experts” tell us to save first, to pay yourself first. They tend to recommend 10% or so. Then they offer advice about retirement, college funds, emergency funds, etc. Until I entered my 40's I never thought I could actually do it. Oh sure, I knew it made sense but when you're in you're 20's you want it all, now, and nothing else will do. So you know you should save, but it doesn't happen.

So I was no different than the rest of America. I spent. I spent all of my money. Then I arranged with some friendly banks to spend some of their money and promised to pay them back someday.

Of course I had paid some attention in high school and college and I knew that the stock market crash of 1929 had a lot to do with margin, buying stock on credit. But that was stock. And I wasn't ready to play in those big kid games yet. So my use of credit, like most Americans, was obviously different in the 80's and 90's than what had whacked everyone in the 30's. Obviously.

So I wasn't buying stock. Want to know what I did buy with all my money and all that credit? Must have been something good because here it is 2009 and I'm still paying off my last credit account. I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Want to know what I bought?

Me too. Not frakin much, that's the harsh reality. Oh sure, I've got color TV's, a car, an SUV and a nice suit. My kids have some cool video game systems. But when you look at what I've spent, there isn't anything impressive in the list. And the list is fairly random, you can tell it's without purpose or goal. I really am like most of America.

Were lost in a cloud
With too much rain
Were trapped in a world
Thats troubled with pain
But as long as a man
Has the strength to dream
He can redeem his soul and fly

*Elvis Presley*

Yeah, it's not the whole song.  This is just the part that's always.....well, it kind of grabs me by the balls. 

There is a certain image of Elvis that isn't really who/what he was.  Believe me, I used to live in Las Vegas, I know.  I've seen some things that are out there. Of course Elvis was a performer who was really out there, over the top. 

I worry that the talents of the musician and his qualities as a person have been forgotten over time.  My kids know who Elvis is....but they don't know who Elvis really was.  People should know.  Elvis touched a lot of people in his time.  Not like Michael Jackson.  Elvis cared.  That showed in his work, it showed in his personal life, it may even have been evident in his demise.  He wasn't perfect, nobody is.  But he put heart and soul into trying to do good....and entertained us along the way.

So what?  I dunno.  But I think we could use a few more quality superstars like Elvis. 

Long live the king!

This story is interesting:br /
a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7748046.stm"br /
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7748046.stm/abr /
br /
A few thoughts I've had:br /
br /
It may help to know that in the UK, their emergency phone service is
handled by their national telephone company BT (British Telecom).nbsp;
Calls to 999, 112 (and possibly 911 as well) are all sent to BT
operators at regionally central locations.nbsp; After reading this story I
am even more convinced that our method of local PSAP's is worth the
additional cost.nbsp; a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999_%28emergency_telephone_number%29"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999_(emergency_telephone_number)/abr /
br /
But what of the silent calls?nbsp; Their methods for handling them don't
seem to work all that well.nbsp; On the other hand, do we have any such
procedures?nbsp; I'll direct that question to my co-workers in operations.nbsp; Asking the caller to tap the handset or "press 55" sounds
like a good start, but obviously that will only catch a few.nbsp; Is there
a better way?br /
br /
The national emergency text number is an excellent idea too.nbsp; I would
like to know if APCO or NENA is pushing anything like that.br /
br /
112 is the standard across Europe, 911 for N. America.nbsp; But in this day
of modern telephone switching, why can't calls to all the most common
numbers be routed to the PSAP?nbsp; 112, 911, 118, 119, 000, 110, 08 and
999 should all be routed to the local PSAP regardless of where you are
in the world.nbsp; This can't be too tough as both 112 and 999 work the
same in the UK.nbsp; br /

What is it that makes the auto industry think they are so special?  They manufacture autos, and we certainly need autos.  There has been a lot of debate regarding the type of autos produced by US manufacturers and if that's appropriate for the environment.  But all of that debate gets shrugged off and excuses are made now that "bailout" is the buzzword and the auto industry has come sniffing around for their share.

Take just a moment to participate in some radical thinking.  What if we don't bail out the auto industry?  Jobs will be lost and major corporations may fold.  But what if we accept that and look for some good to come from that situation?  What if we consider the entire auto industry, including the consumers, to be a bunch of idiots who need to attend this school of hard knocks?

Cars made in the US aren't real popular anywhere but the US.  Sure there are a few exceptions but the fact is that there is not a huge demand for the export of US autos.  Oddly enough, foreign automakers operate US plants so that their vehicles can be sold in this country and aren't considered imports.  But those vehicles aren't exported heavily either.  So if the US auto industry gets cut back in a big way, it's not going to do serious damage to exports.  Instead maybe the resources can be applied to something export worthy.  Maybe those factories and workers make cars, maybe they make widgets.  What's important is to have them making things people need, people everywhere.  I'll save the trade deficit rant for another time but it just seems vital that we export as much as we import.  Todays autos don't help us do that. 

Paul Gerhard Wolf, 85, died Wednesday, September 24, 2008, at his home in Huson, Montana.

Mr. Wolf immigrated to the United States in 1927 from Bogschütz, Germany at the age of 4. Mr. Wolf was a decorated WWII veteran, who served as a machinists’ mate aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise and the U.S.S. Laub. He was a member of American Legion Post 131 in Alberton and the U.S.S. Enterprise Association.

The Wolf family had a ranch for many years in the Jocko Valley near Arlee, before moving to Huson. He worked as a stationary engineer at the Bonner mill and retired from Champion International in 1988. Mr. Wolf was well known for his welding and blacksmithing skills. His interests included geology, metalsmithing, and stone sculpture. He was a member of the St. Albert’s Catholic Church in Alberton and built the stone and iron alter and lectern used in the church.

Mr. Wolf was preceded in death by his parents Rudolph and Anna Wolf; a sister, Frieda LaCasse; and a grandson, Matthew Schilling.

His remaining family includes his wife Ruth; sons Paul Jr. (Janet) and David (Cheri) Wolf; daughters Michele “Micki” (Gary) Bahret , Carolyn (Jeff) Dobb, Elizabeth “Beth” (Dean) Frolander; and Ruth Ellen Wolf; eleven grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren; a sister, Martha Watkins; a brother, Walter F. Wolf; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A private memorial was held by the family on Sunday, September 28 at the Wolf’s home in Huson, in accordance with Mr. Wolf’s wishes.

Donations in memory of Mr. Wolf may be made to Partners Hospice, 2687 Palmer Street, Suite B, Missoula, MT, 59808.

I want to dedicate 99 Red Balloons, that West German cold war classic, to comrade Vlad. That's right kiddies, there used to be an east and west. Vlad remembers, don't you Vlad. He wants the cold war back about as bad as I did, maybe more. Well it looks like we got our wish.

Too bad nobody is putting real money into offensive or defensive military systems. All our good stuff was depleted chasing our tail in the sand. So that means our equipment and our troop training is only two notches better than the Ruskies. So we're going to play this silly game with obsolete systems, components of which are wearing out and prone to error.

How about it Vlad, you gonna trust NORAD to tell the difference between one of your ICBM's or a falling star? I guess you are. Me, I would worry about them getting it wrong. They run on a shoestring now. We're talking about the same Air Force that can't keep track of a half dozen nukes on a domestic flight. Forget Obama or McCain, you better worry that our boys in blue can tell the difference between their ass and your mighty missile. Both sides are going to play this with crappy gear. We can play cold war...but this isn't our cold war. It's not our dad's cold war either. It's not Bond's cold war. It's not Kennedy's, Goldwater's, LeMay's or Kubrick's cold war. These kids nowdays don't have the attention to detail, pride and steely nerves it took to play our game.

Oh hell no. These kids grew up with Nintendo. They know one thing and one thing only about this kind of game. They know how to push the pickle button. That's it. Are you sure you want to play Vlad?

Well alrighty then, count me in. My future's so bright I gotta wear shades. Hmmmm....come to think of it, that's another song.

I recommend downloading Goldfinger's version although Nena's is still good...especially in German. Crank it up!