Posts from — June 2003

Well, I was doing a bit of reading so that I could write about my opinion of affirmative action, and I found an article that articulates far better than I ever can, most of my opinions. George F. Will gives his reaction to the Michigan ruling in this article. Agree or disagree with him, he is among the most intellectual sounding (and looking!) people I’ve seen.

To provide a bit of my own content… I don’t believe that the color of someone’s skin (which seems to be the big criteria) is a reasonable way to build diversity. Diversity is only effective among people with different ideas. In my experience, economic, religious, cultural (not racial) and geographical differences have made much larger differences wrt diversity.

I’m not sure who originally made this point:
Affirmative action was originally meant as a way for african americans (or blacks, I’m not sure which, as they are different groups) to be integrated into society after the abolition of slavery. The newer reason is that it increases diversity on campuses. This makes for a better learning environment, apparently (I won’t argue against that point). The problem with this reasoning is that it suggests that the minority acceptees are not there for the learning experience as they are to provide white students with a diverse education. I’m not sure that this is their intent, but I think that the concept does have some merit. Food for thought.

Maybe George F. Will and Matt Kriebel are the only people who agree with me on this one… but I think everyone can agree with me that the movie “Batman and Robin” is among the wost written and acted ever. I even feel bad for Arnold.

I’m curious as to what other people think about this issue.

I have once again fought “The System” and won… I talked to the woman from Aramark (food services) this afternoon, and she said that she would mail (yes, mail) me $.70 via interoffice mail. That’s a pretty embarrassing thing, to get in the mail, but maybe upper management will get the hint and land me with a gigantic raise. I’m going to feel awfully silly taking coins out of my mailbox, but I really do it out of principle. I just want to get reasonable food from the vending machine. The somewhat good news is that she immediately notified the manager of the express cafeteria to remind the cashiers of the rule. I wish they’d just have the vendors check the dates on the bags when they stocked it. That’s what they did at the gas station I worked at back in the day, so I don’t see why they can’t do the same thing once a month here.
Oh well, I guess I’ll keep fighting the good fight.

I really don’t go around looking for these things, honest…
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I was going to explain my rather unpopular view on affirmative action in the wake of the supreme court decision, but I have priorities…
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I was at work today, and as always, I needed some junk food to get me through the afternoon. I walked over the the convenient vending machine on my floor, and purchased. The transaction set me back 70 pennies. Upon return to my spacious cubicle, I opened the blue wrapper and consumed a large portion of the first half (i define the ‘first’ half as being the one that is situated on the same side of the package as the initial opening). The chocolate had a bland taste and texture to it, and the coconut was as chewy as taffy and had the hue of dark cream.
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It tasted pretty bad, and was obviously stale. Being the active consumer that I am, I called my friends at the Hershey company, to share my disappointment. As expected, I have a $1 reimbursement on the way, hopefully with another generic letter. After talking with some coworkers, I was convinced that I should get my money back from the vending machine company. It’s not the 70 cents that matters, my desk at work is full of loose change (and basically nothing else), it’s the principle of the matter. I should be able to buy reasonably fresh food from the vending machine without having to push a case through the supreme court. I didn’t bother to call the vending machine people this time, I just went downstairs and asked for a refund. The woman working there said, “I don’t know about that… my manager isn’t here, so… I know we have to do that for when it takes your money, but I don’t think we do it for that…” and I didn’t get anything. In retrospect, I should have argued my case to her… I’d bet all my star wars action figures (including boba fett) that I get my money back, here’s my reasoning:
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When I buy something from the vending machine, I’m not buying what I see (the wrapper), I’m buying the food that I intend to eat. Since I cannot see what I’m buying, I have to assume a certain level of freshness (ie being edible). If the vending machine does not make any guarantee about the food, I have no reason to buy from them ever again, and I would seriously consider putting up a sign on the machine to encourage other people to do the same. So, the person in the cafeteria is inevitably going to have to give me my $.7 or the integrity of the vending machine system is broken.
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So I called the vending machine line and left a disappointingly unscathing message for the head of food services at Travelers. I’m very confident that I will get my money back tomorrow. And a huge raise as reparation.

This candy bar was so bad that even Boris refused to eat it.

True story.

I can’t believe this… I just wrote what had to be at least a 5 page entry on life, the universe, and everything, and my livejournal entry app crashed right before I went to send it!!!!!! (you know how conservative I am with using more than one exclamation mark… that’s how mad I am). It’s never crashed before. I can’t believe this. I had this whole big analysis of how/why I work, why I don’t drink, and what I think about all sorts of issues, and where my attitudes came from (not from my parents in a direct sense, interestingly). I’m too tired to try to rewrite any of it, so i guess you’ll either have to ask me about it or wait until I decide to try again.

Egh, so defeated.. time for bed.

OK, tonight I got rather fed up with a computer user who asked me for help, so I’m going to outline the ground rules here, for nobody in particular.

Draft 0.0.1
This document may be distribute and/or modified for any commercial or non-commercial use.

1. I am a computer science major. This means I study computer programming and theories of computing systems. We do not cover troubleshooting AOL Instant Messenger nor the Windows XP CD Writing Interface.
2. I am very knowledgeable about computers, however this does not mean that I know everything about every software system. I know a lot about the things that I use, and if you’re coming to me asking me to fix something, this usually means that you use different software than I do
3. I am a linux user. This means that I rarely use Windows when I have the choice (which is everywhere except for work). I know how to use most versions of windows, and I’m more proficient than the average user, but I don’t know how to do random tasks that regular windows users do simply because I have not needed to learn them.
4. I have learned things about computers because they, at one time or another, interested me. If it does not interest me and is not useful to me, I will not bother to learn it. Example: Ripping a CD with Windows Media Player.. I know it’s possible, but I don’t care at all.
5. If you problem deals with Microsoft Windows, I’m going to get upset much more quickly than if it’s something else. Deal with it. I’m probably not mad at you, I just get mad at poorly made applications. (mostly blaming windows apps, not windows itself)
6. I expect that by the time you have come to me with your problem, you have made a reasonable effort to solve the problem yourself, and can immediately and accurately describe the symptoms of the problem. Good: “It’s giving me a ’404 error’ when I access xyz.com”, Bad: “The Internet doesn’t work”
7. If/when I decide to fix your problem, my MAIN goal is usually to show you why the problem occurred, how you can solve it, and how to prevent it from happening again. One-time or very advanced problems are an exception to this. This means that I’m going to want you to watch the process, if not do it yourself. Even if it’s too technical a topic for you, at least humor me and pretend to gain something from it.
8. If you don’t want to learn, I don’t want to help you. It’s as simple as that.

Rock and roll.

I’m in the car on the way to Bloomsburg for the installation of the Zeta Alpha colony of Kappa Kappa Psi… our little colony. I’ve been at Lehigh since Friday, and it’s been great to see everyone here again. It’s also nice to have a car here, because I find myself running errands a lot. I’m even thinking about getting some sort of car for next year so that I can run errands and stuff. I’ve visited 6 houses off campus so far this weekend, so I’ve been able to see almost everyone here. Things can be a little boring, but there are plenty of people around and easy to find, so it’s been enjoyable.

Yesterday I helped out the alumni band for the alumni weekend activities. I helped get instruments and stuff from the loft, and then ate and played with the alumni band. It was a good chance for me to meet a lot of them, and I got some information to help update the alumni database. The alumni parade was pretty funny this year. Because of the rain, the ceremonies were held in the campus square parking garage, which was pretty odd. Each class having a reunion marches with signs and some had costumes. Many of them also did an act for the judges. I liked the signs that they had, especially the class of 1953. They had little lines from their songs on big posters, such as “Still Feel Nifty” and “We were the Engineers”. After spending some time talking with some of the fine gentlemen from this class, half of which was spent repeating myself because they had trouble hearing, I was allowed to take some of their signs. I have a whole stack of them in the car now, and I think that they’ll come in handy during basketball season. One class has big signs saying “B.S.” and “M.S.” (regarding their degrees), so I grabbed the “B.S.” one which could come in handy after a bad call my a ref. I also got “No Lunch at Lamberton”, which doesn’t really make much sense out of context, but that’s why it’s funny. I’m sure Ben Slater will appreciate it.

I got my letter from Frito-Lay yesterday, including two $1 coupons, which is quite cool. I scanned in the letter they sent me and posted it here. Totally awesome.