I don't have time to organize my thoughts so I'm just dumping a bunch of stuff into one thematically unlinked post.
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I got to the office early this morning and I've been sitting here drinking my tea and reading. A few moments ago an announcement came through (this building has an announcement system?) informing me that the alarm had been investigated, it was a false alarm and it was safe for me to return to my work station.
What alarm?
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One thing about setting up a new office is we are bright shiny sales target. Everybody wants to set up an account or sell us furniture or sign us up for some sort of service. I loathe being sold to.
We need to subscribe to an electronic database for legal research. Co-worker got a card at NCAI for Westlaw and I called them and Lexis to see what they had to offer. Jeez, it's like buying a used car. I had these raspy voiced Tony Soprano characters wooing me with great offers and special discounts. One guy came in and co-worker mentioned a set of statutes that we might look at in the future and he was whipping out his computer because if we decided by the end of the week we could get it for half off. I'm sure we're talking thousands of dollars of books here which we don't have the budget for, no place to put and we can access for free online or in a pinch, walk over to the law library and look at. If we've got three thousand dollars to throw away, here's my wallet.
The whole process made me feel icky. Lexis has a better deal and I say Whew! because we used both at the old office (long story) and Westlaw's interface is so horrific that I complained and they got some guy on the phone to "train me" which didn't make the interface any less horrific.
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Today's community service announcement comes via my new favorite blog Open Congress.
Free database for researching campaign contributions in local elections .
The National Institute on Money in State Politics is the only nonpartisan, nonprofit organization revealing the influence of campaign money on state-level elections and public policy in all 50 states. Our comprehensive and verifiable campaign-finance database and relevant issue analyses are available for free through our Web site FollowTheMoney.org. We encourage transparency and promote independent investigation of state-level campaign contributions by journalists, academic researchers, public-interest groups, government agencies, policymakers, students and the public at large.***
The stupid article of the day, again, comes from the NYT Dining Section. (For the record, I love the NYT, especially the dining section.) Apparently calorie counting is back in. Sure, "[c]ounting calories is so 1980s" a brainiac interviewed for the piece says, but turns out: "[e]vidence of the calorie's resurgence is everywhere."
People want some fun sexy way to eat as much as they can and still stay trim but after 20 years of fun-filled faddish formula diets, it turns out counting calories is the most reliable way.
Duh.
Read the article because every paragraph adds a new layer of stupid. A bunch of people filed a class action lawsuit against Applebee's because its calorie content was more than advertised. I know when I think of having a delicious healthful meal, I think Applebee's. Bob got their take out dinner once and the only thing good about it was I didn't have to cook.
I could rant about this article all day but have been informed it's time to get to work.
