tfl: The Flatiron Life

Ralph Nader/Vicky Barker Syndrome
My rant on Cingular is published!

Nina’s new material
This interactive is a companion to A story featuring Christopher Walken tonight on 60 Min II.

Grrrrrr
Right here should be a post telling you about a rant I wrote about Cingular. However, Blogger does not like long posts, and I did not save my data anywhere before trying to post it last night. My 1000+-word rant was lost. I was able to cry myself to sleep and all is better now. I will be rewriting it today, work permitting.

Be a Matador
Today, The Motley Fool had an article in part about an interesting tool from Deloitte Consulting. It is called Bullfighter and is an add-on to MS Word. It helps you convert your writings that are full of jargon and confusing words (a.k.a. bull) into concise, readable documents.

A bright red pigment consisting of mercuric sulfide
Today I was checking on the happenings in Vermillion County, and came across this interesting story. There is one problem with the story. It is not about Vermillion County at all. It is about Vermilion County! I promptly emailed the author and told her that Vermillion County is in Indiana and Vermilion County is in Illinois. I encourage you all to do the same.

Note: I have added a link for quick checking of Vermillion County news on the left under news. There is not much action on the wire, but it is something to keep and eye on. Even with one new story a week it has more news than the Herald News.

Jacob?s Jams
People are always asking me, ?Jacob, what are you rocking out to these days??
My current favorite disk if Elephant by The White Stripes. This is the greatest album I have heard in a very long time. Every one of the 14 tracks is a rock solid hit. This is awesome rock and roll in a classical sense. Jack White?s tunes remind me a lot of later British Invasion style of music, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and such.

I also recently bought the new album from Audioslave. This is a modern alternative record with more emphasis on guitar. I bought it for one song that has much radio play, ?Like A Stone?. I really like this one song, and the rest of the tracks are ok. I would not buy the album again, but I will force my self to listen to it and pull my $14 worth out of it.

Great Deal from United
Buy Three. Fly Free. Is a new promotion from United. It looks like a good deal. It is a super deal if your work requires you to travel every week, you earn points for that travel on your own Mileage Plus account, and you do not have to redeem points or free tickets for business travel. I am good on all three. I think I may be able to earn two free round trips from this!

Yawn
I returned to NoVa again this morning on the early 6am flight from O?Hare. I was a little late to the airport this morning. The bag checking E-Ticket machines require you to check in 45 min before your flight, 5:15 for me. I was at the machine at 5:17. I used the non-bag checking machines to print my boarding pass. I then checked my bag at the gate. When I arrived at Dulles, I assumed that because my bag was the last one placed on the plane it would be the first one on the carousel. Nope, it was not the last bag, but it was somewhere in the middle.
At work, I had to change offices again because the person whose seat I was sitting in for the last two weeks returned. The seat I am in now, I should have until my project moves to a different building in a couple weeks.

Date
Saturday I had a date in Indianapolis.

Last weeks highlights
Wednesday, I played soccer for the first time. Sure, I have kicked around a soccer ball before and in Jr. High PE, we all ran around a football field pretending to play soccer. This was with a group from work. About 20 people are playing. It is just a friendly game and is a lot of fun. I am looking forward to this week. Justin and I are defiantly the novices of the group.

Thursday, Justin learned that he is no longer going to be the Chi-mate. The transfer to HQ that he requested has been approved. In typical Justin fashion, he is finding many faults in this change. The assignment officially begins 1 July. He will have to live in two places for two months because our lease does not end until 31 August. We were already planning to move because of a rent increase, this will allow me to take full control of moving. I am looking for a place closer to the L and probably farther north.

Friday, I safely returned home to Chicago via United.