No Returns Policy

Here is an interesting article about what your money is paying for (or not paying for, as the case may be) in Iraq.

I hope you kept your receipt.

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Nameless parses speech:
"are you..." -- am I existing?
how do I find out?

Pillowig

If I go bald, will someone please buy me a Pillowig?

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Nameless is programmed
to decipher the boy's words.
what is it saying?

Textbooks Are Too Expensive

If there comes to be a growing trend of college professors refusing to makes students buy textbooks and textbook companies find themselves in financial trouble because people caught onto their scam, will someone let them know that I've already solved their problem for them? Thanks

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this small creatures makes
noises like other creatures,
but i hear meaning.

The Meaning of It All Some of It

I just read the book The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist, a collection of three speaches made in 1963 by physicist Richard Feynman. In his speaches, Feynman not only discusses the nature of science, but also opines about religion, morality, politics, and other various topics. Here are some memorable quotes:

"Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order maintain that what they said was true."

"Science makes, indeed, an impact on many ideas associated with religion, but I do not believe it affects, in any very strong way, the moral conduct and ethical views."

"No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated."

"This is in the attitude of mind of the populace, that they have to have an answer and that a man who gives an answer is better than a man who gives no answer, when the real fact of the matter is, in most cases, it is the other way around.... It's all genereated, maybe, by the fact that the attitude of the populace is to try to find the answer instead of trying to find a man who has a way of getting at the answer."

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Nameless is surprised
to hear meaning shrouded in
noises -- words, language.

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"are you a robot?"
the boy asks the automaton.
it turns to the boy.

Business Is a Trip

I went on my first business trip a couple weeks ago. It was nice. I got out of the office (Well, I got out of one and went to another.), I got to wear casual clothes, I got to move around a bit (We sorted through and moved two hundred-some boxes of files.), and I got to stay in an expensive (by my standards) hotel for a few nights. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience. So, I'm actually looking forward to the copious business traveling I will be doing in the next few months.

This talk about my job reminds me that I haven't mentioned what I do on this blog (nor have I mentioned it in person to some of you). So, here's a little bit about my job:

I work at a the headquarters of a large law firm in downtown Kansas City, one of the biggest in KC, in fact. No, I'm not a lawyer. (If I could turn a B.A. in English into a five-year degree, think how long it would take me to get a law degree!) I work in the Records Department. My title is 'Records Analyst' which isn't a job description at all and means just about nothing.

What I 'analyze' is the firm's record management system (RMS, if you're hip to the lingo) -- the software we use to track records, the policies and procedures we've made to govern record use, creation, and disposition according to the law, and the staff that handle records daily.

Further than just analyzing the system, I also maintain quality control. I help test and update the sotware we use to make sure it is doing what we want it to. I try to field questions from both Record and Legal staff on how to properly handle records. I find and repair lost or inaccurate data.

In addition, I teach new staff what the Records Department does, how the RMS functions, and how to use the software. I am also supposed to be developing new and rewriting the existing educational material, but, what with my other duties and traveling to the satellite offices, I've found very little time to work on that.

An odd caveat about my job, though, is that I work with one of my once-and-present roommates. It is strange riding to work, sharing a cubicle wall, having lunch, being in meetings, riding home, eating dinner, and watching movies, all with him. We spend more time with each other than any two humans should. But we've managed to not hate each other, yet.

Overall, it's an interesting job. It keeps me busier that my previous job, and is much more thought-provoking than the job I had before that. Hopefully, I'll keep this job longer than current record of six months. I think it will be much easier, though. The duties I have are varied, from mundane data entry to helping identify and solve system-wide problems. There is always something to keep me occupied.