Moo! The Musings of a Plaid Cow

After weeks of patiently waiting, both tax refunds are finally in the bank. Finally glad that is over for this year.

At this point, my wife would probably say neener, neener, neener to all of you that haven’t even started yet.

Like tripping at the top of the stairs, “it’s all downhill from here” is an appropriate phrase for many occasions.

Since Jennifer really wanted an explanation, I offer the answer to the license plate CNDLPN: “Candle Pin”.

Candle Pin Bowling is a popular “sport” in the northeast. It features a ball about the size of a shot put and 10 thin pins (which look like candles).

Who knew?

For the past couple of years I have been submitting an abstract to try to get published at a company wide conference for systems engineers and software engineers. For the past two years I have gotten back a “thanks, but no thanks” letter from them. Apparently I am just unsure of what they are looking for so I sent them an email asking where I went wrong:

Is it possible to find out the scorign for abstracts submitted last year and the cutoff? The only feedback for the time spent was “NO”.

It’s not like the writing of the paper or abstract is actually a part of my job (like it is for many of the presenters) and it was frustratign to spend weekends on trying to write an abstract for work, only to have it turned down. At least the reply that came back was entertaining:

Sorry No.††Accept or Not Accepted is the only information we provide for obvious reasons.††Suggest you pick an advisor and get their feedback on any abstract.††The selection process involves many opinions and like everything else; they can vary widely.††Look at the suggestions for maybe improving your abstract for selection on the submittal site.

I still haven’t found anyone who can tell me the obvious reasons. Perhaps if I knew then I could submit a better abstract the next time (and that would be bad). Or perhaps he can’t say because there is no criteria and the abstracts are selected by cronyism and the about on buzzwords per square inch.

VH1 is celebrating black history month tonight…with an Eminem marathon.

Thanks for watching.

Delta has started advertising their new SimpliFairs.

That won out over the original slogan: “We’ll quit gouging you now.”

You know you’re from New England if you get a license plate that reads CNDLPN. (And you probably have to be familiar with the area to even know why.)

Any guesses?

With snow in the near term forecast again, I am reminded of two different stories that made the news during the past blizzard, where two feet of snow was dumped on Boston. (Living north of the Massachusetts border, we got around a foot of the fluffy white stuff.)

The first was people complaining that some of the local gas stations has run out of fuel. The snow packed (barely filling the pot-holes) roads and heavy congestion due to a lack of clearing of the snow from the roads had stymied many a delivery driver. Besides these reasons, the station owners also blamed local residents who had foresight to fill up before the blizzard, because not enough time was allowed to replenish supplies. Cry me a river and plan ahead.

The other interesting story was that of the Boston schools being open on the Thursday after the blizzard (on Sunday morning). They had been closed the first three days of the week and decided to open on Thursday, which turned out to be a mistake since six more inches had been predicted and was falling. So the superintendent got on the radio and announced that all students who were not in school that day would be marked “constructively present”. (Apparently the terms means something to the affect of: we know we said to be here, but we really don’t care if you’re not.) Parents were advised to use their own judgment on whether or not to send their children to class.

This morning “MONALSA” and her red jeep were stuck in traffic.

The driver? She wasn’t smiling.

This license plate was spotted in the gridlock that is my morning commute:

LV2TRVL

Probably talking about some other state.