NCDOT cleans up

I was concerned last Monday when I drove past a huge pile of garbage scattered near the Davis Drive exit of NC 540. Multiple bags of trash were now all over the road and shoulder. It was a real mess.

Fortunately I have the number for the Wake County division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and brought it to their attention. By the next afternoon there were a dozen bright orange garbage bags where the scattered trash had been. Not only that, but other parts of NC 540 were cleaned as well.

Kudos to the NCDOT for its prompt response!

“Premium” doctors

I’ve been thinking more about the MDVIP program that my former doctor ran off and joined. The program is pitched as a way to be seen by your doctor much easier than in a traditional medical practice: for the annual fee of $1500 over and above your other healthcare charges.

What’s been bothering me is the ridiculousness of it all. Why should a patient pay extra for something that the doctor should be doing all along: being responsive to his patients (otherwise known as “customers”)? Why don’t doctors already accept only enough patients that they can comfortably deal with? If you load up on thousands of patients where you can only spend 10 minutes with each, you’re doing it wrong!
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Fallen friend

I’ve been spending a little time here and there sorting through the hundreds of videotapes I’ve created over the years. I watched one tonight from my Navy days, featuring a tour of my ship. One of my shipmates walks up and says hello: a guy named Marty Glendening. He was soft-spoken but a heck of a guy.

After watching the tape I popped his name into The Google to see if I could find him. That’s when I got the sad news that he is no longer with us. He died at the young age of 31. I found his obituary on this site:

Martin Glendening

STANTON – Martin Alan “Marty” Glendening, 31, of San Diego died Thursday, May 29, 1997, in San Diego. Graveside service will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in Evergreen Cemetery. Arrangements are by Gilbreath Funeral Home.

He was born Aug. 16. 1965, in Las Vegas. He served in the Navy for 12 years. Survivors include his wife, Deborah Glendening, and two daughters, Michelle Glendening and Chelsie Glendening, all of San Diego; his parents, Jeff and Michaeleen Glendening of Tarzan; four sisters, Debbie Smith of Stanton, Tracy Paulk of Lamesa, Jill Allred of Mesquite and Elizabeth Washburn of College Station; his grandmother, Virginia Glendening of Midland; and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins.

Learning that one of my friends died makes me feel old.

Tele Europe 2

A friend got a mysterious automated survey call from the phone number 678-253-6210. This supposedly is from an outfix known as Tele Europe 2. According to 800notes.com, many people have gotten hang-up calls from this company and are not happy. If you get a call from this company please let me know.

Japanese addresses

Being that I was once a postal address geek, I found this YouTube video interesting. It shows how Japanese postal addresses differ from European and American addresses.

To a certain point I enjoyed the trivialities of postal addresses, but not enough to make it a career. I’m glad I don’t deal with this from day to day anymore.

Weekend o’ fun

It was a weekend of fun. Friday afternoon the kids went to their respective lessons: Travis to piano, Hallie to riding. I took Travis from piano over to meet Kelly and Hallie at her lesson, where Hallie and her trainer were just putting away the horse. I said goodbye and went to Durham to spend a little time at a holiday party.

Saturday morning we enjoyed sleeping in a bit. After breakfast, I said goodbye again to the family to spend four hours in a “producer’s workshop” from Raleigh Television Network, Raleigh’s community access channel. I’m getting trained on video production as it’s something I’ve been interested in for a while. While I was in class, Kelly took the kids over to the neighbor’s house to decorate Christmas cookies.

I met up with the family after my class and we took the kids to the birthday party of one of the kids’ friends. It was at a gym in Wake Forest and we all had a blast chasing each other around. Afterward, we went to a holiday party at a friend’s house and enjoyed meeting more of our neighbors.

It was a fun time for everyone.

The secrets of the Secret Service

I just finished reading Ronald Kessler’s book In the President’s Secret Service. It’s an eye-opening look at our presidents and the men and women who protect them.

Kessler shares stories about these “protectees” that were once only traded among agents. In the words of one agent, if Americans knew what their presidents were really like “they would scream.” Among the many things we learn: Kennedy was a philanderer. Johnson was a horny old man and a thief who “would have belonged in an insane asylum” if he hadn’t become president. Carter was untrusting and micromanaged everything. Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43 were kind to the agents. Clinton was, too, and was frequently late to his appointments because he wanted to speak to everyone who came to see him.

The book’s other theme is that the agency is being run into the ground. Morale is low and management doesn’t seem inclined to turn things around. This theme is woven around the tales of heroism but seems a bit pasted-on at times. So do other anecdotes, which are sometimes tacked on to places in the text only tangentally related. It seems that the book could’ve used another good reading by an editor before it went to print.

Overall, I enjoyed this book as I’m a political junkie. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know what our leaders are really like when the eye of the public isn’t on them. Then again, perhaps it’s better if you don’t know!

Update: National security expert James Bamford has a similar review.

Asterisk and reinvites

I’ve had a VoIP-only setup at home for a while now with two incoming DIDs: one for residential use and one for my community volunteer work. During the business day I usually send calls regarding my community work to my home voicemail, as I don’t want to necessarily eat up my pay-per-use mobile phone minutes. However, some days I expect important calls and want calls to my volunteer number to ring my mobile directly.
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Tricor side effects take their toll

I got my blood drawn again a few weeks ago for my first appointment with a new doctor. The lab results show that my cholesterol is almost at normal levels – which is great. It looks like my Tricor medicine is helping with that.

One thing that I didn’t expect to see is that my liver enzyme measurements have almost doubled since May. They’re not at dangerous levels or anything but this was unusual enough to get me wondering. A decade of lab results show perfect liver readings up until May. What made them suddenly spike?

A little poking around the web showed me that one of the side effects of Tricor is (wait for it): increased liver enzymes! About 13% of Tricor patients experience liver issues. I suppose I’m one of them.
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Cheap Thoughts: The “Boss is Coming” screensaver

Yesterday’s Bluetooth screensaver idea gave me an idea of a great way to extend its functionality: the Boss Is Coming feature. Your laptop will automagically display a boring spreadsheet whenever your boss approaches. Then once she’s gone you can go back to playing QWOP.

BlueProximity is open source and thus changing it should be easy. Right now the user selects one device out of a list and triggers the screensaver (or other script) based on that device. A Boss Is Coming feature would require being able to trigger different scripts for different devices.

Ok, geeks. Get coding!

Update 1:24 PM: It looks like BlueProximity already supports multiple devices! Just select the “New” button next to the “Selected Configuration” box, select the desired device, and create your script.

It remains to be seen what happens when a device is selected which has not been paired with the laptop. I doubt one’s boss will let her mobile phone be paired without permission.