If you can't hear, talk louder.

Well, yesterday afternoon's meeting started off on the downhill side and kept going. "We're going to have to manage this almost like a project release," the project leader told the 20 or so people who had come to talk about the, um, product release. We did have an agenda, but it was quickly set aside as we tried to get the teleconference and in-room projector set up. The people on the phone were told, "If you can't hear, speak up." We never did get anything to the remote participants so they could see what we were discussing. It was very technical stuff and the speakers kept referring to the slide presentation. (They had this cool laser pointer.)

During the meeting, there were two, three, and sometimes four conversations going on at once. One guy in the back of the room was the most chatty. I think that he was someone important, but I don't know because we never did introductions. The chairperson knew everyone and that seemed to be good enough.

The meeting that was scheduled to end at 5:00 let out at 5:45, but with no decisions made or action items assigned, except that we'll have another meeting next Thursday. In that state of bliss, I drove the three hours to home.

In the high-rent mall near the office down yonder, I saw mall cops patrolling the carpeted aisles on Segways.

God, grant me the serenity.... What's additionally weird is that, in the middle of the story about an AA meeting, there's this advertisement for a huge beer keg sale.

The wireless network in the house went down for a little nap this morning. When I ran through the usual diagnostics, I received this message So, I asked myself for assistance and recommended that we reboot the modem and router.

Queen Elizabeth II turns 80 today. Some days she looks better than others. Usually, the Brits celebrate her birthday in June, when the weather's better. It's good to be the Queen.

In the early 50s, Walt Kelly, of Pogo fame, was in regular conversation with the editors of Life to arrange for one of his drawings to appear on the magazine's cover. For a variety of reasons, the
cover kept getting postponed. Finally, as the story goes, the editors set a date - February 18, 1952. Nothing could stop it. Except that which did. King George VI died and was succeeded on the throne by his daughter, Elizabeth II. So, the Life magazine issue ran with a picture of the young Queen Elizabeth on the cover and Kelly's drawing inside.

Out there where moose stroll the railroad tracks, we send birthday greetings to Adam.