Saturday, March 28, 2009

Public Service Announcement - Miss Otis Regrets

To all the people who keep finding my blog using the Google search: Mrs Otis Regrets

The song you are looking for is 'Miss Otis Regrets' not Mrs.

Thank you!

Earth Hour?

So Earth Hour is scheduled for tonight. Interesting concept where you turn off all unnecessary lights for an hour in an attempt to draw attention to the global-warning cause. Conserving electricity is an admirable thing, but the pictures I've seen from around the world of individuals celebrating Earth Hour have me scratching my head.

The one thing they all have in common is lit candles. Ummmm... burning petroleum-based candles releases quite a bit more CO2 than when the electricity for incandescent lightbults is generated.

It is exactly this sort of publicity stunt and the hype accompanying it that leaves people scratching their heads trying to figure out exactly WHO is right when it comes to global climate issues. I am one of those people.

Burning candles instead of burning lightbulbs for the sake of reducing greenhouse emissions? That is completely nonsensical and destroys quite a bit of credibility for the 'man-made-global-warming-is-bad' group. Whatever happened to non-politicized science?

Friday, March 27, 2009

Sleep...

My department head and his wife have 10 children together. He claims that child-induced stress levels top out with kid number 4. I have no idea if this is true, and I will never find out.

With both of us working outside the home fulltime, three kids is plenty. With A. waking up every two hours for weeks on end, one is more than enough.

I think I am officially moving past the 'I want another child' stage, and into the 'it's gonna be great when everyone is potty-trained' stage of my parenting life.

Actually, lately, it's been, 'I can't wait until I feel comfortable sending all three to Grandma's house.' I suspect that will change once I actually get a few nights with more than 4 hours' sleep.

The combination of A. waking nightly and the stress of my job waking me nightly has really burned me out. I just hope I can hold out through April. May does not look as bad on the work front...

I am looking forward to actually spending time with my little family.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Complete Idiocy... and Heartlessness

There are times the insurance industry lives up to its less than stellar reputation. Great American Insurance put on an exceptionally brilliant performance.

There was a fire in an office building (set by an incredibly, mind-bogglingly stupid person, but that's a whole 'nother story). Three people died from smoke inhalation. Great American denied the liability claim stating that there was a pollution exclusion in the liability policy.

I am well aware of this exclusion. Denying a claim because victims of a malicious fire had the audacity to suffocate to death rather than be burnt is NOT THE INTENDED PURPOSE OF THIS EXCLUSION!!!!!!!

I cannot believe 2 facts in this case.

1. Great American following this ridiculous path
2. The IDIOT judge who endorsed it

The case has been dropped, which is good. However, the families of the victims absolutely should NOT have had to go through this.

Here's an article summarizing the case: http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=14845

There may very well be excellent grounds for denying the claim. I am not informed of all the particulars. However, the pollution exclusion is NOT IT.

Update: I've been asking around, and I am not alone in my assessment. Basically, the entire insurance industry is in an uproar over this idiocy. It threatens time-tested contractual language and has royally ticked off the Texas Department of Insurance. And, it has messed up one of my major projects at work. I am still so angry about this. Something about watching people in my professional area behave like unethical raging morons really gets to me.

Monday, March 02, 2009

I am sad today...

After a battle with cancer lasting over 3 years, Miss C. has passed away.

Too Funny

My blog is the first return for a Google search on: forfeit of rental deposit in qatar