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On Calling in Sick

October 04, 2004 at 10:14

I have an issue with the usual attitude toward calling in sick at work. I think many Americans have this attitude that you should not call in sick to work unless you are barfing up a lung or something. In other words, you should "tough it out" and get into work and support your company or team. This policy, in my view, causes more harm than good.

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Congratulations in Order!

September 21, 2004 at 11:50

Two of my favorite people got engaged this past weekend! I'm really excited and happy for them - they are a great match for each other! I was lucky enough to be around when they met and to see them become friends and to see that friendship grow into something much more. I always hoped that the guy would be smart enough to realize what an amazing woman he was with and, apparently, after all his crazy misadventures, he is. She has a beautiful ring and I'm certain his proposal was very memorable. So congratulations to both of you! I wish you the best!

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Big Blue Debate : Conti vs. Serra

September 21, 2004 at 10:21

There is a debate going on between afficionados of the movie The Big Blue. However, before I can describe the debate, a little background info is required. The Big Blue is or was a French movie and when released in Europe, was met with great critical approval. It was considered an avant garde art house movie and enjoyed a successful theater run in Europe. The excellent soundtrack was written by Eric Serra.

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Changes to ForkBender.com and the Narrative CMS

September 20, 2004 at 15:15

There have been some changes to ForkBender.com recently. These are due to me getting closer and closer to the 1.0 release of the Narrative CMS and finalizing some design decisions.

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IPASS is A Good Thing

September 20, 2004 at 10:32

Chicago has a lot of tollways. The history of the tollway is kind of interesting. Supposedly the idea of the toll was created so that the toll would be charged to pay for the creation of the tollway. In other words, Illinois would build the road but you would have to pay to use it, at least until the cost of building the road was recouped. Of course, it turns out that tollways need to be repaired and resurfaced every so often so instead of getting rid of the toll when the road was paid off, they kept the toll to pay for ongoing maintenance. So we have lots of tollways in Chicago and a lot of gridlock during rush hour because of all the people who have to look around for change to pay the toll.

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Another Close Call

September 20, 2004 at 10:12

Last Tuesday night I was driving home from class and had a bit of a problem with the Jeep. We've had the Jeep since October 2002 so its about 2 years old. There are 38,000 miles on it so far. Recently my brother was in the Jeep with me and said it sounded a little loud and maybe was making a grinding noise in the front. I didn't really notice anything. Of course, when you drive a car everyday, you might not notice gradual changes if they are very small. But a little bit of change day to day adds up to a big change after two years. This was one of those cases but I didn't realize that until too late.

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Office Space Script Online

September 18, 2004 at 23:44

UPDATE: This link is currently broken. I am searching for a new link. In the meantime, this site has many Office Space quotes and some audio files from the movie:

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2004 Lake Geneva Triathlon

September 17, 2004 at 12:12

What a great triathlon this was! This was the third time at this event for Ahu and I. My brother Randy Sieg competed for the first time. This was also his first triathlon. We did the Sprint distance consisting of a 1/2 mile swim, 17 mile bike ride, and 5K run. Ahu and I both set personal records. I improved my swim by almost 3 minutes over last year and improved by bike time by almost 10 minutes, finishing the bike phase in less than an hour for the first time. I also finished the triathlon in less than 2 hours for the first time. Randy, however, beat us both with an outstanding swim and run time and a very good bike time for his first effort (and on a mountain bike as well).

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The Club Dumas

September 17, 2004 at 12:02

Along the lines of The Eight, this novel is a highly intellectual fictional rendering. All of the author's books start off in Castilian Spanish and are translated to English by Sonia Soto. The author was formerly a Spanish journalist and has a rich knowledge of European history, music, literature, as well as geography and eccelesiastical facts. The Club Dumas is about rare books and 19th century serial fiction. There is an occult touch also which lends a slightly horrific turn to the story. Another recommended novel but be sure to have a Latin dictionary close at hand to look up some of the ancient text included in the novel.

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The Pianist

September 17, 2004 at 11:58

I found this movie to be very disturbing but an excellent movie nonetheless. It was disturbing in a different way than The House of Sand and Fog was. This time the bad feelings came from the treatment of the Polish Jews by the German soldiers. Its truly unsettling to see fellow humans treated like animals. It was a tragic time and the story is about a famous pianist who manages to survive the war. Definitely worth seeing at least once. I rented the movie through Netflix and then bought the soundtrack, which is filled with moving classical piano pieces.

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