Anyone Know Anything About Outlook?

Spent a goodly amount of time today doing away with Mulberry and trying to get up to speed on Outlook. After what seemed like too long I got just about everything working except...

Anyone out there got any idea how to get Outlook to put a sent item into an IDAP remote folder instead of into the "Sent Items" folder it wants to use?

I found the option to put it in another folder when sending, but it won't allow a folder that isn't part of the default tree. If I want to be able to see things I send both from the home machine and from the work machine then I need something that will send the messages to the server.

Puzzling.

Ellipses...

Three plus two equals five. What does five equal??? There ought to be a law against promo advertising, whatever the deal they should have to tell you the cost after the deal... Ok, I get it, he's dead. Part of me thinks its a little weird we're all so stoked about it... The word "liberal" has no meaning. Now it's just shorthand for "someone's opinion I dislike"... With what it costs to take a stray to the vet, those pet adoption prices don't seem high any more... I think that it is certain that as a society we were better before drug advertising... How much better would Pittsburgh be if the bus were free for everyone? Couldn't cost all that much... Is it me, or is there way more advertising for financial services companies than there can possibly be a market for their use??? Really I think I have come to the conclusion after going for like two years that truthfully I am not all that excited about any of the menu choices at Panera... The news is starting to say the economy is cooling off. For one, I have pretty much thought the economy for real people has been pretty crappy all along... I know I have a job, but for the past few days I have been feeling monumentally unemployed. Or, at least I have been behaving a lot like I did when I was unemployed... There ought to be something structural in the law to limit the length and investment the President can engage in a military action without a true declaration of war. Some kind of "Undeclared War Management Act"... Looks like I am not playing summer league this summer afterall. I was waffling anyway, and then they really made me feel unwelcome... What should be the next movie made into a musical? That Thing You Do? Empire Records??? You know when Ripley washed Newt's face? "Made a clean spot, now I have to do the whole thing." I feel that way about yard work... With what the Senate worked on last week, I really feel like putting in for a refund of the portion of my taxes that goes for Congressional operation...

Aw Mom, Can We Keep Em? PLEASE!!!

Today, on the way into the office we saw a guy on the side of the road. When we came back from the office, we saw a kitten in the same spot. When we went back to the spot with tunafish we found two kittens. At this point we felt it was our duty to capture the kittens, which we did.

They are now living in our garage pending a trip to the V-E-T. We had to put cardboard around the kennel as they are small enough to wiggle out. We don't want that, one of these escape artists bit me pretty good while being recaptured.

So, of course, the question is, if they get a clean bill of health from the vet, do they join our clan? Do we want to be the people with 5 cats? Dear readers, what do you think?

Jobs Americans Don't Want

Do you hear that refrain when people are talking about the illegal immigration problem? That all these people are only here taking jobs "American's don't want" or "American's won't do." How many ways is that wrong? Or if it isn't wrong, how many ways is it ultimately bad for everyone? Are we this stuck up, that there are jobs we just won't do? Are we so complacent that there are jobs that if they are available we won't take? If so, I think that bodes poorly for us.

Haven't these people seen Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel? Sure seem to be a lot of Americans doing some really crap ass gigs. Really I think this is about something else, where the jobs are, or what the jobs pay, but not flatly jobs American's won't take.

Recently on NPR they reported that in the industry with the absolute highest penetration of illegal workers, agriculture, 25% of all people working were here illegally. What does that mean? Well, for one thing it means that in every single possible job in the United States, at least 75% of the workers are American. That should just about wrap it up for the idea that there are gigs Americans won't do.

So really is it "wages Americans won't accept?" That would seem to be a little closer to the mark.

Maybe it has something to do with location and transportation. It does seem like someone motivated to come to say Detroit from Honduras would be more likely to get up and take a bus than someone just trying to go across town. Still, there's an element of enabling here.

I think maybe I don't see this like the majority of Americans. I've relocated for work four times now, lived in four different states. If I lost this job I would probably relocate again. People that do what I do go where the work is. I do think there's a certain amount of entitlement to work where the labor is in this country. Is it fair to expect people from one state to move to another state for work? For unskilled work? Does that assessment change when you figure in that there are people willing to relocate from another country for that work?

At the moment we hear two major solutions being offered to what is currently being perceived as an illegal alien crisis. I say perceived because it has been this way for a long time and its only recently that people have seems to get up in arms about it. At that rate, next week nobody could care again. Two solutions, first securing the border, and second provide for guest workers.

Talk about missing the forest for the trees.

How well exactly has securing the border worked with respect to the "war on drugs?" There is a whole lot of border there. One would assume that as long as there is a good reason to try to run it that people will, or tunnel under it, or come in on container ships, or jump out of airplanes, or FedEx themselves. For the right reward people will do just about anything. Hasn't "Survivor" proved that? Do we really want a hermetically sealed country, with armed guards and electric fences that go hundreds of feet underground? This seems to be a case where we must focus, long term on stemming the tide, not patching the dam.

Just how long do you think it will be until we see the investigative news report on mistreatment of guest workers, and how they feel they can't say anything for fear of being deported? A guest worker program just excuses the employers for what they are doing already. How much more work is it going to be for the government and employers to separate guest workers from illegals? Will there be a quota for guest workers? If so, I can't see how it will possible reduce illegal immigration.

By the way, what about the other end of the skill scale?

At the same time we're hearing that there is nobody to pick lettuce or wash dishes (or at least 25% of nobody) we're also being told that there's nobody to be tech workers or nurses. That employers need many more H1-B Visas to allow more skilled workers into the country.

If Americans won't pick lettuce or do other low level gigs, and they can't program computers or do other high level gigs, just what is it that Americans can do?

Its got me thinking of Hitchhiker's. Remember the Golgafrinchams? At this rate, we're all going to be on the second arc: real estate salesmen, security guards, management consultants, telephone sanitizers. Are all Americans slowly degenerating into a completely useless class of people? That would be a sad direction for a country with such a can-do past.

On the whole I think what we're hearing now is just so much noise. Its all probably calculated to still things up and make people feel worse off. Since we really were worse off all the time, just like with terrorism, I guess the recognition is a good thing. But also like terrorism, any kind of a quick fix is going to be a bandaid on a bullet wound. That's what we're most likely to get though: noise and then reflex legislation - usually with lousy enforcement and pork barrel financing. Its become the American way.

What will help? Nothing popular of course.

Enforcement of current employment legislation, prompt deportations, fines for employers - oh yeah, and the requisite rise in price of everything that is now subsidized by people making less than minimum wage because they can't complain. By the way, most of this is already on the books.

Transportation subsidies and relocation allowances so that people can go where the work is, probably with some smart planning with regard to housing values too so that people can live near the communities they need to work in.

Of course those things will also make prices go up. But really, if prices are low on the backs of illegals, shouldn't they go up?

H1-Bs? Education, education, education. More money, more money, more money. But isn't it worth it to keep the work here and to have the jobs filled with Americans?

These are infrastructure problems, they must be addressed with a long view. Our very way of living is changing. How Americans relate to their jobs will need to change as well. If we're not eager to make the effort, there are apparently millions of people in other countries that are.

None of this by the way makes me isolationist or anti-immigrant. I am certain that the immigration policies in place are just as convoluted, inefficient, and outmoded as the employment policies. They almost certainly need to be looked at together. But that the legal immigration process is obtuse is not an excuse to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration and employment violations.

Fix the infrastructure, eliminate the demand.

Award Ceremony

Here we have Kate in her Shoe Winning Shirt...



She quipped that now she has a shirt to wear when cutting Tina's lawn - causing me to wonder if its been cut yet.

Perhaps if Tina were giving away shirts.

Congrats again to Kate!

Its Official

More Crazy Scheme...
Think you'll be the first to complain? Too late.

Sunday Scanning

Another Sunday, another photo album. This time 1977-78. Like 300 photos in one book. This album is home to another couple of seminal David pictures. This one has been up on the wall in the hallway of my folks house for more than a decade...

I thought this was such a good picture of my cousin Dayna that I just had to share it with everyone...

This, I believe, is a Christmas morning shot; in pajamas, enjoying some candy...

Here is family friend, baby sitter, and all around cool person Ildi, helping out at Jessica's birthday party...


And finally here we have another all around cool person, Ildi's brother Frank, with Jessica in what I believe was her performance debut with the Eileen Boevers Traveling Troupe at the Whitehall Nursing Home in a presentation of "Free To Be, You and Me."

My recollection is that Frank would do the Baby skit and was William's Father. Jessica, I believe, started out in the ensemble.

Ellipses...

There ought to be a law... I thought the DALEKs were all supposed to be dead... I would like cake and ice-cream... Nothing like turning on the air to make it rain for a week... Still haven't really laid out those projects I need... Think $200 is too much to have to buy for summer camp materials??? What ever happened to that "no child left behind" thing??? I am no good at the eBay thing... What ever happened to the "terror alert level???" On TV it says Americans have accepted the price of gas, although paying it, this American has accepted nothing... What happened to going to Mars??? I wonder if someone at the NSA actually gets paid to read this blog??? I wish I hadn't dented my truck... Thanks to the stumble people for fixing the google toolbar interaction on the new release... I never knew one of my students was actually the Big JC... I wonder what Tina's lawn looks like... Mostly I think I would just like to putter around the house... Perhaps I should read a book... Good day for theatre articles in the New York Times today... I fixed the blurry text on my screen, although I never got a follow up from the video card people... Yesterday I got proof that when Verizon says the DSL in all of PA is out, they are possibly lying, ok maybe just mistaken... My filing system at home leaves a lot to be desired... My office filing system isn't that much better - I think I feel a summer assistant job coming on... Blogging has really slowed down on the sites I stalk... I wonder if Mr. Hines is on this continent... Is it ok to simply ignore email that COMES ALL CAPS??? What happened to the scourge of anabolic steroids??? I wonder if I lived in New Orleans, if I would still live in New Orleans??? Guess I should make that t-shirt...

Spring '06 Shoe Champion

Kate

A very tough decision this semester, with Emily pounding down a close second - espeically since her shoes matched the color scheme of the site. Perhaps this is a bit of a makeup for not remembering to take a current crit photo, or maybe it is because Emily has additional chances to win. These were very nice at crits (but actually a little worn looking at commencement).

But none of that really matters today. Congrats to Kate! Your TANBI t-shirt is in the works.

I Think I Need a List

I spend a goodly amount of time in my job asking to see student's lists. It goes something like this:

How are you doing on this project?

We're a little bit behind, but I think we'll be ok!

Oh, really, I think I need to see your list.

Usually its about 6 in 10 and pick 'em if there even is a list. If I were a preacher instead of a professor, I would be a decibel of the Church of The List.

With that in mind, I am sure you understand how odd it has been for me for the last few days to be so wholly and completely without a list. It has, quite literally, left me listless. In fact between late night television and no list; if Anne Rice wrote me into a book I would be the Vampire List'less.

This needs fixing.

I know there are things out there, things for precollege, things for the book, things for ESTA. I need to be working on my binder, I could be exercising. There are things for my sister's wedding. I need to go to the dentist. There very much is list material available, and yet in my sort of end of academic year lounging mode it has been difficult to get the components to properly coalesce into an actual list.

The one exception has been email, except there I actually failed in my task. There was a window right around Memorial Day where the fabled inbox zero was a real possibility. At the end of classes I had dumped my entire "to do" file into my "inbox" and started to chip away. The dwindling incoming mail provided a rare opportunity to get down to nothing. I worked my way all the way down to two messages. Routine correspondence from someone who unexpectedly no-showed on the wedding, and an email from a CMU alum that had been kicking around unanswered since the end of December as I had never found the time.

I was so close. But then the mail started coming in again.

I am still hoping to retire those old messages, as well as maintain as close to a clear inbox as possible for the entire summer. So "answer old email" is on the newly forming list, a core upon which to build.

The listlessness has really hit my motivation though, so I could use your help. If you're out there, and you have something that goes on my list, shout it out and let me know. Squeaky wheel and all that, right? Maybe I can get myself into gear again.