I work in a Psych-Hospital!!!

The more I think about it, the more I appreciate that he wasn't actually trying to hurt anyone but himself. I'm guessing this kid is about 250 lbs, and when my co-worker and I opened the door to the unit, here comes that 250 lbs or so trying to plow his way out the door. His stated goal: To go kill himself. Well, any God-fearing man, and even many non-God fearing men, would not let someone follow through with such a miserable plan. So, the result is providentially staying at work for an extra 1 and 1/2 hour to "intervene" with this strapping lad. My arm, my left hip, and my back are sore -- getting old I guess -- but no one was any more seriously hurt and that we can thank God for. Now I have to lift my tired sore body out of this chair to go get some coffee. Back to the grind in about a half-hour. Good day, everyone. And may God keep you safe today!

Family Day Out.

"They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum and they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them."

~Joni Mitchell.

Yesterday I had a day off work, so the family jumped in the big blue beast and hit the road for a family day out -- Destination: Cabelas. On the way there, we saw signs for Roadside America, which I remember going to when I was a kid, though my memory has grown a bit foggy. So we stopped in to see what it was like. If you dig toy trains, you really should check it out. It's a huge room filled with a miniture village, complete with houses, rivers and lakes with fish swimming in them, airplanes, church buildings, playgrounds, caverns, and, of course, trains. Very cool. We spent about an hour walking around the place. It was really neat when they turned off the room lights and showed the village "at night." The bummer was the slide show on the wall with pictures of a bearded, robed, man... I assume it was supposed to be Jesus, but we figured it could just as well have been Peter or one of the other disciples for all we know. Don't look at the slide show, just watch the village at night. In the giftshop, we noticed there were papist ornaments for sale, including little statues of the Infant of Prague. Yuck.

But hey, the miniature village was nice.

Back in the van, on to Cabelas. We probably spent 3 to 4 hours in there. It's a giant store, complete with a mountain in the middle of the store, with stuffed animals (I mean real animals, shot dead, and stuffed) posing on the mountain, a safari display with animals similarly killed and stuffed, a pond with cool fish in it, a walk-through aquarium, a gun museum, a restaurant, and, of course, outdoorsy stuff to buy. I bought some Buffalo-jerky. Yummy.

Here's a pic of some of the dead animals:


I posted it using the new free image hosting website I found.

We had fun, and we got to see and eat dead animals, which is a plus.

Hot Amish Fun

Some members of our extended family met for a nice hot meal at a local Amish farm house. The King family opens there home like a restaurant, and provides great food and an old fashioned environment. The Kings have 6 girls and 4 boys, many of the girls help serve the meal. Here's what I ate: Turkey, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, umm.. what else... oh, some kind of creamy noodle stuff, homemade bread and a peanut butter spread that is too delicious to talk about. Everything was yummy (it all tasted like more) but the coffee. Thumbs down on Amish coffee.

I'd post the website for the Amish Farmhouse, but... they're Amish. No electricity, no pictures of people, no cars, and no website. Funny moment of the night was when the Amish girl gave uncle Donny the plates, and said "Take one and pass it around." Well, he took one and passed it around. The Amish girl said "What are you doing?" Donny said, "You said to take one and pass it around!" She responded, "Well how would you say? You know what I meant!" Oh, she got in such a stew!

ACH! that Amish coffee... it chust isn't right, and I don'd know right how to help it. But we all had a vunderful gut time, ain't?

BIOSfear

I got my computer working, which I'm happy about. But while I was looking for possible solutions to the problems I was having it occurred to me that perhaps I should upgrade my BIOS. So, I went to the BIOS people's website, and completed a form to get the BIOS upgrade. I just figured they would ask me some information and then I could download what I was looking for. But that's not the way it worked. I ended up getting an email telling me that my BIOS upgrade was waiting for me, but I had to call their toll-free phone number to complete the transaction. So I called, and was informed that they could mail me the upgrade for $50. I passed, not having a spare $50 to spend on something that sounds so strange as BIOS. A few days after the phone call, I received the following email:

Gerald,
This is the last chance to update your BIOS at this special price offer. So upgrade today......

It has been a few days since we received your BIOS upgrade request online. Due to customer demand, we have decided to offer the new BIOS upgrades via an e-mail download.

eSupport.com is the Exclusive Authorized Upgrade and Support Center for Award BIOS. For the past 16 years, we have constantly upgraded thousands of motherboards and developed new BIOS upgrades for all the latest technology.

Based on the technical specifications you had submitted, we have an excellent BIOS Upgrade for your system. We have the brand new Award BIOS for your motherboard. The price is only $24.95 (U.S).

To view your system details that you had previously submitted, click here: View My System Details


The most notable features are:

*

Hard Drive Support up to 512GB* (48-bit Technology)
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Windows XP Compliance for SP1 & SP2 (service pack)
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Windows 2000 Compliance for SP3 & SP4 (service pack)
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Windows ACPI 2.0* Compliance
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Faster Intel and AMD CPU Upgrade Kit Support
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Faster Input Output Speeds
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Virtual technical support assistance
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100 % Satisfaction Guarantee
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Facts You Should Know About eSupport.com

*not available for all PCs

We will email you with a link to download the latest Award BIOS upgrade for your specific system. The file to download will be a zip file (>500 K) that includes the binary, the necessary flash loader, and easy installation instructions. Plus, you'll have access to hundreds of BIOS FAQs online, and free e-mail based technical support. Telephone technical support is not available.

The price for this service is $24.95 (U.S.). You can place this order through our SECURE website.

Here is the response I sent back to Dennis:

Dear Dennis,

I would very much like to upgrade my BIOS, however, I must say that I am greatly offended at what you are calling a "special offer." Here's how I see it: This special offer is a result of my turning down the original offer, which original offer was made knowing full well that a "special offer" can be made to those who reject the original offer. In other words, your company tried to sucker me into paying $50, for something you readily offer for $25. When I chose not to pay $50, you now come to me with the very insulting offer of $25.

How about this for an offer:

Since your original offer was an attempt to rip me off for an extra $25, you should pay recompense. I'd be happy to accept $25 from you, along with an apology, for your attempt to rob me of $25, and then we can call it even.

Come to think of it, how about you keep the $25, send me the BIOS upgrade for free, along with the apology, and we can part on friendly terms.

Hurry, this is your last chance! This offer won't last long!

Thanks in advance.

Gerald.

Let's see how that flies.

Twoday

Elisabeth Kate was born 11/15/2002.

Computer problems

Dumb computer! The other day it started shutting down on its own after being on only a minute or two. Ok, so it's either the power supply or a heat problem. Put on another power supply. Same problem. Check the heat sink, Jerry! Check the heat sink! Oh, what do I see, but the bracket on the motherboard snapped off, so the heat sink/fan is not tight up against the processor. Excellent! Took it to a guy who rigged up something to make it tight again. Take it home, hook it up, heats up, shuts down. Huh? What gives? Call the guy back... "Hey, heat problem still a problem." He say, "no problem, 70 degrees is not hot, change your BIOS to keep computer from shutting off." Problem: 70 degrees (celsius) IS HOT! Let's see, divide by 12, add 32, and reverse it... about 153 degrees foreign-height!!! Check BIOS, only lets me choose "shut off at 50 degrees" or "Shut off at 60 degrees" or "Shut off at 70 degrees" or "don't shut off." So, just for kicks and giggles, I picked "don't shut off" and guess what? It didn't shut off. But according to Mobo monitor, I'm running hot hot hot. Touch the heat sink, feels cold cold cold. I'm thinking maybe I need to get some heatsink adhesive or sumptin, and stick that bad boy on firm and tight. But honestly, I don't know what I'm doing. Figures... this happens on the VERY NEXT DAY AFTER DISMANTALING MY SPARE COMPUTER! Calling on Calculus!

Concession announcement

It was a difficult decision, but after talking it over with my family, I think it's best for the American people for me to concede the election. My people tell me that I did not receive even a single vote, which I find to be quite disturbing and not a little distressing, but rather than demanding a recount, I think I'm just gonna drop the whole thing, step out of contention, and let the healing process begin.

The whole election thing made for some interesting conversation in the office. Most of my immediate co-workers are Bush supporters, though I imagine that hospital wide, you'd likely find more Kerry people. Me? Oh, I exercised my God-given right to refrain from voting. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that the lesser of two evils was elected, but I cannot give my support for an evil, lesser or no. I hope you understand.


This is Mary Ellen. She's a nurse, and she's wont to give you medications, orally or by injection, whether you need them or not. Yow!

I'm Jerry, and I authorize this message.

Still the man!

It amazes me when I think about it. God does not only give us things we need, but He gives us things we enjoy! What a good God, who gives not only food, but good food! not a home, but a nice home! not only a family, but a family I enjoy! All praise and glory be to the Lord our God who supplies our needs in such wonderful ways!

It is in this spirit that I submit the following....


I have this thing where I beat up all the kids at one time, just to let them know what's up. Yeah, I can still do it. I can still whoop all of them! True, after my asthma attack and my short-lived seizure like activity, I need a rest and a drink. But the kids aren't thinking about how old and out of shape dad is, they can only focus on their own pain. Keep the kids coming, cuz they're going down, and they're going down hard.