Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
How come my daughter’s pre-school can have an automated call system that begins speaking when I pick up the telephone but the telemarketers have a delay? . . . Speaking of telemarketers, the silly group that has been bombarding us this week seemed to stop when I asked to speak with a supervisor after I heard the conversation about them getting high while they waited to click in. Stupid people . . . My classroom is in pretty good order. I still have paperwork to do, but the set-up is done. I finally am so organized it took very little effort to get ready this year . . . The pollen is coming as I have had headaches each day this week . . . Smoked a beer can chicken yesterday. Flavor was excellent, but I could not control the temps and it cooked much faster than I wanted it too . . . The speakers at the Democratic Convention have not been good the first two nights save Hillary, and she only took care of herself. The folks b4 her were awful . . . Speaking of work, I am going to have begin shaving on a regular basis now. Sigh . . . Optometrist appointment tomorrow. I suspect I will have a stronger bifocal script . . . Fatherhood is awesome! Particularly when the little girl is having a Daddy day . . . Michelle Malkin highlights some of the reasons why I am no longer a Republican . . . I just cleaned up my RSS feeds. There were a lot of dead feeds, blogs I rarely read, and interests that no longer errrr interest me . . . Billy Jeff had a good line tonight: “People have always been more impressed with the power of our example than the example of our power.” Good line, but still bad policy . . . In 1988 I voted for Dukakis. I lived in Boston. I guess I was young, idealistic, and feeling my oats. This ass just said the last seven and a half years are the worst he has had in his life. Sounds like he and Michelle Obama are cut from the same cloth . . .
Posted in Culinary, Education, Family, Miscellaneous, Politics | No Comments »
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
It seems with two children, one becomes much more of a cleaner. We are constantly tidying up after the princess and the destroyer.
Posted in Bob | No Comments »
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
. . . is cradling your daughter at 2:00 a.m. after she vomited everywhere knowing that your trip to NYC is not going to happen. I love you, Beetle.
Posted in Bob, Family | No Comments »
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
The Groundspeak thread about raffles and 50/50s being held at events and posted on the listing has brewed a lot of offline discussion. I support Groundspeak’s apparent crackdown on these.
From what I gleaned in my discussions is that while we all know these kinds of things occur all the time at work, among friends, etc., they are against NJ law. The controlling body is the Division of Consumer Affairs.
I was informed that the fine for running a game of chance without proper registration is $7500 for the first offense and $15,000 for the second. That’s some steep punishment. From what I can discern, in a game of chance someone is the “house”, as it were. A Thursday night poker game does not have a “house”; it is each man for himself. A friendly poker game is okay, but a raffle or a 50/50 has some of the money raised going to someone/some group.
While some contend that the state investigates these, I doubt they would go after regular folks. Some mentioned paper trails. That reminded me of a conversation I had with my father circa 1995.
I found software that would allow one to run a football pool. It was pretty sophisticated stuff, allowing folks to register online via a web page, making their picks, etc. The manager of the pool had all sorts of options and the software did a wonderful job of keeping track of all the components of the pool.
I showed it to my father. He immediately cautioned me from using it. He explained that as soon as one can point others to your work, you need to be concerned with those who may take exception to what you are doing. A football pool may seem harmless, but the boss, Joe Public, or a disgruntled colleague may take exception to one, particularly if he can point one to the “paper trail”.
I took the lesson to heart.
My colleagues often ask why I am so formal in my e-mail and memoranda. I inform them that all of those documents are public documents and if ever published, I do not desire to be caught being less than at my very best. After a board member had some of his e-mail published in the local paper that caught him in frank candor and using inappropriate language, it is a lesson that has bite.
It does seem like some groups run games of chance at their events. I suspect few have registered with the state to do so. If they don’t, they are gambling more than raffles. Cache pages, web site pages, etc. all have a “paper trail”. If the state does search for these events, I know I would not want my name associated with these games of chance. My father taught me well.
Posted in GPS Games, Geocaching, New Jersey | No Comments »
