speakerphone

As a general rule, I dislike being put on speakerphone. It happens a fair bit at work and generally takes one of two forms. The first is when you're speaking to just one person and they put you on speakerphone. My problem is that if I'm speaking to just one person, then they should be able to pick up the phone. If they don't, then I have to wonder who else is on their end listening to what I'm saying. This is not to say that I generally have anything private to say at work, but the principle of it is that this is a conversation between two people and I don't care for silent partners and random passers-by listening. I don't for a second buy the argument that they might be multi-tasking and somehow need to keep their hands and shoulders free. Hands, maybe. Shoulders, not a chance people at wok are doing something with them other than cradling the phone. If they are, then the call can wait. The other type of speakerphone call is when I'm talking to more than one person. I can see the utility in using speakerphone then, but the main problem is the background noise. There's simply too much of it most of the time. Plus, unless someone is clearly the leading partner, the conversation is filled with awkward pauses as they figure out who should speak. Aggravating and inefficient and of course nothing can be said privately. A great tool for communication that is often misapplied and ends up limiting communication.

jury duty

Today is Columbus Day, the ultimate sham holiday. I especially like how the Wikipedia entry states that it is "generally observed today by schools." That's funny. I don't recall Columbus Day ever being a school holiday. However, it is enough of a holiday to get me out of jury duty today. I received my original summons back in May, but deferred until now because I knew I would be traveling a bit each month until this one. I have to go every Monday (except today) this month. Yes, that does mean I went last week. And what a fantastic experience it was. Out of a pool of 44 potential jurors, I was thankfully not asked to pass judgment in what looked like a very riveting case involving larceny under $100. It was made more compelling by the defendant's decision to represent his self, but that wasn't the best part. This was such a high profile case, that the district attorney's office wasn't even there. Instead, the DA was represented by two police officers. Awesome. I'm almost weepy that I wasn't selected. Maybe next week.

wal-mart's expansion

A very interesting video of Wal-Mart's expansion. Apparently, the (first) one in Farmington and the one in Durango both opened in 1986.

state of the industry

Another presentation from Schlumberger's CEO on some of the challenges facing the oil and gas industry. Here's a .pdf that has the slides along with the speech.

I Ran some more

The best part of the SNL I Ran video is that there's a song with the same name that they use a line from.

I Ran

So I was at my favorite libertarian blog the other day and came across a post that was prompted by some of the things that Ahmadinejad said while he was at Columbia University last week. One of the commenters links to an article at The Atlantic that was an interesting read. Perhaps most interesting is that the article tracks with some of the things that people at work who have spent time in Saudi Arabia have told me.

Of course I need to end with the SNL Digital Short I Ran which has some pretty clever lyrics.

october?

I can't believe it's already October. It's started to snow some of the places we work. Oh, the joy.