One thing I've noticed is that VPs just love playing shell games with the payroll for various departments. So you can claim a great savings by eliminating staff in the Payroll department, but offshift the real cost into every single other department by eventually adding to need personnel to do the tasks they were doing....

Today I'm just full of despising and cynical ire.

How does someone become a programmer writer and NOT know the difference between effect and affect?

I used to know the difference automatically, but I've seen it wrong so much online that now I have to stop and think, "cause and... effect."

So, Behr's not only has a color-picker decorating tool, but since the last time I looked they started selling samples online. And with 4 you get itty bitty rollers and paint trays, wooja wooja. Shipping is exorbitant, but on the other hand I don't have to go to Home Depot on a weekend. Whee, paint.

Y'all are not making me happy. The entire company is rolling over to Oracle project-management software by October. This will integrate the timesheet information more directly with the costing and billing and client-management functions, and frankly scares me shitless.

... god, I'm depressed. Hangovers are a bad idea.

And why does my job description not include "Smite the stupid ones"? Why?

You really should be allowed to smite. I've got a list right here.

Chiropractor claims he can go back in time

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A chiropractor who claims he can treat anyone by reaching back in time to when an injury occurred has attracted the attention of state regulators.

The Ohio State Chiropractic Board, in a notice of hearing, has accused James Burda of Athens of being "unable to practice chiropractic according to acceptable and prevailing standards of care due to mental illness, specifically, Delusional Disorder, Grandiose Type."

Burda denied that he is mentally ill. He said he possesses a skill he discovered by accident while driving six years ago.

"My foot hurt and, knowing anatomy, I went ahead and I told it to realign and my pain went away," Burda said Thursday.

Burda calls his treatment "Bahlaqeem."

"It is a made-up word and, to my knowledge, has no known meaning except for this intended purpose. It does, however, have a soothing vibrational influence and contains the very special number of nine letters," Burda's Web site says.

eta:

Burda said he charges nothing for his first "visit," usually by phone or Internet, and subsequent treatments are $60.

"All treatments are satisfaction-guaranteed. Treatment is always done before payment is made," Burda said, adding that one patient "just wasn't satisfied, and I tore up her check.

The Web site describes the treatment as "a long-distance healing service (not a product) to help increase the quality of your life that can be performed in the privacy of your home or other personal space. There is no need to come to my office."

eta²:

bahlaqeem.com

Oh man -- there's this Ren Faire/D&D geek girl on What Not To Wear, who had been wearing her mother's old 80s suits for work and t-shirts the rest of the time, and it's hilarious watching Clinton and Stacy try to be supportive of her geekiness. As long as she's better dressed.

A chiropractor who claims he can treat anyone by reaching back in time to when an injury occurred

Naturally, I read this about ten seconds after watching Doctor Who.

Wouldn't one buy/modify the software to bend to the way the user conducts business, and NOT make the user bend to software's fucked up idea of how other people do business?

Hmm. yeah, NSM in my experience. PeopleSoft! OMG, I haven't thought about that program for years. A nightmare, though, a useless nightmare. This is why we design very ugly, but useable databases and scripts from scratch in FileMaker for all our events. It ain't pretty, but it works, and we can fix it when it breaks.

SAP's big at the uni, but for different purposes.

I can't remember what the big db they use at my U., but I've never been so glad as when I learned, after the migrated all the fundraising info onto it from Raiser's Edge, that I no longer had access to it, due to being a student -- no more data entry, no more reports to run!

Naturally, I read this about ten seconds after watching Doctor Who.

Mmmm. The 9th doctor can treat me any time.