I was listening to the news this morning, and I caught a reference to “Convicted Lobbyist Jack Abramoff.” It occurred to me that the phrasing is a bit odd. It makes it sound like he was convicted of being a lobbyist, which, last I heard, was still legal.
I suppose “Convicted corrupt lobbyist” sounds too unwieldy… and there are people who might consider it redundant!
This is a story on phone menus, though it applies to anything where the user interface can change. I phoned in a refill on a prescription this morning. The phone system lets you choose when you plan on picking it up, presumably so that the pharmacy can prioritize people who are coming in sooner. Generally, it asks you to enter the hour, then #, then 1 for AM or 2 for PM.
I wanted to swing by around noon, so I entered 12, then #, and then without listening for the option, I hit 2. I wanted to pick it up around 12:00 pm.
So I was surprised to hear, “We’re sorry, the pharmacy is not open at midnight.” I flashed back to elementary school, when I was out on the field trying to explain to my friends why noon was 12 PM and not 12 AM as they insisted. Had someone managed to get into a programming position, without clearing that up?
As I re-entered the time, I listened for the options. It turns out that they had anticipated just such confusion, as after I chose 12, the option was, “Please enter 1 for noon, or 2 for midnight.” That works great for people who are using the system for the first time, whether they know noon is PM or not. Unfortunately, for people who have been using it for years and (normally) don’t need to listen to the options, it switches the buttons around. It’s like those WinZip registration dialog boxes that would rearrange the buttons every time, so that you couldn’t just click through, you’d have to pay at least some attention to it.
Of course, then there’s the question of why it even gives you the option for midnight…
I’ve just posted our photos from Comic-Con. Cosplayers, San Diego sightseeing, comic creators, random convention stuff, etc.
Check out all our Comic-Con 2006 posts!
Friday afternoon I was walking down Fifth with a couple of Subway sandwiches in my backpack. This section of the Gaslamp Quarter is almost entirely restaurants, and most of them have dining areas out on the street, with the host or hostess’ podium right there on the sidewalk. I had spotted something odd ahead of me, but I’ll let this overheard exchange speak for itself:
Hostess: “Come quick, or you’ll miss something really cool! There’s a sandwich in the street!”
Voice from inside: “Oh, I already saw him.”
For the record, it turned out to be part of a big promotion for the movie, Accepted.
The convention clearly strains resources to the limit. These traffic cones, used for creating lanes for the shuttles and whatever traffic was allowed in front of the convention center, include such messages as “Reserved,” “No Parking,” and “Stop”—none of which applied to their current use!
Now, I have yet to figure out the connection between Playboy models and comic books, except that these days they do seem to have the same target audience. There were several models doing signings and photo ops around the hall. On Thursday morning, though, this model hadn’t set up her booth yet. The bag on the table looked disturbingly like a body bag.
This last one actually has no connection to the con, but I forgot to post it on Monday. It’s probably only funny if you’re familiar with the BSD operating systems. (It took me a while, but I eventually realized BSD in this case meant Broadway San Diego.)
Here’s the latest round of strange sights from San Diego.
![[Outhouse on a crane]](https://journal.kvibber.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/floating-outhouse.jpg)
We stayed at the Radisson Harbor View. The end of the hallway had a view of the harbor, but our room had a view of the construction across the street. When we first stepped onto the balcony, we saw a crane lifting an outhouse up to the topmost floor of the site. There’s something inherently absurd about a port-a-potty flying through the air.
We walked up and down Cedar Ave. from the hotel to the Little Italy trolley stop at least once a day, stopping at the same It’s a Grind coffee house we frequented two years ago. Strangely, we didn’t notice this message on the street until our last day in town:
Now, it may look like a tagger’s commentary on outsourcing, but it makes more sense if you happen to know that India Street is just a block away.
There were quite a few high-rise buildings that looked very much like this one. Sort of the skyscraper equivalent of clone homes, I suppose. This one had one difference: One of the tenants had set up a large, red umbrella on their balcony.
Moving on to the Gaslamp Quarter, we saw—but didn’t photograph—a club called Tsunami Beach. I don’t know about you, but if there’s a tsunami, the last place I want to be is on the beach!
This next one was actually pretty neat. The window boxes outside Dussini (a Mediterranean restaurant on Fifth Avenue) are full of low-water plants. Practical, low-maintenance, and still decorative.
Finally, here’s a sign from somewhere along the 5, elsewhere in San Diego:
I think it’s pretty safe to say that Richardson isn’t a fish…
Next: con-specific weirdness.
I mentioned that on Saturday, we left Comic-Con for a few hours to check out the ships at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. We saw five:
The big attractions, of course, were the Star of India and the HMS Surprise. Naturally, the Star of India was closed when we got there.
The Star of India seen from the Surprise
The Surprise was fun, though. It turns out it was built in the 1970s as a replica of an 18th century British Royal Navy vessel, the HMS Rose. It was sold to 20th Century Fox in 2001 and used to film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. After filming was complete, the museum bought the ship and renamed it the HMS Surprise in honor of the fictional vessel.
I’ve been zombie-fied.
Comic-Con was fun, but exhausting. Add that to staying up too late last night and not being used to the heat…
You see, downtown San Diego was fairly nice all week. According to weather.com it only hit 83, which was uncomfortable when carrying a heavy backpack (or in Katie’s case, wearing a heavy pirate costume) in the sun, but quite comfortable in the shade or with a breeze. We got our first taste of what things have been like back home when we stopped for a bathroom break near the Irvine Spectrum area around sunset last night. It felt warmer at sunset in Irvine than it did in mid-afternoon in San Diego.
I don’t think the bedroom ever really cooled off last night, even with a fan running in the window all night.
Then after a night of “sleep” I got into work and I started hearing about temperatures hitting 108. It’s just… astonishing.
Anyway, I’m currently on twice my normal daily dose of coffee and I’m still spacing out and mistyping stuff.
(Originally posted on LiveJournal.)
