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Friday, February 24, 2006

Four for Friday

Q1 - Birthdays: How many different birthdays do you have committed to memory, and aside from using your own noggin, how do you keep track of all the others?

I have a strange propensity for remembering birthdays. I know probably fifty or sixty off the top of my head. Some of those belong to people I haven't seen or heard from in a number of years. Just in case I would forget, I write them down in an old weekly calendar I never used that's bound like a hardback book and has pictures of kittens in it. I picked it because it had a lot of space and because it wasn't super-obvious that the calendar was for a certain year -- it isn't laid out in a grid.

Q2 - Seaport Security: A government-owned company in the United Arab Emirates volunteered late yesterday afternoon to delay its $6.8 Billion takeover of most operations at six U.S. seaports. The delay allows President George W. Bush time to convince skeptical members of the U.S. Congress that the deal poses no security risks. What's your feeling on this... should the United States government allow a company based in Dubai to manage seaports in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans, New York, and Newark?

Admittedly I'm not very informed about it, but my feeling is no.

Q3 - Telephones: Regardless of whether you use just a cell phone or a cell phone and a land line at home, does 'Voice over IP' (VoIP) technology have you thinking about switching or adding a land line at home? (In case you've never heard of VoIP, it allows for the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP-based network, and it's supposed to be a lot cheaper than paying the old-school phone companies for telephone service.)

I would think about it, but it doesn't seem to be cheaper so far and it doesn't work when your cable Internet is out. I'm not ready to switch yet.

Q4 - 2006 Winter Olympics: Have you been watching the 2006 Winter Olympics on television? If so, which events have you enjoyed the most? If not, why?

Skating, of course. I also enjoyed snowboardcross, speed skating, and some of the skiing events. And the sports people sliding down icy tracks in various manners going really, really fast. The sport I keep missing and want to watch: curling.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The piece of info on the seaports deal that isn't getting talked about much is that there are a number of American companies with financial connections to both Bush and co, and the United Arab Emirates who stand to get serious profit from it. This was basically another "push some cash to our friends under the table" deal, which is why Bush is going to fight hard for it.