2007 — 29 July: what goes up?
It's a very long time now since I worked directly or indirectly on CICS development, but nonetheless I'm delighted to have been sent confirmation, in the form of a handsome certificate, that six current members of IBM CICS Management were, indeed, recently deemed capable of organising a "piss-up in a brewery". I have the certificate creator's permission to show you this rare document, though he suggested I expunge the genuine management name that the original certificate displayed (after all, he still works there!).
Unless I miss my guess, "UCD" stands for User-Centered Design, though I could be wrong. After all, back in 1981 when I joined what I thought was the Technical Publications department, it turned out to be the Information Development department (though everyone called it "Pubs").
Come to think of it, every time I left the department (and I did so three times) it seemed to be calling itself by a different name.
I was also delighted to have been sent a YouTube link to the pre-event rocket trial of what was to prove to be the winning water-powered rocket entry on the day, too. Thanks, Brian!
Must come down: The Dismal Science
Just listening to a report on NPR in which (inter alia) Nassim Nicholas Taleb — the man who wrote the Black Swan — is asserting (in the light of the $520,000,000,000 wiped off Dow Jones stocks last week) that "if you have to rely on the recommendations of your stock broker, you are a fool" and should not be in this particular game. They also played a sound bite from a senior bank official from a mere 10 days ago (when the Dow had risen above 14,000 for the first time ever) asserting that this strong global economy would last for years, and was feeding strongly off itself in a way that meant things could only go on getting better!
Shaping up into a Good Day
I've just made her a cup of tea while She's out putting some (hopefully) final touches to the bog garden with the small clumps of decorative grass we bought in B&Q as a treat for having done some necessary provisions-shopping in the maelstrom that is Asda on a Sunday lunchtime. But it was when we first called in to top up the petrol tank that I realised She'd successfully done an Andy Capp1 on me...
Now time to finish watching yesterday evening's The Hot Rock, methinks. I wonder how many people who've seen this film recall the phrase used for triggering the bank clerk's embedded post-hypnotic2 suggestion? A final gentle trot around the neighbourhood, the final three meds for the day, a bedtime cuppa, and before you know it it's time for some serious shut-eye. Yep, it's been a Good Day today.