A bit out of the loop for a moment...

Hi Everyone out there in outhereland; I had a small caboom! -that's a technical word translated from the generally archaic "oh shit" and followed by the proverbial "thump" . So, I need to take a day, maybe two, before I get myself going again. Forgive the error of my ways, O Reader, where-ever thouest abide. I shall think of you as I dig myself out of this small problem. Back soon. Hugs, randy

ASL and Music

When I was about 12 my best friend was named David. His mother was deaf, completely deaf. She was able to talk...with that monotone way deaf people talk. And when she got pissed! Whoo! Look out. Well, I loved her. She was just plain cool. And, I had a crush on her son, so that helped. One day we had the ghetto blaster on....that's what we called it then. Hey, it was cool - then. And, we were blasting it. Well, David's Mom finally got our attention and the hands began to fly. I had no idea she would haved a problem with the loud music as I didn't think she'd notice. That was one of the fun aspects of playing at David's house; we could scream and laugh all we wanted and no one cared. Unfortunately for us, she could feel vibrations and I guess we had the whole house shaking. Oops. So, both she and David were talking in ASL, hands flying and he was trying to translate as fast as he could. The jist of it: what was the awful racket that was shaking her house down? This was it - Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. She made him sign the whole song and both of us to sing it...mostly for comic relief, I'm sure as we danced along. But, from that point on I fell in love with the use of ASL and music, especially with someone who is a talented dancer. The expression and emotion that can be conveyed through ASL and dance is phenomenal. It takes understanding, of course, to get the full effect. It's been so long, I have forgotten most of what I knew through lack of use. I only know one sign, it's universal though :) I have a couple other songs in here for the heck of it. I loved the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus", and here is the clip from that. Also, I love Sarah McLaughlin's voice....can't spell her name, tho.

Sanctity for the Sanctimonious

Effective Time Consultants...

A lesson on how consultants can make a difference in an organization... The spoon:Last week, we took some friends to a new Indian restaurant, ‘Muthu’s Place,’ and noticed that the Indian waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around and saw that all the Indian staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, ‘Why the spoon?’ ‘Well, ‘he explained, ‘the restaurant’s owner hired Andersen Consulting to revamp all of our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.’ As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he replaced it with his spare. ‘I’ll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now..’ I was impressed. I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the Indian waiter’s fly. Looking around, I saw that all of the Indian waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So, before he walked off, I asked the waiter, ‘Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?’ ‘Oh, certainly!’ Then the Indian waiter lowered his voice. ‘Not everyone is so observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also learned that we can save time in the restroom.By tying this string to the tip of our you-know-what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39%.’I asked quietly, ‘After you get it out, how do you put it back?’‘Well,’ he whispered, ‘I don’t know about the others, but I use the spoon.’

Corporate Condom