Follow-up

That phone call last Friday? I still think it was legit. The caller just sounded too genuine and sincere. But then, I can be gullible at times.

Our plant is way out in the country, but it IS on the same rural road as (and between) two other (larger) chemical processing plants. So if someone were making the rounds of industrial employers, it would make sense for them to drop in here and inquire.

It's happened before, but this caller -- from his accent, grammar, and overall presentation on the phone -- struck me as one who might be looking for unskilled or semi-skilled work at most.

I hate to stereotype people from their manner of speaking, but hey, remember "My Fair Lady?" Professor Heny Higgins says of Eliza Doolittle,

"It's 'Owww' and "Garn' that keep her in her place. Not her wretched clothes and dirty face!" Then he launches into the song, "Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?"

We all tend to form opinions of a persn's background and education (or lack thereof) from their grammar, vocabulary, and verbal presentation. To me, this man had the stereotypical poor black manner of speaking down pat. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. But when you're looking for a job and calling on a company's Human Resources department, you'll do better to come across as, at least, literate.

Anyway, I DO have an excuse for not posting over the weekend. Or yesterday. And that excuse is...

My new Dell computer arrived on Friday afternoon. And yes, I'm STILL getting it set up! I'll get a picture of it up soon. But it's not the CPU and all the peripherals that are giving me trouble. It's the Vista operating system that's kicking my butt!

I've been around this block before. More than once. My first computer was an Apple IIe. I finally bought an "IBM compatible" machine when the first generation Pentium chips were new and hot. I've moved from Windows 3.1, to Windows 95, to Windows 98, to Windows XP. Yes, I skipped ME and Windows 2000. None of those gave me the fits that Vista is giving me.

I don't mind the new image-based "look and feel," but I can't find the stuff I'm used to working with on applications. I tried to set up Internet Explorer as one of my first tasks. I looked for the "Tools" menu. It isn't there. I right-clicked all over the window and used help until I finally figured out how to put those little "File Edit View Favorites Tools Help" menus up there. Things just aren't intuitive yet. We'll see if they get that way later.

Anyway, there's more to my story of angst. But that's enough for now. Stay tuned for a picture (and more angst) soon.