I am a vendor. This is a term used by the company that owns the building in which I work. Vendors are people who work for other companies. Some places call these people sub-contractors. Names vary, but the point is that I am a visitor in this building, even though I work every day here. To get to my office I must pass through three secure doors. The door into the building, the door in the lobby that leads to the work locations, and the door that leads into my program's work area. Thi...

"Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth." - Chuck Norris (1940-) "

So my next article will be magic 100. I've seen other people celebrate this milestone, and thought I would join in the fun. Problem is that I'm about as creative as a... well, something that isn't very creative. So does anyone have any suggestions for my 100 article celebration? If I don't get any suggestions by the time I feel like writing again, I'm just gonna come up with something lame. And let that be on your conscience!

Someone was recently expressing concern about how much exposure their bog site gets on JU, and it got me thinking about how people read other blogs. I can think of a few ways for your site to get exposure 1. Your article shows up in the "Recent JoeUser Articles", and people access it from there. 2. Your article gets a comment that pushes it to the top of the "Recent Forum Posts". 3. Brad makes your article a "Featured JoeUser Article", and this can get you a lot of exposure. 4. You b...

Saturday mornings I like to take a little "me" time and relax. There are several parks in my city, but the one I like the most is the Garden of the Gods. This park has numerous rock formations, all of which are inspiring and beautiful. So on Saturday mornings I will grab some water and head over there and walk the trails. I usually spend about 40 minutes to an hour wandering the paths. Sometimes I will stop at one of the stone formation benches and watch the other visitors marvel at na...

“The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.” -Niels Bohr (1885-1962)

“Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.” - Robert Frost (1874-1963)

“People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.” Robert Keith Leavitt

A friend once told me about his experiences working in a bank, and the lesson about perception that he learned there. This bank employed several women as cashiers, and the bank manager would often offer these women “promotions” rather than raises. So a girl would get a title like “first assistant to the associate cashier” rather than a 3% pay increase for the year. And these women accepted this treatment. At work one day, a few years ago, the subject of whether I could make one of my c...

If JoeUser has a FAQ anywhere, I haven't seen it. So there are a few technical issues that I haven't worked out. One of those is the use of the External URL. What is the purpose of this? Is there some format required (some particular domain, for example)? I've always left mine blank, but I have grown curious enough now to ask.

Back when I was a Lecturer at university, my boss and I would often tease each other about dogs. She was a fervent dog lover, and I do not like the slavishly moronic beasts. This one morning I arrived on campus and proceeded to the department office to check my mail. It was a beautiful spring day, and I was in a pretty good mood. So I enter the office as my boss is leaving. She sees a smile on my face and asks in a slightly sarcastic tone, “What’s got you in such a good mood?” I r...

“Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution.” Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)

"In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock." - Orson Welles (1915-1985) "

Check this out... outside the bathroom... And from inside the bathroom...

"If I were in the President's place I would not have gotten a chance to resign. I would be laying in a pool of my own blood, hearing Mrs. Armey standing over me saying, 'How do I reload this damn thing?'" - Representative Dick Armey, who when asked if he had been in President Clinton's place, would he have resigned? "