09:12 – Barbara just left with her friend Marcy for a trip to the mountains. They’ll be gone for several days, leaving Colin and me to our own devices.
Speaking of Colin, I’ve noticed something interesting. Border Collies seem to support the Libertarian Party overwhelmingly. Since we’ve lived in this house, we’ve had four Border Collies: Kerry, Duncan, Malcolm, and Colin. Every presidential election year, without exception, the BCs pee on every Democrat and Republican campaign sign they encounter, but not one of them has ever peed on a Libertarian campaign sign. Ever. That can’t be a coincidence.
12:58 – I just dropped everything to deal with an inventory emergency. As of this morning, we were down to one chemistry kit in stock. The most time consuming part of assembling a kit is bagging the chemicals, so I just went downstairs and bagged up 15 sets of chemicals. Well, 30 sets, really, because there are two bags per kit, one of regulated chemicals and one of non-regulated. At any rate, I did enough for 15 more chemistry kits. Final assembly and boxing up those 15 kits will take maybe an hour tops.
I made one small procedural change. In the past, I bagged up the regulated chemicals in a quart ziplock and then bagged the non-regulated chemicals in a gallon ziplock, putting the regulated chemicals bag inside the bag that held the non-regulated chemicals. The idea was that that would provide a second level of protection for the regulated chemicals. That’s not required by regulations, and the disadvantage to doing it that way is that I end up with a single chemicals bag. That means I have to have two SKUs for the US and Canadian versions of the chemistry kit. By keeping the regulated and non-regulated chemicals in separate bags, I need maintain only one SKU. By default, a chemistry kit is the US version. When I get an order for a Canadian version, I can simply pull the regulated chemicals bag from the box and replace it with the bag of substitute chemicals that ship with the Canadian version of the kit.
I’ve also changed the bag type. Instead of using ziplock bags, I decided to start using the “Thank You” bags sold by the box of 1,000 at Costco, the type typically used by retailers to bag small purchases. I originally used the ziplock bags because they’re made of heavier plastic and I thought the ziplock would provide a more secure seal than knotting a Thank-You bag and cutting off the excess. The thicker plastic isn’t required by shipping regulations; the only purpose of the bag is to contain the absorbent and prevent liquid from escaping. And, as it turns out, the seal is actually better on a tied-off Thank You bag than on a ziplock. And the thinner bags result in a more flexible subassembly that’s easier to box.
Have you ever seen a ‘Libertarian campaign sign’?
Sure. Libertarians seem more likely to put up yard signs than Democrats or Republicans are. So far, only one family on our block has a yard sign up, but that’ll probably change.
My wife is a 5th grade teacher, and I’m wondering if there are any experiments in the Chemistry or Forensic science books that would work well as a classroom demonstration to make the kids more interested in science?
Oh, sure. Many of them. Let me know if you need copies of the books.
The Paradox of Dogs, from The Oatmeal:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/dog_paradox
Thanks for the laff, ech. After a so-so day, with a tooth-ache, worries about the move, money, the tooth-ache, worries about doubled work-load at the plantation where I work, the toothache, money…rinse and repeat.
I still don’t care much for dogz and am a committed cat person.
Well, I won’t have time to be here much tomorrow. Fridays, I volunteer my time helping my daughter with her 2nd grade class. Now, if you want to see your tax dollars at non-work (on a long time, productive result basis, that is), you should check this out. 100% hispanic, children of recent illegal immigrants (crimmigrants, if you will), born at public hospitals on your tax dollars, populate her school and several of the surrounding. 100% free, subsidized breakfast and lunch and they will 3Rs at the second grade level not at the end of this school year, but at the end of the 5th year. One of my tasks is to administer reading, comprehension tests (they term it fluency) and it is astonishing how poorly the do.
Note that it has nothing to do with the amount of your tax dollars squandered or the competency of the professionals employed. My grandchildred attend a school in the same school district several miles away. Their school is 90% non-minority and the accomplishment levels are totally inverse; they are what one would expect of a great public school. We are very proud over their exceptionally good report cards and give no credit to Obama, Arne Duncan, Rahm Emmanual or any of their minions. It is all in the family, my daughter, her husband and the children’s grandparents.