funny one

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW drives up in a
cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd: “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”
The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly
answers: “Sure. Why not?”
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,connects it to his AT&T cell phone,
surfs to a NASA page on the internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact
fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an
ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the shepherd and says:
“You have exactly 1586 sheep.”
“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep.”, says the shepherd.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. Then the shepherd says to the young man: “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep? ”
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says:“Okay, why not?”
“You’re a consultant.” says the shepherd.
“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”
“No guessing required”, answered the shepherd.
“You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked; and you don’t know crap about my business… Now give me back my dog.”

General Stuff

Hello All ;)

Well, figured I'd write and let you know what is happening around here.

All is well; Jaki, Greg and I are having fun when we get a chance to hang out. It's not as much as I'm sure we'd all like but that is to be expected, life and things do get busy. I've have had some chances though to show Greg around the city a bit, we're hoping he finds the right house or condo to live in so that he has a short commute to and from work (and our houses) and the right 'extras' such as pools with hot chicks and near by food and fun.

I guess things are fine by me, went to the holiday party for the World Bank last night, had a nice time at a great fondue place, good food, I like cooking the meat and shrimp and all that on the skewers, kinda fun. I'll be working part-time for CIBT at the World Bank in '07, the price is right and they can use my help so it should be a beneficial relationship for both of us. I'm happy to go back to the World Bank because that place is just so international it's cool. Lot's of neat stuff from around the world everywhere, cafeteria and elevators full of different languages, clothes and smells ... it's all pretty sweet. So, I'll be programming some forms for the visa office there and that should be a great way to make some extra money and let the traffic die down before heading home. 7am to 5pm here at AJE (It's Al Jazeera English now, they changed the name from Al Jazeera International) so I can work at the WB from 5 to whenever and then go home. I plan to only work there on days I work here so as to keep my 'days off' just that, days off ;)

Work here at AJE is going well too. I'm busy mostly all day, and time seems to go by pretty quickly because of it. Being in the IT world is a bit different from what I'm used to but I think I'm adjusting ok. As you know I was a graphic designer for the last 5 years and so this whole 'fixing computers' thing can be challenging. I do what I can and don't BS anyone so it seems to be ok that I am not the worlds brightest computer wiz ya know; I mean hey, I'm no chump either, but the real challenge isn't fixing the computer, it's fixing the computer under pressure and under 1/2 hour :) ha ha, that's when things get 'Fun' I guess you could say. Anyhow, the pay is great and I'm right downtown which is exciting too. Plus the drive is short enough that Myrtle and I aren't on the road for too long, and that's just a blessing right there.

Let's see, what else is new ? Virginia is coming back for the holidays so that is something I'm looking forward to for sure. Not sure though what will happen this year in '07, Virginia will be in England and I guess I'll start dating again. The intersting thing is that I think I've finally created some standards ya know, just don't have the time or desire to hang out with or spend/waste my time with girls that are simply not going to work for me. This is an old concept from what I hear but a new activity for me so wish me luck. From now on I'm only hanging out wit the top 1 percenters, no time for the other 99% I guess.

I was working for the Washington Opera again in the Madam Butterfly Opera, that was kind of fun, very taxing on my schedule and energy but fun none the less. I was able to bring Greg along but didn't really get to have him back stage during the show like I had hoped, he was forced to patiently wait upstairs in the dressing area petting a nice but stinky golden retriever ... I think that dog was in heaven.

Anywhosy, that's it for me, things are OK and I am having some fun now and then; working mostly and spending time with Greg and Jack as often as I can but still trying to get it on on my own ya know. Hope all is well with you and yours, Happy Holidays !!!

Much love, Pete