Rising Above Mediocrity
by Benjamin Geiger

This blonde joke had me rolling on the floor. I’ve heard plenty of good ones (and a metric assload of bad ones) but this one takes the cake.

The backlash has started.

Geraldo Rivera’s 10 November show contains a segment about William Freund. The “next show” promo clip says (emphasis spoken in the original):

California: Suffering from a form of autism, he pleaded for help before he killed his neighbors in cold blood. Did his disease cause his violent shooting spree, and could these brutal murders have been prevented? Geraldo takes us inside the case.

Even though the writers go to great lengths to appear impartial, it’s obvious how they’re approaching the story: “Asperger’s syndrome caused this guy to kill.” Look at the show’s blog entry about the story for an example. It asks, “Did William’s difficulty socializing cause him to go on a violent shooting spree?” Everyone knows that when a question is phrased like that by a “news” show, the answer is never no.

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Quick entry this time, I’m in a hurry.

Dad almost passed out last night on the way to work, so his coworker took him to the ER in Celebration, FL. The test results came back that he likely had a heart attack and they’re transferring him to the Florida Hospital branch in Orlando, where they have a catheterization lab.

I’m on the way there as soon as I finish writing this. More details as I can get them posted.

Update (11:30 AM, 7 Nov 2005):

More news.

Dad came through the operation with flying colors. He now has three stents in his coronary arteries. Apparently, his condition was severe enough for him to be flown from Celebration Health to Florida Hospital for treatment. Right now (11:40 AM, 7 Nov) he’s in the heart catheterization recovery room at the Florida Hospital center in Orlando.

(Note to self: boredom plus free cappucino equals caffeine overdose. Yikes.)

I’ve cancelled my meeting at 1PM, and my office hours from 2PM to 5PM. It’s unclear whether I’ll make it to my class at 6PM, but that’s not a big problem. (Update: made it to class, had a test, made a 98. Whee.)

Update (1:00 AM, 9 Nov 2005):

Dad’s still being held for observation, and I have no idea when he’ll be released. His temperature is up to 101F and he didn’t explain why when I called.

That’s about all the news I can think of right now. More updates as information becomes available.

Wal-Mart has no online job application form for store-level work. (Update (2006-10-02): They added one.) According to IO ERROR, they do have forms for work in their data center (northern California) or management-level work, but to work in the store, you have to go in person to apply at the kiosk.

(Not that I’m encouraging anyone to work at Wal-Mart. Their record is particularly craptacular.)

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