Many hours ago, sometime yesterday I think, I decided I was going to cancel an upcoming dental appointment I have. What I decided was to cancel it as more of a postponement. I don't have dental insurance. So anyway, I have given that topic a great deal of thought in the past day. Only just in the past day did I start thinking about cancelling the appointment. But for a while I have thought about how I wasn't really certain about if I trusted them enough to go back there again, much the same way I can't even order take-out food anymore in this godforsaken organized crime-controlled town, as though I ever could. I would have actually called yesterday to cancel the appointment but I don't have a telephone anymore. I thought yesterday about sending an email to cancel it but I don't know if that would work. I mean, sheesh, who the hell takes *my* emails seriously.
Today in the late afternoon, I remember very well, I, for the first time, put into my pocket the business card from that dentist with the appointment date on it. I did that because I thought about looking for a pay telephone to call from and to cancel the appointment. I walked outside and I was looking around at the locations of pay telephones.
But that makes sense, right? It's the time-traveler effect. I blog it therefore I think it. My tomorrow is your yesterday.
A compounding factor is because I was thinking of something I said when I scheduled the appointment. I was surprised later after getting back to my apartment about what I had said and, while the detail is trivial, I thought it was kind of clever. I remember the woman, apparently also a customer, turning to look at me after I said that and I could see her in my peripheral vision turning to look in my direction.
No big deal, but I thought it was kind of clever. And a clever way to catch people who are talking indiscreetly.
So that's the time-traveler effect.
Or so I thought. Maybe I am just a hell of a lot smarter than I think I am.
And sure, that makes sense.
That makes sense because how could the time-traveler effect even be *in effect* if I wasn't smart enough to make it work?
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 21:34:49 -0800 (PST)
From: "Kerry Burgess"
Subject: Re: unearned revenues
To: "Kerry Burgess"
Kerry Burgess wrote:
[I'm not sure if this is the same article, but one day I was talking to someone that sat across the aisle from me at Microsoft on this topic. I think it was the day after the company meeting when John Connors was playing cowboy and talking about "his brand" and stuff and was saying that an Enron could never happen at Microsoft. The next day I read something about this unearned revenue stuff that left me wondering if that was true or not. From what I understood, this unearned revenue was basically a cookie jar that could be used to balance out the revenue which in turn stabilized the stock price. Sounds like a great plan, but then what is the point of accounting and reports and all that financial stuff? I probably wouldn't have even been thinking about this stuff if not for being a stock holder and wanting to know that my underwater stock options would be worth something before they expired. My fate was probably sealed when I sent that email to Connors asking if he thought accuracy was important. I replied to an email he had sent to my group or division, I don't remember exactly who it had gone to. But I replied because I saw something familar in it and basically was hoping to gain an ally in strenghtening my groups focus on accuracy before I left to take another job on campus I was hoping to get. I wanted to know the practice was better after I left than when I found it.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 21 March 2006 excerpt ends]
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 21:34:49 -0800 (PST)
From: "Kerry Burgess"
Subject: Re: unearned revenues
To: "Kerry Burgess"
[This is another article from earlier in the year that was talking about using unearned revenue to smooth out the balance sheet. As I understood it, the revenue was not reported unless it was needed, in that if sales were down in a quarter, they could inject some of this unearned revenue into the report and voila, everybody was happy.
I remember asking at one point to our director about our utilization billing. I wanted to know if we tracked labor to use as a gauge for the usage of our products among ISVs. My theory was that the ISVs that used our products the most would possibly have more need for product and developer support. Another possibility I considered was that we used labor as a valid revenue generator, because we were supposed to be a consulting practice after all. I never did get an answer but that was one of the reasons I was asking. I felt the purpose of management was to clarify issues like that.]
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 21 March 2006 excerpt ends]
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 9:47 PM Pacific Time USA Tuesday 08 May 2012
