From LA Daily News: Stranded Swedish family of seven heading back home, thanks to Carson sheriff’s deputies, reserves
I know I am extremely cynical and skeptical, but if I were writing this article, I would have asked a bunch of questions like:
- Why would they be wandering the streets at 4:30am? I get they couldn’t afford a place to stay, but unless they were walking the approx 13 miles from Carson to LAX and needed to ensure they’d get there by their flight Sunday, this doesn’t make sense. If I were stranded in a foreign city with no money, I sure as heck would not be wandering around in the middle of the night.
- They were planning on attending a family member’s graduation - did they ask this family member to help them out? I’m sure sleeping on a living room floor would have been better than wandering the streets. Or even to borrow cab fare to get to the airport early? Staying overnight in an airport isn’t ideal but it is presumably safer than wandering the streets.
- Did they (or Carson sheriff’s deputies) try contacting the Swedish consulate? Don’t embassies and consular offices help their citizens visiting the host country? [Note - I just checked and there is no Swedish consulate in Los Angeles; the closest is in San Diego. Plus, it appears they’ll help with a few services, but emergency travel funds is not one of them].
The family spoke very limited English - isn’t English a compulsory subject in Sweden? Aside from that, if you are visiting a foreign country whose language you aren’t familiar with, wouldn’t it be a good idea to be prepared? Learn some English, buy a dictionary, write down some necessary phrases, etc?
This story reminded me a lot of the Virginia family who were stuck in SLC because they were using buddy passes and the lady stuck in SFO because she couldn’t afford to check in her bags. It’s great that the family made it home safe and sound, but it’s just a reminder that people need to be careful and plan ahead when they travel.
In polisci class, they talked about how globalization prevents war. You know, how supposedly countries with McDonalds don’t go to war with each other and all that jazz. Maybe it isn’t such a far-fetched theory… I mean, who doesn’t like junk food?
Like the North Koreans and their Choco Pies. And the Gazans and their KFC.
Wait, this makes no sense - Jeff was at Greendale to replace his fake Bachelor’s degree. Why is he getting an Associate degree?!
Also, it took him 3.5 years to get an Associate degree? Took too many blow-off classes, did he?
![Here is my work-tracking-log. I wish I could say this log was my own brilliant creation, but actually, I was inspired by this Emergent Task Timer [David Seah]. I tried using the form but I didn’t like filling in bubbles, plus I wanted to mark six-minute intervals. Unfortunately, a full 8-hour day doesn’t fit on one page (unless I make the boxes smaller). As to the tally method, I learned it a while ago. I have to say that I like it better than the sticks and diagonal tally marks that I used as a kid. With that method, sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between 3 or 4 sticks. This method also allows me to notate when I worked on something (e.g., during the 2nd and 3rd 6-minute interval of 10 o’clock). I probably will never need to reference this, but it’s nice to have.The daily tasks are listed from the bottom up. New tasks are added from the top down. Asterisks mark interruptions.At the end of the day (or if I have a few minutes to spare in between tasks), I count the number of marks, multiply them by 6 and then write down the number of minutes per task (in blue). Super easy and much neater than trying to track down every single thing I do.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/097c94ece727b6691ab237739f91c4c9/tumblr_mmmf01076k1rlgnito1_500.jpg)
Here is my work-tracking-log. I wish I could say this log was my own brilliant creation, but actually, I was inspired by this Emergent Task Timer [David Seah]. I tried using the form but I didn’t like filling in bubbles, plus I wanted to mark six-minute intervals. Unfortunately, a full 8-hour day doesn’t fit on one page (unless I make the boxes smaller).
As to the tally method, I learned it a while ago. I have to say that I like it better than the sticks and diagonal tally marks that I used as a kid. With that method, sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between 3 or 4 sticks. This method also allows me to notate when I worked on something (e.g., during the 2nd and 3rd 6-minute interval of 10 o’clock). I probably will never need to reference this, but it’s nice to have.
The daily tasks are listed from the bottom up. New tasks are added from the top down. Asterisks mark interruptions.
At the end of the day (or if I have a few minutes to spare in between tasks), I count the number of marks, multiply them by 6 and then write down the number of minutes per task (in blue). Super easy and much neater than trying to track down every single thing I do.
Copy-editing/proofing a 10 page document:
- 155 insertions
- 130 deletions
- 8 formatting fixes
- 2 comments
295 revisions total… I am really picky, aren’t I?
