July 14, 2002

           [Author's note 2021: This appears to be the only surviving document for this blog on this date. It is a chart of data recording how many toothpicks were counted. Corny as is sounds to some, it was an accomplishment in addition to whatever else happened that day. Now I will have to relearn how to publish HTML tables. I don't know if that is even still possible now that Google has mucked it up.
           This is trickier than it sounds, as the table layout tags have been deprecated. They want you to use CSS, but as this blog so long ago pointed out, trying to use global commands to fix specific cell formatting is just another can of worms pre-digested by the wired bunch.]

Toothpick Count Record

July 14, 2002

Start----	Batch----	Actual---	Time-----	Bundled--
5:15	B428	637	5:59	600
6:00	B429	584	6:30	600
7:10	B430	725	7:49	800
7:50	B431	725	8:35	700
	Extra	100		100
		2803

           The above table is the best I can do with HTML tags. No doubt the appearance will degrade over time as Google hires more low-quality idiots who will be brainwashed and continue to deprecate the tags.
           I remember the charts now, they are self-explanatory. Start and end times of each batch count, usually a box which was labeled to contain 800 or 900 toothpicks, an event that in 12,000 or so boxes never actually happened. In box B429 (B meaning Frank counted that box), there were only 637 usable toothpicks, which were made into 6 bundles of 100 each. The leftover picks were accumulated until they produce bundles called "Extra". A total of 2803 toothpicks were handled this session.
           I can tell by reading the chart this was a short meeting, and the time between counts tells us we were tuckered out before we started.

           The script behind making this chart is one of the reasons I laughed at HTML back in 1996 or so. Only magnificent morons could have come up with it, so i quit studying it thinking it could never become standard. I totally underestimated how stupid the people behind me were, the so-called first "computer generation". The charts are designed totally to display, with complete disregard for underlying chart principles, purpose, or cell inter-relationships--whih is precisely how an imbecile looks at a chart.
           There is no provision to make the columns any different width than the headers, no good way to display control breaks (duh, Brandon, what are those), and no way to import charts except as a graphic. This slipshod thinking led directly to the mess we today call GPS.