Category: Uncategorized

This is entirely too cute. A baby hippo orphaned by the tsunami has bonded with a tortoise, and now the two hang out together.

The wind is varying between outright howl, moan, and whine. On this wind is wave after wave of snow. It’s moving pretty darn close to horizontal. We just did a cursory check for drafts, and determined that we *really* need weather stripping on the back door, and that the fan in the master bathroom may be installed backwards … since it seems to suck cold air *into* the house. May be. Might also just be the aforementioned howling wind. Don’t know for sure.

All the insulation work has backfired a little bit. The thermostat is located in the very core of the house, which at this point is quite cozy. It loses heat very slowly there, and that room stays almost perfectly even in temperature. It’s the first to heat and the last to freeze. Unfortunately this means that the rest of the house gets butt-cold before the thermostat decides to make a teensy adjustment. I find myself manually duty-cycling the temperature every couple of hours.

On the plus side, our heating bills will be lower this year, because we’re only heating one room, effectively.

And just as I was finishing this post, it became the perfect weather: THUNDERSNOW! With lightning and thunder, howling wind, and heavy snow … thundersnow is truly the perfect weather. Provided, of course, that you’re not out in it. I truly, honesly feel that thundersnow is my favorite sort of storm. Now the year is perfect, because it has contained that rare treasure: thundersnow.

–Update–

The power is fluctuating. On and off. On and off. The UPS is holding the internet connection stable, for the moment, but that only covers us for an hour or so. This could get ugly.

Why is it that every time somebody new gets an old idea, they have to make up a new word for it?

Cohousing near Boston

It actually sounds pretty nice: Plans call for 34 typical condominiums, which will be grouped together to encourage neighborly interaction. The complex also will include a ”common house” that will have a kitchen, a large dining area, a playroom, a ”dojo” (a studio for music, yoga, and martial arts), guest rooms for visitors, and space for crafts. Other amenities will include an archery range, a ballfield, a swimming pool, a meditation grove, and a fighting barn for the medieval sparring matches. Parking will be on the periphery to encourage walking.

karate notes

Two of my colleagues are working for the evil tobacco company this week.

Apparently at dinner last night, one of said colleagues was smoking. He endured mockery because he “doesn’t fit the demographic for Newports.” A Newport smoker, according to their market research, is “poor, forgetful, behind on his bills and unhappy in life/job.”

This is mockery material for years to come.

Then, we have my horror at the fact that they have a product targeting these losers. I only fear that someday I may discover what demographics I defy, through my choice of products.

A brief cautionary tale:

One of the people I’ve had the chance to work with this year just got fired, for good cause (not my company, one of our clients). He’s a nice guy. Has a new kid, less than a year old. He’s completely screwed, and it was totally avoidable. I post it here on the off chance that you’re thinking “I won’t get caught” about some piece of petty lawbreaking / rulebreaking, and thus risking your ability to feed your family.

This guy was selling unused software licenses purchased by his employer. They were just sitting around. Extra inventory, you know? Won’t be missed. His organization had paid for them, but then wasn’t using them. He was selling them online. They were missed, he got canned. End of story.

Dumb? Yes. Does he deserve to be fired? Absolutely. Do I feel bad for him? Yup. In fact, I feel bad for everyone concerned. His boss is a good guy too … and they were just starting to make progress on some really interesting science. Now, this guy is out of a job with a new kid and winter coming on. His boss is screwed for someone who knows how to work his compute cluster. All because the fire-ee got greedy.

So: If you’re breaking some petty rule, stealing a little on the side from your employer, and you assume it doesn’t matter and you won’t get caught, just stop, okay?

I think that my body as just as short an attention span as my mind, these days. I spent the last two days sitting still in the same chair and answering support tickets (down to 30 from 70, of which 13 are from two extremely prolific users). Now my back hurts. I find that I can mitigate this somewhat with stretching and exercise … but the way to nip it in the bud is simply to not sit in the same chair for an entire day. If I move from the office chair to the couch, to the dining room table … I never even get sore.

Anyway, the ticket system is much better. Hopefully the remaining tickets can be cleared out for the new year with a little more squeezing.

The problem du jour is to write my GDMF report for Intel. I’ve got the document out and open, and all my results in various tables and spreadsheets. Now I just need to finish it. Why do I fear finishing things? Is this a personality flaw? Bad habit?

I guess I’m pretty much done with this post, except that once I hit “submit”, I’m closing the web browser and typing text until the report is in draft form … so maybe just another paragraph?

Oh yeah: It’s sparring night at the gym. I went five, 90 second rounds with that same 50 year old cop a week back, and once again found myself about ready to hurl from the sheer cardeo exertion. Sparring is the only exercise activity I’ve found other than climbing which demands absolute, total focus in this way. In climbing, if your mind wanders, you fall. Instant punishment. When sparring, if you start wondering about that bug in that script you were writing, you get hit. Same deal. I love it.

Okay. No kidding now. Writing.

Except maybe some fresh tea first …

I’ve been trying to refrain from posting quite as much random crap from the web in this space. However, this one just scared the crap out of me. I think it’s art … I really do. It’s the sepia tones, the german, and the long hallway that somehow combine to make it chilling.

Blixa Bargeld reading from a Home Improvement Superstore catalog.

There are other parts, but you can find them yourselves.

— Edit —

I may be misinterpreting, but according to the captions “High efficiency killing” is a two syllable word in German.

Wow.

I’m looking out my window at the snow, and it occurs to me that a smart person would probably do something to help his roses through the winter.

In MN we would BURY the damn things (the “Minnesota Tilt,” they call it). Nobody in RI has heard of this practice, so I’m assuming I don’t have to do that.

Ideas include some combination of:

• getting a couple of hay-bales and mulching them
• Stripping the leaves from the canes so they don’t rot (why don’t the leaves just fall off?)
• Cutting back the canes so the snow doesn’t crush and snap them (How far? When? Last month, most likely)
• Getting “rose cones”, which are the yuppie version of hay

Thoughts? Expertise?