[
weblogs
]
2002-01-31
Far afield.
Lo, I have wandered and I have many windows open. I started with my usual read of David Chess's weblog, where he mentioned that he had happened upon a spiffy weblog called
The Obvious?. I started reading there, and ended up with a whole bunch of other links which I have yet to explore (no guarantees of reading satisfaction expressed or implied).
Here are my currently open windows:
[
good
]
2002-01-24
Pixar rocks:
I recently found out that Pixar has shorts available online to view, including my favorite,
Knick Knack (should that be hyphenated?). Go watch it, it's cute! :)
I first saw it in an animation compilation movie thing (Tournee of Animation) lo these many years ago.
[
good
]
2002-01-24
Daniel will be flogged!
Why, you ask? Because I can't add new categories to my weblog, and it's driving me bonkers!
Okay, not bonkers. But I'm still going to flog him. Personally. Tomorrow. Until he fixes it (it's one of those things where he says "Hey, it works for me". Argh!).
Daniel writes...
Hey, it works for you too, now. :)
[
random thoughts
]
2002-01-24
I had no idea:
about all the political stuff that has been going on at one of my favorite museums, the
National Museum of American History, until I read
this article from the Washington Post that I came across I don't know where.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's hard to get funding for good exhibits, and that getting corporate sponsors is a tough dance, trying to get the cash without giving up too much control over what the exhibit's going to be like. I admire the curators and others who help keep the exhibits on the plane of Reality (or try, at least).
I can only imagine what the History of Computing (Sponsored by Microsoft) would look like. Eeeuugh.
When I was in Washington, the NMAH was one of my very favorites. I spent *tons* of time there. I hope it gets through its current struggles okay.
[My brain is working at only like 35% of normal capacity this evening, so forgive me if the above entry is not all that eloquent. Blah.]
[
random thoughts
]
2002-01-24
I am become Death...
eater of worlds! Or something like that. I can't remember how it goes or where it's from and I don't feel like exercising my Google Fu right now to go look for it, thankyouverymuch.
Anyway, my point being, that's what I said when I went outside with the Loppers (more than just a tool, I consider it/them my good friend(s) now) to chop off some overgrowth in our front yard. And lo, I laid waste to an overgrown "weed" (more like a shrub or tree) and various other things that were generally In The Way, while David busily removed the recalcitrant motor from the hot tub.
Yes, that's right, we're going to try to get the thing back online. I'm not sure when we'll achieve this wondrous goal, but you can trust that I'll let you know within a couple of months of its occurrence :P.
On other fronts, we had a good introductory matted-fur-scissoring session with Swiss when he was inside earlier today. He held still while I snipped away some white Rastafarianoid frills from his front leg and tail, which was my modest goal for our first attempt. Later on we'll deal with the bigger mats behind his rear legs, once his trust in me is greater and he's gotten used to the whole business.
Dave and I were very pleased with how it went today, and I gave Swiss a doggie biscuit just to make sure he had some pleasant memories of the whole experience :).
Yes, I realize that a photograph of the mattedness in question would be helpful, but I haven't got one at the moment. Sorry. Speaking of pix, I owe some
kitty ones, don't I?
[
good
]
2002-01-24
An essay about time:
I found
this really neat piece about the lack of time we all have these days at
Rebecca's Pocket. Utterly spiffy.
I highlight a different paragraph than the ones Rebecca quoted:
What matters in such a society is the symbolic power of goods and services; they are less than ever simply vehicles of utility: they serve an expressive function. What counts is what goods say, not what they do. In modern societies goods are means of communication. They constitute a system of "signs" through which a purchaser makes statements about him- or herself. While in the old days goods informed about social status, today they signal allegiance to a particular lifestyle.
Which starts off a whole nother tangent - are our buying habits really a form of expression? To what extent?
I think I agree with this, a little bit. But what does it say when I see a marketplace saturated with stuff that sucks, and I reluctantly buy something anyway because I need it, not because I really want it?
Hmm...
[
body
books
canoe
]
2002-01-22
Oy. I don't feel so good.
I'm feeling kinda sick. I have a painful cough thing going on and my sinuses are not too pleased with me either. I'll survive I'm sure.
Oh yeah, and my back is a bit sore still from going paddling on Saturday. Which I did (and forgot to mention here) and which was fun. :)
My computer is still discombobulated. I messed it up. I was trying to get it so that I could use David's Pinnacle software to edit digital video, but the damn thing wouldn't recognize my firewire card. Various badly-thought-out and irreversible changes later (I hate it when a company goes under/gets bought out and you can no longer get updated drivers for your hardware to replace the ones you just accidentally overwrote!), my computer sits naked on the table next to me with two cards yanked out of it that I have to put back in and attempt to get the software to be willing to talk to. My hopes for success are... not so high.
I finished Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks, and it was great. All I can say is: cuttlefish! Bwahahahhahahaha! Okay, sorry, I'll have to quote from it later and tell you what's so funny. It'll be a spoiler, but it's worth it. Anyway, I want to do a full reasonable book report at some point, but I lack the energy at the moment.
Yesterday, we hung up the sky chair in a test configuration. We found a good branch, and it was able to hold each of us (held up by a chain). Yippee! We still need to get a good screw-onnable link to hook the chain together (we used a padlock for our test but this is not a good idea as a permanent configuration).
That's about it for now. We're going out to dinner tonight with some of David's friends, which should be a lot of fun.
Okay, I'm tired now. I think I'll lay down and read my next book, Stephen King's Dreamcatcher.
[
random thoughts
]
2002-01-20
Our friend Ford has gone.
In July of 1987, David's cats Missy and Charlie had a litter of kittens. They were named Trillian, Arthur, Ford, and Zaphod. Zaphod died last year after two years of illness. Arthur died September 29th. And this past Saturday evening, Ford passed away. Now Trillian is the last one left.
Ford was ill for close to a year before he died, off and on. He seemed thin and weak but okay mostly until the last few days or so, as long as he was around people. We did what we could to make him comfortable, but when he stopped eating and drinking we knew he was about to go.
I didn't get to know him much, really, but I'm glad that he is now at peace and not suffering anymore.
[later I'll edit this entry and add pictures of him - for now we have computer discombobulation tasks to do so I have to power down this machine. Wish me luck!]
[
beauty
mammalog
]
2002-01-15
My beauty:
Our friend Luba's daughter Clavdia took some remarkable pictures of Elena. Here's my favorite:
(click for a bigger version)I look at this picture and I am utterly amazed that such a creature emerged from my own body.
Damn, we live in a wondrous universe.
[
random thoughts
]
2002-01-14
Ack! Where'd the time go?
I've got all this stuff to make entries about, and not much time, so here it is all quick-like:
- Someone from the box o doom just wrote:
I am so happy that you are happy!!!! Take care!
to which I say a hearty thanks! :)
- This
interview with Harold Bloom is actually pretty good (via Follow Me Here - been finding tons of good links there lately, as usual).
- I've been enjoying
Peter G. Neumann's home page. He's the guy who moderates the RISKS digest, among many, many other things. I hadn't realized just how brilliant he was. Wow.
- We spotted a new kitty on the barn cam. We have to come up with a name for him/her, so I'll be asking for submissions soon. We'll capture a frame from the video so you can get a look (later). This kitty is sorta all blended colors - some bits orangeish, other bits grayish and darker. Not quite what I'd call traditional calico, and not what I'd call a "blender cat" either. Sorta halfway in between - it's rather odd. It'll make more sense when I show you the pictures.
- Speaking of pictures, I've got a ton to upload and present for your viewing pleasure. Hopefully I'll get to that later today or tomorrow.
That's it for now. We gotta head out and into town - there are errands to do, and we have to pick up Elena for a visit. Later...
[
rants
]
2002-01-14
Why oh why
do those who send messages to me via the box o doom have to be so snotty sometimes? I quote:
how about you post some stuff to your weblog before your Reading Public loses interest and goes away
Feh, I say, FEH! C'mon - I started this thing as a place for me to vent and just randomly spew out whatever was on my mind. Any resemblance to something entertaining or of quality is entirely coincidental. I made my mind up awhile back that I wasn't going to start getting all worried about my reader(s) - I was going to assume that there were only two of you, so I would never get all caught up in worrying about my stats and so on.
Well okay, I haven't kept *absolutely* entirely to that. But I still haven't wasted much worry over my readership. It does in fact make me happy that occasionally people might think my stuff worth linking to (but it still boggles my mind).
The point is, please just gimme a break. Life intruded, okay? A lot of stuff was going on, I was busy. Big Things were happening. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to write. Things are already improving, even. That is, I'm doing more entries lately. Plus I've got lots of ideas for stuff to do with my website (I know, I know, it's the kiss of death to announce that one is going to update one's website Real Soon Now).
But anyway, I can't let rude comments from the peanut gallery bug me. I just have to keep on keepin' on.
So this isn't even really a rant, I suppose.
[
random thoughts
]
2002-01-14
Daniel planted a geocache:
And
here it is. Too bad I'm so far away and don't have a GPS, or I'd go and see what he put in it. :)
[
random thoughts
]
2002-01-13
We watched some hacker stuff today,
that is, one of the shows about hackers and such on TLC. It was rather interesting, talking about phone phreaking and Captain Crunch and the first personal computers and so on.
One of the people interviewed in the program, Jim Warren, seemed interesting to me, so I googled him and wandered to
this list of radio interviews that has an interview with him as well as some additional ones with other notables. I'll read some of them, too, methinks.
[
random thoughts
]
2002-01-13
That silly Latte!
This morning, Latte was in the kitty corner of the barn. We caught him on the barn cam.
Let me back up...
The male dogs sleep in the barn overnight, in crates assigned to them. There are two: Swiss, a Great Pyrenees, and Latte, a Golden/Australian mix.
In the other corner of the barn is a fenced-off area where David has put out food for feral & semi-feral kitties & possums & such.
Periodically, Latte gets out of his crate and jumps into the kitty area and eats the kitty food. David and I were sitting in the computer room, hanging out, and he was showing me all the cameras that he's got hooked up, and there we see Latte eating from the kitty bowl. Tsk, tsk! Home automation to the rescue.
Egads, now I've got Sammy on my shoulders. Time to post some pix.
[
random thoughts
]
2002-01-12
Oy. What a day.
David and I moved a bunch of stuff today - my dresser, my computer, and uh... that's really about all. But I'm really tired. We also had a big excursion to Walmart which sucked much of my energy.
We just finished achieving network connectivity for my desktop pc. This was a bit tougher than it seemed at first. The darn network card seemed to be holding on to my old ip address from Chris's house. Doh! I'm glad David knows a lot more about this stuff than I do.
Right now we're watching some Family Guy that the Tivo grabbed for us. It's pretty funny :).
I played with my microscope a bit earlier. I think I need to clean one of the lenses and perhaps get some oil to use with the highest-powered lens. I'm not sure what kind of oil I need, though.
I want to install David's Intel digital microscope - that should be fun.
Eek! Sammy cat just jumped into my laugh and he's licking my nose. Okay now he's gone up to my shoulders and over to David's shoulders. At some point I'll do a cast of characters thingie so y'all can see pix of all the animals here.
I suppose that's good for now. I'll write more tomorrow, probably.
[
good
]
2002-01-10
Everything is different now.
I wake up beside a man who loves me and isn't afraid to tell me. Repeatedly, every day.
I stand at the kitchen counter in the mornings, enjoying the sunlight that pours in. I watch the dogs cavorting in the front yard, howling at the passing sirens.
We met eleven days ago. We're still on our first date, I suppose, and it doesn't look as though it will ever end. It just felt so natural, to immediately mesh our lives together.
I had pretty much given up on love. Or at least on falling in love. I was at the point where I was wondering just how much I would have to settle. I had been debating in my mind just which areas were the least onerous to compromise on. Little did I know a man awaited me who would be far beyond my expectations.
David is, to put it mildly, wonderful. He treats me kindly, chivalrously even. He's always concerned about how I'm feeling, willing to give me a hug, a kiss, a shoulder to lean on.
And in return, he tells me that I am the woman of his dreams, and that I make him just as happy as he makes me. We take good care of each other, I think.
So lately I feel as though I have stepped into another world. It's a profoundly odd sensation, to have what I wanted land so neatly in my lap so suddenly.
David and I live out in the country a bit, with 7.5 acres and a slew of animals. Four dogs and four cats are domesticated. Two more cats are semi-feral, with at least six feral ones floating around as well. Three possums, a raccoon, two roadrunners, and a bunny round out the usual visitors.
I hope to get some goats and chickens at some point, but that will require a fair amount of preparation first.
The land slopes gently down a hill, varying from quite rocky to extremely rocky in places. Near the back of the property runs a small clear stream. There's a nice picnic area under some tallish (for this area) trees, a dog agility field, and a round above-ground swimming pool. In one corner of the agility field is where I plan to start a small garden this year.
We have satellite tv, and satellite internet access. David has hacked his Tivo so it holds a huge amount of data, and I'm discovering the joys of asynchronous tv-watching. He's also got his house wired up so that all the lights can be turned on and off with master controllers, and we can watch the same tv shows in different rooms.
We haven't yet moved my computer up to his place, though (we have to make room for it first). The same goes for most of my other stuff. We'll have time to get it all done, though - I'm not worried.
I'm extremely happy ). I feel very loved and cared for, and my loneliness has been cured. Of course life will get tougher when David starts back to work - we won't get to spend just about every moment together as we do now, but we'll manage all right.
So we're in the car now, heading home. We go left at the Chevron, onto Nameless Road. After the landlocked boat that will never see the sea, we turn right onto Round Mountain Road, then through the gate onto the dirt driveway.
The dogs bark to hearken our return, and we enter the barn (which is bigger than the house). A quick pet for the barn cat, Silver (my current favorite), and we cross the bridge from the barn to the house...
This is my life now. Quiet contentment. All sorts of projects to be done - maintenance, cleanup, building for the future. Time to write, time to do puzzles (with which I'm a bit obsessed lately - I think I need to cut back a bit).
So look for me just off Nameless Road, maybe sitting at the picnic table on a warm day, listening to the stream as I type on my new little eMate...
Just know that I am happy now, and I have finally found my home.
