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EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so, I'll pay attention to your wishes.
Good morning. A bit of a late start, due to a variety of changing plans. We (Tom and I) found out last night that we weren't simply to bless the new cover art as is, but instead edit it, fill in blanks, and who knows what else. Before close of business today. And New York entirely gave my sarcasm in response a miss. Feh. Of course I'd cut out all of the more vehement bits of my response to their timely information - which only left just the one paragraph. Oh, well.
Our initial idea was for Marcia and I to take today off, and go visit Natural Bridges State Park, dropping in on the Monarch butterflies, as we did last year (see the field report). Then whatever viral bug's got me in it's grip caused the first change in plans - Marcia's off to work, and I was going to go into the office myself, for a few hours, at least. Now that concept has been hosed by the good folk at Hungry Minds (formerly IDG Books Worldwide). The best laid plans of mice and men...
Had a nice conversation with Dan Bowman yesterday. I noted that while he suggested that I play Ride of the Valkyries in honor of his success with Linux on two platforms, including a laptop, a router box, and wireless networking. Woooohoooo. However, I told him I thought that Also Sprach Zarathustra would be more appropriate, given the year and all...
No progress yesterday on the Debian Install walk-through, I'll get to it when I can (and when I feel up to it). The only drawback there is that I like writing up the screenshots while the install is clear in my mind. Of course I take notes during the run, but they're only notes and there will be bits that I'll remember as I place and examine each screenshot. The voting on how to handle images in the Debian Install pages is running two to zero for opening images in a new window. Get your votes in soon (if you care).
The final bit of news for the moment, and good news at that, is that while my throat feels worse than yesterday, it also seems as if I've turned the corner and started to mend. We'll see, as the day continues, but personally I find this very heartening. I haven't been this ill in a long time, and frankly, it's annoying as hell. So if you can spare a healing thought for me, aside from your loved ones, also KayCee, and Landon, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. I'll see you later.
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Hullo. A very quiet day yesterday, overall. It's just possible that I was right yesterday morning. I do, finally, feel better today. Not lots better, but significant improvement. I am going to work, but am taking it easy, as I was still awake with my throat in rototiller mode a couple of times last night. We'll see how it goes. The Earl Grey with lemon and honey sure is a wonderful soother, that's for sure. And thanks for your thoughts and kind words - those of you that wrote, and those that just thought them for me.
Got the cover work done, put it out last night - should be in HMI's hands now, since they're in Right Coast time (NY). Basically it was like a fill-in the blanks quiz where some of the questions themselves were wrong. So I scratched out a couple of bits entirely and made up my own replacement. Hope that they like it... <g> OTOH, I made, once again, absolutely no progress on the Debian stuff, and I have more tests to do for the Progeny people... and... and.
The only other thing I did yesterday, off and on, was play Diablo II. Finally got all the way through Level 1 (of 3 or 4?), dunno? Anyway, I got the game while still in book-writing mode, and never have really spent any quality time with it. Nice, nice graphics. Also, I think it looks better with the newer, Win2K specific drivers from the ex-3dfx... those weren't out when I got the game.
Today is a special day - it is someone's birthday. OK, everyday is someone's birthday, but this one is special for me. No, I'm not going to say who, since they'll be embarrassed beyond repair, but Happy Birthday!!!
Marcia spoke with Leah for a bit last night, and within the constraints of the situation, all is reasonably well in Saskatoon, apparently. Keep an eye on Tom's page for any updates, when and if that busy buddy of mine can make time. Family comes first, we all understand that.
On that note, I'm going to call this a post, and hit the road, Jack. Have a lovely day, maybe I'll catch up with you here later. TTFN
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Good morning. Welcome to the Wednesday. I ended up coming home shaky and wan just after midday yesterday, and see no reason to change that diagnosis this morning. This is far worse than any "cold" I've ever had, though not quite bad enough to be a serious flu, since I don't have the body ache that I associate with that. The good news in all of this is that my throat is generally much better - the flip-side is the cold is now up in my head. Feh. If I keep talking about my health (or lack thereof) like this, I might as well dye my hair blue and move to FLA. Sorry. I'll drop it.
I spoke briefly to Tom yesterday, but have no better idea of his new computing network plan than you do - <g> - sorta leaves room for ... speculation, doesn't it?
Something I omitted, yesterday was also the 100th anniversary of the first radio transmission by Marconi. This is celebrated as the birth of radio by many, since Tesla's fundamental patents in the field prior to Marconi's work were ignored for many years. And of course, Marconi was also very, very bright, had a better PR machine, and Tesla's interests lay ... elsewhere. Nicola got ripped off, though.
I've been meaning to note, when I could remember at this hour, that my hardware has pushed me up past 1000 results in on the Daynotes Gang Seti@Home effort, actually sometime over the weekend just past. Still no aliens I can't see in the mirror every day ... <g> I understand from Bob's periodic posts that we're doing pretty well on playing catch up on the Clubs list. One day I ought to look that one up myself. Heh.
That's about all I can muster up right about now - I've made some mods to Marcia's setup in the front room, added a game to my collection, and still have to write up the Debian install. One of these days... Take care.
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Good morning. After one last go-round yesterday, I think we've put the cover text for Caldera OpenLinux Secrets (mostly) to bed. There may be a picture or two that require captions yet, but 'ze act, she's a-not toge'zer yet. Overall, I think I am pleased with how it's come out, and disappointed (once again) by how we're being handled.
Every once in a while I forget the essential truth: Publishers sell a product, not books, not "content", and for the most part, fundamentally, they care about nothing besides the revenue stream. Mostly, it's because they know nothing but the revenue stream. I can work with them, as long as I remember that they give not a hoot about me or my work, but only if they have a product to sell. And they pay the equivalent of bowls of rice for some of the hardest work I've ever done. Can you imagine two technically proficient guys working hard for 9 months to earn enough ... to buy a mid-range sedan??? It's gotta be love of the work, 'cause it sure ain't the pay, baby.
Looking forward to a busy day at work today. Then tonight, we trade steel, sheetmetal and plastic for little green pieces of paper. That's right, the Cavalier has made the transition to Sale Pending. Hurrah! Then we'll be doing some touch-up cleaning around the apartment in preparation for the arrival of niece Natalie (on Marcia's side, daughter of Bill and Sue [Sue is Marcia's sister]). We have a weekend of shopping and movies and... and... planned. I forsee some quality time with Grinch and Gryphon coming up soon <g>.
Now I am off to the salt mines, so have yourselves a lovely day. What? Oh, yeah, the cold is still here, but I am trying hard not to give it even so much as the time of day. And thanks go to Dan Bowman, who found that the Site Search facility (at the top of each week's page) has been hosed since New Year's. Now fixed and reindexed. Take care, c u l8r... <g> (Ick. No, just for fun, I won't be doing that again).
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Going ... going ... GONE! Little red Chevy Cavalier sold to the gentleman waving the green bits of paper over on the other side of the Bay! Good morning, and yes, we unloaded the Cav last night. We ended up knocking $1300 off our original asking price, but did way better than if we'd donated it out, and still, we exceeded it's likely trade-in value by $1500 or more. That's in the bank, and next month another monthly bill bites the dust, getting our cumulative debt a little closer to Earth, a little further from the stratosphere.
So last night (and it actually was already a dark and stormy night, even at four in the afternoon), I got home, Marcia trailing by just a few minutes, and we called our buyer. He didn't have someone to come with him to get the car. Being a proactive and stupid person, I said, "Can we bring it to you?" (meaning, "Can we please unload this heap tonight and be done with this business?").
He replied, "Sure, here's how you get to where I am..." meaning "Thank God I don't have to get out and drive during the commute in this stinking weather!"
So, for two hours, through heavy rain and heavier traffic, accidents and bad directions and crawling traffic, Marcia and I made our separate ways across the valley, covering in that time a distance that would take us 15 minutes on Sunday morning. We got to the correct meeting place (thank goodness for cell phones), Marcia signed the title as I counted and checked the money. Deal done.
We had a much easier trip home, since we were in the same vehicle, and thus could take advantage of the diamond lanes (part of the highway dedicated to multi-occupant vehicles during commute hours) - home in a half-hour. Then we went back out again, banking our haul, and fetching in some dinner.
The balance of my evening was spent in two ways: First, I got on the phone with Tom, and we walked throught the installation of Word Perfect. It is not a smooth process except on Corel Linux, so far as I know. But we were both successful in the end, I think. Then I headed over across the way to Scott's where we finally powered up his new hardware and loaded Windows 98 SE. Pop, whiz, bang and it's up. Given that he had been working with a P1-166, and was now on a P3-833 with nice doodads built onto the Intel 815 mobo, and a 7200 RPM Maxtor, he was very pleased and impressed with the performance of his box during initial installation. I left him there as he installed the various driver bits off the Intel installation CDROM. I think he'll be even happier once he watches how snappy his applications software is going to be (Scott works with Photoshop, which should fly very nicely on this box). All in all, a successful, if over-busy evening.
Now to work with me, where I have to finish rebuilding a work box. We lost another WD drive, irretrievably this time, and the backups on that box had not been kept up to date. I am really tempted to draconian measures, but we'll see. With a Linux box on the server side, I can easily automate some things... Mmmm.
Y'all have a great day, and yes, I'll drive carefully - it's still coming down out there. Later.
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Good Morning. I haven't looked outside yet, but there's painfully bright stuff from the big Hydrogen Lamp sneaking in though the blinds. On my drive in to work yesterday morning, there was significant amounts of snow on the hilltops, second tier away from the Bay (where it gets cooler). Then, on the drive home, I caught a double rainbow, and saw that some of the snow was still around. We'll see in a while if it still survives.
With Natalie visiting, we're off to Orinda to visit with my folks, and Barb is down with Alex and Robbie - should be a fun time. This also means short posts probably, like this one. TTFN.
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Good morning - I know, only just, but still, that counts. Nice day yesterday, mostly. We headed out in the Blazer at about 10:30 with Natalie, to do a couple of errands, then head up to Orinda, as noted yesterday. After the stops, we got on the highway and ... Hmmm. I can't spell the word that makes the same sound the truck made, but it wasn't a good sound. It was much more a fuel-starved sound. Very not good.
So we called Orinda and said we'd miss lunch, but be there later. Then I set out hiking back to the house (about 3 miles) to pick up the Benz, while Marcia and Natalie waited for the tow service. I got back there about 45 minutes later, still no tow (duh). They then went for burgers while I waited for the truck. Tow and lunch showed up at the same moment, about 12:30. We dropped it at the local shop we use for most automotive work, gave them the cell phone number and left on the road.
The call came as we passed heading north through San Leandro... fuel pump. Cheap, right? Nope. Mounted in the fuel tank, electronic, painful and very, very expensive. Let me reiterate: painful. Sigh. No real choices though. Sigh. Jumping ahead (chronologically), the truck is still not ready - I should be able to fetch it on Monday morning sometime.
We had a nice, but shortish, visit in Orinda, then headed out on a scenic tour drive back home. The skies around the Bay Area are crystal clear from the preceding rains, and the resultant views: Stunning. We crossed the Bay Bridge and drove down 280. A pretty late afternoon for a nice drive.
We cooked last night, burritos and nachos, watched a little Blackadder, then played Trivial Pursuit until near midnight. I think I remember winning, but it was very late. Slept in late this morning, then I made bacon and eggs for the three of us, while we watched home improvement shows on TLC. Personally, that's quite enough effort for the day, and I'm ready to take a nap, but...
Now we're preparing to head down to Natural Bridges State Park for another visit with the Monarch butterflies. It looks like a nice day for this trip, and should be a relatively uncrowded drive and park, since the Stupid Bowl is this afternoon. Normally I only watch bits of it for the commercials, but even those have been disappointing in recent years. So, thanks, but I'll pass.
Y'all have a lovely day. Take care and I'll see you next week.
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