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GRAFFITI -- February 12, 2007 thru February 18, 2007 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.     About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
February 12, 2007

0635 - Good morning. Everything's sanded in the master suite, a few freshly-spotted gaffes are patched, and two walls have their first coat of primer on. I'm going to take a couple of half-days early this week to make more progress on the painting. I'd like not to blow my upcoming three-day weekend on the project, especially with Marcia's birthday this week.

On the OS X text editor front, I've come to the conclusion that I don't like any of the tools I've tried. What I really want is Bluefish. It's simply the best HTML editor I've ever used. Now, I'll bet that some of the more expensive for-pay tools, like BBedit, might do the trick. But since I don't use this stuff to earn a single thin dime of cash, I just can't see laying out serious dollars for an editor. At £39 for TextMate, that was the most expensive of the four I looked at. So either I write some keystroke macros for Vim and work in Terminal (or possibly with this OS X port of Vim) ... we'll see.

Now to get going, if I'm going to bail early, then I suppose I ought to get an early start. Ciao!

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February 13, 2007

No Post..

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February 14, 2007

0801 - Good morning. I was going for an early start yesterday morning, right up until I woke up and found it hovering around 50° F inside ... okay, not so much hovering as plummeting. Pilot light was out again. So I re-lit the furnace, and formatted Jerry's column while I waited for the temperature to come up enough that I wanted to take a shower. Yesterday afternoon, our HVAC vendor was out replacing the thermocouple. That's because Marcia had to relight it again, which reminded her we wanted them to have them look at it.

Today dawned cold and icing. I was up at quarter to six, checking conditions. I broke out of the back of the house through the shed side door, and went around to the back porch door to chip it free. 15 minutes or so bought me a path from the door out, for the dogs. Not so bad. Then, after a bit of weaselling, I showered and gave the truck a workout. I mean, why own a 4WD/AWD truck if I don't get it out on the crappy days. I managed several miles before my cell phone rang - El Jefe calling to make it a snow/ice day - turn around and go home. So here I am.

Happy Valentine's Day.

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February 15, 2007

2233 - Good evening. Marcia's birthday dawned a bit too early for me - I awoke with something that felt migrane-ish at about 0100, and never really got back to sleep. Slow drive to work this morning, and a full day before a four day weekend pretty much capped it for me. But I got her a nice card that pleased her, and I guess that she likes the birthday present we got her last month...

Leah Syroid and Marcia have been in touch from time to time over the last few months, but timing and work and other responsibilities seemed to always get in the way of Tom and I hooking up. That's past, now — Tom gave me a jingle tonight. He sounds well, family's good, and after quite a long hiatus, he's mucking about with computers in his non-copious spare time. It was a treat to talk with him after three years.

I did say four day weekend, didn't I? Yeah, I'm taking an extra day off at the front end of President's Day weekend, and we'll do something fun. More when I know more. G'night.

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February 16, 2007

No Post.....

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February 17, 2007

1655 - Good afternoon. Yesterday was ... uneventful. We got out of the house for a while, and ended up stuck in traffic. Lovely. Ordered burgers in, and watched the last three episodes of Buffy. Today ended up as a shopping day, and we're going out for Chinese tonight. It's fun celebrating Marcia's birthday! Oh, and I'm mucking about with Skype a bit - Bob and I got bi-directional video going with almost no hitches at all. But the iSight camera built into the Mac seems to be much better than the Creative cam that he's using. Okay, time to break away from the machine again. Ciao!

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February 18, 2007

1505 - Good afternoon. Lazy day. Playing with the dogs, watching some video, doing a bit of content formatting for Jerry - normal stuff. Now to go do some abby normal stuff... but first, my responsibility to our troops:

• Capt. Jennifer J. Harris, 28, of Swampscott, Mass., died Feb. 7 when the helicopter she was flying in crashed while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• 1st Lt. Jared M. Landaker, 25, of Big Bear City, Calif., died Feb. 7 when the helicopter he was flying in crashed due to enemy action, while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Sgt. Travis D. Pfister, 27, of Richland, Wash., died Feb. 7 when the helicopter he was flying in crashed due to enemy action, while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, 30, of Toms River, N.J., died Feb. 7 when the helicopter he was flying in crashed due to enemy action, while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Sgt. James R. Tijerina, 26, of Beasley, Texas, died Feb. 7 when the helicopter he was flying in crashed due to enemy action, while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Lance Cpl. Matthew P. Pathenos, 21, of Ballwin, Mo., died Feb. 7 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Sgt. James J. Holtom, 22, of Rexburg, Idaho, died Feb. 8 in Karmah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol.
• Spc. Ross A. Clevenger, 21, of Givens Hot Springs, Idaho, died Feb. 8 in Karmah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol.
• Pvt. Raymond M. Werner, 21, of Boise, Idaho, died Feb. 8 in Karmah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on combat patrol.
• Staff Sgt. Alan W. Shaw, 31, of Little Rock, Ark., died Feb. 9 in Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an explosion during breaching operations.
• Staff Sgt. Eric Ross, 26, of Kenduskeag, Maine, died Feb. 9 in Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an explosion during breaching operations.
• Spc. Leeroy A. Camacho, 28, of Saipan, Mariana Islands, died Feb. 9 in Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an explosion during breaching operations.
• Sgt. James J. Regan, 26, of Manhasset, N.Y., died Feb. 9 in northern Iraq of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle while on combat patrol.
• Sgt. Long N. Nguyen, 27, of Portland, Ore., died Feb. 10 in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, of a non-combat related wound.
• Sgt. Russell A. Kurtz, 22, of Bethel Park, Pa., died in Fallajah, Iraq, Feb. 11 of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations.
• Sgt. Robert B. Thrasher, 23, of Folsom, Calif., died Feb. 11 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with the enemy using small arms fire during combat patrol.
• Capt. Donnie R. Belser Jr., 28, of Anniston, Ala., died Feb. 10 in Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with the enemy using small arms fire during combat operations.
• Pfc. Tarryl B. Hill, 19, of Shelby Township, Mich., died Feb. 7 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Pfc. Brian A. Browning, 20, of Astoria, Ore., died Feb. 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from enemy small arms fire while conducting security operations.
• Pvt. Clarence T. Spencer, 24, of San Diego, died Feb. 4 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with the enemy using small arms fire in Baqubah, Iraq.
• Spc. Dennis L. Sellen Jr., 20, of Newhall, Calif., died Feb. 11 in Umm Qasr, Iraq, of non-combat related injuries.
• Petty Officer 2nd Class Laquita Pate James, 33, of Orange Park, Fla., died Feb. 12 of apparent natural causes while deployed aboard the multipurpose amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan.
• Pfc. Nickolas A. Tanton, 24, of San Antonio, died Feb. 13 in Kirkuk, Iraq, from non-combat related injuries.
• Lance Cpl. Daniel T. Morris, 19, of Crimora, Va., died Feb. 14 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Sgt. First Class Allen Mosteiro, 42, of Fort Worth, Texas, died Feb. 14 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with the enemy using small arms fire during combat operations Feb. 13 in Taji, Iraq.
• Pfc. Branden C. Cummings, 20, of Titusville, Fla., died Feb. 14 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device exploded near his vehicle during combat operations.
• Sgt. John D. Rode, 24, of Pineville, N.C., died Feb. 14 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Sgt. Carl L. Seigart, 32, San Luis Obispo, Calif., died Feb. 14 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Spc. Ronnie G. Madore Jr., 34, of San Diego, Calif., died Feb. 14 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.

Twenty nine more mourning families. Let's let them finish their job, and come home, shall we?

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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

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