Welcome 
to Orb Designs

Home

Graffiti

About

Sitemap

Visual

DevWork


Email Brian Bilbrey

Email Brian

GPG Key

GRAFFITI -- October 08, 2007 thru October 14, 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.

Ron Paul in 2008

Creative Commons License

Read LinuxGazette, get a clue.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
October 8, 2007

0800 - It's Columbo Day. That's right, Columbo, played by Peter Falk, first discovered North America about 23 minutes before the Norse sighted Greenland through the tenuous Arctic fogs. He was about to turn his ship around and return to his master at Tintagel when he paused, fumbled about in his codpiece for a moment, and said, "There's just one more thing..." After snagging some tobacco, burning it for a bit, then inventing the dog end, Colombo went on to dig up and move the Fountain of Youth (transferring it from Florida to an island just turnwise from the center of the Burmuda Triangle) so that some 600 years later, Ponce de Leon would not be able to find it. Falk, still in his Columbo guise, then signaled Tom Baker to pick him up in the Tardis and drop him off in Los Angeles just in time to audition for his most famous role.

Well, that's how I learned it. I can't find any corresponding information yet, and I'm waiting for my Wikipedia edits to be approved. It's likely to be a long wait unless I can get some citations or documentation from primary sources. I've emailed Tom Baker about it, but have not heard back yet.

More to the point, Columbo Day is a Federal Holiday. It's also one of the holidays observed by my employer. So I'm home today, trying hard not to even look outside, since I might find yardwork if I did. Sigh. I do have bucket loads of reading to catch up on, and that's probably the most productive use of my day that I can find, along with perhaps cleaning up my workshop in the basement. Oh, here's the drapes that Marcia made with the fabric we picked out for the purpose. Still needs a piece of art there, but progress is.

The new curtains
The new curtains made by Marcia
Molly at rest
Molly at rest outside Marcia's office

And Molly has managed to relax. When we got her she was quite a tense and skittish rescue dog. Now she's just a weird and relaxed bit of not-very-bright happy dog. This pleases us ... and she seems content with her situation.

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
October 9, 2007

No Post..

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
October 10, 2007

2306 - Good evening. Thanks! No, really. I'm sure that one of you put Marcia up to harassing me about not posting for almost two days. I've been busy. Mostly entertaining and cooking last night, since Jennifer was in town and visiting with us last night. When she came in the door, she got down on the floor and played with the puppies for five minutes before saying hello to us. Grin, we had a nice evening.

After four days in the 90's, we've finally got a cooling trend. By weekend, we may only be in the mid-60's for a high, which is almost as wonderful as rain would be. We'll take advantage of that to head over to the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival at Gaithersburg this weekend.

Meantime, I've been watching assorted goings on in email lists. Maybe it'll be productive one day. Now, good night.

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
October 11, 2007

2104 - Good evening. I got a final on Jerry's column - that's formatted and posted now. I've been mucking about with the Mac Address Book, and thinking about LDAP, as I do about once every other year. I wish the bloody stuff were easier to use. Still, I've got plenty to read ... and this time tomorrow night, I'll be at work helping out with an off-hours infrastructure modification. If we do it right, it'll be 5 minutes in execution, and 30 minutes of testing. One can only hope. Why is it that short weeks sometimes feel so bloody long?

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
October 12, 2007

No Post.....

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
October 13, 2007

0908 - Good-ish morning-ish. Well, by the time we wrapped up most of the little details of our infrastructure mods at work, it was midnight. I was in bed at about 1, and asleep a medium-while later. Then I got a system page just after 0500. Then I had a user support call at 0800. I hope this isn't a harbinger of the weekend to come. We're still going to Sugarloaf today, though. More later if there's more to report. Tired.

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
October 14, 2007

1541 - Good afternoon. Well, the big news is that I have a couple of new scars to add to the spaniel collection. First thing this morning, Lucy was sitting in my lap. When we were trying to get her down, either something hurt (I wasn't grabbing her back end, so ...?) or she loonied up ... and went for my face. I pulled back, so just a scratch on the upper lip, and another on the cheek. Sigh. Bled like a stuck pig, though. Anyone want a face biter? Her problem, of course, as a puppy mill mommy, was that she wasn't socialized with people, just with other gravid and protective insane little spaniels.

Marcia's shiny red Solara
Marcia's shiny red Solara

Yesterday, I mowed in front, and washed my truck, before we went to Sugarloaf. That was a nice afternoon, comfortable walking-around temps and lots of nice stuff to look at. Some of it was even tempting on the possible purchase front, but we managed to withstand. In the evening, I installed CentOS 5 on spare hardware, just because. I may do some experimentation with Xen (which was the primary motivator), but I'll need for Winter to kick in, first. The rush of pages and requests for assistance that garnished my yesterday has abated. Today was shopping, washing Marcia's ride (see it at right, all shiny), and mowing the back dirt. Now, here I am. Linda's over for sewing and supper.


Improvised explosive devices continue to be the weapon of choice among our foes in the conflicts in the Mideast. My condolences to the familes and units of our fallen service members.

Top  /  Email Brian


Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week


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.

All Content Copyright © 1999-2011 Brian P. Bilbrey.

Creative Commons License
Except where otherwise noted, this site is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.