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GRAFFITI -- February 16, 2009 thru February 22, 2009>> Link to the Current Week <<Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Week 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. |
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February 16, 2009
 Lucy and the ottoman, again |
1734a - Another manic Monday. You'd think not, since it's a national holiday (for the US), but there you go. I've been doing reading and a bit of C++ puttering for my class this semester. I spent about 3 hours working on some IP addressing schemes for a thing I've been tasked with by work. That's harder for me to do on "normal" work days, because of the interrupt rate. I cleaned and reorganized the woodshop a little bit. I've got to remount Marcia's sewing room door (that's next on my queue, after this post). And through it all, Lucy put the ottoman through the rest of its paces, as a place to nap. Lucky her.
 Art for Marcia |
 Art for Marcia, closeup |
For Marcia's birthday yesterday, after leaving Ledo Pizza (where Linda treated us to lunch), we headed home. But instead of turning right, I turned left, and we ended up at Fabian House. They have cool stuff there, and I asked Marcia (who really hadn't gotten anything for either birthday or Valentine's (by prior agreeement, ditto for me)) if she wanted anything for the house. We walked through the place, and she found a few things that really called to her. Among these was a quilt-top from the middle of the last century, hand-pieced, and a large faux Moroccan serving plate.
Often used with a three or four legged base, as a table for serving food, this one instead had a small hook brazed onto the back. It's 30 inches in diameter, and I thought it would fit nicely in the open spot above the entrance to our master bath. That area's a bit of a niche, since the doors are flanked by closets on each side. This one was probably screen-printed, based on the regularity of the pattern, but it's very pretty, and we like it a lot in its new home.
Tonight, the normal Monday evening stuff. Be well, as my friend Tom would say.
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February 17, 2009
2129 - Nothing much going on. WoW, instead of something useful. Ciao!
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February 18, 2009
2037 - Argh! Juries and lawyers. Lawyers and juries. The modern day equivalent of witch-burners. Here's one from today's headlines: "A Manhattan jury awarded $2.33 million to a man who lost his leg after drunkenly stumbling onto the path of an oncoming subway train." I'd have FOUGHT against such an award, were I on that jury. Stupid people do stuff, get hurt, and the nearest entity with deep pockets has to pay??? Argh!
Speaking of paying, I just bought my copy of Escape from Hell. I enjoyed it in manuscript form, before the galley proofs and final edits. I expect to enjoy it again, shortly. Yeah, if I asked, Jerry would probably send me a copy from his author's box. But why not encourage authors to do what they do? If we don't buy books, they won't be able to write them. There's no modern Medici to patronize such work. Just Bill Gates loosing mosquitos upon the TED audience. I'd rather read a good yarn, thanks!
Now, I need to visit Sweet Maria's and get some more beans - I'm down to about 12 day's supply, because I'm lazy. Ciao!
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February 19, 2009
1734 - Some cartoon has everyone up in arms. I think it's an outrage ... wait, an orangutan ... no, a chimpanzee. That would be "a chimpanzee." I'm deeply upset that chimpanzees are treated so badly in our society. Being shot to death for merely allegedly removing someone's face, that's unfair. Usually one is required to be tried by a jury of one's peers before verdict and execution. I can totally understand why people are upset.
What? Al Sharpton is comparing himself to a chimpanzee and calling The Post racist? WTF??? You know that Ditech advertisement on the telly, the one that says "People are smart." No, no they're not. People are dumb. Especially people who can't see through Sharpton's desire to keep race and his face on the front page. If you want race to be a non-issue, then don't assume that everything critical is about race. When I saw the cartoon, I knew it was about (A) the chimp who'd been shot in Connecticut, and (B) about how chimps, representative of less smart than (some) people, were responsible for the stimulus package. Personally, I hold chimps in higher regard than most Congresscritters. You know, comparing a chimp to Al Sharpton is a slam on chimps. But know this. For me it isn't about race. Someone who behaves the way Sharpton does is evil and wrong, no matter what color their skin is. There are good people, and there are bad people, and a vast majority of nuanced individuals in between. Bad people try - really work at it - to incite negative feelings and behavior. Guess which side Al falls on, in my opinion? Yep, the same side that other Al does. They both ought to be ashamed.
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February 20, 2009
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February 21, 2009
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February 22, 2009
1548 - I've been busy tagging. One of the downsides of my big conversion of music from OGG to MP3 was that I lost much of the tagging information that's kept as metadata. My fault, I probably didn't understand precisely how to extract that which was needed from the OGG, and repurpose the data into the MP3 files. Most of what I needed was in the directory and file-naming conventions that I used. That's sufficient for the Linux players that I use. But iTunes really likes to have the tags right, and won't use filename data for anything remotely useful. So I installed the MusicBrainz Picard (it's in one of the Ubuntu repositories, I didn't need to download from that page) and mucked around with it a bit last weekend. Friday after I got home from work, I dropped into the groove, and started cleaning up all of my music. I finished up last night around 2200. Picard does a pretty good job of categorizing most music automatically. For some others, I had to search through the MusicBrainz database to identify the right album. In a few cases, mostly import classical albums, I manually rebuilt the tags - those took about half of the total time I spent on the project. Once done, I blew away my iTunes music library and reloaded it from the Linux server. Much happier collection of music, now. Finally, I've got to put stuff back in my playlists for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
There, that's done ... [after several hours have passed] ... and I'm continuing to roast coffee at intervals. One more batch to do. I'm almost out of coffee now - but more is on the way. Thanks, Maria! I should also check in on my class.
Hostilities in Afghanistan continue to ramp up, it seems, even as Iraq calms further. I can't stress enough how impressed I am by the performance of our folks in the field. Their committment to the mission and the sacrifices they make on our behalf do us all honor. Our condolences to the families and units of the fallen:
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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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