Teleidoscope

Fri, Nov 30, 2007

Tinman

Posted at 3:21 pm MST to Media

I just got an email from Amazon reminding me that the 'Tinman' series on the SciFi Channel (an adaptation of Wizard of OZ) starts on Sunday. I think that's the first email I've ever gotten from Amazon that wasn't about a specific order or trying to sell me something. This email just had a picture and a couple of links to Tinman sites. Interesting marketing.

Monday morning, when I was sitting in the Dodge service center waiting room, a 'Making of' special on Tinman was playing on one of the TVs. It looked like the design work and special effects are going to be impressive. The redesigned "flying monkeys" are hideous.

I'll probably give it a try. Sunday evening TV is pretty lame...

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Thu, Nov 29, 2007

Power Company

Posted at 7:45 pm MST to Technology

This morning at 9 someone from the power company showed up to check the work that needs to be done. Maybe they will actually get the changeover from overhead to underground power lines done before the first major blizzard of the year.

I turned off the server so it won't crash if I'm not home when they disconnect the power to make the changeover. I really need to find usable software so that the UPS can tell the server to shut itself down cleanly. Ubuntu seems to have a set of packages available that might handle it, but I need to find a set for Fedora. Time to google.

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Wed, Nov 28, 2007

Wednesday Snow

Posted at 9:31 pm MST to Weather

This week we had snow on Wednesday morning for the second week in a row. I hope this is not a trend.

Fortunately, the storms have moved through quickly and did not leave a lot of snow. Today's storm also seems to have gone north and south and mostly skipped Boulder. The radio this morning told horror stories about the highways north of Boulder and south and west of Denver, and some of our employees were stuck in traffic for hours trying to get to the office.

I left home about 9 and got to the office by 9:30, which is about my usual transit time. I was feeling grateful that I'd gotten the 4WD fixed on Monday, but once I reached the paved roads, they were mostly dry and I didn't need it.

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Tue, Nov 27, 2007

Upgrade bug Kubuntu 7.10

Posted at 5:49 pm MST to Technology

Since the standard upgrade tool crashed on me (It was very unhappy with cupsys.) and I was using other tools to do the upgrade, I ran in to a known bug (#115616) in the Ubuntu upgrade process. An obsolete package called evms was not deleted.

It spewed error messages on the reboot.

Fortunately, I re-customized kdmrc to allow root logins before I rebooted, since the bug prevented my home directory from mounting. Once I managed to get the machine to boot, I logged in as root and googled for the fix.

apt-get remove evms

Followed by a reboot fixed things.

I had to uninstall cupsys, finish the upgrade and re-install it to get things to work. It seems to be working now, at least for the laser printer, so the problem isn't with the main app. I may need to reload the driver for the HP color printer, though it might make sense to attach that one via the server now: a direct connection to a computer (instead of a network connection) might let it work as a scanner as well as a printer and copier.

VMWare is working with no more hassles than I have been dealing with for months. I'm downloading version 5.5.5 (I've been using 5.5.4) to see if it behaves any better. I don't think I'll need to pay for the upgrade to 6.x.

Once VMWare is stable, I'll see about updates for the Windows image. There are nasty reports about recent Microsoft updates trashing peoples' systems, but they seem to involve more complex environments than mine. I think I'll take a fresh snapshot of the image before I upgrade it, just in case.

Updating this blog is being a problem I'm getting messages like

500 Illegal PORT command
ftp: bind: Address already in use

when I try to connect using plain ftp on the command line. Something changed in the default configuration. I need to activate passive mode by using pftp or ftp -p to get it to work.

The web server on the laptop seems to be working, which is a relief. apache was another area the upgrade tools were a bit cranky about.

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Upgrade to Kubuntu 7.10

Posted at 11:39 am MST to Technology

I had been holding off on some upgrades on my laptop because I didn't want to break anything in the various virtual layers while I was relying on it for my remote client. I decided that today, since I don't have any billable work to do, would be a good day to get everything upgraded and then working again.

The host OS comes first. Then, probably, a (paid) upgrade to VMWare workstation 6.x, since I've been kind of nursing along the 5.x versions with strange 3rd party patch downloads and other workarounds.

I think the Windows XP image I was using probably also needs a couple of updates, too. I've been loading only the most urgent security updates because I didn't want to risk disrupting the layers of virtualization I was using for my remote work.

The main version update tool for Ubuntu stalled (there seem to be a lot of people on-line with the same problem). But it got far enough to update the list of software repositories.

One of the nice things about Linux is that there is almost always more than one tool for doing anything. I'm using one called Synaptic to download the new software. It tells me that I have 1594 packages currently loaded, of which 1259 are being upgraded and 15, now obsolete, are being removed. 150 packages will be added to support various dependencies.

1. packages sounds like a lot, but there are 23051 packages available for Kubuntu 7.10, because it is derived from the Debian repositories, so I'm only using a fraction of them.

Once the laptop is stabilized, I'll see about bringing the server images up to date. I don't want to risk killing both machines at once. I also need to reconfigure the DSL-modem and router so I can reach the server from the external network.

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4 Wheel Drive

Posted at 11:04 am MST to Miscellaneous

Yesterday morning I went to my new customer site. They said they are having a security crackdown and can't let me near their computers until the paperwork is done, which will take a few days. They will let the company know when things are set up.

They are a couple of blocks from office, in what used to be the AT&T building when I was consulting for them, 20 years ago. I stopped at the office briefly, then at the credit union, which is handy (I joined it when I was working at AT&T: in those days the CU actually had an office inside the AT&T plant).

Then, since I was near, I took the truck over to the Northglen Dodge service department to have the 4 wheel drive (which was flaky last Wednesday) checked out. I spent about half the day in their waiting room, but I had a couple of books with me and the have some TVs in the waiting room.

It's almost too bad that I'm planning to get a different brand of truck next spring. I'm very favorably impressed by this service department.

They suggested getting a tune-up while I was there, but after pulling the plugs they decided that I didn't really need one. So I didn't end up paying for the tune-up.

When I had the truck Jiffy-Lubed a few weeks ago they suggested replacing the serpentine belt, so I asked the Northglen guys to check it. They said it should last another 8000 miles, so I didn't end up paying for that either.

They replaced a vacuum valve in the 4-wheel-drive system, so I should be ready for the next round of bad weather.

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Mon, Nov 26, 2007

Xcel Bozos

Posted at 5:05 pm MST to Technology

I finally got through to Ross and he did some digging and found out why my electrical project is still not complete.

In 1999 when the county changed my street address, I sent a copy of the order to the power company. They apparently changed the billing address, but none of their other records. Even though I specifically gave instructions that the identity of the property had changed.

So the work orders came up TILT because they didn't match a location in the Xcel records. And were simply ignored.

When I called Xcel to get the address fixed, so the work could be done, they said it would take a month. I kept pushing and they are trying to set things up to do the work despite the address mismatch (the order to update the property address is at least in the system).

And extemely high winds are forecast for Wednesday. Which the current 'temporary' setup of my powerlines is not really intended for.

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RSI

Posted at 6:37 am MST to Miscellaneous

My mousing hand and arm have been giving me hell for weeks. I have stayed off of the computer since Thursday afternoon, and this morning, Monday, was the first day in ages I woke up wihtout pain in that arm.

I don't get carpal tunnel inflammation -- I know how to hold my arm and hand to avoid it. A spot in the back of my hand gets sore, and a spot in my upper arm gets painful. In the last couple of weeks, very painful.

I'm going to have to spend less time on the computer for a while to try to give tings time to heal more

I'm just glad the rest made a differnce. Saturday morning, after two nights sleep and nearly two days without mousing, I still wasn't noticing much improvement.

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Thu, Nov 22, 2007

Pie Crust Notes

Posted at 11:57 am MST to Technology

I made Mom's Water Whip Piecrust with Nanette's Pumpkin Pie filling recipe, using a Scarlet Kabocha squash. (Went a little easier on the spices than last time.) I've still got about 3/4 of the squash puree to use for soup and side-dishes.

Note 1: 2 cups of sifted flour is 325 grams. Next time I make pie crust, I'll weigh it and 'sift' it in the food processor.

Note 2: I used more water than the recipe called for. I think the recipe was intended for a moister climate. Flour here drinks liquid amazingly.

Note 3: Rolling the crust inside a 2.5 gallon zip-lock bag (a trick from the Food Network) works really well for a novice pie-maker. The crust can't stick to the rolling pin and tear. And when it's ready, you just need to slit the bag up the sides, peel the top layer of plastic off the dough, place the inverted pie plate on the dough, flip the whole thing over, and peel off the other layer of plastic.

The pies just came out of the oven and the turkey just went in. I made exactly the right amount of stuffing. which is unusual. I learned to make stuffing for the 24 pound birds my Mom cooked at holidays, and generally make too much for the 12 pound birds i Cook for myself.

I don't have guests coming, and I'm used to having my big meal late in the day. The turkey should be ready about three.

In the mean time, I had homemade eggnog and cream-cheese-stuffed celery for breakfast. I'll be having squash pie for lunch once they cool enough to eat

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Wed, Nov 21, 2007

Thanksgiving Snow

Posted at 8:21 pm MST to Weather

We didn't really have a white Halloween this year, though they predicted one. But we are really getting a white Thanksgiving.

There were three inches of snow on the ground when I left to go to work this morning. And it was drizzling tiny snowflakes when I drove home about 2pm, though the paved roads were mostly dry by then.

They aren't predicting much more snow for the next few days, but they are predicting very cold weather (seasonally cold, but a big contrast to the unseasonable warmth we've been having this Fall). So what is out there may not melt soon, at least in the shady areas.

I am annoyed: the little light that is supposed to come on when I put the truck into 4-wheel drive did not come on this morning. So there is something still (or again) wrong with it, though it felt more or less like it was in 4-wheel drive (the steering feels different). I will probably see about getting someone to look at it on Friday or Saturday.

The roads I had to drive on were wet and slushy this morning, not icy, and the traffic in my direction was light, but I was glad to have the new tires. The radio was reporting lots of serious accidents on all of the major highways through Denver. And the Boulder-bound lanes of Route 36 looked like a parking lot: if I had been going that way I would have taken a back road.

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Tue, Nov 20, 2007

Drat

Posted at 5:21 pm MST to Miscellaneous

The uploads for the past few days glitched. I've re-uploaded the files to the proper locations, with date stamps.

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Tires

Posted at 5:20 pm MST to Miscellaneous

Monday Nov 19, 2007

Five years ago at Thanksgiving I drove home from a 6-month gig in Portland, Oregon on Thanksgiving and the day before. I had leftovers at Nanette's for supper.

I put new tires on the truck in the week before the trip. Today I replaced those tires with the same brand and model (TRX All-Terrain): they are pricey, but they have lasted well, and they have always worked well when weather was bad.

I'm now in pretty good shape for the winter: Jiffy-Lubed and with tires that have serious tread, and the tire guy says the front brakes (at least) are new. Now that he mentions it, I vaguely remember the guy at the Dodge service center suggesting that the brakes might as well be done while all the other work was going on.

The Jiffy-Lube guys recommended replacing the serpentine belt sometime soon, though.

I took a couple of books with me to the Jiffy-Lube place on Saturday, but ended up spending the whole time chatting with the owner of a Dodge Durango a little younger than my Dakota. (Small world: he sometimes does computer work for my nearest neighbors, so he knew where I live when I tried to explain.) He said that like me, he had had several years without problems, and then suddenly this year he's had to spend thousands of dollars on repairs. He is thinkng of trading the Durango in on something new... probably something Japanese, since he has had good luck with Japanese vehicles lasting well.

Having just put new tires on, I'll probably drive the truck at least until spring, unless it decides to start eating money again. But I looked at the Toyota website (which doesn't work with any browser I can find on Linux) and from what I could make out, the Tacoma has many of the features I want. But not quite in the combination I would prefer. The Ford Ranger (their website is not very cooperative, but much better than Toyota) seems to have a better mix.

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Myspace Suicide

Posted at 5:19 pm MST to Current Events

Sunday Nov 18, 2007

The media and blogoverse have been full of a story about some evil people who drove a 13-year old girl to suicide. The Making Light entry has a lot of useful links to articles for anyone who hasn't seen them yet.

The people who tormented me in junior high school didn't have the internet available, but they did what they could with fake phone calls and notes left in my locker.

Looking back, I don't think I was quite sane, and certainly not 'normal' (whatever normal means) in junior high school, but some of that was a reaction to the way I was being harassed. Years of never quite feeling safe takes its toll...

In the first few years that I lived here in Colorado I took a bunch of odd evening courses on verious topics: spinning, weaving, tarot, herblore. A woman I had been in high-school with showed up at the first session of one of the courses (I think it was the herb course). After class she took me aside and apologized for the way I had been treated in high school, and never returned for the next session.

(I haven't taken any evening classes in ages. I took one phase of a course on Hardanger needlework when I was working in Minneapolis, but the second phase's schedule slipped so that my contract would have ended before the class would end. )

After the Columbine shootings, Slashdot ran a series of articles called Voices From The Hellmouth about people who were tormented in school for being different.

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Time Warp

Posted at 5:19 pm MST to Miscellaneous

Saturday Nov 17, 2007

There was a period of several years when I spent a lot of time at the Time Warp comic store in Boulder. When I had a housewarming party the summer I bought this house, the owner and some of the staff were among the attendees. And I implemented the first database package for the store (using a spreadsheet package from Borland, I think, which is what I used for my own finances for a while).

I kind of drifted away after Timewarp moved to a shopping center that was really annoying to get in and out of (it's too close to a major intersection and getting across the right-turn lane to the lane I actually needed was scary) and the the focus of my daily routine shifted south from Boulder as work moved south and shopping south of Boulder became possible.

In the last year or so, I noticed that Time Warp wasn't in that shopping center, and today I happened to ask Nanette where they had gone. (Time Warp was originally the Mile High Comics Boulder store and still part of the distribution network.)

They are in a more accessible location, so I stopped in after getting the truck Jiffy-Lubed for the winter. Wayne (the owner) looks much the same, and was glad to see me. Steve, the manager, died unexpectedly in September of a cold that went bad.

It's been 10 or 15 years since I collected mainstream comics, and I've lost touch with the cover art: I think most of the current issues are really ugly. But Wayne had a couple of indie graphic novels I've been watching for after encountering them or seeing them mentioned on-line, and his selection of manga was inpressive.

I think I need to stop by there occasionally. Borders and Barnes & Noble have fairly good selections of recent manga and graphic novels, but Wayne's back volume selection is more complete. Especially for the GNs.

And Time Warp is another piece of my life that had gotten lost in recent years.

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Fri, Nov 16, 2007

Flicker

Posted at 10:08 pm MST to Miscellaneous

Today at lunch time I looked out the kitchen window and saw two birds perched on the front porch railing. One bird was a very elegant flicker. I've seen it around a few times before. It inspected the new porch railing a few days after the new construction.

If the flicker is still hanging around, I should see about getting a suet feeder. I wonder where I could hang one where the birds can get at it and I can at it to fill it, without having it raided by raccoons or coyotes.

The other bird was one of the scruffy little grackles that nest in the porch roof, which are a little annoying but not nearly as messy as barn swallows. I had barn swallows nesting in the porch roof beams for several seasons after I first bought this house, and they made an awful mess: their nest was directly above the center of the porch, too.

I haven't had barn swallows for years, or even seen any around the neighborhood. I think having the farm next door torn down and turned back into prairie has decreased the bug population enough that this is no longer a prime nesting territory for them.

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Wed, Nov 14, 2007

Stove

Posted at 10:14 pm MST to Technology

When I stopped by the Appliance store at the mall last week, they had their new floor models in. The last time I stopped they were clearing out the old season models and the floor was pretty empty, and there were oddly naked-looking holes in the sample kitchens where sample builtin ovens and dishwashers and cooktops had been sold.

It's going to be tempting to wander by there again this weekend. The flakey burner on my stove seems to be giving up the ghost.

The cleaning ladies were here today, and I had to re-seat the large front burner on the stove three times in its socket before it would heat. That's normal after they have unplugged the burner to clean under it: it's tricky to get it back in, and they never get it right.

What isn't normal is that at some point after the burner had been working for a while (the water was boiling nicely when I dropped the pasta in) it stopped heating. The pasta finished cooking on pure momentum, I think. When the timer rang and I went to check it the water was still and the noodles were just sitting on the bottom, but the burner control knob was still set on high.

Tomorrow, I'll call Leo's Appliance repair (which is not a guy named Leo) and see if he can come out and take a look at it. It would be nice to get it repaired at some reasonable price: after this year's expenses for auto repairs and the septic system and electrical work, it would be nice to hold off on replacing a major appliance.

Having that burner stop working a week before Thanksgiving is really annoying.

I'm still contemplating gas vs electric stoves for a replacement.

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Mon, Nov 12, 2007

mlocate

Posted at 10:51 pm MST to Code

Notes from setting up the server:

The installation package for ClearCase on RedHat/Centos 5.0 has a glitch: it doesn't configure mlocate properly, so it gets into an infinite loop in the /view directory tree and eats up all the available disk space.

According to an IBM technote the workaround is to edit /etc/updatedb.conf, and add 'mvfs' and 'nfs' to the PRUNEFS variable and '/view' and '/vobs' to the PRUNEPATHS variable.

I also needed to clean out the 32 Gig file that had built up in /var/lib/mlocate, and reboot the image to make it realize it had available disk space again.

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Give One Get One

Posted at 10:33 pm MST to Current Events

The One Laptop Per Child project has developed rugged, inexpensive laptop computers for use in schools where technology is otherwise unavailable. In the process they have made technological advances in both hardware and software. Special low-power swivel displays that are still legible in sunlight. Mesh networking. Extreme power efficiency. New ways of handling security to make them harder to hack.

The first generation of the laptops are now in production. They are a bright lime green, partly to make them readily identifiable, so it will be trickier to put them on the black market, partly to make them fun for the kids. I imagine later generations of them may be done in different colors so that the feature mix can be told apart.

I'm not sure which countries the first million or so are scheduled for -- Microsoft has been trying to bribe and strongarm countries into not taking them, because they don't run Windows -- so the list keeps mutating.

Geeks in the developed world have been frustrated because they couldn't get samples of the hardware to experiment with. But just now, for a 14 days period the Foundation is making a limited number of the PCs available on a "get one give one" basis: you pay for two laptops, and one is shipped to you and the other to a child somewhere in the third world.

I ordered mine today. I'm glad I have small hands, since the keyboards are designed for children.

The original goal was to create a $100 laptop. Economies of scale haven't kicked in yet, and the dollar has tanked, so the current price for two laptops, for purposes of the program, is just under $400, plus shipping. I think the price of the donated laptop is tax deductible.

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Sat, Nov 10, 2007

Fall Bunnies

Posted at 8:54 pm MST to Miscellaneous

I think the bunnies are beginning to get used to my new driveway. They were eating grass along the edge, today. And napping in the hollow of one of the ruts that are already forming.
And chasing each other around in circles: I can never decide if they are playing, or having territorial fights. I think the two today were just playing: after running around they settled down not far from each other.

The bunnies looked huge, but I think that is mostly because their winter coats have come in. That is just as well: the weather is still amazingly warm for the time of year, but that could change at any time. Of course, most of the little bunnies from earlier in the season have grown up by now, and probably moved away to find territories of their own.

I'm a little worried about the bunnies this year. My neighbors have mowed down all of the tall grass and weeds in the field next to my driveway, and my yard has been all dug up and is mostly bare dirt. I hope they will be able to find food and hiding places for the winter.

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Fri, Nov 09, 2007

Signs of the Times

Posted at 6:45 pm MST to Miscellaneous

I leave the radio on when I work (except when I'm on the phone). It helps blur the sound of this laptop's fan, which is quite loud very annoying.

A few months ago, it seemed that half of the ads were for housing developments and mortgage re-financing. Now there are occasional real estate and mortgage ads, but there are a lot of for various methods for decreasing your credit card debt, and for companies promising to help you buy a computer no matter how bad your credit is.

I find it a little ironic that the debt-reduction and computer-sales ads are sometimes -- even frequently -- adjacent to each other.

On the other hand -- it is interesting too have computers portrayed as critical necessities of modern life, with a man who can't provide one for his wife (to do the family finances) and children (to do their homework) shown as guilty and ashamed. The fellow should obviously talk to his wife before getting involved in a transaction involving credit, And it's probably just as well that he is not the one do the finances. I also wonder what he is going to use the computer (oh, no, it's not for him. It's for the family.)

It's as bad as the swath of ads that showed up on TV and radio back at the beginning of the semester offering loans of up to 40,000/year (without government involvement-- i.e guarantees) to students and their parents.

And then people wonder why so many in this country are in financial trouble.

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Thu, Nov 08, 2007

Doctor Who Season 3

Posted at 9:10 pm MST to Media

Doctor Who (New version) Season 3 is out on DVD. So is The Dresden Files. And Robin of Sherwood Part 2. And the Looney Toons Golden Collection Set 5. And Ratatouille and the Transformers Movie (both of which I missed on the big screen.

Excuse me while I wallow in wonderfulness. I'll come back later and add links.

David Tennant, the current Doctor, looks surprisingly like a young Clint Eastwood from certain angles (especially in the 1953 episode when he had his hair combed back. And he is very Scottish in the commentaries: his vowels are much more generic when he is being the Doctor.

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Wed, Nov 07, 2007

Weight and Health

Posted at 9:33 pm MST to Miscellaneous

There are reports of studies showing that people that are a bit overweight (the amount quoted is 'up to 30 pounds over a target weight') have slightly longer life expectancies than people of 'normal weight'.

Now they are reporting that even though fatter people are more likely to die of some kinds of cancer, diabetes and some kinds of heart disease, they have a decreased tendency to die of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, infections, and lung disease that more than compensates in terms of death rates.

I wonder if the lung disease thing is related to the fact that a lot of people gain weight after giving up smoking. I assume the researchers controlled for that in their analysis, but it might be interesting to look up the original report to check.

Underweight people die more too.

I am outside the long life-expectancy range (max target BMI of 30), but only by a few pounds. If I fire up the treadmill on a more regular basis or excavate my weight bench, I could probably get down into the heavy-but-long-lived range. That's a much less intimidating goal than getting my weight back to where it was in 2001...

And to be honest, I dread Alzheimer's more than just about anything... they can do things about cancer these days, but my mind is me and both of my grandmothers left their bodies long before they died. If being a little heavy may stave off Alzheimer's, good.

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Tue, Nov 06, 2007

Drought

Posted at 10:37 pm MST to Weather

Drought maps for the southeastern US are scary. Atlanta is in acute danger of running out of water.

It's a sad think to regret the lack of hurricanes landing tis year which might at least have brought them some precipitation.

On the other hand, despite our dry summer and autumn, Colorado is in pretty good shape. The weird winter we had was good for that much, at least.

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Mon, Nov 05, 2007

Time Change Jet Lag

Posted at 8:47 pm MST to Miscellaneous

Clock-change time always leaves me a little jet-lagged: my rhythms are off. I feel a bit groggy and I'm not hungry at 'meal times' or for proper meals. I just nibble on bread and cheese and fruit.

Some of the grogginess is because I was very tightly focussed most of the day. The VPN connection to my customer is finally back up and I'm trying to catch up with things. I cleared up a lot of odds and ends today and got things fairly well sorted out.

It would have helped if people had actually sent things to my regular work email address last week, as requested, instead of to my email address on the customer's internal site that I couldn't access. A few things in the emails in the back-log were about things I could have taken care of last week if I had known about them.

With access to the customer site available again, I don't need to push so hard to load the server. The Customer Portal website work is back at top priority.

But not tonight.

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Sun, Nov 04, 2007

Gershwin Jazz

Posted at 12:27 pm MST to Media

The second concert in this year's Boulder Philharmonic season has a theme of pieces of music inspired or affected by other music.

The first piece was composed in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Phil by a local composer, Luis Gonzales,who is a Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Colorado. It was adequate music, but I thought it was much too ponderous, especially the third section, which was supposed to be a dance tune inspired by the city. If Boulder has a 'dance' it is the Boulder Bolder 5K race. Or maybe Kinetics. Something quick, or even frenetic, with a bit of drive and maybe a touch of strangeness.

The second piece was amazing: Gershwin's 'Piano Concerto in F', with the usual piano soloist replaced by a jazz trio (the Marcus Roberts Trio: piano, bass and drums) playing real jazz, with improvisations, not just a fixed score. Gershwin's work was inspired by jazz, but sort of squished it into a classical box -- the object of the performance was to take it back out of the box.

The drummer looked familiar: he was Jason Marsalis, of the great family of jazz musicians. I don't think I've seen him perform before, but I've seen his relatives on TV.

The pieces after the intermission were both quite good.. Brahms' "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" and Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber".

The new conductor/music director of the Boulder Philharmonic has given it a different feel. The previous conductor was more traditional in some ways. This season's programs are eccentric, but a lot of fun.

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Operation: Immortal Servitude

Posted at 10:26 am MST to Media

As previously mentioned, at MileHiCon last week I attended a talk about vampires by Tony Ruggiero.

I have now finished his vampire book Operation: Immortal Servitude, the first of a planned series of 4 books. I will definitely be on the lookout for the other volumes in the series.

The characters are nicely three dimensional, except for a few who are given in-story reasons for being flat (a nice trick for handling spear-carriers -- I'll need to remember that one). I want to read more about both the vampires and the main human character. And the ending provides a nice hook for the next volume in the series.

The story moves well and the military details have a nice authentic rhythm. Mr. Ruggiero was in the Navy for 23 years and obviously paid attention to the people around him. The world builds on traditional vampire stories and adds some interesting twists of its own.

My only minor complaint is that the text could have used a little more human copy-editing. There were a few sentences that weren't, and a couple of instances of the wrong real word, especially a few instances of 'then' that should have been 'than'. But even books from major publishers show occasional copy-editing glitches, and this is from a fairly small press.

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Sat, Nov 03, 2007

Owl

Posted at 11:14 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

This evening as I left the house a huge owl flew up and perched on the power pole by my driveway. I couldn't see details: it was mostly a silhouette against the twilight sky, but I could tell that it was turning its head this way and that, looking around. Probably looking and listening for mice and bunnies.

It must have been a Great Horned Owl. There is nothing else that big. And horned. The pole is about 20 feet tall and the owl was at least a couple of feet from the tips of its 'ears' to the end of its tail.

It flew away when I started the truck.

I've never seen an owl before in all the years I've lived here, though I've heard them occasionally. I'm not outside much after dark.

I've seen plenty of hawks and eagles and ravens over the years. And skeins of wild geese flying over, yelping like the Gabriel Hounds.

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Fri, Nov 02, 2007

Clementine Season

Posted at 8:16 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

Clementine Season is here. Yay. I bought a box when I was stocking up at Costco, and the ones I've had so far were all delicious. (Sometimes they are kind of lame at the beginning or end of the season.)

I lucked out on the timimg of my shopping trip: I had forgotten the flu shot schedule, and today was the last session they were doing flu shots at Costco this season. My arm is already sore, and lifting squash at the farmers' market tomorrow may be interesting.

It's going to be a busy day tomorrow: the second Philharmnic Concert is in the evening. I got a letter warning that I should plan to arrive early because parking is going to be messy due to a sporting event on campus. I'm supposed to have a reserved parking place. This week I will need to figure out where it is.

It will all be a nice change from wrestling with technology: I've been working on the laptop and server from 6 am to midnight pretty much since Monday. At least I'm finally making progress: the Centos5 image is actually beginning to be useful.

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Thu, Nov 01, 2007

Extra Payday

Posted at 11:19 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

Since I am paid bi-weekly, there are 26 pay periods each year. Yesterday was the extra payday for this half of the year: the third payday in the same month. It will make a nice dent in the bills from the electrical work and the server.

I should do some serious grocery shopping, too. I need to restock the pantry and freezer before the bad weather comes. I hope I won't get snowed in again this year, but it would be best to be prepared.

I should replace the truck's tires before the bad weather, too.

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