Teleidoscope

Mon, Mar 31, 2008

LinkedIn

Posted at 10:38 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

I am in LinkedIn, which is an online networking tool for business and technical people.

I am terrible at networking, whether in meat-space or on-line. I'm convinced that the part of the brain that other people use for long-term storage of names and faces is being used for something else in my head.

Unfortunately, the kind of people I get along well with are also not extensive networkers. The few co-workers I remember from years ago and might be interested in getting in touch with don't show up in these environments. Some of them have names that are common enough that Googling is not useful. Some may not have made to transition to on-line, or used handles when they did so: even though they have uncommon names they don't show up in Google.

Today I brought up my LinkedIn profile and added all of my employers back to the Danbury Public Library when I was fresh out of Library school in 1977, and all three of the universities I have attended. Before today I only had the current company and, not the previous employer but the one before that, in my profile.

I sent invitations to a few people from the company I was working at before I started consulting in 2000, but for now I am mostly making my profile available for people to invite, if they want to. Having a fairly unusual name can be usefull in these contexts.

I am boggled by my contacts who have hundreds of contacts listed. I'm not quite as much of a hermit on-line as I am in meat-space, but I come close. Before today, my contact list barely reached double digits. (Shawn has 500 contacts.)

I suspect it requires a willingness to be agressive about asking for connections...

Eventually, I should probably enter my various consulting clients in addition to my actual employers.

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Sun, Mar 30, 2008

Procrastination

Posted at 10:01 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

This has been a weird day: it felt like I was procrastinating about something.

But what I did while I was procrastinating was reconcile all my bank and credit accounts, buy and download my TaxACT software, and get the data from my W-2 form entered.

I wonder what would be worse than working on my taxes, that I was procrastinating from doing?

One of my credit unions has set up a tab in the online account display where they tell you what your credit rating number is. As of January 15, my number was in the exceptional range, which I suspected. But it is nice to have the actual number.

My only other accomplishment today was making a loaf of bread that came out very well. George the sourdough shoggoth was nicely frisky, and I didn't lose track of the rise so I got plenty of oven-spring and a good crust. (Sourdough is a bit less forgiving of multiple rises than commercial yeast.)

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Sat, Mar 29, 2008

Knife Skills Class

Posted at 6:15 pm MDT to Technology

This was fun. We chopped all kinds of veggies for a minestrone soup, and for a vinaigrette, and chopped and chiffonaded herbs, and supremed oranges. And then we ate the soup and salads for a late lunch.

I skipped the green salad (except for a bite of tomato to taste the vinaigrette) because of my lettuce allergy. But the orange salad (with mint chiffonade) was good.

The soup was also very good. My Nonna would have used rosemary in additon to the other herbs, and more beans, but I still had a bowl and a half.

I managed to cut myself when I was working on the last segment of my orange, but I've had worse papercuts. And I honestly can't imagine ever needing to supreme an orange in real life. Concasséing a tomato is likely to be a lot more useful.

On the way home I stopped at McGuckins and bought a new sharpening steel and a replacement for my favorite wood cutting board that warped to death several months ago (it cost $13, and the old one lasted about 10 years...). Also some other kitchen gadgets, including the sausage-stuffer to go with my Kitchenaid's meatgrinder, and a cherry/olive pitter. And a few little 4 oz. condiment dishes for mise en place use, so I have something between the tiny ones and custard cups.

I also invested in a 1 gallon white porcelain compost container for my kitchen counter. My soil is so bad than any little bit would help, and there is no sense sending good organics to the landfill. Now I need to find a big outdoor compost bin that won't get wrecked by the wind, or put it down wind from the house. But it will take me a while to fill the gallon jar, even with Farmers' Market starting next week.

I mentioned in class that I work at the Market, and that it was starting up again next week. The Instructor asked which farm I sold for and said "Oh, Jay Hill Farm is where the school gets all our greens." So the salad I didn't eat came from Nanette's farm. I'm not sure about the basil and mint we chiffonaded.

I didn't buy any more knives because my old Chicago Cutlery boning knive is adequate for the little I use it, and they didn't have a roast slicer that I liked. I think I'm going to keep using the Ginsu as my main bread knife.

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Good Day

Posted at 6:13 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

Interesting question. Did I have a good day today because I had meals and meds at sensible intervals? Or did I have meals and meds at sensible intervals because I was having a good day and had the attention to spare to notice it was time for food and herbs? I definitely woke up in good shape: it was the first time in a couple of weeks that I had the energy to do some yoga in the morning, well before the morning dose of herbs had cut in.

Yesterday was very bad and my third dose of St. John's Wort didn't happen until late in the evening so I may have awakened with my brain chemistry already boosted this morning. My third dose today was at a reasonable suppertime. It will be interesting to see how I feel in the morning -- though Saturday makes a difference.

I woke up Wednesday with a mild headache that got very gradually worse all day until I took some Ibruprofen. I wonder if the Ibruprofen crashed my brain chemistry. (I'll have to track the interactions.) Or maybe whatever was wrong Wednesday kept building until I melted down in the mid-afternoon yesterday.

One factor in today being a good day was probably that the woman I'm having trouble dealing with wasn't around -- I learned at the 4pm status conference call (2 pm my time), that she was in training all day.

Tomorrow should be fun: it's the day of the Culinary Knife Skills workshop I signed up for a while back. Four hours of playing with sharp pointy things. I'll take my own good chef and paring knives. I plan to use the school's slicer if we need one, to see what it should feel like. Maybe I'll swing by the McGuckins knife department after class. I probably need a better steel, too.

My slicer is a Ginsu: embarassing but true. (They sell them in the supermarkets as special events, I didn't send away for them.) But they cut, and they don't wear out the way regular serrated bread knives do. Because I bake (and slice) my own bread I used to wear out a Chicago Cutlery bread slicer in about 5 years. A more upscale brand might last better, but they are too expensive to gamble on replacing them every few years. I may keep the Ginsu as my bread knife even if I get a better slicer for other uses.

Other shaped knifes from the same company as Ginsu are pretty useless for real cooking tasks, though I have one skinny tapered one that does a fair job of slashing bread loaves before baking.

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Thu, Mar 27, 2008

Broken Brain

Posted at 7:54 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

It feels like my brain is broken.

This does not make sense, and is not realy true.

My reading speed and comprehension are about normal. My ability to deal with numbers is a little flaky, but not outside the normal range.

I can still make ClearCase and ClearQuest jump through hoops and figure out safe ways to accomplish tasks that are dangerous.

I can do technical stuff in general: the Customer Portal fixes I've done over the past week went well, and I'm not worried about the LDAP project.

But my brain is broken: I cannot function on this current project.

I'm fine while I'm doing the ClearQuest and ClearCase bits, but the parts involving making decisions based on the customer's policies and procedures (which are a big part of this particular contract) are just not working. And I don't have the emotional bandwidth to slog through it at the moment.

There is one particular task where neither I nor they are happy with my progress, but whenever I try to look at the requirements, my brain goes blank (at best). And the harder I try to comprehend the structure of what I need to do, the more my brain locks up.

I think the expectation at the beginning of this contract was that I would quickly pick up the customer's policies and procedures and be able to transmit them to the people I deal with, but that has not happened. It would need good clear explanations, and those have not been available. And if things do not make sense to me, I can hardly explain them to anyone else. Or set up the environments according to the customer's standards.

There seems to be a fundamental disconnect between the way my mind works and the way the mind of the woman in charge of the project works. Information does not pass between us, and I have learned that even when I think it does, I can't trust it. Even if I get what looks to me like agreement, in writing, about some task, and follow through, what I do is not right or acceptable for some reason.

When I end this contract (one way or another) I'm probably going to need a vacation so I can get my emotional balance back before I need to deal with strangers. It's been a long time since I had an actual vacation, as opposed to short waits between contracts while the paperwork gets filed. The customer mandated Christmas break doesn't quite count. And my client between mid-November and mid-January involved huge amounts of stress and not nearly enough billable hours.

I've updated my resume on my website.

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Power Lines

Posted at 7:54 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

From March 4 (uploaded wrong)

Between bad weather and being sick I haven't been chasing my power company and electrical contractor to get the power lines finished.

This morning someone from the power company showed up, looked things over and said they would want to redo the underground lines (so they can charge me for the work, and dig up my driveway again) and also he didn't like the way they did the breaker box and he wants that re-done even though it passed the county's inspection.

I called in to the electrical contractor. Ross, who did the work, is no longer with them it seems. A technician is supposed to come out tomorrow morning to look at things. I'm not sure what that will accomplish.

If he proposes charging me for anything I will refuse to allow the work. If I have to pay for some of this stuff twice, the second payment will go to someone else.

At least I'm more or less healthy this week and have a little spare energy for this.

I have sent emails to both the contractor and a consumer advocacy website that they advertise on.

I should probably see about contacting a lawyer. Voodoo dolls might be cheaper and more satisfying. Gah.

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Wed, Mar 26, 2008

LDAP

Posted at 8:59 pm MDT to Technology

Now that the Customer Portal is done, my next project for the office will be setting up LDAP for our network.

First, for practice and to learn the tools, I'll set up my home network (including all the vmware images) to use an LDAP server instead of individual password files. Once I get the home network set up, I can use similar methods for the office network.

I need to look into the best way for my laptop to handle being away from home. We have too many people travelling with latops. Time to google: I'm sure other companies need to deal with laptops that are only intermittently connected.

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Tue, Mar 25, 2008

Egg Salad

Posted at 7:38 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

I did not dye eggs this year. Nanette's chickens lay brown eggs, which are delicious but do not dye well. But I did hardboil some eggs on Sunday in honor of the season.

Tonight I can't think of anything I want to cook for supper, so I'm eating egg salad.

My massage appointment, which had been postponed from last Wednesday has been pushed out again.

And I found out from Beth (our sales manager) that the final day of this contract is July 25. So I am 1/3 of the way through this contract. Sigh.

I told her that after this contract ends I won't work for Boston again for at least five years. This stint of consulting is being much more annoying than last fall: the manager I'm mostly working for CANNOT hold to a decision for more than a couple of days. So I end up reworking the same tasks over and over again. I don't trust the instructions I'm given not to change (Getting acknowledgements in writing of what the current plan is makes no difference. The requirements will be different tomorrow, or cetrainly by next week) and I worry about doing any tasks that can't be undone.

Now I'm going back to reading the latest book by Steven Erikson. (I'm at about the halfway point now.) A thousand pages or so of gritty fantasy with a high body-count pretty well suits my mood. Grr.

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Sun, Mar 23, 2008

White Easter

Posted at 11:35 am MDT to Weather

It started snowing about sunset yesterday. I think there was an inch or so on the ground early this morning, so everything was white and pretty in the sunshine.

Now it is melting off pretty quickly, which is what you want snow to do at this time of year. Places where the snow was on dirt or roadbase are already bare. There is just a little snow left on the grass.

I'm ready for green plants and flowers, but that is still a few weeks away here. I should visit Nanette's greenhouse in the meant time.

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Dance Concert

Posted at 11:24 am MDT to Media

Last night was another Philharmonic Concert. This one explored classical music inspired by dance (Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances) and dance inspired by classical music.

The dancing -- by a modern/ballet duo called LemonSponge Cake -- was very good. Especially considering that they were dancing to some very abstract late-20th century stuff by Arvo Pärt. That part of the music would have been too depressing without the dancers. I don't think my brain chemistry is in a state where I should be inflicting abstract music on it.

That goes double for the first piece of music that was played yesterday: "Company" by Philip Glass. Too much math, not enough chemistry. I won't quite go as far as talking about the emperor's clothes when it comes to Philip Glass, but I very much prefer my music to have some melodic or rhythmic complexity, preferably both. I have a suspicion that Glass's reputation comes more from musicians than from pure listeners. I can see where the pieces might be much more tricky and interesting to play than they are to listen to.

Note to self: the guy who gives the pre-concert lectures is a pompous bozo. Stop getting to the concerthall so early.

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Fri, Mar 21, 2008

Country Club

Posted at 9:19 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

Today was a holiday for me.

I finished the Customer Portal for my company's website that I was working on before I got sick. It's nice to get something completed.

I also went over to the office to deliver and set up the Customer Portal, and meet with my fellow company owners. Our accountant took the three of us out to lunch at his country club. The food was delicious. And it's a little impressive to be with someone who is being addressed by name by the wait-staff.

After lunch we spent several hours talking about company status and plans for the future. Shawn has some ideas for growing the company in different directions. Karl wants to come back and be active in the company again. And if I can survive this current contract, I may do some software development work instead of consulting full time.

I need to find out the exact end date, so I can cross off days on the calendar.

You can tell I'm a manga/anime geek: what crossing off calendar days reminds me of is Area 88. And ramen noodles with a pilot's helmet weighting the package closed. It may say something about my attitude toward this contract, too: Area 88 is a story of a man trapped by a nasty contract...

Beth, our sales manager comes back in to work on Tuesday. I'll get the date from her then.

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Thu, Mar 20, 2008

Gah

Posted at 8:50 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

I felt pretty good yesterday.

Today, on the other hand, sucked, and I don't really understand why. It was like my brain turned off for a while and I couldn't think or focus clearly, just feel miserable and confused and frantic. I can't be objective enough at this point to say whether it was my customer being opaque and vague in their instructions that set it off, or whether even straightforward tasks would have been overwhelming.

It's like I'm running on fumes, with no reserve capacity.

I don't know whether it wore off on its own, or my vitamins and the extra dose of St. John's Wort I took at lunch time cut in. (Today I took the herbs at all three meals, which is the recommended dosage.)

I managed to make a some progress even when I was glitching, but not nearly as much as I would usually expect.

I just remembered that I've heard 'brain-fog' described as a symptom of thyroid levels going wonky. I should probably call my doctor tomorrow and make an appointment to get tested. Maybe the viral crud messed up my thyroid balance so the current dosage of my meds it wrong.

Fortunately, financial companies take Good Friday off because the stock market is closed, so I have a holiday tomorrow.

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Wed, Mar 19, 2008

Linens

Posted at 10:27 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

When I was living in corporate housing in Minnetonka a few years ago, all of the sheets and towels in the apartment were brand new, and decent quality. The dishes and utensils in the kitchen were new, too, but limited, so I was glad I had brought some of my own kitchen equipment from home.

My sheets and towels at home were several years old and pretty poor quality to begin with. Waterbed sheet sets are made of cheap, poor quality cotton. And the towels were from Target and not their best price range.

I had heard online that deep pocket fitted sheets would work on waterbeds. After I moved back home I went over to the Bed, Bath and Beyond near the mall and spent a lot of money on some better than mid-range towels and some bed linens with threadcounts measured in triple digits, including two new duvet covers for my down comforter.

Today, in honor of spring starting tomorrow, I switched out the duvet covers, so I have a nice fresh one on the bed for the start of the new season. The other one, with its load of a winter's cat-hair and germs from when I was sick will be washed and then folded away in the cupboard to await the next changeover. (Which may be caused by a season change, or hairballs).

The TCO of decent quality linens is actually not too bad over time. They last much better than cheap bedlinens and towels: the good bed linens I bought are not showing any signs of wear and the towels are not disintegrating at the seams, unlike their cheaper predecessors.

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Tue, Mar 18, 2008

Citric Acid

Posted at 10:31 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

I've eaten 8 clementines today. On top of a gram of vitamin C and whatever is in my multivitamins. This may be a good sign: at least it's a change from craving mostly carbs and protein for the past few weeks. And citrus cravings on top of huge amounts of vitamin C is actually normal for me, weird though that is.

Actually, even when I was really sick I drank a lot of fruit juice and V-8, so my vitamin C intake was pretty good by most people's standards. It was just low by my standards.

One of the guys I'm working with remotely has what sounds like the crud. At least I can be sure he didn't catch it from me.

My body temperature is still being strange. I ran a slight fever for a while late this afternoon, again. It didn't feel like a hot flash. Maybe my hot flashes are mutating or something. There was a while last week when I was just constantly too warm (I turned the house thermostat down a couple of degrees) with occasional waves of feeling chilled that were like upside down hot flashes.

I need to get to bed relatively early tonight: tomorrow the cleaning ladies come (so I need to tidy the house in the morning) and I have my massage therapy appointment in the evening. And I've got either 3 or 4 conference calls (I'm sooo glad I got that bluetooth headset).

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Mon, Mar 17, 2008

Acupuncture and Energy

Posted at 10:37 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

Four days of being careful to take St. John's Wort mornings and evenings seems to be stabilizing my mood. (I found the brand and style of capsules I trust at Walgree's, so I'm well stocked for a while.) If I keep taking them I should be able to make it to the end of this contract. But there is no way I will accept an extension.

The acupuncture this afternoon should help with the balance. I've got some Chinese herbs to add to the mix, too. Galen says they should help clear out the aftermath of what the crud did to my system physically.

I'll see how it goes.

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Sun, Mar 16, 2008

Mist Again

Posted at 3:45 pm MDT to Weather

This mornign was misty again. Today it did not burn off. It sort of lifted up and got threatening. About 2 drops of actual rain hit my windshield as i was coming home from the grocery store. So I think we are actually going to get some moisture.

It's annoying that neither the supermarket nor the local Whole Foods that used to be Wild Oats seem to carry the brand of St. John's Wort that I trust. Naturemade/Nature'sResource is a national brand, and the supermarket has a lot of their other herbs. I'll try a different supermarket after my acupunture appointment tomorrow, and maybe Walgreen's or Vitamin Cottage. If I still can't find it, there is always the option of internet ordering. Sometimes it is good to live in the 21st Century

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Sat, Mar 15, 2008

Mist

Posted at 7:38 pm MDT to Weather

This morning the clouds were walking. I could see my neighbors' houses a few hundred feet away, but not much farther. It burned off by early afternoon.

There were predictions of snow for this weekend: I'll gladly take mist instead. Actually, I wouldn't mind a little rain, while the weather has decided to be warmish. Better an inch of rain than a foot of snow, and March which is supposed to be one of our wet months, has been dry so far.

I have more energy this weekend than I did last week (I think I've got the St. John's Wort dosage about right) but I'm taking it easy, and not thinking about work today if I can avoid it. Tomorrow I need to shop, for veggies to go with my corned beef on Monday and also for some fresh duct tape for my dryer vent duct (which has pulled apart) so I can do some laundry.

Today I shopped online. I finally ordered the additional spice tins I've been needing for a few weeks. And I put in a big order at Republic of Tea because I was out of my three favorites of their decaf and non-caf teas and low on a couple of others. I ordered a couple of new varieties, too. One was Decaf Pomegranate/Green Tea, which should be great, and better for me than Blue Sky Pomegranate/White Tea soda, which I love. The other was

I re-subscribed to Cook's Illustrated (after a gap of a few years) and paid for access to their online sites, and told them to send me a sample of their sister magazine Cook's Country. I discovered back in January that one of the local PBS stations carries the Cook's Illustrated TV show, America's Test Kitchen and I was watching Test Kitchen episodes today so that I could delete them and free up space on the DVR. They have all of the TV recipes on-line, and they also have all of the episodes on-line so that if you want to try a recipe you can follow along as they demonstrate the techniques and pause or rewind whenever you want.

I'm not going to make any serious decisions about things until after the acupuncture on Monday. Making decisions when you know your brain chemistry is hosed is a stupid as making them drunk.

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Fri, Mar 14, 2008

Melancholy

Posted at 7:49 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

My brain chemistry is definitely hosed. I'm pretty sure the problem is situational depression and clinical (i.e. neurochemical) depression feeding back on each other.

I think the last time I melted down as much as I did this morning was 2002. Or maybe not since 1984, when I was officially diagnosed with depression. I doubled the St. John's Wort (to the full recommended dose) and made an appointment for Monday afternoon with my acupuncturist.

Fortunately, I had stabilized enough to speak normally before I needed to talk to anyone other than the acupuncturist on the phone.

That may have been partly the herbs kicking in. I've taken an evening dose so I don't bottom out again over night. I need to visit Whole Foods tomorrow to stock up on the St. John's Wort: if I need to take 4 capsules a day (or the six that's the recommended max) my current supply won't last very long.

Albert Einstein or Ben Franklin, or both, said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Herbs and acupuncture may help stabilize the chemical side of things, but I also need to do something about the situational side of the problem. I have both versions of my resume open: the one my company uses and the one from my website. They both need to be updated with what I have done since last July, which means thinking about what I have been doing on these last few stupid contracts.

Ugh.

Maybe I'll work on them tomorrow. I should do my taxes, too, if I don't spend half the weekend in bed the way I did last week. I'm expecting a hefty refund this year, and it would be nice to have a bigger cash buffer right about now. Options are always good to have.

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Thu, Mar 13, 2008

Contracting

Posted at 11:27 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

Well, I've worked 4 days so far this week. And done about 3 days of actual work, net. Maybe only two. It wasn't my fault.

I spent a good chunk of Monday and Tuesday implementing some specific infrastructure they specifically asked for. I sent emails asking 'are you really sure this is what you want, and these are the right names for things?'.

"Yes, this is how it should be. This is what they want."

Late Tuesday afternoon, someone higher in the bureaucracy noticed: "Oh, these names are wrong and don't conform to our standards. You need to redo the setup."

Simple renaming was not an acceptable option -- everything is very interlinked and they did not think that the renaming woould propagate completely to all the places it needed to go.

So I spent much of Wednesday implementing the stuff again with the new names.

I spent part of today cleaning out the stuff that had been created with the old names.

And I spent another part of today sending LOTS of emails trying to verify that what I was told to do in the late Wednesday conference call was really what the someone higher would find acceptable. (The answer: probably not, as I expected.)

Part of tomorrow (and probably early next week) will be spent trying to figure out what really needs to be implemented. And trying to finish a few other tasks.

I have to say, based on experiences at a few different clients now, that women from India are smart and detail oriented, so they are good at the administrative side of management. But before American companies put them into any kind of position of authority they really need to be given assertiveness training so the idea of saying 'No' to really stupid ideas is less alien to them. Sticking to established standards despite a human happening to ask for something different might also be a useful skill.

I'm glad this is only a 6 month contract. I wish I trusted that it would not get extended. Now that I'm mostly over the crud, I have the energy to be cranky at the flailing, not just exhausted and miserable and disoriented by the constant changes in direction.

But I've started taking St. John's Wort again, after months without it. I don't think the insomnia earlier this week was just because of the time change. I suspect the crud tweaked my brain chemistry and I need to rebalance it.

And at this point I'm really wishing Google had had an opening in Colorado when they asked to interview me last year.

This job as a consultant has been going on for nearly 8 years now: about as long as my previous stint of consulting, and longer than I was a regular employee (at two different companies) in between. Maybe it's time to start considering alternatives.

One of the benefits of consulting that balances the uncertainties is supposed to be that you aren't stuck in a working environment you can't stand, but I'm now on my fourth contract with these same bozos since August 2004: 10 months and 7 months actually living in Boston, half of last year, and now 2 months and counting working from home. More than two years out of the past four. It seems longer.

I can't afford to not work, but I can't afford to break my health or my brain-chemistry either. I took more actual sick days last month than I did in 2005 when I was having radiation treatments. (Though I did take some time off in June 2005 right after I had surgery, a month or so before the radiation.)

And being a part-owner of the consultancy is starting to feel more like a trap than a benefit.

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Wed, Mar 12, 2008

Gulliver Cats

Posted at 7:41 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

Monday night I went to bed early, but it didn't do me any good. I spent most of the night tossing and turning.

Dinah Kitty finally got fed up with the way I kept moving and making the waterbed shake. She got up from her usual sleeping spot near the foot of the bed and came and leaned her front half on my waist, purring. I don't think I slept much for the rest of the night, but I stopped moving around.

Last night she over as soon as I turned out the light and pinned part of me under the comforter. I guess she wasn't taking any chances.

Being just one cat (albeit a large one), Dinah can't really trap me under the blankets

A dozen years or so ago I had three cats who used to all snuggle up to me, with me under the covers and the cats on top of them. I used to feel like Gulliver trapped by the Lilliputians.

I miss having more than one cat. But Dinah hates other cats. And I can't be sure I won't need to relocate again. Travelling with more than one cat would be tricky, and I think even some of the corporate housing places that will allow one cat draw the line at two or more.

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Mon, Mar 10, 2008

Daylight Savings

Posted at 8:16 pm MDT to Weather

I am clock-jetlagged today. And I forgot to change the thermostat clock yesterday, so this morning the house was chilly as well as dark.

The fact that I am working partly on Boston time -- two later than my local time -- just complicates things.

There are rumors of studies showing that clock changes cost money and don't really save fuel. Maybe someday they will just leave the clocks alone.

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Sun, Mar 09, 2008

Promethean Age

Posted at 6:00 pm MDT to Media

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I seemed to be in a phase of aversion to long narrative. It seems that if the narrative is good enough I can still hack it...

Friday evening and yesterday I blew through the first two novels in Elizabeth Bear's Promethean Age series, Blood and Iron and Whiskey and Water. They are excellent stories and the prose is lovely.

These are stories containing modern wizards, old secret societies, swans, werewolves, one and every dragon, a variety of the Devil, and Faerie (and its inhabitants) out of the old tales and legends from before Tolkien gave elves souls and Disney, Inc. whitewashed and neutered most of what was left.

These stories, like some of their Fae, have sharp pointy teeth: I was reminded a little of Njal's Saga or Poul Anderson in some of his grimmer modes. We are shown mostly the nicer parts of the world but I have no doubt there are valkyries singing at looms strung with men's guts off in the distance over that way.

They are very 21st century narratives in their post-Copenhagen view of the complexity of truth, and also in the way that the characters are aware of the narrative structures in which they are immersed and try to work with or against the patterns. It is important that one of the most magically powerful of the human characters teaches Geology 102 at a University and travels to Faerie and back at will, and another teaches English Literature at a College, and uses stone lions at the NYPL as oracles. It is not a world of simplistic either/or reality.

What the stories are about is choices, free will and the lack of it, consequences, the meaning of sacrifice, fate, hope, duty, betrayal, payments, the nature of damnation, families, and the possibility of redemption. There is also a lot of talk about love and loyalty, but rather in the mode of "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

Also an evil sorceress named Jane. There was a book I read many years ago called Taash and the Jesters, by Ellen Kindt McKenzie. At one point the wise old woman character comments that the evil sorceress is correct the sacrificing someone's liver will bring power, but the evil ones never want to recognize that, for true power, the liver you sacrifice needs to be your own. Jane has her reasons for what she does, but she is very, very good at seeing to it that it is others who pay the price for her decisions and actions. And her 'reasons' are excuses for punishing what will not submit to her control.

By comparison, the other characters, even the soulless and the damned-by-definition, acknowledge the validity of prices and consequences in a way that Jane never does. There is a strong pattern of defining loved ones as the ones you accept the awful stuff instead of. (Sort of anti-1984, there.)

One notable anti-Jane in the story is Whiskey, the Kelpie, who properly is as amoral as the sea and as predatory as a wolf, but is stuck carrying someone's soul and effectively cripples himself because he will not allow the consequences of his actions to accrue to it. Even though the proper owner of the soul is the one who stuck him with it.

One nice thing about coming late to this series is that I have only a few months to wait for the next installment: Ink and Steel Part 1 of The Stratford Man, which should be available at the beginning of July (just in time for my birthday), to be followed by Part Two, Hell and Earth, a month later. Elizabethan poets and playwrights (especially Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe) and Faerie (and possibly an occasional devil). Something to look forward to.

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Fri, Mar 07, 2008

Power Lines, yet again

Posted at 8:06 pm MST to Miscellaneous

It looks like the platform/storage thingy will not be needed after all. This Art the electrician came out again. He got Kurt from X-Cel to come out and take a look at tthings (not the same X-Cel guy who showed up on Monday, nor from the same department).

They are still discussing whether the trench up my driveway needs to be re-done, but I have been asured that whatever is done about that won't cost me any additional money. It will be handled betwee the electrical contractor and X-Cel.

I just want them to 1) get the powerlines into a more stable configuration and 2) finish mucking up the area near my house so I can get a landscape architect and contractor in to fix the retaining wall and the path from the house to the driveway.

I'm tired of having my shoes sucked off by the mud when the ground is wet. And it has now been 5 months since they dug things up the first time.

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Elizabeth Bear Short Pieces

Posted at 8:06 pm MST to Media

Over the past couple of weeks I have gradually read Elizabeth Bear's Live Journal. All of it. By tags. In reverse alphabetical order. With all of the comments.

I really like her writing, but I have somehow gotten out of the habit and mood for reading long narratives. So yesterday evening I read most of the online short fiction pieces that are linked to from her website.

It was interesting to recognise different bits of research that were mentioned in the LJ entries, and I liked all of the stories. We seem to have a lot of historical and literary interests in common.

After reading the first novella in it, I'm looking forward to the reissue of New Amsterdam this year. Vampire detectives and dirigibles are hard to beat.

I think I'm looking forward to the publication of the 'Edda of Burdens' books, beginning with All the Windwracked Stars in the fall, even more. (I've been a fan of Norse myth since I was about 10.) "Norse periapocalyptic noir steampunk cyberfantasy WITH A GIANT TELEPATHIC METAL HORSE!" The horse was introduced/created in one of the short pieces. (It seems natural that E Bear books and stories should include the Fimbulwinter. It's a side effect of the overload of cool stuff. :-) )

And I think the next book of hers I read will be Blood and Iron rather than the sequel to her first novel (which I read one weekend while I was sick last month). The short pieces set in the Promethean Age world have put me in the mood for Faerie and literature. Besdies, what ex-librarian and cat-lover could resist a book where one of the New York Public Library lions comes to life? That's not a spoiler: it is ilustrated on the cover.

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Wed, Mar 05, 2008

Pecs

Posted at 8:52 pm MST to Exercise

Yesterday morning I lifted weights for the first time in about a month. I didn't intend to be aggressive about it, but by mid-afternoon yesterday I was getting sore.

Yoga this morning stretched out some of the kinks but not all of them. I guess I was more enthusiastic than I realized. I think I will hold off on doing weights again until Friday, to let things recover.

This evening I had my first massage session in 6 weeks.

The bad leg is much better than it was at the beginning of the yearmwhen my hip was out. It is still a little puffy and tender at the ankle but otherwise... it's nice to have a leg instead of a lump.

Marti said that she could feel toned muscle under the fat on the good leg, which is amazing since I have not done much other than sit for months. Maybe tomorrow I will walk for a while on my treadmill after doing my yoga, to remind both legs what their job is. I need to get in training for spending a few hours on my feet when Farmers' Market starts up again in a few weeks.

She also thinks I am less dehydrated than when she worked on me in January. This is encouraging because my weight is down a little: more retained water and less total weight is the right direction for things to be going.

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Tue, Mar 04, 2008

Power Lines Again

Posted at 4:23 pm MST to Miscellaneous

Art, the technician from my electrical contractor came out this morning to look things over.

He's going to sic his bosses on X-Cel, and assured me that I would not need to pay for digging everything up again: his company will cover any costs if X-Cel insists on being stupid and re-digging, but he thought that was not likely once his bosses got involved.

The meter being too high will be handled by building a platform (about 3 feet square) in front of it on the deck. I suggested giving it a hinged top and he agreed that would be a good idea, so I will be able to store some small stuff in it out of the wind. I'm thinking that platform might also be a good place to put my little weber charcoal grill when the weather gets nicer.

Art will be coming back on Friday to build the platform: the weather forecasts for tomorrow and Thursday are not encouraging. This means, of course, that the storm will move more slowly so that it can make a mess on Friday, too.

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Sun, Mar 02, 2008

Pretzels

Posted at 8:08 pm MST to Technology

I'm feeling better. Yesterday I bought some multivitamins with a fair amount of iron in them, in a format that I can more or less swallow, and I think they are helping.

Today I did some real cooking and baking for the first time in a couple of weeks.

One loaf of bread (in a loaf pan, so I can make toasted xheese sandwiches for lonch this week).

Turkey Rissoto (I'll get a few more meals out of this batch, but this finishes my Thanksgiving turkey)

extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter

sweated with a little salt

1 cup of real imported from northern Italy arborio rice, 
sauteed in the onion, etc.

one bottle from a 4-pack of Glen Ellen Chardonnay, 2002

about 3 cups of turkey stock and meat

several dried porcini mushrooms and 
the 1/2 cup of water they soaked in

about a tablespoon of double-strength tomato paste

a quart of turkey broth, 
added gradually and allowed to cook down

salt 

grated parmesan

Risotto is amazingly smooth and creamy when you make it with arborio instead of brown rice.

My third project today was homemade soft pretzels, using a recipe adapted from the Foppish Baker, found through a pointer from Chaz Villette.

I cut the recipe in half, decreased the sugar even more, increased the water a little, and still could not get as much flour into the dough as the recipe called for. It's the same problem I had when I made the pasta a while back: the flour here is just so dry compared to most places that the proportions go off. I ended up with 7 plump pretzels instead of 10, boiled them briefly (in tap water: with 1200ppm sodium bicarbonate, I don't need to worry about a lye solution), then sprinkled them with kosher salt and baked them at 425 until they looked done, about 20 minutes.

Next time I need to roll them thinner, and also stick them together better: a few of them sort of unravelled into spirals while they were boiling. Or just shape them into bagels (leaving off the salt on top).

3/4 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup hot water plus a little
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 scant teaspoon pickling salt

2+ cups flour 
(the goal would be 2 2/4 cups, 
but I didn't come close)

They tasted very good. I'll have to do this again some time. Maybe I'll try a full batch some time when I am going to a party.

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Sat, Mar 01, 2008

Bluetooth

Posted at 10:17 pm MST to Technology

I have joined the 21st century. When I replaced my cell phone today, I got a bluetooth headset for it. The headpiece is charging now. I'll set it up tomorrow.

My company cell phone had gotten very unreliable. This was bad since I use it for conference calls with my customers. During a couple of long calls this past week the phone went garbled before dying completely, and the phone was refusing to work except in one particular location.

I have been wanting hands-free support, so I can type during the conference calls (putting the phone on speaker more or less worked before the phone got cranky, but lately that has not been possible).

The new phone fits in my existing belt clip, a bit more loosely than the old phone did, and it uses the same power connectors, so the travel AC connector I carry in my briefcase will still work, as well as the car adapter from the old phone. And I can keep the old phone's AC adapter as a spare. Replacing the belt clip, and power adapters would have cost as much as the headset.

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Red Chard Omelette

Posted at 9:02 pm MST to Weather

It was 70 F today in Boulder. We still have our two historically snowiest months ahead of us (and in fact, it is supposed to snow tomorrow) but it was nice to have a little taste of spring.

I had one of my Farmers' Market meals for supper: red chard and eggs, with chard that was picked only few hours earlier. I usually make a sort of frittata, but didn't feel like firing up the broiler, so I folded it over into more of an omelette. And I have to say, that was some of the darkest, reddest chard I've ever seen.

I was able to get the super-fresh chard because I took advantage of the nice weather -- and being mostly not sick -- to run a few errands and stop by Nanette's farm for a cup of tea and some conversation. I was watching in the greenhouse as Nanette plucked the chard leaves I just had for supper.

Nanette and her oldest daughter, Rowan, have been selling fresh veggies through their website since the Farmers' Market ended in November, and many of their crops are still going strong.

And they are running out of lighted shelf space in the small building where they are starting their seedlings for the coming season. (Nanette was planting tomatoes and onions when I arrived at the farm.) And there are already lots of trays with little green leaves sticking out of the dirt on some of the shelves that were filled earlier. Some of the seedlings will move into the big greenhouses, some are being grown for eventual transplanting into the outdoor fields. A few flats may be offered for sale at the early markets.

I keep thinking I would love to have some edible plants in my yard, but my soil is bad (unless you want to make bricks), my well water is worse (unless you want oven cleaner straight from the tap), and I get way too much wind and hail here.

I haven't had much luck with houseplants since I moved to Colorado. When I lived in Connecticut, I always had houseplants, but it is so dry here that I can never get the water right for them. I'm doing good at the moment, actually: I bought a few herb plants at the market last year and two of them (two little bay plants with about a half dozen leaves each) have not died yet.

I have a 30 gallon long tank in my living room that once held goldfish (before I started travelling all of the time). One of these days I need to either clean the minerals off the glass, or replace it with a clean tank. It might be nice to have a terrarium that size: I wouldn't need super-tiny plants, since the tank is 30 inches wide by 18 inches tall by 12 inches deep. The plants and cat would be safe from each other, too.

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