Month: May 2007

Still no internet at home – Telus is actually sending someone out

But the new computer is sweet and it’s amazing how much faster you get where you’re going.  It too came with a remote, which works great.  Some of the software on it – like Garage Band and Comic Life – looks intriguing.  It also looks like I can just plug my Midi keyboard into the computer without worrying about software.  This is amazing.

I have already taken the liberty of creating an account for Keith.

I listened to the SFU Pipe band practice last night.  I can’t tell you what it’s like to sit in a beautiful room and listen to the pipes (at a suitable distance, of course…) while messing about with a new computer.

I found a single lonely DVD in with my moving crap, and watched the first half of Hunt for Red October last night.  Unpacked about half a dozen boxes last night and I swear half of it was landfill that I paid somebody to sling around.  Ve Grow Too Soon Oldt und Too Late Schmart.

More paint

Last night I cleaned out Dr. Filk’s old bedroom, and now all Paul has to do is the light fixtures and outlets.  Everything else in that room is done.  I put another coat of paint on the insides of the downstairs kitchen cupboards, another coat of paint on the dungeon cupboard, cleaned out (ALMOST) the dungeon storage room, got the dry towels out of the dryer and bagged them up for Paul, and took two more boxes of crap to my place, thanks Paul for the lift home.

Joy of Joys, Keith joined me and we had a pleasant evening of reading sea adventures aloud, had dinner at home and crashed out early.  Very restful.  Up early this morning and left Keith the keys so he could work out and then he’ll saunter down the hill and give me my keys back sometime later this morning.  I wrote out and stamped and mailed five change of address cards… Now on to work….

More painting w/ prayer

So….Now I have to go back and put second coats of paint on LOTS of cupboards.  My back really hurts, but we’re SO close to being done.

Had a very long and very pleasant (with tense interludes, due to content…) chat with Glenn last night.  I called him at 11:30 and then walked over to see him, and we sat and shot shit until about 1:30 this morning, and then he walked me home.  There are distinct advantages to living and working on campus.

Big hug to my mom who innocently asked on the phone yesterday, “Am I worrying enough?”; I controlled my immediate and unprintable response and said, “Yeah, ’bout enough.”  The unprintable response I will pass over, but, “Sheesh, mom, I’m 48” will cover for the meantime.  PS.  A DVD with the best of LaughIn is now available.

Katie is exhausted.  Shout out to Paul for standing the two of us to a meal yesterday – lunch at Chong Lum Hin.  I gave her 20 bucks for bug spray. 

I have new folks to light candles for.  I light a candle for a certain incarcerated man, and pray for his rehabilitation.  I light a candle for Beacon’s minister Katie Stein Sather, whose father is coming to the end of his long and productive life, and for him and his comfortable passing.  I light a candle for Maggie’s dad and his swift recovery from his surgery. 

And I light a candle for my apartment, which looks like a well behaved grenade went off in it.  Dang!

Snerk.  My clothes are fitting better….. Glenn laughed last night and said, “Isn’t the first thing a woman does when she leaves her husband is drop 20 pounds?”  I have dropped maybe two, but I can live in hope.

Unintentionally hilarious research abstract (Doc Ock approves…)

Robotic tentacles provide an interesting alternative to conventional rigid-link robotic arms; in certain situations, they may even be more capable. Kinetic Sciences Inc. has developed a hybrid electric-pneumatic tentacular robot called the KSI tentacle manipulator. It has variable compliance, can bend independently in two or more regions, and can extend to more than five times its contracted length. In total, the Tentacle has six degrees of freedom-or seven with the addition of a distal wrist-rotate joint. The Tentacle’s unusual kinematics and inherent compliance demand new approaches to control. Three schemes are considered here: joystick-based teleoperation, inverse kinematics-based tendon length control, and machine vision-based fine position control. Under control, the Tentacle has broad potential in many applications, including teleoperated vacuuming and spray washing (for nuclear hot cell decontamination), general materials handling, agricultural harvesting, robotic refueling, and endoscopy.

What about …. telesex???  I zoomed in on the “extend five times….” right away.  Okay, now it’s time to go give my dirty mind a shower. 

more brevity

my mother sez, she sez to me…. speak to me of Dull Peeple and I sez, sez I, I always just figgers they’ve got themselves some of that there Brain Dammidge.

I took an internet break from cleaning and bending and NOW I’m going to go back and paint some more.  Turns out the touch up paint was the WORNG COLLER.  Good thing I didn’t use too much of it.

Tom and Peggy are going to feed me dinner, may they be honoured and blessed. (And I will pick up the salmon, if I remember!)   I light a candle for Tammy, how good to hear her voice this morning!  and for the bus driver this morning, who was expecting to have today off and had to work instead.  I know the feeling…

hmmmm

I’m getting a Mac laptop. Stable software, no tech support issues, and the audio stuff (good for singers and people who record) is hands down better.  However, I’m not getting it until Wednesday because of …. other issues.

Augur Inn redux redux

Paint, clean, scrape, remove silicone seal (2.5 hours worth on that alone.).  Other people in the family are breaking up too, I light a candle for them (you know who you are, and I needn’t comment).  I worked from 9:30 until 4:30 with an hour break.
I was hoping to see a movie with Keith tonight but it turned into a mob scene.  I’m going to go home and have a home cooked meal and a hot bath.
My internet at home died.  Telus pointed at Microsoft, Microsoft pointed at HP, and everybody had a great attitude and answered promptly and the fucking thing still doesn’t work.  I will try to get it running from home, and if I don’t, I’m going to take it as a sign from the gods and just take it back to the place of purchase for refund or exchange.  Mike says London Drugs will actually fix it.  We’ll see.
Vista bites.  This line deleted on advice of counsel.  As for the rest of you, make a system backup disk the second you unpack anything with Vista on it, I guarantee you’ll need it.

I used to work there

With David Crane (at the time he was a flack) and Maurice Strong (generally considered by Canadian nutbar conservatives to be the Canadian George Soros), can you credit it? I was the receptionist, they were the men who walked by very fast looking important.  A tile fell off the building.  I have to tell you, I wrote a novel while I was working there.  Anyway, the scariest thing about that building was that it was owned by prominent Jews (Reichmans) and was always the center of what passed for terrorist threats in those days.  Also, in high winds, the elevators would bang against the shafts with a repetitive clanging noise that was scary as hell.  Also, while I was working there I got my first exposure to a fax machine.  It was the size of a chest of drawers.  Amazing.