Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

More movies, more paint, more O’Brian

Yesterday, I was cleaning the back deck and stairs (almost three hours of backbreaking work), policing up the upstairs fireplace (it is shiny now!), priming cupboards in the upstairs kitchen, and policing up the fridge and stove (the new used stove has some really weird plastic bits on it that are nasty to clean) and now I just finished scraping paint where I could off the back deck and finishing/detailing the upstairs bathroom, all but the floor and toilet. I must have cleaned the shower doors 5 times before all the smears came off. Now to the dungeon to finish cleaning out the storage cupboard so I can do the downstairs ‘dungeon’ rug, or maybe I’ll detail the last item in Keith’s room (louver doors) and then go eat something. I sure wish Paul hadn’t cut the hose on the central vac (it was awkwardly but usefully long), there’s parts of the house that are not reachable as a result; I may have to bring my new vacuum cleaner down here, which I emphatically don’t want to do without a car.

Last night I watched District 13. I heartily and without reservation recommend it if you want to watch a pure, adrenaline soaked, heart’s in the right place action flick (watch it in French with the subtitles. This may be one movie where the subtitles are better than the original….). The reviews I read of it led me to believe that the script was crap and the acting worse, but that the action sequences were worth the price of admission.

BS! It’s a good movie. It ain’t a film, but it’s a movie, and movies, by Gar, are supposed to MOVE. I liked all the actors and the violence was cartoony and the script was snappy and the basic premise was nasty and believable, at least to an old conspiracy theorist like me. I have every intention of sitting down and watching it again when I get home.

I was talking to Keith (who else would I watch a parkour movie with??) and he said that he has no intention of moving in with me. I was relieved by this. I want him to come see me when he feels like it, but I think he’d be better off with his dad. I also straightened a couple of other things out which I had been somewhat concerned about, and while the truth may hurt, I feel much better. I will say one thing, which I am finding amusing. As I badmouth Paul less and less – because 25 years of bottled (and alas, not so bottled) rage, frustration and disappointment are now turning to “Thank Goodness that phase of my life is drawing to a close”, I learn from Keith that Paul is badmouthing me more and more. Anyway, considering the sh*tpile of nasty things I’ve said about Paul it’s only fair that some of my chickens come back to their guano-coated abode. In the end, I hope I can always boil it down to, “Nice guy; can’t live with him though.”

But life is beautiful these days; I have another 17 Aubrey/Maturin books to read, as Keith has borrowed HMS Surprise for me. I read the durned thing, which candidly explains my grogginess today! Back at home, I keep hearing the SFU pipe band off in the distance (where it belongs, as Keith drily remarks). And with any goddamned luck, my internet will be running again tomorrow. Here’s hopin’.

I’m smiling a lot these days.

Identity was COMpromised, not STOlen.

Paul called me last night to tell me I had to go into the branch right away and I listened to a rather heart stopping message over the phone.  I joined a steady stream (700 people) into my bank branch today; we all had our debit cards compromised and needed to get replacement cards.  The people I dealt with were sympathetic, efficient and intelligent; I got my new card, and said goodbye to a password I’ve been using for 15 years. I also changed my address and phone number with the branch.
As it turns out, not one of the people with compromised cards had money taken out.  The crooks had not been efficient enough to swiftly turn around the cards.  Guess they were all out getting high.
The ATM at the Mohawk station at Canada Way and Edmonds, I believe, was the offending machine; the pull on the card ‘felt funny’ and made an odd noise, sort of a brushing noise.  Don’t use gas station ATMs.  Unlike bank ATMs they don’t have cameras, and they are much easier to hack.  If you do have an odd experience with an ATM, especially if it isn’t a regular machine at a financial institution, change over your debit card. I dodged a bullet this time but I’m not going to do that to myself again.
Last night I watched a movie that has been on the lifetime list for quite a while, and then a movie I’d never even heard of.  The first is Hitchcock’s quite compellingly creepy and icky Dial M for Murder; Dmitri Tiomkin score, Grace Kelly in a ravishing array of gowns (the red lace number just about stopped my breathing) and lingerie – and the silky smooth, repellent Ray Milland as the villain.  He does “psychopath” so well that it’s hard to believe it’s acting….  I told mOm that he was like grease poured into a perfectly tailored suit.  Great movie, and the set dec is so precise and interesting I kept stopping the show to take a look.  And oh, those gowns.  The back projection (remember back projection?) is so bad that it’s amusing to think I could put together something more compelling with my bloody Mac.

The second movie is a 1940’s Ernst Lubitsch film-of-a-stage-play called The Shop Around the Corner.  HOLY COW…. Jimmy Stewart in 1940 was HOTTER THAN JOHNNY DEPP.  Hotter  than George Clooney.  Hotter.  Like really, much hotter. Hotter, hotter, hotter.  Anyway, it’s worth seeing. Best part: Jimmy Steward has to show off his legs to get the girl.  Second best part: Frank Morgan (Wizard in Wizard of Oz…) plays the shop owner.  That voice!

I am now at the Augur Inn and I’m supposed to be working, so perhaps I should.  It’s time to review  the little book for the list of jobs…..

not much happening

I unpacked yesterday.  I prodded Telus again but it appears that there is genuinely something wrong with either the modem or the incoming land line.  I meant to go work on the house, but Telus, in combination with a rather emotional phone call with my oldest gf Bonnie (lieber Gott! are some of her family members having a rough go these days, way worse than I am…) kept me at home past the time when I would be heading out to the Augur Inn.

I’m still glad I drop-kicked that Vista machine.  This one plays movies better….

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.