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GRAFFITI -- August 07, 2006 thru August 13, 2006

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Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.     About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

Ron Paul in 2008

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MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
August 7, 2006

1137 - Good morning. The traffic gods smiled on me today. I don't think the pace of traffic on the beltway ever slowed below 60 mph this morning, and that was between 0730 and 0815. That's beyond fortuitous and into Twilight Zone, though. Just as well, as I'd slept in a bit, after lightning, thunder, and Molly robbed me of about 2 hours in the middle of the night.

Jerry's got the new column up over at Chaos Manor Reviews, and a Mailbag to go with it. I spent an hour or so at that yesterday. I did a pork stir fry for supper and we watched some Poirot. That's all the excitement there was. Busy here at work, I'd best be back to it. Have a great day!

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
August 8, 2006

No Post...

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Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
August 9, 2006

1101 - Good morning. Work continues to consume life as we know it, sorry for the unannounced absences. For some context apropos of nothing in particular, consider this motivational poster. Last night, instead of posting, I harvested out about 10# of tomatoes. After supper, Marcia and I watched a couple of episodes of Poirot. Tonight I'll have the last two chapters of TR to do for Bob, then I may prep Jerry's May column for putting up tomorrow. Contrary to popular belief, life is almost entirely unlike a box of chocolates. But that's okay, I suppose. Oh, some progress to report: I finally, over the course of several days, migrated my desktop at work away from Xandros 3.0.2 Business edition to Kubuntu 6.06. Happiness is, at a task completed. Now back to the grind. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
August 10, 2006

0729 - Good morning. Blah, blah, blah. Why do we continue to insist that we are not at war with Muslims? They're pretty clearly at war with us! And for a Muslim plot in the UK, today you can't take shampoo in carry-on. So at least Stallman can travel easily... In other news, it turns out that 89% of Alaska's state revenue comes from taxing the oil that flows through the now-closed corroded pipelines. After painting itself into a revenue corner with no contingency plans, Alaska's governor wants to know if he can hold BP, a private company, responsible for Alaska's lost revenues. Wheeeooooo! Maybe you should start selling baby harp seals on eBay, Mr. Murkowski.

Now, I have a server to update, and a database backup script to write. So I'll be seeing y'all later.

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
August 11, 2006

No Post.....

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
August 12, 2006

0925 - Good morning. About yesterday, well, best intentions and all that. I thought about posting, really I did. But I was doing the normal Friday schtick, rotating offsite backups, testing stuff trying to isolate an elusive bug that really doesn't have a code path (but insists on rearing its ugly head when my vision is averted), and whatnot. So there you go.

Today starts off at SF Bay Area temperatures, it was about 60 degrees outside when I brought the dogs down at 7:30. Surprising that I'm up this early, really. I couldn't sleep and so was spelunking around the TurboGears site this morning between 12 and 2. Having my eyes in variable focus mode right now is ... interesting. But they're working well enough to wield a knife - I've already minced some garlic, sliced some onion, diced a bunch of tomatoes and chopped fresh herbs. Yeah, it's fresh red sauce time. Marcia thinks it's interesting to wake up to the smell of onion and garlic being sautéed in EVOO.

Once I get this coffee in me, I'll head out and get the corn down. No point in continuing to use soil nutrients and water on plants that aren't producing anything but crap. We got our six little ears of corn out, and I'm done with that. Next year, I can do something much more productive with those beds. Hell, I might even overwinter one of them with garlic. I also need to water out front. While our year-to-date rainfall is in normal bounds, most of it fell in July, about 5 month's worth in that one week. Since then everything's browned off pretty heavily. Trees are dropping leaves, the lawns are all burnt and dormant, and I'm trying to keep the flowers alive out front.

I'd best get to it. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
August 13, 2006

1142 - Good morning. Making progress. Weeding and watering done in front yesterday. "Lawn" (I'll explain that shortly), watering and corn removal in the back done, as well.

This is some ex-corn. Ex-home of the ex-corn. Tomatoes still doing well, though.
The corn looked so good from a distance. But small, mutant, diseased and bug-ridden cobs just aren't our style. This is ex-corn! Aftermath of the slaughter: empty beds where the corn used to be. Tomatoes are still fruitful and yummerlischious

Once that's all done, I felt tired, but pretty good for having been active. Although I was busy over the last week, it wasn't very energizing. Yard work does that for me, oddly enough. My folks probably wonder why I didn't express that particular gene much earlier in life, when it might have been useful to them!

The lawns, fortunately, are mostly just dormant. Liberally distibuted through the dormant brown grass are dead-gray patches, the work of grubs at the roots of the lawn. The Lawn Doctor folks, who were supposed to be on top of that, weren't. So the grub treatment didn't come in time, and I've got issues with that. We won't be renewing that service. I'll do a bit of research, get a wide area spreader, and start treating the lawns myself next year.


Many Muslims in Britain Tell of Feeling Torn Between Competing Identities
By SARAH LYALL and IAN FISHER
In a recent poll, 81 percent of Muslims surveyed in Britain said they considered themselves Muslims first and Britons second.

That's from my New York Times email blast. And it precisely illustrates the problem. Islam is exclusionary. I wonder what the results will be when they run that poll here in America (if they dare, and if they dare publish the true results). In another forum, I read something like this, with respect to Israel's situation:

If the Arabs lay down their arms, there will be peace.
If the Israelis lay down their arms, they will be exterminated.

We will fight those battles here one day, I fear. What's happening in Sweden today (additional link here, much more reportage available) isn't far from what we can expect here in the States, lest we guard against it. But, as Jerry often says, "Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide."


Meanwhile, executing our administration's policies far from home, our young men and women in uniform endure harsh conditions and some make the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of a nation that needs to remain proud and grateful...


The shopping's been done, and now this post is, too. In the last 15 minutes, I've developed a crashing headache. WTF? Oh, well, life goes on. Probably. See ya!

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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

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