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GRAFFITI -- August 13, 2007 thru August 19, 2007 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : 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.

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August 13, 2007

2011 - Good evening. Friday the Thirteenth fell on a Monday this month. Oh, wait ... Mondays are worse by definition. The good news is that work went acceptably well, and the evening is moving along at a nice clip. Everything but the formatting of the column is done. Now to go move the sprinkler and grab a bite to eat. Ciao!

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August 14, 2007

2011 - Good evening. It turns out that I'm now addicted to the shape and usability of the wireless Apple Mighty Mouse. It's so much easier to use than any of the Logitech or MS mice I have in inventory that I've gone up to the Apple store in Columbia and bought another one. In six months or so, I may buy a spare, online, before I have need again. When that little ball works right, it's precisely as controllable as I need, without any detents, which seem to be the norm these days. I don't want steps - I like smooth simulated analogue control in this digital world. I do wish that Apple would make a moderately ergonomic keyboard. I'm using the Apple keyboard again, too, and it bothers me a little bit, probably because I'm unused to a non-split keyboard after all these years. For some reason I can cope just fine on the actual face of the laptop. Perhaps (likely) it's a change in posture that does the trick.

My friend Mike pointed out a nice resource on IDE/ATA cabling. Too bad, really, that IDE is dead.

SCOX closed at $0.37 today. That's down 17% (7 cents) today, and down a whopping 76% from last Friday's closing price, which was right before Judge Kimball issued his smackdown. I think JD has got it nailed perfectly.

I think I'll call that Three Link Journalism, in honor of the late, great Herb Caen.

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August 15, 2007

No Post...

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August 16, 2007

0912 - Briefly, good morning. We got out and saw the latest installment in the Potter movies, finally, last night. Fun film. Not entirely unlike the book, and I enjoyed it. But then, if major plot elements were left out, I'd maybe not remember, since I last read Order of the Phoenix a couple of years ago. Okay, back to work.

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August 17, 2007

0656 - Good morning, and happy Friday. I was reading the coming month's Scientific American, an issue devoted to nutrition and obesity. Disappointingly, no article recommended more steak and chocolate as the fountain of youth. There was an article on diets and food pyramids by a woman named Nestle. You can't buy humor like that in your corner grocery. But she did point out this loony thing: MyPyramid.gov

That's right, the revised food pyramid brought to us in 2005 by an FDA clearly influenced by interests who didn't want their food products to be declared bad or wrong by the government ... this food pyramid shows no actual food. It's more like the Gay Pride pyramid. Please note also that between my sense of humor (or what substitutes for such, according to some correspondents) and my actual behaviour, you're probably safer doing nearly the opposite of what I do, in terms of likely long term health.

That said, I like vegetables a lot. For one thing, cows are vegetarians, and anything that makes cows happy and then makes them steak is okay by me. And some vegetables are just superior, like potatoes, onions, and garlic surrounding a lovely slow roast. There's also tomatoes - bringers of the red sauce, chili, and spaghetti. I now drink a lot less soda and a lot more water than I did a year ago. That's just prudent - I've substituted 4 or 5 glasses of water a day for what was once 3 or 4 12 ounce sodas a day. I go through perhaps a 2 litre soda a week, most of the time. I do drink the better part of a gallon of milk, ditto for cranberry juice. I don't eat enough grains or vegetables to please any nutritionist. But my weight is stable over several years now, 70 pounds higher than when I was smoking (and under 40).

Back to that loony food pyramid... What's up with the stick man? His arms and legs end in points? Is he the acid-washed Joe Average? I'm pretty sure that's a Joe, not a Joelette, but I'm willing to let interpretation ride, there. Oh, and WTF are discretionary calories? Yeah, I know they're cookies and sodas and big macs with super fries. But why do my tax dollars say that's okay. I know it's not (not that it stops me, but that's another story). Heh. You can use your discretionary calories to "Eat or drink items that are mostly fats, caloric sweeteners, and/or alcohol, such as candy, soda, wine, and beer." Looks like I picked a bad decade to still not be drinking, eh?

Also high on my loony list - I've got a set of documentation for a specific infrastructure product in PDF format on my hard drive at work - it totals to 8586 pages. Yes, for ONE version of this specific software, the official electronic PDF documentation is ... um, wow. The core things that I probably need to read comes to around 1500 pages. I think I'll be able to encompass that chunk, though. I'm pretty certain that that pile of verbiage is designed with but one goal in mind: Hire Professional Services to do the damned work for you. Of course, the downside of doing that is that I don't learn enough to properly maintain the product, which costs yet more money down the road. So I read. I guess I'd better get to work and start reading.

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August 18, 2007

Hmmmm. No post......

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August 19, 2007

Molly about to slurp Marcia

1246 - Good afternoon. Yesterday was busy. The big news is Marcia finished the bedspread. It's washed and needs a bit of touch-up, then we'll put it on the bed and she'll have some snaps of it up soon. Out in the back yard, I finally knocked that old sandbox apart, and moved all of the long-mulched soil over to the corner of the yard. I have plans for that spot, of some sort...

New mulching box

A cleaner concrete pad

Then I build a new, bigger mulching box. It's at the base of the yard, still, so that if it's a little stinky, no one will really care. It's large enough for me to put the rototiller in there and really turn things over every few months. In between times, I'll turn in fresh material with a shovel or the long-handle garden fork.

There was a large pile of dirt, vegetation, and yard scrap on the concrete pad up by the attached shed. I'd been accumulating stuff onto that pile for the better part of a year. For future use, I'll be putting organic material in the mulching box. I'll find a way to repurpose large quantities of clay/soil (small quantities will go in the mulching box, too). So some of that pile went down near the tree in the bottom corner of the yard, and the balance went into the mulching box.

So, a bunch of shovel work, and a little construction, ate my day yesterday. In the evening we caught up with our Netflix, watching the Eric Clapton discs I put in the queue - Unplugged, and 24 Nights. Damn, he's good. Went well with the pizza we ordered, since neither of us felt much like cooking. Tonight I'll make a chicken stir fry - Linda is coming over for a visit.

A hairy week's worth of casualty reports from the mideast. I'm so humbled by the performance and sacrifices made by our troops in the service of Freedom in foreign lands. My condolences to the families and units of the fallen.

• Staff Sgt. Joan J. Duran, 24, of Roxbury, Mass., died August 10 in Iraq of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident.
• Pfc. Jordan E. Goode, 21, of Kalamazoo, Mich., died Aug. 11 in Zormont, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.
• Pvt. Alan J. Austin, 21, of Houston, died Aug. 12 near Forward Operating Base Sharana, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related accident.
• Pfc. William L. Edwards, 23, of Houston, died Aug. 11 in Arab Jabour, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire.
• Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey D. Kettle, 31, of Madill, Okla., died Aug. 12 in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Staff Sgt. Jesse G. Clowers Jr., 27, of Herndon, Va., died Aug. 12 in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Sgt. Charles B. Kitowski III, 31, of Farmers Branch, Texas, died Aug. 12 in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Sgt. Michael E. Tayaotao, 27, of Sunnyvale, Calif., died Aug. 9 from wounds suffered while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Staff Sgt. William D. Scates, 31, of Oklahoma City, Okla., died Aug. 11 in Arab Jabour, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.
• Sgt. Scott L. Kirkpatrick, 26, of Reston, Va., died Aug. 11 in Arab Jabour, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.
• Sgt. Andrew W. Lancaster, 23, of Stockton, Ill., died Aug. 11 in Arab Jabour, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.
• Spc. Justin O. Penrod, 24, of Mahomet, Ill., died Aug. 11 in Arab Jabour, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.
• Pfc. Shawn D. Hensel, 20, of Logansport, Ind., died Aug. 14 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds during an enemy attack.
• Staff Sgt. Alicia A. Birchett, 29, of Mashpee, Mass., died Aug. 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related accident Aug. 8 in Baghdad.
• Chief Warrant Officer Christopher C. Johnson, 31, of Michigan, died Aug. 14 in Al Taqqadum, Iraq, of injuries suffered when his helicopter crashed.
• Chief Warrant Officer Jackie L. McFarlane Jr, 30, Virginia Beach, Va., died Aug. 14 in Al Taqqadum, Iraq, of injuries suffered when his helicopter crashed.
• Staff Sgt. Sean P. Fisher, 29, of Santee, Calif., died Aug. 14 in Al Taqqadum, Iraq, of injuries suffered when his helicopter crashed.
• Staff Sgt. Stanley B. Reynolds, 37, of Rock, W. Va., died Aug. 14 in Al Taqqadum, Iraq, of injuries suffered when his helicopter crashed.
• Spc. Steven R. Jewell, 26, of Bridgeton, N.C., died Aug. 14 in Al Taqqadum, Iraq, of injuries suffered when his helicopter crashed.
• Staff Sgt. Eric D. Cottrell, 39, of Pittsview, Ala., died Aug. 13 in Qayyarah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device.
• Pfc. Juan M. Lopez Jr., 23, of San Antonio, Tx., died Aug. 13 in Qayyarah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device.
• Pfc. Paulomarko U. Pacificador, 24, of Shirley, N.Y., died Aug. 13 in Qayyarah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device.
• Spc. Alun R. Howells, 20, of Parlin, Colo., died Aug. 13 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from enemy direct fire.
• Staff Sgt. Robert R. Pirelli, 29, of Franklin, Mass., died Aug. 15 in Iraq of wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire.
• Pfc. Willard M. Kerchief III, 21, of Evansville, Ind., died Aug. 16 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from enemy small arms fire during combat operations in Taramiyah, Iraq.

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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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