The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey October 19, 2014

End::Garden

2014 Garden is done Yesterday, along with a bunch of lawn work front and back, I put the garden to bed for the year. I'll probably break out the tiller in a week or two and turn the soil, for good measure. I did get one last batch of assorted (and unexpected) peppers from the maze of weeds, though: All told, about 7 hours of yard work yesterday, in utterly lovely weather. Today, I worked inside. More basement floor prep, a bit of cleaning here and there, and I made a pot of spicy turkey chili. Yum. Recent Reading I…

Brian Bilbrey October 17, 2014

Progress Elliptical

Elliptical progress That's the highest single-session stride count I've done to date. That plus 96 sit-ups, 48 push-ups, and assorted stretches filled up my late afternoon between arriving home and feeding the dog. Not too shabby.

Brian Bilbrey October 14, 2014

Backup Discussion

On the topic of backups... I like redundancy and backups. Redundancy is this: I have more than one copy of the data on more than one disk in my important systems. So: Mirrored disks == good. This protects me from one of the disks going bad. If the system blows up, or if I simply need a copy of a file I deleted by accident, I need a copy that's either not part of the mirror, hidden from view, or NOT on the system. Here's how I go about that. Having a local copy of something so that when it…

Brian Bilbrey October 12, 2014

Capclave Wrap

Capclave 2014 is a wrap. I was not involved. I was just an attendee who had a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time. It's not nearly as much work to attend as to be celebrated, though... At the Capclave 2014 GoH Signing Table last night Genevieve Valentine, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Holly Black. These folks (along with many others) worked hard at this literary Science Fiction and Fantasy convention. I commented to Paolo last night that clearly, being Guest of Honor at a con is a lot harder than previously assumed. I wondered aloud if it was much like a goose being the…

Brian Bilbrey October 5, 2014

First Frost

We were supposed to make it down into the mid- to low-40's this weekend ... first frost wasn't on the horizon, far as I knew. But I came downstairs in shorts and a t-shirt, ready to make coffee and walk the dog (which is fine, in the mid-40's). But the thermometer said 38, and there was frost on the grass and the rooftops. Um, yay? Back upstairs for long pants and a sweat jacket. Yesterday it was mild, and we took the dog out for a walk around the Eastern Market. Fun. Lots of neat stuff that we didn't buy,…