Tuesday, December 06, 2005
269
That is how many hits to go before we reach 200,000 since starting this blog.
Sadie Learns To Color
Happy Birthday
To rare-these-days blogger Kelley. We miss you.
Speaking of Weather…
That storm seems to have seriously fizzled out. I’m not sure we even got an inch of snow, which is along the lines of what we got that wasn’t worth shoveling a couple days ago.
Todd Gross Fired? (Updated)
Talk about a strange way to find out about a local media news story. I checked our referrer logs and saw a couple of Google hits searching for Todd Gross fired.
That made me investigate what the top hits were and I ended up here.
What a shock! He’d been my favorite TV meteorologist for many years, though recently I came to prefer Pete Bouchard, Deb’s favorite. I couldn’t stand watching Harvey Leonard, the former chief meteorologist at WHDH TV (channel 7), and was thrilled when he left and was replaced by Todd. Though I wondered what kind of maneuvering went on behind the scenes for that reshuffle to happen, and whether this is karma. Toward the end of Harvey’s tenure, it seemed more and more like there were two “bosses” and it felt tense to me.
Todd Gross is famous, as local weathermen go, because he named “The Perfect Storm” of book and movie fame, and was fictionally depicted in the film.
I must say, I agree with the people who are making fun of Todd’s orange hair. He fairly recently started trying to maintain a youthful appearance, but the dyed hair just looked silly.
This Hingham Weather page has an actual statement attributed to Todd Gross:
“While there are rumors flying, almost all of which are unfounded, here are the facts. Channel 7 appears to want to reshuffle the team… and likely make a new hire. They politely and abruptly told me of this direction change on Friday, and gave me plenty of time to soak it in, and take some things with me. However, I am coming back this week off-air to basically get my stuff in order.”
Update:
Matter of fact article on Todd’s departure in the Boston Globe
Gossipy, more speculative article on Todd’s departure in the Boston Herald
Todd has a new site, besides his old weatherman.com page, via toddgross.com
Monday, December 05, 2005
Hey, Dad, look:
Speaking of Snow…
Speaking of snow, according to this, looking at the special map, we are around the edge of the 3 - 6” and 4 - 8” regions for tomorrow. In actuality, it could be as much as 10 inches. This alert puts us in the heaviest triangle, where 8 inches is the most likely.
Yay.
Mistake
The lady downstairs just erred.
Some delivery person dropped off a large box that might have weighed all of three pounds, right in the middle of the hall blocking their egress.
So she went around the box, for which she had to have moved it, knocked on our door and whined at Deb about it being in their way and too heavy to move and the crippled guy couldn’t get out.
Deb sent me down and she was standing behind the box as if walled into that end of the hall by it, apparently having moved it back to maximum obstructage. Then she attacked!
I have been informed in no uncertain terms that I will help her with snow shoveling this winter because I am the only healthy person in the building.
Hoo boy. She couldn’t have waited and found out that I’m the kind of person who shoveled walks to all three buildings after a monster storm when I lived in Quincy? She couldn’t have waited to see that my idea of clearing snow is more thorough than most people’s? She couldn’t have waited to see that my shoveling out “a third” of the driveway to clear my official spot, when adding what I’d have to shovel to get to my other spot, would probably leave half or more of the driveway clear?
Stupid.
Now I’ll have to be as minimally extra helpful and untimely as possible. For instance, by switching where the car and truck are parked, I will be able to clear only my main spot expediently, and usually be able to take my time getting to the other spot.
Oh, and it is their choice for deliveries to have to go to the back door. They use the front hall for storage and keep the front door always locked. I’d happily leave it unlocked and take deliveries there. If deliveries to the back will be a problem, perhaps things will have to change. Awesome timing to piss us off, after having nearly smoked us out of the place yesterday. No wonder my cold is so much worse.
I’m so mean, having no respect for the people who think they own the place because they’ve paid rent for 28 years. I mean, dudes, you’re still renting, just like the rest of us. You want to be in charge, buy a house.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Announcing the Ecosystem Changes
N.Z. Bear tells me he has unveiled the Ecosystem changes that he has been working on during the past couple weeks. If the Ecosystem and “inside blogging” interest you, the post is well worth a read. There may be some updating yet before positions all settle out, but it seems to be getting there.
In short, though, blogs are now ranked by a score, rather than raw number of links. All links will be viewable via a link in the details page for each blog, so bloggers may review comprehensively.
Links with a “nofollow” attribute, which is what any inline trackback should have by default, will not even be reflected in the raw link count. Based on Bear’s statement of the Ecosystem philosophy, this actually makes sense, not merely for curbing trackback fest abuse.
There are also limits on number of links from one blog to another, and on blogs that have outlyingly large numbers of external links, so some links that used to count no longer will. Links between sister blogs in blog networks are ignored, since they are not indicative of popularity as the Ecosystem strives to measure it.
Another thing I had already noticed, which affected positions of blogs higher up, is that the lowest rank is populated exclusively by blogs with zero links. That makes sense; get a link and automatically graduate. It will relegate spam blogs to the lowest category exclusively.
Anyway, check it out and see what you think. He’s interested in feedback. Note that there is an Ecosystem FAQ, and it has been updated in accordance with the latest changes.
Gratuitous Sadie Pictures
Sadie loves sitting in these metal baskets that are supposed to be in a wooden storage thingy. Not only are the baskets not allowed to store anything, they aren’t generally allowed to remain in the piece of furniture. She’ll bring one in the living room and sit in it, or she’ll sit propped against the air purifier to watch TV. The air purifier bit is another teenager pose.
Here’s what happens when Sadie eats blueberry pie, which she seems to love as much as I do.
That first picture gives a slight look at something that was never a photography problem in our old place: too much light. The better basket picture had a big enough washed out patch on it that I decided not to use it.
Knife of Dreams
I finally finished reading Knife of Dreams, book 11 of The Wheel of Time. The long time I took reading it is not because the book drags; it’s all me. I read almost exclusively in bed, already so sleepy I was out in as little as sentences and seldom more than a chapter. I’d have probably enjoyed the book even more had I read it in fewer sittings.
Anyway, this is going to be a spoiler filled commentary on the book and the series. If you are a fan and haven’t read the latest, you may want to avoid this. In short, however, I can say it’s the best since book six, Lord of Chaos. That and I give nothing away by saying I was surprised how short it was. I give little away by noting that Jordan insists the next one will be the last, and saying “yeah, right” in response. If book twelve is to be the last, it will have to be a couple thousand hardcover pages (this one was fewer than 800 not counting the glossary). It has always made the most sense to me for there to be thirteen, simply due to the overwhelming significance of that number throughout the series. I predict that if he finishes the series in one more volume, of similar or not much greater length to this one, it will be a disappointment.
The rest, very spoilish, basically for fellow fans who have read all the books, is in the extended entry. Comments welcome…
Testing 1-2-3
Test of extended entry.
Update:
Yay, I got it to work! I am writing commentary about a book, long and all spoilers, so I thought I’d look into the extended entry bit not working and finally get it in shape.
Happy Birthday
To blogger Ninjababe, who is the big three-oh today.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Wiring
Well, I didn’t knock us offline for long while rewiring phones today. I’m not done, but the dangerous part is over.
Since we moved in, we’ve had a long phone cord plugged into a wall jack in the kitchen, where you’d hang a wall phone. It goes through the air, hooks over a screw on the wall, and goes down behind the microwave to the DSL modem, which has been on a second microwave cart we use for storage. From there a network cable goes around the corner, across the office floor, and up to a router behind my computers. From there a network cable goes into my computer (the one I use; the other is an old Pentium 200 that used to handle voicemail for me until the associated phone died), and another one goes back along the floor, around the corner through a foot or two of kitchen, and over to the laptop in the living room.
We have had to duck slightly on the way into the bathroom, under the phone cord strung through the air in the kitchen. I’d planned to ask if it was okay to wire the place, then the landlord saw it and asked why I hadn’t, which answered that question. I got 100’ of phone cable and a jack, then didn’t get around to it.
Today I decided to tackle it.
Despite having not brought the electrical snake home from the office to make it easier.
How it appeared was that phone wire came up from the cellar to the hall outside our back door, then in the wall to the vicinity of the wall jack. From there phone cable went up into the ceiling, across the kitchen, across the living room, to the bedroom where the other jack is.
Wrong.
First I tried to get at the theoretical junction of phone cables in the wall of the kitchen. No dice. Well, the cable running through the ceiling to the bedroom had a few spare feet of play, wrapped up neatly, so I unwrapped it and snipped the cable. The phone in the bedroom still worked. The internet didn’t. Oops.
That means the phone service, wherever it once came in, now comes in toward the front of the building, and the cable through the ceiling is was supplies the kitchen jack.
Oh well. With some wailing a gnashing of teeth I managed to get the three cable ends spliced. I’d have liked to solder them to say “and I mean it,” but I used the solder I had a while back and forgot to buy more for the once a year I might need it. This is why they make electrical tape. Well, I’d have used it anyway to keep the four wires apart, but I made sure those connections were not going anywhere.
Then came running it across the ceiling to the wall and finding an exising hole. Yes, there was an ideal looking one with an electrical cable running through it.
Well, you don’t think I could get the tiny little phone cable through, did you? Noooo. Eventually I did, after trying various things, including drilling a new hole that wouldn’t be shared with the electric cable. The solution involved a coat hanger and masking tape.
Then I had to undo that because the cord tangled. At least it was easy to repeat the feat, once I’d discovered the trick.
That’s where I stopped. I put all the ceiling tiles back in place and left the phone cable tucked up in the office ceiling, waiting to go the rest of the way across and, ideally, down the inside of the wall near my desk. I rapped on the wall and it sounds like the landlord is right; the inner walls are hollow. He recommended not running it through an outer wall because there’s insulation.
Alternatively, I can run it out of the ceiling down the outside of the wall in a less permanent configuration. That’s tempting at least temporarily.
Really, though, I should bring home the electrical snake and a roll of network cable from the office, finish the phone, and run network cables into the bedroom and living room. Beats having cables across the floor, even if I don’t put in actual wall jacks.
Preview of Sadie as a Teen
I saw this one, from the latest set of pictures, and thought “ha, she looks like a teenager!”
What Are Your Favorite Christmas or Seasonal Songs?
It’s that time again! Share your favorite songs (generic or by artist) of the season with us.
I always make a list and then say “ooh, ooh!” later, wanting to add some good one I forgot. But here’s a few off the top of my head:
Do You Hear What I Hear, the version by Andy Williams. Love to sing along with it.
Merry Christmas Darling by The Carpenters. I still miss Karen Carpenter, with her unmistakable voice.
Holly Jolly Christmas. The definitive one being Burl Ives, from Rudolph, but I also have fond memories of performing this song in junior high chorus.
Someday At Christmas, by Stevie Wonder. Beautiful, even if too unrealistically utopian.
A Soalin’ by Peter, Paul and Mary. I just now Googled to learn the official name of the song, which I’d have called “Soul Cake” otherwise.
I could name more, and specifically name one or more traditional ones. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, for instance, but it’s hard to choose. I am certain to see some of your choices and go “ooh, ooh!,” whether Kotter’s here or not. Five songs are enough to get it rolling.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Who Is This Carol Person, And What’s She Got To Do With Christmas?
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You Are “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” |
Gee, if I could only Have my two front teeth, Then I could wish you “Merry Christmas.”
At Christmas, you are a happy soul who’s easy to please.
|
Via Rudolph
Ah, the UN. Such an interesting place.
This move by the WHO doesn’t strrike me as a problem, because I can’t imagine any self-respecting smoker wanting to work for them, anyway. I mean, considering the number of toilets they could build or the amount of water they could purify with the money they spend harassing smokers, it’s nothing more than one more indication that their priorities are downright weird.
Hurricane Season is over.
Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the hurricanes.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
A Whale Of A Quiz
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Your Animal Personality |
 Your Power Animal: Eagle Animal You Were in a Past Life: Whale You are active, a challenger, and optimistic. Hard-working, you are always working towards a set goal. |
Via The Unrepentant Individual, whose results I matched.
Never Heard of It
take the WHAT BAD BOOK ARE YOU test.
and go to mewing.net. not as good as reading a good book, but way better than a bad one.
Via Caltechgirl, who is a non-awful book I never finished reading because I was bored.
Mad Skillz
Sadie mastered the zipper on my briefcase yesterday. It’s one of those soft-sided ones that resembles a thick laptop bag and has two main zipper compartments, plus some zippered pockets on the front.
I learned this when she wandered into the kitchen with a package of pills in each hand. I keep them in the briefcase. Which will no longer be kept on the floor behind my chair, but rather, sad to say, somewhere up inconveniently high.
A couple days ago she also used the word “done” clear as day to indicate she was done eating and needed to come out of her chair. If only she would always say what she wants, clever as she is at other ways. Heck, she understands most of what we say, so all she usually has to do is “mmmm” affirmatively in response to a question, or shake her head no. Sometimes she says “yeah” instead.
We’ve started trying to get her to say what she wants more often, not always complying when she merely signals.
Too bad about the zippers, but I knew it was only a matter of time.