October 2007

106 Books: the Amy edition

Stolen from Stephen and Misty.

Misty: "These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. I’ve bolded what I’ve read and italicized what I started but couldn’t finish..."

49 read, 2 in progress, 2 instances of sheer loathing:

1984
The Aeneid
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
American Gods
Anansi Boys

Library 365 photos

I'm using the new camera to try out some image goodness. I've not really dusted off my journeyman-level photo skills in quite some time, but the new Nikon D80 begs for it. I decided to give myself a project, so I picked up the Library 365 challenge -- 365 photos about libraries.

Stamps found at the front circulation desk at the main branch of the library.#4 - Stamps, front desk

I at least remember a little of how to do this. My 'eye' was out of practice, but it's slowly getting better. What a joy it is to finally have a digital camera that allows me to stop down on images. That's going to be so much fun next week...

Testing twitterlog repost script

[defiant chuckling] All I have to do now is move this script to a server that likes curl_setopt(), set up cron a day or two before we leave, and cackle at the results. It worked! There shall be once-daily reposts of tweets while we're gone -- and I actually learned some nifty stuff, too...

Take your potential lockout and shove it

"The bright lights of Broadway are still shining, but the question remains, for how long?

There doesn't appear to be any movement in the deadlock between the stagehands' union and the League of American Theaters and Producers, despite a meeting yesterday aimed at clearing the air.

However, right now there is no indication of a when or if a lockout will take place. Both sides say they have already given their final offers."

pack and panic

We are going to New York.

Jeff and I don't 'vacation' together often. He has the same love for quiet days at home that I do of plopping myself in a new city and learning it by wearing out the soles of my feet. The typical end result (which you will see in December) is of me packing a small bag and Jeff dropping me off to catch a plane heading off to parts unknown.

(...and I don't even like to fly!)

Twitterlog for October 15, 2007

Since I seem to have activated my away-from-home batsignal, here are the SMS messages I've sent to Twitter in the past 24 hours. My tweets are normally friends-only, but when I'm away from home they're usually more interesting than the usual 'OMG where's my tea?' claptrap, so I've written a script to post them publicly in batches once daily while I'm gone.

Twitterlog for October 16, 2007

Since I seem to have activated my away-from-home batsignal, here are the SMS messages I've sent to Twitter in the past 24 hours. My tweets are normally friends-only, but when I'm away from home they're usually more interesting than the usual 'OMG where's my tea?' claptrap, so I've written a script to post them publicly in batches once daily while I'm gone.

Twitterlog for October 17, 2007

Since I seem to have activated my away-from-home batsignal, here are the SMS messages I've sent to Twitter in the past 24 hours. My tweets are normally friends-only, but when I'm away from home they're usually more interesting than the usual 'OMG where's my tea?' claptrap, so I've written a script to post them publicly in batches once daily while I'm gone.

Twitterlog for October 18, 2007

Since I seem to have activated my away-from-home batsignal, here are the SMS messages I've sent to Twitter in the past 24 hours. My tweets are normally friends-only, but when I'm away from home they're usually more interesting than the usual 'OMG where's my tea?' claptrap, so I've written a script to post them publicly in batches once daily while I'm gone.

Twitterlog for October 19, 2007

Since I seem to have activated my away-from-home batsignal, here are the SMS messages I've sent to Twitter in the past 24 hours. My tweets are normally friends-only, but when I'm away from home they're usually more interesting than the usual 'OMG where's my tea?' claptrap, so I've written a script to post them publicly in batches once daily while I'm gone.

Twitterlog for October 20, 2007

Since I seem to have activated my away-from-home batsignal, here are the SMS messages I've sent to Twitter in the past 24 hours. My tweets are normally friends-only, but when I'm away from home they're usually more interesting than the usual 'OMG where's my tea?' claptrap, so I've written a script to post them publicly in batches once daily while I'm gone.

Twitterlog for October 21, 2007

Since I seem to have activated my away-from-home batsignal, here are the SMS messages I've sent to Twitter in the past 24 hours. My tweets are normally friends-only, but when I'm away from home they're usually more interesting than the usual 'OMG where's my tea?' claptrap, so I've written a script to post them publicly in batches once daily while I'm gone.

Home at last

We are home at last, with feet that tell tales and piles of laundry that are making their way through the washer and dryer.

Jeff suggested I use a very high f-stop and long shutter speed to flatten the depth of field in my photos of the nave.  To do so, I had to prop my camera on a pew.  The cathedral was busy, even in the middle of a weekday, and after a while I realized that with a long shutter speed, I'd never get an unobstructed view of the nave.  Instead, I got contrasts: the stillness of stone, the fast-moving tourist in the aisle, and the couple a few pews ahead of me, kneeling and still in prayer.  A better shot than perhaps I deserved to get.Nave traffic, St. Patrick's

I've uploaded and geotagged our photos, which led to our realization that we walked far, far more than we gave ourselves credit for. (Though now I'm wondering what kind of equipment it takes to auto-geotag a photo on a Nikon D80...)

There are quite a few photos: everything from urban blight to cathedral glory, but only a couple of us. There's the tea shop in Greenwich Village and the site of our magnificent birthday dinner.

We are tired, footsore, and glad to be home.

Creativity in times of crisis

I've been watching this on a personal level as well as a professional level, and it's amazing and spiffy and reminds me that tech geeks like myself can use our skills for more than just everyday fluffy stuff.

Take a look at this google map of the San Diego fires. Zoom in and you'll see where the fires are, where the evacuation areas are, locations of human and animal shelters (both open and at capacity) and what areas are being evacuated.

proving ground

The tally is now at fourteen months, and verging on fifteen.

I'm amazed anyone still reads this site; it has to be obvious that my design time and energy has been diverted elsewhere for that period of time. It used to bother me. I still apologize for it, but I've stopped giving estimates on when I might finally reach the finish line and be 'back.' I don't know. I stopped knowing about six months ago.

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zeroed down

Today was the rarest of programming days. My headphones were on by eight a.m., and while the code didn't flow, the ideas did; when I next looked up, it was after one p.m. I zeroed down on the section of code I had my suspicions about, and started testing, line by line. The book clubs problem eventually presented itself as a three-headed beast.

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Good morning, Tenzing

Jeff and I watched this in mingled horror and amusement. Up to a certain point, it describes how I have been awakened almost every morning for seven years now. (Also explains why my first words every morning are usually some variation on "Dammit, Tenzing.")