I have been watching the world go by, and deliberately holding my fingers (which seems to be a metaphor for tongue) in order not to become strident, shrill, or outright nasty.
This may turn into a rant, I'm not sure yet. Then again I may save the rant for late at night when nobody is listening.
It is now part way into February. February is usually a BFD month for us - Already we've lost a couple of days to snow (although that was never a part of the plan.) In not too many days I will turn 72 (or 28 by Grandpop Rudolph's reckoning....) and I am not liking it. I don't feel like I'm 72 (most days) and I try very hard not to behave like someone that old - but some days I just can't escape it. On the day after my birthday I will have been married to my first wife for 46 years - something many people (including ourselves from time to time) would never have believed possible - and I find that it is all good.
And of course I still go to work every day. Some days I'm actually worth more than I cost - other days they should make me pay to let me in. I've been having a good deal of fun with code lately, finding new ways to do things with fewer instructions, less messy code - it keeps my head either on straight or shaking.
I discovered Google Hangouts, and resolved to set up an area for my brothers and I to get together in a video chat, since apparently that's the only was some of us will see the rest of us. Looks like a nifty tool - be interesting to see if it works as I impute that it does, and if it doesn't it will be interesting to see how long it takes me actually to figure out precisely how it does work. Either way, I won't get bored.
My Kindle library is growing - I may not live long enough to read everything that's in it - I get emails every day from a couple of places that keep track of what's available, and Amazon puts out a fair amount that is free, and I try to get as much of that that looks interesting as I can.
I think in a separate piece I'll talk about the new stuff I have discovered that works so well.
Google amazes me - I have switched to Chrome as the browser of choice, and have discovered various apps and extensions for it that make it more useful - nearly an entire working environment is available from the browser itself including rudimentary office applications (and, truth be told, it is all I really need - Word has over the years grown into everything for everyone, and has so many buttons, widgets, fladgets and such that I can't use it whout looking for stuff that I used to know where it was.... With Google Docs, there's a lot that I can't do - but over the last several months I have not found most of what it won't let me do to be all that useful.
There are things that work with Chrome and Android devices that work so well that I finally have a place to stick important stuff that I can reach from my office, from any PC, and from my android devices (Phone and tablets.) Now, whenever I start up Chrome, whether it be on my phone, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop, it knows who I am and presents me with whatever environment I left last.
Listening to Ray Bryant playing Slow Freight and enjoying it. I keep music here at work, and happily the folks around me like it (or they just don't want to tell me I have no taste....) Music makes life better, don't you know.
Last night I met a group of German speakers that meets each week somewhere nearby, and I have been enjoying the social evenings with them, although to my chagrin I find I don't speak as well as I once did (or as I think I once did) and most of the folks there are not from the area where I lived, so my accent and dialect cause interesting misunderstandings - but it sure is fun!
Well, I just talked to a nephew I have not seen in at least 20 years - and got a video chat on my tablet by dumbing into how it works. Now I have to get a desktop working with that. Looks like Google Hangouts is more useful than I would have imagined.
I gotta go home. I may pick this up later, or I may decide it's rant time later. You'll be able to figure out which has happened.
Showing posts with label Sleep deprivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sleep deprivation. Show all posts
Friday, February 7, 2014
Friday, October 11, 2013
TGIF Day!
Well, Friday has arrived, and started off with a visit to my physician. He's a good guy, and we have known him for probably 30 years or so. His MA took my blood pressure and found it elevated. He took it and found it low (for me) - so we both reassured the MA that she's still got 'it.' I hope he doesn't have to explain it later today - she's a newbie and might not know about old standing jokes. She managed to give me a B12 shot without giving me any pain, and we set up an appointment to come back in 6 weeks. He also reminded me that I need to get an upper endoscopy to see if I still have ulcers or something. You all have to know how much I look forward to endoscopies.....
So I was a little late. Rain was all over today, and we have a couple of small lakes in the back yard. The motorcycles got wet (only a little) and getting the newspaper this morning was an adventure, running (actually walking slowly) between raindrops was the order of the day. I got a little wet, but dried off before leaving to go to the doctor, where I got wet, and dried off before getting to work. I parked inside today, so I didn't get wet any more. Fridays around here are pretty quiet, particularly before a 3-day weekend.
I finished up (again) the project for that outside consultant, logging on late last night to ship him the latest data - all 1.02 gigabytes of it (actually compressed down to 113,996 kb using WinRAR, a really useful tool) via my Google drive - which reminds me I need to clean that one up!
Something messed with my Chrome apps - I need to rebuild that. Happily I remember what I use, mostly. I have been amazed at how useful a lot of the apps and extensions for Google's Chrome have become - there are some I have come to depend on, and I hadn't given much credence to Google's approach. Looks to me as if they got a lot right!
I fear there won't be much done today that is mission-oriented - too many other things that can be cleaned up. Next week I have to start cleaning up to Clarion apps that I still have active, killing off the ones that aren't used, and upgrading at least to Version 8 anything that isn't already there. I have Version 9 installed, but haven't had a chance to mess with it much. I also need to purge off a bunch of unused .bat files, SQL scripts and FTP scripts - there is so much that was put out there and has fallen into disuse that if I don't do this soon I'll be breaking more stuff than I fix.... I need to get all this stuff into a book somehow, and some of it needs major cleanup and simplification. Always time to screw with it, never time to get it right - story of my life....
On another topic, has anyone that reads this ever heard of Heather Rigdon? I ask because some nice person at the office gave me some of her MP3s and I am enjoying them a whole lot. I also discovered that the Beth Nielsen Chapman collection I thought I had lost just got hidden on a damaged drive on the big server, and I was able to recover all of it, which made me pretty happy. Now I have to transfer some of it over here, for use on the days I can make noise and not get bitched at by folks with tin ears.
In going through some old jump drives I have found some music that I had thought was lost - including a bit by Steve Miller at the end of a live concert that merged All Blues with C. C. Rider and some original lyrics to create a long track that was really great, very jazzy and funny, too. If anyone wants anything that I might have, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do for you.
Having discovered that by BluRay player is internet-smart, and that there are all kinds of movies available, I am thinking of killing off most of my movie collections and reclaiming some server space so maybe I won't have to buy drives so damned often to keep everything happy. I am continually amazed at what can be found on YouTube as well as some of the other services just kicking the BuRay box around a bit. I had built a whole media player desktop, and find I don't use it at all - I can do everything media-wise I ever want to do just using the BluRay player. Now I have to get it away from where it is and take it somewhere where it will be useful - like down into the family room, maybe....
My watch must be busted - it sure is taking a long time to get this day over. I'll be in Sunday and Monday (both scheduled days off) to cover a 3-11 shift that would otherwise be uncovered, because I am such a Nice Person - and because it will supply the comp time I need to take that weekend in Las Vegas in a week or two and not use any precious annual leave.
I'm trying hard to stay away from politics because some of what is going on makes me angry (and profane) and I don't want any nastiness to leak into this - so I'll save it for a time I want to show just how damn nasty I am capable of being when profoundly irritated. But not today - I don't have the energy.
What I really need is a day that is about 32 hours long - then I could get lots done and still sleep for 9 or so hours. As it is, I get to bed usually between 1 and 2 (my physician says older adults need bedtimes, too - but nobody can stay up around our house long enough to see that I observe any established bedtime.) and wake up at 7:45 when my phone says it is time to get up, make coffee, and do Other Things to get ready for the day. What I should do is get up an hour earlier and walk around the block a time or two. No point taking any bets on when this will start, as I don't think it will any time soon.
I really hate this time of year, when I come home in the darn - it removes from me any desire to do anything after I eat something - anything, that is, besides park my arse in the chair read and/or watch the TeeVee. I don't lose a whole lot of weight that way....
While I was off doing some real work a moment ago, my mind wandered into the place where the various ladies I have known over the last 70+ years have been stored, and I remembered a funny thing or two about a couple of them. Then I seemed to wake up and realized where I was - and decided it wasn't time to visit those spaces. Usually I visit them late at night when nobody is around to watch my face. Maybe one day I'll talk about them, too. But not today.
I've been reading Augusten Burroughs, a brother to John Elder Robison, whose stuff I have also been reading. Robison has Aspergers (which has, if I recall aright, been rendered no-longer-a word by the folks who decide such things) and is a most interesting person to read and to hear. I'm not going to say more - if you are curious, read something from either or both - if you are Kindle-smart I might even loan you some of mine if there is a legal way to do that (and I think that there is.)
Any more, I do a log of my reading with my tablet using a Kindle app, or on one of my Windows machines using a Kindle app for Chrome, the browser. Kindle is set up such that it remembers where you are when you bot a 'book' down. Turn off the computer you were using, go home (or elsewhere) and get out your laptop (or tablet or Android phone) and fire up the Kindle app, and when it opens,m there is the page you were reading when you put it down. Most thoughtful - and you can carry a hell of a big library with you, since e-books don't take up much room, and the Chrome app does everything from the Cloud (whateverthehell that means...) If you hadn't noticed, I'm much impressed by Kindle - particularly by the fact that you don't have to buy one - anything you own can be a Kindle if you need it to be.
I think I've had enough fun, so I'm going to close up shop and go home and see where my lovely wife wants to go for dinner this evening. Be well, y'all.
So I was a little late. Rain was all over today, and we have a couple of small lakes in the back yard. The motorcycles got wet (only a little) and getting the newspaper this morning was an adventure, running (actually walking slowly) between raindrops was the order of the day. I got a little wet, but dried off before leaving to go to the doctor, where I got wet, and dried off before getting to work. I parked inside today, so I didn't get wet any more. Fridays around here are pretty quiet, particularly before a 3-day weekend.
I finished up (again) the project for that outside consultant, logging on late last night to ship him the latest data - all 1.02 gigabytes of it (actually compressed down to 113,996 kb using WinRAR, a really useful tool) via my Google drive - which reminds me I need to clean that one up!
Something messed with my Chrome apps - I need to rebuild that. Happily I remember what I use, mostly. I have been amazed at how useful a lot of the apps and extensions for Google's Chrome have become - there are some I have come to depend on, and I hadn't given much credence to Google's approach. Looks to me as if they got a lot right!
I fear there won't be much done today that is mission-oriented - too many other things that can be cleaned up. Next week I have to start cleaning up to Clarion apps that I still have active, killing off the ones that aren't used, and upgrading at least to Version 8 anything that isn't already there. I have Version 9 installed, but haven't had a chance to mess with it much. I also need to purge off a bunch of unused .bat files, SQL scripts and FTP scripts - there is so much that was put out there and has fallen into disuse that if I don't do this soon I'll be breaking more stuff than I fix.... I need to get all this stuff into a book somehow, and some of it needs major cleanup and simplification. Always time to screw with it, never time to get it right - story of my life....
On another topic, has anyone that reads this ever heard of Heather Rigdon? I ask because some nice person at the office gave me some of her MP3s and I am enjoying them a whole lot. I also discovered that the Beth Nielsen Chapman collection I thought I had lost just got hidden on a damaged drive on the big server, and I was able to recover all of it, which made me pretty happy. Now I have to transfer some of it over here, for use on the days I can make noise and not get bitched at by folks with tin ears.
In going through some old jump drives I have found some music that I had thought was lost - including a bit by Steve Miller at the end of a live concert that merged All Blues with C. C. Rider and some original lyrics to create a long track that was really great, very jazzy and funny, too. If anyone wants anything that I might have, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do for you.
Having discovered that by BluRay player is internet-smart, and that there are all kinds of movies available, I am thinking of killing off most of my movie collections and reclaiming some server space so maybe I won't have to buy drives so damned often to keep everything happy. I am continually amazed at what can be found on YouTube as well as some of the other services just kicking the BuRay box around a bit. I had built a whole media player desktop, and find I don't use it at all - I can do everything media-wise I ever want to do just using the BluRay player. Now I have to get it away from where it is and take it somewhere where it will be useful - like down into the family room, maybe....
My watch must be busted - it sure is taking a long time to get this day over. I'll be in Sunday and Monday (both scheduled days off) to cover a 3-11 shift that would otherwise be uncovered, because I am such a Nice Person - and because it will supply the comp time I need to take that weekend in Las Vegas in a week or two and not use any precious annual leave.
I'm trying hard to stay away from politics because some of what is going on makes me angry (and profane) and I don't want any nastiness to leak into this - so I'll save it for a time I want to show just how damn nasty I am capable of being when profoundly irritated. But not today - I don't have the energy.
What I really need is a day that is about 32 hours long - then I could get lots done and still sleep for 9 or so hours. As it is, I get to bed usually between 1 and 2 (my physician says older adults need bedtimes, too - but nobody can stay up around our house long enough to see that I observe any established bedtime.) and wake up at 7:45 when my phone says it is time to get up, make coffee, and do Other Things to get ready for the day. What I should do is get up an hour earlier and walk around the block a time or two. No point taking any bets on when this will start, as I don't think it will any time soon.
I really hate this time of year, when I come home in the darn - it removes from me any desire to do anything after I eat something - anything, that is, besides park my arse in the chair read and/or watch the TeeVee. I don't lose a whole lot of weight that way....
While I was off doing some real work a moment ago, my mind wandered into the place where the various ladies I have known over the last 70+ years have been stored, and I remembered a funny thing or two about a couple of them. Then I seemed to wake up and realized where I was - and decided it wasn't time to visit those spaces. Usually I visit them late at night when nobody is around to watch my face. Maybe one day I'll talk about them, too. But not today.
I've been reading Augusten Burroughs, a brother to John Elder Robison, whose stuff I have also been reading. Robison has Aspergers (which has, if I recall aright, been rendered no-longer-a word by the folks who decide such things) and is a most interesting person to read and to hear. I'm not going to say more - if you are curious, read something from either or both - if you are Kindle-smart I might even loan you some of mine if there is a legal way to do that (and I think that there is.)
Any more, I do a log of my reading with my tablet using a Kindle app, or on one of my Windows machines using a Kindle app for Chrome, the browser. Kindle is set up such that it remembers where you are when you bot a 'book' down. Turn off the computer you were using, go home (or elsewhere) and get out your laptop (or tablet or Android phone) and fire up the Kindle app, and when it opens,m there is the page you were reading when you put it down. Most thoughtful - and you can carry a hell of a big library with you, since e-books don't take up much room, and the Chrome app does everything from the Cloud (whateverthehell that means...) If you hadn't noticed, I'm much impressed by Kindle - particularly by the fact that you don't have to buy one - anything you own can be a Kindle if you need it to be.
I think I've had enough fun, so I'm going to close up shop and go home and see where my lovely wife wants to go for dinner this evening. Be well, y'all.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Time Changes
I wonder what the justification for Daylight Savings Time is nowadays? This year in particular caused all manner of perturbations among those of us that live in a world that has 24-hour days.
I did everything I thought I needed to do before 1 AM this morning and then called Operations where I work and gave the on-duty operator instructions to go through a short process that would get all the mainframe computer clocks where they needed to be.
About an hour later the phone rang - the process did not work as I had planned, so I had to get clothes on, start my car and go downtown and put in an appearance. When I got there, I found two problems, one of which was mine, so I fixed mine and after a few false starts (three to be precise) everything came back up and I headed for home, arriving around 4 AM.
Of course I had to get up within 5 hours to get to church (married to a choir director....) so I am a bit fuzzy around the edges right now. But it would be les problematic if we could make these clock changes during the day - and even less likely to be problematic to go to DST one year and just leave it there.
Anyone out there with me - just leave it all at DST??
I did everything I thought I needed to do before 1 AM this morning and then called Operations where I work and gave the on-duty operator instructions to go through a short process that would get all the mainframe computer clocks where they needed to be.
About an hour later the phone rang - the process did not work as I had planned, so I had to get clothes on, start my car and go downtown and put in an appearance. When I got there, I found two problems, one of which was mine, so I fixed mine and after a few false starts (three to be precise) everything came back up and I headed for home, arriving around 4 AM.
Of course I had to get up within 5 hours to get to church (married to a choir director....) so I am a bit fuzzy around the edges right now. But it would be les problematic if we could make these clock changes during the day - and even less likely to be problematic to go to DST one year and just leave it there.
Anyone out there with me - just leave it all at DST??
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