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[29 Dec 2008|07:28pm] So, it is at least somewhat within the realm of possibility that some of you have noticed that the blogtest URL no longer works, since I finally dumped SurfSpeedy (SURFSPEEDY SUCKS! DO NOT HOST WITH THEM!) and switched to another hosting provider. You can now find my blog at blog dot likesgadgets dot com, so please feel free to read and comment. (Is it irony, retribution, or simply validation that LJ is currently down, and that I have to copy this in to textedit to save and post later?) I have done a poor job of keeping up with most of your journals, a fact which I have truly regretted yet simultaneously lacked the time and energy to remedy. I have not even done a very good job of keeping up my own blog. So, to you, my LJ friends, I apologize. I hope you are all doing well, and at least I can say that I still think I know where in the world you are and whether you're euphoric or on the brink of becoming mental. :-) I think of you periodically, during a commute or an idle moment here or there when I hear a song or see something that reminds me of something one of you might find amusing. Perhaps 2009 will be less insane than 2008 and find me with more time to check in more often, but at the moment, it is unwise to make any promises :-) I wish each of you the best for 2009 and hope to catch up with you again sooner rather than later. Cheers, Likesgadgets 1 dropping| leave a dropping

Journal Migration [04 Jan 2008|09:17pm] I think, since it's 2008, it's time to migrate away from LJ and over to something like WordPress. So, I'm going to try out doing my updating over on another blog. If you're interested, you can visit me at http://www.likesgadgets.com forward-slash blogtest. I'm not going to put in direct links to avoid creating an crawlable link between the two blogs. :-) 7 droppings| leave a dropping

Resolutions [01 Jan 2008|08:45pm] It's that time of year again where we're supposed to lay out plans for self-improvement. I don't think I made a resolutions post for 2007, but I recall wanted to look more forward and less back... I think I did OK on that front. This year I'm going to try to do the same thing that everyone always does, lose weight. But, I'm not going to resolve to lose weight, because that's too indirect a goal. I'm going to resolve to exercise more. So, I'm going to try to get in a 30-minute walk or treadmill round at least once a weekend on short weekends and twice a weekend on long weekends, and then at least once during the week. That should be do-able. The problem is that Miri spends most of her Awake Time in the family room, where the TV and the treadmill are, and I can't use it while she's in there. So, we're going to have to find a solution to that problem or the during-the-week part isn't going to happen. I'm also going to try to get at least one CD a week re-ripped, tagged, and imported into my music library. Eventually, I should have them all done. I'm sure some other things will occur to me as well, but I think that's a good start. Back to work tomorrow... I think I'm going to be on the road next week and the week after, but we'll see. I'm sure lots of folks have spent their breaks attached to their email, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning to see what's piled up. :-) Oh, Happy New Year! 1 dropping| leave a dropping

Meme from Laren [31 Dec 2007|08:29pm] For fun, I jumped in on a five-questions meme from an lj-friend to see what people wondered about me... here are the questions and answers for your reading pleasure! 1. What do you do for a living? What do you do for fun? I'm a systems and networks engineer, which means I do a little bit of everything project-related for systems and network contracts and R&D. I do network and network protocol design, modeling & simulation, project management, cost accounting, scheduling, reporting, presentations, papers, and talks. For fun I play on the computer/internet, take pictures, and play with our new daughter. I used to read and write a lot, but over the years the creative writing part of things has tapered off and the creative reading time has been greatly constrained. I used to play the trumpet, but time again has robbed me of that hobby. I miss the music. 2. As someone who is into math, science, technology, and all around geekiness, is there anything you consider "too" geeky? Do you laugh at geeks of other breeds? I suppose I may be a bit of a technical geek snob; geekiness centered around fiction or other non-technical things somehow seems like "lesser geekdom," but I generally admire excellence in any respectable field, technical or not. (By "respectable field" I mean things like "best drug runner" don't go in my book of greats.) I think the top of the heap from my perspective are the embedded hardware/software hackers; the people who can take an off-the-shelf consumer device, bust it open, see which microcontroller it uses, download the software, change it, and put it back to make it do something else/more/better/cooler. These people know what makes things go at a very low level, and I respect that. Astrophysicists and their ilk are up there too. :-) I don't think I laugh at any one group more than any other one... I don't like generalizations about groups very much. 3. What is the best photo you have ever taken (or your favorite, even if it's not the best technically)? +2 for actually posting the photo. Wow, that's hard... I have several all-time favorites, but I think my current favorite is this one of Miri: http://likesgadgets.livejournal.com/209568.html#cutid1 4. Which would you rather deal with: a zombie apocalypse or being marooned on a deserted island? Why? Am I marooned alone? If so, I'll have to take the zombie apocalypse, because at least I could go out fighting to protect myself and my family... with the island, I'd just sort of waste away into nothing wondering where everyone was and what they were doing. If I could be marooned with my family and a satellite internet connection, I'd take the island. :-) 5. What was your first pet? Wow, stretching the brain cells again... Umm... I think it may have been antlions or garter snakes. Later I had gerbils. My parents had a cat before I was born, but that probably doesn't count as my pet. Cheers! And, Happy New Year! 1 dropping| leave a dropping

Thank you, AP! [31 Dec 2007|12:50pm] One person can help make a difference: leave a dropping

WTF?! [31 Dec 2007|12:13pm] leave a dropping

Holiday Post-Mortem [28 Dec 2007|05:37pm] Now that the work part of the holidays is over, we can finally sit back, relax a little bit, and think about how to make next year go better. This was Miri's first Christmas, which is the same thing as saying it was our first Christmas with a baby in the house. That changed some things, which we expected, and the presence of nine adults and four kids for Christmas dinner changed some other things which we didn't expect. Even though we knew the kids would get tired and go nuts and that we had to have dinner ready before then, and even though we tried, it just didn't happen. Oof. Christmas Dinner Lesson One: Afternoon snacks need to chosen to require minimal prep time/space and to be served where they can be left so that the dinner table does not have to be cleared and re-set right before dinner. The table should be cleared and set long before dinner, and the snacks should live somewhere else. Even though we gave up on sending out cookies this year, there were still too many things to do and not enough time to enjoy doing them this year... I think part of that was that I was gone for fully half of October and November, part of it was the colds, and part of it was just Miri's schedule not being settled down yet. I'm sure next year will be as interesting in an unpreparable way... we'll see! Speaking of colds, we are still getting over this latest one that I picked up at the office over a week ago. Note to sick co-workers: STAY HOME OR DON'T SNEEZE ON ME! We're missing another Christmas Euchre on account of it, very disappointed. Here's a photo of Miri in her First Christmas outfit in front of the tree: ( Miri's First Christmas ) 1 dropping| leave a dropping

Merry Gentlemen [23 Dec 2007|08:43pm] So, I'm re-ripping most of my holiday CDs to FLAC, and in so doing, I have noticed these three versions of a popular Christmas carol's title on different albums: God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Now, seeing these three versions makes one consider more closely the differences between them. In the first version, I fancy the speaker invoking God to quiet the Merry Gentlemen. Perhaps the speaker thought that the Merry Gentlemen had partied enough, and wanted God to give them a nice cold shower (or a quick boot to the head!) Perhaps the author was trying to get some rest himself and the drunken revelers in the square below were preventing him. I suppose the Living Bible version of this interpretation would be "For Christ's sake, shut up!" The second version moves the comma one word to the right, cleaving the adjective Merry from Gentlemen and attaching it to Ye instead. In this case we have no way of knowing if the Gentlemen in question are currently Merry or simply Apathetic, Melancholic, or even Depraved! But, we do know that the speaker wants the Gentlemen to die happy, or perhaps in the case of a less strong "Rest" delivered from On High, simply to sleep well and to dream of large women. The third version is bold in its attempt to subvert the paradox engendered in the first two versions, namely, where does the comma go and what does it mean; however, the result is a bland, toneless word dirge marching across the page with little character. Apologies if this is the version that appears in your bulletin's sing-along copy, but one cannot escape the need for a comma by ignoring it! :-) Now, an even harder problem: What to do with the track names? Should they remain true to the jacket, typos and all? (Here we can add to the list of troublesome tracks: "Silent Night! Holy Night!" and the various versions of "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.") Or, as the digital librarian is inclined, should they be standardized on a single name for easier database administration? I think I'll sleep on it. 6 droppings| leave a dropping

When Engineers Wrap Christmas Presents... [23 Dec 2007|02:04pm] 4 droppings| leave a dropping

LJ on a rampage [16 Dec 2007|01:44pm] Well, this is disturbing. LJ has taken upon itself the role of content policeman, removing offensive search terms from search databases and otherwise protecting us from all that is unseemly on the Internet. http://community.livejournal.com/lj_policy/1227.html?nc=643 http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/243946.html?nc=1007 Oh, and these are the same people who decided that it was fine that the spelling checker suggested "f---ing c--t" as a correction to something I had mistyped last year. Yay. Apparently, this isn't worthy of lj_news, so hurry up and subscribe to all of those other new and hidden lj communities so you don't miss out on the latest efforts to "improve" the "service." (Now, with extra splinters!) *pukes and goes to investigate wordpress* 4 droppings| leave a dropping

[16 Dec 2007|09:30am] I got bit by a ladybug. In the middle of the night. At least, that's my working theory, because I have this strange itchy bump on my palm and I found a ladybug crawling on my keyboard this morning. I figure it's too cold out for any other kind of bug (but not ladybugs? I'd have thought they were all dead too if not for the red shell picking its way among my consonants) and I've heard they bite, so... who knows. Today's Gene Weingarten column is about a viral video that's so horrible you can't even find it on YouTube, and I'm thinking gee, how did I miss this? What an odd thought; a psyche that's irritated at being left of something even if it's horrific and disgusting. Time for CarTalk and Pancakes. Yummy. :-) leave a dropping

you may be a terrorist agent [15 Dec 2007|09:03am] If you find yourself spending a lot of time looking around you and worrying about who is doing the work of the terrorists, perhaps you should look in the mirror. Excerpted from http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/what_the_terror.html I'd like everyone to take a deep breath and listen for a minute. The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act. And we're doing exactly what the terrorists want. leave a dropping

snoozing [14 Dec 2007|08:54am] this morning i sort of woke up and started to fumble for the snooze alarm... ...on the baby monitor. hmm, babies do not have snooze alarms. :-) lots to do today in preparation for Teh Holidays, so... off to it. leave a dropping

"Nature's Three Berries" [09 Dec 2007|09:57am] Quick, name three kinds of berry. I'll wait. . . . OK, good job! Now tell me, did you name "Marionberry?" No? Me neither. However, the folks at Rader Farms (Family Owned Since 1941!) would have you believe that nature's three berries are Raspberries, Blueberries, and Marionberries. Eh? What about Strawberries? Blackberries? Cranberries! Those are not, apparently, berries. Nor do they belong to Nature, who in Her infinite and secret wisdom allows for only three kinds of berry, the better to fit into children's books. Strawberries are the product of the evil global corporate conglomerate bent on foisting artificial berries on us. I hear the ACLU is going to file a discrimination suit on behalf of the blackberry, as soon as it's done with the trademark infringement suit against those portable email devices. And when they do, they'll discover the Great Dark Secret of Rader Farms... they also grow (are you sitting down?) strawberries, cherries, and (what were they thinking?)... rhubarb! Rhubarb is not even close to being berry-like! Ah, the hypocrisy! My palate cringes! Although, strawberry and rhubarb make a darn fine pie. In my internet wanderings I came across this chess set: http://iain-lavan.livejournal.com/346145.html I'm speechless. These are about as far from 3" machined brass and stainless chess pieces as you can get. Time to get that tree up... 3 droppings| leave a dropping

[06 Dec 2007|08:32pm] Stolen from crustycurmudgeo: This is horribly cute! My current high score is 169,970: http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bells.htm 2 droppings| leave a dropping

first snow [05 Dec 2007|09:33pm] Today was the first real snow of the season... hit just about the same time as morning rush hour. This made commuting insane. It took me four hours to get to work this morning. It took almost as long to drive 30 miles to the office as it took the folks from San Diego to fly across the country for today's meetings. Insane. We got 2-3 inches roundabouts. Tomorrow morning I have to get up at 4 to travel to a meeting in Maryland. We're leaving my office at 5:30 to make sure we get there for the 8:30am meeting. No more snow predicted, but probably lots of ice built up where the melting occurred. I've pre-salted the driveway... hopefully, nothing too slippery accumulates. Earlier we took Miri out to see the snow... she just sort of pawed at it. No strong reaction one way or the other. She came home in the snow, but she probably doesn't remember that. Well, I have no idea what babies remember or for how long... but, I fathom it was all just a blur to them. :-) I haven't really taken many photos recently, oddly enough. Too busy doing other things, I guess. Off to bed... 2 droppings| leave a dropping

Internet Shopping [02 Dec 2007|10:04pm] Whoever invented that stupid little flash image viewer that so many online catalog sites use to show you the "larger image" should be shot Its sole purpose in life is to constrain you to a 100-pixel window into the image, regardless of its size, forcing you to scroll around to see different parts of the item and prohibiting you from ever seeing the whole thing all at once at any resolution larger than a postage stamp. GAAH! I actually sent a complaint feedback to one of those sites, which responded with a sappy apology and instructions on how to USE the stupid little image viewer. GAHH! GAHH! *bangs head on wall* leave a dropping

[30 Nov 2007|08:19pm] It's been a very long week... this was supposed to be an off-Friday, but I had to go to a parter site and work all day. So, 52 hours on my timecard this week, not that I will get any extra $ for my trouble. I was hoping to spend today in bed getting over my cold, but... no dice. Oof. There is a new travel reporting system at work, and it involves the home office paying the corporate account off directly for items charged to your corporate card while on travel. You are required to use the corporate card for all possible items while on travel. You are then required to file a trip report online and mail all of your hardcopy receipts in a special envelope to a special address via company mail. The only problem is, you can't do this while you're on travel because you have to be at your office to file. So, if you get sent on travel several week in a row, or if your travel arrangements cross a corporate card billing cycle boundary, you get "behind" from the corporate card perspective and they start complaining at you, sending you threatening letters, and charging you late fees. The home office, which writes the process for all of this rigamarole, have decreed that they are perfect and that any late fees that appear must be the fault of the employee, and will not be reimbursed. So, they set you up to fail and gleefully clap when you get stuck in their trap. Grrr. I've been on travel for 4 out of the last 5 weeks or so, usually with less than a week's notice, not counting local pop-up assignments. So, I've had little opportunity to keep on top of the mess and am a bit put out. Further, they have decreed that any filings not received by 12/7 will not be paid until 2008, so if you get sent on travel the first week of December you are guarantee to be late with not a darn thing you can do about it. Feh. Obviously I'm tired and cranky, so I'm going to go watch Mythbusters or something. :-) leave a dropping

[26 Nov 2007|09:22pm] Our directv receiver locked up and we missed the last episode of Dancing With the Stars. Sigh. I had to unplug it from the wall to get it to respond to the remote and front panel buttons. Something else is recording now, so I don't even know yet if it's the interface between the ReplayTV and the receiver that caused it or if it was just a fluke. It's cold and rainy. I have a cold. Brr. 2 droppings| leave a dropping

blah blah science meme blah blah [23 Nov 2007|08:58pm] 1 dropping| leave a dropping

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