July, 2007: 20 posts.
Livid (regarding a Mouse)
Last time, on Mouse Update we were at 5. I don’t really get livid very often, but this morning we went to a new count. Leah herself stepped on a blanket in the living room that squeaked. Under the blanket was a mouse who had dragged a glue trap under there, freaking her and me out.
I was pretty upset of this, but not extraordinarily so. It was another near the back wall of the house, which is really not news to speak of. They seem to all get trapped near the chimney, they are caught, and then killed. Done.
This morning I had an instinct to make a sweep of downstairs, seeking droppings. I found none in the living room, but I did make a discovery of some mice droppings under the kitchen sink. My blood boiled. It’s time for war. I called the property management company and left a message of the latest count and asked what they intend to do. For our part, we’re laying out more traps, and I made another sweep of the cabinets. I moved a box of saltines a level higher, and juggled some plastic containers downward. Otherwise our packages are intact even if they get into the cabinets. When we were in San Diego we lost a fair amount of foodstuffs to the mice: flour, cereals — things packaged in paper that mice could knaw through.
I fear though, that it’s not so much the food that attracts them as the climate. We have air conditioning, and summer is commencing, and I think the critters are attracted to the cool.
We will not be beaten by these critters. Mice are fascinating and wonderful creatures, supposedly the third most successful mammal on the planet. Anymore, though, not in my house. I’m tired of this game. It’s not where I want my mental attention.
Daily Links
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documentation for ubb bulletin board software
Daily Links
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Like “Guitar Hero” but combines 2 guitars, a singer, and a drummer.
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“Twelver Shi’as believe that Muhammad was born in 868 and has been hidden by God (referred to as occultation) to later emerge to fulfill his mission.”
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Pretty great song.
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former lead singer for Romeo Void — Debora Iyall
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Peculiar. Very peculiar.
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“Blubber Bot Robotic Inflatable”
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Moses uses a Dell.
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Some fun transforming robots videos
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My favorite language. And it feels like I’m beginning to even understand it!
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nice use of scriptaculous to get tooltips
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We don’t know what to do with the thought of unified action. We have become a nation of individuals.
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About ArtRage 2 Pro
Daily Links
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Los Angeles is getting some very cool tech world events. People make that happen.
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looks like an excellent screenscraping tool.
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About Leah’s panel in Chicago! Nifty!
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via:CriticalMAS
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with RSS, nice bonus
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I had never heard of this
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wow, google is doing some pretty cool stuff for us web nerds.
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super-super-awesome. an oldie but a goody.
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creator of Tunak Tunak Tun!
From Durgesh to Sheetul
I get a lot of email inquiries from people who would like to hire me.
I tag these emails so I can get at them fast. So I can see the emails at a glance.
Here is a list of the last 50 first names of these inquirers, duplicate names are from recruiters who have the same name, but multiple inquiries from one recruiter were collapsed to one entry. This is one month’s worth of inquiries.
- Durgesh
- Yogesh
- Shalini
- Anna
- Larry
- Rashi
- Nitin
- Terri
- Alex
- Lynn
- Pankaj
- Uma
- Kelly
- Santosh
- Nitu
- Nicole
- Christoper
- Jay
- Diana
- Emily
- Patrick
- Sheetul
- Gina
- Saroj
- Poornima
- Nirmal
- Preeti
- Bratislav
- Neetu
- Brooke
- Kat
- Amber
- Sadiq
- Nick
- Anna
- Fabiana
- Rich
- Sondra
- Hallie
- Ceren
- Satya
- Rene
- Monica
- Merry
- James
- Afroze
- Nitin
- Upendra
- Adam
- Sheetul
Recruiter Name Roll Call Addendum
Incredibly, since the last one, yesterday we have another 10. I love the names.
- Zahra
- Nitin
- Ryan
- Vidhya
- Kat
- Julie
- Tanvik
- Kevin
- Ekta
- Monica
Mr. Mind
I need some silly today. Here’s Mister Mind — he first appeared in the comics in 1943. I think he looks awesome.
Daily Links
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I like seeing authors speak and read. This is a great idea.
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I heard this ended up good.
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Interesting tool.
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Interview with William Gibson
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Comics folk draw blindfolded
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in September
Dice Accelerates Recruiter Roll Call
Another 15! In under a day since the last one, I have 15 more for the roll call.
Dice sent me a note that “isn’t it time for you to update your Dice resume?” I did, and I now have 15 in a day, vs. 50 in a month. If you’re in technology and looking for work, Dice seems to be working right now.
- Nidhia
- Justin
- Scott
- Divya
- Rashmi
- Lloyd
- Krishna
- Saroj
- Melvin
- Kavya
- Sherry
- Matthew
- Venkat
- Nina
Daily Links
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Fear!
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Great stuff. I’ve downloaded 4 of the volumes so far.
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Odd thing to do to educate parents. Possibly useful? Who knows?
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Wine, Wine Train, Dinner, Dinner Santa, Thomas, Murder Mystery Dinner, Christmas Tree, North Pole, New Year’s Eve
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Great conversation on what makes an expert on Wikipedia, and how Wikipedia deals with cranks who are expert.
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“I’ve never got over it. You never forget it. Never.”
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several fascinating and interesting points here
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i love that the blade runner cyberpunk dystopia that obsessed me as a
teen is now used to sell jeans. -
This reminds me of my job before last.
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This is some fascinating history I had never considered.
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John K is awfully fun to read
In Roanoke to see my Mom
I’ve come to the east coast for a week. Last night I left Los Angeles for Roanoke, Virginia. It was a short notice flight, but my family and I have been looking for an excuse to come east to see my Mom, recently diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, cancer. She has Stage IV, the stage with the most effect on the body overall. My Mom has metastasis to her brain and lung. A few weeks ago she had Cyberknife radiation on the metastasis in her brain. Yesterday she started chemotherapy, and had a great day, she went and ate Red Lobster with my sister yesterday apparently. Today she was very active for the first half of the day, but has had nausea, dry mouth and most of all fatigue.
Meanwhile. I flew in to Greensboro from LAX, through Charlotte, on a red eye.
Here’s what morning looks like at CLT:
I arrived in Greensboro and was picked up by my Dad. On the way we talked some and stopped at a Sheetz, somewhere along the way. I’m sort of famous to Leah for being able to sleep well on planes, any mass-transit really. But my flights were not really optimal overnight for sleep. So I’ll need to adjust and adapt.
This photo approximates how I felt on the first leg of my flight:
Meanwhile, the thing I notice most around my parent’s place is how green everything is. I have managed to forget how green this part of the country is. All my visits have been at Christmastime — in the Winter. Never in the Spring or Summer, at least not for a long time. It’s very green out here:
My Mom had some side effects from the chemo today, and we (my sister, her fiancee, my dad and I) went on a road trip to a drug store locally. Our quest was for dry-mouth combat tools. Among them we acquired some Deb’s Frozen Lemonade — which I did not remember being a staple here. Truth is, the place is 15 years old. It’s been about 15 years since I lived here, coincidentally.
I miss home, and my wife, but I’m home here too.
It Is So Green Here / Laptop Bummerville
It’s noon here, which means it’s nine ante meridiem back in California. It’s odd to think about that difference.
Meanwhile, I’m a little bummed because my laptop is going wonky. It’s an iBook G4:
Anyone seen this kind of “melting screen” effect. Happens at random. I suspect it’s the hard drive crashing and grinding. Luckily there’s lots of other machines I can do work on. I’m letting it take a rest for a while.
I’m So Cute
Well, 35 years ago.
And have I mentioned the green?
Pretty, right?
Humidity is up. A little drizzling yesterday. I think I’m sync’ed up with the time zone now. Mom seems to be having a pretty good morning. Maybe we’re through the side effects of the chemo? Of course, the kidney cancer, and the tumor in her head. and her nocardia infection still might provide effects, and side effects, but today she seems as normal and energetic as she ever did. I think she’d say the same thing!
Illness is tricky, man. Fascinating.
All Things Grow With Love
Except, Cancer!
Next Up
Chemo on Friday for my Mom. She’s doing well.
I’m very glad I came.
Who can know what’s down the road?
Joe Trains
I am back from Virginia, and I’ll have more to say about that later this weekend.
Leah is at BlogHer. She’s moderating a panel on crafting. I miss her. Things are not the same without her.
I’ve been keeping busy. I disgorged some cell phone photos to flickr. I also have done some cleaning. With all the traveling Leah, the kids, and I have done the house has fallen into some disrepair.
Meanwhile, here’s me on the train today! I took the train to Burbank Airport to pick up the van, which Leah left there since I could not get home in time to take her to the airport. In the spirit of making lemonade with lemons, I took Metrolink. It was a fun mini-adventures. After that I went to Fry’s and bought a USB 2.0 PCI card for my old Mac. (Only $12.99!). It’s a G4 Desktop and came without fast USB. Go figure. Then I drove to Simi Valley and saw the Simpsons Movie. Not bad. Not great, but I laughed. The nachos were good, though I spilled cheese on my pants. “I spilled cheese on my pants” is sort of an awesome sentence.
Lastly, here’s me from the train earlier. I’m unshaven, but can you tell how much I like train rides? Even short ones? Well, I do. And tunnels on train rides? Oh yeah.
Tomorrow morning I’ll ride my bike to get the car from the Moorpark Train Station. Yes, everything in stages. Baby steps, a wise man once said. Baby steps.
She’s Back
Great to have her back from her rousing success at BlogHer Chicago. Update: photo of the panel participants! and a recording of the panel! from Craftzine and CraftSanity, respectively.
