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Well, Hello, Monday Morning... With a little rain perhaps? ...at least some snow up in the high country? Bad enough the doomsayers are having a field day with California's energy industry, now they're starting in on next August's problems. Let's just hang on a few and see what happens. ...then we'll all move out. ...and in with you.
...and on the home front, Shelley is still settling in with her new toy, and I'm about 3/4 past tweaky with my Linux config. Yes, Brian, you do have incoming. ...and as is usually the case, writing it all down did help the thought processes. But I still didn't get it where I need it. Ah, well, tomorrow's another day.
...and where would you like to be diverted to today? I mean, like away from meaningful productive time<g>?
A smorgasbord for your early morning dining pleasure (and no, do not have your boss contact me; this one's on your head):
Let's start off with this gentleman as he has a very different, very effective (to me) way to communicate through a browser. 'Course, he is a cartoonist. ...which means he has a strip using the same trail system (warning: serious Time Sink)! ...and since he is a cartoonist, he has his Starving Artist page. ...with some interesting comments on direct payments. I'm looking forward to his next piece.
Hmmm... IBM must like this Linux thing...But, Kruddy RedHat? Ah, well... Maybe even if we don't get any snow here in the Golden State, I can still learn how to SSH...
...and if you want to know why I don't bother with TV anymore!
Well, now. You can shine that SSH reference I used yesterday! Mr. Beland wrote an overview that is currently in "The Binder" in hardcopy, on the NT box, and on the server. ...and I don't even need it yet.
...and while we're on the topic of Matt and Keri:
They're soon off to the land of lattes and RainLite.
I'm presuming Matt will have to drive the truck; I imagine Keri has already hopped and skipped the entire distance...
Too much to do... Too many late nights. ...and I'm learning CSS in my spare time.
I actually watched some television last night... Really. My use for the tube is rather minimal; there are enough things on my plate to pretty much keep me busy. Way too busy... But last night??? Well, I'd seen this ad in Newsweek as I'd flipped through the last few issues. ...a show called "Junkyard Wars". Oh, what the heck...
Time Sink! Yep, take two teams; turn them loose in a junkyard and have them build something mechanical. ...like a Baja buggy. That was the premiss of the first show last night (no, I didn't watch the second; I don't have that much time to stare at a screen and listen to background noise. ...like you're doing right now <g>). But, but, but... Okay, I liked it. ...and I'll probably watch another show next Wednesday. One team took a motorcycle engine and built a 'rail' around it; the other team took a Volkswagen front end and crafted an Oldsmobile engine/transaxle to its tail... In ten hours. Then they ran a four-lap race...
Okay, that's the kind of stuff I can get into: raw engineering on the fly. Building something from oddball parts... Yepper, a great way to have fun.
I didn't know that... I was reading an email from a friend last night. Between his email client and mine (Outlook 2000 on my end), his text appeared way small. So, just for kicks I hit the Control key and scrolled the wheel on my trackball. ...and what to my wondering eyes should appear??? I didn't know that. ...and I have the flippin' book. Sheesh.
Hey, we made it through another day without 'rolling blackouts' here in California. I'll let someone with more patience than I have explain the deregulation thing; suffice to say that we're hosed out here. If you want to watch the fun as we head toward an early 'lights out', I've thrown a coupla' code snippets onto my 'sundries' page (with a five minute refresh). It was interesting to watch yesterday as they declared a 'Stage 3' alert. It seems as though people really made some choices toward conservation; the 'actual' curve lagged the 'forecast' curve most of the day; it wasn't until 2100 or so that it crossed over the forecast line.
We did our part at the work site: lights off in any office with a window or skylight; and all computers shut down and the offices closed at 1600. It may even have made a difference...
...and another semester starts. Time for a quick update on the score from last semester: when I last mentioned the topic, I'd shown up for work the Monday following the end of class to find two of my students in the orientation class with the rest of the new hires. Fast work in anyone's book, but these guys had done considerable prep during the last third of the semester...
This week, as I was wandering by the training room, I found out two of the young ladies who had completed the Fall class had been hired as dispatchers. Wow. That's four hires from one class. Not bad.
...and that's one of the reasons I keep teaching: I sometimes get to see the people I provided basic training to as they go about their careers. ...and my class isn't even geared toward hiring; most of my people are in there to just see if they want to head into medicine in any capacity. ...or they're paid call fire-fighters who need the certification to drive a rig. ...or someone whose parent paid more than a few bucks to see if the kid could complete a specialty course.
But over the years, I've seen the graduates of this entry level class go on to become medics and nurses and M.D.s and PAs and LNPs and Field Supervisors and dispatchers and police officers and fire-fighters and well, you name it. There's been more than a few that have bounced onto something from this spring board. ...and quite a few who just know they can help if someone goes down in front of them at home or school or work. ...or wherever they happen to be.
...and Shelley is quite correct: the classes make it or break it for me. I'm hoping for a good group this spring.
Good morning. ...and may the best teams win. Yeah; like I'm up on things... Well you can root against Al Davis or you can root against Art Modell. ...sounds a little like the recent non-election.
So, happy Sunday to you too. If the plan goes off as scheduled, Daniel and I are off to first service while Shelley tends to a sniffly Bradley. That could put us home in time to watch both games. ...or do some meaningful work on two websites. ...or clean in the “library”. ...or blade. ...or just enjoy a day of rest.
...eating hamburgers, pizza, macaroni and cheese, tacquitos, and chips and dip!! You write that as though there is something wrong with that??? Sounds close to nirvana to me<g>.
All content Copyright 1999->2001 Daniel C. Bowman. All rights reserved.