The Time Sink

Things will likely continue in the limited fashion of last week on this corner of the web. With my mother in the hospital and both Shelley's and my discretionary time detailed to that end, both of our sites are getting the short end of the stick.

We'll just have to see how things go... Since the alternate site is a bit easier for me to post to, I'll likely have a tidbit up there from time to time. But even that outlet seems a bit choked off at the source for the moment. Still, I suspect the usual absurdities of life will not fail to show themselves even during a dry spell...

Man, what with the swirl of events the last few days, I'm just wiped out. I want to do something, anything to get a handle on something! I feel like that lady on the Onion's WTC page the other day: "Not Knowing What Else To Do, Woman Bakes American Flag Cake" (yeah, lots of other really good stuff on that page).

So I think I'll post this and grab Wolf's carcass and rip his innards out. Yep, that would be a good way to start the week. Maybe tomorrow I could put in the replacement motherboard... Yep, that sounds like a plan.

But before I do that, I'll give you a link stolen intact from Steven over at Mumble Daily (note: this now links to the author's original piece. Parental Advisory: Adult language and content. The original link is to an abridged and sanitized version):

""Picking a fight with the most insane nation on Earth with the hope that your message and influence will spread throughout the world, well, that's just downright stupid."

Yeah, between the Onion pulling off a piece of work in the wake of WTC, and the stuff on Dave Farber's Interesting People site, that should keep you busy...

Brief and late... The last twenty four hours or so have been taken up with changes in the overall care for dear mum. It now looks as though she'll be going home for a time while they neuro guys re-evaluate things; instead of surgery recovery plans to work out, we have care plans to work out.

Still, after nearly two weeks away from home, I think she's ready for a break...

Another late one, but more worthwhile: The matriarch of the lineage that makes Daniel such a stubborn kid is home! Yep, she decided that the care plans and other stuff could just blow in from somewhere else 'cause she was leaving, now that they decided to take a pass at surgery.

Shelley, my sister, and I had a very full morning running hither and yon, hunting and gathering; but Mom came home to a clean house, fresh groceries, a cordless phone and some much needed peace and quiet once we all left. ...except for the phone ringing from Shelley and Ann checking up on her!

So, maybe we can pull a rabbit out of the hat and return to a semblance of normality in the three households involved. The last two weeks have been one long roller coaster ride and I think we're all ready for a break.

Let's start the morning off with an apology and a correction; the author of the quote I linked Tuesday emailed me with a link to his original piece. Corrections and advisories are now in place; and I want to thank Laurence Simon for his response to finding his work bandied about with the serial numbers filed off. (I couldn't very well be a Grey Day supporter and not acknowledge the proper source.)

On to the geek stuff! Well, one geekism: LaBrea has been ported to NT; if you have spare cycles, you can become part of the solution. Penguinista RPMs are available here.

Well, now... Welcome to what may indeed turn into a regular weekend! Only time will tell. ...and it's fujitsing away as you read.

Rodent news: I keep forgetting to put this up. The "9." version of Logitech's Mouseware drivers (Windows only) adds a nice twist to the scroll function (you are using a scrolldent, aren't you?): if you're in a dialog box where you'd normally have to drag the bottom scroll-bar to the left and right, the scroll wheel now handles that function. Nifty. The current version is 9.41.1 and is worth the update if you have their control center already installed.

They are still being silly about Linux and other non-Microsoft operating systems... They say their rodents support any OS that supports PS/2 and USB, but why they don't just get on the bandwagon is beyond me.

...or maybe they just don't need to: my scrolling trackball works fine under Red Hat 7.1; I have native scrolling capability and chorded clicking on the wheel. So maybe they don't have to care.

Nothing to see here folks; you'd best check CNN for the latest...

Either Friday's flu shot or the events of the last two weeks slowed everything to a crawl this weekend; I ended up napping three hours Saturday and today's blading seemed "uphill, upwind, in the snow" both ways...

Time to just sit my tail down and read the paper. ...and go through the stacks of stuff blocking access to the left desk (the one that acts as backup to the workbench). ...and work on the budget and bills. ...and clean off the accumulation of junk on the printer.