The Time Sink

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Man, I hurt! It got so bad that even my aches had to leave to make room for the pains. At least I can take a break at work for a few hours. ...and tonight maybe I can catch up with all the things I had scheduled for the weekend. Sheesh, I've put in something like twenty hours since Friday afternoon with a shovel or a pickaxe in my hand...

On the news front, Dave is down at his usual site with hosed ftp access. His weekend and future posts are temporarily quartered at the new, revised Silicon Underground headquarters. ..and before you shine it 'cause it's last week's news, you'd better check out what he has to say about RMS! Please direct all flames to farquhar@access2k1.net.

And a link or two to start your week: If you're rolling your own website, you'll find some interesting information at http://www.lemurzone.com. The setting is web design and development; I'm currently happily lost going through the links page.

Shift a gear: ever heard of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey"? Then you'd understand why Jar Jar Binks is really a hidden Jedi.

Sorry, the dark side must have had a hold there for a minute. But while we're roaming about the final frontier, how about a little work with a Java gravity well? Just the thing; control your own piece of the universe.

...and perhaps too much control. This thread on alt.comp.perlcgi.freelance discusses the “backdoor” found in a shopping cart program. The author claims it's for development and copyright protection; the bottom line is that anyone with the proper key could run programs on any server running this program. I don't think I'd recommend this one in this day and age...

I really don't like Mondays. I'm not really a morning person either. ...so you can imagine Monday mornings in my world. Bah; I'll move on to Tuesday.

...and it looks like Dave is back up; and the web balanced that by taking Frank down (along with Userland, Weblogs and the assorted hangers on). Oh well, a few well placed bookmarks and I'll be okay.

Work though, is another matter. Janeen took on a project from the GM; which means I took on her work; which means I need to pass my work off to... Oh. Shoot. Sounds like a two-for-one sale at the local Zip&Rip.

Oh. Did I mention the CFO wants the year end stuff also? ...and there's the usual random acts of insanity in progress. Like the backup order of IV caths for Saturday delivery to the central supply room that somehow ended up in the HR Director's office over the weekend. ...we have no clue.

So it's off for another fun week in the land of grapes and cotton, enjoying the weather and hanging on to my sanity.

Well, we can do this one of two ways: I can do a DDP (that's a Dave Double Post, although it fits my initials and history all too well) or we can just agree to a new round of deep thoughts for Thursday.

See... Wasn't that easy. ...not even a long distance to jump. Surreal? What do you mean "surreal?" Surreal is like when I'm backing Shelley's van out of the garage past my car last night and wondering if I could install navigation lights ala Star Trek, The Movie. You know, that real slow move out of dry dock as the ship gets underway for the first time. I have the flood light on the driveway; I just think a few strobe lights here and there would be good for effect.

...and this will have to be another short post. Too many projects are sucking up my discretionary time.

...and that's what I've been doing this week while trying to get the wireless networking going here. I'm much closer than I was, but it's taken a lot of incremental changes and a lot of time. Sheesh. ...and I didn't do it the easy way, like with all the stuff out there for Win9x. Oh no, I had to go for a system with NT drivers (oh, and Linux beta drivers <G>). It's been a long haul and I'm finally working my way to calling tech support. The laptop seems to be working okay (the one led lights), but Wolf's got some problems. I may have to bare metal something around here to get the clean install that I finally managed on the laptop.

The problem with Wolf is he's been abused so much as such a testbed. There's so much crud in his registry that it's probably causing many of my problems. I mean, like, I have, you know, like, bindings showing for adapters that, like, you know, I mean, like, like, I don't even remember which install they're for. ...and they won't go away! Sheesh (word of the week). Oh well, persistence will persevere. 'Course, along the way, I hosed the network connectivity to the Linux testbed<G>.

Good morning! I hope your weekend is starting well. If not, think of my poor students. This morning they have a comprehensive final. Nope, not one of those end term "we'll just test you on what we studied last week" deals; this is the whole magilla. As I've told them, "You can't walk into a room where someone is having a heart attack (okay, for DocJim: a myocardial infarction<g>) and defer treatment just because you didn't do well in that part of the class." It's an all or nothing deal. (I also tell them not to ask things like, "Have you ever had a heart attack like this before?") We'll see how they do; some were making up quizzes at 1700 the last time we met.

Ze poool; ze poool. Okay, for those who asked: a short delay after a bang up start. They were flat rockin' the first week; but we hit a snag Monday when the tile crew found out the brick Shelley liked for the top of the retaining wall was no longer made. Oh boy. Full stop. Rather than substitute some stuff that would look really bad, we waited to talk to the concrete guys to get their input. That finally happened today and we're back on track. My guy will handle the fence work this weekend and the concrete guys will set forms on Monday. That means a Tuesday pour (+/-; the tile guys have to come back for a change order) with equipment set shortly thereafter. I have alarms to deal with, then we call for a final. After that it's plaster and water and wet kids. ...and then I get to handle the landscaping rework!

Lost Day. That's the title track for today's album. So I'll make it short and of so sweet. It's late and absolutely nothing on the weekend to-do list got accomplished. On the other hand, Shelley got a bunch of stuff done while I parented and now she's dead to the world along with the other denizens of the household. On the gripping hand, I managed to geek out a bit while I kept the boys from killing each other; I just moved some of my tools along with some bits and pieces to the kitchen table.

Brad's been sick which put him inside for the day, unable to play with the neighbor kids. Daniel's buds aren't available so he got stuck inside with Brad and me. I was stuck because the moment I leave the room, WWIII breaks out. Okay, bits and pieces and parts and such... And we'll just see where it all leads.

It started with a motherboard with a P-233 IT threw (literally) my way Friday. "Want it?" Sure, why not; I'm a junk dealer by temperament. Never throw anything away; you never know when you might need it. (Well, I did throw out some thirty-pin SIMMs a while back; but even then, Svenson had at me as they could have been used as printer memory.)

Back to the board... Well, I had memory and such; I needed a case. Actually, I do need a case; a desktop case to put on the shelf for the firewall. I was planning something slightly different, but I went by my local geekhaus after class Saturday and guess what? There was a demo Inwin desktop case going for a song. No longer stocked; no one wants it; make an offer. Deal. (I know there's better available, but the price was way right.) So much for Saturday night...