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WEEK 11 2009

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Saturday 14 March 2009
Saturday - lazing about on a nice sunny day.


My Linux box was better - or so it seemed. Everything worked. But then, this morning, it froze again. I'd done a complete set of updates last night, including a new version of Firefox, so it's probably not that. Indeed, there was a partial shutdown screen, which mentions getting no response from the hard drive, or something to that effect.

Time for a new hard drive, I think. I've several laying about. I think I'll install SUSE 11, just for a change. Then I'll mount the old Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.11 disks and copy off the user data I need.  

And I might do the same for the Beowulf disks, since there isn't any way to get the information off of them right now, and the really really ancient disk drives are certain to fail at some point( 4GB drives, Redhat 7.2, Seawolf, w/o external network connection).

It could, however, be the ancient d845 mobo. Dunno.


In the evening there was an LPAC performance, Danu', an Irish band. I liked it, though it was perhaps a little slower than the Nova Scotia bands. A great evening though. Also a home cooked dinner (with biscuits!) at my friends place...

Friday 13 March 2009

Friday - home in Lancaster. The cats were happy to see me and spent a solid hour sharing my chest. Thirty pounds of purring and kneading affection for their  prodigal BigStupidCat...

Eventually this turned to feline fisticuff's and we were back to normal.


A while back my Linux box hung up. I was in Firefox and the whole box just...froze. And wouldn't restart. I've been too busy to mess with it, but lthis evening I tried again - and it booted OK ( with fsck forced after 47 days). I had some pictures and documents I really didn't want to lose, though it's possible that I could have installed a system on a different disk and mounted the current drive as secondary and retrieved the info.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Thursday - training another chainman. This cuts inspection productivity, just a bit, again. Beautiful weather though, much nicer than earlier in the week. It's supposed to be cold and foggy, but...


Book #11 is finished, that being the audio tape of Ayesha, The Return of She*, by H. Rider Haggard. It was written in 1903, and is a sequel to, and generally much better written than, 1887's She. There is better pacing and (generally) better plotting. I say 'generally' because the fate of Ayesha's rival  -Atene/Amenartas - was something of a let down, and indeed the entire story just sort of ends...

One reviewer claimed that this book 'humanized' Ayesha too much - perhaps. It also implies that she wasn't even human, but rather a (probably demonic) spirit, and we never do learn much more about her.

Horace Holly, the narrator, describes events with a dry sense of humor, not present in the original novel. Haggard had an eye for a good scene, and both this and She might be (re-)made into pretty decent movies with the aid of modern special effects.

And there is more to look forward to-

She and Allan

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Wednesday - I needed to quit early to run an errand, so it was a normal day, say, 9 hours. Unfortunately I got home and fell asleep - it's too late now.  I've been busy, really. My log shows about 109 work hours in the last two week period.


I've started to notice a number of ducks in the channels. It's starting, Spring is. Lot's of squabbling when a male tried to climb up on an already male inhabited bank.


What to say when someone accuses you of being the Buddha: "Thats what you are, but what am I?"  Heh.

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Tuesday - the economy continues to tank. Seems like Wall Street has its opinion of a 'Hope and Change' administration.


A brilliant full moon is out this evening. I thought it was yesterday, but now I think - today.


Another 'Found CD'-

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Carátula Cd de Daddy Yankee - Barrio Fino

 Monday 9 March 2009

Monday - back at work.

Sunday 8 March 2009

Sunday - a day of mixed idleness and chores. Some work in the home office. It was a nice day, and the cats and I spent time outside before it became too windy.

And it's daylight savings time. Clocks are all set ahead 1 hour. The PDA set itself two hours ahead for some reason, so I changed it back. I even set the clock on the answering machine, which has been incorrect for months. Since I am thinking of getting rid of the land line this hasn't been a big priority, but since I was doing the rest of the clocks...


Book #10 was Escape from Hell, by Niven and Pournelle It was OK, written in journeyman fashion, but not exactly a page turner. It is a sequel to Inferno, which was written in...1976. I probably still have my paperback copy of that upstairs.

Update: Checking...yep, the 'Pocket Book Edition', May 1976. The sequel is a hardback, from the Ventura County Library. I have too many books, and am on a quest to reduce their number. Or at least to accumulate them slower.
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Books read this year:

#1 was Accelerando
#2, The Surgeon's Mate*,
#3 is Hanging Woman Creek,
#4, She*,
#5, True North: Peary, Cook, and the Race to the Pole*		 #6 50 Acres and a Poodle*
#7 The Lord Protector's Daughter
#8 Simple Courage*
#9 All The Windwracked Stars.
#10 Escape from Hell


Apropos of 'many books', Tyler Cower over at Marginal Revolution has a picture of the library rotunda at Stockholm, in a very neat circular style.  More pictures, via the Yahoo! image search.

Picture of the Week
oak tree
Photo Notes: Oak Tree.

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