Yesterday after work we made a quick run into Hannafords since they had a sale on 12pks of pop and Lay's chips. Once we both had a shopping cart with our 4 12pks and 4 bags of chips, we decided to get some ice cream.
Edy's had a couple Limited Edition flavors that sounded great to us. I got Strawberry Cheesecake and Ric got Girl Scout Thin Mint ice cream. We started with a couple small spoonfuls right after lunch. Then part way thru the evening, we just got the whole container and a spoon and started to eat right out of the carton. (Bowls are for wusses!) Neither of us could finish the whole carton, so we do have more left for today. But, I doubt it will last after today.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
A Day Off
Today is the one day of the week that neither of us has to work. Last week, we never left the apartment. This week, we will be venturing out, but not very far from the cave. Right now, both of our jobs leave us pretty used up by the end of the week, so Saturday afternoon and Sunday usually finds us staring blank-eyed at whatever is in the Hulu queue.
Speaking of Hulu, I have to ask what the big deal is about Verizon FiOS? They make this big production about using Facebook on your TV, like that is somehow impossible without their product. We've been doing that for a year and a half. It's not hard and doesn't require any special equipment as long as your TV has an HDMI port. And if your TV doesn't have one of those, I seriously doubt FiOS will make running Facebook a pleasant experience. Is Verizon really that technologically out of touch? Am I missing something? Sure, if you're a true-blue TV junkie, I'm certain FiOS has some great features, but I can't see running Facebook on your TV being one that you build a Hulu ad campaign around.
Speaking of Facebook, I'm putting the whole social networking thing on a shelf for now. Sure, it's great to find people you graduated with from high school, but what I found is that having a conversation with someone requires having something in common, other than going to the same high school 28 years ago and then having lived completely separate lives since. Unless you really enjoy exchanging an endless series of sentences that begin, "Remember that time when...?" And is that really a conversation? Frankly, the internet is filled to the brim with far more interesting things. Besides, Facebook seems to be on a mission to make using their product as big a pain in the ass as possible. I was all ready to ditch the thing after one of their "upgrades" when they started updating me every time someone friended someone or joined something. FB Purity fixed that until Facebook made a pointless look-and-feel upgrade yesterday that broke FB Purity. I'm not weeding through 300 quiz results and what not just to find the two actual status updates. Maybe after tax season is over, maybe if the guy that maintains the FB Purity script has time to update it, maybe if I really have a lot of spare time, maybe. In the meantime, you have my e-mail, and if you don't, there's likely a reason for that.
I've closed the Twitter tab as well. I found that to be even less useful than Facebook, rarely read it and even more rarely posted anything. I find a couple people mildly amusing, but mostly it's nothing but a series of long-running inside jokes that I'm not in on, and anyway are not that funny when I do put out the effort to research it. If I want to feel awkward and left-out, I can go hang at a Super Bowl party. At least then I can score some food and alcohol.
So bottom line: I should have a lot more time to write long blog posts that will be read by very few people now that I won't be posting links on Facebook. Sweet.
The last week has seen my job go from mildly entertaining to be the soul-sucking experience of watching yet-another company circle the drain. The owner is ruthlessly cutting the hours of operation as well as people (without actually telling employees ahead of time; it seems to be my job to make excuses after the fact). The result is more unpaid hours of work for me. It's not gotten to the point where I need to bitch about it, but it's getting close. The owner is one of those people who think the word "salary" is some sort of Potter-esque magic spell that makes minimum wage laws disappear. I've tried to explain it to him, but he seems to be willfully ignorant of the whole thing. Just like he was willfully ignorant of Vermont's higher-than-federal minimum wage until I did the 10 seconds of research and showed it to him. I try to be generous and assume unintended oversight, but is anyone really that clueless?
Anyway, the good part of this job is that I've rediscovered what I really like to do, and that is taxes. Yep. I actually enjoy doing the basic function of my job. There are parts I don't enjoy, and even find morally repugnant; mostly having to do with the so-called "bank products" which exploit dumb, poor people by charging outrageous fees for something they can get for free. But the actual doing taxes part is fun for me. Yea, I know; no need to say it.
Over the last few days, there has been some serious gum-flapping between book publishers and Amazon over it's $10-for-everything e-book pricing. Not having a Kindle, I guess I don't pay much attention to the price of e-books. I'd say $10 is too high of a price for anything I'm likely to read. I wouldn't pay that much for a physical book, not alone an e-book that I can't sell or donate. So I have no real opinion of the whole kerfuffle, but it is a good indication of the earthquake currently shaking the entire publishing industry. Books, magazines, newspapers; all have to either reinvent their entire way of doing business or eventually die. The natural price point of anything digital ("print" media, music, video) is zero. However, music and movies have a huge advantage over print: theaters in the case of movies, and live performances in the case of music. There is no practical way for 99.99% of people to recreate a live performance or fit a cinema-sized screen in their living room. Even if a band never makes another cent off selling copies of their work, they can (and thousands do) make at least a modest living from live performances. And as much as my general anti-social nature cringes at the "theater experience," there are some movies that must be seen on the big screen. That doesn't mean that movies and music are not being seriously disrupted; technology is having a profound effect on both. But the case of digital books seems more serious. Does anyone seriously believe the average author can make a living from giving speeches while giving away their books for free? The interesting times continue.
Well, I need to get some things done before Debbie gets up and around for the day.
Speaking of Hulu, I have to ask what the big deal is about Verizon FiOS? They make this big production about using Facebook on your TV, like that is somehow impossible without their product. We've been doing that for a year and a half. It's not hard and doesn't require any special equipment as long as your TV has an HDMI port. And if your TV doesn't have one of those, I seriously doubt FiOS will make running Facebook a pleasant experience. Is Verizon really that technologically out of touch? Am I missing something? Sure, if you're a true-blue TV junkie, I'm certain FiOS has some great features, but I can't see running Facebook on your TV being one that you build a Hulu ad campaign around.
Speaking of Facebook, I'm putting the whole social networking thing on a shelf for now. Sure, it's great to find people you graduated with from high school, but what I found is that having a conversation with someone requires having something in common, other than going to the same high school 28 years ago and then having lived completely separate lives since. Unless you really enjoy exchanging an endless series of sentences that begin, "Remember that time when...?" And is that really a conversation? Frankly, the internet is filled to the brim with far more interesting things. Besides, Facebook seems to be on a mission to make using their product as big a pain in the ass as possible. I was all ready to ditch the thing after one of their "upgrades" when they started updating me every time someone friended someone or joined something. FB Purity fixed that until Facebook made a pointless look-and-feel upgrade yesterday that broke FB Purity. I'm not weeding through 300 quiz results and what not just to find the two actual status updates. Maybe after tax season is over, maybe if the guy that maintains the FB Purity script has time to update it, maybe if I really have a lot of spare time, maybe. In the meantime, you have my e-mail, and if you don't, there's likely a reason for that.
I've closed the Twitter tab as well. I found that to be even less useful than Facebook, rarely read it and even more rarely posted anything. I find a couple people mildly amusing, but mostly it's nothing but a series of long-running inside jokes that I'm not in on, and anyway are not that funny when I do put out the effort to research it. If I want to feel awkward and left-out, I can go hang at a Super Bowl party. At least then I can score some food and alcohol.
So bottom line: I should have a lot more time to write long blog posts that will be read by very few people now that I won't be posting links on Facebook. Sweet.
The last week has seen my job go from mildly entertaining to be the soul-sucking experience of watching yet-another company circle the drain. The owner is ruthlessly cutting the hours of operation as well as people (without actually telling employees ahead of time; it seems to be my job to make excuses after the fact). The result is more unpaid hours of work for me. It's not gotten to the point where I need to bitch about it, but it's getting close. The owner is one of those people who think the word "salary" is some sort of Potter-esque magic spell that makes minimum wage laws disappear. I've tried to explain it to him, but he seems to be willfully ignorant of the whole thing. Just like he was willfully ignorant of Vermont's higher-than-federal minimum wage until I did the 10 seconds of research and showed it to him. I try to be generous and assume unintended oversight, but is anyone really that clueless?
Anyway, the good part of this job is that I've rediscovered what I really like to do, and that is taxes. Yep. I actually enjoy doing the basic function of my job. There are parts I don't enjoy, and even find morally repugnant; mostly having to do with the so-called "bank products" which exploit dumb, poor people by charging outrageous fees for something they can get for free. But the actual doing taxes part is fun for me. Yea, I know; no need to say it.
Over the last few days, there has been some serious gum-flapping between book publishers and Amazon over it's $10-for-everything e-book pricing. Not having a Kindle, I guess I don't pay much attention to the price of e-books. I'd say $10 is too high of a price for anything I'm likely to read. I wouldn't pay that much for a physical book, not alone an e-book that I can't sell or donate. So I have no real opinion of the whole kerfuffle, but it is a good indication of the earthquake currently shaking the entire publishing industry. Books, magazines, newspapers; all have to either reinvent their entire way of doing business or eventually die. The natural price point of anything digital ("print" media, music, video) is zero. However, music and movies have a huge advantage over print: theaters in the case of movies, and live performances in the case of music. There is no practical way for 99.99% of people to recreate a live performance or fit a cinema-sized screen in their living room. Even if a band never makes another cent off selling copies of their work, they can (and thousands do) make at least a modest living from live performances. And as much as my general anti-social nature cringes at the "theater experience," there are some movies that must be seen on the big screen. That doesn't mean that movies and music are not being seriously disrupted; technology is having a profound effect on both. But the case of digital books seems more serious. Does anyone seriously believe the average author can make a living from giving speeches while giving away their books for free? The interesting times continue.
Well, I need to get some things done before Debbie gets up and around for the day.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Big Catch-all Post
As Debbie said, she was feeling pretty rough this morning, so she blew off work; but when I got home, she was feeling a little better and decided to go in for the training on the new system rather than taking the chance of missing something important. So I'm taking advantage of my time alone for the usual wild and crazy stuff I like to do whenever I'm bachelorin' it.
Like writing long, rambling blog posts.
Why is it every time I hear someone talking about an awards show, I feel a rush of relief that I don't pay $50/month to have that crap pumped into my house in HiDef? Why would anyone?
How long before we have stuff going on in our networks that resembles a mammalian body vs. bacteria, viruses and parasites?
Right now, computer security is teams of humans waging an ongoing war by software proxy. What happens when the human element is removed? How quickly can two computer programs going at it evolve into something unrecognizable in both form and function? After all, a piece of software may evolve a very different view of what constitutes legitimate vs. illegitimate network traffic. How long before all the carbon-based units are patterned for data storage?
A couple related wins in the war against anti-vaxxer/pro-disease yahoos:
AVN may be closing its doors.
Lancet retracts Wakefield MMR study.
In case those make anyone too euphoric, here are three related federal budget stories (only for those with strong stomachs):
Obama budget: record spending, record deficit.
Remember when Congress recently raised the the debt ceiling to $41,000/person? They already need more.
Moody's threatens to lower US credit rating.
Which set the mood for this week's essay at the Archdruid Report:
In somewhat lighter news, the latest threat to airline security is women with large breasts. Leave it to the damnable Muslims to take the fun out of fun bags.
And Clooney's Batman is officially the worst film ever. The one problem with these "ten worst movies" lists is that I now have an overwhelming urge to rent all ten of them for an MST3K party. At least I only own one or two on this particular list.
And just to end with a bang. The latest M51 Hubble Remix:
(click to galactify)
I can stare at that all day.
Like writing long, rambling blog posts.
Why is it every time I hear someone talking about an awards show, I feel a rush of relief that I don't pay $50/month to have that crap pumped into my house in HiDef? Why would anyone?
How long before we have stuff going on in our networks that resembles a mammalian body vs. bacteria, viruses and parasites?
When it comes to cybersecurity, Darpa’s taking inspiration from nature, with “Cyber Immune” — a defense model for the Pentagon’s computing systems that’s able to detect an attack, fight back and even heal itself automatically to prevent subsequent infiltration.
Right now, computer security is teams of humans waging an ongoing war by software proxy. What happens when the human element is removed? How quickly can two computer programs going at it evolve into something unrecognizable in both form and function? After all, a piece of software may evolve a very different view of what constitutes legitimate vs. illegitimate network traffic. How long before all the carbon-based units are patterned for data storage?
A couple related wins in the war against anti-vaxxer/pro-disease yahoos:
AVN may be closing its doors.
Lancet retracts Wakefield MMR study.
In case those make anyone too euphoric, here are three related federal budget stories (only for those with strong stomachs):
Obama budget: record spending, record deficit.
Remember when Congress recently raised the the debt ceiling to $41,000/person? They already need more.
Moody's threatens to lower US credit rating.
Which set the mood for this week's essay at the Archdruid Report:
...Scattered among the statistical noise that makes up most of today’s news are data points that suggest to me that business as usual is quietly coming to an end around us, launching us into a new world for which very few of us have made any preparations at all....
...Friends of mine in a couple of midwestern states have mentioned that the steady trickle of refugees from the Chicago slums into their communities has taken a sharp turn up....
...The state of California is essentially bankrupt; nearly all the mistakes made by the once-wealthy states of the Rust Belt as they slid down the curve of their own decline have been faithfully copied by California as it approaches its destiny as the Rust Belt of the 21st century....
...The figures coming out of state revenue offices strike a jarring contrast with the handwaving about “green shoots” and an imminent return to prosperity heard from Washington DC and the media....
...Despite soaring deficits, not to mention a growing disinclination on the part of foreign governments to keep on financing the same, every new issuance of US treasury bills somehow finds buyers in such abundance that interest rates stay remarkably low. A few weeks ago, Tom Whipple of ASPO became the latest in a tolerably large number of perceptive observers who have pointed out that this makes sense only if the US government is surreptitiously buying its own debt....
...for most of the last thirty years, the United States has been trying to stave off the inevitable – the sharp downward readjustment of our national standard of living and international importance following the peak and decline of our petroleum production and the depletion of most of the other natural resources....
...If I read the signs correctly, America has finally reached the point where its economy is so deep into overshoot that catabolic collapse is beginning in earnest. If so, a great many of the things most of us in this country have treated as permanent fixtures are likely to go away over the years immediately before us, as the United States transforms itself into a Third World country....
In somewhat lighter news, the latest threat to airline security is women with large breasts. Leave it to the damnable Muslims to take the fun out of fun bags.
And Clooney's Batman is officially the worst film ever. The one problem with these "ten worst movies" lists is that I now have an overwhelming urge to rent all ten of them for an MST3K party. At least I only own one or two on this particular list.
And just to end with a bang. The latest M51 Hubble Remix:
(click to galactify)
I can stare at that all day.
Endodontist
My bad, it was an endodontist, not an orthodontist that I was referred to for my root canal. After 2+ hours yesterday -- I have a new root canal plus a special small green drainage port. Yep .... it was so infected that they had to make an incision in the gum and insert a small green drainage port to help drain off the infection. I have a followup appt next week to have the port removed and finish things up.
The pain pills they gave me did not help completely. I decided to take today off to recuperate. My jaw is so sore and it hurts to open it more than a little bit. It also feels like it is still swollen up. Figured if I took the day off and didn't talk most of the day -- I should be okay to go back to work for Friday and Saturday. I do have to run in tonight for our regularly scheduled training, but that is after office hours and I won't have to talk much -- mostly listening.
The pain pills they gave me did not help completely. I decided to take today off to recuperate. My jaw is so sore and it hurts to open it more than a little bit. It also feels like it is still swollen up. Figured if I took the day off and didn't talk most of the day -- I should be okay to go back to work for Friday and Saturday. I do have to run in tonight for our regularly scheduled training, but that is after office hours and I won't have to talk much -- mostly listening.
J. K. Rowling
I've posted this before, but it is always worth watching again:
J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
The Hammer Drops
This is supposed to be the busiest week of tax season. I have been in the office for four and a half hours and have talked to exactly two people other than coworkers and telemarketers: one guy that needed some tax info so he could file his return himself and one lady that came to pick up her stuff because her and her husband decided to do their taxes themselves. Hours are going to get cut way back next week for everybody other than yours truly (mine will likely increase slightly; yay management). I have my doubts this office will exist next year. Given the revenue we've generated, this place is nothing but dead weight. I doubt we're even covering salary.
This was always a temporary gig; that's just the nature of the beast. Even the owner has another job he does the other 9 months of the year. But now that I have so much free time at work (hence the blogging), I've been thinking about what happens next. Or sooner than next if the owner decides to cut his losses and shut this office down. I really don't have a clue; I see a lot of jobs in the paper and Craigslist, but even in an area with relatively low unemployment, every job has a hundred applicants. And even with us both working, we are barely bringing enough home to cover the rent. The cost of living out here is simply insane.
But Obama says it will all be over by spring and we'll all be back to work.
Ah well; I should get back to being bored.
This was always a temporary gig; that's just the nature of the beast. Even the owner has another job he does the other 9 months of the year. But now that I have so much free time at work (hence the blogging), I've been thinking about what happens next. Or sooner than next if the owner decides to cut his losses and shut this office down. I really don't have a clue; I see a lot of jobs in the paper and Craigslist, but even in an area with relatively low unemployment, every job has a hundred applicants. And even with us both working, we are barely bringing enough home to cover the rent. The cost of living out here is simply insane.
But Obama says it will all be over by spring and we'll all be back to work.
Ah well; I should get back to being bored.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
January by the Numbers
Visits were down a bit this month from last at 337. Not surprising given that we are now both working and we keep finding cool things to watch on Hulu.com in what little free time we have. A touch over 44% of those visits were referred here from another site, and over half of those were from Facebook. But a substantial 20% came from reciprocal links and track backs on other people's blogs, which is kind of cool.
On the operating system front, XP still dominates everything else at 53.1%. All Microsoft OS's combined account for 79.6% of visits. I remain surprised at the weakness of Win 7 (3.9%) vs. Vista (21.7%). I know the upgrade is costly, but trust me, it is well worth it. Mac and iPhone accounted for 13.3% combined, with Other, Linux and Blackberry picking up the scraps.
The browser wars continue with January clearly going to IE 8 with 41.2%. IE 6 and 7 only added another 6.6% showing that people are wising up and getting onto IE 8. All versions of Firefox pulled in 31.2%, and Mozilla 5, Safari, Chrome and Other covered the rest.
My own little browser war continues as well. I grew weary of Chrome's bugs and even went as far as unpinning it from my task bar (it has since returned). Sure Firefox was a CPU hog, but at least things worked. Then Firefox 3.6 was released and my CPU usage when running just Firefox dropped by a third. Chrome came out with a new release of its own, which I dutifully installed only to find the same bugs that drove me nuts still there. I assume they will get fixed eventually, but for now, I would just as soon avoid the hassle and use Firefox. The problem for Google is that Firefox isn't a stationary target; the Firefox developers are busy incorporating most of what attracts people to Chrome while keeping all the things that made Firefox popular in the first place. Chrome may yet turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Firefox.
I don't get a lot of traffic from the search sites, but what I do get usually results from search terms that are somewhat interesting. My favorites this month: "canadian supplier of koegel hot dogs" and "arcosanti shit." Which probably says all that needs to be said about this blog.
Well, I woke up way too early this morning and need a nap.
On the operating system front, XP still dominates everything else at 53.1%. All Microsoft OS's combined account for 79.6% of visits. I remain surprised at the weakness of Win 7 (3.9%) vs. Vista (21.7%). I know the upgrade is costly, but trust me, it is well worth it. Mac and iPhone accounted for 13.3% combined, with Other, Linux and Blackberry picking up the scraps.
The browser wars continue with January clearly going to IE 8 with 41.2%. IE 6 and 7 only added another 6.6% showing that people are wising up and getting onto IE 8. All versions of Firefox pulled in 31.2%, and Mozilla 5, Safari, Chrome and Other covered the rest.
My own little browser war continues as well. I grew weary of Chrome's bugs and even went as far as unpinning it from my task bar (it has since returned). Sure Firefox was a CPU hog, but at least things worked. Then Firefox 3.6 was released and my CPU usage when running just Firefox dropped by a third. Chrome came out with a new release of its own, which I dutifully installed only to find the same bugs that drove me nuts still there. I assume they will get fixed eventually, but for now, I would just as soon avoid the hassle and use Firefox. The problem for Google is that Firefox isn't a stationary target; the Firefox developers are busy incorporating most of what attracts people to Chrome while keeping all the things that made Firefox popular in the first place. Chrome may yet turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Firefox.
I don't get a lot of traffic from the search sites, but what I do get usually results from search terms that are somewhat interesting. My favorites this month: "canadian supplier of koegel hot dogs" and "arcosanti shit." Which probably says all that needs to be said about this blog.
Well, I woke up way too early this morning and need a nap.
Painful
I have a tooth that has been bothering me on and off since I had a bridge put in before we left Michigan the first time. The new dentist here in Keene said it looked a bit strange around the root and referred me to an orthodontist to see about a root canal. My "consult" was scheduled for this Friday, but that tooth started to really kill me this past weekend. Today my lower jaw is a bit swollen and it aches. I called the orthodontist to see if they could schedule an appt before my consult. They had an opening tomorrow afternoon. She said they might not get the whole thing done in one appt, but at least help with the pain and pressure. Plus probably start me on an antibiotic.
So, be thinking of me tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully things go okay and I don't have a major panic attack.
So, be thinking of me tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully things go okay and I don't have a major panic attack.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Absolutely lazy
Today we are being totally lazy. Such a luxury! We've both worked 6 days a week for the past two weeks and again next week for both of us. We were going to go out to do some major shopping, but figured we had something to fix for dinner, so it can wait.
Saturday we had our eye doctor appointments. Ric's eyes have not changed at all; mine have, one worse than the other. I forgot about having to have my eyes dilated, so told them to skip mine this time and do Ric's since he is diabetic and needed it more than I did. So, he got to walk around after we were done with the spiffy fake sunglasses. (Had me laughing a few times!) We were going to go shopping after work yesterday, but Ric was getting a headache trying to focus after his eyes were dilated. I ran into Hannafords and grabbed something quick for dinner, a bag a chips and some ice cream. What more could you ask for?! LOL
Saturday we had our eye doctor appointments. Ric's eyes have not changed at all; mine have, one worse than the other. I forgot about having to have my eyes dilated, so told them to skip mine this time and do Ric's since he is diabetic and needed it more than I did. So, he got to walk around after we were done with the spiffy fake sunglasses. (Had me laughing a few times!) We were going to go shopping after work yesterday, but Ric was getting a headache trying to focus after his eyes were dilated. I ran into Hannafords and grabbed something quick for dinner, a bag a chips and some ice cream. What more could you ask for?! LOL
Lazy Sunday
We've spent the entire day so far camped on the couch under blankets watching as the outside temperature slowing creeps up from 1 degree this morning into the double digits. We need to get out at some point and buy some food so we have something beside pepperoni and popcorn to eat all next week, but neither of us is really running for the door at this point. I got a little ambition going when I first got out of bed and got all our January accounting stuff caught up, but that seems to have been a passing thing.
Nothing really stuck out while running through my usual news sites other than The One trying to run college football. My God; is there anything, anything, that Obama believes should not be under his personal control? Personally, I'm no fan of the Bowl system, but I would think the POTUS would have more important matters on his plate.
Well, that's all I have for now. I think I'll get off this internet thing and read a book. I was just looking at what I've read in 2010, and it ain't much.
Nothing really stuck out while running through my usual news sites other than The One trying to run college football. My God; is there anything, anything, that Obama believes should not be under his personal control? Personally, I'm no fan of the Bowl system, but I would think the POTUS would have more important matters on his plate.
Well, that's all I have for now. I think I'll get off this internet thing and read a book. I was just looking at what I've read in 2010, and it ain't much.
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