Harvesting the Ephemeral
Friday April 29, 2005
Friday's Distractions: Emails that made me go huh? ... in Distractions
Occasionally I get this emails that after reading several times, leave me thinking to myself "Ok, I've read that a few times now. It's in English, but I still have no clue what it means."
Email #1
"If you are looking for a new home for your dwarf hamster, I would appreciate it, if you could please let me know."
Email #2
"After speaking with [name removed] I have a much better idea on what you all are."
So, I better find that dwarf hamster, and now I'm not so confident on what I am. Good thing it's Friday.
Thursday April 28, 2005
Keyboards ... in Distractions
There's a flavor of keyboard for almost everyone.
Google Gaming ... in Distractions
In the course of playing Bill Walker's Google Game, I came across some interesting results:
EDIT: I just figured I was playing wrong. Oh well, at least I was distracted for a bit.
Wednesday April 27, 2005
Song of the Day ... in Music
In the beginning, there were The Beatles. And after The Beatles were no more, Paul McCartney started pumping out solo material. He formed The Wings in 1971, and in 1973 came their breakthrough album Band on the Run. From that album came the hit song by same name, "Band on the Run."
As a kid, I used to play this 45 all the time. I loved how the song changed melodies and tempo. For some reason I used to always stare at that green apple spinning round and round while the 45 played. And I always like the line "I hope you are having fun!". Thinking of this now, the shifts and changes remind me of CSN's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".
"Stuck inside these four walls
Sent inside forever
Never seeing no one nice again
Like you, mama you, mama you.
If I ever get out of here
Thought of giving it all away
To a registered charity
All I need is a pint a day
(If I ever get out of here)
Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash
As we fell into the sun
And the first one said to the second one there
"I hope you’re having fun!"
Band on the run, band on the run.
And the jailer man and sailor sam
Were searching ev'ryone
For the band on the run ...
Well, the undertaker drew a heavy sigh
Seeing no one else had come
And a bell was ringing in the village square
For the rabbits on the run ..."
Tuesday April 26, 2005
Hectic ... in Work
And so here we are, in the last days of a major project. It's hectic, to say the least. Many wandering paths of the Pert chart have converged, and we all ride the critical path now. "Everyone is talking to everyone else about everything." The emails are relentless, and there are meetings between meetings after other meetings. Emails, phone calls, and AIM messages cram into all the times between like spackling. Hectic. But this is what we live for - isn't it? The project is hungy now, hungry for the tired, hungry for the weak, hungry for those who would blame. It will cross the finish line now due to momentum, regardless if we fail and pass out along the way.
And when we cross that line, after someone has pushed the button, there will be no multitudes of cheering folks, no waiting throng to take us on their shoulders. We will simply exhale, and maybe close our eyes for a moment or two. There isn't time for much else, for another major project awaits.
Hectic.
Monday April 25, 2005
Song of the Day ... in Music
"Two Worlds Collide" comes from Inspiral Carpet's Revenge of the Goldfish album. A friend of mine gave me a tape of theirs a long time ago, saying "you should really check these guys out." So I did. I wasn't that enthused about the tape, but then I brought Revenge of the Goldfish, and well, that was a different experience all together.
Reading bits of an interview with them, I can't help but laugh at the line "We're renowned for being gloomy bastards." It's not that hard to figure out, especially with the line (one of my favorites) "Today I stole the sun from the sky."
Because if that's not a grumpy line, I don't know what is.
"I steal to feed
I fight to breathe
Through hunger not greed
I find these days
It's the only way I can survive
What have I done with my life?
Is this the end
When two worlds collide
In this dusty city
With all the gods on the hill
Will not one of them help us?
The temple which they built
Is an empty shell
The people who I see
Scurrying on the streets
Oblivious to our needs
I wonder sometimes
How so many could be so blind
What have I done with my life?
Is this the end
When two worlds collide
Today I stole the sun from the sky
The color from the heart of a rose
Today I took food
From the hand of a starving child ..."
A Rose for Monday ... in Inspiration
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Just because. Enjoy.
a rose for you
a rose for the delicate line
we will walk today
a rose to frame my frown
a rose to smooth
the jagged edges of my replies ...
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Thursday April 21, 2005
Embarrassing Moment #1 ... in Parenting
A few of my distant team members (she and her were there) were in town for the week, and I invited them over to my house for dinner one night. All was well, until the subject of the seven dwarfs came up with my daughter. She knows the names of all the dwarfs, something I am rather proud of. So at one point, someone asked her "well what dwarf does he look like?", pointing at my boss. "Dopey!" she exclaimed. We laughed so hard that we scared her, and it took me awhile to convince her that she had done nothing wrong. Even if Daddy was probably going to fired. ;p
The Why's ... in Parenting
So, suddenly one day, The Why's arrived. And I was rather unprepared. My daughter started off asking "why?" a few times one day ("how odd" I thought), but by the next day they were everywhere. "Uh oh" was my reaction when I realized what was happening. I really need a handy dandy timetable for these sorts of things - you know, something wallet sized.
Thursday April 14, 2005
Song of the Day ... in Music Alright, let's go for something inspirational and energizing. "Holy Lamb" from the vastly underappreciated Big Generator album by Yes. Jon Anderson's voice soars, and at about the 1:45 mark, crescendos and explodes, sending shivers down the spine. In doing research on this song, I discovered that there's definitely a huge disparity in the opinions about this album. Oh well. I rather like it.
Holy lamb
See the world we stamped
Is it so low again
Like a light that's lost upon the stage
So the more it swings, it goes away
Surely then
See the curtain rising to show us once again
All the magic of the earth and the skies
See the more we find
The more we realize
That every time
See the laws of nature keep telling us like a friend
It's the spirit of emotion dancing to the wind
High above! High above!
So sure inspired again
I can tell a new story now
Can we see through this mask of uncertainty
Surely now
How can it be so hard when all there is to know
Don't be afraid of letting go
It takes a loving heart
To see and show
This love
For our own ecology
Hold the light
Hold the light
Out of love we'll come a long long glorious way
At the start of every day
A child begins to play
And all we need to know
Is that the future is a friend of yours and mine
Wednesday April 13, 2005
Monsters ... in Parenting
So while getting my daughter ready for bed, she started to talk about The Monster. She's only 2 and 1/2 years old, so I was a bit surprised that she already knows about them. So I took it very seriously, because I know all about monsters (I used to be plagued by horrific nightmares.) Instead of blowing it off, I decided to talk to her about it. "So sweety where is the monster?" I asked. "In my bed!" she replied while pointing. I look over, "Really. So is he a nice monster? Like Elmo?" She shook her head, "no!" So I'm starting to get a bit concerned. "He's not? Well what does he want?" I ask. "He wants to get in my closet." Uh oh. Now I'm really concerned. "What does he want to do in your closet?" I tentatively ask. "He wants to try on all my clothes!" she says rather angrily. Her reply surprises me, and I have to bite my lip so I don't start giggling. Monsters are serious stuff, but the thought of a cross-dressing monster is rather humorous. We kept talking about the monster, and I told her if the monster was not going to be a nice, well, we would have to talk to his Mommy and he would need to go home. She nodded, and proceeded to scold the monster on her own.
All of this brought back a memory for me. I remember lying in my bed, totally freaking out over a scratching noise in the dark. It would come and go, and I kept trying to peer in the shadows to see what it was. Eventually I called my Dad. My father was in the Marines for 30 years, so at that point in my childhood, admitting fear to him was something I did not do lightly. He came and asked what was wrong. And in a very frightened voice I told him about the noises. "Really? I don't hear anything" he said in a soothing tone. I then explained how it came and went. "Ok" he said, then sat in the bed next to me to wait. After a few minutes, the scratching noise returned. "There! there!" I exclaimed. He got up and started to track the noise, and got down on his hand and knees by my dresser. "Ah. Ok I see now" he calmly explained. Turns out it was a piece of paper caught behind my dresser that would rustle and move when the heat went off. "There you go. All better know?" he asked. I nodded and smiled.
So you see, monsters are a serious business. And to a child (and even adults) they are very real and very frightening. Even if they are cross-dressers.
Tuesday April 12, 2005
Song of the Day ... in Music
There was a man, when asked how he was doing, broke down and cried. The outpouring of grief was sudden and violent. There had been no warning. And there was nothing for you to do, but listen. For there were no words to comfort, no syllables to soothe the passing of a loved one. And so you sat there patiently, as the tears poured over clenched fists.
And so the lesson is that life is not fair, and AIDS cares not who you are. "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen is today's song.
I was bruised and battered and I couldn’t tell
What I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself
I saw my reflection in a window I didn’t know
My own face
Oh brother are you gonna leave me
Wastin´away
On the Streets of Philadelphia
I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Black and whispering as the rain
On the Streets of Philadelphia
Ain’t no angel gonna greet me
It’s just you and I my friend
My clothes don’t fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip the skin
The night has fallen, I’m lyin’awake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the Streets of Philadelphia
Giggle for a Picture ... in Artistry
All bow to me, for I am your lord and master! Have I pointed out that I'm easily amused?
Random Bits ... in Distractions Some random bits of nonsense. Enjoy:
Monday April 11, 2005
The Misery of Hard Drives ... in Ramblings
So it all started with an ominous message on my screen - "RAID not recognized." Not good. Not good at all. In a moment of brilliance, and a quest for performance, I had configured my dual 120gb Seagate Barracuda's for RAID 0. Which is great, until one of the hard drives winks off. And then basically both of your hard drives are out action and worthless. And then you're not so brilliant.
Conscious that my wife had been on my case to back up our data ("yeah yeah I'll get to it"), I began to sweat and plan my escape to Mexico. Luckily my brother-in-law was in town, and he is way more knowledgeable about these sorts of things. The solution was to delete the RAID definition, then recreate it. Which worked. But we definitely paused over that "Y" button ...
So first thing to do was pull out those DVD's and start burning. Burn baby burn ...
Then I realized that I had actually put our data on a third 60gb hard drive, and that we were actually ok. So I relaxed. After I burned the DVDs. A few night later, a loud sick grinding noise emanated from my PC. It rapidly increased then volume, then tapered off like a whimpering dog. ??? After I began to breathe again, I though "Ok, whatever that was, that was not good." The computer then politely informed me that my third drive had gone off on a smoke break. And it probably would not be coming back. "This rocks! Not! So not!"
So I surrender, and pull out my credit card. Off to pick up another drive (300gb Seagata Barracuda) to replace the dead 60gb (*cough* IBM *cough*), and then an external 200gb hard drive. And while I'm at it, I pick up a pocket 5gb hard drive. Schaweet.
So it looks like I'm stable (for now.) However I discovered a pitfall to moving your data from one drive to another. I use Adobe's Photoshop Album to organize my pictures. It's a nice program, and I really like the ability to have mutiple tags and sort criteria. Unfortunately, Photoshop Album uses Access for its database, and the location of all your pictures (including the edits) are hardwired in that database. It does have a "reconnect" feature, but you have to reconnect each photo one at a time. Considering I have over 4,000 pics, this was not a good option for me. So it was off to the forums to see if I could figure out another way. The solution was to go into the database and search and replace, which I was comfortable doing. But I started thinking, what if you were just a regular person who had no idea what a database was? Adobe did provide a work around, but that method required to reimport all your photos. Which meant you lost all your tagging and edit info. Yeah, thank you ... In this day and age, the program should be flexible on where you store your photos.
