Parked

[howeird]

The longest trip I took today was to the mailbox. Too windy to take the copter for a spin, and didn't feel like making the trip to a coffee shop.

Had a lot of NASA Unexplained Files on the tivo to watch, and an episode of Who Do You Think You Are which was particularly touching, and an Elementary. Also still plowing through Chris Hadfield's book, which has started to get tedious. It's done in kind of a stream of consciousness style, not chronological, but as if his editor has started to ask him "okay, what else was a major event in your career?" and then crafting a chapter around that event. And he's using the book, in absentia, to thank his long-suffering wife for not taking the kids and moving back to Canada when she had the chance many chances.

Next on the Kindle app is Dawn Wells' latest memoir, What Would Mary Ann Do? And after that, the first two books of Hiram Ulysses Grant's memoirs, because I read somewhere he was, despite his coarseness, an excellent writer late in life.

Things accomplished included:
- Cleaning the stovetop and under the lid
- Loading stovetop hardware and the usual other stuff into the dishwasher
- Ironing all the Hawaiian shirts and hanging up all the shirts
- Planting pincushion flower seeds in the one sprouter cup which has not sprouted
- Took photos of the roses. Some beautiful orange ones have popped up on the long stem bush



Spent some time reading the Python primer, but started to nod off. It's the wrong book for me, I need a cookbook, not a primer. Speaking of cookbooks, I ordered my friend Nancie's latest, unsure if I will add it to my collection or give it to Automation Guy: Simply Vietnamese Cooking.

Had three recruiter calls which were dead ends. One from an Indian guy with a phony American name calling from a noisy sweatshop with a NYC area code, with a job in San Jose I could do, but after he started asking for illegal information (DOB, SS# last 4, etc.) I told him just send me the pay rate. It was half my usual, so I called off that deal. Next one was also an Indian guy, this time with an Indian name, offering a job completely removed from anything on my resume. And finally a sweet American woman from Chicago asking if I was planning on relocating, because the job I responded to was there. I'm pretty sure the listing said San Francisco Bay Area or San Jose. But whatever. She'll pass my info to her San Jose/SF counterparts.

With nothing on the calendar next week, I'm looking forward to being on the beach in Ventura. I can job hunt from there almost as easily as from here. Did not realize I'm returning at the start of Labor Day Weekend.

---

Harriet Tubman on the $20.
I wish they had picked someone more photogenic. Or more accurately, someone we have clearer pictures of. And someone more Presidential. Elizabeth Jennings Graham, for example, who was NYC's Rosa Parks 100 years earlier.  
And I do not like them replacing a President with someone who wasn't. I'd rather they put her on the $100, instead of on the "Yuppie Food Stamp". Franklin, for all his great PR, owned slaves and advertised the sale of slaves in his newspaper, it would be fitting.

---

Plans for tomorrow:
Nothing. Again.
Find a Python cookbook
Maybe take the copter out to the park
 

Comments

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

Labor Day? Sept. 5th. I doubt you are staying that long!!

How do you think your chances of finding your perfect job are?

[howeird]

May 1 is Labor Day everywhere except here. :-)

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Well, hrmmmm, Franklin already got snubbed by Kennedy in '64, so it was someone else's turn.

Jefferson is on the $2 bill and the nickel.

Washington is on the $1 bill and the quarter.

Lincoln is on the 1 cent coin and the $5 bill.

I'd say they should have gone for one of those three.

No one cares who's on the $2 bill. Really. Putting someone on the $2 bill is kind of an insult. Perhaps what we need is a Lyndon Johnson $2 bill. Or perhaps a Malcolm X $2 bill. Too soon?

[howeird]

Yes, nobody cares who is on the $2 bill, except IMHO it is the most artistic of them all. Malcom X,obviously, should be on the $10 bill. Franklin shouldn't be on currency, he should be on a pre-franked French postcard.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I was pleased when they replaced the ugliest dollar coin ever made with Sacajawea P. Anthony.

[howeird]

But then they did this:
http://catalog.usmint.gov/richard-m.-nixon-presidential-2016-rolls-bags-and-boxes-MASTER_NIXONRBB.html?cgid=presidential-dollar-coins#start=1

[filkferengi]

Which episode of Who Do You Think You Are did you see?

Jennings Graham is definitely worthy of consideration. I'd not heard of her; thanks for the link.

Those roses are gorgeous! They look like that sunset drink from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[howeird]

Thanks for the compliment about the roses.
Katey Sagal was the WDYTYA subject. So far there haven't been any complete duds. Rashida Jones is the one which has stayed with me longest.

[filkferengi]

Josh Groban stayed with me. He was all thrilled with his ancestor the mathematician who got a footnote in Newton, but ignored the religious radicalization that endangered the dude's wife & kids. The dude died, & the widow had to take the kids from Germany to Pennsylvania & begin a whole new life. She did lots of impressive stuff, & was barely mentioned in passing. It can be frustrating, when the main character hares off on one path, when I'd rather they follow another one. In general, though, I enjoy the show & the sense of connection they find with their ancestors.

I've got the Katey Sagal on tivo & will look forward to it even more.

[howeird]

Yeah, the challenge of the show is to find people who can be traced back a long way to interesting ancestors. Of course the producers do all the research before inviting anyone on, and I am in awe of how they manage to book so many excellent historians and genealogists worldwide to go on camera.

Looking at the list of guests, they never pick someone who obviously has a long lne of famous/infamous ancestors. Drew Barrymore would give them fits. :-)

[filkferengi]

They do an excellent job of working with what they have. Some episodes do extensive family trees, with lots of ancestors. With others, it's only one or two per show. If nothing else, they resort to the dna charts. It's not the tools, it's the story and the emotion. There's some good storytelling there.