howeird | Entries tagged with basfa

Woke up at about 6 am feeling very chilly, thermostat said 70° but it felt like 60. Went to take a leak, and started shivering so much I couldn't stand. Decided being warm was a higher priority and went back under the covers. It didn't take long to get back to normal, and I should have thrown on my heavy robe and gone into the kitchen where my blood glucose meter sits and seen how low it was, but one of the things about low Hgl is it messes with your sense of priorities. Used to be I could feel low blood sugar coming on from mile away, with extreme hunger and that trademark squirrelly feeling. No longer have that gift, I need the meter.

Got up at about 8, feeling very much like I'd had a low (very drained), and after I did my bathroom routine and got dressed I took a reading and it was 250. Way too high, but part of my diabetes issue is my body over-compensates for lows by shooting adrenalin and sugar into my system. I usually wake up with high readings, no matter how low they wer in the middle of the night.

But the good news is this put me ahead of schedule and I got to work on time.

It was hard to find parking where I usually park, in the back of the building (the entrance closest to the lab and my cube) because the landlord is destroying the front facade of the building and the front entrance is closed. The reception desk has been moved to the side (delivery) entrance. They had finished completely renovating the building next door, which the company will be moving into soon (not us, people from other offices nearby), and it looks like they are simply making the front of ours look like the front of that one. Last week they re-roofed the place. Didn't affect me, but the people upstairs had a lot of noise to deal with.

Team meeting should have been over in half an hour, but That One Guy who doesn't know when he's made his point made the next meeting group late.

Boss gave me a project to do - enter test cases in the new database for the upcoming product. I got about 10 done before the database crashed. Boss had to leave early, so I didn;t get any more entries done, but I did get a chance to research what some of the tests required. The specification documents are sometimes vague about specifics (LOL) and refer instead to standards (by number) which I have to go online to look up.

For lunch I told the GPS to find me the nearest Togo's, and it found the furthest of the nearest three. That's because I was out in the back of the parking lot by the railroad tracks and the GPS thought I was on the street on the other side of the tracks. Turned out for the best, though, because I needed to get some cash, and my CU was on the way to that Togo's. The second nearest also has a CU ATM, but there's nothing near the nearest.

Home, two boxes on the porch, one big one small. Small one was a 10-pack of paper 3D glasses. I lost the two pair I had by the computer and at work, for viewing the Mars mission images. And lately one of my artist friends has been experimenting with creating 3D pictures.

The big box had the ASUS 802.11AC router and the corresponding PCIE card for the PC. I had about an hour to kill, so I did the basic setup on the router, made sure the port forwarding worked for one webcam, and then headed to BASFA.

Lightly attended meeting, relatively, but enough critical mass to make it worthwhile. I gave away 5 of the 3D glasses, it turns out more people than I thought were wanting a pair.

I mentioned that Sunnyvale is doing Little Shop, and I may have something to do with it, and a friend who works part time at the Foothill College radio station said the school was doing it Real Soon Now. That's pretty normal in the Bay Area, as soon as the rights are released all the community theaters put it on their list.

Not much pun fodder for me, I think I told two less than brilliant ones. But I did get the Rumor of the Week - Denver must have smoked a super bowl last weekend. Wonderful 3-second pause before everyone got it. I was wearing my Seahawks jersey and stadium jacket, which helped.

Home, spent another hour fine tuning the router settings. Now all the equipment in the house is at the IP address I want, all the webcams are viewable (Comcast gives a different IP address each time you change routers), and I was able to see Amazon Prime content on the blu-rays in the bedroom and livingroom.

The new router is noticeably faster loading web pages, and I'm getting more upload/download speed than Comcast says I deserve.

One of the real tests will be overnight, there's a certain Thai channel on the bedroom internet radio (the one furthest from the router) which has been dropping out a lot. FungFungFung "music every day, every hour". In Thai "Fung" means "listen". It can also mean "to hear" but there's another word, da-yin, which is closer to that. "Fung mai da-yin" means "I was listening but didn't hear you". Common phrase.

The radio in the office, mere feet from the router, is playing it, but there is some re-buffering, even at the low bit rate stream. But it isn't giving a 404 error anymore.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Little Shop audition. I'm not sure I really want the part, Mushnik's songs are patter which I don't do well without eons of practice.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: WeirdHome

My demo started out well, I said I would start with the demonstrations, and showed CNN video of the demonstration in Bangkok, which got a laugh. But it went south from there. Turns out the new in-house Wi-Fi blocks all the ports I needed to do the demo, which Automation Guy knew but didn't bother to tell me. Her also didn't tell me there was a hardwide cable in the room, which would have made the demo work. I told boss, we'll try again next week.

A younger me would have been very angry.

Back at my desk I did manage to verify the two bug fixes I'd volunteered to do. And for the next couple of days I'll flesh out the demo, which means writing more scripts with our magical GUI automater program.

Lunchtime was a trip to the PO to mail nephew the pair of pucks. They are from the SJ Sharks. He is not a fan of them. He's a fan of the Capitals, being from the DC suburbs.

I chose the PO with no nearby restaurants, and followed the road south, which I rarely do, until it turned west and intersected with El Camino. Hung a right and I was at KFC. Their original recipe is becoming very soggy. The mashed potatoes were like soup. And I keep forgetting they are a Pepsi house. :-(

Home after work, though I am running low on ice cream after two early mornings in a row with low blood sugar for no apparent reason.

Someone had wheeled my garbage & recycling cans back from the street to where they belong on the end of the driveway. I suspect it's one of the two or three LPNs who rotate giving care to the elderly woman next door.

Took care of some business - in the mail was a new Discover card, they replaced everyone's who had used it at The French Store. All they changes was a series number, the expiration date and the code number. The date change meant I had to go online to Amazon and change that. Also need to do Paypal and Allstate. Tried Allstate but their site was crawling. Need to check Quicken for others which have Discover for auto-pay.

BASFA meeting was louder than usual tonight because some of the new folks were more inconsiderate than usual, and some of the veterans had business which they felt they had to discuss while there was a meeting in progress. Add to that the two tables by outside the folding door to the meeting room being occupied by VERY LOUD PEOPLE...

There were some laughs, but I didn't hear a lot of them because of the cross-talk.

Home, Domino is so enthralled in her seat on top of the guest chair that she didn't see me come in, and was startled when I petted her. Checking the cams today, she mostly parked in the new bed in the office, but also had some time at the food & water, on the arm of the sofa looking into the kitchen, and curled up on the kitchen side of the sofa. Spoiled kitty.

Plans for tomorrow:
work
Safeway

Current Mood: cranky
Current Location: Furball Hall

Up at 7:30, did my usual morning stuff except only took half a cooler of snacks. Out the door at 9, the street was wet, there were dark clouds wafting off into the distance, our first trace of rain in a month. It was only a trace, looked almost like all the sprinklers in the neighborhood had fired at once, for maybe a minute.

Got to work at the usual time, did some actual work (found two bugs in some automation code) and went home at lunchtime, dropping off a return at UPS along the way. Bed was due to be delivered at 3, which gave me some time to VPN to work, figure out what port I needed to unblock on Norton's firewall, and then VNC to my test machine.

At about 2 I was hungry enough for lunch, so I put Banquet spaghetti & meatballs into the microwave, which is when the phone rang. Delivery dispatcher confirming directions, said the truck would be there "imminently". From her questions about cross streets relative to the freeway I gathered they were 10 minutes away. Enough time to eat, barely.

They arrived at 2:30, and were done in 20 minutes. One of them gave me a demo on the wireless remote which I didn't need but let him finish on the off chance I would learn something new. Which I didn't.

Before work I had laundered the bedding, so as soon as they were done I installed a mattress protector, grabbed the bedding from the dryer, made the bed, got on it and started playing with the remote. In seconds this happened:
( Read more... )

And this answered a question: The bed is a foot higher off the ground than the previous one, and the height appears to be fixed, is Domino going to be able to cope with that extra foot above her pet steps? I guess so.

She hung in there like a champ, and did not want to let me get up.

But I had to, there was still more work to do.

The bed, by the way, is adjustable. The wireless can raise the head and/or the feet, and can also do something they call "zero G" which raises both slightly by bowing (rhymes with Boeing) in the middle. Very comfortable position and allegedly mitigates sleep apnea. There is also a vibrating function with separate head and foot engines, with three levels of vibration-ness for each. Not something I'm really into (can you say "magic fingers"?) but I'll see if I can get used to it. Over time. Baby steps.

At about 5 I went out to get the mail, and the little not-so-old lady I thought lived next door was on her porch and struck up a conversation. Turns out she is a caregiver who comes over a few days a week to care for the invalid little old lady who does live there, but whom I have not seen.

Batted 1000 with the mail, all three items were addressed to "occupant". None of them said "Darling, I love you and I cannot live without you. Marry me, or I will kill myself."

Dinner was baked breaded clam strips and mixed veggies. I watched the latest episode of Elementary which is improving every week. They have somehow broken free of the urge to make complex personal relationships into a soap opera, the way The Mentalist's writers have done. And while the photography is too dark, the images are also very carefully composed. The Other Guys do lighting like a boss, but can't create a tableau worth beans.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Maybe home early, because UPS is delivering a recliner and it would be nice to have it inside with the help of the driver.

And now I am off to bed, where I will be mechanically inclined and do some reading. James Gunn's The Listeners. Suggested by Brad at

basfa, whose literary opinions I have come to respect greatly.

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: Furball Hall

Woke up and checked the webcams on the phone app, but the one in the piano room was not showing up. I had just rebooted it yesterday. So I went all OCD and made sure all 6 had an IP address assigned to their MAC address in the router, and those matched the ports open so they can be seen from outside the home network. Took almost an hour because I had to pull 4 of them to check the wireless MAC address, which is on the base where it screws into the mounting bracket. Each cam has both a wi-fi MAC and a wired MAC and it gets confusing because you start with it wired.

So that delayed things a bit.

My food scale lied. The calendars, it said, weighed 6.2 oz, which USPS rounds up to 7, which costs $2.75 for domestic, $8.something for Canada and $12.something for overseas. I am glad I went to the PO at the crack of 10, when there was only one person in line ahead of me, and three clerks.

The nice lady weighed a calendar, and it was 7.6 oz, which rounds up to 8, so all the items were going to cost more. And I needed to fill out customs forms for the foreign ones, because of the spiral binding, which is not 1/4" deep, so should fall under the normal non-customs-able rules, but the PO apparently now says any non-flatness requires customs forms. So $3.10 for domestic, $9.something for Canada and $14.95 for overseas.

I spent $193 on stamps, and went out to the foyer to slap most of them them on the 19 domestic items, and loaded those 4 at a time into the chute. Then went home, because the online customs forms are a LOT easier to do than the by-hand ones.

By now it is too late to catch the matinée showing of anything.

At home, I fired up the PC and cranked out 6 customs forms, which had to be printed out, cut into three sections, and paper-clipped to the corresponding envelope. And then the appropriate postage attached, sort of. $10 for Canada because I got $10 stamps, and one $10, two $2's and a $1 for the rest. I have stamps left over for future use. I expect one request from Sweden and maybe more from Israel. And I think Baltimore sister wants one for her boss.

Also at home, the rent/utilities bill was in the newspaper slot, which is where all mobile home park stuff goes, so I launched Quicken, updated the splits and printed a rent check.

The rest will go to co-workers, and assorted local friends, and I'll bring one to BASFA to auction, maybe. Maybe not. Last year's only went for $1 which is downright insulting.

But I digress. Back to the PO, this time it's just before 1 pm, and I am second in line again, this time there was only one clerk, and she was trying to explain in Chinglish to an Eastern European woman that the Post Office has no control over what the City mails to her, she needs to go to city hall. This took 10 minutes. She rang for backup, and another clerk opened up her post just after that conversation ended.

It was the same lady who sold me the stamps. She was grateful I had come with everything ready, because she still had to punch in each item, bar code scan it, stamp the forms and the postage, and print out a phony $0.00 tag to show it had been processed by a Postal Employee. Six items took 20 minutes.

Home, walked the rent check to the office (it's a short 2.5 blocks) and also filled out a form to swap my garbage can for the next bigger one. It's going to be a while, because they only process those on the 15th, and the swap doesn't take place till the first Monday of the following month. That would be February 3.

Back home to stay, played online, watched parts of a bowl game and several episodes of Millionaire Matchmaker the title role is an annoying bitch with a thing for the word "penis" but some of the dates she lines up for the rich guys are super-hot. She never chooses other millionaires as dates, she is all about gold diggers who can act sincere. My excuse is it was the only thing I could find without a Jesus Day theme or talking sports heads.

Snacked all day, so no dinner.

Tested the livingroom webcam's photo capability and got this cute shot:

And this one with the phone's camera:

Domino has become much more of a lap cat, but most of the time she prefers any of a dozen parking spots, now that there's no bully to chase her around. The only annoyance is she will yowl loudly if I go out of sight, but usually stops as soon as I say "Polo", or she finds me, whichever comes first. After Pumpkin died, she yowled constantly.

Plans for tomorrow:
Movie matinée
Bowl game - Nephew's Maryland is playing in the morning, my UW in the evening
Maybe go to the park (it was 68° this afternoon)

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: Furball Hall

Short team meeting at work this morning, even with 15 minutes talking about one of the team's return from laser eye surgery. Boss had that done not too long ago, but it was a different procedure. Makes me happy I don't need glasses, probably never will. Cataracts will probably get me first. One of the few traits from Dad, who never needed glasses.

Got off track trying to set up a test case so I could write the step-by-step part for Automation to use. One setup works for two cases. I frankly don't think these two can be automated, but now they both have the setup requirements and about 20 steps, plus expected results. Kinda fun tests to run manually, I don't think they should be automated. The test verified that when the incoming TV program loses part of the signal (video, primary audio, secondary audio) what you see on your TV is what the cable company wants you to see. They have a choice of showing a backup program or a "slate" - that's color bars, or maybe a sign which says "technical difficulties, please don't throw your shoe at the cable box". If they lose video but not audio, it can put up a slate while still playing the audio.

An then Automation Guy asked me to see if I could reproduce something which he saw in his testing on the older machine, and I did. And when we asked Boss, he said he forgot to send The Memo. It's a new feature. Poorly implemented because it breaks a very popular procedure.

A few weeks ago I threw a USB bluetooth adapter on the floor thinking the cats would maybe bat it around a little. Kaan is on the floor next to me, having way too much fun with it. It;s the size and shape of a cheap thumb drive, but he can pick it up in his teeth and fling it across the room. He is currently staring at the stack of packing boxes which it is buried in between somewhere, planning his attack.

Late late lunch because of the "new feature". Went to a Korean buffet named China China. They have sushi. Just the basic ones, and they fall apart in your chopsticks, but the fish part is tasty. I don't need the rice, anyway. Lunch is only about $10, so I am fine with just having egg drop soup, one plate of buffet items and a bowl of chocolate soft serve. The calamari rings were especially good today, the spare ribs were especially hard and dry. As usual there was no eye candy at all.

Home, it was already dark by 5:30. Boo, hiss. Watched MNF until 7, a good game for a change, The Bears vs Green Bay. Halftime arrived a couple of minutes after 7, so I headed for Kaiser (the commuter lanes on the expressway open to everyone at 7) to pick up my 3 month's supply of high octane insulin, and a bottle of baby enteric aspirin. Lots of traffic on the roads, and a long slow line at the pharmacy. As I was leaving, I remembered I also wanted some alcohol swabs, but decided the line was too long and I'm not very close to running out of them, and I can probably get them as cheaply online.

Back home, watched the rest of the game with half an eye as I tackled one of the more difficult packing tasks. But first, there was this distinctive box, water-damaged white with silver diagonal bands, falling apart and bearing my Dad's familiar trademark of tons of clear tape, now yellowed with age but still sticking. This used to be the box in which my Bar Mitzvah photo album was stored, but I could see some 4x5s sticking out through the cracks, so I put the box on a tray and exhumed the contents. And broke down the box.

The 4x5s were about 200 sample B&W photos - all the shots the photographer had taken - which my folks used to choose which pictures to have in the album. The album is in pristine condition, though the majority of the people in it no longer are. Myself included. There also was a set of matted photos of each table, and the invitation list divided by table assignment, hand written by Mom, I think, with penciled in (by Dad, I think) notes when people bailed and assignments changed.

There are two photos in larger mattes which I think I asked my folks to have made in color. One is me in full gear in front of the altar, and the other is me & middle sister toasting each other with what look like full wine goblets. There were a lot of shtick photos like that in the 4x5 set.

I rubber banded the table pix and the 4x5s, and set everything back on the shelf minus the box, after seeing that they would easily fit into the medium sized boxes. What went into those instead was from the same shelf, all the vinyl 45s in one box, protected by a pair of pillows, and all the oversized LP and 78 albums, padded with bath towels and cutoffs. I'll put the standard sized 78s albums into a small (book sized) box.

So the big black rack in the livingroom is almost completely packed. There are still some loose, small framed photos and Dad's 8mm Bell & Howell camera. And I'll need something like a mirror pack sized box for the Thai temple rubbings, they are too tall for the medium sized boxes.

Maybe tomorrow I'll visit the movers and see what they have for sale. I apparently get a discount.

Speaking of movers, the one I tried to contact a week ago Saturday tried calling me at the office this morning. I may email him tomorrow evening, which would be a month before the move.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
???
Mover's?
*$s?

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Location: Newest Furball Hall

Wearing a T-shirt today which says "Stand Back I'm going to try SCIENCE". Took my camera to the Bay Area Science Festival at AT&T Park. In front of the building they put most of the robot displays, about a dozen of them, ranging from high school to professional projects. I took a lot of pictures, but for every one I took there were 5 I didn't take because of the crowds. Every display was surrounded by kids, sometimes parents were with them blocking the view even more. I didn't see any exhibits which were aimed at adults, everything was dumbed down. But there were thousands of kids there, the field was ringed with exhibit tents, and there were exhibits all around the lowest level concourse. Chevron had a huge tent in center field with dozens of displays and activities the company sponsored at area schools.

Photos are here.

I got my exercise, walked all the way around the field and the concourse. Also walked up the stairs to get a close-up of the Coke bottle:

And a close-up of the mitt:

There was a lot of good stuff there, but it would have been a better experience if things weren't so crammed together.

This morning was a sleep-in, Kaan helped me stay in bed by curling up under my arm at about 9 am. But I did have to get up before 10 to bring my signed form to the apt. mgr. saying yes, I want them to clean the place for me for $200 after I move out, and saying okay to an 8-10 am inspection on 11/21.

When I got back it was just 7 minutes before the next train to SF, and I would only make it if all the lights were green and there was parking and no line at the parking fee machine. So I took some of the hour to re-stack the boxes I'd packed, packed the last one of the CDs, and moved the racks to make a space for the boxes which will hold the stuff in the bookshelves. I see five books right off the bat which will be donated to the Friends of the Library. I'm sure there will be more. I had been donating books to the BASFA auctions, but lately books have been going 5 for a quarter, which doesn't help the club any and just makes it hard on the auctioneer.

I'll leave the shelves where they are after they are empty, because they take up the least amount of space that way, and the littercam is on top of one. The cams will be among the last things to pack.

So... I made it in plenty of time for the 12:10 train, and got to the ball park at 1:50. Caught the 4:15 back, and was home at about 5:30. Got the mail - all of it ended up in the trash (pre-holiday catalogs and a holiday begging letter from the Computer History Museum). Watched a couple of episodes of South Park, shot up, set the timer so dinner would be half an hour after insulin (per my diabetes doc's suggestion), heated up some curried vegetables - I thought it was the last of the curried chicken drumsticks but there was no chicken. Had that open-faced on two pieced of Health Nut bread. And my home made lime soda. Ate it while watching a Tivoed Restaurant Steak Out. It amazes me how he manages to turn around some of these places without firing anyone.

It seems that none of my teams are playing today, so no football to watch. I think I recorded a game, but I forget which one.

Surfed around on FB, discovered that a musical I thought was running for 2 weekends is only running one, so I put that on my calendar for tomorrow. Many old friends are involved, and I don't think there will be any lack of seats.

Plans for tomorrow:Set the few clocks back which don't do it automatically. That would be:
- Microwave
- Big-digits LED clock by the TV
- Clock/thermometer in the office
- Radios in the shower and 2nd bathroom
- The one in the car
Some of those have a DST on/off switch
Watch some football
Go to MV and see Irene at the Center For Performing Tarts. If they are sold out, hang out at the bakery cafe instead.
Watch some more football
Do some packing

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: Home of the Weird

Already wished

johnnyeponymous a happy birthday, though in different words, but for someone bigger (and louder) than life, once is never enough.

When I got under the covers last night, rolled over onto my left side, Kaan curled up against my back, then Domino climbed up on my right side and parked there for about 15 minutes.

A few days ago I started keeping a log of morning and evening Hgl readings and insulin dosages. Part of this was to remind me to eat dinner before 9 pm. I am still seeing no correlations. And had a low (73) at about 11:30 after our Monday morning team meeting, despite having a banana for breakfast. Fixed that with a glucose tablet and a Snickers bar.

Meeting included a good presentation by one of our non-programmer team members who has been on loan to the group upstairs, which showed how to use my favorite software to automate their user interface. I've seen their tool, it's not nearly as good, yet he says they won't convert. I hate software religions and their closed-minded fanatics.

Lunch at Carl's Jr. I don't go there often but they are the closest eatery to the office. Must remember to ask for no whipped cream on the shake. They make an excellent east coast style shake, but the whipped cream tastes like plastic.

Boss had added back into my 2013 goals something I had taken out because there was no easy way to go back and check how much of the goal I had accomplished. It was a project everyone is on, to document in our test case database where in the engineering specifications the test was written from. Sometimes it's not in the main spec, but in a design spec for a particular feature, or a marketing spec (those are outlines more than specs). I figured out a way to at least see my own test cases, but the database choked on my search. Boss fixed it, and I saw that just from two features alone I'd done half again as many as my goal. And found one more feature which was easy to add another dozen to.

Somewhere in there the admin for the loan arranger emailed asking for my latest pay stub. I know I had already emailed it to her boss, but since I had it on my work PC I sent it to her. Then the mfg rep emailed asking which loan company I was going with - pissed me off because she works next door to the loan arranger, that's who she should have asked. I phoned back and told her.

She said someone wanted to change the escrow closing date - my target is 11/30, which she reminded me is Thanksgiving weekend. I said a week later would be fine. Two weeks even better. She said they wanted it earlier. I said no. I didn't really hear who she said wanted it earlier. I may call and ask. If it's the seller I may change my mind. I don't have to actually move on escrow week, but I also don't want to pay 2 rents for any longer than I have to.

Work. Also watched the next hour of the IPv6 presentation. Stupid Questions™ stretched 20 minutes of material into an hour. A couple of people in the class were asking questions just to show they already knew the answers. One guy kept repeating exactly what the teacher had said, but in the form of a question. The good news is that the 20 minutes was very useful information, if IPv6 ever goes viral.

Stopped off at 7-11 for two packages. One was a 2-month supply of low-sugar Quaker instant oatmeal variety packs, my favorite at-work breakfast. The other was the Uke beginner's book which the class will be using. Or at least I think it's the same one. We'll see. Class starts on my birthday.

Home, decided Costco would make me late for BASFA, and I had moon cake tins to auction. Plus it was

johnnyeponymous's birthday and I wanted to see him auctioned off. I don't know why, but none of my jokes seemed to work tonight. Attendance was poor, but noisy, and several people bailed early, which made the final round of auctions a non-starter. I think I'll stay home for the rest of football season.

Plans for tomorrow:
Kaiser, serum potassium blood test (because of my latest BP meds)
Work
?? - expecting two packages at UPS

Current Mood: rushed
Current Location: Newest Furball Hall

And will be soon.

At 3:30 am I went low, Hgl of 71, self-medicated with mint chocolate chip ice cream while watching the first half of the last episode of Shark Tank. Those low sugar attacks really drain me. But I managed to stay awake at work, even was more talkative than usual at the team meeting.

Spent the day working on an automation script which started out dead simple but then I realized that if I was going to automate this test, I should do it from every possible angle, which is making it a very long script. Had to stop at 5, someone was playing with the network and all my ports disappeared.

Went for a haircut, then to Homeslobber Buffet, and while I was eating got a call from a manufactured home mfg rep, made an appointment to meet her and maybe even see a home or two, 6:30 pm Wednesday.

Called Kaiser hearing center, made an appointment for an evaluation and consult for 10/15. Was hoping for something sooner, but it's Kaiser. I already know what kind of hearing aid would help, but since they haven't tested me in more than 2 years, it needs a retest for their records.

Home, very tired, turned on the Church of Monday Night Football, and was please to see Drew Brees perform well. At first when I sat in the recliner I was feeling like I was not getting enough oxygen, but sitting up helped. Getting undressed and into bed half an hour helped more. Got dressed again, this time into a Denvention T-shirt, thinking of going to BASFA, but didn't feel up to it and just reclinered and footballed some more. Eventually Kaan jumped up and splayed himself across the left arm of the chair, and soon fell into the area between my lap and the arm. He seemed to like it there so I left him till 7:45 when I got up, made dinner and returned with it.

Online, replied to mfg rep with the parks I'm interested in, her company has units made by them for sale in four of my 6 candidates.

Caught up on LJ and FB.

johnnyeponymous declared that since they have shut down, he is the government, so I asked for and was granted the post of Secretary of Cheesecake.

( Underpants TMI here )

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Peninsulaires voice lessons

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Home

Not.
Going out to the car this morning there was a garbage truck by the dumpster, but it was only the recycle one. No time today to do the dump thing anyway.

Work was another day of letting the machines crank away and monitoring the video. Nothing strange with the quality, but the content sure was bizarre. First there was the shooting at the Navy base. I have a relative who works there sometimes, but she is on this side of the country today. All the alleged reporters did their best all day long to not find out anything along the lines of who what when where or why. Even the police were sending off a false report of a suspect whom they said later wasn't even a person of interest. There were many helicopters buzzing around the area.

Then there was Colorado, where there were many helicopters buzzing around the area, looking for survivors of the massive floods. It was just one dam break after another. Probably exacerbated by the erosion caused by the massive forest fires earlier this year.

America's cup did not go well for the home team. They seem to not have the faster of the two boats.

But the most important item is They™ crowned Miss New York as Miss America, totally ignoring her flailing attempt at talent (Bollywood dancing? Gag me with a soggy roti) and her rambling, squeaky voiced answer to the finalist question. Miss California IMHO was the better choice, and Miss Florida should have been runner up. Both showed more poise and grace, with a more upbeat attitude, I think. But I don't think it will be a disaster, and if she uses the scholarship money to become a doctor as she said she plans to do, that's a good thing.

Lunchtime started with a trip to the PO to mail another birthday card to my soon-to-be-60 sister (she gets one a month until she hits the big 6-0) and to drop off the eBay sale item. 15 minutes wasted in line because some bozo in DC thinks someone brazen enough to mail a ~~<?!?!?>~~ won't be brazen enough to hand it to a postal clerk. Sheesh.

Halfway to work there's an iHop, I made the mistake of letting them put me in a booth. The way I am shaped, my tummy wedges against their tables, and it is very uncomfortable. I justified not moving by thinking I was there for a quick lunch, would not be there long, and there were screaming children in the back room where the chairs are. But service was glacial, and the screaming was still very loud from where I was sitting.

After work I went to the car and phoned my sister. The car's bluetooth is a lot clearer than the earbuds, since the audio comes from the 4-speaker system, and there's a directional mike. By the time we were done chatting it was too late to stop at UPS or the beauty supply place, so I went home, swapped my button down for a Westrcon T-shirt and went to the

basfa meeting.

We were still down a few people who were not yet back from Worldcon, or who were suffering from con crud in its various nefarious forms. There was much humor, but also much cross-talk by the people flanking me. The auction item I brought sold for $5, which was reasonable, but I expected it to go for more than that. My review flopped. No one got the joke that Megapython vs. Gatoroid could be misread as Gatorade. And once again the rumor of the week which should have won got derailed by too many add-ons. Sigh. Brevity is the soul of wit, people. And while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it is rarely as funny as the original. </rant>

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
UPS
Beauty supply
Peninsulaires voice lesson #2 (of 6)

Current Mood: quixotic
Current Location: Home of the Weird

Early to work, even though we move all the team meetings to 10 o'clock now that there is no European part of the team to include. Ran the script I thought was finished Friday, but boy was I wrong.

The advice given to me by the assistant Automation person turned out to be not exactly wrong, but less elegant than the system was designed to handle. Turns out that the system doesn't care how many test cases are in a test set, it will run them all and credit you with each of them. So I was able to streamline the test suite by converting the two test sets into test cases, and changing the tcl program to only call one test suite:test set.

But I shot myself in the foot by not being consistent with what I named things. It took two more passes to get it right, with changes to both the GUI test and the tcl "envelope".

But then it ran fine, in less than 30 minutes. Ran it the required 3 times, nd submitted it to Automation.

And now I'm fresh out of things to automate.

Boss sent us a list of bugs to write test cases for, but two of the three he assigned to me don't lend themselves to test cases. I'll talk to him about those soon.

Lunch was at Round Table's pizza buffet. Not a lot of good choices for me. They made the pepperoni extra greasy and somewhat overcooked, and only the cheese on cheese was any good. But they didn't do any deep dish, which is what made them famous in the first place. Next time I'll order off the menu. Pretty much the same price for a small pizza or a personal with salad.

Left work later than I planed, chatting with Automation Guy about the stuff I finished, and about languages. He was curious about who spoke the most languages. I had no idea. He found an answer online somewhere, a British Governor of Hong Kong in the 1700s spoke about 200, plus some 40 dialects. Our team alone, besides English, represents Cantonese, Mandarin, Malaysian, Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, Vietnamese and Thai. The next row adds French (Québécois).

Home, confirmed the drive E full backup was successful - 1.6 GB. Which means I will need to install the SATA controller and drives, make a RAID 5 of them, and restore from the backup. After that I plan to make a recovery disk (that's stuff on drive C) and change from my weekly backup using Windows Backup to using NovaStor's file copy feature. Or maybe a differential backup - to the 2GB drive. Drive C is a 500 MB drive about half full.

I needed a credit card-like object, found my old Mountain View library card, and before driving to BASFA, removed the tiny, mostly useless, bug-eye mirrors and thought ab out installing the larger ones, but Windex did not remove the black square of adhesive, so I'll work on that tomorrow with acetone. And I think I want different large bug-eyes than I bought. These have easily moved lenses, I really want fixed position ones.

BASFA was a laugh riot, I contributed several zingers.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Call Kaiser for an urgent care appointment about what appears to be an ingrown fingernail
Starbucks?

Current Mood: content
Current Location: Home

Not so bad. Team meeting this week was at 10. Now that we don't have Europe to conference in, all meetings will be at 10.

Made some progress with the complicated script, but not enough.

Lunchtime I dropped in at Fry's to see if they had the 4-port SATA RAID controller I wanted, and they are woefully behind the times in that area. They also seem to have bought mostly Sabrent brand items for all the PCI cards, which I got burned with on the USB cards.

Home, read Ande's book on the patio with cats. Then BASFA, which was a full house and much fun with many non-regulars. Also long - ran till 10.

Online, bought a Littermaid Mega litterbox, the SmartScoop is noisy and I've had to replace the receptacle bags every other day, practically. That's probably because both cats are using it, neither has touched the crystal one since I put in the clumping litter one.

For those who are interested, when I first got the crystal litter ones, there were huge advantages:
- There is a kit which includes a box lined with something waterproof and easy for the rake to slide over
- The crystals absorb a lot of moisture, so pee disappears and poop dries out before it is raked into the container section
- The boxes lasted 2 weeks, and were easy to dispose of.

BUT
The quality of the boxes has gone way down, the lining has major bubbles in it, rakes squeal across
The quality of the crystals has gone down, they don't absorb as much
Boxes have only been lasting a week +/- a day

And Kaan is too big for the box. Pumpkin was not as "tall"

Re-installed the NovaStor backup software. Was pleasantly surprised when it offered to make up for the backup it missed. Was unpleasantly surprised that it started making a full backup, when what it was supposed to do was an incremental one. The diff being about 18 hours. I'll have to set it up again and start with a full backup, but not tonight.

While I was messing with the USB card, I saw that there were not enough SATA ports left on the motherboard to support a 4-disc RAID array. There was enough power, and enough disk bays, so all I need is a 4-port SATA card, which explains the visit to Fry's. And my sporadic web search at work in between test passes.

Two messages on LinkedIn from long-time friends.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Maybe go to Audio Design during lunch to have a couple of things fixed with the alarm
Starbucks?

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Newest Furball Hall

Up early for the 9 am team meeting. Wondering if/when those will change to 10 am now that we don't have a Belgium office to fit into the mix. Short meeting, we're between major products and most of the work is done for the next release.

Spent an hour cranking out a criminally easy automation script. All the test calls for is confirming that a tab and two text fields exist in the GUI.

Took a break and compared AT&T to Verizon. May switch from V to A and get a Samsung S4. Automation guy has done this, he gets a better signal than I do. Easy to see on an Android. Forget the bars, go to settings, About Phone and there will be a signal strength selection. it's in negative dB, so the lower the value of the digits, the stronger the signal. -40 is super, -60 okay, -100 is crap. He gets -76 to my -98.

Lunchtime I went to UPS to pick up (I thought) two packages. Forgot I already got the first one Wednesday. The one package was two meds from Kaiser, so worth the trip. Stopped at Denny's on the way back. The obligatory cranky child left before my food arrived.

Afternoon I tackled a series of more difficult automations, which I plan to have fill up my week.

Home by way of Lucky's which only had one type of windshield washer fluid, half the size of the usual, for $3. Gag me. Walked to Valero next door, also only one choice, but a full gallon for $3 including tax. Not a bargain, but it would cost almost as much for the gas to drive to the nearest auto store.

Home, massaged and posted the pix from

mettemu & Bryan's Westercon session on mold making. They are here:

Mette glues the mold holder in place. That's Christine Doyle's hand holding the tablet, which was hooked up to a projector aimed at a screen off to the left.

Finished in time to get to

basfa which was almost all Westercon66 survivors, but half the usual crowd. It was fun, but I was pun-free.

Home, shopped the masquerade photos and posted them. They kinda suck because I didn't get a good place to stand, was mostly shooting into the lights and the helpful Donald whose job was to stay on the right-hand side of the steps to lend his arm to contestants leaving the stage kept going over to the left side and blocking my view, and making the exit more awkward for the contestants and himself as well. :-(

A furry runs the sound board.

Donald on the wrong side. Tia is onstage, the only under-18 contestant. Killer costume, made by her mom, I think they said, she wore it well.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Get a new phone & carrier
Make an appointment to get a real car alarm. And maybe real speakers.
Hang out at Starbucks (?)

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Newest Furball Hall

Work - 9am team meeting with the Belgium guys on the conference line, first time in about a month. Good people, great to have them in the meeting.
Made some progress on Friday's coding and multi tasked a follow-on script.

Lunchtime I went to the new Walgreen's and they no longer stock Breathe-Rite. Instead they have silicone inserts for nostrils, connected by a silicone sting-like object. Got some polident, and started to have an insulin reaction (not enough breakfast, too much high-test insulin). Bought some glucose tablets, and went to Boston Market next door for lunch. Ordered the full rack of ribs. They were like what I imagine would be served at school lunch. Tasted okay, but looked not fresh and a bit overcooked. The corn bread got my Hgl up, by the end of lunch I was feeling okay.

Petco after work to replace the food bowls for D&K's nightly kitty crack.

Home, Kaan had pooped in the bedroom. Chased him out, sprayed the no-go stuff around and at him. Sad that banning him from the bedroom also bans Domino, but she only spends a couple of hours on the bed at night anyway.

Email from SC Players pointing me to the pdfs for scripts of two shows they will be doing next season. The one I wanted most to direct they have already chosen a director for. If it's who I think, it will be a scream, and I may even try out for Teddy. I printed out the first script, and left the house for BASFA with the second one still printing.

Full house at the meeting, which meant a lot of side conversations, but also a lot of announcements and reviews and puns. El Presidente was on a roll all evening, more witty than he has been in a while.

Auction time I bought a set of 4 kid-sized stuffed plushie super-hero dolls. Home, boxed them up to go to my newest nephew on the other coast. He is <1year old, so his folks will probably hold on to them until he's old enough to not choke on the capes or eat them.

Saw Kaan eating out of half of the food tower while Domino was eating out of the other half. She walked away and let him have it to himself. A step up from swatting at him.

So, I have scripts to read tonight.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Finish reading scripts. Email the theater which one(s) I would be open to directing. I've directed for them before, successfully, so they said they don't need to interview me.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Home

Went to bed way early (10-ish) and woke up at 7:30 and was at work by 8:30. Finished the script I was almost done with Friday, and then a circuit board for one of my old model machines, which has been keeping me from verifying a bug for about a month, arrived. Shifted the memory chips from the old to the new, popped it into the machine and it came right up.

Spent most of the rest of the work day messing with that.

Called Audio Design, told the installer the camera was not giving me all the views, he said to tap the top of the screen for one view. Tried that before heading for lunch, it didn't work. Something is wrong, the setup won't let me access the four views. I'll bring it in to them Saturday.

Lunch was supposed to be Thai food with Celine at Toyota, but she did what I was afraid she would do, she invited two other people, both salespeople, one semi-handsome but brainless guy and a fairly plain married woman. We did some palm reading. Turns out Celine knows more palmistry than I do by a lot.

Instead of Thai food we walked to Pollo Loco, but the line was out the door so we went to Subway instead. Yuck.

Back at Toyota I gave the parts person the backup camera, she will see about some sort of refund, but I'm not too concerned.

After work there were some meds to pick up at UPS, and peanut butter to buy at Trader Joe's. I didn't think I would, but I like their natural style PNB, especially as a celery dip. And a snack right out of the jar.

Home, just enough time to change shirts and go to BASFA. not a heavily attended meeting, but the rude people were rude at first, finally settled down. Except for D, who was tipsy (probably from a memorial service she had gone to prior). She usually manages to be rude without adding alcohol.

I got in a couple of good puns, did not win the Dr. Who UK postage stamps in the auction. :-( Or the Gojira trailers DVD.

After the meeting

johnnyeponymous posted on FB that a long-time acquaintance and someone I admired greatly, Hugh Daniel, died earlier in the day. Apparently natural causes (not surprising, Hugh was a mountain of a man, probably a heart attack waiting to happen). I'm not sure how old he was, probably in his 50's or late 40's. I am pretty sure I first met him when I was working at Televideo, 1986, he was a little older than college age at the time. He was charming, personable, his thing at sci-fi conventions was to show kids how electronic things worked by taking them apart. Sometimes he had adult versions of his Dr. Destructo routine. It surprised me to learn later he was a computer/network security expert back when there weren't any. Anyhow, very sad he is gone, many many people will miss him. I don't think I have any photos of him doing the Destructo thing, but here he is regency dancing with

targeter:

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
???

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: Home

I slept well last night, I think. But I was up before the alarm, and somewhen before I went to work I was online looking up Corolla inventory at Toyota of Sunnyvale's site. I had decided I did not like/want the Yaris. The ride was like it had no shocks at all, and the reason I didn't notice that on the test drive is I test drove the LE, which has a less "sporty" suspension that the SE I actually bought. And the hatchback space was almost non-existent, way too small for the music stand and the baritone to co-exist. And it almost felt like it would roll over when I came across some speed bumps.

One thing they emphasized when I bought the car is they have a no-questions-asked 3-day return policy, and a 7-day exchange policy. I doubted they get much action on that, but I was ready to test it.

And then when I found the Corolla inventory, there was a pop-up which said there was a $4500 discount on the Corollas. The prices on the web site were now about the same as for the Yaris.

So when I got to work, and it was reasonable to send a text, I sent one to Celine, my sales rep, telling her I wanted to do the swap, and could she please have Lee (her manager) and Ali (Finance Guy) let me know the pricing.

She replied that Lee was not in till noon. Fine.

At 3 she texted that the swap was all ready, and asked if I could come in right away. Yup, I could do that, nothing pressing at work. I had to stop off at home and drop off the music stand and get the second set of keys from the kitchen drawer. Also good I went home because the exercycle was in a box in front of the apartment.

Got there a little after 3:30 on account of long red lights and missing the entrance because people were parked in the red zones either side. It's a long pair of U-turns to recover.

So, Celine asked if I would like to pick one out, I showed her the two VIN numbers on the site which were in the color I wanted. She found the second one, and we drove to the gas station where she filled it up, then to the detailing center, where she dropped it off. Then back to the showroom, where she punched in the new info. Ali came by to tell me it would be a bit of a wait, but then Rebecca found me and went over the prices to get the nav system and backup camera I wanted, and the remote trunk release. Another lovely friendly person. The prices were about the same as doing it elsewhere, but the fact that they had that nav system in stock told me they would probably do a better job.

Finally Celine got the call to take me upstairs to Ali's office. I still had not been told how much I was going to owe on the exchange.

As Ali handed me form after form to sign, it became clear that not only didn't I owe them anything, they owed me. The Corolla comes with ding coverage which is not available on the Yaris, so that's a $500 value right there. All said and done, they will be sending me a check for $100.

Celine got tied up with a customer, so it was a 15-minute wait to get the car to the main parking area, and she needed to get the Yaris' keys because I had left the iPod and my water bottle in there (on purpose - didn't want to carry them around in the office). And then she needed to get the Corolla book package. That gave me time to plug in the iPod and discover there was a covered slot for it. The stock radio shows the playlists and albums and such, it just doesn't show the album art. Nice unit for a standard feature. Also paired the phone to its bluetooth.

Finally got out of there at about 5:40, and back to work at 6:05. Just as Boss was leaving, so at least he saw I got back.

I don't love the Corolla's ride, but it is far better than the Yaris, and I do love the trunk space and the much more comfortable seats. The Yaris seats are black with navy trim, and it was 93° when I drove there, the aircon was not keeping up. Corolla has a beige interior, much brighter/cooler. There are a couple of WTFs in the 2013 - they made the storage console between the front seats smaller, and 1-ply instead of 2-, and took away the power outlet which was in there. And the rear passenger head rests are too tall, I will be removing them. I also need to get blind spot mirrors, but they never had those.

Enough already. Bottom line is Toyota of Sunnyvale not only lived up to their no-questions-asked return/exchange policy, they did it in a friendly, professional way with total "please the customer" attitude. I have scattered glowing reviews across the Interwebs, and will be sending Lee and Celine a Lovely Parting Gift™.

Went to BASFA after writing the review, and retold the short version of my story there. I was unaware that

johnnyeponymous was unaware I played baritone horn. mentioned on FB and will repeat here that it was great to see

johno and his lovely and talented Chris there - they have had some nasty medical surprises in the last few weeks, which have all apparently been resolved in a good way.

Boss approved my PTO for June to join up with my oldest and youngest sisters in Poulsbo. Oldest is coming from Israel. Booked flights this morning from work, spent some time after BASFA to book the rental car and lodgings. Younger sister's birthday is the 19th, older's is the 22nd, and I would have stayed for that, but it's Saturday and she's extremely Orthodox, so she'll be spending that at Temple and with people who share her superstitions.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
???

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: Home

Lust, really. More on that later.

Work was boring until 4:45 pm, when boss asked me to replicate a possible bug which one of the engineers found in his code but had not tested on actual machines. Long story short, I did not have the right machines to replicate this, and by the time I was sure of that I had already missed the best train to SF for the Giants' game.

Made the next train, which got me to SF at 7 for a game which started at that time 4 blocks away. It took long time to climb to the top of the ramps where my seat was. The fog had rolled in, in was cold and windy. I bought a hot dog and then headed for "View Reserved Row 13". It was 13 more steep steps up. I got there, and discovered the seat I was looking for was on the other side. Back down, and vertigo kicked in. I was VERY high up, and the stairs are very steep. Instead of going up the other side I bailed. Walked down to the promenade and around to the SRO spaces by the splash section. By now tis the bottom of the 4th inning, and many Giants are hitting the ball. I left the stadium after the 4th run, I think. They scored 6 that inning.

Walked back to the train station, got the 8:40 back south, home by 10. Which is good because I have to pack for my Train Day trip in the morning - be at the station at 9 for a 10 o'clock Coast Starlight (padding because I need to park, get my tickets and a parking pass, put the pass in the car and walk back to the station again).

Oh, about lust. There are more beautiful women at the Giants' game, and in the surrounding neighborhood. The area which was once a shady, dangerous dump is now Yuppie Delight. There's even an upscale bowling alley.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Home of the Weird

Actually woke up when the alarm went off at 7, got to work in plenty of time for the 9 am staff meeting, only to discover it was at 10. We rotate every other week so our Belgium staff can conference in before they go home. The confusion is because we are now a different company, no longer owned by Google, and the new company uses Microsoft Exchange and MS Outlook while Google forced us to use their piece-o-crap gmail. I had set up my gmail to sync with Outlook, but you can't have both an IMAP account and an Exchange account on the same Outlook profile, and while I was able to move my email from one to the other, calendar items got left behind.

So I created new ones, but got the weeks wrong for which week was which time.

It was a pretty lively meeting after we got through the routine stuff, I had a lot of hints on how to migrate email and one of the other guys was all hyper about the 401k plan, but we're in kind of a limbo there, US employees are not financially fully Arris until May 1. But this guy likes to beat a dead horse until all its limbs are in different counties.

There was a webinar on the 401k plan which I listened to this afternoon. It was during my usual lunch hour so I didn't get out for lunch. A shame because it was sunny and almost 90° out. Tomorrow I shall do better.

I have one each of the two models of machine we sell, and I loaned them to the person who manages licensing, knowing she had to mess them up pretty bad to do her testing. She got done quickly, and I spent the rest of the day putting them back into working order. That's something I had to do, she doesn't have root level access to my machines. One of them is refusing to cooperate, I may have to chat with the engineer for a clue or three. Tomorrow.

Home, turned on the aircon, watched some Steve Harvey, played with the cats. When I pick up Domino she immediately sinks in her claws and looks for a place to leap off. Kaan just becomes a big passive lump in my arms, and he will stay lumped until I pour him out onto a familiar surface.

Was not sure about going to BASFA, was feeling lazy. But I went and was glad I did. I got 5 zingers in, and they were all big time groaners. Tall Kevin's wife made a rare appearance, it was very good to see her, along with kuma bear. They recently relocated to Nevada.

Home again, realized I needed to buy tickets for two local shows many friends are in, so went online and did that. Little Women and Miss Saigon. Decided not to see Funny Girl up in Saratoga. Many friends in the cast, but I have run out of Saturday nights. Saratoga is a pain in the butt to get to during rush hour, and I don't go to matinées when the weather is this good.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work, finish recovering that one machine
Someplace with eye candy after work.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Newest Furball Hall

Thing One: Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15. The Federal holiday, one would think, ought to have been on the Monday nearest the actual date, but somehow it shifted to the Monday after. Today.
Thing Two: The Constitution says the President is inaugurated on January 20. Somehow this got shifted to today, also.
This last item is called playing the race card.
( You can skip this rant )
I didn't pay any attention to the inauguration because I don't see it as significant. I think the wrong person was nominated in 2008, and the right person made a deal not to run in 2012 in return for the most glamorous job in the cabinet.
And when someone who is inept but on my side is running against someone who is ruthlessly capable but against me, and nothing I can do will change that, I'll settle for Obama and hope for the best.

I listened to the snippets of his speech they showed on the news, and have this to say:
- Gay marriage: It's about time you changed your opinion. Now let's see you introduce a Constitutional amendment, and an act to repeal DOMA.
- The War: In 2004 you promised to bring our troops home in 18 months. Today you said the war is coming to an end, but named no dates. Your last official pronouncement on this would put it at 18 months from now. This is why I could not vote for you.
- The economy: Yes, it's better. But it still sucks.

Today was the day to do the things I didn't do because Friday night I had a special show to attend, Saturday there was serious sleep deprivation and a crab feed, Sunday two important football games, cookie baking and a potluck/rehearsal.

I was feeling slothful all day. Got a lot done, anyhow:
- Took the latest 506 slides from the scanning service and put them back into two binders
- Plucked the last 300 slides from the final binder and put them into boxes of 50 for the scanning service.
- Moved the recliner and vacuumed and steam cleaned the area by my feet. This confused the heck out of the cats
- Spent a couple of hours online trying not to make too much fun of so many of my friends who worship the air Obama breathes.
- Ran a load of laundry
- Dishwashered the second set of cookie baking gear and cleaned powdered sugar off too many surfaces, including my blood sugar monitor.
- Plugged in the rehearsal dates for Brigadoon into my Google calendar. The calendar they provided was not in a PDF, and not arranged in anything approaching readable.

When I opened the door to go to BASFA, there was a Fedex package there. WTF? I was home all day, they couldn't ring the bell?

Anyhow, BASFA was sparsely attended, but I like it that way. Too many people = too many cross-conversations. My rumor of the week was voted in. It really shouldn't have been because it was the last one on the list, but otherness prevailed.

I mentioned at the meeting that I thought Michelle Obama had told her overcoat maker to "make me something Kardashian" but they thought she said "Cardassian". Here are the photos, you be the judge:

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
???

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Newest Furball Hall

I'd set three cloth shopping bags on the floor near the door to take back to the car, when I picked them up I felt something wet. Domino had barfed on them.

Picked up 3 items at the apartment office before going to work. There were two calendars, one in a padded envelope, but the SeaGals one was in a UPS box way too big for it, which had two empty Seahawks boxes inside for filler. Not as big a WTF as it might be, WA has a lot of rural fans whose calendars would have been bent to fit into their mailboxes, better to send UPS and in a box.

Work was major league foo, I left at 12:30 when they took my machine to re-image. Worked from home, but it turns out the machines I'd been planning to log into were in use for another project. I got maybe 2 hours of actual work done.

Milo sort of owns the apartment now, but he's easily spooked. Domino is starting to reclaim her territory, jumping up on my lap when I'm sitting on the recliner. This morning she was up on the bed when Milo was elsewhere. There have been no noises between them this afternoon. He has been trying out the many scratching posts, and unlike any other cat I've ever had, he will hide under the couch throw.

Watched the football game, but when Milo sat on my lap I decided it was time to take pictures for the HSSV center. Could not find my favorite tripod. I know I've had it in this apartment, but it wasn't in either of the closets or the storage room, or in the trunk of the car. So I pulled out my old standby, but it was missing the quick-release mount. For weeks there was a quick-release mount on my desk, but I think I threw it out, knowing there were two in the newer tripod's carrying case.

And I needed the wireless shutter release, which I found, but the battery was dead. It's a weird battery, and I did not have a spare.

So I drove to Fry's down the block, bought batteries, but they did not have a tripod release. They had the same tripod as my favorite on sale for $32, which is not much more than a release costs a la carte, and it comes with two releases, but they were out of stock. San Jose has 5, they said, so I found a freeway and went there, and yup, they had 5, 4 of which had not been pried open by inconsiderate customers. And yes, it was on sale.

8 pm, there were hardly any customers in either store, and only two or three cashiers. Horrible loud tacky Jesus music was blaring both places, I won't be back before 2013.

Missed the best part of the football game, got back just as they were taking a knee for the last time. :-(

The release worked fine on the old tripod, but the shutter release only worked at the camera end, the remote didn't trigger it. The Solmeta GPS I sent back has a wireless release, but that's on its way to China and it will be 2 weeks before I see the replacement. So I ordered another wireless on Amazon.

I even pulled out my D90, which I used to have a remote for, but that remote was not in any of my camera cases. Very frustrating.

I had bought a couple of items at the BASFA auction which I think are worth a lot more than the seller knows. I listed them on eBay, with high reserve prices to see how much people would bid. One of them will probably go to my nephew, and I'll keep the other if (when) nobody bids high enough.

Got some laundry done while I was WFH, maybe I should take it out of the dryer. And hang stuff up. Already washed & dried the shopping bags.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work.
Home

Current Mood: exasperated
Current Location: Newest Furball Hall

Work was pretty quiet, weekly team meeting at 10, and I was assigned to check a bug fix on the older model which I'd checked last week on the newer model. Quick lunch at CJ's, a stop at the CU to depsit the check from Chicon7 for my photo sales, then a webcast from the Sunnyvale site, one of the pioneers of Google Chrome giving a talk. Boring, defensive, every step of the way his attitude was "we know what the customer wants better than the customer does, so we're not going to office option x, or we'll force-feed you feature Y. He claims Chrome is now the most popular browser, but somehow I don't buy that.

More bug checking for the rest of the day.

Home, watched MNF, the game was very sloppy and it looked like NOLA might blow it, so I left for BASFA getting there right at 8 as the pseudo-gavel came down, the latest I've ever arrived. Kinda boring meeting. The reviews for Convolution went on forever (I helped stretch them out), and 3/4 of the crowd bailed before auctions. I wanted to take my auction stuff home and bring it back some other time when the club would make some serious $$ from them, but someone railroaded the meeting into holding a fast and cheap auction. FAIL.

Home, Domino yowling at me, getting underfoot. Am thinking of borrowing a Very Large Carnivore.

An item I had on eBay sold for the starting price. :-( It is now boxed and ready to be mailed.

Election day is tomorrow. I am going to the polls (which are at the park down the street) because:
A. The poll place volunteers deserve to be rewarded with actual voters.
B. I am dead set against early voting. I have a boatload of reasons for this, but primarily it's not over till it's over.
C. I believe absentee ballots should only be available to people who will actually be absent. This includes people who live too far from a polling place or cannot get to a polling place due to disability. Another reason is the unreliability of the postal service, and the county auditors' temporary help. The law gives you 2 hours of work time off to vote.

My vote for President and US Senator will not count. California is so overwhelmingly Obama Country that if I vote for him it's superfluous, if I vote for anyone else it will be ignored. Ditto, the dinosaur named Feinstein.
The same is probably true of my vote for US Representative. Mike Honda is in no danger of being defeated by the GOP candidate, who promises to "bring God back to Congress".
All the CA propositions and the local measures are going to be close, I think - those are worth casting a ballot. I won't be voting for any of the city candidates because I don't think anyone will make a difference. Ditto the hospital district candidates.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: Newer Furball Hall

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howard stateman

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Writing Wrongs

Annoying The Neighbors Since 1950

Entries tagged with basfa

Shake It Up Baby

Bombed

I Are Mechanically inclined

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One More Monday Achieved

Nobody stood back

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I Should Be In Bed

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Mondaze

Monday Monday

Why Am I Not Asleep?

Sweet/short

Another Manic Monday

Replacement Replacement Car FTW

Friday I'm in Love

Must be Monday

MLK Day Underdone

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All Quiet on the Western Back

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