So, everyone is is gone and it is just Dad and I in the house again.
Yesterday was a kind of /accelerated/ and or condensed version of my weekly cleaning schedule to get the house back to normal after 5 house guests for like 4 days.
It was not that bad, really. The biggest part is the psychological cleansing from the house, you know? Like, Amy used /that/ glass before she left. She put her toothbrush in the left slot on the holdie-thingie. When Amy put that book back on the shelf, it was positioned just /so/ and I have to line it up to get Amy out of the house even after she went home the day before.
I know what some of you are thinking and yes, I washed Amy's and my towels separately from everyone else's, but this phenomenon is not exclusive to to Amy. With sex happening in the spare room and a toddler running around (that is unrelated to the sex that was going on - I promise) there are plenty of other things that were just... out of order.
(Aunt) Joan: "Here, I'm just going to wash our bedding before we leave."
Me: "No, it's okay. I'll get it."
Joan: "Oh, you don't have too. I can take care of it."
Me: "Really. Please just leave it. It will be fine."
Joan: "Oh, I just want to, you know, not be more of a burden than..."
Me: "Yeah, I know there is your residue de amore. I won't look. It's fine. I promise."
Joan: "Well..."
Me: "If you wash it, I'll just wash it again later. You may as well leave it."
At lease I was smiling. Hopefully not too much. That's why I do not care for plastic facades - I am always afraid they may be transparent.
And I looked. Sue me. I had to pre-treat after all.
Oh, but that is not what this post was going to be about...
Today is the last day of the month. According to my stats, this is my top month so far. I kinda thought last June was going to hold the record for a while 'cause it was kind up there a bit and just a few days ago, November was still quite a ways away.
So, thanks for all the visits!
But I must confess - I have mixed emotions.... with some of the /personal/ stuff I post here, it kinda creeps me out that so many people are looking at it, but then, I am posting it on the interwebz, so... of course it is getting looked at. I suppose what I am saying here is that it /is/ on the interwebz, so if it was /not/ getting read, that would be weird, or a bummer, or something.
On the other hand, I realize that I post my techie stuff, fun stuff, and personal stuff on the same blog. Different audiences. Would be better if it was divided up. Maybe that will be a 2011 thing.
Oh, and I dreamed last night that Claire kissed me and I was really happy about it. It felt /SO/ real. I could feel her chapped lips. (Not like, gross chapped... just a little rough. Texture that made it feel so /real/.) So, not I am _so_ confused about how I feel about it.
The logical side of me is telling me that this was my brain's way telling me that I think Claire is accepting of my relationship(?) with Amy. Not that there is really a "relationship" but that she is cool with whatever it is that we do have.
Oh, but it was tender and /HOT/. -which is going to be a subject of meditation on its own because, pretty as she is, Claire does not turn me on. Well, no one does, but that is another story.
Okay -
So -
Thanks for good November stats!
Take Care!
LQ
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Where do I even begin?
Actually, I have no issue with trying to figure out where to begin... I am a chronological kinda girl.
Lets see... Wed, picking up Mum.
Before we left, Amy called. She was being all sympathetic with the strain of having everyone over and wanted to know if having her here too was going to be too much. I assured her - with no pretense - that I wanted here there most of all. So, she was happy.
In the car, on the way to the airport, Dad was saying, "I know your Mum stresses you out a bit when she comes over and tries to run the house," and I say, "Gee... ya' think?" and he was like, "she just feels bad about not being able to host these shin-digs and wants to take some of the load off us." And I was like, "So, yeah, she means well, but it would be so much easier if she would just kick back and relax." So, of course, Dad comes back with, "Have you ever /told/ her that?"
What could I say? I hem-haw'd about for a bit then just resigned, "No... not, like, in /words/ and stuff."
So, yeah, my maternal unit it a bit of a control noodge, but I am not exactly the best at, like, talking and stuff.
We get her and have brunch-ish. Mum says I am looking good (she lies) and that since I am getting some hair I should let her have someone do something with it. So I take off my touque(sp) and show her that it is only growing in the front. Nothing really to do anything with. I make a mental note to get rid of it all. Hey, I tried to let it alone.
Shopping for food.
No, back up. Mum tries to get us to go clothes shopping now before the crowds hit on Friday. She gets vetoed.
Shopping for food. Mum wants to do a turkey. I want to do fish. She says, "who does fish for Thanksgiving?" I say, "Hello? Alaska? I think there is some whale in the icehouse." Mum cringes. Dad represses a giggle. No, wait... he is more manly than giggling. And that should be "suppresses", not "represses."
We compromise. Turkey.
So, on the way back to the house, I actually /tell/ Mum that she should just relax and enjoy herself. So she tells us how she wants the turkey done and starts "setting up the house for guests."
Dad and I share a private laugh. But at least she it out of the kitchen for now.
Okay, so Mum is arranging for everyone coming over - sleeping wise.
"You know, LQ, if you do not want to share your room with Amy... If you are not comfortable with that..." she says.
"Oh, no. It is fine. It would not be a family get-together without sleeping with Amy."
She raises an eyebrow at me.
"You know what I mean. And no, it won't be weird. I'm not worried about her trying anything. We're cool." And that is probably more than I have ever told Mum about my relationship with Amy.
So, we snack and cook and watch movies and play games and everyone eventually arrives.
Around the Thanksgiving dinner table.
Yes, I know that was a sentence fragment. Get over it.
Re-capping the party members:
Mum and her two ex's (Dad and Amy)
Her brother, his ex (Amy), current (Joan) and offspring (Jill)
Dad, his ex (Mum) and current (Kathy) and offspring (Me)
Amy, her two ex's (Uncle and Mum) and (?) (Me)
Joan, her current, her current's ex and her offspring
Jill and all these weirdos.
Me, surrounded by people who know far too many of my issues, all too well.
Bird is on the table. All the side are on the table. Drink glasses are full and all the places are set. I am the last one up and the bird-carving tools are still in the kitchen. So, I go pick them up and bring them to the table.
There is this... odd... silence as everyone (rug-rat excluded) is looking at /ME/ holding a /great/ /big/ knife.
I roll my eyes and hand the thing to Dad, but there is that moment. That elephant walking through the room.
I sit down, fold my arms across my chest and I think my bottom lip even stuck out just a little and Dad starts carving. (For those who may not know, I am not permitted sharp/pointy things. The failing track record I have with them is evident on my skin.)
Joan serves herself some stuffing then passes the dish. "So... how do you shave?"
After I pick up my jaw, I am actually pleased there was someone at the table over the age of /me/ who was unclear on the answer to that.
But the pleasantries for the next far-too-long pretty much ended there as the dinner conversation was centered around the fact that the seventeen year old (me) was displaying no more signs of puberty than the two-ish year old (Jill).
It did kinda end after the suggestion of getting out the CT scan of my ovaries was thrown out there.
"How about lets not," I say. I did not say, "Hey, lets /not/ get out the pictures of my crotch... again"
There is some debate on the relative merits of looking at the proof that I do actually have them. I give dad a pleading look and he kinda changes the subject and things get better after that, but I still could not really eat. Yep, I was embarrassed. I really tried to not show it, because it really was not anything to /be/ embarrassed about.
Moving on...
After dinner's cleanup was followed by much playing of Rock Band. That was cool. I mean, Mum, Kathy and I were taking turns on the vocals, Amy played drums, mostly and Dad and Uncle mostly stuck to the guitars. Joan rotated through the set here and there while entertaining Jill.
There was over all very little discussion of my inert reproductive system, my bad habits, and (most importantly) the few little gaps I have from the past few days are, well, few, and seem innocuous. Just some, "Earth to LQ - Hello - You in there?" and no one heard me talking to my food - that I am aware of.
I enjoyed a nice cup of espresso with minimal upset.
My bread pudding went over well.
I got to have some of the good scotch - but just a sip.
We did all have Guinness Punch - even Claire (I am such a bad influence - hahaha).
I ate at least something every day.
Friday, my friend Claire came over. Saturday, I went to Claire's for a while.
All in all, much of the long weekend was spent with all of us playing in the snow and me being Amy's pet like I used to. Only, now I am a little more reserved because I know what effect that has on her.
Claire did say it was a little weird seeing Amy kiss me bye. But not much weirder then seeing the general affection I show for Amy. She is way more accustomed to me keeping far more distance from people.
So, everyone is gone. The rest of the putting-the-house back in order will wait until tomorrow morning... after I post this. This was a much better holiday than last year.
Them are the highlights. I'll post this in the morning.
So for now...
Take Care -
LQ
Lets see... Wed, picking up Mum.
Before we left, Amy called. She was being all sympathetic with the strain of having everyone over and wanted to know if having her here too was going to be too much. I assured her - with no pretense - that I wanted here there most of all. So, she was happy.
In the car, on the way to the airport, Dad was saying, "I know your Mum stresses you out a bit when she comes over and tries to run the house," and I say, "Gee... ya' think?" and he was like, "she just feels bad about not being able to host these shin-digs and wants to take some of the load off us." And I was like, "So, yeah, she means well, but it would be so much easier if she would just kick back and relax." So, of course, Dad comes back with, "Have you ever /told/ her that?"
What could I say? I hem-haw'd about for a bit then just resigned, "No... not, like, in /words/ and stuff."
So, yeah, my maternal unit it a bit of a control noodge, but I am not exactly the best at, like, talking and stuff.
We get her and have brunch-ish. Mum says I am looking good (she lies) and that since I am getting some hair I should let her have someone do something with it. So I take off my touque(sp) and show her that it is only growing in the front. Nothing really to do anything with. I make a mental note to get rid of it all. Hey, I tried to let it alone.
Shopping for food.
No, back up. Mum tries to get us to go clothes shopping now before the crowds hit on Friday. She gets vetoed.
Shopping for food. Mum wants to do a turkey. I want to do fish. She says, "who does fish for Thanksgiving?" I say, "Hello? Alaska? I think there is some whale in the icehouse." Mum cringes. Dad represses a giggle. No, wait... he is more manly than giggling. And that should be "suppresses", not "represses."
We compromise. Turkey.
So, on the way back to the house, I actually /tell/ Mum that she should just relax and enjoy herself. So she tells us how she wants the turkey done and starts "setting up the house for guests."
Dad and I share a private laugh. But at least she it out of the kitchen for now.
Okay, so Mum is arranging for everyone coming over - sleeping wise.
"You know, LQ, if you do not want to share your room with Amy... If you are not comfortable with that..." she says.
"Oh, no. It is fine. It would not be a family get-together without sleeping with Amy."
She raises an eyebrow at me.
"You know what I mean. And no, it won't be weird. I'm not worried about her trying anything. We're cool." And that is probably more than I have ever told Mum about my relationship with Amy.
So, we snack and cook and watch movies and play games and everyone eventually arrives.
Around the Thanksgiving dinner table.
Yes, I know that was a sentence fragment. Get over it.
Re-capping the party members:
Mum and her two ex's (Dad and Amy)
Her brother, his ex (Amy), current (Joan) and offspring (Jill)
Dad, his ex (Mum) and current (Kathy) and offspring (Me)
Amy, her two ex's (Uncle and Mum) and (?) (Me)
Joan, her current, her current's ex and her offspring
Jill and all these weirdos.
Me, surrounded by people who know far too many of my issues, all too well.
Bird is on the table. All the side are on the table. Drink glasses are full and all the places are set. I am the last one up and the bird-carving tools are still in the kitchen. So, I go pick them up and bring them to the table.
There is this... odd... silence as everyone (rug-rat excluded) is looking at /ME/ holding a /great/ /big/ knife.
I roll my eyes and hand the thing to Dad, but there is that moment. That elephant walking through the room.
I sit down, fold my arms across my chest and I think my bottom lip even stuck out just a little and Dad starts carving. (For those who may not know, I am not permitted sharp/pointy things. The failing track record I have with them is evident on my skin.)
Joan serves herself some stuffing then passes the dish. "So... how do you shave?"
After I pick up my jaw, I am actually pleased there was someone at the table over the age of /me/ who was unclear on the answer to that.
But the pleasantries for the next far-too-long pretty much ended there as the dinner conversation was centered around the fact that the seventeen year old (me) was displaying no more signs of puberty than the two-ish year old (Jill).
It did kinda end after the suggestion of getting out the CT scan of my ovaries was thrown out there.
"How about lets not," I say. I did not say, "Hey, lets /not/ get out the pictures of my crotch... again"
There is some debate on the relative merits of looking at the proof that I do actually have them. I give dad a pleading look and he kinda changes the subject and things get better after that, but I still could not really eat. Yep, I was embarrassed. I really tried to not show it, because it really was not anything to /be/ embarrassed about.
Moving on...
After dinner's cleanup was followed by much playing of Rock Band. That was cool. I mean, Mum, Kathy and I were taking turns on the vocals, Amy played drums, mostly and Dad and Uncle mostly stuck to the guitars. Joan rotated through the set here and there while entertaining Jill.
There was over all very little discussion of my inert reproductive system, my bad habits, and (most importantly) the few little gaps I have from the past few days are, well, few, and seem innocuous. Just some, "Earth to LQ - Hello - You in there?" and no one heard me talking to my food - that I am aware of.
I enjoyed a nice cup of espresso with minimal upset.
My bread pudding went over well.
I got to have some of the good scotch - but just a sip.
We did all have Guinness Punch - even Claire (I am such a bad influence - hahaha).
I ate at least something every day.
Friday, my friend Claire came over. Saturday, I went to Claire's for a while.
All in all, much of the long weekend was spent with all of us playing in the snow and me being Amy's pet like I used to. Only, now I am a little more reserved because I know what effect that has on her.
Claire did say it was a little weird seeing Amy kiss me bye. But not much weirder then seeing the general affection I show for Amy. She is way more accustomed to me keeping far more distance from people.
So, everyone is gone. The rest of the putting-the-house back in order will wait until tomorrow morning... after I post this. This was a much better holiday than last year.
Them are the highlights. I'll post this in the morning.
So for now...
Take Care -
LQ
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
A quickie before the holiday
Hi,
From the time we pick up Mum until the last house guest is punted out I will not likely get the opportunity to update my blog, so, here it is.
I had mentioned the other day that I have family coming over. We are picking up Mum at the airport in a little bit. She'll be hungry, so we will likely have brunch, then go shopping for all the food that: 1) Dad and I forgot to get 2) is better to get "fresh"-er 3) that Mum will say we forgot, but really Dad and I just would just as soon not have bothered with.
Then Mum will make a big deal of having to rush to the house to get is ready for company. Hello - Just what have I been doing all weekend? And what I do every time we have company?
Mum does not get that she does not live here anymore and _she_ is the company that I have to get ready for.
Aunt and uncle (Mum's brother and sister-in-law) along with their rug-rat will be driving in tonight.
Dad's ... um ... friend is coming in the morning to help with the meal-making. This should be interesting. She has met Mum before and all should be cool there, but /I/ feel mondo tension. Dad too. Actually, I may have sympathetic tension from Dad.
And Amy (Mum's first sister-in-law) will be here tomorrow too.
Mum is like the center cog of awkward in the family.
Here it is in a nut-shell:
She slept with her brother's first wife before he did.
Dad still loves her, and she still loves him, but she switched teams.
She and Dad's new hopefully-girlfriend are both going to be playing Mrs Domestic.
Uncle's ex will be here because of her relationship with Mum (which has ended physically, but they are still really good friends) and now with me (--not a physical relationship exactly--)
So I have a house full of ex's and currents. This is, by the way, not my idea of the Norman Rockwell Family Holiday. I have emergency meds to help me through it. I also have Claire on speed dial to whisk me away should the need arise. We don't want a repeat of last year.
Actually, the little niece provides a nice bit of distraction.
So, Take Care and Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans out there. Happy Next-Few-Days to the rest of you.
LQ
From the time we pick up Mum until the last house guest is punted out I will not likely get the opportunity to update my blog, so, here it is.
I had mentioned the other day that I have family coming over. We are picking up Mum at the airport in a little bit. She'll be hungry, so we will likely have brunch, then go shopping for all the food that: 1) Dad and I forgot to get 2) is better to get "fresh"-er 3) that Mum will say we forgot, but really Dad and I just would just as soon not have bothered with.
Then Mum will make a big deal of having to rush to the house to get is ready for company. Hello - Just what have I been doing all weekend? And what I do every time we have company?
Mum does not get that she does not live here anymore and _she_ is the company that I have to get ready for.
Aunt and uncle (Mum's brother and sister-in-law) along with their rug-rat will be driving in tonight.
Dad's ... um ... friend is coming in the morning to help with the meal-making. This should be interesting. She has met Mum before and all should be cool there, but /I/ feel mondo tension. Dad too. Actually, I may have sympathetic tension from Dad.
And Amy (Mum's first sister-in-law) will be here tomorrow too.
Mum is like the center cog of awkward in the family.
Here it is in a nut-shell:
She slept with her brother's first wife before he did.
Dad still loves her, and she still loves him, but she switched teams.
She and Dad's new hopefully-girlfriend are both going to be playing Mrs Domestic.
Uncle's ex will be here because of her relationship with Mum (which has ended physically, but they are still really good friends) and now with me (--not a physical relationship exactly--)
So I have a house full of ex's and currents. This is, by the way, not my idea of the Norman Rockwell Family Holiday. I have emergency meds to help me through it. I also have Claire on speed dial to whisk me away should the need arise. We don't want a repeat of last year.
Actually, the little niece provides a nice bit of distraction.
So, Take Care and Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans out there. Happy Next-Few-Days to the rest of you.
LQ
Monday, November 22, 2010
Funding my DeviantArt?
I cannot believe that I am actually considering putting an annoying banner add on my blog page to fund my DeviantAry membership. (shakes head) I dunno. I mean, I do not think that it gets enough hits to make a difference, so it would just be... annoying.
Yeah, I think that about decides it for me. Not enough hits to make it worth selling out. (How sad is that?)
Or... what do you all think? One little ad down at the bottom... maybe?
I suppose I could take it down if it irritates me too much.
Hmm.... decisions, decisions.
Yeah, I think that about decides it for me. Not enough hits to make it worth selling out. (How sad is that?)
Or... what do you all think? One little ad down at the bottom... maybe?
I suppose I could take it down if it irritates me too much.
Hmm.... decisions, decisions.
Friday, November 19, 2010
It is Friday and I am not sure how I feel about that
This update may take me a while to get posted, but I will leave it up here until I am good and ready to post it.
This week has really gone my fast. Too fast, one may say.
The Linux Mint servers were having issues from being overloaded. I am happy that they are getting that popular... in a way.
Maybe I should go back to looking for a nice, quiet, unpopular distribution... maybe I should stick with Mint. It is great, but I am never one to go with the flow, as it were.
Rice. Sure, it's rice - who expects it to _not_ be boring. But hey, seasoned right, it is very flexible. And, dried, it stores well all winter, so, you know, no point in being down about it, eh?
I watched the film they made of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and...
I think they did a good job. I am not goring to do a side-by-side breakdown. I have given up on trying to do that because it never ends well for the film. Maybe an exception or two. Now, books made from films? That is a whole other issue all together.
Back to the point, I really think that - for a conversion - the stripped down film made a lot of sense. Yeah, I think there was a point or two missing... but those missing points are mostly Mrs. Sebold's issues/hangups. It was tidied up nicely for the movie-going audience.
Never Let Me Go, when it comes out, I am not likely going to be so kind about. In fact, I think I am going to re-read it over the holidays so it is all fresh. It has been even longer since I read Ishiguro than Sebold. This was an incredible book. Depressing, yes, but incredible.
Now, I have no idea if there are plans or not, but I think Peter Jackson could do a good job bringing Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series to film... seeing as how Hollywood has thrown in the towel on original film concepts. (Did I spell Westerfeld right? lemme look that up... Nope. Better go back and fix that. Done. Now no one will know.)
I did a thing a while back about songs that, given a more developed story, could make a really good film. Some may be more like a Sundance festival short, other maybe like a full fledged motion picture, but hey... interesting plot nonetheless.
I am listening to Yaz (or Yazoo, for those of you across the pond) while writing this. It feels good.
Earlier, I was listening to Cherry Poppin' Daddies:
"You gotta move fast to beat the devil
Your arm is too short to box with G__"
I feel like that some days... stuck between anything and everything with no recourse and no wall to put my back against. It really wears me out sometimes.
Oh, I am doing better now, I suppose. Sometimes when you are lying down at the bottom of the well, the only thing to do is be still and hope the kicking is over with soon.
So, this is supposed to be the month for writing, right? It is bugging me that I have not been able to put anything down, you know? And Mum will be here Wednesday. It feels like it may as well be tomorrow. I am not ready to deal with family again. Maybe I just want Dad all to myself for the holidays. Yeah, that is bad of me to think like that, but then, I have even worse thoughts, so, oh well. The point of that was to say that starting with Mum on Wed,family will be coming and between getting ready, and then them being here, I doubt I will get anything finished enough to post. :bummer:
This is getting long-ish and has touched on a number of subjects without being very meaningful to any of them, so I suppose it is time to wrap this up.
Take Care-
LQ
This week has really gone my fast. Too fast, one may say.
The Linux Mint servers were having issues from being overloaded. I am happy that they are getting that popular... in a way.
Maybe I should go back to looking for a nice, quiet, unpopular distribution... maybe I should stick with Mint. It is great, but I am never one to go with the flow, as it were.
Rice. Sure, it's rice - who expects it to _not_ be boring. But hey, seasoned right, it is very flexible. And, dried, it stores well all winter, so, you know, no point in being down about it, eh?
I watched the film they made of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and...
I think they did a good job. I am not goring to do a side-by-side breakdown. I have given up on trying to do that because it never ends well for the film. Maybe an exception or two. Now, books made from films? That is a whole other issue all together.
Back to the point, I really think that - for a conversion - the stripped down film made a lot of sense. Yeah, I think there was a point or two missing... but those missing points are mostly Mrs. Sebold's issues/hangups. It was tidied up nicely for the movie-going audience.
Never Let Me Go, when it comes out, I am not likely going to be so kind about. In fact, I think I am going to re-read it over the holidays so it is all fresh. It has been even longer since I read Ishiguro than Sebold. This was an incredible book. Depressing, yes, but incredible.
Now, I have no idea if there are plans or not, but I think Peter Jackson could do a good job bringing Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series to film... seeing as how Hollywood has thrown in the towel on original film concepts. (Did I spell Westerfeld right? lemme look that up... Nope. Better go back and fix that. Done. Now no one will know.)
I did a thing a while back about songs that, given a more developed story, could make a really good film. Some may be more like a Sundance festival short, other maybe like a full fledged motion picture, but hey... interesting plot nonetheless.
I am listening to Yaz (or Yazoo, for those of you across the pond) while writing this. It feels good.
Earlier, I was listening to Cherry Poppin' Daddies:
"You gotta move fast to beat the devil
Your arm is too short to box with G__"
I feel like that some days... stuck between anything and everything with no recourse and no wall to put my back against. It really wears me out sometimes.
Oh, I am doing better now, I suppose. Sometimes when you are lying down at the bottom of the well, the only thing to do is be still and hope the kicking is over with soon.
So, this is supposed to be the month for writing, right? It is bugging me that I have not been able to put anything down, you know? And Mum will be here Wednesday. It feels like it may as well be tomorrow. I am not ready to deal with family again. Maybe I just want Dad all to myself for the holidays. Yeah, that is bad of me to think like that, but then, I have even worse thoughts, so, oh well. The point of that was to say that starting with Mum on Wed,family will be coming and between getting ready, and then them being here, I doubt I will get anything finished enough to post. :bummer:
This is getting long-ish and has touched on a number of subjects without being very meaningful to any of them, so I suppose it is time to wrap this up.
Take Care-
LQ
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
No Update Today
There was a time I was doing one of those 365 things. I am not now, so I do not, like, need to make an update every day.
So, I am wrapped up in a blanket eating (?) tomato soup listening to (currently Pet Shop Boys - no, it is changing... Gary Numan). It is -26C outside and a nice, new, fluffy layer of snow.
Here is the thing: I do not know which is worse; your friends parents catching you talking to your food, or getting the answer to "Does it talk back?" wrong.
Also, my, um, agent was asking me if I wanted some more work... for someone else. More script _writing_. That is good. New and different stuff. I asked PHP or PERL and he said it would be up to me... whatever works. It'll probably be PHP. Ah, my good friend. Comfortable like an old blanket. Like this blanket, actually.
So...
Last night's dream was really messed up and I am not going to post it.
There is that meteor shower tonight. Leonid.
Prince William got engaged, eh? Good for them. I think she'll do fine.
What else?
Oh, and yeah, check out eyebeam.com. Funny comics. You may have seen that I am reading the archives.
So, take care, eh-
LQ
So, I am wrapped up in a blanket eating (?) tomato soup listening to (currently Pet Shop Boys - no, it is changing... Gary Numan). It is -26C outside and a nice, new, fluffy layer of snow.
Here is the thing: I do not know which is worse; your friends parents catching you talking to your food, or getting the answer to "Does it talk back?" wrong.
Also, my, um, agent was asking me if I wanted some more work... for someone else. More script _writing_. That is good. New and different stuff. I asked PHP or PERL and he said it would be up to me... whatever works. It'll probably be PHP. Ah, my good friend. Comfortable like an old blanket. Like this blanket, actually.
So...
Last night's dream was really messed up and I am not going to post it.
There is that meteor shower tonight. Leonid.
Prince William got engaged, eh? Good for them. I think she'll do fine.
What else?
Oh, and yeah, check out eyebeam.com. Funny comics. You may have seen that I am reading the archives.
So, take care, eh-
LQ
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
I even have Doctors in my dreams!
I woke up a few minutes ago from a _weird_ dream segment that I want to get down before- well here it is, and yes, I am sure it is all bout the frustrations I was having with work.
I was at the Dr's and it was like an operating room / gym locker room. At times, I was on the table, but at other times I was walking around. Well not much walking around, kinda on my feet, over in the corner.
The Dr was always really nice-talking and gentle. Not like, used-car-salesman/serpent-with-fruit-nice-talk but a genuine, comforting tone and disposition. He explained the whole procedure, then each step as he was going through it. It was only the two of us there. I was not scared and I knew that everything was... well... proper.
So, there were these things, as he explained, that he was going to attach to each of my organs so that then, when it was their turn, they would come out really easily.
The first one to go was my right kidney and I was amazed at the relief once it was out. I just hurt so much less - it felt good to have it out, but that was a small comfort, all things considered. I was already nekked, so I did.
Then I would "take a break" and get up and walk around as described earlier.
Then my left kidney and while I was standing after that one, I really needed to pee. He said to just let it go there in the corner where I was and that it would probably be the last time I would need to worry about that.
Then liver, spleen and pancreas, right lung - all in the same fashion.
He said he was saving my ovaries for last because he did not want me to feel like I was missing them. I thought it was nice at the time.
Then he was like, "Anything you want to say, now is your chance. I'm about to remove your other lung."
I just shook my head.
Then he said, "I'm just going to go ahead and take your heart now so your part will be over."
He did and showed it to me with a smile. I smiled back and fell asleep - which was when I woke up feeling no more love for Doctors than before I went to sleep.
So, now I am wrapped up really tight in my blanket and I keep looking of my shoulder.
And before you ask:
- Yes, I have read "Never Let Me Go"
- Yes, I know they are making it to film.
I had not actually thought about that until I was typing this blog though.
Well, hopefully my day will be better. (Although the sensation of being free from pain was nice.)
I think I need some hot apple cider - it is nine below (twenty-three below for my oh-so-many metric readers)
Take Care-
LQ
I was at the Dr's and it was like an operating room / gym locker room. At times, I was on the table, but at other times I was walking around. Well not much walking around, kinda on my feet, over in the corner.
The Dr was always really nice-talking and gentle. Not like, used-car-salesman/serpent-with-fruit-nice-talk but a genuine, comforting tone and disposition. He explained the whole procedure, then each step as he was going through it. It was only the two of us there. I was not scared and I knew that everything was... well... proper.
So, there were these things, as he explained, that he was going to attach to each of my organs so that then, when it was their turn, they would come out really easily.
The first one to go was my right kidney and I was amazed at the relief once it was out. I just hurt so much less - it felt good to have it out, but that was a small comfort, all things considered. I was already nekked, so I did.
Then I would "take a break" and get up and walk around as described earlier.
Then my left kidney and while I was standing after that one, I really needed to pee. He said to just let it go there in the corner where I was and that it would probably be the last time I would need to worry about that.
Then liver, spleen and pancreas, right lung - all in the same fashion.
He said he was saving my ovaries for last because he did not want me to feel like I was missing them. I thought it was nice at the time.
Then he was like, "Anything you want to say, now is your chance. I'm about to remove your other lung."
I just shook my head.
Then he said, "I'm just going to go ahead and take your heart now so your part will be over."
He did and showed it to me with a smile. I smiled back and fell asleep - which was when I woke up feeling no more love for Doctors than before I went to sleep.
So, now I am wrapped up really tight in my blanket and I keep looking of my shoulder.
And before you ask:
- Yes, I have read "Never Let Me Go"
- Yes, I know they are making it to film.
I had not actually thought about that until I was typing this blog though.
Well, hopefully my day will be better. (Although the sensation of being free from pain was nice.)
I think I need some hot apple cider - it is nine below (twenty-three below for my oh-so-many metric readers)
Take Care-
LQ
Monday, November 15, 2010
My Jove, I think he's got it.
Well, there is hope at last.
The contractor guy who sends this data work my way interceded. 1) he explained that no, it was not okay, but that the compiled data they got back from the other guy may be bad. 2) said they need to get their extract fix, 3) Told Mr Honcho in no uncertain terms that he was not entitled to contact me directly - certainly not without including him.
So, the short of it all is that the character is not supposed to be in the data. *If* I removed it so my process would work correctly, it still would mean that the raw data is compromised. They are doing to have to have the stuff on their end looked at. This seems a little anti-climactic after how the guy irked me so.
Dad says that I have had a big problem staying ... myself these past few days and yeah, I have big missing blocks with this going on. It is not worth it.
I got other stuff to do.
Take Care
LQ
The contractor guy who sends this data work my way interceded. 1) he explained that no, it was not okay, but that the compiled data they got back from the other guy may be bad. 2) said they need to get their extract fix, 3) Told Mr Honcho in no uncertain terms that he was not entitled to contact me directly - certainly not without including him.
So, the short of it all is that the character is not supposed to be in the data. *If* I removed it so my process would work correctly, it still would mean that the raw data is compromised. They are doing to have to have the stuff on their end looked at. This seems a little anti-climactic after how the guy irked me so.
Dad says that I have had a big problem staying ... myself these past few days and yeah, I have big missing blocks with this going on. It is not worth it.
I got other stuff to do.
Take Care
LQ
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Working for People is Frustrating
Mercy.
Some people.
So... the data format saga continues.
Mr Honcho, waiting for his compiled data, was like, "We are sending you the same format that we were sending the other guy and he didn't have a problem with it."
I was like, "I can't speak on the other data sets as I did not process them. This data set has is not properly formatted and if I processes the data now, it will produce bad results."
So Mr Honcho decides that I need to look at what the last guy did and fix my process and it is already late so I had better get it done fast.
He has some sample data sets and the results sent to me and I look at them. Yes, the data is bad going in and my results are identical to what the last guy produced.
"Mr Honcho. The sample dataset I was provided is similarly bad and my results are identical to the ones that were provided to you. If your IT folks require anything from me, please let me know."
And Mr Honcho replies, "If you are getting the same results that they did, then obviously everything is fine with the data and you need to get me my results back. Please Hurry."
(These all are not really quoted. I am paraphrasing.)
My reply: "Excuse me?"
The next sound you hear will be my head making contact with my desk.
Take Care-
LQ
Some people.
So... the data format saga continues.
Mr Honcho, waiting for his compiled data, was like, "We are sending you the same format that we were sending the other guy and he didn't have a problem with it."
I was like, "I can't speak on the other data sets as I did not process them. This data set has is not properly formatted and if I processes the data now, it will produce bad results."
So Mr Honcho decides that I need to look at what the last guy did and fix my process and it is already late so I had better get it done fast.
He has some sample data sets and the results sent to me and I look at them. Yes, the data is bad going in and my results are identical to what the last guy produced.
"Mr Honcho. The sample dataset I was provided is similarly bad and my results are identical to the ones that were provided to you. If your IT folks require anything from me, please let me know."
And Mr Honcho replies, "If you are getting the same results that they did, then obviously everything is fine with the data and you need to get me my results back. Please Hurry."
(These all are not really quoted. I am paraphrasing.)
My reply: "Excuse me?"
The next sound you hear will be my head making contact with my desk.
Take Care-
LQ
Friday, November 12, 2010
It's Friday - I'm in... pajamas
Yes. It is Friday and I know that most of you out there do not need _me_ to tell you that.
I _so_ do not feel like posting on my blog today, so I thought I would post about that.
This is just a Friday blog and not very interesting, so you may want to just move on, but here it goes.
I have been missing a lot of time lately and that makes it really hard to get things done. Well, sure, I think I swept the same floor like 5 times on Tuesday. So, I know that got done, eh? Maybe we should get security cameras in here so I can find out what it is that goes on during these spells. Or maybe I am better off not knowing. Typically that is what I hear - that I don't want to know, or it was not important.
Twice this week I woke up in Dad's bed, once in the kitchen and once in the bathroom. Once I came back from my missing time undressed in the coat closet and once by the creek in my parka and boots.
For the November writing thing, I was really hoping to get a lot written... no a character.
Then... I get this e-mail yesterday from "my client" (a honcho at the place for whom I crunch data. See, first, I was like, "The byte count is off and there is this transmission artifact (ascii-burp) in the file. Please re-transmit."
So I get it back without the garble, and there is one record with a bad field count and it is throwing things off. So I find an un-escaped delimiter in a field in the record and it should not be there at all - like, there is no reason for that character to be in there at all.
I go back to them again and I am like, there is this record that has a problem. It was extracted that way and it needs to be fixed, re-extracted and sent to me again.
This is where the honcho's e-mail comes in because they should have the file back [today, now that it is Friday] but it will be late, etc, etc.
The e-mail was just to me, like it was my fault. I included my contractor guy when I replied, "Excuse me?"
That was really depressing on top of all my uncertainties this week.
So, _NOW_ I am feeling bad.
I was listening to The Bravery this morning what waffling about posting this. I made ginger-curry rice with an egg, but they are getting cold while I type.
Pffffftttt...
Reading Misfile did not help because it is kinda a mini cliffhanger and I could just about kick Chris in the shin for doing that to me today, but no... I couldn't do that.
I am thinking hard about finishing watching Kick-A__... but I don't know. I am about 40 minutes in an waiting for a character that I like. Well, I liked Mr Bitey, but that is it so far.
So, there it is. Hope I didn't bring anyone down.
Take Care-
LQ
I _so_ do not feel like posting on my blog today, so I thought I would post about that.
This is just a Friday blog and not very interesting, so you may want to just move on, but here it goes.
I have been missing a lot of time lately and that makes it really hard to get things done. Well, sure, I think I swept the same floor like 5 times on Tuesday. So, I know that got done, eh? Maybe we should get security cameras in here so I can find out what it is that goes on during these spells. Or maybe I am better off not knowing. Typically that is what I hear - that I don't want to know, or it was not important
Twice this week I woke up in Dad's bed, once in the kitchen and once in the bathroom. Once I came back from my missing time undressed in the coat closet and once by the creek in my parka and boots.
For the November writing thing, I was really hoping to get a lot written... no a character.
Then... I get this e-mail yesterday from "my client" (a honcho at the place for whom I crunch data. See, first, I was like, "The byte count is off and there is this transmission artifact (ascii-burp) in the file. Please re-transmit."
So I get it back without the garble, and there is one record with a bad field count and it is throwing things off. So I find an un-escaped delimiter in a field in the record and it should not be there at all - like, there is no reason for that character to be in there at all.
I go back to them again and I am like, there is this record that has a problem. It was extracted that way and it needs to be fixed, re-extracted and sent to me again.
This is where the honcho's e-mail comes in because they should have the file back [today, now that it is Friday] but it will be late, etc, etc.
The e-mail was just to me, like it was my fault. I included my contractor guy when I replied, "Excuse me?"
That was really depressing on top of all my uncertainties this week.
So, _NOW_ I am feeling bad.
I was listening to The Bravery this morning what waffling about posting this. I made ginger-curry rice with an egg, but they are getting cold while I type.
Pffffftttt...
Reading Misfile did not help because it is kinda a mini cliffhanger and I could just about kick Chris in the shin for doing that to me today, but no... I couldn't do that.
I am thinking hard about finishing watching Kick-A__... but I don't know. I am about 40 minutes in an waiting for a character that I like. Well, I liked Mr Bitey, but that is it so far.
So, there it is. Hope I didn't bring anyone down.
Take Care-
LQ
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Another Dream, while I'm at it.
Okay, this one is really short, eh?
Again, fencing related.
I have a vague impression of the ride _to_ fencing, but more as a sense that what was going on _while_ I was fencing had been going on for a long time and was adding to the frustration.
So, there I am, on strip, _trying_ to fence, one opponent after the next. And we are fencing, but there are people that keep talking to me. I don't have my mask on. It is like, I am about to lunge, and someone - anyone - next to me, beside the strip, asks me a question. Like, what I want for dinner; did I hear about this or that from the news; have I done such and such... I really do not even remember all the questions and comments. I just wanted to scream "shut up!"
It was not just any one person talking to me. They were not strangers in my dream, but looking back, I do not recognize any of them. I was _really_ frustrated and getting a headache. The not having my mask on is bothering me a lot. I mean, that is the best part of fencing; getting to wear my mask. I keep it clean and smelling nice... like LQ sweat. Kidding. It smells minty. My glove on the other hand...
So, was it impacting my performance? You bet. Was I getting lots of touches against? You bet. Was I getting some touches for? Yes.
It was kinda weird and did not last real long. The my dream phone started ringing and I was in that B-29. I actually got to find the phone. That is kinda different. I rarely get to answer it. I pick it up and am about to say "hello" and the bomb doors open and down I go. Yeah, it got worse from there, but this part is typical and not interesting... as such.
So, Take Care-
LQ
Again, fencing related.
I have a vague impression of the ride _to_ fencing, but more as a sense that what was going on _while_ I was fencing had been going on for a long time and was adding to the frustration.
So, there I am, on strip, _trying_ to fence, one opponent after the next. And we are fencing, but there are people that keep talking to me. I don't have my mask on. It is like, I am about to lunge, and someone - anyone - next to me, beside the strip, asks me a question. Like, what I want for dinner; did I hear about this or that from the news; have I done such and such... I really do not even remember all the questions and comments. I just wanted to scream "shut up!"
It was not just any one person talking to me. They were not strangers in my dream, but looking back, I do not recognize any of them. I was _really_ frustrated and getting a headache. The not having my mask on is bothering me a lot. I mean, that is the best part of fencing; getting to wear my mask. I keep it clean and smelling nice... like LQ sweat. Kidding. It smells minty. My glove on the other hand...
So, was it impacting my performance? You bet. Was I getting lots of touches against? You bet. Was I getting some touches for? Yes.
It was kinda weird and did not last real long. The my dream phone started ringing and I was in that B-29. I actually got to find the phone. That is kinda different. I rarely get to answer it. I pick it up and am about to say "hello" and the bomb doors open and down I go. Yeah, it got worse from there, but this part is typical and not interesting... as such.
So, Take Care-
LQ
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Nekked Fencing
So, I had this kinda weird fencing dream last night. It is incomplete the way many dreams are, but here it is.
The setup - Here is what I just knew in the dream - not learned from events in the dream:
I was at a fencing tournament with some other people from my club. The Men's/mixed even was nearing completion and I was fencing in the Women's event that followed. It was not at our club, but one we had been to plenty, although awake, I have no recollection of a place like this. I just knew it was not our salle and that, in the dream, it was not completely unfamiliar.
Claire (who does not fence, but is like my best friend) was there standing beside me while we watched the current bout. One of my club-mates was in the bout and it was a DE bout going into the third period. My friend was leading something like 11 to 9 at the early part of my dream. If he won, he was going to have to fence his brother who was standing just a little in front and to the right of me off the back of the opponent's side of the strip. (so he was kinda facing his brother.)
Claire was standing to my left and slightly behind. For those of you who track relative positions differently, the bout was north/north-east of me, putting the brother east/north-east of me, and Claire was west/south west of me. And, for those who feel this is important, the predominant colour tone was white and I was loosing background detail to like a white light glare. It was not painful, but just there like the brightness was turned up and the saturation was down. Maybe. It was just kinda whitewashed.
Now we are getting to the more weird part. I was thinking about the feel of the heavy fencing jacket moving over over my skin because I did not have it on yet. I was not wearing my underarm protector, chest protector tee-shirt... nothing. No shoes nor socks either. The only - only thing I had on were my un-zipped fencing pants. I kept my arms folded over my chest for my own sense of modesty and discomfort, not because anyone else though anything of me being mostly nekked. I felt very vulnerable with out my full kit on, and mask, on the strip with my epee. I was rather anxious to get started fencing. Even just a warm-up bout. Anything just to get covered up.
I had to pee. I was hoping to see the end of the bout, but the pressure was more urgent. So, I headed off to the stalls. I could almost say stables. I was very aware of the feel of my fencing pants on my bare skin underneath, and of the white tiles of the floor under my bare feet, and of the feel under my left hand left of the heavily painted (white) wood of the sides of the stall. The other side - like, the other stall (to the north west, for those who care) was still the tile, but covered in hay/straw. There were no animals there, but, it was like there normally were. It was all clean, just... stable-esque.
I woke up before I sat down in my dream... and wondered down the hall to my real bathroom.
Uh, there you have it. If you have a question about it, feel free to ask. There may be a detail left out.
Take care-
LQ
The setup - Here is what I just knew in the dream - not learned from events in the dream:
I was at a fencing tournament with some other people from my club. The Men's/mixed even was nearing completion and I was fencing in the Women's event that followed. It was not at our club, but one we had been to plenty, although awake, I have no recollection of a place like this. I just knew it was not our salle and that, in the dream, it was not completely unfamiliar.
Claire (who does not fence, but is like my best friend) was there standing beside me while we watched the current bout. One of my club-mates was in the bout and it was a DE bout going into the third period. My friend was leading something like 11 to 9 at the early part of my dream. If he won, he was going to have to fence his brother who was standing just a little in front and to the right of me off the back of the opponent's side of the strip. (so he was kinda facing his brother.)
Claire was standing to my left and slightly behind. For those of you who track relative positions differently, the bout was north/north-east of me, putting the brother east/north-east of me, and Claire was west/south west of me. And, for those who feel this is important, the predominant colour tone was white and I was loosing background detail to like a white light glare. It was not painful, but just there like the brightness was turned up and the saturation was down. Maybe. It was just kinda whitewashed.
Now we are getting to the more weird part. I was thinking about the feel of the heavy fencing jacket moving over over my skin because I did not have it on yet. I was not wearing my underarm protector, chest protector tee-shirt... nothing. No shoes nor socks either. The only - only thing I had on were my un-zipped fencing pants. I kept my arms folded over my chest for my own sense of modesty and discomfort, not because anyone else though anything of me being mostly nekked. I felt very vulnerable with out my full kit on, and mask, on the strip with my epee. I was rather anxious to get started fencing. Even just a warm-up bout. Anything just to get covered up.
I had to pee. I was hoping to see the end of the bout, but the pressure was more urgent. So, I headed off to the stalls. I could almost say stables. I was very aware of the feel of my fencing pants on my bare skin underneath, and of the white tiles of the floor under my bare feet, and of the feel under my left hand left of the heavily painted (white) wood of the sides of the stall. The other side - like, the other stall (to the north west, for those who care) was still the tile, but covered in hay/straw. There were no animals there, but, it was like there normally were. It was all clean, just... stable-esque.
I woke up before I sat down in my dream... and wondered down the hall to my real bathroom.
Uh, there you have it. If you have a question about it, feel free to ask. There may be a detail left out.
Take care-
LQ
Eenie, meenie, mynie, (win)ME
Okay, So...
I am looking at checking out some old Win games Dad found in a box. Infocom and Sierra stuff. I was thinking first that these are _so_ Win'95 that I really ought to just be able to use WINE (wine 1.2.1-0ubuntu1 Microsoft windows compatibility layer)
But then... I really do not want to junk up my nice fresh system, when I can just spin up a virtual machine.
Initially, I was just going to run the WIN7 VBox and have at it. But then I got to thinking again about how old these are, and how they are more than likely 16 bit dos-ported-to-windows games. DOS I could actually handle easier, I think, running DOSBOX, but that won't work here.
But, Win95 was bad. Win98 was a little less bad. Win98SE was starting to get not too bad. Then there is Win ME. That's Millennium Edition, just in case you were not keeping up. I mean, hey, that was a long time ago. So, Win ME was like the last of that old base of windows. XP was not too far off in some ways, but far enough in the ways that are going to be a factor here. Vista and Win 7 are quite the OS's in their own way, but I am looking at some really old software.
Oh, sure, I am sure that some of you out there are all like, "Windows is great. XP can handle it." Well, no and yes - but... Windows is not as bad as I like to make it out to be. Mushrooms and I do not get along (stay with me here) and neither of us have anything good to say about the other. Other people like 'shrooms. Fine. That does not make them bad people but it also does not make me want to go out and eat them. The 'shrooms, not the people. I do not eat people, that I am aware of. Except for Green. That Green from Soylent is some tasty stuff. Kidding.
The point of all that is: I don't wanna pickle.
Wait... no. The point is I am not trying to debate the pros and cons of the operating systems in general not point out any over merits or faults. I just have to find the best tool for the job.
But, here is what I have ready to go as far as virtual machines go: Win2k, Win2k3, Win2k8, Win7... see a pattern there? Server, server, server and Se7en. Well, somewhere, I think we do still have a Vista virtual box exported on disc, but as it would not be very helpful.
Oh, and if you have a "new" Win OS and are running old, 16bit windows games, I am not trying to invalidate you at all. If there is something about all this that I apparently do not know, that is okay - it is not the end of the world - I am quite certain that there is a lot that I do not know about a great many things.
Take Care-
LQ
PS. The LINUX tag in the tag cloud is to remind people that the host system for the virtual machine is LINUX.
I am looking at checking out some old Win games Dad found in a box. Infocom and Sierra stuff. I was thinking first that these are _so_ Win'95 that I really ought to just be able to use WINE (wine 1.2.1-0ubuntu1 Microsoft windows compatibility layer)
But then... I really do not want to junk up my nice fresh system, when I can just spin up a virtual machine.
Initially, I was just going to run the WIN7 VBox and have at it. But then I got to thinking again about how old these are, and how they are more than likely 16 bit dos-ported-to-windows games. DOS I could actually handle easier, I think, running DOSBOX, but that won't work here.
But, Win95 was bad. Win98 was a little less bad. Win98SE was starting to get not too bad. Then there is Win ME. That's Millennium Edition, just in case you were not keeping up. I mean, hey, that was a long time ago. So, Win ME was like the last of that old base of windows. XP was not too far off in some ways, but far enough in the ways that are going to be a factor here. Vista and Win 7 are quite the OS's in their own way, but I am looking at some really old software.
Oh, sure, I am sure that some of you out there are all like, "Windows is great. XP can handle it." Well, no and yes - but... Windows is not as bad as I like to make it out to be. Mushrooms and I do not get along (stay with me here) and neither of us have anything good to say about the other. Other people like 'shrooms. Fine. That does not make them bad people but it also does not make me want to go out and eat them. The 'shrooms, not the people. I do not eat people, that I am aware of. Except for Green. That Green from Soylent is some tasty stuff. Kidding.
The point of all that is: I don't wanna pickle.
Wait... no. The point is I am not trying to debate the pros and cons of the operating systems in general not point out any over merits or faults. I just have to find the best tool for the job.
But, here is what I have ready to go as far as virtual machines go: Win2k, Win2k3, Win2k8, Win7... see a pattern there? Server, server, server and Se7en. Well, somewhere, I think we do still have a Vista virtual box exported on disc, but as it would not be very helpful.
Oh, and if you have a "new" Win OS and are running old, 16bit windows games, I am not trying to invalidate you at all. If there is something about all this that I apparently do not know, that is okay - it is not the end of the world - I am quite certain that there is a lot that I do not know about a great many things.
Take Care-
LQ
PS. The LINUX tag in the tag cloud is to remind people that the host system for the virtual machine is LINUX.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
I likez me some cheezies
Hot apple cider, crackers and cheese while watching The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Film ended and I left Dad and his lady friend to have the livingroom to themselves. (It is better than me thinking about them going off to his bedroom together. But then, I do sit on that sofa from time to time.) Pay me no attention there. I don't /know/ if they have even taken their relationship to that level. Best if I try to not think about it much.
It has been a busier day that I anticipated and I think I am going to turn in early. Already have the music going and just finished polishing the pearlies.
But... I have some old Win apps from Dad that I want to check out. Do I run me some virtual Windoze, or set up WINE? What's your opinion?
Take Care-
LQ
It has been a busier day that I anticipated and I think I am going to turn in early. Already have the music going and just finished polishing the pearlies.
But... I have some old Win apps from Dad that I want to check out. Do I run me some virtual Windoze, or set up WINE? What's your opinion?
Take Care-
LQ
Friday, November 5, 2010
Friday: Back to Linux Mint 10 RC
Hi, and welcome to Friday.
As far as moods and disposition goes, this was not a good week for me to have been messing about with OS's. There are times when I am in a much better frame of mind for Slackware based distros.
Most of my "grief" came from three simple things, but there was more to it than just these:
1) Virtual Box & Guest Addition display drivers
2) Package management
3) I'm an idiot.
So, it went something like this.
I was running Linux Mint Debian Edition, but the RC for Linux Mint (Main~Gnome) 10 which has a lot of cool new features on the mintMenu in particular. And, it is available in 64bit.
Okay, great. Got it installed. Got Rosetta@home going again. All was good.
Well, while going through all that, I was thinking to myself... I wonder what Zenwalk has gotten up to lately. I mean, we are talking about a virtual machine, right? I stayed up on LM10 the whole time. No problem.
So... yeah.
First off, Zenwalk Core is great for a number of things. I mean, the file server here (an old 333Mhz Pentium got mercy's sake) that I built up scraps (with Dad's help - it was my first computer assembly) is still running Zenwalk Server for about four years now. Very stable, but anyway.
One of the things I like about it is it is really easy to switch from init 3 to 4 and back. (console environment to graphical environment) This is a good thing because I needed it. I just could not really get Xorg configured. It wanted to use nothing but the vesa driver and stuck me in 800x600 in stead of 1280x800 and the mouse integration never really worked right.
Going on the supposition that these were VirtualBox issues and all this would work fine in a "real" installation, I decided to set that aside and have a look around - the real purpose of the exercise. Well, the package manager - netpkg was not too bad. I mean, I am spoiled to Mint's updater and whatnot, but I could work with netpkg/zenpkg. It is better than it was four years ago when I set up the file server. But you kinda have to know what package you are looking for. There are plenty of resources for looking around the interwebs for package names, then hope that netpkg can find it out there. I mean, I did get the kernel headers installed so I could install the VBGuestAdditions. It was livable. Zenwalk is very pretty, but I do not want to settle. If I really wanted a MAC, but did not want to pay for it, I could run ZW and install everything under the sun and be happy, I suppose.
Quickly, I just went back to LMDE, but I could not get it to install. I got kinda frustrated with that because I _had_ installed it before.
So, I looked at Absolute. It too is slackware based. And kinda pretty. I had kinda tested it out in the past, but as soon as I saw that I could not just run it in VBox out-of-the-box, I moved on because I was looking for something kinda specific at the time. So, install again.
It had a nice little "Here is what you can do now" welcome message. Google Chromium was installed out of the box as were some other things I use and others I don't. Typical.
During the install, it prompted to create a root password, but did not have a step for setting up the user. Here in the welcome screen, the message was something like this:
Here is where I am supposed to tell you that you should create a user for yourself, but I don't because I need root for everything because the only things I do on this distro need root access and I do not want to su or sudo and keep having to type the password over and over.
Well, 1) sudo can be set such that one does not have to enter the password every time. It is not as secure, but better than running around as root all the time. 2) I suppose that is fine when one is the only person to use the computer or everyone using it is just going to all use the same ID. Whatever.
So, okay. I could just set myself up my user account and configure it the way I want - I hardly have to subscribe to the author's policies, right? I *see* where he is coming from, but I just don't go there myself. No biggie. Moving on.
I downloaded all the kernel source and started building modules and installing the guest additions. Pfft - same thing; 800x600 and no mouse integration. Oh, and no mounting host shares. That is definitely a show stopper... ish.
Then it comes to the package manager - yeah, right. Search the web, find the package its self, install it. Okay... this really is fine for plenty of situations. I can really see jumping into this methodology really easily. Especially in an IT type environment where you probably have a file server with all your packages on it and can just mount your share, get to your own little custom repository and pick and choose.
BUT, if I was doing that, I would probably just run SLAX, you know? This just does not suit my current mission. Maybe when I am setting up something where that would be more appropriate, then that would be more... well, appropriate.
Now, a few things about the installers. What ever happened to letting me use more than one drive for the install? No... What drive would you like to install this on. Pick one and I am going to ignore the rest. This is fine for some things, but I want to go through this setup during installation and not have to revisit it after the fact. I want swap on a disk all its own. I want to choose where my home gets mounted - on its own drive. Putting /media in its own partition has its purpose too. Sure, I can add them later, but during install really is when I want to do it. After install, I just want to get the extra packages I need, remove the ones I don't and get to work, you know? Not the end of the world, but I feel like this was a bit of a step back in the evolution of linux installers. (Sure, someone is going to read this and think to themselves - hey, if she had just done it this way, or that way, everything would have this or that. Did I mention that I was not in the proper disposition for doing this stuff this week? Maybe later. It's virtual, I can pick it up again when I feel more like gettin' teckie wit' it.)
So, I go back to my good old Mint. What is this? I had not reset the environment back to 32 bit when I was installing LMDE! Oh... I am an idiot. But, well, I am installing 64 bit now, so no problem.
I put the VM back to Linux Mint 10 RC so I can track it until the release comes out and see if I want to install it on my laptop, or stick with the debian.
Frame of mind? I had kind of had a few setbacks when I kept blacking out during the Zenwalk tests. I would be in the middle of something, then the next thing I would know, I would be doing something else, somewhere else and have no idea where the past few hours had gone. A major setback in the trying-to-get-things-done department.
Now, all that is set aside for now and I am back on my laptop. :sigh: Comfy.
Thanks, take care, and happy Friday!
As far as moods and disposition goes, this was not a good week for me to have been messing about with OS's. There are times when I am in a much better frame of mind for Slackware based distros.
Most of my "grief" came from three simple things, but there was more to it than just these:
1) Virtual Box & Guest Addition display drivers
2) Package management
3) I'm an idiot.
So, it went something like this.
I was running Linux Mint Debian Edition, but the RC for Linux Mint (Main~Gnome) 10 which has a lot of cool new features on the mintMenu in particular. And, it is available in 64bit.
Okay, great. Got it installed. Got Rosetta@home going again. All was good.
Well, while going through all that, I was thinking to myself... I wonder what Zenwalk has gotten up to lately. I mean, we are talking about a virtual machine, right? I stayed up on LM10 the whole time. No problem.
So... yeah.
First off, Zenwalk Core is great for a number of things. I mean, the file server here (an old 333Mhz Pentium got mercy's sake) that I built up scraps (with Dad's help - it was my first computer assembly) is still running Zenwalk Server for about four years now. Very stable, but anyway.
One of the things I like about it is it is really easy to switch from init 3 to 4 and back. (console environment to graphical environment) This is a good thing because I needed it. I just could not really get Xorg configured. It wanted to use nothing but the vesa driver and stuck me in 800x600 in stead of 1280x800 and the mouse integration never really worked right.
Going on the supposition that these were VirtualBox issues and all this would work fine in a "real" installation, I decided to set that aside and have a look around - the real purpose of the exercise. Well, the package manager - netpkg was not too bad. I mean, I am spoiled to Mint's updater and whatnot, but I could work with netpkg/zenpkg. It is better than it was four years ago when I set up the file server. But you kinda have to know what package you are looking for. There are plenty of resources for looking around the interwebs for package names, then hope that netpkg can find it out there. I mean, I did get the kernel headers installed so I could install the VBGuestAdditions. It was livable. Zenwalk is very pretty, but I do not want to settle. If I really wanted a MAC, but did not want to pay for it, I could run ZW and install everything under the sun and be happy, I suppose.
Quickly, I just went back to LMDE, but I could not get it to install. I got kinda frustrated with that because I _had_ installed it before.
So, I looked at Absolute. It too is slackware based. And kinda pretty. I had kinda tested it out in the past, but as soon as I saw that I could not just run it in VBox out-of-the-box, I moved on because I was looking for something kinda specific at the time. So, install again.
It had a nice little "Here is what you can do now" welcome message. Google Chromium was installed out of the box as were some other things I use and others I don't. Typical.
During the install, it prompted to create a root password, but did not have a step for setting up the user. Here in the welcome screen, the message was something like this:
Here is where I am supposed to tell you that you should create a user for yourself, but I don't because I need root for everything because the only things I do on this distro need root access and I do not want to su or sudo and keep having to type the password over and over.
Well, 1) sudo can be set such that one does not have to enter the password every time. It is not as secure, but better than running around as root all the time. 2) I suppose that is fine when one is the only person to use the computer or everyone using it is just going to all use the same ID. Whatever.
So, okay. I could just set myself up my user account and configure it the way I want - I hardly have to subscribe to the author's policies, right? I *see* where he is coming from, but I just don't go there myself. No biggie. Moving on.
I downloaded all the kernel source and started building modules and installing the guest additions. Pfft - same thing; 800x600 and no mouse integration. Oh, and no mounting host shares. That is definitely a show stopper... ish.
Then it comes to the package manager - yeah, right. Search the web, find the package its self, install it. Okay... this really is fine for plenty of situations. I can really see jumping into this methodology really easily. Especially in an IT type environment where you probably have a file server with all your packages on it and can just mount your share, get to your own little custom repository and pick and choose.
BUT, if I was doing that, I would probably just run SLAX, you know? This just does not suit my current mission. Maybe when I am setting up something where that would be more appropriate, then that would be more... well, appropriate.
Now, a few things about the installers. What ever happened to letting me use more than one drive for the install? No... What drive would you like to install this on. Pick one and I am going to ignore the rest. This is fine for some things, but I want to go through this setup during installation and not have to revisit it after the fact. I want swap on a disk all its own. I want to choose where my home gets mounted - on its own drive. Putting /media in its own partition has its purpose too. Sure, I can add them later, but during install really is when I want to do it. After install, I just want to get the extra packages I need, remove the ones I don't and get to work, you know? Not the end of the world, but I feel like this was a bit of a step back in the evolution of linux installers. (Sure, someone is going to read this and think to themselves - hey, if she had just done it this way, or that way, everything would have this or that. Did I mention that I was not in the proper disposition for doing this stuff this week? Maybe later. It's virtual, I can pick it up again when I feel more like gettin' teckie wit' it.)
So, I go back to my good old Mint. What is this? I had not reset the environment back to 32 bit when I was installing LMDE! Oh... I am an idiot. But, well, I am installing 64 bit now, so no problem.
I put the VM back to Linux Mint 10 RC so I can track it until the release comes out and see if I want to install it on my laptop, or stick with the debian.
Frame of mind? I had kind of had a few setbacks when I kept blacking out during the Zenwalk tests. I would be in the middle of something, then the next thing I would know, I would be doing something else, somewhere else and have no idea where the past few hours had gone. A major setback in the trying-to-get-things-done department.
Now, all that is set aside for now and I am back on my laptop. :sigh: Comfy.
Thanks, take care, and happy Friday!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Same as it Ever Was
Well, what do you know. Looks like I /am/ going to blog about my weekend.
The cool thing about going as a sheet-ghost is that it is easy to hide. I am really short and built such that I blend in well with the younger kiddos. So, that was kinda nice - avoiding most of the flirting.
I have mirrored sunglasses built into the costume so, 1) it is not /completely/ lame, 2) they help hold the sheet in place, 3) they are kinda creepy in a rather subtle way.
So, I spent most of Sat night parked in the corner with a cup of water under my sheet that I was drinking through a straw. I was people watching. There were more witches and zombies this year than I was expecting. And most of the vampires were like the "Count Dracula" or "Vamparella" type, not the "sparkle-y" type.
There was one really nice looking fairy in a /really/ short skirt and a rather handsome Indiana Jones. While the both did talk to me (kinda flirty, but not much, and not pushy) Indy was actually one of Dad's co-workers and the fairy thought I was one of her 10yr old brother's friends. So I got to just watch from a safe distance.
Sunday was the community center thing. Same costume, but many people there know me already (small community) so the flirt risk is /vary/ low. I actually circulated a bit. I had a speak and spell that I would "talk" with, but it was kind of awkward to use under my sheet. Dad was hoping to have some sort of EVP effect. Maybe we will work on that for next year.
So, there you have it. I am probably going to go to bed now that it is like 4 in the morning.
Dad and I were watching THIS - yeah, with Fred Astaire.
Take Care--
LQ
The cool thing about going as a sheet-ghost is that it is easy to hide. I am really short and built such that I blend in well with the younger kiddos. So, that was kinda nice - avoiding most of the flirting.
I have mirrored sunglasses built into the costume so, 1) it is not /completely/ lame, 2) they help hold the sheet in place, 3) they are kinda creepy in a rather subtle way.
So, I spent most of Sat night parked in the corner with a cup of water under my sheet that I was drinking through a straw. I was people watching. There were more witches and zombies this year than I was expecting. And most of the vampires were like the "Count Dracula" or "Vamparella" type, not the "sparkle-y" type.
There was one really nice looking fairy in a /really/ short skirt and a rather handsome Indiana Jones. While the both did talk to me (kinda flirty, but not much, and not pushy) Indy was actually one of Dad's co-workers and the fairy thought I was one of her 10yr old brother's friends. So I got to just watch from a safe distance.
Sunday was the community center thing. Same costume, but many people there know me already (small community) so the flirt risk is /vary/ low. I actually circulated a bit. I had a speak and spell that I would "talk" with, but it was kind of awkward to use under my sheet. Dad was hoping to have some sort of EVP effect. Maybe we will work on that for next year.
So, there you have it. I am probably going to go to bed now that it is like 4 in the morning.
Dad and I were watching THIS - yeah, with Fred Astaire.
Take Care--
LQ
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