Fish On Sunday?

Actually got out this afternoon at the wife's request to driver her to the fish store to get a Beta to replace what 'is name that died a few months ago.

Had to honk at a big red pickup that was easing through its red light nearly on top of me, then a few seconds later I pulled out a bit too soon in front of two, as it were, trucks, coming from opposing directions. But we made it to the fish store ok. And back.

A Walk On The Wild Side

Ran across this interesting article about walking a 50 miler while I was looking for a sign to warn people I am videotaping them. Don't ask...

Turkey DAy

Happy Turkey Day.

My mother called to wish me Happy Thanksgiving. I talked to my brother, the one who was cooking the bird, he told me I get my holiday "pessimism" (putting it mildly) from my mother.

Now I know who to blame!

I'm reading "Predator's Gold", by Philip Reeve. It's pretty good.

Garbarge Day

I was wandering around snopes and found an article in the Lost Legends section about mobile homes. It said that mobile homes were so-named, not because they had wheels, but because they were first built in Mobile, Alabama.

This was so amazing, I spent two hours trying to verify this fact. The only thing I found was an article on blog.duder.net repeating the snopes information.

Eventually I found this page that explained what the deal was, as Airman Adorno might say.

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I've read three books so far this weekend:

1. The 2nd book of Abarat
2. Christopher Mouse
3. Becoming Naomi Leon

I am going to start Aretmus Fowl : The Lost Colony as soon as I finish this.

TTFN!

Double b7eek

Finished "Son of a Grifter" Saturday.

Finished "Best Science Fiction Of The Years 6th annual collection" (1976) this afternoon.

Some good stories in there.

Crude, I was going to type some other stuff, but terminal ennui just overcame me.

Sorry.

Reference Interview Of The Week

A patron asked me to help them find a book. They said it was a small book, VERY small. They didn't remember the title, or the author, but maybe it was by Judy Blume. But it was small. VERY SMALL. And it was about a girl. We looked at the Judy Blume books, but no joy. Oh, and there were TWO books. They said last time they saw it on the other side of the room, which is the other end of the Fiction alphabet from 'B'. I thought, and said, that the only SMALL books I could remember were in the 'W's'. Turned out where the wuz, wuz in 'V'. Vail, Rachel Vail. The Friendship Ring series.

I rock!

Tuesday? Wednesday?

I don't know what day it is. To paraphase that kid in that movie, "I see garbarge trucks". On Jackson Drive. But yesterday was garbage day here, so, the world moves on.


Looking for Huell Howser on YouTube, I discovered this little movie. Huell is so fabulous, and his shows about California are so interesting. Every state should have their own Huell!


From The Pocket Dictionary Of American Slang, compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner

French-inhale. The act of exhaling a mouthful of smoke and then inhaling it through the nose. Considered exotic and ultrasophisticated by teenager and students.

Liteweight

This isn't much of a story, but I was at the libery this afternoon, looking through the new books. I could hear the reference librarian in her office talking to a patron. Apparently the patron did not like the answer she received to her question. The librarian got an "edge" in her voice, said something like, "Ma'am, I looked up this question yesterday for another person, and now you are questioning my answer."... After a bit she ask the patron if she would like to talk to another librarian, so she transferred her. I couldn't hear any more...

How would I have reacted? Probably would have started speaking R E A L S L O W . . . and loud. And the "edge" would have been there, too!


I checked out a Jane Heller nove, "Some Nerve" and a William Tapply mystery, "Cutter's Run". I JUST THIS MINUTE (Monday, while fixing typos) see on my Books Read list that I have already read the Tapply book! Oh No!

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I've been fixing broken Apple ProMice for work, on my own time. I got some hints on how to go about it at Opening And Repairing An Apple Pro Mouse and at Apple Pro Mouse Repair. Their articles are pretty complete, but I wanted to post this picture showing an actual splice, as I accomplised it.


(Click image to visit flickr and see the BIG version, with comments!)

It's a pretty nifty feeling to have the mouse actually work after I've had it apart!

I was going to put a picture of me wearing my magnifier hood, but the image has disappeared!

This is last night's dinner:



Clicky on the image for the rest of the series (three more, pretty much the same) with Clever Captions and Humorous Mouse-Over Text, at flickr.com, of course.

I actually enjoyed eating this pizza, it wasn't THAT burnt. It was neat letting the hard bits soak in my mouth and gnawing away at them. Must have been like eating hardtack, back in the day. Without the weevils.

Smoking Tax Redux

On Fark.com there was a discussion about a proposed tax increase on cigarettes in Missiouri. Check out the discussion here. There were a lot of interesting opinions.

I looked up cigarette taxes for each state. The lowest was South Carolina (surprise!) at $ .07 per pack, the highest was Rhode Island at $ 2.46 per pack. California was number 23 at $ .87 per pack. SOURCE: Federal Trade Administration

I thought California would be higher than that.

I had a cigarette last night at 7:00 P.M. That breaks my 7 week stretch (I don't know what that means, but "stretch" seemed to fit nicely in there.). I took down the QuitMeter. I'm starting over again.

Vote No on 86

If you are in California, please vote NO on prop. 86, the tax on cigarettes iniative. I believe it is an unfair tax, because the tax on cigarettes was raised by several dollars s a few years ago.

I think it would be fair to raise taxes on alcohol, as the abuse of alcohol is a very bad thing in society. I do not recall the tax on alcohol be raised, ever.

I would not be opposed to a tax on movie theaters, either.

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me say that I do not drink alcohol (for no particular reason, actually I had a beer this summer, don't tell my diabetes doctor!), and I don't go to the movies much (saw the first Lord of the Rings, and I THINK I saw Star Wars Episode 2. I think I fell asleep...), but I DO support a three hundred dollar a month smoker.

Whither reading?

I was searching teh intarweb for "textbook storage" and found these articles.

I'm just gonna pick some quotes out, you can read the articles if you wanna.

Reading for Fun will Boost Scores

"The kind of reading that really counts is free voluntary reading"

But in many, many homes in the South Bay and throughout the state, I also know there are homes without books and newspapers. Homes where no reading is done by anyone. Homes where young children are never read to in the crucial lap position. Homes where children never see an adult reading a book or a newspaper in any language.

They come to school without having heard the language, any language, in complete sentences, in stories told, in looking at printed words while a loving person says those words aloud. They have never participated in family discussions about what's going on in the world. These children have no idea of the structure of language. They don't know that sounds go with the printed symbols.

In the United States, there is one school librarian for every 900 children. In California in 1992, there was one school librarian for every 5,000 children.

And in California in 1999, there is one school librarian for every 6,200 children.

And most importantly, re-open all elementary-school libraries all day with trained librarians.

Library a chapter in school's past Computers seemingly replace

If students at Castlemont High School want to check out "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" or find books on Polynesian culture, they'd better have a bus pass or some good walking shoes.

"I think it's unfair," parent Chavone Johnson said. "I can't see a school not having a library. ... That's denying them a part of their education."

"We ain't been able to checkout books or nothing since I've been here," senior Erik Fuller said recently.

Some books appear to be randomly organized -- on one shelf you can find a book called "Herpes" right above a book called "The Right Dog for You."

"That's not a library, not what a normal high school is supposed to have," said Johnson, whose son attended Castlemont this year but is now in juvenile hall.

Many books in Castlemont's former library are gone -- it's not clear where they are. Some books may have been sent to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and one teacher may have sent some to Africa, school employees said.

Rick Gaston, principal of Castlemont's Business and Information Technology school, said computers have supplanted traditional school libraries, at least when it comes to doing research.

In Oakland middle schools, librarians have become scarcer over the last few years as the schools choose to spend their resources elsewhere, officials said.

Here's another article on an un-related subject:

ANN BIANCHETTI Diary #12 Indirect Lessons learned at a one-day workshop.

I don't have anything to say here, it's just my dooty to point you towards informative stuff out there!

Day After Yesterday

Yesterday I drove the vehicle to work, because I had a class to go to, and just because!

I noticed the mileage was 2,018 at one point (rather near Montgomery Field, if it's any of your business!), so I thinking I must have turned over 2,000 miles on the odometer some time on Tuesday (Grocery Day) when I drove to work. Since I've had the vehicle about a year, and the starting mileage was 500 (yah, I KNOW!), that means I've driven around 1,500 miles in a year.

Since (According to my inprecise figures) I've ridden 2,098 miles on both bikes total) in 2006, that means, well, I don't know what it means.

And I've ridden 2,633 miles in the last year.

So I guess my bike mileage is sorta almost total the vehicle mileage.

My daughter says I'm ranting too much.

I saw a very pretty sunset Thursday night. And it was very pleasant outside. I do not usually go out at night, for various reason, plus, I live in a sort of a hole, so I don't see sunsets often. Sunrise, I see nearly every morning!

One of my favorite television show that never made it, was a short-lived series titled "United States", starring Beau Bridges. My favorite episode was "Sometimes".

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Sometimes when I am riding the bike...

"I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jims in this town
And all the politicians making crazy sounds
And everybody putting everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds"
---Lou Reed

Ham Radio Humour

I was looking for the text of a joke I heard (Two antennas got married...), found it on the AC6V Amateur Radio Humor page.

My favorite funny line:

"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history -- with the possible exceptions of tequila or a borrowed Vibroplex key." --K0HB

A fairly narrow niche in the humor field, but not as narrow as Humor For Library Employees...

The Drama Dept. is putting on The Pajama Game at work this year. I remembered hearing something on the radio this weekend about a protest in Saudia Arabia about a production of said play. I wanted to share this with the Drama Dept. Head. I spent an hour looking up Public Radio sites and stories. Turned out it was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, on the Bluff The Listener segment, presented by Moe Rocca. And that would be one of the bluffs. So I so vividly remembered a bluff story, but not the source.

Typical!

Mail Crude

I would consider it an acceptable proof of a divine prescence if every purvayor of mail order spammer and marginal charity would drop dead at the same time. Horribly, horribly, dead.

Also, why are the SO MANY organizations dedicated to the welfare of pets? How many "Save The Felines" organizations can our society support?

Warm Enough

It was rather sunny this morning, AND I slept in till eight, so I didn't go for a bike ride. Whoops, wrong blog!

I added the QuitMeter to the top of the blog, let us see how it works there.

I pulled ivy from around the stupid palm tree this afternoon. I also water the tomato, and also the tiny compost pile. I wish a tornado would come and take the stupid palm tree away. It stopped being an amusing tree many years ago.

I have been musing on the meaning of friendship, and levels of friendship. Someday I might write about it.

Watt hertz?

For some reason thought I might enjoy watching "Men In Trees" on television. The catchy title, I guess. I almost spit up when the innkeeper said he had a 10 megaHertz radio station. So, he has a shortwave broadcasting station? Ok, I guess. Really aren't too many of those in the United States, around 27 by my cruddy interweb count. I'm thinking, NOT!

Maybe he meant the station's power? Ten megawatts? That's 10 million watts. The highest power station I could find on the internets was 2.5 million watts. A typical high power station might be 500,000 watts. KCBQ in San Diego was a high power AM broacaster, back in the day, with a daytime power of the legal limit of 50,000 watts.

So a lame misteak starts the turn off from the show, for me. I guess it's back to the computer.

And here I am!

LATER: Stupid me! I plum forgot radio station WWV is on 10 mHz, with 10,000 watts of time-station goodness! I've GOT a QSL card from them, what the heck was I thinking? There is NO WAY he would have a station on that frequency. So, it is indeed just another stupid TV writer boo-boo. And this is a rant!

Plugged In

The telephone guy came out to our work site today to see why the phone wasn't working in our tiny storage room. It used to. Eventually he figured out that the computer guy that had been out the other day had disconnected the phone in the network cabinet when he was tidying things up and replacing cables. While he was working on the phone I noticed Horizon stopped working, but I thought it was just because I had a big data thing going on. Then the internet stopped working. Then the patrons starting complaing that the internet wasn't working on the Macs. I told the phone guy, but he said he didn't do anything to the network. Well, he showed me what he did to get the phone working, then he had to go. I went over to the main office to see if they were up, and they weren't having any problems. I told the Data Tech. (Steph.) what the deal was, so she came right over. She checked the routers, checked to see if we had rebooted, then called *T*h*e* *H*e*l*p* *D*e*s*k*. They couldn't think of anything, so a Service Request was filed. I suggested I show Steph. what the phone guy had done, in case I wasn't there when the repair guy came. We looked in the cabinet, checked the power connections. Everything was plugged in (remember this point). Steph. noticed three power cords that were plugged in the outlets, but not connected to anything. I remarked those must have been from the routers that the network guy had changed out the other day, he must have forgotten to pull the plugs, as it were. It's a very messy cabinet. I noted one of the routers had no blinkies, looked in back, saw its power cable was not plugged in, and was rather short. It looked like the network guy had carefully taken up the slack with a velco wrap, but took up too much slack, so when the phone guy opened the cabinet the power plug popped out, but the phone guy didn't notice it!

Paragraph.

So then we went out to check the computers. No joy. Went back to the cabinet. Noticed that the blickie-box for the Optical cable/interchange whatever was unlit. Checked the back, yah, the power cable is unplugged and way too short. Fixed it. Now we got power, and eventually we got network.

Steph. cancels work order. I finish fixing my data screwups.

Later I got an e-mail from Vick. saying she was going to e-mail us that Horizon had gone down, but by the time she got teh e-mail written it was back up again.

Foggy

It was pretty foggy this morning. I drove the truck because I had to run errands in the afternoon, like buy cigarettes and groceries (Importance in that order...). I had my headlights on, but then I usually do when I drive to work because it (and me) is usually dim.

I want people to see me.

I don't understand those people who drive with their "parking" lights on.

In the fog.

It's like, oh yah, your're twenty feet away, I can see your lights now.

Morons.

What are they thinking? They're gonna save a penny's worth of gas not having their headlights on?

Then there are the people with NO lighting what-so-ever!

Guess what, people, if I'm on the bike I CAN'T SEE YOU in my rearview mirror in the dim predawn. If you don't want me in your lap, turn on your headlights!

Yes, yes, I do a mirror check then and then a head turn. But if it doesn't attract my attention in the mirror I'm less likely to "see" it when I turn my head. The head turn is more to see "where" a car is, and to judge our closing speed, as it were, than to see if anything is there. Sort of a double check.

In other words, my vision sucks, so turn on your headlights!

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In a "lighter" mood, I noticed the moon out today. I supposed I've seen it out during the day many times in my half-century (I REALLY must look up the proper use of the hyphen!), but it struck me today as a new and wonderful thing. I pointed it out to several kids and adults, and we were amazed.

And TODAY I didn't bring the camera!