Did somebody screw up big time here?
Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category
I noticed a post in my feed reader about the Google Doodle competition and checked it out. There are some talented artists in US schools. Check out their artwork (and see the winner’s on May 22 when you search on Google)
Wow. I had hoped that the snow was gone for good this season, but we got a dusting on Saturday. of course, that was just enough to make it a bit yucky to travel in. The driving was good, but getting in and out of the vehicle was an exercise in keeping little kid’s nice “birthday visiting” clothes clean. If I had been able to secure a truck for an hour, I would have had to move furniture in that yuck as well (buying a couch and chair from a co-worker).
So, this morning, it was chilly - around the freezing mark - but there were only a few flakes of snow to wipe off the car. The ice has cleared on the river on our end, down from the dam. So, now its the dicey exercise for NB Power to open and close the dam to try and minimize the flooding along the river valley. The water level has risen to about 2 feet below the “overflow” point as of this morning, so it might be us that floods. We’ll see.
So, the puddle at the end of our driveway is becoming the lake that is swallowing our driveway. I hope that we have a few days in a row of really sunny weather so that the snow will melt off some more, and, with any luck, the ground will thaw a bit and absorb some of the wet stuff. It would be nice if this was truly spring. After all, it IS April. I remember that this time last year, the utility that I work for was waiting for the run of warm enough days so that they could go and shut off the delinquents. Its amazing what you can scam out of your local utility in Ontario. No wonder the prices are going up, thanks to those who know how to fleece the system repeatedly.
My grandfather’s funeral consumed the weekend, of course, so we (Angela and I) spent much of Saturday and Sunday traveling. Despite the short stay in Nova Scotia, it was a pleasant time, with the exception of the funeral itself, of course. Saying all that, the minister who did the ceremony was excellent and his eulogy was that of a family friend, rather than that of a stranger making up encouraging words, which really made a big difference. He stirred up some memories with his own recollections, which was nice. Something that I didn’t know is that my grandfather (and great uncle) had two deceased infant sisters. I wonder how they coped with that as kids. I don’t really want to find out personally, though.
My brother gave me an old camera of his, a Kodak DX4900. Its not a bad camera - not quite as sleek as the Olympus, but it actually works as intended. I went to Future Shop and got a replacement Compact Flash card for it so that I won’t be limited to the piddly 16MB card that it came with. So, now instead of taking 24 pictures on my regular card, I can take 999 pictures on my Sandisk 2GB Ultra II card, which is supposed to be faster than a normal Compact Flash card. Its too bad that the camera doesn’t get recognized under Linux as a flash drive. At least gPhoto picks it up and wants to import your photos for you. Perhaps I should get a card reader for a situation like this.
Wow, what a buzz about Wordpress 2.5. I’m not going to say anything new about it, as the net is saturated with goop about everyone’s new installations. One thing I will warn, though, is the same thing that I warn every time. Back up your site before doing a major change to it! With Wordpress sites, that means, for sure, backing up your database. If you have cPanel, use its convenient backup feature, as its just a mouse click. Do the same for your home directory if you’ve had a lot of changes since you last backed up. At the very least, back up your /wp-content directory, so that your customizations on your theme and plugins will remain intact elsewhere in case a back up is needed. It can’t hurt to export your Wordpress blog via the built in export facility. There’s a lot of goodness in that .xml file.
Do you need a job? Do you live in the Fredericton area? My employer is still hiring. If you want the details, email me. I will refer you and you’ll make me rich! (okay, not rich, but their is an incentive, like a head hunter’s bounty). You’ll also get the chance to work hard and make lots of your own money, of course. 
That’s what I woke up to this morning. It was faint, but piercing. The smoke alarm had gone off in the apartment beside us. Its vacant right now, as the landlord’s renovating it. So, I went over with a flashlight and, like a peeping tom or a burgler, I peered in every window for signs of smoke. No signs, so I called the landlord to come over and shut it off.
This, I consider to be proof that a smoke alarm will wake you if there is a fire. I was next door and the sound could be heard through two walls, as well as out in the yard.
If you don’t have a smoke alarm already, get one! If you haven’t recently, change the battery in yours. It may save your life!
So, I’ve not written anything all week. As a regular reader, you’re going to just shirk this off as me being me, right? I try not to write drivel for the sake of doing so. You’ll get my thoughts if I care to share. I will not insult you by spewing out a canned article just for the sake of a site update.
If it goes a long time between one post and the next, you can email me. If you are really concerned, you can visit me to see if I’m ok. If you’re savvy enough, you can find out where I live and do so. After saying that, I doubt that anyone would be THAT concerned.
I do have a few ideas brewing in my head, so you might have some really interesting reading this weekend. Perhaps I will get that NIC card for the lappy and install an operating system. Who knows.
What are you doing this weekend?
