Last time around, Anna (who, by the way, has re-designed her blog again, so go and take a look) posted this one in the comments:
12. You know you're a parent when (brace yourself, this is gross) you get projectile vomited on...and you clean up the kid first!
So here's #13:
13. You have ever participated in a game involving three players, ten plastic bowling pins, a soccer ball and a hockey puck.
Oh, and no rules that anyone can figure out.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Backyard visitors, again
With a few more centimetres of snow overnight, and temperatures finally dipping down to where they should be at this time of winter, the bird feeders in the back yard are getting some attention from a few birds that are a bit more interesting than the run-of-the-mill starlings, doves and sparrows that I'm always complaining about.
Here, proving once again that shooting with a short zoom lens through a dirty window never works well (but thank goodness I actually got the white balance right this time!), are a couple of shots of the Dark-Eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis, a slightly nervous but generally friendly little finch with a pretty ivory-coloured beak and a couple of trendy white tailfeathers that flash while it flies. There were half a dozen or so of them hanging around the yard today.
I didn't get any good shots of their friend the Goldfinch, who doesn't seem to have figured out that all of his friends migrated south a long time ago. He's toughing it out, dressed in his most handsome winter drab. Brave little guy.
Friday, January 26, 2007
In lieu of a real post
About the only thing of note I've managed to do recently (and in this instance, the term "of note" has a very flexible definition) is to re-draw my little avatar dude, using the almighty drawing tools in - take a deep breath everyone - Microsoft PowerPoint.
Yes, PowerPoint, on the premise that I'm already a PP jockey, I can figure out how to make bendy lines and things easily, and Illustrator just stumps me. So before we get into *that* argument, yes, I know that Illustrator is faster, stronger, shinier, and probably smells like fresh dew on rose petals. I just don't know how to use it, and I'm way too lazy to learn.
On the left, the original fella, pixelated all to crap because he's blown up from avatar size and I didn't keep the full-size scan of the original felt-tip drawing (or the drawing itself, for that matter). On the right, Mr. Spiffy as a vector drawing after I traced over the scan.
Yes, PowerPoint, on the premise that I'm already a PP jockey, I can figure out how to make bendy lines and things easily, and Illustrator just stumps me. So before we get into *that* argument, yes, I know that Illustrator is faster, stronger, shinier, and probably smells like fresh dew on rose petals. I just don't know how to use it, and I'm way too lazy to learn.
On the left, the original fella, pixelated all to crap because he's blown up from avatar size and I didn't keep the full-size scan of the original felt-tip drawing (or the drawing itself, for that matter). On the right, Mr. Spiffy as a vector drawing after I traced over the scan.
And as an extra bonus, here's one of his friends:
You may notice a similarity. In fact, if I drew another dozen or so little dudes like these, you'd notice they all look similar (take a look at the badger too... notice a trend? One day I'll draw something looking to the right. And then the world will end).
It's not hard for me to push my artistic boundaries, because they're so easy to find.
NB: I stole the idea of vector-drawing over scans from Andy Weir, webcomic genius artist and author of Casey and Andy (sadly on hiatus, but well worth perusing the archive), and the clever Cheshire Crossing. Here's an entertaining tutorial on how he makes his artwork.Tuesday, January 23, 2007
How about 10:00 next Thursday?
Somebody's been complaining that I need to hurry up and post something new, and she's right. As usual. Just like she was right about me needing to hurry up and start this blog in the first place, instead of cheating and posting stuff on her blog instead.
As I noted back in December or thenabouts, January is a busy busy time for little Ricardibee. A rather long and tedious and not-even-slightly-finished report, which I should have been doing in, oh, November, is due at the end of the month, and a variety of other year-end and quarter-end and randomly assorted bits of progress reports and the like are in preparation. Not helped, of course, by the Dreaded Scourge of Those Who Wish to Get Things DoneTM:
Meetings.
Seventeen of them last week, to be specific. Sev-en-teen. I think that's a new record for me.
Including two at the same time (one of which I missed, surprisingly enough), and a conference call that I ducked out of shortly before it began.* That still leaves fifteen, though. And I'm not talking about casual chats in the office, or by the water cooler, or in the washroom - these were honest-to-goodness, scheduled meetings, all nicely written down in my day planner and suchlike.
Let's do some math, shall we? Fifteen meetings, times an average (optimistic, at that) of 45 minutes each, makes, oh...
[fires up calculator]
[types numbers in]
[presses the "=" button]
[realizes he could have done this in his head]
...almost THIRTEEN HOURS!!!
Now, I'm not totally against meetings, and in fact would rather deal with all manner of issues in a face-to-face discussion rather than by email. But, really now, THIRTEEN HOURS?
It's enough to drive me mad. Just think of the blog posting I could have gotten accomplished.**
*And I forgot to mention that at least two of those were with someone who, I kid you not, once roped me into a meeting to prepare for a meeting which was, in itself, designed to prepare for yet another meeting. He used to work for the government.
**Note to employer: blog posting does not happen during work hours. Especially not during meetings.
As I noted back in December or thenabouts, January is a busy busy time for little Ricardibee. A rather long and tedious and not-even-slightly-finished report, which I should have been doing in, oh, November, is due at the end of the month, and a variety of other year-end and quarter-end and randomly assorted bits of progress reports and the like are in preparation. Not helped, of course, by the Dreaded Scourge of Those Who Wish to Get Things DoneTM:
Meetings.
Seventeen of them last week, to be specific. Sev-en-teen. I think that's a new record for me.
Including two at the same time (one of which I missed, surprisingly enough), and a conference call that I ducked out of shortly before it began.* That still leaves fifteen, though. And I'm not talking about casual chats in the office, or by the water cooler, or in the washroom - these were honest-to-goodness, scheduled meetings, all nicely written down in my day planner and suchlike.
Let's do some math, shall we? Fifteen meetings, times an average (optimistic, at that) of 45 minutes each, makes, oh...
[fires up calculator]
[types numbers in]
[presses the "=" button]
[realizes he could have done this in his head]
...almost THIRTEEN HOURS!!!
Now, I'm not totally against meetings, and in fact would rather deal with all manner of issues in a face-to-face discussion rather than by email. But, really now, THIRTEEN HOURS?
It's enough to drive me mad. Just think of the blog posting I could have gotten accomplished.**
*And I forgot to mention that at least two of those were with someone who, I kid you not, once roped me into a meeting to prepare for a meeting which was, in itself, designed to prepare for yet another meeting. He used to work for the government.
**Note to employer: blog posting does not happen during work hours. Especially not during meetings.
Friday, January 19, 2007
The editor-in-chief has been contacted
A slip of paper, found inserted in a dictionary I bought, years ago:
You just can't make this stuff up.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Bloody weather
[...and now, in true Canadian style, I shall complain about the weather.]
[Yes, I know this isn't unique to Canadians. People around the world like to complain about the weather.]
[But really, if I lived in somewhere warm, like, oh, I don't know, Costa Rica perhaps, I wouldn't have to complain like this. You know, about the snow and suchlike.]
[Yes, Yes, I know, it rains in Costa Rica. So how about Arizona? Nice and warm. Hot? Too hot? Ok, um, er, New Zealand. How about that?]
Ok, so, on with the complaining then. After pulling the disappearing act of the century (yes, really, we've been breaking temperature records right, left and centre), winter finally decided to put in an appearance in these parts. As in, "WINTER STORM WATCH, 5-10 CM OF SNOW AND FREEZING RAIN, LOCK UP YOUR PETS, COVER YOUR CAR, BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES, SPRUCE UP THE YARDARM, DISCONNECT THE COMPUTER IN CASE THE SNOW CRUSHES YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION" kind of thing.
Which turned into...
[You know, New Zealand might not be so bad, gentle winds I'm told. Bit of a lack of indigenous mammals though, but plenty of birds. I like birds, have I told you that? Oh all right, I'll get on with it.]
...about an inch of ice pellets. Which is Canadian-weather-broadcaster-speak for granular snow that makes things a bit slippery, but hardly causes widespread death and destruction. But even this disappointing manifestation resulted in chaos on the roads, as in traditional style everybody immediately forgot how to drive in the snow. Traffic: atrocious. Travel time: long.
Summary of Ricardipus' day on Monday:
Total travel time to work: just a hair under 3 hours
Total travel time from work: just a hair under 3 hours
Total useful time at work: just a hair under 6 hours.
That, my friends, was a long and tedious day. I can't wait* to find out what happens when we get some real winter weather.
*and by this, I really mean "I'm moving to Antigua." Actually not, I've been to Antigua. Maybe Naxos. Or Tahiti. You get the idea.
[Yes, I know this isn't unique to Canadians. People around the world like to complain about the weather.]
[But really, if I lived in somewhere warm, like, oh, I don't know, Costa Rica perhaps, I wouldn't have to complain like this. You know, about the snow and suchlike.]
[Yes, Yes, I know, it rains in Costa Rica. So how about Arizona? Nice and warm. Hot? Too hot? Ok, um, er, New Zealand. How about that?]
Ok, so, on with the complaining then. After pulling the disappearing act of the century (yes, really, we've been breaking temperature records right, left and centre), winter finally decided to put in an appearance in these parts. As in, "WINTER STORM WATCH, 5-10 CM OF SNOW AND FREEZING RAIN, LOCK UP YOUR PETS, COVER YOUR CAR, BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES, SPRUCE UP THE YARDARM, DISCONNECT THE COMPUTER IN CASE THE SNOW CRUSHES YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION" kind of thing.
Which turned into...
[You know, New Zealand might not be so bad, gentle winds I'm told. Bit of a lack of indigenous mammals though, but plenty of birds. I like birds, have I told you that? Oh all right, I'll get on with it.]
...about an inch of ice pellets. Which is Canadian-weather-broadcaster-speak for granular snow that makes things a bit slippery, but hardly causes widespread death and destruction. But even this disappointing manifestation resulted in chaos on the roads, as in traditional style everybody immediately forgot how to drive in the snow. Traffic: atrocious. Travel time: long.
Summary of Ricardipus' day on Monday:
- express bus is half an hour late
- express bus loses another half hour on the way to the subway; highways jammed
- arrive at work an hour and a half late
- at around noon, tanker truck full of liquid oxygen jackknifes, causing highway closure
- alternative regional bus is half an hour late
- alternative regional bus loses another half hour on the way home; side roads jammed
Total travel time to work: just a hair under 3 hours
Total travel time from work: just a hair under 3 hours
Total useful time at work: just a hair under 6 hours.
That, my friends, was a long and tedious day. I can't wait* to find out what happens when we get some real winter weather.
*and by this, I really mean "I'm moving to Antigua." Actually not, I've been to Antigua. Maybe Naxos. Or Tahiti. You get the idea.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
A new definition of pain, part II
A short while ago I posted a slightly incoherent post about moving ancient audio "files" (what we used to call "recordings") from slightly mouldy media like cassette and Minidisc, onto the spiffy, shiny, Sleek And Intelligent™ new computer. The resulting procedure was, as you may recall if you actually bothered to read the whole thing, rather long and irritating, and involved an excessive amount of plugging and unplugging of wires, hauling around of Zip disks, and generally waiting for things to happen.
In an effort to improve this process and reduce the chance of me smashing various computers into their component parts, I've just bought a pretty little audio interface box, the M-Audio Transit. Equipped with a couple of optical digital connectors and stereo analogue audio jacks, it seems to be just the ticket. Digital connectors for the Minidisc, analogue for the old cassettes. Perfect. And it's small and USB-powered. Should work nicely, and be easy to swap between the S&I machine and the laptop, no?
No.
Not only does it require driver installation, which puzzles me slightly since I thought that USB devices are supposed to be plug and play, but the installer completely fails to do its job. It runs through its routine, then fails to re-start the computer (as it's supposed to). Although the driver appears to be happily installed, the machine completely fails to recognize the Transit, complaining that no such animal exists, even if it's plugged in and happily taunting me with its pretty little blue LED.
Every combination of the following procedures improved the situation not in the slightest:
- installing on a different computer, or in Administrator (="God") mode
- downloading the most recent driver
- de-installing and re-installing the driver, in hopes that it just failed the first time and all would be wonderful afterwards
- manually re-starting the computer, since it refused to do it by itself
- attempting to install the Transit using the Windows control panel - now there's an excercise in futility
- reading the manual (and by "manual", what I really mean is "uselessly simplistic document that tells you nothing")
- exploring the technical support FAQs and other documents
- screaming, shouting and generally dancing about waving various things in a lightly threatening manner
- crouching in the corner, keening and whimpering gently.
Now, M-Audio is a rather good company, and I have high hopes that they will help me out, especially after I invested half an hour or so filling out their tech support form. This necessitated me providing painfully exquisite detail about chipsets, processors, soundcards, the colour of the laptop, the ambient temperature and humidity near each computer, and the colour of the pajamas I was wearing while attempting the entire process. Tech support sent an automated email acknowledging they'd received my submission (Hooray!), and then stating something to the effect of "sorry, we're closed for the weekend" (Boo!).
So, a few hours invested in all this nonsense, and I get to wait until at least Monday before hearing back from them. Which is ok, I suppose... I wouldn't wish weekend work on anybody (least of all me), but it is frustrating, especially since I've exhausted all avenues I can think of, and I'm convinced it's neither me nor my computers (unless there's something identically screwy with both machines).
So there you go. Ricardipus beaten by technology again, at least for the time being. After five months, I think I've finally found a theme for this blog.
Argh.
In an effort to improve this process and reduce the chance of me smashing various computers into their component parts, I've just bought a pretty little audio interface box, the M-Audio Transit. Equipped with a couple of optical digital connectors and stereo analogue audio jacks, it seems to be just the ticket. Digital connectors for the Minidisc, analogue for the old cassettes. Perfect. And it's small and USB-powered. Should work nicely, and be easy to swap between the S&I machine and the laptop, no?
No.
Not only does it require driver installation, which puzzles me slightly since I thought that USB devices are supposed to be plug and play, but the installer completely fails to do its job. It runs through its routine, then fails to re-start the computer (as it's supposed to). Although the driver appears to be happily installed, the machine completely fails to recognize the Transit, complaining that no such animal exists, even if it's plugged in and happily taunting me with its pretty little blue LED.
Every combination of the following procedures improved the situation not in the slightest:
- installing on a different computer, or in Administrator (="God") mode
- downloading the most recent driver
- de-installing and re-installing the driver, in hopes that it just failed the first time and all would be wonderful afterwards
- manually re-starting the computer, since it refused to do it by itself
- attempting to install the Transit using the Windows control panel - now there's an excercise in futility
- reading the manual (and by "manual", what I really mean is "uselessly simplistic document that tells you nothing")
- exploring the technical support FAQs and other documents
- screaming, shouting and generally dancing about waving various things in a lightly threatening manner
- crouching in the corner, keening and whimpering gently.
Now, M-Audio is a rather good company, and I have high hopes that they will help me out, especially after I invested half an hour or so filling out their tech support form. This necessitated me providing painfully exquisite detail about chipsets, processors, soundcards, the colour of the laptop, the ambient temperature and humidity near each computer, and the colour of the pajamas I was wearing while attempting the entire process. Tech support sent an automated email acknowledging they'd received my submission (Hooray!), and then stating something to the effect of "sorry, we're closed for the weekend" (Boo!).
So, a few hours invested in all this nonsense, and I get to wait until at least Monday before hearing back from them. Which is ok, I suppose... I wouldn't wish weekend work on anybody (least of all me), but it is frustrating, especially since I've exhausted all avenues I can think of, and I'm convinced it's neither me nor my computers (unless there's something identically screwy with both machines).
So there you go. Ricardipus beaten by technology again, at least for the time being. After five months, I think I've finally found a theme for this blog.
Argh.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Manufactured with loving care by...
In one of the Junior Ricardipi's jigsaw puzzles, a little slip of paper reading:
Made for you by: BT 2160 Team PR06-13A little personal touch - nice.
In other news, yesterday I was passed by a gray Ferrari 360 Modena (ok, it could have been an F430, I didn't get a good look at the air intakes and side mirrors - probably not, though). On January the 8th. In Canada.
And some people don't believe in global warming.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
When investigative journalism becomes stalking
Zoe recently posted this commentary on recent events surrounding Girl With A One-Track Mind, and specifically about his publication of her real identity by a certain Nicholas Hellen. I'm more than happy to join other bloggers in sanctioning this behaviour. Yes, blogging puts you in the public eye (especially, it has to be said, if you have a blog as provocative and well-written as Girl's), but this is no reason for unscrupulous journalists to invade personal privacy.
Since Zoe's eloquently stated the facts, I'll quote her rather than re-invent the wheel:
And I agree completely. The letter, which I encourage you all to read over at Girl's place, is egregious. I've been waiting for an opportunity to use that word, and this is definitely it.
There are a number of things about it that are offensive, but the ones that jump out at me are:
Irritating man.
Since Zoe's eloquently stated the facts, I'll quote her rather than re-invent the wheel:
The Award-winning blog, Girl with a one-track mind got more than her fair share of publicity last year after her book, named after her blog, came out last year. The Sunday Times sent her a pretty unpleasant email from Nicholas Hellen Acting News Editor, that can be read on Girl's blog.
Journalists like him are what give journalism such a bad name, and if you feel angered in any way by his email, then please, do link to it, mentioning Nicholas Hellen's name and the Sunday Times, of which he was, at the time, Acting News Editor.
He should be ashamed of himself.
And I agree completely. The letter, which I encourage you all to read over at Girl's place, is egregious. I've been waiting for an opportunity to use that word, and this is definitely it.
There are a number of things about it that are offensive, but the ones that jump out at me are:
- that he published her mother's name
- that, with a photo already in hand, he basically demanded a better one (I guess paparazzi photographers generate crap pictures sometimes - what a surprise)
- that he seems to expect gratitude; and worst of all,
- the statement that basically reads "wear a nice frock to the photoshoot, and do your makeup".
Irritating man.
Friday, January 05, 2007
The makings of a new black hole
Things found in my briefcase this morning:
And I found the thumbtack in the commonly accepted manner, by impaling myself on it while I was fishing around in the bottom of a pocket.
- breakfast
- lunch
- snacks
- laptop
- laptop power supply
- umbrella
- gloves
- a Peter Gabriel CD
- a book about HTML
- various papers:
- an ID badge
- two decongestants left over from the trip to California
- three USB keys and a lanyard
- three Minidiscs
- a 22 year old Cross pen
- a sparkly pencil
- a thumbtack
- some business cards
- an address tag
- an elephant
- an interview with Sir John Sulston
- one about Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- four about DNA sequencing
- a photocopy of some notes from a seminar
And I found the thumbtack in the commonly accepted manner, by impaling myself on it while I was fishing around in the bottom of a pocket.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Domestic fauna, again
Captured from inside the screen door at the in-laws' place. It was very sluggish, twitching a bit, but once I'd tipped it out onto the deck it proceeded to look rather dead. In the photo, it's got a leg or two tucked under its body.
Shame really, it was a rather attractive bug, about an inch long. Anybody know what it is?
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