In lieu of a topical post, you get this.
Once upon a time, Mrs. Ricardipus and I went on a Caribbean vacation. This, of course, was before either of the Junior Ricardipi arrived. Nowadays - vacation? Um, no.
We went to Antigua, a lovely country that "has an economy based solely on tourism".
Warning bell: the functional translation of "has an economy based solely on tourism" is "everyone will try to sell you anything at all, all of the time, and bother you until you are parted with at least some of your money".
Sigh.
Worst things about Antigua:
1) Everyone trying to take your money. All the time.
2) Sunstroke (our fault).
3) Crap beach and silty water caused by construction of nearby resort annex.
4) Missing our friends, who'd been in the same resort the week before, without our knowledge. Their postcard was waiting for us when we got back.
5) Frightening, enormous spiders in holes near the beach.
6) Finding out later that they were actually crabs, making us look (and feel) like idiotic tourists.
7) Extortionate and inefficient cab drivers, and active discouragement from taking the local bus service, which we found out later was apparently both cheap and convenient.
8) British West Indies Airlines - second-hand Air Canada planes, insecticide spray (on the way south - what, they think Canadian mosquitoes are going to invade the Caribbean?), "hint-o-fishstick" (southbound) and "particularly nasty omelette" (northbound) for dinner. And the broken seat that wouldn't stay vertical.
9) Aggressive "red caps" at the airport, ready to move your bags the 10 yards or so from the curb to the check-in desk. And take your money.
10) "Eastern Caribbean Dollars", i.e. monopoly money that cannot be used outside the Caribbean and can only be exchanged for U.S. dollars at exorbitant rates.
11) Cancelled glass-bottom boat/snorkeling and sunset catamaran cruises.
12) Mesh around the trunks of the palm trees to stop the rats from climbing them and subsequently falling to their deaths on the pathways through the resort.
Gosh, sounds bad doesn't it? Stay tuned for the plus side.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Dances With Wolves, Fights With Technology
Goodness me, you step away from the blog for a few days and it all goes X-rated in the comments.
But this post isn't about that, it's about the latest salvo in the battle between Ricardipus and the twenty-first century.
Years ago, I knew everything about my computer. Well, a lot, anyway. I could open it up and swap soundcards, install new memory, fiddle with jumpers, all kinds of things. I was pretty adept at the latest, greatest version of MS-DOS - version 6.22. I understood the ins and outs of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, I could use CONFIG.SYS and all its arcania with impunity, I knew how to manage extended and expanded memory with HIMEM.SYS. I knew how to increase the number of stacks and files, and could write batch files to launch programs happily. The command line was a doddle, the help function helpful, and things like XCOPY and DELTREE behaved as they should. Graphical interfaces were limited to the mighty Norton Commander, which worked well enough, but I should have recognized it as the thin end of the wedge. In 2007, Norton Internet Security will try to take over your computer. You've been warned.
Even DOS's ugly offspring, Windows 3.1, and its slightly tweaked sibling 3.11, was easily understood, and I knew many of its intricacies - the DOS Prompt (now renamed the Command Prompt and hidden where you can't find it), Program Information Files, all that kind of stuff. Heck, I could even play around with extensions and program memory size on the Mac OS at one time. So not exactly a power-user, not exactly a whiz, but I felt like I could Do Things. I knew, most of the time, what was causing problems and how to fix them. Well, not on the Mac, but at least I recognized that when the "Sorry, A System Error Occurred" dialogue showed up, with its endearingly awful icon of a bomb, I had to shut the thing off and start again. Heck, computers even had proper, hard-wired, spring-loaded on/off switches back then. But now...
Nowadays, I almost never have any idea what the damn things are doing. Windows Vista, on Mrs. Ricardipus' new laptop she got for school, is a complete mystery. I can't even find the menus on Internet Explorer. Where the heck did they put them?
But the real confuser - is this Instant Messaging thing. There I was a couple of weeks ago, typing merrily away on Yahoo mail, when another tab pops up with Dawn in it! Argh! How did she get inside my email?
Turns out that Yahoo, in all its infinite wisdom, allows IM to exist within its email interface, which I have to admit is pretty handy. But it was a real surprise the first time. And it seems to randomly decide whether or not to show one's avatar. It's all a bit creepy really, like the Internet is deciding who I get to chat with and what they're going to look like.
It's SkyNet all over again, I tell you.
And I still can't figure out exactly how the whole chat thing works. So if you'd like to say hello, you might have to initiate the conversation yourself somehow, at least until I figure out whether or not I need to download Yahoo Messenger, Windows Messenger, or X-Windows PERL Linux Java C++ Panther VistaMessenger, or whatever.
I think I'll go back to "writing" in my "book" now.
But this post isn't about that, it's about the latest salvo in the battle between Ricardipus and the twenty-first century.
Years ago, I knew everything about my computer. Well, a lot, anyway. I could open it up and swap soundcards, install new memory, fiddle with jumpers, all kinds of things. I was pretty adept at the latest, greatest version of MS-DOS - version 6.22. I understood the ins and outs of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, I could use CONFIG.SYS and all its arcania with impunity, I knew how to manage extended and expanded memory with HIMEM.SYS. I knew how to increase the number of stacks and files, and could write batch files to launch programs happily. The command line was a doddle, the help function helpful, and things like XCOPY and DELTREE behaved as they should. Graphical interfaces were limited to the mighty Norton Commander, which worked well enough, but I should have recognized it as the thin end of the wedge. In 2007, Norton Internet Security will try to take over your computer. You've been warned.
Even DOS's ugly offspring, Windows 3.1, and its slightly tweaked sibling 3.11, was easily understood, and I knew many of its intricacies - the DOS Prompt (now renamed the Command Prompt and hidden where you can't find it), Program Information Files, all that kind of stuff. Heck, I could even play around with extensions and program memory size on the Mac OS at one time. So not exactly a power-user, not exactly a whiz, but I felt like I could Do Things. I knew, most of the time, what was causing problems and how to fix them. Well, not on the Mac, but at least I recognized that when the "Sorry, A System Error Occurred" dialogue showed up, with its endearingly awful icon of a bomb, I had to shut the thing off and start again. Heck, computers even had proper, hard-wired, spring-loaded on/off switches back then. But now...
Nowadays, I almost never have any idea what the damn things are doing. Windows Vista, on Mrs. Ricardipus' new laptop she got for school, is a complete mystery. I can't even find the menus on Internet Explorer. Where the heck did they put them?
But the real confuser - is this Instant Messaging thing. There I was a couple of weeks ago, typing merrily away on Yahoo mail, when another tab pops up with Dawn in it! Argh! How did she get inside my email?
Turns out that Yahoo, in all its infinite wisdom, allows IM to exist within its email interface, which I have to admit is pretty handy. But it was a real surprise the first time. And it seems to randomly decide whether or not to show one's avatar. It's all a bit creepy really, like the Internet is deciding who I get to chat with and what they're going to look like.
It's SkyNet all over again, I tell you.
And I still can't figure out exactly how the whole chat thing works. So if you'd like to say hello, you might have to initiate the conversation yourself somehow, at least until I figure out whether or not I need to download Yahoo Messenger, Windows Messenger, or X-Windows PERL Linux Java C++ Panther VistaMessenger, or whatever.
I think I'll go back to "writing" in my "book" now.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
In the usual fashion...
...a post with precious little content and a photo to tide you over.
Having put most of the nails in the coffin of a (right now) 81-page report to a certain government agency about how my colleagues and I have been spending their money, in between procrastinating by IM chatting with The Wrathful One*, I am now more-or-less free to post.
Except - I'm off to Wallyworld this evening with the family. So this will be brief, and as promised here's a terribly terribly artistic** photograph of the ivy on the front wall. Cleverly framed so as to omit all of the surrounding suburbia.
More after Monday... probably.
*A post about Ricardipus's complete and utter confusion with this high-tech Instant Messenging stuff is in the works. You knew that was coming, didn't you?
**not really
Having put most of the nails in the coffin of a (right now) 81-page report to a certain government agency about how my colleagues and I have been spending their money, in between procrastinating by IM chatting with The Wrathful One*, I am now more-or-less free to post.
Except - I'm off to Wallyworld this evening with the family. So this will be brief, and as promised here's a terribly terribly artistic** photograph of the ivy on the front wall. Cleverly framed so as to omit all of the surrounding suburbia.
More after Monday... probably.
*A post about Ricardipus's complete and utter confusion with this high-tech Instant Messenging stuff is in the works. You knew that was coming, didn't you?
**not really
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Another weekend
...and it's just now started pouring rain. Which defeats my Grand Plan to actually get around to cutting the grass this weekend. It's been so dry here that the front lawn is actually nice and short, if a little parched - but the back, which gets more shade and doesn't drain as well, is looking like a weedy, overgrown mess.
Ah well, maybe tomorrow. Or next week. In the meantime, here are some daisies from the garden:
In good news, the tomatoes planted by the Junior Ricardipi are ripening up nicely, and the basil is growing like the proverbial house on fire, making some tasty Tomato and Basil Sandwiches a distinct possibility in the near future. Mmm.
It's good to be sitting here at home though, rather than fighting with the daily commute, which on Thursday turned into a right royal pain in the... you know. The lovely 360 Maple Express bus, which is reasonably reliable in getting me home each night, decided to have a bit of a hiccup. Distinctly lacking in torque, and alternately wheezing geriatrically and roaring like a lion with a thorn in its paw and a red-hot poker in its [deleted], it managed to haul itself onto Highway 400 before giving up the ghost entirely.
At which point, we sat for about an hour waiting for a relief bus. As we were passed by:
1. Another 360 bus, which clearly hadn't gotten the message that we were parked.
2. A horrendously ugly Scion xB, which I believe isn't even supposed to be available in this country, and which I shall continue to complain about every time I see one.
And, to add insult to injury,
3. A coach, proudly bearing the logo GOBYBUS.CA as it roared past, cheerfully advertising the many virtues of travel by non-defunct, still-mobile autobus transportation.
Sigh.
Anyway, eventually a cheerful OPP officer showed up to ensure we could safely exit the vehicle on the verge of a major highway, without even getting run over, and we piled into another bus that had appeared to pick us up. An hour and a half late, home, just in time to brush some teeth and kiss a couple of kids goodnight.
It's enough to make me wish for a gas-guzzling, comfortable car instead of the environmentally friendly, but increasingly unreliable bus. Maybe one of these here Aston Martin thingies, in a natty shade of black like the one I saw downtown a week or two ago. That'd do.
Ah well, maybe tomorrow. Or next week. In the meantime, here are some daisies from the garden:
In good news, the tomatoes planted by the Junior Ricardipi are ripening up nicely, and the basil is growing like the proverbial house on fire, making some tasty Tomato and Basil Sandwiches a distinct possibility in the near future. Mmm.
It's good to be sitting here at home though, rather than fighting with the daily commute, which on Thursday turned into a right royal pain in the... you know. The lovely 360 Maple Express bus, which is reasonably reliable in getting me home each night, decided to have a bit of a hiccup. Distinctly lacking in torque, and alternately wheezing geriatrically and roaring like a lion with a thorn in its paw and a red-hot poker in its [deleted], it managed to haul itself onto Highway 400 before giving up the ghost entirely.
At which point, we sat for about an hour waiting for a relief bus. As we were passed by:
1. Another 360 bus, which clearly hadn't gotten the message that we were parked.
2. A horrendously ugly Scion xB, which I believe isn't even supposed to be available in this country, and which I shall continue to complain about every time I see one.
And, to add insult to injury,
3. A coach, proudly bearing the logo GOBYBUS.CA as it roared past, cheerfully advertising the many virtues of travel by non-defunct, still-mobile autobus transportation.
Sigh.
Anyway, eventually a cheerful OPP officer showed up to ensure we could safely exit the vehicle on the verge of a major highway, without even getting run over, and we piled into another bus that had appeared to pick us up. An hour and a half late, home, just in time to brush some teeth and kiss a couple of kids goodnight.
It's enough to make me wish for a gas-guzzling, comfortable car instead of the environmentally friendly, but increasingly unreliable bus. Maybe one of these here Aston Martin thingies, in a natty shade of black like the one I saw downtown a week or two ago. That'd do.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Aha! A title, finally.
[Editorial note: the Blogger interface has decided, in its infinite wisdom, to stop me from entering a title. I click in the field, it does nothing. It's a little game we like to play.]
Yes, I know I'm late.
It all comes from being very, very busy you know. So busy that the standard disclaimer about poor quality of the following post is fully in force. So busy that on Sunday, what I should have been doing was working on any number of things - a grant application, some more consulting work, or even catching up on a personnel review or two. What I was doing, of course, was being a Valiant Prince Saving The Fair Princess, weilding a light saber, and clad in a very stylish black velvet sword belt with little gold studs, a Darth Vader cloak and a variety of silly hats. And riding about the basement on a large blue bouncer that I am reliably informed is named "Bouncy".
No, there aren't any photos.
Anyway, the Fair Princess in question was well and duly saved and that was the end of that, as well as pretty much being the end of any productive home-working time.
What there are photos of is the trip on Saturday to visit a whole whack of cousins (to whom I am technically not related at all) who were a) visiting from Scotland, b) staying in a rather nice rented house near a village in [Warning! The following URL has silly music!] Prince Edward County, and therefore c) over two hours' drive away. So the visit was nice, but completely wiped out any work-time I might have had on Saturday.
But there were lots of pretty flowers:
some mushrooms:
a rail fence:
and even some wildlife:
plus all of the aforementioned cousins. So we had a nice time, and I'm fairly sure that they think I'm only slightly demented for rushing about taking pictures of lawn furniture, ratty old fence rails and the neighbour's garden.
Ah well, it's what I do I suppose.
Now, off to work...
Yes, I know I'm late.
It all comes from being very, very busy you know. So busy that the standard disclaimer about poor quality of the following post is fully in force. So busy that on Sunday, what I should have been doing was working on any number of things - a grant application, some more consulting work, or even catching up on a personnel review or two. What I was doing, of course, was being a Valiant Prince Saving The Fair Princess, weilding a light saber, and clad in a very stylish black velvet sword belt with little gold studs, a Darth Vader cloak and a variety of silly hats. And riding about the basement on a large blue bouncer that I am reliably informed is named "Bouncy".
No, there aren't any photos.
Anyway, the Fair Princess in question was well and duly saved and that was the end of that, as well as pretty much being the end of any productive home-working time.
What there are photos of is the trip on Saturday to visit a whole whack of cousins (to whom I am technically not related at all) who were a) visiting from Scotland, b) staying in a rather nice rented house near a village in [Warning! The following URL has silly music!] Prince Edward County, and therefore c) over two hours' drive away. So the visit was nice, but completely wiped out any work-time I might have had on Saturday.
But there were lots of pretty flowers:
some mushrooms:
a rail fence:
and even some wildlife:
plus all of the aforementioned cousins. So we had a nice time, and I'm fairly sure that they think I'm only slightly demented for rushing about taking pictures of lawn furniture, ratty old fence rails and the neighbour's garden.
Ah well, it's what I do I suppose.
Now, off to work...
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