In lieu of a real post, again

There is, as usual, not much of interest going on over here these days, so in my usual way I shall deflect your attention from the lack of a literary magnum opus by gratuitously posting some photos. Or, "how I spent my Christmas holiday with the in-laws".

I spent some time taking the usual arty shots of things around the back yard:


It's either Galadriel's mirror, or a birdbath.

A trip down to the waterfront to see the blustery, freezing cold of Lake Ontario:


There were ducks floating in the lake. Crazy birds.

Followed by a jaunt to take some shots of local photogenic correctional facilities, Kingston, Ontario being the undisputed capital of such things in Canada:


Some people call this place Disneyland. It also has a minimum-security farm institution. Yes, a real farm.


My brother once took an astonishing picture of these towers across Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, featuring a sailing ship that had sunk while at dock, using 1600 speed film in broad daylight. It was artistically grainy, to say the least. This place is maximum security and houses at least one notorious serial killer.

And of course there was the traditional Yule log on the fire (said log being purchased in the traditional manner from the grocery store, wrapped in paper and doubtless impregnated with traditional petrochemicals to help it burn):



And some presents, including this one which indicates that at least one person had been listening to me hinting over the previous month or two:


It's a 250 GTO on the cover, in case anyone cares.

Oh, and I've decided that after inhabiting my current office at work for a year, its walls need some decoration. Suggestions, please. Those of you who might actually be feeling helpful and not inclined to suggest "Ozzy Osbourne poster", "collage made of bottle caps", or "multimedia art installation consisting of dried grass, mucilage, doll parts and human dung" might toddle over to Flickr and suggest a few of my photos that would be suitable for framing (if any). I'm just vain enough to put some of them on the wall.

Lifetime Piling Up

Like the song says, things are just heaping on top of each other.

I know I post frequently about having too many things to do, and I equally know that most of the time, it's due to poor time management on my part. Once in a while, yes, it's because there are too many reports, too many deadlines, too many things to read and places to drive kids to and events to attend and trips to take and bathrooms to clean and all the rest of it. But mainly it's just me, procrastinating.

And sometimes, of course, it's me again, but this time taking too much on. Like the report I agreed to co-author last year: lucrative, yes, but also far more work than I really had time for. Or the consulting I did recently, ditto, despite my best efforts to read mounds of paper on the bus to and from work. Somehow, a quick nap halfway through listening to the latest bargain-bin CD purchase always seems to win out over dry articles about the genetics of this, that and the proverbial other thing.

And then there's blogging.

Inspired by my good friend (and by good friend, I mean "bloke who currently lives in Australia, whom I've never met, but I bet we'd get on like a house on fire, if he didn't cause my untimely death as a result of a home-made hovercraft explosion), Black Knight, who at last count has no fewer than four blogs, I've agreed to contribute to a blog over at this place, where I already spend copious amounts of time. Shh. It's not a done deal yet, although I've vaguely promised (and I quote myself, or at least an email I bravely sent) to "manage one post a week reliably". Stop laughing, Rik.

This on top of the editorial piece I've also promised to write for them. I wonder, if I manage to produce all this stuff more or less on time, if they'll send me on another nice trip like the one to Arizona where I took this picture in between working very, very hard on their behalf (oh, and lounging around the pool too, I suppose):



Anyway, if all goes well, I'll soon be joining Alethea and a few other characters over at that place. I've promised something related to modern technologies, the difficulties in using thereof, and the frustration resulting therefrom. Sound familiar?

And, to start things off, having (more or less) wrapped my head around Blogger, I'll need to learn WordPress. I'm sure it will be dead simple, and not provide me with any annoyance or irritation whatsoever.*


*Certain aspects of this statement are almost certainly going to be proven false.


P.S. Speaking of Blogger, technology and irritation, can anyone explain to me why the newly-installed Internet Explorer 7 is now cutting off the top half of my blog's title? Standard kibbitzing about Microsoft will be gleefully ignored, but I'd really like to know. Thanks.

P.P.S. Thanks to a tip from Mosher (see the comments), I bravely adjusted the blog header's "padding", after intrepidly Googling to find out what the heck it is and how it works. Seems to have done the trick, although his comments (like Debi's before) about the teeny tiny text in the sidebar when viewed in Firefox, still need fixing. Any thoughts?

Conversation over dinner

It's not exactly Susan Musgrave's Conversation During the Omelette aux Fines Herbes, but the dinnertime conversation around these parts occasionally has a satirical, if not epic, bent. Viz:

CONVERSATION OVER DINNER
A farce in one part

Place: Chateau Ricardipus, the dinner table

Time: evening

Cast of Characters:

• Ricardipus, a parent
• Junior Ricardipus #1, a seven-year-old boy
• Junior Ricardipus #2, a five-year-old girl
• Mrs. Ricardipus, kind of like a Greek Chorus I guess

The characters are arranged around the dinner table. As we join the action, JR2 is sticking her tongue out across the table in the general direction of JR1.

Ricardipus [firmly]:
If you stick out your tongue again, I'll pluck it out.

JR2 [disbelieving]:
How are you going to do that?

Ricardipus [confidently]:
I have magic Daddy powers.

JR1:
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

Now that makes me laugh.

[beat]

[beat]


But not very hard.



---

His timing is perfect, I tell you.

Possibly the least informative fax ever

Received recently. With no cover sheet.

Pity I don't have a barcode scanner handy.