Now erasing hard drive. Please stand by.

Those of you who've been unlucky enough to be within whining range recently (greatly extended following the development of the internet) may know that I've been working much of this week on fine-tuning a Letter of Intent for a grant application. In total, it's about 20 pages long, although if condensed to solid text it would probably be closer to eight pages or so. Figures, tables and similar things make up the bulk of the document's real estate.

With it 95% finished (in truth, close enough to "done" that it could have been submitted), I sent it off to the boss for final proofing. As I often do, I clicked on the email attachment just to be sure that everything was all right.

It wasn't.

Microsoft Word presented me with a little dialogue box, the gist of which was "Word can't find the file - the path is invalid, it's lost or broken or something". "Fine", I thought, "the email attachment process didn't work properly, so I'll just do it again".

Nope.

What followed was a long and protracted period of flapping around, the net result of which was discovering that the file couldn't be (a) opened on my computer, (b) opened on somebody else's computer, or (c) emailed to a web-based email account and opened remotely. Mac vs. PC didn't help either. Maddeningly, the file was still there - sitting on the desktop, and I was even able to get its properties, ensure that Windows really thought it was a Word file, of about the right size, and located where it appeared to be. It was just broken, and Word didn't even have the good grace to identify it as a corrupted file, let alone offer to try and fix it. Which, truth be told, has usually worked in the past.

Yes, I know I should have had previous versions backed up in other places, but I've generally never had problems in recovering crashed Word documents. Perhaps this time, I'll learn. Also unusually, there were no previous versions emailed around to others for comments that I could have used; paper copies were circulated at one point (and thank goodness I still had one; if recovering the file wasn't going to work, I was faced with re-typing the thing from hardcopy). Argh.

With some help from a less-panicky graduate student seated nearby, who located the excellent little freeware utility WordRepair v1.1, I was able to grab the text out of the corrupted file. I'd opened it using a text editor previously, and it was pretty garbled; WordRepair (from the good folks at GetData) gave me nice, unformatted text instead. It dropped a few digits from numbers and the odd punctuation mark, but otherwise made life much, much easier.

What followed was a few hours of re-building the document, as compared with what would have been an all-night effort re-typing it. The timeline went something like this:

5:00 PM - rant and fume, thrash about, calm down enough for grad student to help out
5:15 PM - try a few other, unsuccessful ways of recovering the file
5:45 PM - photocopy only existing paper copy of document, just in case
6:00 PM - drive home, blasting loud music in futile attempt to calm down
7:30 PM - arrive home, after battling obnoxious traffic for much of the trip; eat dinner
8:18 PM - addresses and cover sheets fixed
8:23 PM - executive summary pasted back in and re-formatted
8:44 PM - technologies description section (about five pages of text) fixed
8:56 PM - organizational chart pasted back in and fussed around with a bit
9:15 PM - list of "statements of work" done
9:17 PM - budget section rebuilt from another document
9:26 PM - completely fixed, after the usual arguments with headers, footers and pagination

And there I was, thinking I'd be up until 1:00 AM at least. Which, as it turns out, I was, but working on other things instead.

Some days, I hate technology. But I've said that before.

Blog for Darwin

This looks like fun:



A "blog swarm", where not only are they soliciting Darwin-themed blog posts to celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth (February 12th, 1809), but are intending to aggregate them all as well. Regardless of your views on Darwin the man, his scientific prowess (or not), his writings, or the whole evolution vs. creationism mishmash, this still sounds like a very interesting initiative. As I'm firmly in the Darwin camp (although with reservations about certain of his published works, some of which are a very tedious read), I'll be participating, both here and over at Life Science Tools of the Trade.

You can too... click right here to find out how.

Thanks to Heather for alerting me to this.

VIA Rail Onboard Hi-Speed WiFi...

...isn’t. Which is why you're getting this post four hours later, from the hotel, rather than from the train.

Anyway, here I am, on a train from Toronto to Montreal. Last time I went to Montreal, which was also the first time I’ve been there for more than an overnight trip, was last November. During which I took a bunch of photographs with the work Nikon Coolpix L16. Photogenic city, indeed.

But – remember this post? I was awaiting my shiny, new, Sony DSC-W55 camera, and despairing of it arriving prior to my trip to Washington. And with this in mind, I give you:


Ronald Reagan National Airport

Yes, the new Sony arrived, and is a much-more-spiffy-than-anticipated DSC-W130, megapixelier (no, that’s not a real word) and shinier than the W55 that I was expecting, and still featuring that all-important Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar, pre-KonicaMinolta, lens. Whatever that means.

Here are a few sample shots, since I’m still proud of the thing:


Reagan National, again.


It can take macros, too.


Takes nice downtown night shots, it seems.

And now, here I sit, an hour and a half into a four-plus-hour train ride, gloating over the camera, anticipating the delicious VIA rail meal, awaiting that moment when I decamp into the government-sponsored hotel room, plunking myself down on the multi-hundred-dollar-per-night bed, missing the kids and Mrs. Ricardipus, feeling satisfied with myself for using the passenger rail system to cross the boundary between English and French Canada, and awaiting the morning. I may never have been west of Paris, nor east of Victoria, but I feel like a proper traveler, again.

More shots to follow, I suspect.


--
An update - the train was on time, the hotel room is very, very small, and the WiFi on the train, um, er, sucked. Which is why I'm posting this later at night, from the hotel room. Ah well. This post - it is what it is.

A meme in 99 parts

I've borrowed this list from Wyldwoods, whose interesting answers are in his post here. By all means, go ahead and fill this out yourself if you like.

Rules:

1. Everyone uses this same list of 99 Things.


2. Feel free to add editorial comments (mine are in square brackets).


3. Change the font of each item according to the legend below.


4. That's it! Simple, really.

Things I’ve already done: boldface
Things I want to do: italics
Things I haven’t done and don’t want to: plain text

99 Things

1. started your own blog [obviously]


2. slept under the stars [lots of tenting, but not open-air, yet]


3. played in a band [see here]


4. visited Hawaii


5. watched a meteor shower [the Perseids, among others]


6. given more than you can afford to charity


7. been to Disneyland/world [will probably happen, but I'm not enthusiastic]


8. climbed a mountain [Snowdon, in Wales; and also one in the Gaspé Peninsula]


9. held a praying mantis [seen one up close, though]


10. sang a solo [ugh; with the aforementioned band - audio evidence right here (mp3 format)]


11. bungee jumped [no thanks]


12. visited Paris [twice (once shown here), would happily go again]


13. watched a lightning storm at sea


14. taught yourself an art from scratch [digital fractals, among others]


15. adopted a child


16. had food poisoning


17. walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty


18. grown your own vegetables


19. seen the Mona Lisa in France [I've been in the lobby of the Louvre - that's as close as I got]


20. slept on an overnight train


21. had a pillow fight


22. hitch hiked [no thanks]


23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill [kind of depends on your definition of "ill"]


24. built a snow fort


25. held a lamb


26. gone skinny dipping [in the middle of the night, in a freezing cold lake in the Laurentian mountains]


27. run a marathon [again, no thanks]


28. ridden a gondola in Venice


29. seen a total eclipse


30. watched a sunrise or sunset [both; here's one]


31. hit a home run [will never happen, not enough upper body strength]


32. been on a cruise


33. seen Niagara Falls in person [a few times]


34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors [some of them, anyway]


35. seen an Amish community


36. taught yourself a new language [I'm assuming rudimentary html doesn't count]


37. had enough money to be truly satisfied [sad to say, will never happen]


38. seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person [yes please]


39. gone rock climbing [at Rattlesnake Point]


40. seen Michelangelo’s David in person


41. sung karaoke [not in a million, billion years, unless I'm rewarded by #37 above]


42. seen Old Faithful geyser erupt in person


43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant


44. visited Africa


45. walked on a beach by moonlight


46. been transported in an ambulance [no thanks, unless it's a better option than the available alternatives at the time]


47. had your portrait painted


48. gone deep sea fishing [for mackerel, in England]


49. seen the Sistine Chapel in person


50. been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris [didn't go all the way to the top either time I was there]


51. gone scuba diving or snorkeling


52. kissed in the rain [almost certainly, although I can't pinpoint a specific occasion]


53. played in the mud


54. gone to a drive-in theatre [the one near my childhood home has been replaced with a grocery store]


55. been in a movie [been on local TV though]


56. visited the Great Wall of China


57. started a business


58. taken a martial arts class


59. visited Russia


60. served at a soup kitchen


61. sold girl scout cookies [I'm hoping my daughter will take care of this one for me]


62. gone whale watching [yes, if dolphins, or watching from the shore, count]


63. gotten flowers for no reason


64. donated blood [many times]


65. gone sky diving [no thanks]


66. visited a Nazi concentration camp


67. bounced a cheque


68. flown in a helicopter


69. saved a favourite childhood toy


70. visited the Lincoln memorial


71. eaten caviar


72. pieced a quilt


73. stood in Times Square


74. toured the Everglades


75. been fired from a job [a summer job in high school; it sucked anyway]


76. seen the changing of the guard in London


77. broken a bone [not to my knowledge]


78. been on a speeding motorcycle [does a scooter count?]


79. seen the Grand Canyon in person


80. published a book [I co-published a poetry chapbook once, but it was self-funded, so hardly counts]


81. visited the Vatican


82. bought a brand new car [this one, and also this one; but not this one, unfortunately]


83. walked in Jerusalem


84. had your picture in the newspaper


85. read the entire Bible [I'm not religious, but it seems like something I should do out of interest]


86. visited the White House


87. killed and prepared an animal for eating


88. had chickenpox


89. saved someone’s life


90. sat on a jury [not yet, but I'm on the list]


91. met someone famous [two Nobel laureates, and a couple of minor actors and TV personalities]


92. joined a book club


93. lost a loved one


94. had a baby [twice, if being a father counts]


95. seen the Alamo in person


96. swum in the Great Salt Lake


97. been involved in a law suit


98. owned a cell phone [I was a late starter though; my first was one of these]


99. been stung by a bee [probably; wasps, certainly]

So that gives us totals of:



35 Things I have done

29 Things I would like to do

37 Things I have not done, and could do without.



Your turn, if you will.