"I think astrology is utter nonsense — but then I'm a Sagittarius, and we're very skeptical." — Sir Arthur C. Clarke
The other evening we were, as I recall, shutting off our big projection TV when we heard a loud "PHOFFF" sound from inside its cabinet. The first thing I thought was that the projection lamp had blown. I fetched my screwdriver and opened the access door for the lamp and, sure enough, the thing had blown. Fragments of glass and filiment littered the inside of the cone-shaped lamp body. It took a little research but I found a source online, ordered the replacement, and within about 48 hours received the new unit. It was expensive –lamp plus express shipping was just under $200– but less expensive than many alternatives like a repair shop or replacing the TV. It was a delicate operation but not too difficult to uninstall the old 100-watt lamp and replace it. Now the TV's back in shape and, most importantly, She Who Must be Obeyed can watch Smallville on the big screen. Funny thinking about the changes in television sets from the old "picture tubes" and vacuum tubes to, now, projection lamps, and plasma or LCD panels, and printed circuits.
I have the day off today –but must work Saturday and Sunday– so spent the day with a routine visit to the dentist, walk around the shopping mall, shipping about 800 copies of my printed work, and resting a bit. It's a chilly, drizzly, foggy day and a good one for staying indoors, listening to music, reading, napping. And for once I got to do some of each of those things. Ahhh!
Next week I've another Friday off and ought to head out to the Observatory to tidy up. I also need to get a clear night there and a practice session on my own — there's a public open night scheduled for April 19 and I want to be prepared. When the weather warms a bit I also want to work on completing the restoration of the old bronze plaque that adorned the entrance to the 1939 Observatory. Refinishing involves applying lacquer and the fumes are just too wicked to have in the house or to bear in a closed space; I'll do the work at the Observatory by day and let it dry there at night. I'm looking forward to some time off and comfortable weather, some time spent in the quiet environs of that old "space place."
The Karmic Disease Vector — that's what I called it. I was poking fun at my sister's bemoaning of a severe cold she was suffering as she wrote words to the effect, "where did I go wrong, what did I do to deserve this suffering?" I allowed as to how it was, of course, her fault that she was sick. I also stated that, should anyone around her become ill, that would be on her back as well! (Of course it was all a round-about way of saying, "silly girl… it's not your fault and how could you think that?") Then, to help allay any concerns that I actually meant to be mean, I said I'd better show a little more compassion as my callous attitude would earn me suffering of my own through the "KDV" or Karmic Disease Vector. Guess what happened next. Though my sibling and I had no physical contact when she was sick –in fact, were separated by great distance– within about 48 hours I took ill with a severe head cold. It kept me couch-ridden one whole day and away from the office (and any other activity) for two full days! I think I'd better write a medical paper or a self-help book. And no, it can't be coincidence because, er, well KDV is just to keen a concept. Note: There may also exist KVD… but I don't want to even contemplate that!
I did manage to recover enough to greet the AT&T service guy Friday (March 28). Our TV service through U-verse was grinding to a halt, giving us images that would "stutter" then "freeze." Trouble was quickly traced to a bad "residential gateway" (the AT&T-provided site router) which they replaced. We're once again happily able to bathe our minds in great floods of video opiate. We never noticed any interruption in Internet access… probably successful and smooth video delivery required a lot more uninterrupted bandwidth than Web surfing and file uploads/downloads; the bad gateway just didn't have enough throughput to "git 'er done!"
As an IT practitioner I see a lot of strange things: Computers that behave in bizarre ways… users that behave in bizarre ways. I've never seen the like of the following, reportedly an actual error message that appeared on the screen of a printer at someone else's shop:
On the status panel of an HP LaserJet 4200tn printer:
WARNING: DEMON POSSESSED
After many years of doing this kind of work I can say that the message in question is possibly the most accurate one I've seen… if one believes in demons, anyway! So now we know who to call for help –not HP repair– an exorcist!
As I noted in an earlier entry, this was an exhausting week. Fortunately there were no incidents at work that demanded my attention either Friday or today. I got a decent night's sleep –a fairly solid six hours– leaving me wanting for a bit more but feeling like I'm recovering. Today She Who Must Be Obeyed took her car in for service and we took off for a McDonald's breakfast followed by Saturday shopping at Target, Kohl's, lunch at Bruegger's Bagels and provisioning at Mustard Seed Market. The atmosphere was foggy all morning and the sky gray all day but there was no rain or snow falling. It was great to be out and about without the weight of any crisis or deadline. Just palling around with "She" for the day. The car needed little service and the mechanic was very pleasant to deal with — a positive experience. There was supposed to be an Observatory open night tonight but the solid overcast and expected snow caused me to cancel the event. {Ma Nature stepped in to slow me down a bit more.} So tonight we try out a veggie version of a Rachael Ray recipe, enjoy (I hope) a little local wine –"Redemption" from the Wolf Creek winery (beautiful location, okay wine), and kick back for a restful evening. Ahhhh…. time off!
Wine note: Yes, it's a "red table wine," and those tend to be mellow and sweet. Redemption has those characteristics plus a strong cherry flavor and ruby red color. Not a fine wine but it should go well with our "meat" loaf dinner! And isn't that what a "table wine" is about?
I happened across a quotation tonight. It expresses a thought I had way back when this nation had a choice about attacking Iraq. At that time I'd read that for a few hundred million dollars all of the basic needs could be met for every deprived man, woman, and child on Earth. War on Iraq, we were also told at that time, would cost about the same amount of money. One path would have saved lives, helped economies, and won us friends. The other path led to death, destruction, and the enmity of people around the world. Our "leaders" made a choice for us.
Here's that quotation I spotted and it's worth noting who is quoted….
It's Friday and, because of my weekend rotation schedule, I get to stay home! The rest comes not a moment too soon. It was a busy and stressful week. Some things take care of themselves: no change in my job/career situation (for better or worse) as the decision was made for me. Projects at work don't usually resolve themselves: after many hours of troubleshooting I finally devised a workaround for an intranet site problem and that made a few people happy. Now my coworkers can create their paperwork without paper. At least there will be less paper wasted. Finally the week was capped off by an 11-hour day partly spent "upgrading" our PC scheduling system followed by a 9-hour day yesterday watching our networked PCs gradually grind to a halt because the "upgrade" was somehow toxic. Fortunately I hadn't tried to permanently improve all of our PCs at the same time. Of course it wasn't the software vendor's fault — no, no, no! My repeated and increasingly urgent calls for help went unanswered. Hmmm… their phone was busy all day. I wonder….. I finally remedied the situation myself, at least for a while, by shutting off the automatic portion of the "upgrade" and rebooting our PCs allowing them to regress to their stable former, non-upgraded selves. Those machines that suffered the permanent effects of the "upgrade" are hosed; I'll have to try and repair them Monday. Very stressful day. Not a nice week. I hope I don't get phone calls today… I need this day (and weekend) off! Thank Goodness It's Friday!
I got to work just fine today (my weekend to work). No real trouble getting up the hill out of our condos. Our city streets were packed snow but the state roads were fine as were the freeways. When I arrived the snow crews were on the property in force. They'd cleared the lots pretty well but the drive-up window couldn't be driven up to. This photo will give some idea of what they had to work on. Tomorrow ought to be pretty easy by comparison! A pretty, snowy day, or a pretty snowy day!
PhotonStopper 