Bush cements his legacy: Bush quietly seeks to make war powers permanent, by declaring indefinite state of war
I don’t know about you, but I’m scared. And the thing I’m most scared about is if Feisty McGeezer gets elected, he’ll stack with Supreme Court with more Scalitos who will be happy to rubber stamp more outrages.
Someday we’ll look back at 2001 as the year the US stopped marching forwards towards greater and greater civil liberties, and started a permanent slide into despotism.
I’m in the beta for StackOverflow.com, a site for programmers to ask and answer questions, with cool features like “reputation scores” and voting and badges. Now maybe it’s because it’s the beta and so it’s self-selected for people who are motivated to do things, but so far it’s already totally supplanted comp.lang.java.* as the place I want to ask or answer questions.
I’m hoping it will continue to be my favourite question and answer place when it’s overrun by spammers and “first post” losers.
While I continue to debate with myself whether I want to leave a job I’ve mostly enjoyed for the last 6+ years, I get an email. As explanation, I seem to be the only person here who regularly uses Macs at home, and I have a bit of a reputation as being able to solve various problems that have cropped up here, as well as recommending hardware upgrades and the like.
Hi Paul,
We’ve got a couple of “APPLES” here in our lab that we primarily use for Final Cut Pro editing. We just recently upgraded to LEOPARD, and things just aren’t “right”…..Xxxx (lab manager) has authorized me to provide you with a charge number for you to come and see if you can help. Please let me know if you have some availability in the next week or two to check them out….thanks very much!
Yyyyyy M. Yyyyyyyy | Video & Digital Content Specialist | EI DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE LAB |
Eastman Kodak Company | 2400 Mt. Read Boulevard | Rochester, NY 14650-3089 |
I told her that she’d have to talk to my boss, Nancy about it. So she sent her and email and CCed me:
Hi Nancy,
We’ve got a couple of G5 “APPLES” here in our lab that are heavily utilized for Final Cut Pro editing. We recently upgraded to the newest operating system (LEOPARD), and things just aren’t “right”….word on the street has it that Paul Tomblin has a vast knowledge of APPLE hardware, and we would like to request that Paul come and take a look at them, to determine what is going on. We do have an APPLE support agreement, but it only covers software support.
Xxxx Xxxxx our lab manager, has authorized me to provide Paul with a charge number for him to come and see if he can help. I would estimate it would only take him about 2-4 hours.
Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Yyyyyy M. Yyyyyyyy | Video & Digital Content Specialist | EI DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE LAB |
I can just see what Nancy is going to say when she gets that after my resignation letter.
Today was quite a departure for me. Normally I avoid paddling on the bay like the plague, both because of the waves and because of the power boaters. But there is a race coming up in a few weeks that’s the culmination of the kayak racing season, and it’s nearly 10 miles up and down “Long Lake”. So I figured I needed to do more distance, and I also needed some experience on lakes. I thought I’d try paddling up to the Bay Bridge and back, since Dan says that’s 5 miles. (It turns out that Google Maps Pedometer shows it being more like 5.3 miles.)
Continue reading ‘Long Slow Distance training’ »
I’ve been here at Kodak for over 6 years as an hourly wage contractor. No benefits, no vacation, and no 401(K). And while I’ve bitched about it here many times, overall it’s been a damn good job. Good money, the respect of my peers, an active role in design, interesting technology, etc. But several months ago, they told me that they couldn’t renew my contract any more, and that they’d convert me to a full time employee. And that was all going ahead nicely when the head of our division suddenly left. No warning, no explanation, just “Heck of a job, Brownie” one day and “We can neither confirm nor deny he ever worked here” the next. Something fishy happened. But the new person came in, and of course the first thing she did was put a freeze on hiring.
So since that time, they’ve been renewing my contract one month at a time, and usually waiting until the last week of the month before confirming it. So needless to say, I’ve been “exploring my options”, spreading my resume around, registering at Monster and Dice, talking to headhunters, and going on some intervews. And now I’ve got an offer from Global Crossing. It doesn’t look hugely exciting, but it might be mildly interesting and a chance to get some experience in some technologies I’ve been interrested in, like Hibernate and EJBs. It’s contract-to-hire, which is a bummer, and it pays way less than I’m making now (which I expected) and probably a little less than what Kodak would come up with if they ever get around to making an offer. On the other hand, it’s in a new building, rather than a clapped out industrial building where the ceiling tiles are older than I am and the asbestos warning stickers confront you at every doorway.
So now it comes down to: do I take the nearly sure thing at Global Crossing, or sit here waiting while Kodak jerks me around for another week, another month, another quarter, or whatever?
In my career I’ve always played it by ear, but I’ve also made a habit of getting out when the going is good. I swore I wouldn’t do that here, because the pay is so much better than what I’d make elsewhere that it would be worth it to stick it out to the bitter end and maybe lose a month’s pay while looking for a new job. But this constant worry if they’re going to renew my contract this month is driving me batty.
Today I did the part I’ve been dreading, glassing the inside of the hull. And for all the dread and worry, it ended up being about 18 times worse than my worst fears. The glass ended up bumpy and full of bubbles. It also went majorly wrong in the ends, where the glass cloth ended up bunched up and impossible to epoxy down. Fortunately the end parts are going to be filled with epoxy, so that’s not so bad. And most of the big bubbles are going to be in parts of the boat that nobody will see, but some of them are in the cockpit where I’ll see it every time I sit down.
I’m hoping and praying that I’ll be able to cut down and fill some of the worst of the bubbles.
A summary of the last couple of days, as it relates to kayaking (mostly because there isn’t much that isn’t related to kayaking in the last couple of days).
Continue reading ‘More kayaking, and some construction too’ »
Various stuff graphed.
Update: It’s not Eclipse, it’s NFS. The file is there as [classname].java on the machine that has ClearCase installed, but on the one I’m running on, it’s [classname].java.loading.
Google isn’t helping me here.
I have a bunch of errors in my Eclipse project, because it’s staying it can’t find a particular class. I do an “ls”, and the .java file is there. But in Eclipse, the file appears as [classname].java.loading, and no amount of hitting F5 will convince it to rescan the directory and rediscover the file.
Help?
Sorry, Vicki, I didn’t know how to break this to you, but I’ve fallen in love. One of the racing team members, Frank, is selling his old Necky Looksha II kayak. It’s 20 feet long, 20 inches wide, weighs about 45 pounds, and as the time above shows, fast as hell, and beautiful.
Considering how much of the time I was worrying about tipping over rather than concentrating on my stroke, the fact that I was 1.26 minutes (76 seconds) faster than last week shows just how fast this kayak is. My split after the bay portion of the race was only 21 seconds faster than last week, which shows that not only was I wasting more time adjusting to the new boat out there, but also the lighter boat allowed me to keep more energy for the second half. This the first time I haven’t had to stop for a drink of water during the race. And obviously, after I learn to paddle it without worry, I’ll get even faster.
So here’s my plan:
- Finish the Pygmy Boat kit this fall. Try it out a bit and see how I like it.
- Next spring, sell either the Pygmy Boat or the Skerray.
- If Frank still hasn’t sold his Looksha by then, buy it. Otherwise look for something equally fast and challenging.
- Profit?
I probably should have read tthis post of mine from 2005 before today’s doctor’s appointment. Then I would have been ready when it happened again. Or not. I never seem to learn.
Today, I got my second appointment with the new neurologist. After spending 3 hours absorbing the magic healing rays that are evidently given off by an empty exam room and a rack full of magazines that don’t interest me, (broken up by 15 minutes answering questions from a different PA than last time, most of which were already in my file), I got to see the doctor. And he did the physical exam that I’m already too familiar with, having had it more times than I can count, involving moving my kneecap around, pressing on my legs and knees, and all that shit, only to hear the all-too-familiar word “chondromalacia”. Yup, the same diagnosis[1] that I’ve had since I was 15. And since we’re on the endless repeat cycle, I know what’s going to come next - some barely effective anti-inflammatory pills and some physiotherapy that makes the problem far worse.
I might as well forget it - I’m never going to be pain free, and even a reduction in pain or a reduction in the amount of increase in pain over time is too much to hope for. Trying a new doctor has been a complete waste of time, and used up even more of my ever dwindling bag of hope. It’s times like this I wonder how much more of this pain I can stand before I just have to end it all.
Meanwhile, I took some drug that he wanted me to try last night, and woke up feeling sleepy, mildly nauseated and headachy. The PA referred to it as a “hangover”, I assume in a medical sense just meaning a side effect that carries on the next day, but that’s exactly what it felt like, like I’d tied one on last night. And after the 3.5 hour doctor’s appointment (plug half an hour travel time each way) made me two hours late for lunch, I was really feeling sick. I was seriously considering just going home and lying down on the bed and crying for the rest of the day. But instead I grabbed some lunch, and after a few hours I can almost look at a computer screen without feeling like I’m going to barf. I still feel like crying.
[1] Wikipedia says “chondromalacia” isn’t a diagnosis, just a description of the pain. Big fucking deal - it also says the usual treatment is anti-inflammatories, physiotherapy, and “treatment of any underlying cause of the pain”. Well, since nobody has ever discovered the underlying cause of the pain, after X-Rays, MRIs, and arthroscopic surgery, that comes back to the same treatment plan that’s been tried and failed a dozen times already.
Last Thursday I went for a private lesson with Dan. It went so well that I confidently boasted to somebody that not only would I beat my person best, 24.60, but I’d demolish it with a 24.30. Instead, I not only demolished it, I jumped up and down on the pieces. 24.13. My split was 11.88, compared to my previous best of 12.00, so much of that improvement came in the second half, where my improved technique on both halves of the course meant I had more energy and didn’t have to stop paddling to take a drink several times in the last quarter as I’ve done so many times in the past.
I took a stop watch this time and recorded split times at both buoy turns as well, but I forgot and reset the watch before I recorded them. Oh well, maybe next time.
With my technique and conditioning improving, I’m convinced that the only other factor I need to work on is the fact that I’m paddling a heavy plastic boat. Time to get back out into the garage and finish my Arctic Tern 17 Hi.
Ok, I was slower today - 25.00 instead of 24.60. Most people beat their personal best. I guess that’s what I get for missing a week. But we’ve had so much rain this summer that the creek is still running well, and there is still a good crowd coming out, so they’ve decided to run the races for a few more weeks.
On the way out, I was trying to paddle right, but as I passed the split, Dan yelled at me to push the paddle in at the catch and then pull, instead of pulling as the paddle went in, or words to that effect. Once I figured out what he meant, I fixed my catch and also started working on what my upper arm was doing on the power stroke, which gave me better rotation. And it was good, the boat was moving fast. Unfortunately by that time I was too tired and I could do a good stroke about 5 or 10 strokes and then had to rest. That’s why my split time was 0.30 slower than my previous best, and my total time was 0.40 slower.
