Category: Revelation

Committed

As in, “I should be”, I think.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of participating in the Long Lake Long Boat Regatta kayak race. It’s a 10 miler (Dan says it’s closer to 9 miles, but I’m not sure I believe him). I was doubtful about doing such a long race, but he said that if I tried 3 times a week between now and then, I could do it. I was torn between trying it this year, or waiting for a year and giving myself time to get used to such a long distance. And there was a Hugger’s Ski Club clambake that same day – Vicki and I were doing that sort of “well, if you want to do A, I don’t mind skipping B” dance, and again I was thinking the clambake would be a good excuse to miss the race this year.

But at the same time, Vicki and I have talked about taking a couple of weekends away at a nice hotel or B&B. And then I discovered that the start line for the regatta is on the beach in front of the “turn of the century” Adirondak Hotel. Suddenly it seemed like things were swinging the way of doing the race – Vicki and I can have a nice weekend away at a nice hotel, and I can have my race, and Sunday Vicki and I can go for a nice leisurely paddle together. And they have a vacancy with the room with the queen sized bed and the private bathroom. SOLD! I just hope they have a hot tub to recover.

I wonder if Frank will let me borrow the Looksha?

StackOverflow lesson #1

If you care about your “reputation points” (which I keep thinking of as “XP”), don’t go dissing Windows.

A person asked what to do about their parent’s virus infected computers. There were some “real” answers, so I jokingly suggested that they do like I do, and threaten to install Linux on them – that way, they either take you up on the offer and they never have viruses again, or they stop calling you and call somebody else, and it’s a win for you either way.

So far in the last two hours, that question has been voted down 4 times, losing me 8 XP.

StackOverflow

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.