zen.org Communal Weblog

Why do people persist in saying “ATM machine” without realising they’re really saying, “Automated Teller Machine Machine”?

If dogs are so much smarter than cats, why don’t cats also chase cars?

How is it that people who’ve never been parents always know exactly how children should be reared?

If lawmakers who determine Minimum Wages had to live on the same amounts, would they set them any higher?

Why do people agree to appear on “reality” tv programmes?

In a starving world, Western preoccupation with diets, fitness and slimming borders on the obscene.

Anyone who says s/he “owns” a dog or cat is delusional; evidence clearly shows that it’s the other way round.

Given that most global news outlets are now controlled by conservative-minded multinational conglomerates, where’s their credibility?

If even half the governments who claim to be concerned about poverty and human rights actually meant what they say, Third World Debt would have been eradicated decades ago.

Where did Adam and Eve’s daughters-in-law come from?

Who was the first person to look at a lobster and say, “I think I’ll eat that”?

The world would be so much nicer if we humans were as forgiving of each other as our pets are of us.

What ever possessed Noah to put two mosquitoes onto the Ark?

Could anyone who ever voted for George W. Bush pass a standard intelligence test?

It struck me after reading their long, detailed information about the dash character just how amazing Wikipedia really is. It’s this generation’s version of the encyclopedia, only it’s absolutely free and doesn’t involve a traveling salesman.

I went looking for a small bit of information — the Unicode sequence for the em-dash — and I found a wonderfully complete description of all of the em-dash’s cousins, including symbols from other alphabets and how you make the character show up in a wide variety of applications. The site has content in more than 60 languages, and for a real kick (click?), you can let it make a totally random selection of what to read (in your own native language of course).

Right now our son Patrick’s in the back yard with his friends jumping on the trampoline, so while Elana’s out with them I key in the word trampoline. There it is: the history, construction, and safe use of a trampoline. It’s so much fun when you get a new toy…

After some effort figuring out zen’s new home, I think I’ve managed to reconstruct our weblog. There are still a few tweaks I need to put in from the old weblog tree (like all the work to block spam), but this is 90% of it back and functioning.

We owe heart-felt thanks to Brian Fant and box2 technologies. Our dear friend Pati told him about our troubles, and he jumped to the task. Less than 48 hours after zen.org’s previous home had been savagely attacked by a massive tree (I’ll let Sven make that post), I received email from Brian offering their help and facilities to get zen.org back on its feet. (To make it even more exciting, we were on the other side of Ireland visiting friends at the time, racking up their phone bill while I stayed dialed up talking to Sven in IM and working out the logistics of relocating our domain.)

Brian’s company has been responsive and willing to do a wide variety of tweaks and fixes to help us get everything going. Email accounts and aliases, DNS, mysql, SSL where we wanted it, imap & pop3 & webmail, spamassassin, mailing lists, restoring mail folders, the works. While their company does a wide variety of things other than Web hosting, I’m happy to endorse box2.com to anyone looking for a good hosting service, wherever you may be around the world. Speedy, reliable, and helpful.

The next time we’re in California, dinner’s going to be on us. 🙂

Today I was standby juror nubmer 20197 at the Bucks County courthouse. If I was still working for NEC Labs I would of tried to get on a case, but as I am starting at the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University on July 5th, I was hopping to avoid it.

Luckly, all worked out well. One case was called, but not my name. So I spent most of the time reading Profiles of the Future: A daring look at tomorrow’s fantastic world by Arthur C. Clarke (that’s what the cover says, the cover page says Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the limits of the possible, oh well). I did get one hint from the lady in charge, if you have to change the date you are going to be called in to be a juror your name will be one of the first names called. At least at the Bucks Count county seat.

After I got a Planet Smoothie smoothie. One of the the few places to get a good smoothie in Bucks County. There is a nonchain place in New Hope that makes great soy smoothies, next time I go I’ll try to post the name. It’s in a little foot alley just off Main Street really close to Lulu’s.

Even thought I was being attacked by a baby and cat while doing so, I got most of Rerun’s core functions up to Debian Sarge last night. This morning I got the rest.

Spam is rolling in, so I guess email works. If this posts, the Blog will be back up. Hopefully the next upgrade will be a hardware upgrade.

This morning I was sprite and chipper. Off to NEC I was to go for the last time. I pet the cat and weeded the garden, jumped in the SAAB much later then normal. The night before I picked up a copy of The Cartoon Guide to Genetics at my soon to be boss’s request. As I drove I thought of Mendel’s peas, It gave me flashbacks to High School science class, the last time I read about these. So unless jury duty puts me on a case, the 5th of July Perl and MacOS I will again embrace. I haven’t use either for quite a while, and putting them together will be a bit strange. With memories mixing of high school, Wired, and my old Machintosh SE, I think something new and cool awaits me.

At work, with nothing to do, a small pile of stuff to take home. A few more hours of twiddling my thumbs. Perhaps a few more questions for people to ask. One last lunch to eat alone, though yesterday four people did take me out. I will miss the place from over a year ago, but since then I’ve been longing for it to end. There is worry about changing jobs, but no more then normal.

Now NEC is having a blackout, so I have to go.

It has been one week since attending my son’s kindergarten field trip to Happy Hollow, and long enough to let the experience settle within my being to write about it.

I have been on several field trips before, so I was not a complete newbie. I had assisted teachers in herding children through the Teddy Bear Factory, end-of-year celebrations and Sean’s Jr. Kindergarten trip to Happy Hollow. (For those of you that aren’t California, Bay Area residents, Happy Hollow is a cross between a zoo and a fairground, plenty of animals & rides for the kids) However what was new in this experience was that, with 90 kindergarteners in tow, the teachers had plenty of parents lined up to escort a group of children. And my group had Sheri, Shannon, Soo-Young and my son Sean. I also had Sheri, who was a twin, and her sister was on the other bus with her mother. I learned quickly that Sheri had, um, strong feelings about this. Sheri’s mother and I quickly made plans to meet up at the park in order to deter further theatrics.

The bus ride brought back memories of my grade school days and the coveted back-of-the-bus seats. Nothing bounces like the seats beyond the last row of tires on a bus. My four charges opted to let the entire entourage know when vehicles were about to pass our bus, (CAR!!! CAR!!!) until several classmates encouraged silence. I knew then I had a lively group.

There is a phenomenon that occurs during certain field trips, especially those that are held at places with play equipment. First, if there is a group of children, they will run in equal and opposite directions. Second, the harder the children play and run, the more tired the ones responsible for said children will become. Needless to say, I was $%*I&%^ exhausted by the end of the day.

Note to playground authorities: Perhaps a sign should be posted near any self-propelled twirling device that reads “do not ride after lunch”. Fortunately my group rode before lunch, and equally as fortunate that each child opted to get off (after I dragged them) before they were too dizzy to walk. Not so with Christian, a boy from another group. And I was certainly not going to clean up after him.

I am now looking forward to another trip to the Teddy Bear Factory. And perhaps the Planetarium or library. I have learned my lesson: sign up early for the field trips. Get the ones that the kids are filed in orderly groups. Looking after your own child(ren) at a playground is harrowing enough.

But you’ve got to love the bus ride.

I just did a Fedora update from Core 3 to Core 4. Never in the past has a Red Hat or Fedora upgrade ever worked for me.

Also, comming soon is the Rerun, AKA zen.org, upgrade. I’ll try to post another warning the day before I do it.

This is yet another Blog entry that should be skipped. I drone on about nothing.

I usually try to do some reflection on days like this, and this Midsummer I have a lot to reflect on, I will spare you the details. I had to fill out my last time card here at work and I gave myself a half day today. So Zoë and I should be getting our vegetables as normal Tuesday events occur, just a little early. We haven’t even finished last weeks food. Anybody local reading this? Wanna split the share?

Midsummer is a little weird, gardens are just getting into swing and days are only getting shorter. This morning at 06:46, about the moment spring turned into summer, I think Marvin was meowing for more food. With my new job, I think my wheel of fortune is on a upturn.

Nothing happening here at work. I guess I’ll listen to some podcasts and go home.

Once upon a time, in a state far, far away, I used to write if not daily, pretty darned often. That was before marriage, kids, and work, and when writing was part of my major. I graduated, married, moved, multiplied, and now rarely a written word. It’s been at least a dozen years, and I miss that bit of myself. So perhaps I can find that bit of me here.

Chick with Stick

Two years ago I started playing 9-ball on a team with a friend I used to work with, Doug Evans. They asked my husband Pete to play, but after he refused they asked me. (He was already out playing roller hockey one night a week and teaching a night class. Guilt may have had something to do with his answer.) The team plays Monday nights, maximum eight players on each team, and each player is rated with a skill level. A team puts up five players a night to play one match each, and the sum of all skill levels (for those that have played) cannot be more than 23. At the time (if memory serves) they had a 7, 6, 5, and three 4’s.

So they needed someone who sucked. Me.

Two years into it, I have crept up to a skill level 3, I have two team trophies and am invited to the MVP tournament this weekend (for my skill level – heaven help me if I had to play a 6+ player). Not bad for the sacrificial lamb….