How Appropriate

A few minutes ago, I cleaned the toilet. Then I came in my office to cross it off The List. When I sat down at the computer, I noticed I had some e-mails to respond to. One was on Ravelry. So I checked the forums while I was there. A friend of mine had posted the following video link:

Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

It was funny. So I posted a response, saying that I must have early-onset... but I was combatting it this break using my List. Then I remembered that I had come in the office in order to cross something off The List. Uh... whoops! I guess The List can't fix everything! ;)

Update

Manitoba is soggy. Send ark.

I'm still sick. I was supposed to go sandbagging today.

Dad called this morning, four minutes before my alarm was set to wake me up. He needed e-mail tech support. Bonus to doing Saturday morning tech support: my croaking convinced him that he didn't really need me for sandbagging. Downside: croaking is hard on the throat. (I sure hope I'm better before students start descending in hoards.)

Not being needed for sandbagging is good, because, besides the fact that my lungs are crap, my back has been acting up today. (For some reason, the ribs around and below my right shoulder blade hurt.)

A second CFL died tonight. (The first one died a week or so ago.) However, unlike the first one, this one is a more-expensive, tri-light bulb. It did prompt me to finally remove both bulbs, rinse the dust and dead bugs from the shades (the shades on both cup under the bulbs), and put a fresh bulb in the office. (I had been getting by on one.) However, I don't keep backup tri-light bulbs (expensive, and sold as singles), so that one will have to wait. Luckily I have an alternate light in the living room, although on the opposite side of the room from where I sit to knit and watch TV.

Dad called again for follow-up e-mail tech support. He was having dinner. Unlike when my brother does tech support for my mom & step-dad, who always gets a meal provided when he does tech support, apparently dinner isn't on offer to me. When I tried to weasel in on dinner, dad revealed he was calling from a restaurant, and wouldn't be home for an hour or so. *sigh* Since I want to do the follow-up support from his place, I told him to call again when he got home.

I forgot to ask if he got the dike high enough.

The apartment hallway smells foul. It's like a mixture of spilled alcohol, scented cleaning products, and smoke... but whether from cigarette or cigar (or something else), I can't tell. Between the smell and my back, this hasn't been my favourite day to be tromping to and from the laundry room.

Oh, and a follow-up on the taxes: apparently I shouldn't do computer taxes while sleep deprived (no one else had the software switch them to French), the government will send me a new Notice of Assessment in a language I *can* read, and the nice lady on the phone says my cereal box French is not that bad. (I tried reading out certain lines I had questions about.)

?

The "Awesome Bar"? Tip to people naming things at Firefox: If something is awesome, you don't need to name it that. If you name it that, and it isn't, people will laugh. (People may laugh anyway.)

Another tip: your browser would be more awesome if it hadn't crashed three times since installing the update five minutes ago.

(Clicking "post" before it crashes again. Thanks, blogger, for remembering my post. *You* are awesome!)

Things That Could Be Better

My router doesn't want to renew it's DHCP lease, and so I'm tethered to a wire. I called my provider when the internet was flaky (I couldn't connect via wired either), got put on hold, and then was *finally* given the option to have a call back. Two *hours* later when they did call back, I could connect when wired, but was busy with other stuff and so didn't play with it enough to figure out that wireless still wasn't working. Perhaps I'll have time to play with it this weekend.

I'm tired... but I need to finish stuff before I can sleep.

Fall rain is gloomy. (Hmmm... I think this calls for hot chocolate.)

How True...

I always have the worst time finding what I want on university websites. (They must be designed by PR people.)

Is it a Conspiracy?

"I will mark one exercise before going home."

I log in to Angel (the software for the online course), and then click on the course I'm teaching.

It's running slow, so I check Ravelry while I wait. Click, click, click... I suppose I should go back and check on Angel.

Still waiting.

I click on logout, to see if maybe my session has timed out without saying so...

Blank screen, and more waiting.

Is there a conspiracy against me getting the marking done? I'm going home. :P

Strange...

My e-mail doesn't seem to be working (all accounts... university, gmail, others), but my web browser is working. I wonder if it's a port problem, or a problem with my mail reader? I suppose I should try quitting and restarting that program, or perhaps even rebooting.

If I can't connect at all after rebooting, this will be bad for my ability to make progress on my marking pile... but will result in more sleep. (I'm conflicted about which option I hope happens...)

Drop-Dead Tired

I want to use a cool question on the final exam that another prof used previously. It doesn't want to compile with my version of LaTeX. (I don't really blame it... my install is pretty old.) So, at 3:30 AM, I'm downloading and installing various TeX and LaTeX packages, hoping I'll stumble upon the correct combination. (Thank goodness for high-speed internet!)

Here's crossing my fingers that I don't break my install completely. :P

I've got eight minutes to kill while I wait for the current install to finish, so here's some rambling about what I want, and what I've done so far.

First I upgraded TeXShop... twice. (My version was old enough that it took two upgrades to bring it up to the present day.) However, the question still didn't compile.

H uses TikZ to draw stuff. This appears to be the package that's breaking things. So I installed a newer version of TikZ. TikZ said something about wanting a certain version of xcolor, so that came next. Still no go.

I googled the error message, and it turns out my PDFLaTeX is too old. So I downloaded that. However, it's install instructions really recommended not installing just PDFLaTeX, so I downloaded MacTeX. MacTex is big, so it took a while to download, then a while to expand, and just now a while to install. (I got the boing while typing this paragraph. The install started before I started this post. It's now 3:45 AM.)

Well, I'm off now to see what the install did.

Yay!!!

I won the monthly contest at The Old House Revival Co. blog! It was pure serendipity too... I hadn't a clue what the "guess what it is" item was. Then, the other day I was visiting Lil Fish Studio's blog after seeing some adorable felted wool mushrooms in her Flickr photo stream. I was wondering if they were in her Etsy shop, but in her profile, she only links to her blog, not her Etsy shop. I knew she had a link to her Etsy shop on her blog, so I went there. It turns out her shop was closed at the time, but she had an Etsy badge for her favourite Etsy shops... so I wandered around there. (It was a Sunday morning, and I was feeling clicky.) One of her favourites was in Prairie Antiques shop... which also happened to have the mystery item! At first I was a bit annoyed at stumbling across the item *after* the contest was over... until I remembered it was *still* January (at that point), and so I still had time to enter! Isn't that crazy luck? Stumbling across the mystery item on the *last* day of the contest?

At any rate, I'm really excited to go shopping! :) (I won a $50 gift certificate.)

*sigh*

I always quit my web browser before teaching. Today, instead of clicking "save and quit", I unthinkingly clicked "quit"... so now I don't have all those tabs open that I had planned to do stuff with... interesting tutorials that I had planned to read... "found on flickr" images I had planned to post... recipes I had planned to write on cards and stick in my recipe binder... *sigh*

On the bright side, I no longer have all those tabs nagging me, and my browser uses a lot less memory. (But still... the reason they were open is that I *wanted* them open!)

Blog Reading

Hee! Recently I discovered The Estate Store's Virtual Storefront. It's great! If you like vintage stuff with a sense of humour, go check it out. (But be warned... on rare occasion Angry Beaver speaks, and he has a bit of a potty mouth, not suitable for impressionable minds.)

I bet you were dy(e)ing to know...

I was at an art workshop today (I didn't take a photo of what I painted, and I left it at the club to dry), and at one point the conversation turned to the source of the name phthalo blue. I knew it came from phthalocyanine blue, but didn't know beyond that. Spending a bit of time tonight with Google and Wikipedia turned up the following:

Phthalo blue is short for phthalocyanine blue. The pigment is made when phthalocyanine binds with copper. Phthalocyanine is synthesized using various derivatives of phthalic acid. Phthalic acid was obtained by Auguste Laurent, who thought he had created a naphthaline derivative, which he named naphthalenic acid. When another chemist showed that it was not a naphthaline derivative, the name was changed to phthalic acid. Naphthaline was derived from naphtha. The word naphtha comes from Latin and Greek... in Ancient Greek it refers to any sort of petroleum or pitch.

So now you know where the word phthalo comes from too. :) (To learn more of the fascinating details on each of these compounds, search for them at Wikipedia.)

PS: Mr Party-Of-One is currently playing rap music with rude lyrics. Thankfully I can't hear much more than a muffled thumping up here, but the lyrics can be heard clearly in the hall.

Google Search

Hmmm... www.wolseleywardrobe.com isn't the first link when you google "Wolseley Wardrobe"... so I'm adding a link here to hopefully increase it's google ranking. (Google, for your robot's information, Wolseley Wardrobe is an awesome store in Winnipeg that sells fantastic yarn, and has a knitting night every Tuesday evening. Crocheters are welcome too, of course.)

Math Lesson

Annoying: pyramid scheme e-mails.

Really annoying: pyramid scheme e-mails with incorrect math.

Exhibit A:

You've been invited to be a part of a recipe exchange. Please send a recipe to the person whose name is listed in the number 1 position above (even if you don't know them). It should preferably be something quick, easy and without rare ingredients. Actually, the best one is one you know in your head and can type out and send right now. Then, copy this letter into a new e-mail, move my name to the #1 position and put your name in the #2 position. Only my name and your name should show when you send your e-mail. Send to 20 friends. If you cannot do this within 5 days (or choose not to!), let me know so it will be fair to those participating. You should receive 36 recipes. It's fun to see where they come from. Seldom does anyone drop out because we can all use new recipes. The turnaround is fast because there are only 2 names on the list. Thanks!

If each of 20 people e-mail 20 people, that's 400 people being e-mailed at the second step. If everyone responded, you would get 400 recipes back. If you want 36 recipes, everyone should be sending the pyramid scheme on to 6 people!

The Benefits of Tutoring

I'm finally getting around to learning Emacs so that I can teach it to my student.

(Um... why is my browser having *so* much trouble today loading web pages? Are the DNS servers under attack, or is there something messed up with my browser? Grrr...)

Update: My other browser (Firefox, rather than Safari) is having the same stupid errors... so it looks like the DNS gods hate me...

Stuff

The heat is on... the furnace at my mom's was fixed early this afternoon. Finally! (I'm not fully moved out yet... I'm still eating and sleeping at home.)

Swatchy helped me line a kitchen drawer. (Click for photos of my kitchen.)

I was told that setting out jars of vinegar will dispel paint fumes, so I have three shallow dishes with vinegar in them now.

The new apartment got phone and internet service yesterday. I took over my answering machine, but I didn't bring a power bar. There's only one outlet near the cable box that provides phone service, so that limits me to to items: the cable box itself, and the phone. The way the living room is set up, I'll be wanting to plug in:
• phone cable box
• phone
• answering machine
• TV
• VCR/DVD player
• shelf stereo system
... I count six items. (So far.) Yes, there are other outlets in the living room, but only one other one has something plugged into it: the lamp is plugged into the only outlet controlled by the light switch. (That outlet and light switch happen to be located one above the other, making the switch somewhat redundant. I moved the lamp as far as I could given the length of the cord, though. Of the other two outlets, one is where I don't want to plug anything in, and the other is right by the lamp which needs the switch-controlled outlet. Silly. Oh well, they're all on the same fuse anyway, so I guess it doesn't really make any difference where things are plugged in.

I rearranged more stuff in the living room, so it's starting to look pretty good. I still need to wipe down two sections of the wall unit, put the drawers and shelves back in, and set up the VCR/DVD player. Plus I need to replace the "phone box" with one of my nesting tables. ;)

Speaking of phone tables, that reminds me of the nook in my foyer. It's a phone nook, but it really looks like a Jesus nook. In fact, both I and my brother took it for one. Mom realized that it was a phone nook because that's where the original phone jack is located. It probably helps that she was around for the period of time where the only phone in a house was located in the main hallway. ;) I had quite an entertaining conversation with my phone/internet serviceman due to the "Jesus nook". ;) (His parents were also Catholic, and wanted him to go to midnight mass at Christmas now that he's back in the city.)

You can see the Jesus nook and accompanying phone jack in this photo:

(Note that there's no electrical outlet there... so you can't use a cordless phone there. Note also the wire running down from the jack... that wire goes around baseboards and doors to the only other jack in the apartment, located in the living room... right by the outlet controlled by the light switch. Doh! If they were going to add a second phone jack, they could at least put it by a power outlet that wouldn't be off most of the time!)

I have a story to tell about one of my windows, but that will have to wait for another time. It's late, and I want to get to bed earlier tonight! (I've been having trouble staying awake the past two mornings.)

Contact Info

I just sent out an e-mail with my new address and phone number (phone and internet should get hooked up tomorrow some time between 2 and 4 pm). If you want my new contact information and you didn't get the e-mail (hopefully it won't end up in spam folders), send me an e-mail and I reply with my info.

I'll still get any mail sent to my mom's address, of course. I'm just down the street. In fact, I've been thinking that having packages sent to my mom might be more secure.

(Whee... I've already had one bounce from the e-mail...)

Owie

Let me tell you, that wasn't the title I was thinking earlier today. I was thinking in much stronger (less family-friendly) words.

The temperatures have been positively balmy this weekend... we even got rain last night. However, it did dip below freezing, and the temperature isn't the only thing that fell.

This morning, even though the highs were predicted to be well above zero, there was a *slick* coating of ice on everything. We were moving the wall units over today. Bob and I loaded one up (only one "fit" in the car at a time), then I grabbed two drawers and headed over to unlock the apartment. Bob was pulling into the parking spot there as I was walking towards the door. However, as I stepped off the snow and onto the sidewalk by the door, my feet flew out from under me. One drawer attempted to break my fall, coming hard between my pavement and my ribs on the right hand side, before I slipped off that and ended up flat on my back.

*pain*

I got up... slowly. In stages, in fact.

*painpainpain*

I unlocked the door. *painpain*

I carried one drawer upstairs, *pain*, unlocked that door, *pain*, and set the drawer out of the way. *painpain* Then I went back downstairs. *painpainpain*

Mom took my place, and helped Bob get the wall unit upstairs. I helped with doors. *painpainpain* I was winded, and hurt so much I was crying... I hurt all the way from the drawer shaped bruise up my ribcage, my shoulder, and my neck on the right hand side. It didn't feel like anything was broken (not that I've felt a broken bone before, thank goodness), but I *hurt*.

I told my folks that I wouldn't be moving anything today, and they concurred. I suggested we leave everything for another day, but they said they'd see if my brother was free. Mom asked if I'd be okay getting home, and I said I would. I asked if they would lock up, and they said they would.

Once I got home I went downstairs and lay on my bed. Mom and Bob got home shortly thereafter. Mom brought down all the cold packs, packed me up, tucked me in, and fed me advil. I lay in the dark with the cold packs until I started to feel chilled, then pushed them away and had a nap. When I got up I did feel better... still battered and bruised, but no longer crying from the pain.

Mom and Bob and my brother, however, kept working. They got all three of the wall units moved, plus my coffee table from Chapel Hill, and all of the smaller plants. (I think mom really wants the plants out.)

Later that day my brother brought me some cartoons:

Yep, those suit me.

When I went over to water the plants and close the windows they had opened (to air the apartment out some more), I took over my laptop to check out whether there were any unsecured networks around. (I was curious.) Even though I put my backpack on my uninjured shoulder, it still hurt to carry it over there and back. (Pushing/pulling the windows shut hurt too.) H is back in the office tomorrow, but I'm planning on staying home. I think I'll give my side another day to recover. This way I can also be home for the furnace repair guy so mom and Bob can go out and run errands, and I think I'll call about setting up phone and internet in my apartment. (And read Saturday's career section from the paper, etc.)

Perhaps I'll line the drawers tomorrow too. Lining drawers is easy work, and is something that needs doing.

Blogging From My New Apartment

There's a network called "linksys" here, but the strength is generally about two bars, sometimes three, other places one or zero. The best reception is from the living room or kitchen, the worst is from the office (second bedroom). I'm guessing the signal must be coming from across the front street.

Can't... Catch... Up...

Even with taking the day off work to recouperate, reorganize, and have a dr appointment (and spending much of the "recouperate" time reading blogs)... I still haven't caught up! Y'all post too much! (And I spent too much time around P back in the early days of grad school...)

Must sleep now because it's back to the regular grind tomorrow. Perhaps this weekend I'll get a chance? And a chance to attack the mess in my bedroom that really needs attending to? (I thought I'd attend to some of that today... ha! At least *most* of the post-travel mess is dealt with.)

I haven't even looked at my trip photos yet. Perhaps I'll take a moment before drifting off to sleep...

One of these days I'll blog about what *I've* been up to. ;)