| Bouncing off the walls... |
[Feb. 2nd, 2010|12:43 pm] |
Please don't, actually. They're not very sturdy yet. But they're there.
 
Some of them, anyhow. That's the garage.
Thanks again to M.'s dad for the pics. Without him, nobody'd ever go up there and check on those guys, between my work schedule and M.'s need to ferry the boy around everywhere that a busy seven-year-old needs to go. |
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| My quick take... |
[Feb. 1st, 2010|01:12 pm] |
...on the Amazon-MacMillan dustup this weekend:
There's enough assholery and stupidity to go around, here. Fifteen bucks (or more) is too bleeding much to pay for an ebook that can be deleted from my library if the powers that be decide that's what they want to do. I get that writers are paid for digital sales as a percentage of the purchase price, and so they're out there supporting MacMillan's attempt to keep prices elevated, but to me, that means they should support efforts by the sellers to determine the optimal price point that maximizes total dollars spent on ebooks, and should not blindly assume that their publisher is acting in their best interests, when it's clear that publishers perceive digital distribution of books in exactly the same way that the RIAA perceives digital distribution of music.
That said, Amazon clearly had carnal relations with the canine in handling this. There's absolutely no reason why the physical books needed to be delisted along with the digital copies, and for Amazon to do this without telling the world (which they apparently still have not rectified) what was going on allowed MacMillan to jump out there with their spin on the situation, which has now become the de facto Pravda.
So, as I say, not real happy with either MacMillan or Amazon right now. And since Amazon stock is building my house, believe me when I tell you that I really wanted to pin the lion's share of the blame on MacMillan, but I just can't.
OK, maybe not so quick. |
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| The new shiny |
[Feb. 1st, 2010|11:24 am] |
Zero to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds, 60 to 90 mpg depending on use (and on whom you ask). Seats four. Plug-in diesel-electric hybrid.
Want.
M. says it's ugly, but I think it looks pretty cool. The boy agrees with me.
I cannot remember ever wishing that a concept car would make it to production exactly as presented at the auto show as much as I wish that for this one. And soon; I have a garage spot opening up just in time for the 2012 model year... |
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| "Ergonomic", my * |
[Jan. 29th, 2010|11:40 am] |
So I was looking for a mouse with a tilt wheel, because the camera controls in Neverwinter Nights 2 are terrible on my machine when I use the default control of moving the cursor to the edge of the screen. I was hoping the left-right tilt feature would translate--or be mappable--to the left-right arrow keys, which are the secondary control scheme for the camera and work much better for me.
I picked up the Microsoft "Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000", which claimed to be ergonomically designed, and which supposedly lets your wrist and hand rest at a more natural (hence the name) angle, and also take pressure off the carpal tunnel. The mouse is also bigger, to fill up the hand better and reduce the need to hold your fingers at odd angles.
As I use the mouse, I can definitely feel that the theory is sound--my arm does seem to like the angle prescribed by the mouse, and the resting pressure is now along the side of my hand. But.
But apparently, the mouse was designed to fill up a significantly smaller hand than mine, so when I'm actually using the thing, I have to grip it too tightly and my hand arcs uncomfortably. Every couple of minutes, I have to let go of the thing and flex my wrist to realign my carpals, which operation is accompanied by a distressing cracking sound, audible across the room.
So, anybody in the area (with smaller hands) want a brand-new wireless mouse? Make me an offer; I paid $25 for it.
ETA: To be clear, if the best offer someone makes me is, "it would be easy for you to drop it off at my place when you were on your way by", I would be happy to consider it. I'm not going to be using it, so somebody ought to get some use out of it. |
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| The deed is done. |
[Jan. 28th, 2010|03:31 pm] |
We're now officially going to be in much more debt later this year, as soon as they finish running through the down payment.
On the bright side, they set up an interest-bearing account for the down payment funds, so we'll be earning at least a little interest on what hasn't yet been spent. I hadn't expected that, though it seemed logical in retrospect.
Also, the closing went about as quickly and smoothly as we could have reasonably expected. All in all, a pretty good experience. |
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| Drabble: I Can Name That Tune In 100 Words |
[Jan. 27th, 2010|07:56 pm] |
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Charles sat on his hands in the back of the police cruiser. His wrists did not chafe yet, but he knew they would soon; the cuffs were too tight. Mostly, he was aware of the bruise spreading across his face from when the arresting officer had slammed him to the concrete floor. I must look quite the mess. He watched as the coroner’s assistant brought yet another dismembered torso up from the basement. Suddenly it occurred to him to wonder whether maybe, just maybe, he had interpreted Neil Young’s lyrics just a bit too literally. He giggled at the thought. |
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| House progress |
[Jan. 27th, 2010|04:08 pm] |
I wonder how many home construction projects have the in-floor radiant heating installed before the loan's finalized?
Also, here is where I am going to park my Tesla Model S when I buy it. Someday in the long-distant future, I am sure.
(Thanks to M.'s dad for the pictures.)
PS I have decided that the castle userpic represents our new home. Largely because I'm too lazy to go find a more representative image, but I am not opposed to the symbolism as it stands. |
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| The dominoes begin to fall... |
[Jan. 26th, 2010|11:28 am] |
...So we have the agreement in hand whereby we commit to paying ourselves $15 a month for maintenance of the well.
The stock has been sold for the down payment. The request for the wire transfer to the savings account is pending.
Closing is, apparently, Thursday afternoon. This means working from home that day, but that's how it goes sometimes. Bonus there is sleeping in 'til 7:00.
So starting Friday, all we have to worry about is cost overruns. Which will be out of our pocket, because we're right up against the jumbo loan constraint. Ah, life. |
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| Insomnia bites. |
[Jan. 25th, 2010|08:06 am] |
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How did I even function when this was happening every single night instead of once every month or two? |
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| Here we are now, entertain us... |
[Jan. 22nd, 2010|11:30 am] |
Put M. and the boy on their separate planes this morning, and have nearly finished the four hours of work I still owed the company for the week. (Have I mentioned how much I love the "no overtime" policy?)
Last chance for anyone to suggest an alternative to me going home and spending the weekend playing Zelda. :)
ETA: And yes, I do know exactly how sad it is that I can't come up with ideas on how to fill up the time for three measly days. The down side to the reactive personality. |
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| Value |
[Jan. 20th, 2010|10:29 am] |
Theoretically, I get together with a couple friends once a month to shoot pool and have a couple beers. In practice, if we get out three times a year, we're doing well.
In anticipation of these rare events, I keep my pool cue in the trunk of my car. The case I keep it in is a cheap thing made of pressboard and vinyl. The last time I took it out and used it (sometime last summer), the endcap had fallen off the case, so I had to carry it carefully to keep the stick from falling out.
Last night, we went out again, and I resolved to purchase a new case. Happily, the pool room we go to sells cues and cases, so I figured it would be a simple thing.
Unfortunately, the cheapest case they had in stock was $67.99. With custom cues priced north of three hundred bucks, this isn't as unreasonable as it might initially appear.
Except.
Except my cue cost me $17.99, including the case. And while I hope someday to be good enough at pool--or at least to play it often enough--to justify buying a custom cue that would itself justify an expensive case, today is not that day. (Neither was last night.)
They did have a catalog of cases that they could order, though, so next week sometime I will be acquiring a case that will only cost me about twice what the stick did. |
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| Single again...briefly |
[Jan. 18th, 2010|10:05 am] |
So my parents are taking the boy on a Caribbean cruise next week, and M. is of the opinion that, since I get to take a week off by myself every year for my photo workshops, she should by gosh be allowed to do the same, and is heading off to New York.
I'm driving the pair of them to the airport this Friday morning, and then, except for work, I am at a loose end until Wednesday evening when M. flies back into town.
I could just sit at home all weekend and finally play through Zelda:Twilight Princess, but there's got to be something else available. Any ideas/suggestions/invitations? (Note that with my allergies, tobacco smoke must be avoided religiously.) |
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| The time draws near... |
[Jan. 13th, 2010|02:29 pm] |
The bank is asking questions like, "What kind of construction insurance do you have?" and "Please provide evidence that #AMOUNT is actually available to you, also actually belongs to you, and can be transferred over to us on the date in question.", where #AMOUNT represents a ridiculously large number which will still only be the second-largest single withdrawal I've ever made from a bank account.
On the one hand, it's awesome to be making progress, and it will be nice to have the bank paying the builder every month instead of us (yeah, it's all our money, or money we're going to have to pay back, but it's slightly less hassle). On the other, #AMOUNT is a stomach-churningly scary number, and things will be noticeably less comfortable around here once it is finally, irreversibly committed to this project.
Erg. |
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| But sometimes... |
[Jan. 8th, 2010|10:48 pm] |
...it's the retro that works best.
Couldn't get good color balance for M.'s bread photos, so I broke out the gray card and the instruction manual for her camera. (With my cameras, I shoot raw and do any necessary color correction on the machine, but since mostly I'm shooting outdoors, there usually isn't any needed.) Futzed around for a couple of minutes, then said, "screw it" and broke out my 80A color-correcting filter. Offset the tungsten lights perfectly. Slowed the exposure down, of course, but I was shooting off a tripod anyway. |
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| The future, today... |
[Jan. 8th, 2010|10:30 am] |
Just downloaded and installed over 700 MB of updates in just under 30 minutes, without wires.
I am sitting here imagining what that would have taken when we moved into this house (in 2001) and only had 56K dialup.
Sure, a flying car would be nice*, but the future is still pretty cool.
*and would cut 15 or so hours a week off my commute, which I would divide evenly between sleep and family time. |
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| Publication, sort of. |
[Jan. 4th, 2010|10:18 am] |
So a couple of weeks ago, I got email from someone at Schmap.com, an online travel guide. They'd seen some of the pictures I took at Place of Refuge on the Big Island this fall, and were asking permission to use one of them for an upcoming refresh of their Hawaii guide.
Schmap does not pay for the use of photos, but neither do they charge users for access to their content. As this wasn't an image I was going to be selling anyway, and the license they were requesting didn't seem to limit my future use, it seemed like a no-cost positive all the way around, and I was happy to give my permission, because, hey, somebody out there with no reason to be nice to me liked one of my pictures!
I am forced to admit that I was a little let down when M. said later that day, "Hey, check this out!" and showed me a remarkably similar email about one of her shots from that afternoon. But only a very little bit; M. has a great eye for an image, and the shot they chose of hers is at least as good as the one they chose of mine. (And at that, I don't think they chose the best images they could have from either hers or mine.)
Anyway, this morning, I got email saying that the update is online, so I thought I would share with y'all. The prior version of the guide had only a single image of Place of Refuge; the new version has a dozen or more, so you might have some clicking to do to get to our pics.
So, not an exclusive contract with Getty Images, nor the cover of National Geographic, but for what it is, it's pretty neat. |
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| Yeah, yeah. |
[Jan. 1st, 2010|12:18 am] |
Woo, time to put up a new calendar.
Now go to bed. |
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