tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153241752010-01-26T14:05:27.864-05:00All we are, basically, are monkeys with car keys.Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.comBlogger734125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-76335303710822503882010-01-25T14:37:00.002-05:002010-01-25T14:42:37.466-05:00

On Boxing Day, I went to Best Buy. I bought a phone, a phone jack, and something my receipt calls "Ferret in Box". What is that?The answer to that last quiz was a jellybean dispenser in the form of a moose. Load the jellybeans in its neck, push on its back, and it poops a jellybean or two.

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-62237095552900748562010-01-15T15:46:00.004-05:002010-01-17T22:05:36.829-05:00

Crash here. Webs is busy cleaning up so I'm writing this for him on his iPod. Webs and the tall lady put me in the backyard twice this morning because the weather is mild and I like to frolic in the snow. The tall lady left and Webs did too soon after, I think to go grocery shopping. I sort of saw them embrace but definitely heard her wish him a happy birthday so I decided to take advantage of my

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-61469338959540659462010-01-12T16:53:00.002-05:002010-01-12T17:14:18.014-05:00

I've talked about LogMeIn before.I still use and love it. My only qualm is that it is vulnerable to a second user. I have LogMeIn installed on my user on my Mac, but I have also set up a user for my kids. If the kids user is the active on on my Mac, I can't use LogMeIn to access my user on the Mac from my PC laptop, say.The free version of LogMeIn does not allow you to transfer files between

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-69084386072862018102010-01-04T23:29:00.002-05:002010-01-04T23:33:12.722-05:00

Child Three received a gift for Chanukah. These are the instructions:To answer the quiz, tell me what the gift was.

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-66887523092996824192009-12-22T14:21:00.002-05:002009-12-22T14:47:07.129-05:00

Last week was not a good one for the integrity of my integument. Yes, that's an overwrought phrase but I don't care.When it finally snowed for good on December 7, we (by which I mean Elvi) felt it was finally time to remove the awfully heavy air conditioner from my office window. Because it is so heavy, it takes two people to move it. I've been having a crappy December (can it really still be

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-61530233355752189222009-11-27T12:41:00.002-05:002009-11-27T13:41:41.193-05:00

Back in the '90s, I created a virtual version of 101 Squadron in Warbirds. One of my recruits, Flyboy, was a 12-year-old Israeli boy who under my tutelage went from turn-and-burner to a master tactician who more often than not bested me in a fair fight (but why fight fair?).The squadron died out as WarBirds players left for other games and I haven't kept in touch with most of my squaddies. I

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-23719165453668278932009-11-20T12:39:00.002-05:002009-11-20T13:25:36.651-05:00

I own two domains, 101squadron.com and the as yet unused shitcafe.com.I passively renewed the latter with Go Daddy's automatic renewal and I thought that was that, but yesterday, a customer service rep from Go Daddy called me to confirm that everything had gone according to plan. At least, I think that's why she was supposed to call but as the call developed, I became less sure of that.Go Daddy

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-82077260693235070882009-11-17T19:14:00.003-05:002009-11-17T23:58:41.140-05:00

My cough's still here. So is the mono, at least the fatigue.Quebec's flu shot program is well underway, far more painlessly than most thought.I went to the depressing Cavendish Mall to see if I needed to pre-register the kids for a time slot, but the nice volunteers told me that they don't do that, at least not at the Mall. As you may know by the first line of this post, I still have symptoms

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-38151287427356774982009-11-05T14:57:00.003-05:002009-11-05T15:04:27.302-05:00

First, a photo of my Atom B team. We're 1-1-1 and tied for second early in the year. We tied the first-place team in our last game. Next, here's a trailer on a new documentary on 101 Squadron.I'll go back to coughing now.

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-33924933573462640352009-10-09T12:56:00.003-04:002009-10-09T13:28:07.287-04:00

September was slow. I had little work, lots of sleep at unnatural times, and little motivation to write.I'm back, baby.I'm not sure if it's coincidence or cause, but at the same time jobs are falling out of the sky. I nearly pulled an all-nighter Tuesday night to get my work done.It started with computer-consulting work for a new client, converting his (very) small office from Windows XP to

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-49006253329270454692009-09-04T11:28:00.002-04:002009-09-04T11:49:34.996-04:00

August has not been kind. Oh, heck. It's September already, isn't it?Maybe I pushed myself too hard in July, but August was a month of fatigue, possible a relapse of my mono. As if taking a clue from their general manager, my Angels with Crystal Balls have also been lagging, so much so that the team now sits in a tie for first place and occasionally dips to second.As of this morning:.289

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-4935101431521800612009-08-19T16:38:00.002-04:002009-08-19T17:05:22.234-04:00

Monday, I came home early from our three-day multi-family camping trip (briefly: heat, beach, heat, food, and heat at the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary) to coach our minor baseball A's in the extra innings of a tie game called on account of darkness Thursday. The other team could not field enough players and had to forfeit, putting us in the final losers' bracket game against a team that

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-50141517325811755342009-08-14T16:04:00.001-04:002009-08-14T16:18:54.090-04:00

Followers of 101 know what I think newspapers have to do to succeed, never mind survive. It boils down to one word: local.Newswire filler, sports scores, general interest - all that is available on the Web earlier, in larger amounts, and often plain old better. Newspapers need to focus on the local issues. They need to use the paid resources - researchers and reporters - to dig and do some work

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-70533856945314324892009-08-13T15:25:00.002-04:002009-08-14T16:11:19.511-04:00

Elvi and Child One volunteered to help with the recently concluded World Science Fiction Convention that passed through Montreal. Don't let the generic name fool you; this is the big one, where eserving recipients receive their Hugo Awards. The guest of honour this year was Neil Gaiman, a favourite author of all three ladies in my house and millions more across the world.Elvi thought that

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-78848922283130936432009-08-05T11:25:00.002-04:002009-08-05T12:02:03.269-04:00

I've been too busy to blog lately and I apologize for the weeks without entries. I'm starting even this one with a plan for a short entry.My mono is essentially gone, although Monday I appear to have suffered a relapse. I worked in the morning but come 2:00 p.m. I couldn't think anymore. I lay down at 3:00 p.m., fell asleep before 5:00 p.m., and slept until 8:00 p.m. I spent some time with

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-44266709255634921642009-07-15T16:26:00.003-04:002009-07-15T17:01:54.925-04:00

I had one heck of a strange nightmare last night.I was part of a large group of people at an older house, the kind whose interior door have windows. That seems like a small detail now, but it comes into play.I forget how but we learned that a UFO had landed on the expansive front lawn overnight. We went to see it. It wasn't your average UFO, but was a golden disk a few inches across with a

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-24922545445901794562009-06-29T23:42:00.002-04:002009-06-29T23:57:40.704-04:00

The injuries to Carlos Beltran and Dave Bush have hurt my Angels with Crystal Balls, to the extent that my lead a week ago had shrunk to 4.5 points. Blame lies primarily with my pitchers, who don't give up many baserunners but seem to give up more than their share of home runs with men on base. Check out that discrepancy between WHIP and ERA.Chad Gaudin had a marvelous week to help start

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-53476143024938071062009-06-26T12:52:00.004-04:002009-06-29T12:40:50.195-04:00

I spent Tuesday visiting medical establishments.I had a follow-up with my excellent hematologist scheduled for 9:20 a.m. and the day started well as I got the best of all possible parking spots at 9:00. Anticipating a wait, I paid for the most parking I could: $4 for two hours.The first order of business was a donation of two vials of that most precious of bodily fluids, blood. I took a seat in

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-10592634471153056912009-06-21T20:10:00.002-04:002009-06-21T20:40:34.148-04:00

I'm having a comedy of events here.Elvi spent the bulk of Father's Day weekend out near Magog on a retreat with her lesbian choir, leaving me and the kids to fend for ourselves. I managed to get Child Two out with me for a shopping trip yesterday but spent most of the rest of the day in bed. I fell asleep around 5:30 p.m., woke at 8:00 p.m. and told the kids to eat, then went back to bed.At 9:

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-52866975524401391962009-06-10T12:40:00.003-04:002009-06-10T13:00:21.083-04:00

Mono or not, I started teaching my summer grad course this week. Because the Journalism Department this year doubled the number of graduate diploma students from 20 to 40, I get to teach two sections.I'll be in school Mondays and Thursdays, teaching a morning and afternoon class each of those days for seven weeks. This past Monday and Tuesday, I started with one-hour orientation sessions. It

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-64965316820484691342009-06-02T11:03:00.003-04:002009-06-02T11:29:32.053-04:00

I was able to get a half day of work in yesterday morning, but I crashed at 12:30 p.m. I made some phone calls, dealt with a backlog of e-mail, and organized my schedule in the four hours I had. I suppose that's something, but I'd prefer more tangible results.June finds me way out front of the Irrational League with a 14-point lead over the second-place team. My lead fluctuates between nine

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-26642025361990627932009-05-31T23:20:00.002-04:002009-05-31T23:58:44.685-04:00

Saturday was the first day since late April that I didn't spend at least 18 hours in bed.All my symptoms have faded except for the fatigue and occasional belly discomfort near my spleen. But that fatigue, and associated dizziness and the consequent lack of ability to focus for long, keeps me wiped out and useless. Loading the dishwasher and washing a few pots and pans has felt like an

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-28878542005580204672009-05-19T15:37:00.003-04:002009-05-19T15:48:56.300-04:00

Quite often, students who are having problems concentrating tend to get up every ten minutes to watch TV, talk on the phone, take something out of the fridge, and a long list of other distractions. Were they to dedicate all this wasted time to studying, they would optimize their performance and have more free time available. Study Ball helps you study more and more efficiently.I'm looking at you,

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-29629900906722861002009-05-13T19:38:00.001-04:002009-05-15T07:54:19.919-04:00

I'm 43 and I have mononucleosis (a.k.a. glandular fever), the common variety caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). That virus is one of the most ubiquitous human infections on Earth; 95% of people are infected with EBV by the time they're 35 (I guess I rolled a 1 on my saving throw). The later you get it, the worse the disease is. Kids often suffer no symptoms or maybe appear to have a cold,

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15324175.post-62287367664796106192009-05-09T16:43:00.003-04:002009-05-09T17:20:14.317-04:00

Thursday, during one of my frequent naps, the hospital called and left a message saying that a doctor would like to talk to me about the chest x-rays I had Tuesday.When a radiologist sees something on a chest x-ray, it's usually either pneumonia or lung cancer. I had to call back five times before someone even answered the phone, but the man who did speak to me said the doctor was busy but would

Webshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17877918422921900328noreply@blogger.com0