proba tive org archives

An angel appeared last night and magically conquered the dragon of multiboot configuration. Now that I have XP and RedHat dual bootable, I am chomping at the bit awaiting manuals that will allow me to play more with the application for which I hope to be taking design responsiblity shortly.

There are negotiations going on right now for the acquisition and waiting to hear the news is as bad as waiting for Christmas when I was 5 years old. Except I'm not 5 and as much as I was delighted by the surprise of a doll today's 'gift' exceeds that by infinite degrees of magnitude. Well, not infinite, but approaching infinite.

In other extremely good news, I have an appointment (mid-January) with the cutting edge (sorry for the pun) surgeon in London, ON who performs cervical disc replacement. There's a whole long explanation of my need and desire for this earlier in this blog. Time to put a search thing on it. Right. This weekend - I promise.

There you go... a search button. Over there. On your left. The behind the scenes stuff is the default for the site that hosts my blatherings, so results may vary. One day, when life is more normal I may change it. Not today though.

I am going out for a walk so I can cool off, literally and figuratively. Lost my cool with the upstairs tenants this afternoon. They regularly come in like a herd of elephants at all hours of the day and night. The little dog here gets very unsettled as do the humans. The difference is that the dog barks to defend us. Nice thought and it would be just the right thing to do if someone was breaking in, but annoying for all of us.

I've been working with him and anyone who's had experience with my animal training abilities won't be surprised to learn that he's come a long way over a few weeks. The folks upstairs are not being trained, however. Many weeks ago I had occasion to speak about this with the landlord and nothing has changed.

Today took the cake as they say. Into the shared entrance they did march and violently pound their feet there and up the stairs to their apartment. The dog was startled and barked. I started getting him to stop when a complaint that one of them "hated that dog" was made with the intention that I hear it. By the time I'd gotten to the door they had made their way inside, so I knocked on the door. When they simply shouted "WHAT?" I opened it and informed them that the dog wouldn't bark so much if they didn't come in banging and stomping their feet.

"It's snowing." was the response. And then a remark to the effect that he barks "every time I come in". I am usually here with him and know that to be untrue so I said so. Also that we were doing what we could and they could do what they could. When the response was "kill it." I kinda lost it. And slammed their door pretty loudly I must admit.

One of them came down to bang on our door and proclaim loudly that they would appreciate it if I didn't slam their door. I think they said something about it being rude. But I didn't respond. Enough is enough after all.

I've informed my roommate and she has requested the landlord's address so I can write a letter to him concerning the problems we've been experiencing. We're keeping a list now of times and type of disturbances because the details matter.

Our local grocery store has tripled in size recently. Off for a walk I go - to let off some nervous energy and pick up a salad.

There have been too many 'DOH' moments this week. This is the most completely useless enhancement to a user interface I have seen in a while. Or was that a user 'interference'?

[ The small check box has just recently appeared. What were they thinking? ]

Ottawa looks like a Christmas card this weekend; white stuff is piled on branches of otherwise bleak looking trees giving them that magical otherworldly appearance that almost makes me think winter isn't so bad after all. [Almost] The mild temperatures and muffled atmosphere (not the people in their scarves - noise seems not to travel the same way with the baffles laid down) are enjoyable. [For the moment]

But I've seen too many winters here to be fooled. So I'll enjoy the scenery and walk about while it lasts.

I'm working on a long overdue Christmas project in an attempt to distract my head from the many possible dooms that could still befall the starting of this company.

Part of this is fueled by my highly tuned inconsistency (aka bullshit) detectors. [Yellow level at the moment.] Some is reality based - there are a lot of unknowns, any of which could put the brakes on permanently. Communication issues are magnifying the stress. Both a lack of information and lack of clarity.

Should my world make sense? Will it again? Will I notice?
Maybe. Hopefully. Definitely.

Now that I've shared all of that with you I must also relate that another voice reminds me that this incoherence will be addressed and become part of the distant past in the matter of a few weeks. At least that's what I am being told.

Now I will go and amuse myself with my craft "therapy". Go build a snowman if you have a yard.

As for my Christmas wishes, I want peace on earth, happiness for my family and friends, the green light for my neck to be repaired and VCs to believe in our business plan so we can work our asses off for the next few years.

[Slightly amended after a night's rest.]

I have often been heard to say I hate winter. More so in the past few years. I haven't always hated winter. 'Hate' could be a bit overstating things. Really, it's not the season that bothers me. And I agree that snow can be very nice - in moderation.

The Canadian winter's combination of snow and frigid temperatures and the length of time that these factor into day to day activities constitutes the real problem. Winter - the season - in my favourite locale is really not particularly bothersome. In all three of the southern states in which I have lived fairly minor (relative to Ottawa) accumulations of snow and/or freezing rain are intelligently approached as barriers to normal activity and an occasion for missing school and sometimes work. Kind of makes you appreciate the weather much more than the northern habit of ignoring it altogether.

I've been through quite a few white seasons here in Canada, in several provinces and latitudes, as well as fewer but numerous less white ones in the south eastern portion of North America. As much as some of my northern acquaintances have expressed concern about the degree of heat during the summers in the South, I have found it to be less uncomfortable than the degree of winter's cold in the North. I am now referring to bodily comfort, not the hassles of extra clothing, driving on ice and snow, scraping walks and steps and walking on uncleared sidewalks and roadways.

I've been happily surprised to have adjusted quickly to the different range of temperatures to which moving south had exposed me. In one memorable move, I went from a place where -40 (pick a scale) was routine to one where 100 F was just as routine and didn't miss the winter one bit.

The National Health Service in the UK supports my "we shouldn't be living here" theory:

Humans are better adapted to working in hot conditions than in the cold. Our body mechanisms for removing unwanted heat are well developed whereas those for conserving heat, less so.

I think it's fair to substitute 'living' for 'working' in this statement. This is an occupational health site.

The fact that significant protection is required before ambling out of doors in the winter here is a huge hint that humans aren't meant to be in this kind of environment. Just as some species of animal are not suited to northern climes, neither are we hairless primates. It is only our ability (to date?) to expensively construct and heat individual living and working spaces that has allowed us to survive. Anyone who disagrees has forgotten the history making ice storm of 1998.

I haven't encountered many people living north of 49 who are willing to agree with me on the dangers of living here during the winter. Understandably they tell me they enjoy, even 'love', winter here. Less understandably, they point out the dangers of hurricanes in my preferred locale. To which I reply that hurricanes typically last less than half a day while winter in Canada lasts at least 6 months - longer the further north you go. But now I see a bit of the logic here. Hurricanes are a greater threat when the building in which you live is necessary to your physical survival. Which would be a Canuk's perspective.

Not that anyone relishes a hurricane and certainly the recent spate of them in the tropics have wreaked havoc with survival. But part of that is not the hurricane. It is the poverty that existed before the hurricane. Can't blame that on the weather.

I went out very briefly this afternoon. I'd intended to run more errands than I did but it is too freaking cold for that. Almost froze my fingers off scraping the ice off the car for the first trip.

How cold is it you ask? Bitterly and dangerously cold: -17°C [1°F]
How cold does it feel? Wind chill: -29°C [-9°F]

We should get medals for staying in this wasteland. A Nobel Freeze Prize.

My hope of doing errands has been dashed by today's Windchill Warning. I have checked two different weather guessing sites just in case one was out to lunch and they agreed on the current conditions which are even more frigid than yesterday.

Right now, right here it is -30°C [-22°F] with the windchill making it -43°C [-44°F] for warm blooded animals.

It looks deceptively inviting from inside - bright sunshine glinting off the gleaming white new fallen snow. But it's a trick we know well: Mother Nature trying to get us to freeze our asses off. Nice try I say.

Code fun: From the recently frequent error messages the government weather site emits (the one I link to on this blog BTW), I have deduced it is undergoing some, ahem, enhancements behind the scenes. What made me chuckle, whilst shaking my head because I really shouldn't be seeing these at all, was the message:

Error/erreur: XLT creation failed.

Why bother?

I've made the middle area of the main page scrollable. Compensation for my destroying the look of the archives. I'm working on it, a smidge. Got to get out to do those errands today -- it's warming UP. All the way to -12°C [10°F] with only a slight windchill factor.

To brighten your otherwise dreary day, here's a mesmerizing picture of my favourite model.

Indeed, our bit of tundra is predicted to be just at the freezing point later today. Good huh? Well, yes and no: the snow will start soon and then the prediction is for two to three times as much freezing rain tomorrow.

No wonder Santa resorts to flying at this time of year!

Comments from the intrepid and picky Mr. Hoye motivated me to remove the silly ass middle pane scrollbar. Now the main page looks like what I was REALLY wanting to do with it - but ran out of time to finish yesterday.

I think it's much nicer than it was before or even before that. De rien.