Possible futures

I think… I think I may just go back and see if my previous boss is in a hiring mood. It’s been a while but, I suspect he could use a person like me. The pleasures of vacation notwithstanding, I think I could use the discipline of a regular job again, not to mention a regular income.

Bumbling about on youtube

…another dubious way in which I spend my computer time. I’m a total information junkie. So it goes.

I’ve been scanning through a number of categories, today. Youtube has, apparently, implemented some new policies to damage themselves, in addition to the old file length restrictions, so it’s been a less productive morning than anticipated. So many areas have just been cut down to dribble and goo. Not bright.

I’ve had some success with finding new snippets of Laurie Anderson work, though. She’s such a genius. Creative and multi-talented. You might do a scan on her name, if you’re looking for an hour or so of thoughtful entertainment and distinctly unusual music.

The prospect of life without computers

The computer, that magical machine. Source of games, maps, information, banking, money, friends, movies, the occasional sex partner… porn, recipes, business relations, eBay, shopping, politics, novels, comics.

The source of a lot too much inducement to sit on my fat ass all day, is where the problem comes in.

I haven’t really been without a computer for, oh, 25 years or so. I wonder what my life might look like, without one.

Imagine losing Google, and the news feeds, and the blogs. Having to use notebooks, and phone books, and paper maps, and write checks to send through the post office to pay bills. I don’t think the phone company’s even bothered to deliver a phone book, in the past few years. Hmm.

Probably not but, it’s a thought.

Scrinching on by…

So many things to do, so many of which should have been done last week. Ah well.

I’m making some slow progress in cleaning and clearing out my apartment. Ten minutes here, ten minutes there. It’s looking better. Need to start putting things on eBay, y’know… last week, ideally. But, it’s going.

I regret having to give up my Korean bowls. They’re beautiful. Despite the notation of being microwave-safe and dishwasher-safe, though, they’ve all developed fine cracks in the glazing. I don’t trust them any more. Thrift store? Oh, I’d probably best just throw them out. I hate that.

Limping around. Got a terrible cramp in my leg, last night. I seem to have gotten more prone to that, over the years. Stretch a little too hard and, wham! Agony. The cramps do enough damage to leave me a bit wobbly for a day or so. Possibly, more exercise would help. Probably, a better diet wouldn’t hurt.

Simplify, simplify

For a man who lives in a tiny apartment, I sure do seem to have accumulated a lot of… stuff. Junk, when it comes down to it. I don’t listen to the radio any more. I haven’t done any serious cooking in months. When was the last time I wore socks? What’s with all these books, and the random computer equipment, anyway?

Time for a serious housecleaning. I’ve enjoyed my vacation no end but, it’s about time to get back to work. And, you know, I’ve frittered away a surprising number of years on so many things that I just don’t really care about. It’s a good day to do some pruning. I want this apartment looking a lot more empty. It’s full of altogether too many things that I really don’t have any use for.

Simplify.

Jack Who?

Jack Wild. He apparently had a big hit in Oliver, once upon a time. If you’re a person of a certain age, you may be more likely to remember him as the kid in H. R. Pufnstuf — a cheesy muppetish show from the late 60s that had its moments.

Youtube, of course, shows all… or, at least, a surprising fraction of forgotten wholes. Jack was a cute kid, lacking in any noticeable talent. He looked like he was having a good time, at the time.

The later pictures are rather more grim. What, exactly, happened in your life, Jack? That much is not clear. Its effects are hard to miss, though. The man looks to have been ridden hard and put away wet, and that’s the charitable description.

Sorry, kid. Hope you’re doing better with that death thing although, you know, it doesn’t seem likely.

LCD displays…

…are wonderful. Relatively thin, relatively lightweight, and a good one has just so fine resolution with an appropriate graphics card.

They take less power than those old CRT monsters, too, but… if you’re expecting them not to put out a lot of heat, you’ll be surprised. The big ones do run very hot. That’s not an advantage, in Arizona.

It’s been said that screen-savers are obsolete, because modern monitors don’t tend to “burn in”. Don’t believe it. My big ol’ LCD beauty does suffer from a bit of that burn-in. Keep your screen-saver, or let the monitor time out and go dark if you’re not at the keyboard.

Adventures in Food: lychees

I’ve written about these before, so this is sort of cheating. I don’t care. I like lychees. Peeled and cored, these are the size of large cherries, although they look more like pears. In fact, they taste much like a combination of pears and sweet grapes. They have a pleasant consistency, and provide a moderate amount of vitamin C and fiber. Cheerfully recommended.

I think these are the last of the ones I picked up at the local Safeway, at a ridiculous bargain. They were phasing them out. It may be a long time before I enjoy another.

The upgrade from Vista to XP: what do we miss?

Well, the Vista fonts are a bit better. I imagine I can download those, though.

The Vista Explorer file copy handling is noticeably less brain-damaged than XP’s… but, really, it’s a very small price to pay for not having to run Vista.

Faster, smoother, less buggy. No questions about what CTRL-ALT-DEL is supposed to do. More games work, and with fewer problems. I’m happy with XP.

religion and technology

On more than one occasion, I’ve worked with people who were very religious, as they define themselves. Fundamentalist types, who do not believe in the “theory” of evolution and, on occasion, go so far as to profess to believe in the literal truth of every word of the Bible. Not that they follow that truth, as best I can tell, or perhaps they haven’t spent much time reading the Bible. Perhaps just as well, it’s a nasty book.

The particular bit that boggles my mind and, it might just be a bit of nitpicking in the morass of garbage that seems to run these peoples’ alleged thinking processes… the thing that I find completely improbable is that these people are computer programmers. They work, every day, with the most profound results of the most intricate theories of science. They make their livings off working with the products of the very things they most severely deride and hold as untrue. Hellfire, so to speak, you can look on the Internet and find hundreds of their blogs.