elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Monday, October 18th, 2010 06:32 am
A mild argh: the time at the computer was spent in some mild frustration Sunday afternoon. I don't think any data is lost, but i waited a small forever as my iDisk synced up again. The work machine will be getting the same treatment. The unreliable drive i was going verify had nothing unique on it briefly showed me the data, and now will no longer mount. I'm pretty sure all the data on the drives is entertainment data, but Christine isn't. Looks like it's $60 to have both bad drives crushed.

I didn't get through much of another issue's troubleshooting with the delay.

Oh, fiddle. The mind map i use for "to do"s is definitely out of date, part of the iDisk sync failure. Well, gaps in my digital memory will still be smaller than that of my embodied memory!

--==∞==--

One of the things in Worship that i identified is i listen to the song of Need not the song of Joy. One of the queries this month has to do with, "What barriers keep me from responding openly and lovingly to each person?" I wrote here (less clearly than i intended) some time ago about my old wounds around letting someone down and how that makes me far more reserved now. I worry about what you might need from me and don't want to create an expectation that i can't meet at some point. That's one of many places where i listen to the song of Need.

In therapy this past week i shocked myself with the *feeling* when i said, "That went well," referring to the earlier work day. I know i was carrying at the time a worry that the firehose of information i pointed at my boss' boss was, at its root, an aggressive action to make him back off his neat framing of all his teams as tidy little models of agile development. Frame this! But for a moment i was able to let myself feel something else. I labeled it success on Thursday evening, but now i think it is also *joy*.

Worries, anger, guilt, and fear are all voices in the song of Need. I don't need to make time to listen to that song. What might be parts of a song of joy? Praise for all co-creators (which means me, too). And what about free floating comfort? If one doesn't have to anchor one's worries, why not accept the completely ungrounded, "It will be OK," voice of a comforter, even though the comforter has no idea how it will turn out ok. There is abundance, always (?) abundance of something. Perhaps the challenge of the duet of Joy and Need is to find the underlying abundance that can meet and transform the need?

I don't believe that the Song of Joy is always the louder song, but in my life, there's no reason why it shouldn't be. I don't know that simply transforming from need to joy would solve my work strains, where the work i do (well) is work that saps my energy (more interactive problem solving, less reflective creativity).

I do suspect though that listening to the song of Need as the main voice overwhelms my capacity.

(I reflect for a moment that joys and needs are fractal, with the pattern repeated over and over at different scales of time and energy. There's a clue there, especially when i take into account the illusory nature of time and energy.)

--==∞==--

My grey cat blogs have a post on troubleshooting and on the gardening purchases.

Small joys from yesterday: as i sat down to figure out how to create a fender for my bike when it's up on the trainer, i discovered the cause of the horrible black "soot" that i'd deposit when i rode. The tire was rubbing on a piece of the trainer, and it was the trainer shredding, not the tire. That was easily fixed. I rode for twenty minutes last night.

I found some clear enough, thick enough plastic reserved from the packaging of an Ikea purchase and was able to make a barrier above the cat door in the screen. It's adequate enough for the cats to come and go when we aren't heating the place, but want to keep it warm (which is most of the winter). Christine will add a new flap: the flap the system comes with, of heavy black rubber, didn't seem like a door at all to the cats. We'll see how they manage with a cover over the gap next.

The roomba is running itself this morning. The kitchen is fairly tidy. The household work on the hall is waiting some resolution on the CDs. Christine is under pressure through mid November: i don't know that she'll be able to make much progress on the boxes of CDs.

We do have some stashes of books and a few VHS to get rid of: i can plan to take those to book buyers on Friday. I could run to Green Citizen n San Mateo county over lunch one day this week, taking the drives to shred and the CDs (free); a run to the smart station to take batteries and other misc stuff.

Tonight i have to myself, and i hope to make some catalogs for the meeting library.

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/How_Tos/Creating_Mail_Merge_Documents_From_Text/CSV_or_Spreadsheets
elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Sunday, October 17th, 2010 09:22 am
Re the stab: While i was sitting in the waiting room i really looked at the cut and realized it *had* begun to knit. The doctor glanced at the cut (which was not really bleeding at all) and gave me a bandaid. The most important fact i'm filing in the back of my mind is that if it was going to be infected, the doctor said there would be evidence of the infection at that point, twelve hours later.

I find myself less able to articulate that there's something physically wrong with me this weekend, as the exhaustion is gone and the cankers are healing. Perhaps it is all just poor stress handling. Yet...

--==∞==--

Part of creeping back is going through the loose ends. I did some troubleshooting yesterday with some phone to computer sync issues; looks like sometime in the past 17 days my iDisk has gone haywire and i've a gig of data to straighten out.
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elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Monday, May 31st, 2010 03:16 pm
Debian's package manager worked a decade ago. Why can't Mac Ports be at least as well maintained?

Filed comment on one package to let folks know that it was hard to get to work. Next thing to install failed again. I give up, for a while, i think.
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elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Saturday, May 29th, 2010 06:40 am
Feh.

Having a migraine yesterday has put me in a bit of a pout today. I'm going to need to do some work today, and the bright clear sunlight seems sinister.



I still feel pretty distracted by my tech tools stuff, which i take to be similar to loosing myself in genealogy: i'm in a recovery mode for the week's intensity. continuing blather about tech stuff )
elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Thursday, May 27th, 2010 03:05 pm
This post is via Chrome, and for some reason, i have tons of noodling about geeky tech stuff to share. )

There's more i could write but i have burnt the afternoon. I've a doorway in the meetinghouse to paint and dinner out with a friend. Then tomorrow is working like mad documenting stuff, then a committee meeting in the messy apartment.

So it goes.
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elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 07:09 am
OK, BBC, is this some new meaning of the word "traditionally" when you write, "a tablet or slate-like computer which traditionally bridges the gap between smartphones and laptops," or do you think you're using an Americanized version of the word that means "for longer than the last fifteen minutes?"

Ah, the traditions of the line of mobile computing devices!

I muttered something to Christine about being uncomfortable with the App Store model, but we both agreed it's still early in this "traditional" model of ensuring quality of experience and selling razor blades†:
* http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/08/21/40-staffers-2-reviews-8500-iphone-apps-per-week/
* http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10127333-37.html [This last one reminds me of issues of censorship of LJ due to teens & sex and makes me wonder if the book's ban was due to more than a word match.]

I indulged in reading the frenzied Mac speculation yesterday late afternoon. I rather hope that whatever is introduced today is far from a tablet, because if the device is tablet-like it will bring geek disappointment on some dimension. I did find the news that Apple is sitting on $40 BILLION in cash provocative.

It makes me wonder if the announcement will be something that won't be ready for two or three quarters, something where the design is complete, but where they didn't want anything leaked, so they'll announce today then dump that cash on parts manufacturers to build out production lines. OLED displays come to mind, or some of the other innovative display tech that would be the magic solution producing long battery life and vibrant display: the analysts say that those technologies can't be used on an Apple device because the manufacturing capacity is absent.

(I had broken something and even though i say "i" did it, it wasn't about me at all, and i couldn't fix it, and distracting myself away was the best i could do at the moment. I still don't know how to frame the real experience, and i still suspect i was acting from a place of poorly shaped assumption and of privilege.)


† Expensive device is priced with very little profit because the profit can be made in selling many of the "disposable" units that the expensive device makes possible. Key is to design the expensive thing so that the manufacturer is the only source of the "disposable" units. Also think inkjet printers.
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elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 11:15 am
[OS X/Mac gibberish follows] So, i applied Security Update 2010-001 to my Leopard laptop and things seemed fine but were later wonky‡. So i rebooted and things seemed fine but were later wonky. So i rebooted again and found a discussion about the security update. There were a few complaints that sounded like my brand of wonky, and someone snapped that, hadn't we wonky-problem people remembered to go run Disk Repair and Repair Permissions. So i did, and for once repair permissions seems to have resolved my problem. I put my laptop to sleep and things seem to be working fine this morning. [end OS X/Mac gibberish]

This is good, because the sinus infection seems more problematic today, and i don't have the energy to resolve personal tech problems. Just complaining about it has taken a great deal of time.

So, i went through the goals check in and did some quick research, but still felt like death warmed over. So, i'm staying home, doing the team meeting by webex,

That done, i'm off to the doctor.


‡ "Wonky" describes a situation where, after waking from sleep, applications wouldn't open and internet retrievals seemed impossibly slow.
Goals check-in )
elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 06:30 am
I was completely tranced by the process of identifying names to faces in iPhoto last night. Since reading some sociological observations of why people will obsessively check email, i can see that the Faces module had similar qualities. There was a quality of intermittent rewards [wow, that's a creepy article about successful manipulation -- Christine & i spent time discussing the concept and Skinner and Cognitive philosophy's "debunking" of behaviorism....] that made it addictive: first, there was discovering the photos of people from years ago. That was an intermittent reward because sometimes there were photos i expected (not a reward), sometimes photos i'd forgotten (emotional jackpot). Then, as i developed the training set of images for the engine, there was the intermittent reward of having the training succeed and the system ask "Is this So-And-So?" -- very intermittently. I wonder if the engine is just effective enough to have the intermittent reward psychological trigger to engage the user in tagging hundreds of photos.

This morning i awoke thinking about the photos i'd run across that iPhoto "couldn't find." It corresponded with my memory of putting certain blocks of years on the removable Hitachi drive that dies so quickly. Ah, but the photos are still on the disk, i discovered! Now to figure out how to get the path names changed in iPhoto. Last night's experiment seemed to point to a one-at-a-time solution that is impractical. I woke this morning to the idea i could change the path names in an XML file but some of the path names are in binary files. I think just deleting the photos and reimporting is what needs to be done. Regrettable: because if there was any metadata investment, it's lost.
[pennyroyal:TIA-more/library/iPhoto Library] me% grep  020424_cn.jpg *
AlbumData.xml:/Volumes/TIA-more/library/iPhoto Library/Originals/2002/0204-X/020424_cn.jpg
AlbumData.xml:/Volumes/TIA-more/library/iPhoto Library/Data/2002/0204-X/020424_cn.jpg
Binary file iPhotoAux.db matches
Binary file iPhotoMain.db matches 


The fragile nature of the iPhoto database is what drives me nuts. I had saved off a "broken" iPhoto library hoping some day to do some data archaeology in it -- that, i think, is lost with Hitachi disk.

Thinking about that did remind me of all the uDig mapping stuff i did before the break: the path names on the new machine would be broken, too. Fortunately, that application seemed to be sensibly constructed for easy access to the different catalog and project files that specify the paths to the data sets. I fixed that this morning, i think.

---

This morning has been lovely with Christine awake and sitting next to me reading from her sociology readings for her science & technology course.

I'm about to bolt out the door. First, traffic patterns around San Mateo at 9 am have changed for the worse. Also, i've got to finish something that i only sort of finished before my vacation. Today is the day. Sheesh. Procrastinatix, me. (There is no intermittent reward with scheduling a software development project. Just intermittent punishment.)
elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Sunday, September 20th, 2009 06:08 am
Friday night i chose not to take my antihistamine. Usually it seems to last over twenty-four hours, so i wasn't surprised that yesterday i didn't notice any difference. This morning i am slightly congested, left side blocked. I grew up breathing through my mouth. Mom and my sister (the only ones to compare notes) also do the same. I'm pretty sure the chronic rhinitis is shared by us all, and that it affected us at an early age. Decongestants like sudafed were all i knew as options, and they made me nuts. I'd generally have a runny nose for an hour or so after waking up and then it would "settle down." I hadn't really breathed through my nose ever, so it was just the runny nose that bothered me.

When i had my first all-body reaction, Christmas 2003, i believe, I was given claritin and then zyrtec. Claritin subdues my sense of taste if i take it consistently for a few weeks. The Zyrtec had a slight sedative affect, but i put up with it because of the itching. The rhinitis went away as well: a marvel! Would i put up with it for just breathing? I might now. I'm getting Allegra instead, though, which seems stronger but with no other effects. I'd like to not be taking antihistamines for the rest of my life, but will.

My sister talked to my mom about it, and my mom won't take the antihistamines. There's a value i learned growing up that basically translated to if you can get by without help, get by. It's a survivalist attitude, there's not much about finding joy or having fun. I'm slowly learning that it's the little things that matter, that a quality life is a fine goal. To breathe freely, deeply is a fundamental quality of being well. I can get by if i need to: by why should i "get by" when there's a choice?

One of the many symptoms i'd hoped would clear up with this diet is the rhinitis. It still seems present. Also, some of the itchies seem more itchy, the site A psoriasis in particular

I'm taking a Claritin-generic now so that in a little bit i'll be able to breathe easily.

First backup times )
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Friday, September 18th, 2009 08:11 am
Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] amaebi and [livejournal.com profile] threeringedmoon, the new Mac will be Pennyroyal. I'm not sure i'd ever be able to name a machine rue, for fear of increasing buyer's regrets. Admittedly, this machine Mandrake, which suffered a fall and hard impact so soon after purchase, has given me years of regret for not carefully considering the balance of the bag it was in. The refurbished quality has me worrying, although both our mac minis are refurbished machines and have given long satisfaction. I keep telling myself that the machine will have all the problems worked out of it.

From this "What is in a name?" article of uncertain scholarship: Herbalists in the Middle Ages called this plant, 'Pulioll-royall', a bastardization of Pulegium regium, royal flea chaser.

"Mentha Pulegium" - root partition (currently 62 GB)
"Flea Chaser" - my corruption of the Latin name, partition containing the work space (currently 24 GB & 40% free)
(The archive partition will retain its same name) (currently 32 GB)

What better a name for a computer than something that repels bugs?
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elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 10:05 pm
I bought a refurbished Apple Mac Book Pro today, and a terabyte and a half of storage. I'm a bit boggled by it, and it's a burden to Christine for me to continue dithering long after her intervention session where she sat me down and we discussed needs.

My laptop isn't dead yet, so it's hard to say i *need* the laptop, but
a) when it does die it will be a crisis as i still provide my own machine for work
b) the refurb deal was nice and time-limited
c) this way Mandrake can be taken to the Apple Store and left in their hands to repair the possibly wonky USB ports, the definitely wonky trackpad click button, and anything else before the warranty expires (when? soon?)

Much of the storage is simply insurance.

Now i need to pick out another medieval medicinal plant with a nice, rich folklore around it, ideally something with a couple common names. Mandrake was a fun.

Suggestions welcomed!
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