Monthly Archives: October 2008

End of Vacation

Well, it’s been a fairly busy two weeks …

  • Work on the floor is (more or less) progressing.   I got the final rank of boards cut and installed.   We still need to touch of the paint, install the base molding, quarter round, and carpet threshold.
  • Tuesday we went to village hall and cast our votes for Obama in the early voting program.   Just want to get it out of the way.
  • Wednesday we headed down state to visit my niece Melissia … it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip.   We went for a walk in the Stephen Forbes state park and saw “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”.   The state park was nice and pretty empty.   About the time we left the park, it started raining.   Perfect timing.   Did a bit of shopping and then saw the moving (which was enjoyed by all in the theater … all 3 of us).
  • Saturday both Ginny and I had checkups at the doctor … everything is in working order.
  • Started an email exchange with a woman who wants me to GIVE her a domain I own … because she’s running a business with the name.   When I indicated that I would sell it to her, she got all bent out of shape.   I wasn’t asking multiple thousands of dollars for it … I only asked $600.   Last email from her indicated she would probably sue me for trademark infringement (she doesn’t currently have a trademark on the name, but she did indicate that she filed for one).   I’ll keep an eye on the name on the US Trademark Office’s website and, if it becomes registered to her, I’ll take down my placeholder site.
  • Today I want to try and get the floor finished … at least the painting done and base molding & quarter round up.   The threshold might take a bit of time.

And, tomorrow, it’s back to work.

Well, mostly back to work … I really didn’t leave.   Like a glutton for punishment, I checked email periodically and had to address a few issues.   Nothing major though.   Hopefull, when I get back, the I18N project will be done and we can get on to real development again.

Installing Hardwood Floor

Kind of a busy two weeks … Ginny and I were on vacation.   Because of the cost of our last vacation (England & Ireland), we decided to make this a “Staycation” … basically stayed home and didn’t go anywhere big.

One of the things we wanted to was finish the floor in the smallest bedroom.   This was a project we started about 6 years ago … we had these grand ideas of turning it into a reading room, with a hardwood floor, a nice comfy chair, plenty of book shelves, etc.

Well, the project started out fine … but ended up completely stalled due to problems with the flooring material we chose.

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On the mattress, not IN the mattress

I just had to perform a slightly odd form of cat rescue: retrieve Riley from inside the box spring of the bed.

Riley likes to play around under the bed sometimes … playing with the fabric on the bottom if the box spring.

Today he managed to find a small rip in the fabric and make it larger. Once it was large enough, he crawled in and started exploring the inside if the box spring.

Both Ginny and I heard him under the bed, but it sounded kind of odd. He was also meowing in a somewhat odd way. When I looked under the bed, I didn’t see him. I did, however, see a jump in the box spring fabric. A bit of poking quickly identified the lump as Riley.

A quick slice of the fabric with my leatherman gave him an opening large enough for him to leave, but it took a bit if coaxing with some kitty treats to actually get to leave his new hiding place.

I’ll have to patch the rips today so he doesn’t get back in.

Adam Savage on Science Education and Creationism

I found this Popular Mechanics pod cast while stumbling around today.   It features Adam Savage, of Mythbusters fame (one of my favorite TV shows), discussing science education and his annoyance with the whole Evolution vs. Creationism debate:

What I do see as a huge issue is a very anti-science vibe. Like I said, the newspapers talking about evolution versus creationism is very much an attack on science as a type of religion—believing that the scientific method is some type of religious belief. And it’s not!

That kind of attack absolutely is damaging science exploration across the whole country. I do think that’s a significant problem. And until we can get our head out of the sand and realize that science isn’t about truth—it’s why this debate about the “theory of evolution” bugs the hell out of me. What scientists mean by theory is very different than what people think.

People want science to give them these ultimate truths. When of course it’s never going to do that.

No scientist will ever even tell you that he’ll guarantee the sun will come up tomorrow because that’s not a scientific statement. He can say it’ll come up because the evidence supports it and he can say he’s 99.99999% sure that it’s going to come up, but something could always happen.

And that willingness to have your mind changed – which is basically what that is – that willingness to change, to see something different based on the evidence, that’s deeply scientific, and it’s deeply creative, and I don’t think enough people realize how creative science is as a field.

What can I say? I agree with Adam 100%.

Popular Mechanics Podcast