A manager wanted to present a talk on our 50 home test trial we are doing in a town near here. The local utility’s AutoCAD drawing was unsuitable because of over[too much information]{TMI}. Instead, I saved a couple of the XXL images from Maporama. Though I prefer Google maps for finding my own way around, the maps are really a collection of small images so you have to use a screen capture to grab the whole map. Maporama also has a nice feature at higher zoom levels by annotating with street numbers. This made it easy to cross-reference with the utility’s AutoCAD drawing. Once I had the map images, I used dia to import the images, adjust them so they made a continuous map and then mark our test trial locations with text notations.
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In a recent flyer of a company know for schlocky electronic gadgets is advertised a 3.6“ portable DVD player. The funny part is the 32 key remote. I don’t think my eyes would adequate to get far enough away from it to use that remote! This feature is right up there with the eject button on the remote for the CD player on my ”shelf system.“
Our puppy doesn’t seem to care for plain kibble all that much. So we mixed it with a bit of cream cheese and he thinks it’s yummy—most of the time. One day I tried grated parmesan, he likes that too and it’s much less messy than cream cheese to sprinkle a bit on the kibble and mix it in. He does seem to get tired of the same old, same old. I don’t think there’s any danger of him overeating. Even at puppy classes he got bored of the liver treats so we’ve bought cheese strings and curds for tomorrow’s class. Outside, however, he never seems to get tired of chomping on any old thing: dead leaves, sticks, cigarette butts, litter, snail shells, bird droppings, … Reminds me of the first time we put our youngest, maybe a year or so old, on the sandy beach. He grabbed a handful of sand and immediately tried to put it in his mouth.
Finnegan now weighs about 15 lbs. He could almost fit under the rungs of this chair as an 8 week old pup. At about 14 weeks, he can stand and put his paws on the chair.
With the rainy weather we are experiencing this weekend he has to be toweled off each time come in. However, unlike before his last set of shots, we can at least take him on a walk instead of leaving him to play in the now muddy backyard.
There are still vestiges of DOS in Windows XP. I was merrily parsing several hundred 256k binary files in Perl with this script until it failed to read in the whole file one day. It got stuck on a cr-lf combination even though I was using a sysread call. I had (forgotten?) to use binmode FILE; right after I opened the file. Of course this is a NOP in every other type of Unix where text and binary files are treated just the same when reading raw bytes.
From New Scientist:
'THANKS to Holger Hollmark, who writes to tell us that he spotted this intriguingly recursive statement in an article about gender in the Swedish publication Folkvett: “The argument that there exists a difference between the sexes is a typical male view.”'
Dave Coverly captures the humour in some “what if” scenarios:
Personally, I think I did better at the Wednesday concert since I had taken the day off. Working all day and then singing for two hours takes a lot of extra concentration. Nothing major, just some missed entries. Oh well, the “full house” audience loved it.
The alto soloist also had her problems. She seemed to have lost her place, twice in two different solos. Had she brought in some emotional baggage (boyfriend argument, death in the family?). We’ll never know. Unfortunately for her, everyone (at least the 80+ people in the chorus and orchestra) knows the solos from Handel’s Messiah.
At the wine and cheese reception after the concert, the “treasurer” gave a speech and handed out honouria (?) envelopes. I would have been rather embarassed had I been that alto soloist. I also thought it was kind of a strange practice. Of course, not everyone got (or expected) a cheque either. After all, my boss doesn’t call all of us into one room, make a speech, and give us each our pay cheque.
With a dog you don’t sleep in, even on your day off. So, I have been tired today as I sang in a chorus of about 60 singers, 27 in the orchestra last night. We sang almost the entire work save for a few solos and choruses from Part I. My personal review may follow tomorrow night’s performance.
I took a day off using up some lieu time and finished up the taxes for my younger son, myself and my wife. I’m looking forward to that refund already!
The paths along the Credit River are mostly dry except for the half-dozen usual low-lying wet areas. I couldn’t use my “Ironman” watch. I think the battery is dying as the display is screwy. So I used the small radio with lap timer I used to use before I got my MP3 player / FM tuner device. I’m not sure how the 1:21:34 time compares as I’m still in the process of “developing” this route for my “long” run. It was warm enough for shorts, too.
The route: my house, path between Folkway and Erin Mills Pkwy, Ploughshare Ct, Erin Mills Pkwy, Credit Valley Road, E on Eglinton Ave W to just past Credit River Bridge, down to path, S along path and then up to Covington Terrace, Credit Pointe Dr, Wellsborough Pl, rejoin path that goes along N side of 403 and back down to Credit River, S along path under Burnhamthorpe Bridge to foot bridge over Credit R. in Erindale Park, path over hill just S of U of T at Erindale, past Sprinkbank Arts Centre, N. along Mississauga Rd to Collegeway, cross street and join Sawmill Valley Trail, N to bridge under Burnhamthorpe then along trail that parallels Burnhamthorpe almost to Erin Mills Pkwy, turn N to Burbank Dr, Walnut Grove to Sawmill Valley Dr, Stonemason Crescent, the home again. Estimated distance is between 10 to 12 km. I really need to get a simple odometer for my bike one day.
While cruising around my area with the google satellite map I found a plane flying over Springbank Arts Centre near Dundas Street and Mississauga Road. Gratuitous puppy image also included.
Google maps now has satellite images. We’re the rebel house with the gray roof in amongst the brown and one green one on the bottom of the crescent. The image was taken since last June when we used to have a brown roof, too.
Finnegan fell asleep with his head on the chair rung.
Finally got a roll of film back. Here’s how I used some left over 4×4’s and pavers to make steps for the side entrance last fall.
I couldn’t resist the Broadwayesque pun. Happy Birthday to my brother who teaches in the Chiang Mai area in Thailand. Hugs and kisses to him and all his family.
My little MP3/WMA player, FM Tuner is now, effectively, a removable USB drive. I don’t need to use iRiver’s application anymore to load it up with music files for on the road. Right now it has the Handel’s Messiah choruses for parts 2 and 3 to re-familiarize myself for upcoming performances with a “pick up” Oakville choir and orchestra on April 13 and 15, 2005 at St. Andrew’s Church in Oakville.