“Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything.”Floyd Dell
I’ll keep this in mind when I retire next year.
I write a lot of Perl scripts that run periodically in the background through the so-called Task Scheduler. Each of these scripts appends to a log file and sends a one-liner to the next-to-useless Event Log to report the path to this log file. I redirect STDOUT and STDERR to the log file so that everthing gets set there. This all works fine using perl.exe but not with wperl.exe the “non console” version of perl.exe. Today I found out why.
In wperl.exe fileno(STDOUT) returns -1, an invalid file handle number. So, you have to close(STDOUT) and then open(STDOUT, “>>$log_file”). In perl.exe I would open(LOGFILE, “>>$log_file”) and then open(STDOUT, “>&LOGFILE”). Now I can run (w)perl scripts at user logon/off and system startup/shutdown events and still have some logs to look at if something goes awry.
Seen in a comment about a some software article, “I really love you, you know, plutonic love…”
I think this is the kind of love exhibited by Mickey Mouse’s dog.
For the last four years I have been using an Excel spreadsheet to log the receipts for my wife’s music teaching business. In previous years I’d log each receipt with a code (ele - electricity bill, os - office supplies, etc), the date and the amount. Then I would sort this list of 200 - 300 items by code and date and confirm that I have each month’s utility bill. Each of those ranges I would name, sum them and name the sums: a lot of work, especially if I found another receipt or two.
This year I’m using DSUM and DCOUNT the “database like” functions of Excel. Now I don’t need to sort the receipts anymore. I just select on the codes to get the various sums. I also downloaded all 2005’s worth of chequing account transactions from my credit union in the form of a spreadsheet. Again I could use DSUM and DCOUNT to select and sum all the automatically deducted utility bills. After an afternoon (most of that was spent setting up the DSUM magic) and an evening’s work that part is done—a process that has taken me several weekends in the past.
Peel Region has started “single stream recycling”. I guess there were too many people who didn’t sort = can’t sell recycled stuff because it wasn’t “pure” enough.
I’m going to save some time on the night before garbage day because I did sort. Now I don’t have to.
Finnegan spotted a possum on one of our evening walks this past week. I have never seen one in the wild before especially this close to home. I didn’t have my camera so I had to borrow an image from the Internet. The warmer weather must be bringing out the critters.
We spent a splendid evening with friends last night. Their twin daughters are about 3 and very cute. Their car has a big dent in the hood which, we thought, might have been from a basketball—the kids next door were playing when we arrived. It turned the snow and ice on their steep roof all slid off last week and and a good-size chunk of ice did the damage.
I’m taking tomorrow off so I can get a few things done aroung the house. Today I fertilized the lawns and mended the “temporary” fence around the backyard gardens to keep out the dog. If I have the time and the weather co-operates I’ll make a gate for the back deck. The backyard is too wet and muddy for Finnegan, not that he minds.
I also bought some “all sport” shoes. The top of my left foot above the arch has been sore off and on for the past few months so I’m hoping these shoes might improve it.
My brother teaches “middle school” near Chiang Mai in Thailand. I thought his recent travelogue was quite interesting.
We’re on the last leg of the trip, the ferry ride from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi. We’ve run into a bit of a squall so if my writing is worse than usual it’s the waves and wind to blame. St far the trip has been uneventful. I can’t say I enjoy checking in 49 people at an airline counter, but they were very efficient and at least the kids didn’t have to stand in line. We should be arriving in about ½ hour and then we’ll have a 15 minute walk to our bungalows (five only). Just about everyone changed into shorts when we got to the ferry dock. The long pants had been nice on the train though as they always have the aircon cranked up high. Most of the grade 10’s actually tried to sleep on the train which was more than could be said for the grade 8’s who shared one of our cars (Thankfully not mine). Once we check in we’ll take the kids down to the beach for a run around and a swim. I don’t think that they’ll give us a lot of trouble tonight as they’ll be so tired.
Happy Valentine’s Day
I had to get up last night at 1:15 a.m. to knock on the bungalow door of some young tourists because they were singing ABBA songs at the top of their voices. My students were great. I lodged a complaint with the resort owner this morning and she wondered whether it was one of my students? DUH! Would I complain to her if it was one of my students? This morning fortified with two strong cups of coffee and a banana pancake I’m off on a two hour hike (climb) with a group of 12 students. We’ll also be abseiling (climbing down a cliff using ropes, then snorkeling. Got to go now and brush my teeth.
20 Feb – Well my good intentions went out the window. Time was not always available and then this book got wet due to spray from the waves. So I’m safe and sound back in Chiang Mai. The trip was a success and there were no major problems. Lots of sunburns, a few coral scrapes, slivers, but overall great fun. I’ll now try to back up and go day-by-day starting back on Tuesday.
Tues
We set out in 4 different groups on a hike. The groups were staggered at 1 ½ hour intervals which meant we had to entertain group 3 & 4 for the morning. Luke (the staff member who was in Phi Phi during the tsunami, where he lost his brother) took the late starters on a tour of the village showing the students where the water came up to, and generally answering their questions in a very matter of fact manner. I missed out on that talk but got informal ones as the week progressed.
I was with group #2 so we started hiking at 9:30. Phi Phi is karst topography like HaLong Bay(in Vietnam) so the hike involved a lot of steep climbing. We had a number of great view points en route and experienced a part of Phi Phi that few tourists would visit. Abseiling was down a vertical crevasse about 20 metres—about half way down the rock face your feet are on [a] receded [surface] and one had to lower oneself down about 3 M then turn around and put one’s feet on the wall that had been behind at the beginning. I had done abseiling many years ago so know the basics. The students found it thrilling. I just felt that it was a long wait for a short trip. Scrambling down from the base of the sheer cliff to the beach we realized how high we had gone earlier in the morning. Most of the kids had dirty butts by the time they reached the beach because they slid most of the way down.
At the beach we met up with the first group and our lunch. Lunch was very welcome as was the water. Although we all carried water on the hike it was used up long before arrival at the beach.
After lunch we snorkeled off the beach. This was the best snorkeling I had ever done up to that point. There were lots of fish, coral, sea anemones with clown fish, lobsters, sea urchins, sea horses. It was great! We fed the fish pineapple and I was able to get over some of my fear. The tunnel vision, the fish nibbles all made for concentrated relaxation exercises. I found it very difficult to dive down and swim underwater because I would immediately experience shortness of breath. I snorkeled until I got leg cramps, took a break, drank some water, ate some more then snorkeled again. By about 4:30 we climbed into a long tailed boat to go back to our bungalows. Phi Phi Don is shaped something like a dumbbell. The handle in the middle is sand with coconut trees and lots of development. The tsunami went right across the sand bar (from both sides). We took the long tailed boats from Monkey beach, (yes, we saw monkeys) to the shallower bay. This bay used to be all sand but the tsunami brought in lots of coral chunks. We got there at low tide and the boat had to drop us about 100M from the water’s edge. Luckily I had my flip flops in my backpack so I was able to walk fairly easily over the broken coral. Most of the students had to slowly pick their way in. I actually ended up piggy backing some students to make it easier on them.
Wednesday
In the morning we walked over to the Phi Phi Island public school to do some community service. They had a ground floor classroom (2 storey L shaped building) filled with what looked like the remains of two or 3 wooden outbuildings that had been destroyed by the tsunami. The school is hoping to add M1 & M2 (grade 7 & 8) next year but are not allowed to build (only resort owners have enough money to pay the bribes to get around the no building banns imposed in the wake of Dec.26 2004) It took all of us about 1 ½ hours to empty the room and for many of the kids it was their first experience with any form of manual labour. All the kids pitched in and genuinely felt positive about their efforts. After lunch we grabbed our overnight bags and jumped on an old wooden boat. Before we left, actually before boat started, Andrew, our guide on Phi Phi, tried to explain rules of the boat. #1 Don’t jump off the boat if it’s moving, #2 the toilet is a sea toilet which empties into the ocean so don’t go if the boat has stopped. Then the engine turned on and it was impossible to hear. We took the boat up past Phi Phi Don, past a pod of dolphins up the Mosquito Island where we did some open water snorkeling on a reef that was about 3 M below the surface. Again great sights! We also had fun jumping off the top deck into the water. From there the boat took us to Bumboa(sp?) Island where we were to camp for the night. The boat was too big to get over the reef so students had to be ferried in a long tail boat. Or they could swim to shore. I chose the swim and was rewarded by seeing a couple of stingrays. The swim in was fine until the reef where it took us a few minutes to find our way through. (Again we’d arrived at low tide.) The island is part of a National Park as are all part of the Phi Phi chain but this one had a park office which rented the tents and foam mats. We had asked all the students to bring a sheet or sleeping bag but there weren’t really necessary. Come night time we just crawled in and went to sleep. There was a beautiful breeze which swept the mosquitoes away and made for a pleasant sleeping temperature. The island campground boasted two showers and two toilets which meant that you lined up for a shower or didn’t bother. I was smart and grabbed a shower right after arriving while the students were still playing house in the tents. Meals were simple but hearty: rice, fish curry, chicken curry and fruit. The Adventure Club, the group that arranged things for the trip treated us well and even put on a performance (Fire Dancing) on the beach.
Thursday
Woke to the sound of waves and the sea breeze in the trees. We did a couple of group challenges after breakfast, one where the students had to use two wooden poles to carry all team members back and forth over a small field. The kids had a great time and attracted the attention of all the tourists who had arrived with morning high tides. Around 11 a.m. we climbed into the big boat. High tide meant that it could come right up to the beach. Destination Phi Phi Ley (small Phi Phi Island. This island had some beautiful coves with sheer rock walls and tiny white sand beaches littered with trash from all the groups that come through. Such a waste. Snorkeling this day meant swimming along side a rock wall which extended after a small shelf deep into the water. The shelf and below were covered in both hard and soft coral. By this time I was a relaxed snorkeler and we much more able to hold my breath and dive down to inspect things. The first group saw 5 sharks (alas I was in the third group) But we did see a banded sea krait(snake) about a metre long, flattened tail which acts as a paddle, and highly venomous. Although as lethal as a cobra it’s mouth is so small it would have to bite you on the web between your fingers to actually be able to latch on. I now see why people spend so much money on dive trips. It’s a whole other beautiful world down there. We had swum along with the current and the boat had moved to pick up but still I had to swim against the current. With flippers not a problem. As I neared the boat I heard a few students and teachers yelling my name in warning…jellyfish? Shark? No someone had broken rule #2. That’s the sea toilet rule. In other words there were a couple of logs floating off the stern of the boat. I was a lucky survivor, a couple of minutes later someone swam right into one. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
For our last evening we tried to get the kids in one restaurant but it didn’t work out which was just as well because the service was slow and the food mediocre at best. The kids had time to do a little last minute souvenir shopping then bed.
Friday
Our ferry was to leave at nine so it was a scramble from the moment we got up to get 44 students checked out and fed. The teachers had to get take-away breakfast because we were short on time. The ferry left a little late which was a problem because we had a 12:50 flight and had to be at the airport by 12:000 at the latest to check in. I had a few worried phone calls on the ferry. When we docked in Phuket I had kids jump off the ferry and onto the first van and we sped off to the airport on the opposite side of the island (Phuket is Thailand’s largest island) We made it with time to spare. Then it was a short flight to Bangkok, a 4 hour wait, then our overnight train home. I’ve never been on a train in Thailand that arrived on time. This trip it was on time both ways.
Well this concludes my travelogue.