I need someplace to stick something precious…
An “accurate” Belgian Gauffre recipe!
Comment spam…
Mandrina didn’t believe me when I told her it happened.
It’s finally driven me off the deep end.
For whatever reason, almost 100 comment-spam comments have been dumped onto my site. Interestingly enough, they target only a single post.
I finally gave up and turned off “Allow comments” for just that one post. If this happens again, I might actually need to hook up a spam filter…
Work style
I’ve heard tell of this thing called “work style,” or some such — that people have different methods of completing their tasks that work for them.
My way of working is to sit in an office, with the lights dimmed as much as possible and yet still on, the door closed, and the shades drawn. My monitors face away from the door, so that nothing of what I am doing is immediately visible to anyone either walking by or visiting my office. I keep intending to clean, but usually end up cluttered, and ocassionally messy. Sooner or later I get frustrated enough to go back to clean, but rarely feel inclined to do so while there are other employees in the building — I just feel weird walking down the hall carrying a stack of trays from the cafeteria.
The most important part of what I do takes place in a virtual world, of course. My monitors are my windows into other universes, where everything breaks exactly as it says it will — provided you can see what it will actually do, and not what you intend it to do, or what you think it will do.
My employer has set everyone up with lovely 21″ LCD displays. By cunning, force of will, and the fact that I asked, I have a semi-flat 21″ CRT as a second monitor. There was a recent study posted to Slashdot (I refuse to link to it on the basis that that would mean I have to use the lousy Slashdot search to find the article) on how much of a performance improvement is seen when the amount of screen real estate increases by way of a second monitor. It’s true.
I have two monitors, both hooked up to the same development machine. I then have at least three Remote Desktop windows opened to various other systems — my mail machine, my other development machine, and one of my computers back home.
On dev-machine 2, I’m working on a project that has dependencies on a second project, and is tightly integrated with another project — so I tend to have three instances of Source Insight open, one for each project. Two command line windows — one for building, navigating, and working with files; and one open to the log directory to see where I screwed up this time. If I’m developing, I tend to have an instance of a search tool open, that has the shared include files, as well as all other projects, indexed. If I’m debugging, it’s an instance of Visual Studio (2005 at the moment) and whatever application I’m playing with. All in all, fairly routine.
On devmachine1 (my older dev box), I have the aforementioned three Remote Desktop instances. I keep a copy of our bug tracking software running most days, and usually have a copy of Source Insight running with the source for whatever random bugs I’m working on. A command line window and source search tool complete the set.
Aside from, of course, the random Media Player window I have open to watch the show du jour. This month it looks like it’s going to be a complete Babylon 5 marathon. I’m in Season 2. Last time I only made it through Season 4 before getting bored… this time, I’m going to force it through to the end. I find I work best — or at least happiest — when there’s something on in the background, or sometimes just on the second monitor that can’t be seen from the hall.
Hey, you have your style, I’ll keep mine.
It’s not permissible to kill a coworker…
Really, I think it would lead to improved performance. Think about it: underperform? You die.
Brings evolution back to the forefront! Capitalism at the fullest! Gives new meaning to a reduction in headcount…
Cute Cat On All Wood Floors
While Mandrina and I are still adjusting, we both are happy in our new house. Except, of course, for the boxes, and lack of clothing (not completely, just a scarcity of available clothing).
Glitch, on the other hand, is being a pain in the rear. He was uprooted from where he had lived most of his life, and dropped in a completely strange place, with strange smells, strange floors, strange rooms, even a strange bed, and then his humans had the sheer audacity to BE GONE the next few days. Mandrina and I both had to work, and the poor little cat was left all by his lonesome. He did not cope well.
He has since adjusted somewhat. He still doesn’t have a window with unblocked southern exposure, and “his” chair resides in a north-facing room (it still is being shed on, just not while we’re home). He no longer has the warning of a garage door opening to tell him when his humans are reentering his abode. He whines a lot more than he used to. The door to the unsafe-for-cats basement where all our still-to-be-unpacked boxes reside is one of his favorite whining spots. He’ll stand at the door, and WHINE. He snuck past me yesterday morning, and vanished for almost an hour while I was getting ready. He reappeared covered in dust, and hasn’t whined at the door since. He’s moved on to everything from his water bowl not being fresh enough to his litter box not having been cleaned in the last thirty seconds as reasons to whine.
He’s gotten LOUD, in a word.
I’m a bit sympathetic myself, on some of the things he doesn’t complain about. Poor little Glitch now has only hardwood floors. If a human manages to get a hand on him, he has no surface to pull away on, no carpet for traction. If he gets grabbed, he’s caught. On top of that, Glitch, well, scrambles. A lot. Any corner results in a near spinout as Glitch’s rear scrambles to follow his front through a turn. Chasing him around the ground floor in a circle is a rather entertaining way to kill a few minutes. I feel terrible for him when he’s going upstairs, but at least he’s adorable!
I love my kitten.
New house!
So I’ve been absent for over a month, now.
I’ve been busy.
Short version: Mandrina and I closed on our new house (see an old picture, above), on March 27, 2006. As of today, we’re more or less moved in.
The long version includes such side quests as “Nightmare Electrician: Upgrading the Electrical in a 96-Year-Old House,” “Moving 101: Or Why You Don’t Want To,” and “Your Bed Doesn’t Fit Up the Stairs.”
They’ll be posted eventually. But right now, I have a cat who’s scared of this big, strange house, and a ton of boxes that aren’t going to unpack themselves.
There will be pictures once we unpack. 🙂
A St. Patrick’s Day Story…
So Friday night, Mandrina turns to me:
“I have a cute St. Patrick’s Day Story.
“Glitch on Saint Patrick’s Day. The end.”
Scary thoughts about weight
I usually care about my weight only in the “am I healthy”, and “how’s my endurance” categories.
Today, however, I weighed myself after taking a shower, and although the weight was right in the neighborhood I expected, I found myself thinking…
“How much does the water still in my hair weigh?”
I used to think people were creative…
I have a vague notion of a story I think I want to write. I think it could even hit 50,000 words. My problem is that no matter how could my story ideas tend to be, they don’t tend to remain in mind until the next NaNoWriMo rolls around. Previously, it’s tended that my ideas kinda fall flat on their face — I just don’t tend to keep a solid plotline in mind, which leads to a great start of words (not a Xaan of words, just a normal person start)… which then peters out as I can’t quite recall what my plot was going to be.