Archive for February, 2007
It has been two years since I made the cut at home over to Ubuntu on our laptops and server (with one lonely box running Media Center under XP–hello, J. River, I’m looking at you!) with absolutely no regrets and when Elwood Heavy Industries finds itself a little more flush with cash that box will go dark and I’ll run Media Center either in Wine or on a rogue Win2k install under Qemu. So anyway, CNET poses the question, “Is the Linux operating system for me?” and the answers are balanced as well as helpful. Worth giving it a read, especially if you have any curiousity about using a better and more secure OS.
Some days feel like we are clinging to driftwood just doing what we can to keep our heads above water.
Management’s appointment with the neurologist went as well as could be expected; the good news, no tumors found in the MRI, the bad, the palsy is likely permanent. she has been struggling with the growing realization that her eye won’t really close properly and that her smile will remain crooked like a door swinging from a broken hinge but to hear someone with 20+ years of medical training tell you that you’ll need to stock up on straws and eye drops leaves you feeling a little less than deflated. Just a little. She is taking it better than I had hoped, rolling with the punches and sliding into acquiescence.
School is the other burden. With all that has been heaped upon Management in terms of emotional and physical wreckage, logging into classes and staying on top of homework has not been much of a priority. Not wanting to see her drown this semester and trash her 3.9 GPA I’ve been pitching in, tackling her assignments and making sure that the reading gets done and her work is posted. Cheating? Technically, but I’m seeing it as a grey area, though her school likely wouldn’t. She has been through enough already and helping her get back on the academic horse is the least I can do. We are reading the books together and discussing them, I’m just the one drafting her answers and submitting them. If I have to carry her, I will. No matter what. I know she can do the work, she just needs help right now.
Yet there is this feeling of guilt about an itch working its way up the back of my skull like a spider balanced on long, thread-like legs. When I sit in the car looking down the driveway I imagine myself speeding past tollbooths driving ever more southward. Review mirrors broken and discarded, the only direction is forward. As the keys turn in the ignition I jerk back, my palms soaking in the cold of the steering wheel as I slowly make my way out into the street and head for work. It isn’t that I want to leave, to flee my responsibilities, I just want a chance to lay them down and walk around for a little. To bask in a moment where none of this worry exists.
Time to pick things up and keep moving.
As if my strident stance on software wasn’t enough to make people wrinkle their nose I’m standing on the edge and leaning forward to dive into the world of knitting. Growing up I enjoyed many a hand crafted item from my mother’s industrious needles, from hats to gloves, and scarves to sweaters. When I was younger I took it for granted, it was just something my mother did and often I expected to receive at least one sweater a year never thinking about the time, energy, or even the cost of the yarn–spoiled and entitled. As her arthritis has gotten worse her output has diminished and it has been years since I got a sweater at Christmas or on my birthday. Now, my sweater jones is climbing up my back.
This weekend I spent talking to my mother-in-law (Manager-In-Law?) about how to get started–the requisite who, what, where, how sort of thing. She was excited that someone in the family was showing an interest, neither of her daughters have and inclination to pick up the needles, and thought it was nice that I would pick up a hobby that might entail less time in front of a monitor. However, my confession did bring some sideways glances from Management and certainly a guy knitting is not a common site but the idea that I can make sweaters that are a Frankenstein blend of my favorites has me eager to jump in to experiment with hoods and thumb holes (90% of my time my hands are up in the sleeves like I’m still 6) or better yet some nice skullcaps for my shiny head.
So where to start? Well, the M-Law, my mom (if she can get of the shock), and I are going to cruise down to the local yarn shop to scope out materials for my first project, a baby blanket like this nice Hoover blanket. After that, I might just be ready to tackle a simple sweater and maybe I’ll get skilled enough to make some sock monkeys. If anything, we won’t be hurting for scarves around this house.
So the other day I reconfigured ddclient to check the ip every 9 minutes and much to my disappointment when my ip shifted it didn’t keep up. Then I realized, “Hey, jackass. Drop the line ‘use=if, if=web’ and replace it simple with ‘use=web’. Dumbass.” Back in business.
