Seventeen syllables in the rain

Today, 05-07-05, is seen by some as Haiku Day. On this day, choose Haiku as poetry. On others, choose Haiku as a place in Hawaii.

National Weather Service: "quite an impressive coastal storm for so late in the season with WV loop showing classic comma configuration. ... impressive isentropic lift and frontogenetic forcing wraps northwest from the ocean."

Don't tell the bad guys. An anti-terrorism drill at Logan Airport in Boston has been postponed because of today's stormy weather. The apparel industry, though, is ready. But, talk about your weapons of mass destruction - there are news reports of an Iranian bid for MG-Rover.

Oliver Wendell Holmes characterized the State House in Boston as the hub of the solar system. Since then, Boston is often call The Hub. It seemed a bit odd that a news story from CBC Charlottetown would carry this headline: Stones to rock hub city. Oh, wait, Moncton?

Adam took Sandra to breakfast for Mother's Day yesterday. It was a fine visit. Last year, he and I went out for lunch on Father's Day. We sat and talked for a couple of hours. It's not often that we get a chance for unbroken time like that.

My manager stopped by my office this week to talk about my assignments for the upcoming release. Much of the work will focus on our products' support for NFS V4. I'll also continue to provide systems and tools work. He was also encouraging about long-term, permanent prospects. He couldn't make commitments yet because there are other gears in motion elsewhere in the organization. All the same, I was pleased.

Which is a good thing, because today's automated job search for technical documentation positions turned up leads for:

• Preschool Director in Gardner, Kansas
• Accessories Developer for a company in Santa Fe Spring, California, that design, markets, and distributes snowboard boots and bindings, helmet, and pads.
  

Happy 80th Birthday, TJL.

Apostrophes would be out of control!

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

BPF stopped by last night with a sweet gift of flowers from her garden. She was on her way to a 9PM choir rehearsal. She said that she's teaching Spanish, folk dancing, and golf at an elementary school in a nearby small town.

Often I will see people (men, mostly) walking down the corridor at work, carrying a laptop and a cup of coffee, the cell phone held against their ear uncomfortably with their shoulders. Something like this might make that contortionist act easier.

People who have worked in companies with energetic marketing department know that it's very easy to accumulate many t-shirts and regular shirts with logos and commemorative designs. When we get too many of them, the good shirts go on to a shelter, the not-so-good ones are torn up and used to clean what the dog didn't eat well enough. In spite of last year's purge, I still have a couple stacks o' shirts in my closet. Anyway, here's another solution, a quilt made of old t-shirts. (The author has nice things to say about his mother-in-law, too.)

The University of Minnesota chose the name Scholars Walk, rather than Scholar's Walk, for a walkway. According to news reports, the school's style guide avoids use of apostrophes on building names and in other titles. The CEO of the university "was concerned that an apostrophe signifies ownership that could be misconstrued as exclusivity."

05-05-05

The bird bath is a little skating rink this morning.

Today's three fives augers well for Tony Blair's election chances, or so say the numerologists across the pond

We bought a new microwave oven recently. There's a little display above the command buttons. When I first connected the oven, the little display said, "Welcome to Panasonic. Please read the owner's manual." Nice plug for our profession. Even better, the unit is designed well enough that we don't need the manual very much at all. Our only complaint is that the oven plays havoc with the cordless telephone nearby. I guess it's time to upgrade to a 5.8 Ghz phone. Companies ought to sell microwaves and cordless phones in pairs.

In Australia, in order to qualify for unemployment insurance payments, the unemployed need to work on projects that will help their chances of locating work. A group is trying to match unemployed tech folks with with open source software projects to help them meet their community service obligations. OpenOffice and Ubuntu Linux Documentation are among the projects. (Via ./)

I just installed the Google Web Accelerator beta on my home system. So far, it appears that web pages do load more quickly. If you decide to install GWA, read the privacy policy carefully first.

Just in time for Mother's Day - an iPod shuffle made from everyone's favorite meat-like substance.

Next laundry day, I'm going to try these instructions for folding a fitted sheet.

This morning's email brings a request for assistance from Mrs. Suha Arafat, the widow of Yasser Arafat. She needs my help to retrienve monies from a secret bank account. My reward, if I can figure out how to parse this, is "we shall share in the ratio of 30%for you 65% and 5% for expenses incured,as you know there is know transaction of such huge amount that does not require expenses." I'm flattered and humbled.

We in da' house, ayuh.

Clouds like blankets

A few clouds came in overnight, holding the heat close to the ground, so we didn't get a frost. It's still chilly in the house, though. Marley has found a spot in front of the stove and in the sun.

Sandra and I working from home today. I have a medical test this afternoon (routine), but, in preparation, I couldn't eat for a day and a half. Some people fast as a way of gaining physical and spiritual focus. Countless millions go without food because there is no food. Some just eat because they don't know what not to eat. Anyway, I can have coffee, so life is good.

Today's automated job search for a technical documentation position:

• Executive Staffing Assistant. I'm pretty sure that I know what they mean when the job description says, "This position requires a high level of customer touch," but, well, ..... Also, would you work at a place that describes your "general accountabilities"?
• Lone Star Research Doctor Wanted in Houston! "*We are NOT looking for a doctor who has gone into patient care or treatment"

I carry a Swiss army knife, a modest-sized one with scissors, screwdriver, tweezers, toothpick, and, oh, yes, knife blades. I use it every day for something or other. I also lose the knives, once every two or three years. Now I know where I can go for a lifetime of replacement knives. The National Transportation Safety Administration (NTSA), through state surplus offices is selling confiscated items on eBay.

Change is the new normal

Our neighbor is in Florida this week, visiting family. She has MS and has been house-bound for as long as we've lived here. This is her first trip away from home.

Another neighbor has put her home up for sale. She moved in with her son several months ago after falling often. The ambulance was regularly visiting her house. Increasingly she was needing help maintaining her house. Her husband died 20 or so years ago.

I read in the trade journals that a couple of executives from IBM Rational have moved on.

Over the weekend we watched The Anchorman. I thought that it was an entirely forgettable movie, but I was mistaken. One scene has the male performers singing that annoying 70s song, Afternoon Delight, albeit in pretty good harmony. (The song showed up in a Simpsons episode as well.) So, now, I have that song stuck in my head. Given that we have a limited number of thoughts for a lifetime, I wonder what I won't be able to think about when the time comes. Oops, there goes another one.

Not only that, but it's only going to get worse. Some hacker has found a way to store songs on an RFID tag, such that when you move the chip near a reader, the song plays. (The telling comment is "the application is best explained by reading the sourcecode.")

Today's automated job search for a technical documentation position produced listings for a Senior Executive Secretary and Executive Secretary. Oh, but I also received an email informing me that I've won ZAR 18,000,000 in the South African lottery (about $3M). Opportunities on all fronts.

Green, green, rocky road

Near my father's house is a field where we played baseball and football. After we got out of high school, the family sold the house and moved away. The new owners at first kept the field mowed, but, after a few years, they let it go. The field is now woods, blending nicely with the deeper woods in back. You'd never know that kids used to play ball there.

And along the narrow roads, you see stone walls, tumbled down and nearly overgrown with trees and brush. They're all over New England. No matter how rugged the terrain, you'll find these stone walls, meaning that some brave or magnificently deluded soul tried to farm this land. They cleared the land for plowing and every winter brought forth more rocks for the field and tosses the rocks in the wall to the side.

Telecommunications, as Tom Friedman observed, has made the world flat. I had to order some supplies from a company that makes financial software. After the usual hops through the telephone options, I speak to a person. He's a pleasant man with a fairly thick Indian accent. "Hello, thank you for calling Intuit supplies and service. How may I help you? My name is, uh, Joe."

Hauskaa vappua

Rabbit, Rabbit.

It's also May Day, the worker's day in much of the world. In Finland it's a very big deal. I remember getting May baskets from my grandmother. They had candy 'n stuff and looked a lot like Easter baskets. Our family wasn't very political. Some Finns were communists and May Day had worldwide meaning. Other Finns were as conservative in their politics as they were in their religion. Throughout the year, unless you knew the people well, you stayed away from politics and religion, keeping the conversations to sauna and the quality of the year's blueberry crop.

We had a chance to get together with Mike and Lynn this weekend, the first time in quite a while. They're good company. Most of the talk focused on the family, because the family drives much of what we do, think, and feel. It was a good time and we returned home restored.

Our public TV stations concluded another fund-raising screed last night, featuring bands such as Procul Harum, as they try to mesmerize baby-boomers into giving up their credit card numbers. Now, PH had a couple of big hits back when people said, "Groovy." They even had a song, Repent Walpurgisnacht, the kind of overbearing instrumental that sounded deep then, but doesn't hold up well over the decades.

The U.S. has had a boycott of Canadian beef because of mad cow disease. It's hit Canada hard and in ways that we wouldn't expect. Canadian ranchers have had to reduce their herds, meaning that there are fewer cows for young people to tip. As a result, they've had to seek other outlets for their passions. The victim's profile is here.

110,000 volt Taser Cannon. Probably too tame for Florida.

Prognosticated instability

Rain is coming, often heavy, lasting through mid-day tomorrow. So, we've decided not to go to the camp this weekend. Most of the work there is outdoor work that's not easily done in the rain. Instead of having our first sauna this evening, we'll probably go to Sears and buy a stove.

The long-range forecast from the NWS says, "Will be inserting a slight chance of thunder into the grids with the prognosticated instability. "

Today marks 30 years since the U.S. left Vietnam. As you might expect, the Vietnamese government is regarding this as an independence day. In this country, we are still sorting through what the war meant to us and to southeast Asia. To those who served, we can, at least, say, "Welcome home."

Again with the confluence of holidays. Today is Holy Saturday for the eastern churches and Walpurgis Night, a springtime rendition of Halloween.

Today also marks the day in 1993 when CERN, the Swiss nuclear research institute that sparked the development of the WorldWide Web, announced that the web would be free. The Internet predates the WorldWide Web by at least a couple of decades, depending on how you define it. The Internet is big, but not limitless.

Recaffeination

It's a cool morning with a sharp northwest breeze. We stayed above freezing, but just barely.

The espresso machine at work is operational again and a bit of order has returned to the workplace. The machine has just a few buttons for espresso, cappuccino, and maybe one other thing. The place down the road, by contrast, is stunning in its range of offerings. So, we can enjoy a cup o' Java and be grateful that we work where we do.

We watched some of the President's news conference last night, at least until The Apprentice came on. (We're rooting for Tana.) Now, the blogosphere doesn't need another liberal rant, so I'll keep my comments brief. I found it a lot easier to absorb his ideas if I closed my eyes so I didn't have to see that silly smirk when he was talking to us as though we're idiots.

Choose life, eh? Yeah, choose life.

In America we get so cynical about our leaders. The British, well, they know how to show respect.

Blue skies and blue screens

The clouds are breaking and there's blue sky above. Unfortunately, there was a blue screen here. The system rebooted right away and is showing no ill effects. My guess is that the combination of USB gadgets wasn't handled well. I'll investigate further.

Yesterday afternoon, people were standing around the break room, shuffling their feet, while they watched the guy from the espresso machine leasing company try to fix the elixir maker. (There were two machines in the building; the other broke last August.) If someone showed up in the parking lot and started selling these personal espresso machines off the back of a truck, well, business would be good. I suppose, however, that some other workers might have to face other types of danger in their jobs.

I cooked the black chicken last night and we may have it for dinner this evening. I hadn't expected that the head would still be on it. Our expectations have been set by Frank Perdue. Chicken beak anyone?

There's a new makeover show on TV tonight called Mobile Home Disaster. You can bet that it doesn't take place in any of these locations.

A few years ago, I visited the Archie McPhee store in Seattle. It's a great place to spend time and money. And even if you stumble on the uneven floors, you can get patched up quickly.

Curt Schilling is on the disabled list, as is David Wells. Schilling's condition, however, made it to the front page, above the fold, in today's Boston Globe.

Campaign signs sprouting. It must be spring.

Our town is having an election for selectmen and other offices. Frankly, I've not paid close attention this year. Fortunately, we have some neighbors who tend to be quite active politically. They put candidates' signs on their lawns. Their politics are also exactly opposite ours. So, if I'm ever not sure how to vote, I take a look at the signs on their lawns and then vote the other way.

Every afternoon the traffic bunches up on the route home near a baseball field. With the car window down on a warm day, I can hear the sounds of the kids playing ball. It's wonderful, although I doubt that I'll ever get used to the sound of a ball hitting a metal bat.

Automated job search results of the day:

• Lead SAP FICO Functional Config - Global a Must (*Hot Perm*)#901
  
• SAP Basis Admin LEARN CRM & BW! (*HOT Perm Job*) #900
• 2 Insane Guys With Brilliant Idea Seek Online Advertising Coordinator to make sense of it all: "It turns out we need a sober, calm and collected soul with a forgiving sense of humor..."

Marley's had trouble with his nails. It almost seems like a good idea for him to wear boots. If he wore these, however, he'd also demand a paper bag for his head so that the other dogs wouldn't recognize him.

The Wall Street Journal is running a story this morning about B.J.'s Wholesale Club's suit against IBM. The suit alleges that sensitive credit card information was stored in the computers' logs and thus was exposed to hackers. This could get interesting.

Brake, gas and wood

Every once in a while I get to work from home. Today the group is having a party to celebrate the latest product release. I'm going to stay home, work some and prepare a few things for what I hope is our final meeting with Conservation Commission. I didn't attend last release party in August. Something else was going on then.

So, today, I get to hang around in sweat pants and a well-worn Windows Suites denim shirt. (I worked in the Windows Suite group at Rational.) I have three computers in the study (five if you count the two VMware virtual systems on my work laptop). I'll be using all of them in one way or another during the day. I have to set up a small network to test a few things. In the meantime, Marley is lying by the wood stove, yipping at the squirrels in his dreams. The real squirrels outside have taken cover as a hawk circles the neighborhood.

In these worrisome times, with families and friends scattered across the globe, it's nice to know that the clothing industry and mobile telecommunications industries have joined to bring us remote hugs.

Last night I paid $2.49 per gallon of gasoline. I know that people in other parts of the U.S. and certainly in the Great White North are paying a lot more, but this was a new level for me. It's starting to make some folks think differently about their driving. As we've been hearing, sales of hybrid vehicles are climbing rapidly. This is hybrid of a different kind, a truck that burns wood.

Tiger Balm, for what ails you

The Worcester Night Life programs are one of the best values around. For a modest fee, you can take course ranging from basic harmonic to oil burner technician to Linux for beginners. The programs range from a few hours to a whole semester.

Yesterday, Sandra and I took a tour of Chinatown in Boston. We learned about the history of this sometimes rough section of the city, about those who settled there. Most of the residents speak Cantonese while people who have settled in Massachusetts for jobs in high-tech speak Mandarin. (Did you know that there is a group and a language named Hakka in mainland China and Taiwan?)

We had dim sum at the China Pearl, visited a bakery, an herbal pharmacy (Tiger Balm is made neither from nor for tigers), several restaurants, clothing and gift stores, and a grocery store. We bought a black chicken, carrots the size of a baby's arm, and several packages of snack cookies for young and old. We saw, but didn't buy, live eels, dorian melon (with a smell like carrion in custard), and vegetarian squid. It was good fun. A big part of it was getting over the notion that things need to look like the stuff you'd find in Stop & Shop, Denny's, or Subway. More than a billion people have kim chee, pork roll, or rice and tofu in soy sauce for breakfast. They're doing just fine without the Coronary Artery Bypass on a Bun Special.

I expect that we'll see a lot of dogs on Alitalia once this news gets around.

Today's automated search for a technical documentation job:

• Director of Housekeeping for a company in Florida: "Accomplishes housekeeping human resource strategies by determining accountabilities" and "Avoids legal challenges by understanding current and proposed legislation...."
• This one sounds dirty, but isn't: Sr SAP HR Org Mgt, Persnl Mgt Bene, Trainn/Evnt Mgt (*HOT Perm*)#881

This clip with John Cleese has been making the rounds on the 'net lately. It's an advertisement for a company that provides online backup services. A friend of mine works there. The clip may be a bit esoteric for those who don't work with IT departments, but, for the rest, it will be uncomfortably familiar. You'll need to have the sound on your computer.

Fried whatchamacallit, on an untoasted roll

This morning's automated job search for a technical documentation job included a pointer to a Registered Dietitian position. To be fair, the job does include a requirement that the applicant write reports that "conform to all rules of punctuation, grammar, diction and style." Applicants must have "Registered Dietitian with the American Dietetic Association and Licensed Dietitian status".

Which reminds me. Kay's Dairy Bar is open for the season. Kay's is about a mile from my father's house. Kay's started as a Carvel franchise in the early 1960s and later went to its own ice cream. The ice cream is very good and the portions huge. When Sandra worked for Digital in Westminster in the early 90s, her co-workers nicknamed the place "We fry anything." It's under new ownership this year. I was relieved to see that fried alligator is still on the menu.

Normally I don't care when one liquor company buys another, but this purchase has some local impact. A French company is buying the parent company of Dunkin' Donuts. I suspect that this won't have much impact on Dunkin' Donuts' inexorable drive to world domination. We have a Dunkin' Donuts about a half mile from our home. The mania inspired by those Coolatas makes our drivers even goofier. (You can be comforted , however, that the Coolata still contains no crustaceans.) For the record, I don't like Dunkin' Donuts products. The coffee is weak and the donuts taste like sugared sawdust.

There will be a quiz on this next week. Who or what is Illanaaq the Inukshuk?

The excuse, and it's not a very good one, is that the Maine Turnpike is a long and boring road. You want to get through it as quickly as possible, so your speed gradually increases. The Maine state police have heard it all and will hear it again as they rev up their anti-speeding campaign. Our family drives the Maine Turnpike/I-95 to and from PEI and has seen some of the clever ways that the state police identify speeders.

A confluence of celebrations

Passover begins at sundown. Today is St. George's Day and is also generally recognized as Shakespeare's birthday. When Shakespeare was my age, he was dead. Other birthdays include Warren ("Spahn and Sain and two days of rain") Spahn, Shirley Temple, and Michael Moore.

And you thought sushi just happened?

Anyone have the number for the Nobel Prize committee? I think we've got next year's winner.

"If you are having a life-threatening emergency, press CTRL-ALT-DELETE."

A belated Earth Day news item. The EPA cancels a study of the effects of pesticides on children. The plan had called for the EPA to give some money, a camcorder, and some children's clothes to families in south Florida and then to see how the children were affected by exposure to various pesticides.

Maybe the scientists were right.

Maybe the Sumatran earthquake did cause the earth to wobble and maybe even change its orbit. The Red Sox pitching staff delivered two successive shutouts and the team won last night's game 1-0.

As I've mentioned, my mother was a woman of peace, but nothing got in the way of her sending and receiving mail. So, modest armaments would certainly be appropriate.

It's been generally true that the higher up the management chain you go, the more email you get. I don't know which comes first, the abundance of email or the management behavior, but new research may explain what's going on here.

Let's see. Malodorous gases. Long periods of suspended animation. New science or business as usual. You decide.

As Georgetown is poisoning pigeons in the park (with apologies to Tom Lehrer).

Recently we had a brief conversation with a friend who is gay and who has been in a relationship for a long time. We hadn't see her for a while and it was good to catch up. After we left, Sandra and I asked the same question - did they get married? There's a new pressure on gay couples in Massachusetts to address the marriage question. What should be a private decision between two adults now has a public dimension. A history professor of mine used to say that every act is a political act and has political consequences. Some acts (or non-acts) have greater political implications than others.

This is similar, in some ways, to the pressures that the families of the September 11th victims had to face. What is typically a private event of grief and healing became very public events with reporters and others looking in. I attended a funeral of a former co-worker who was on one of the flights. His family showed great grace amid the overwhelming crowds.

Dry skies

We picked up just a few showers last night. None of the thunderstorms materialized. The neighbor's forsythia is further along than ours, but the flowers that Sandra has planted look a lot better. Everything needs rain, though.

Three monks are kneeling at the altar, praying. One monk says, "Oh, Lord, I'm not worthy." The second monk whispers to the third, "Look who thinks that he's not worthy."

What's the most popular gaming system these days? Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP). It's available at Toys-R-Us, giving you an idea of the target market. So, it makes all kinds of sense that the hottest accessory for this 'toy' is a free download from Playboy.

Let's see. IBM is selling its PC business to Lenovo, who, in turn, is outsourcing the manufacturing of laptops. At some point, we're going to find that all of the world's manufacturing is done by one guy in a thatch hut in a small village in a small island in the South China Sea.

There's a company meeting this afternoon in the building next to mine. The company had another very good quarter. Sandra will ride on the bus from her building in the other town, traveling with a friend of hers who completed the Boston Marathon on Monday. There will be an acknowledgement of the runners at the meeting.

I received a call from a recruiter, discussing a software quality assurance job. For a variety of reasons, it's probably not going to be a good fit, but it's nice to get the calls. I've picked up some interesting new assignments at my current job, so I have plenty of interesting work ahead.

Happy Birthday, Adam.

Overdue April showers

The National Weather Service has issued several advisories about fire dangers. We've had very little rain this month. Some showers, and maybe even a thunderstorm, are in the forecast for this afternoon. It's been quite warm (low 80s), but we might see a few snowflakes in the hills this weekend.

Someone must be doing pretty well at BJ's Wholesale Club. The last few times that I've stopped there on my way home from work, I've seen a Porsche Cayenne in the parking lot. The next time that I'm there, I'll try to find out the specific model. Even the least expensive models, however, are very dear.

In the meantime, $1B has gone missing at MG Rover.

The NPR reporter said that it took more than an hour to go from smoke to Pope. Even if they're not wholly true, nicknames almost always have some basis in fact.

A prescient technical writer from Florida registered the benedictxvi.com domain name at the beginning of the month, even before John Paul II had died.

Most people listen to music on their iPods. Some, however, prefer a more enriching experience.

Today's automated job search gem is Development Mechanical-Catheter Engineer - "Catheter team leader for the development and manufacturing transition of exciting new fiber optic based medical devices incorporating Cardio-optics novel technology using IR light to see through blood."

Open windows and doors

In the morning and evening we hear the geese. They spend the night at the nearby pond on their way north.

During the day we leave a window or two open for Marley, now that the weather is much warmer. When we return home in the evening, things looks pretty much as we left them. In some homes, however, that's not always the case.

Sandra had a great time in Boston yesterday, making her way into the busy city, meeting up with the team from Boston Children's Hospital, seeing her friends complete the marathon. Our lives, though often busy, stay in predictable circles. It was good to hear of her adventures on the T and walking around downtown amid the crowds.

The Red Sox have won four in a row. winning games that have football scores (12-7 yesterday).

I wonder if this gadget has a reverse button that lets me sound normal when I have a cold.

Bringing natural light into a building, at first, seems like a comforting idea. Then, as we think about it some more, we realize that a light that only works during the daytime has limited utility.

Dental implants by robots. What could go wrong?

Spring holiday

Today is Patriots Day, a celebration of the first battles of the American Revolution. Patriots Day is celebrated in two states - Massachusetts and Maine. Maine was a part of Massachusetts until 1820. You wouldn't know it. Maine struggles with serious issues while Massachusetts drifts into senseless crime.

Today is the 109th running of the Boston Marathon. Sandra will go into the city to watch a couple of co-workers. The weather looks to be fine for the spectators. It will not be as hot as it was last year, but it's still going to be too warm for the runners.

We met Adam, Jennie, and Lily for breakfast in Northampton yesterday morning, an early celebration of Adam's birthday. It was a fine morning, so we walked over to their church and heard Jennie sing in the choir. Exquisite.

On the way from Northampton to my father's house, we stopped at a rest area that overlooks the Quabbin Reservoir. The trees continue to grow and now nearly block the view of the water. In a few years, we won't be able to see it at all.

Along Route 2, where the ledge was blasted away to make a path for the highway, water seeps from the rocks. The water freezes in the winter. There are still large chunks of ice in the shady places.

If this guy wants to use your computer, tell him that you need to use it.

Job title inflation reaches a new level. This morning's automated job search brought a list for a Director of First Impressions. In this job, "you must take pride in answering phones with a smile in your voice...." Other skills include front-office support, Microsoft Office experience, and "multi-tasking yet never missing a deadline...."

"Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" ponders Ivan Seidenberg, the CEO of Verizon Communications.