Further Assimilations

Dammit, IMAP is deleting messages off the server... possibly just the ones I move on the client using a rule, but that's a lot of my messages. I guess I need to go back to POP and just deal with marking the same message as read repeatedly.

Ah, well. Learning experience.

• 07:55 Spent the last two evening battling a virus and trojan on Starr's Windows laptop. final score: Michael 2, Malware 0. #
• 10:06 Why is attempting to focus my brain into serious writing causing me panic attacks? Wondering if an incense and yoga investment would help. #

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• 10:43 @lisbet Actually, I found that reading books from the Baen Free Library on an Apple Newton was fairly pleasant. Don't know about the Kindle. #

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Freaky: We have, on the downstairs TV: the satellite box, the DVD player, a PS2, and now a Wii. I have been thinking all week about getting a switch box so as not to keep yanking cables from the TV's two RCA left-right-video connections. Yesterday morning, I mentioned this casually to Starr. Yesterday night, Starr's sister gave me for Xmas an RCA input switching box that she'd purchased days ago, thinking maybe I might find a use for it.

Whoa. Telepathy.

Awesome: Starr is in the dining room playing "Hey Jude" from a Beatles piano book I'd given her for Christmas. This is one of the best "sit down, take a deep breath, and stop fretting about stuff because fretting's the best way to blow it completely" songs ever written. There's a lot going on in my life right now, much more than I'm used to trying to keep track of, but I just can't get too messed up about it all when "Hey Jude" is drifting in from the other room.

Gonna make my award-winning mashed potatoes this afternoon to go with the pot roast Starr started last night at 1am. Should be an excellent Fauxmas dinner.

EDIT: Short version of the rant that was in this spot:

Many commenters on Slashdot are fools.

Now I will go and try to write something else that's actually interesting.

Due to the red tape of services transfer, I will not have Internet at the house tonight or tomorrow. Not the end of the world, but nevertheless an annoyance.

Also in the FAIL department: instead of the nap I'd intended, I spent 30 minutes finding the old TeeFive character sheet, another 60 locating and installing the legacy software on an emulated OS 9 machine to open said sheet, and then another 30 looking for and failing to find the ACTUAL document, which I'm beginning to fear I no longer have.

Feh.

It's been a heck of a week, and I haven't had much opportunity to post. Let's see if I can catch up a bit.

As of Wednesday evening, Starr and I began sleeping at the new house. This was slightly impeded by the fact that our bed hadn't been moved yet, and Starr's parents had returned for some of their stuff, so we had to share a twin bed in a guest bedroom. Note: no matter how cuddly the other person is, tucking two people into a twin bed gets old quickly.

I'm now getting up at 5:30 every morning to get out of the house by 6:30. My efficiency's improved, as it was taking me up to 90 minutes to get showered, dressed, and moving, but it means I have exactly enough coherence to drive safely and not a bit more. The commute's indeed an hour; thank goodness for podcasts.

Each day last week, I stopped by the apartment on the way home to grab some more stuff. Slowly, all the vital necessities of life have been put in place at the house, such as transforming Macross toys and Lensman paperbacks. By this weekend, I expect to have the silly stuff moved like cooking gear and clean underwear. (Okay, I *am* kidding about the underwear; that was high-priority.)

Starr's parents left on Friday - or was it Thursday? - but returned once more on Saturday for more stuff, and so we could take her little sister to Nekocon. We only stayed for a few hours Saturday afternoon and evening; I had no idea that the con was so HUGE. 3,000 people were claimed in one press release, and it sure looked like it. I could not believe the number and variety of hall costumes! (Of course, I forgot a camera.) Starr dressed as a loligoth, while her sister wore an InuYasha costume. Many pictures of them were taken, but I have seen none posted; me, I was grumpy that morning, and didn't wear a costume. By the end of the evening I regretted the decision, but oh well.

Tuesday, I had the day off, and I headed back over to the apartment to collect more stuff. Our downstairs neighbors are both military, and were also home; when they found out what I was up to, they instantly volunteered their two pickups, and pitched in on the packing. Thanks to them, we're about 70% done with the move, and should be able to finish this weekend; I had reason to appreciate our veterans even more that day! They were awesome folks.

We're switching the house from Verizon to Cox for our internet and phone, and were surprised to learn the the cable junction box is across the street. Shortly after we learned this, we learned that the underground line to our house is bad, and they'll have to bore a new conduit for us this week. The cable, phone, and Internet at the apartment was disabled on Wednesday, so communications have been impaired. Right now my cell phone and work Internet are my main connections to the world.

Midori has been introduced to Tigger and Precious, two cats we're inheriting from Starr's parents. They seem to be more amused than anything else by her hissing and posturing, and she seems to be slowly understanding the uselessness of making all the fuss. With any luck, they'll civilize her a bit.

This Saturday, I hope to have everything out of the apartment that isn't tucked in my office. Sunday, I'll pack all the little figures and toys and books and such I have on display in my office, and move that over, and at that point the actual move should be about done. We can then spend a week or so cleaning up the place nice before we hand over the keys.

Then... maybe... perhaps... a rest. I don't think that's an unreasonable reward!

In case you hadn't heard, we have indeed invented the Star Trek replicator. Of course, it's expensive, slow, and only works on solid objects, plus the results are a bit fragile. But, one step at a time, right?

A company known as FigurePrints is using this first-generation technology to sell gamers unique figurines of their World of Warcraft characters. The service is so popular that they've had to establish a lottery for accepting orders, even with round-the-clock production. Customers dress their characters in their favorite gear and submit the orders; the figure company retrieves (with permission) 3-D model information from Blizzard, then does a little touchup to cover gaps and clipping artifacts. In a bath of extremely fine powder, something much like an inkjet printer head sprays layers of colored glue, and after some hours, the figure is gently removed from the bath and cleaned up a bit. The result looks like the picture on the right (click it to embiggen).

So, if you play WoW, would you pay $130 for one of these? Does your character have the outfit you'd want to see it in? Would you get one if it were available for another game? Would you get one when the technology gets a little better? Expound!

Once again, here at Langley we have more work than we have people to perform it.

If you have at least a year of IT experience, and are interested in temporary work in Hampton, VA, you're encouraged to drop me a note. We are slowly moving the whole base from their old subcontractor-owned Mac, Windows, and Linux machines to our own equipment, and we need people who work well with the public and can handle unexpected glitches in file transfer and account configuration.

General aerospace fanaticism not necessary, but makes the job cooler.

• 17:28 @snidegrrl If only I had a turntable I could hook to the Mac, I would be happy to rip a copy of my Chess album for you. #
• 17:54 @snidegrrl It's the original, 2-disc, "concept" vinyl album in a black sleeve. Sounded pretty good when I listened to it last (~20 yrs ago). #

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