Author: Tim Jarrett

It doesn’t feel like the last day of classes

Ugh. Three courses down, three to go. I just delivered the final paper for my eBusiness course (more on that in a second). Now I need to catch my breath and turn around a take-home final, write a final paper for Literature, Ethics, and Authority, and finish our group presentation for eLab. (By the way, all of the above is why I haven’t blogged much lately.)

Merry Christmas from Google

I thought that this would be a day without blogging — I’m just dealing with the usual end of semester crap and didn’t have anything new to say. Then I saw the announcement: 20 years of Usenet available via Google.

I had forgotten some of the stuff I used to spend time writing about–poetry, fonts, even some stuff in PowerBuilder. But it’s not forgotten any more — both from my days at Virginia, where I had my first Usenet access, and at AMS, when I was first a programmer.

One thing I’ve noticed: my sense of typographic anal-retentiveness in monospaced type. I must have spent a really long time in the computer lab getting that early .sig file lined up just right…

Would you like herring with that solo?

I forgot to mention: the E-52s had their inaugural gig on Thursday. It was surreal. We were singing for penguins. No, real penguins. The faculty party was at the Boston Aquarium, and it was a hideous performing space. Think cement cube with balconies facing into the center, which has a column of aquatic exhibits going up to the roof and a spiral ramp around it, and a pond at its base with rocks and penguins. The best option for singing was on a small alcove on the first floor facing the penguins. No one could hear us. But it was fun anyway.

Oops

Sorry for the multiple postings. I’ve got to make some adjustments to my script–it keeps reporting timeouts when it’s actually completed sending the message.

Let it snow

It’s been a great weekend. Primarily because I’ve procrastinated.

Friday I got in a solid chunk of work on a project for New Product Development. Then I crapped out. We made an Italian meatloaf — that’s made with ground beef and Italian hot sausage, with hard-boiled eggs in the middle, and some other good stuff that I won’t discuss now, then covered in the tomato sauce that Lisa canned this summer. Saturday I got a little work done — mostly just hung out with Lisa, shopping etc.

Today was the real red-letter day. It was the first snow of the winter last night–supposedly two inches, though the ground was too warm for accumulation. Lots of pretty flakes with no side effects–my favorite kind. We got up early, went shopping. Came back with Lisa’s Christmas present. We definitively decided — she’s a Tiffany girl. Did some cooking afterwards: a killer pork rib roast. Dry rub the pork with salt, pepper, cinnamon, rosemary, fennel… wet roast it in beef stock and wine with quartered oranges… serve it with more sliced oranges and reduced roasting sauce. Oh yeah. I’m delighted to report that two years in business school haven’t killed my cooking abilities.

So this week will be miserable. That’s ok. The weekend was worth it.

Praise Bob! Praise Whittards!

I’m working from home this morning. It’s amazing how much more productive I can be by adding two distractions: Bob Dylan‘s Love and Theft on the stereo and a cup of hot tea. I’ve given Lisa a lot of grief for her habit of bringing back a small duffel bag worth of tea every time she goes to London, but I have to admit, Whittard’s Christmas Tea is awfully nice.

Classic installer weirdness

Weird experience just now: I installed the latest classic Mac OS update (9.2.2) while running Mac OS X. I doubleclicked and ran the installer; it quit all processes IN MY MAC OS X session (except the Dock) and then logged out OS X when it was done. Surely it could have just dumped me back into X and made me restart the Classic process. Frankly, though, I’m amazed it worked at all.

“Aid and comfort” rears its ugly head

Free speech must be getting Ashcroft down:

“To those who pit Americans against immigrants, citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve… They give ammunition to America’s enemies and pause to America’s friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil.”

more…

And no, I don’t mean blank checks

Ashcroft finds himself on the stand today before Congress. This is an interesting example of checks & balances in action. Good old Patrick Leahy: even after being an anthrax letter recipient, he can still say things like “I want to make sure after we’re all gone that the Constitution is still here…It’s not always popular upholding the Constitution, but it’s always the right thing to do.”
more…

Now playing

Currently playing song: “Isn’t It A Pity (Version One)” by George Harrison on All Things Must Pass.

Okay, I confess. I’m one of those miserable bastards whose only knowledge of the Quiet Beatle was from the recordings of the Fab Four, “Cloud Nine,” and the Traveling Wilburys (plus a vague horrified memory of “Gone Troppo”). I’m listening to Isn’t It A Pity for the first time and I’m knocked out.

Isn’t it a pity
Now, isn’t it a shame
How we break each other’s hearts
And cause each other pain
How we take each other’s love
Without thinking anymore
Forgetting to give back
Isn’t it a pity