Woozle/to do/archive/2006-2007

Time doesn't just fly; it tends to go first class and charge the tickets to my account.

What Woozle Is Doing Right Now

Entries are most recent first; to read in order, start at the end.

Overview

• Staddon vs. Griever
• Childsitting
• HyperMail so I can manage my emails
• Images for existing VBZ items
• DriveFerret (currently at experimental stage) to recover work from 60 GB drive
• HyperFile (has many uses, but most urgently to help with managing vbz images)

Journal Entries

2006-02-25

21:04, 25 February 2006 (EST) Finally put some of my kindergarten-era electronics knowledge to work -- see Woozle/notes for electronic learning kit

2006-02-22

10:28, 22 February 2006 (EST): Just now applied for this, after updating this.

Catching up: The overload has continued since the last entry. The plumber replacement section of pipe and removed a large quantity of muck from the existing pipe, but apparently didn't test the fix because the sink was still stopped up after he left (he may have tested it but not realized that you have to leave the water running for a good 5 minutes to be really sure, because it takes that long for the pipes to fill up from the blockage to the sink drain). So Saturday (with a bad headache) I got out the powered plumber's snake and reamed out the drain from the laundry room (after the unsurprising false start where the snake went up the vent instead of down under the floor). So that's fixed.

But then the washing machine was still making unhappy noises, and when the drain was still blocked it was leaking, so he need to come back and fix that, and I still can't get the drain under the laundry room sink to stop leaking completely (though I've got it to the point where it's a drip every 5-10 seconds instead of 5-10 drips per second; maybe it just needs a new gasket somewhere).

Then on Sunday I had an even worse headache and a slight fever and kind of did not much of any use all day. Monday I was a bit better, but still had no appetite until dinnertime. Tuesday mostly recovered; today still mostly recovered.

Also, I finally broke down (sometime during all that) and installed the windows drivers for the scanner. It worked fine for a bit, and then I foolishly tried to install a USB snooper utility to help out with the Linux driver development, and various things stopped working (including the network and the scanner). I was able to fix the network, and I got the scanner working again for a bit, but then it mysteriously stopped working again. So I'm still in the middle of that.

2006-02-16

The kitchen sink has been doing its quasi-annual stoppage since about Tuesday. This time, we're having a plumber look at it. (For one thing, there's a section of pipe which appears to have been patched with duct tape. For another, this shouldn't keep happening; if the pipe is too small to accomodate the load, then we need bigger pipe.)

Meanwhile, we had fun bailing out the laundry room last night (the laundry room sink, dishwasher, and washing machine are all on the same drainage "circuit") in order to prevent the floor from being flooded (again) when laundry had to be done.

2006-02-14

07:41, 14 February 2006 (EST) More things I did between 1/11 and 2/13:

• Upgraded vbzwiki to the latest MediaWiki version, in hopes of getting the spam filter to start working; I was able to get it working, though I think this was mainly because I re-read the instructions more carefully and found I had left out a line of code in the configuration file. Also, this will allow me to offer customers the ability to subscribe to topics of interest.
• Set up a test Drupal page – it's at http://stuff.hypertwins.org, but I'm still working out the kinks before it's ready for actual use. (At first I couldn't get the email confirmation to work, but then that mysteriously started working several days later. Now it won't create forums, even though it says it is doing so.)

And time's up again...

2006-02-13

21:20, 13 February 2006 (EST) Yeah, this describes what I've noticed. And I thought it was just my current kid-infested lifestyle. Or maybe it's mainly that, and later on I'll be able to look forward to the joyous prospect of always feeling like I'm in a room full of screaming kids. Hmm.

14:47, 13 February 2006 (EST) I guess it must have been a busy month since January 11. I've done a substantial number of mentionable things, but can't immediately remember any of them. Oh, wait, yes... there was...

• The new water heater, which took much back-and-forthing between here, Sears, and a few other places (I have the "before" shots and will put them up eventually along with an "after" shot).
• Shaving about 8 inches off the end of the old falling-apart sink base cabinet in the laundry room (forgot to take "before" shots, but got a nice "after" shot).
• Getting one ("Von! Ah-ah-ah-haa!" –Count von Count) childsitter lined up. She's too young to do overnights or driving, but it's a start.
• Spent a lot of time working on FileFerret and oops, that's all I have time for now because it's time to pick up the kids. (I was going to tell about buying a new scanner and looking at phono needles, but it'll have to wait.)

2006-01-11

07:41, 11 January 2006 (EST) Just finished the final (I hope) revision to this. Yesterday, we discovered that the reason why vbz seemed to be making so much money over Xmas, relatively speaking (the bank balance climbed to nearly $700 at one point, (yee. haw.), and is still well above $400) was that one of the suppliers had mistakenly been charging one of Sandy's credit cards which I gave them to use once, two years ago. The total came to $730.80... so I'm still working back to "break-even" point. So much for "Black Friday". (She was relieved to find that she hadn't been as much of a spenthrift as she thought; I'm vastly annoyed and dismayed that I can't even seem to make a profit at Xmas. The sales numbers say I did make about $600, but that's not unusual for most times of the year.)

Yesterday also, I foolishly started into doing a huge overhaul of vbz's Topic system, and of course unexpected issues have arisen (as I expected).

Currently printing out the famous SvsG "Sales Accounting".

2006-01-05

13:32, 5 January 2006 (EST): There's a fine balance between (on the one hand) taking on so many tasks that one starts to get panicky over how much isn't getting done and (on the other hand) taking on too few and actually not getting much done. I'm feeling like I haven't been getting much done over the past week, but I'm trying not to take this as a signal that I need to take on a whole lot more because I can feel that edge of panic ready to spring up. Just find one or two things that need doing, and work on them. Lather, rinse, and repeat.

Reading material: http://www.judithberman.net/sffuture.html

2005-12-31

11:59, 31 December 2005 (EST): Wrote this yesterday: Phone Handler Wanted. Posted it in squad for comments; one friend in Slovenia was half-seriously (or even 3/4-seriously) interested in doing the phone calls, with the main obstacle being that she's currently on a dial-up (she would need broadband in order to use Vonage VoIP), but it looks like Skype might be a possibility. So I'm thinking about it. (Another problem: PayPal is send-only in Slovenia, so I don't know how I would pay her, exept perhaps in store credit at Amazon or something.)

I ended up installing the latest & greatest MediaWiki in an attempt to fix an image-uploading problem; in the process of so doing, I discovered that said version will send you email notification when any of your "watched" pages are updated. So now anyone who wants to be notified when I update this page can "watch" it. So I should probably change the title to something more blog-ish and start directing people to it. (MediaWiki still needs to provide an RSS feed of "watched pages", but the availability email notification as an alternative makes RSS less crucial.)

Quote for today:

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

I'd been coming to a similar conclusion myself.

2005-12-28

08:18, 28 December 2005 (EST) One spammer is still getting through, so I'm trying an open-proxy block. Failing that I'll have to figure out how to set up my own spam blacklist and add them. Meanwhile, I still need to finish the catalog-building routines for vbz.net. (Oh, and I'm saving this link here to get it off my browser; it was something Tenebram showed me several weeks ago, and we tried to discuss it but apparently I either didn't get the article's point or else I didn't get the point he was trying to make by showing it to me. So... later.)

We both meant to send Cindy Smith a birthday email, but it somehow never happened.

2005-12-27

11:04, 27 December 2005 (EST) Server upgrade caused wiki issues. I *just* got things sorta-kinda working, though some of the images still aren't coming up. Don't have time to fiddle with it now because we're overdue to go grocery shopping.

2005-12-25

10:40, 25 Dec 2005 (EST): Slight headache today. Processing Xmas pictures. Wrote "biased analysis" for Issuepedia Creation page last night; finished brief skimming of ID FAQ this morning, and then realized that the analysis should be on its own page.

No new wikispam except on Squadwiki, so filters seem to be working; added spam filters to Squadwiki.

a few pictures from today

2005-12-22

08:40, 22 Dec 2005 (EST): The wikispam has gotten so heavy lately that I haven't even had time to add new spammers to the Known IP Addresses list. Installed a spam blacklist extension on vbzwiki yesterday; got no spam on it last night -- which might have been merely a coincidence, but I certainly got plenty of spam on issuepedia and here. So just now I installed it here.

Anna, Samantha, and Woozle at Livia's on 12/22

I *thought* the last of the Xmas packing was over on Monday, but then I realized there was more. It *seems* to be done now, and in any case I'm going to be out of town today and tomorrow until fairly late, which takes us right up to the 24th. (Oh, right, I was going to mention that on the vbzwiki...)

2005-12-18

10:57, 18 Dec 2005 (EST): Just finished the 2005-12-16 Mediation rundown; it was only partly done on 12/16. Today I have a bunch of stuff to get ready for shipping on Monday, and I hope I'm up to it. Yesterday the exhaustion from the after-dark driving and the afterdarking mediation caught up with me, and I was only able to get one thing in the mail (the one item which was known to be due before 12/24).

2005-12-16

12:58, 16 Dec 2005 (EST): Just got done with The Dreaded Mediation, which now needs to be re-titled The Dreaded Mediation Phase I because it was such a big hit they're gonna make a sequel! Yay!! Here's the rundown...

2005-12-13

19:29, 13 Dec 2005 (EST): The China Inn on Hillsborough and Trent appears to be gorn :-( – we tried to go there to recharge after a combination of Highly Depleting Xmas Shopping, Christmas Shipping Madness, and this being the Week of the Evil Mediation, and the place was all closed up; no lights, no signs. It was our favorite Chinese place in the area (including Chapel Hill); now we're stuck with China Buffet) until we find another place.

This is, of course, The Week From Hell... although it's not as bad as the last week before Christmas in 2002 was, when I had to frantically catch up with all the shipping that couldn't be done while the power was out.

2005-12-10

13:07, 10 Dec 2005 (EST): Yesterday, went to Southpoint Mall to get a last-minute birthday present, and took pictures. (We had wandered in there once a couple of months ago after seeing Serenity, and happened to see some rather nice and inexpensive wooden xylophones at one of the cart-vendor stands. Fortunately, the same vendor was still there yesterday and still had the xylophones.) Today, finishing off Zion Rootswear shipping from the restock which arrived a day or two ago.

• Reading: songwriting essay by Peter Sinfield, Anonymous modernist-pessimist posting in Contrary Brin (the long response ending with Yeats), and Brin's response

2005-12-05

22:07, 5 Dec 2005 (EST): The lawyer wants another retainer.

2005-12-03

13:40, 3 Dec 2005 (EST) Listening to Joni Mitchell (I've had "The Same Situation" running through my head for several days now, but right now am listening to Turbulent Indigo which I haven't listened to much) and working on DriveFerret. It seems to be confirmed that Anna is coming back with me when I go down for the mediation on December 16 because her school lets out for winter break the same day -- but this means I have to wait until she gets out of school and then drive home, which means I will be driving back fairly late. I hope I'm not too tired.

2005-12-02

19:51, 2 Dec 2005 (EST) Today was the day of the big Move Of The Old Desk down to the basement. Also David Burnette stopped by again, begging for a ride, at about 7:30. We're now actively wondering why he stays out so late if he's not up to the bike ride home (or taking a bus); it's like he's addicted to soliciting for money or something, and doesn't know when to stop. Or does his client give him a portion of proceeds, so he has to work long hours in order to pay his bills? Something just doesn't add up. (I meant to ask him if his client could accept PayPal because I have some money there I could donate, like maybe $5-10 a month -- not much by his standards, I'm sure, but it would be something and he wouldn't have to bother us for it -- but in the thick of trying to tell him "no" to the ride, it didn't seem the right time to bring it up.)

2005-11-25

08:59, 25 Nov 2005 (EST): Yesterday (or was it the day before?), I finally moved most of my audio stuff into the wiki, so I can more easily update it. Yay.

The kids spent the night with their father last night, and are spending most of today there as well, so we were able to sleep undisturbed in a kid-free house for the first time in (I think) over a year. So this morning I get up as usual around 6:30, start noodling around on the computer doing light-concentration tasks on the computer when I suddenly realize, like, OMFG!!!!111oneoneone, the kids aren't here -- I could actually get some substantial-concentration work done! So I'm doing that now.

19:25, 25 Nov 2005 (EST): And now this idea.

2005-11-23

15:02, 23 Nov 2005 (EST): Just submitted this idea to a contest. Did some shipping yesterday and today; three orders came in just today, so I guess the Xmas rush is starting (yay/eek!).

And now, I think, it's time to do something about my audio pages.

2005-11-20

07:54, 20 Nov 2005 (EST): Hmm, I need to move the October stuff onto its own page, don't I...

Well, first thing this morning was to delete some spam off the vbzwiki. I really hope they add better filtering to the RSS feed before I start getting significant (legitimate) edit traffic on any of these wikis, otherwise I won't be able to tell the spam from the legit edits. (Then again, I suppose if more people are editing, they're more likely to spot spam edits.)

Then Benjamin wanted to get dressed. So I found him clothes. But then he wanted to finish "reading" a coloring book first. And then he needed help getting dressed. And then he needed breakfast. But that's done now.

Yesterday, I finished copying all the Josh emails into the wiki; now I need to figure out what to do next. I need a more extensive description of Josh's current state and what he needs.

Meanwhile, I'm processing yesterday's skim of Tears for Fears The Hurting just because.

2005-11-09

21:18, 9 Nov 2005 (EST): Just got back from driving to about halfway down South Carolina on I-85, then turning around and coming back. What happened is that the mediation session was cancelled (by the mediator) at the last minute – or at any rate earlier today, though I wasn't informed until about 4:30 this afternoon. Sounds like someone forgot about the fact that I don't live there and have to drive down the night before.

Just before leaving, I hastily typed up these notes; had a few more ideas on the way down, and will add them when I have the energy.

I'm also going to ask that the gas money be deducted from my share of the mediator's fee, and to strongly suggest that this demonstrates the advantages of written negotiation and wouldn't they please consider ordering the defendants to negotiate that way, since they were able to order them to attend mediation (and pay half of it)?

Other than that, I think I'm going to bed.

Earlier Months

• October, 2005
• September, 2005
• August, 2005
• July, 2005
• June, 2005