Trivia

Bits and Pieces

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Another random mash-up today.

Future Work:

I got some excellent resume feedback from two non-local editors and went over that material with my local editor.  I did not get to incorporate all the changes yet, but should be on track with that tomorrow morning.  I shared more details of my plan with my dad and he is also confident that things will work out.

I may come back to some of this when more free time appears out of nowhere, but this is the general idea:

Finish resume and send out to certain sources tomorrow, and call a few interested parties for possible meeting times.  Do a little interview/job talk prep and practice Sunday.  Go to meetings in DC (hopefully) Mon, Tue, Wed – as needed. At a meeting on the 18th, my dad spread the word about my job search and several of our colleagues were interested and three requested that we meet after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, for specific projects to begin soon.

Finish travel planning and leave for Singapore as soon as possible – probably around the 12th (hopefully sooner).  About one week in Singapore, then off to Cambodia for about 2 weeks, back to Singapore for a few days, then back to the US.  Finish securing new job and move to location (in/near DC) convenient for new job.

The wild card in the travel plan is my friend in Singapore.  It is the end of the year and pre-vacation crunch time and they are in and out of time zones from London to Australia, so getting time to finalize things has been difficult.  I am brewing up secondary options in case the first trip concept falls through.  It will involve warm, beach, cheap, and probably not in USA – maybe Mexico/South America…

Webwork:

I did not finish the resume work for a few reasons, one of which is that i spent the better part of today updating and fixing lots of tiny issues on one of the sites i built and maintain.  The Board of Directors had a meeting this week and that usually results in some tasks for me, so i tend to schedule regular site maintenance around these times when i will need to look under the hood anyway.  It is not perfect, but this is one of my favorite sites that i have ever worked on.  It looks both professional and pretty. The navigation is reasonable.  And it remains fairly easy to change and expand.  I still have tasks on my short, mid, and long-term lists for this site, and i have some bigger overhaul/redesign concepts and tasks on deck as well, but those never go away no matter how well you design and build.

Geeky Tech talk Revisited:

In the last post i talked about google chrome.  I used Chrome most of the day today and i figured out some more of the personalizing to try to put it on par with Firefox.  Of all the extensions i installed that i have had time to play with, the Ad Blocker is the clear winner.  All the ad problems i referenced have disappeared. {And there was much rejoicing – (5 points…).} The other two key custom features i miss from Firefox are clocks and weather.  I did find semi-reasonable replacements.  The weather one is almost as good and easy. I can still glance at my browser – click nothing – and know the temp, which is useful before dog walking.  I have to train myself to look top right instead of bottom right, and there is less info available in that quick glance with the Chrome extension than there is in the Firefox add-on, but it is ok.

The difference maker may end up being the functionality of world clocks. In Firefox, i can glance at the bottom left of my browser and know what time it is in as many places as i like.  I don’t do quite as much varied international calling or business calling in the US as i used to, but it is really nice to glance down and see West Coast, Texas, London, Dubai, Doha, Delhi, and Singapore at once with no clicks.  The extension i settled on for now in Chrome lets you add as many clocks as you want, but you cannot move/re-order them.  So if your needs change, the list becomes disorganized or you have to delete your entries and add them back according to your chronological or geographic preferences.  And you have to click the icon to bring up the list.  The second fault, having to click instead of seeing them displayed on a bottom status bar, is not really a deal breaker (and i imagine Chrome will have to add something like this in the near future if they want to increase market share).  But the lack of reordering/editing capability is a killer.  I can’t be fussed to delete and rebuild these lists every time my needs change and if i have to talk regularly with someone in Germany or Australia for a few months, and then i need Israel – you get the idea.
(Though i imagine the developer might fix these as well…).

I love computers.  I used to build them (assemble really).  If i am not building them, i do custom order the parts of machines i buy.  Now that i have finally made it into macland (over a year!!), i still love hardware, the choices are just easier and simpler and require so much less research and support time from me.

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I did make it out to run today.  Two days of slack (kinda) turned into three days of no running.  Yesterday we had a memorial service for one of my neighbors.  I really liked this man and he was among the first people in the neighborhood to be nice to me.  And, Guthrey loved him even though he always called Guthrey “Gunther”.  Guthrey did not like a huge amount of people, so it meant something that he liked this man.  It was a very nice service.  He loved golf and the course pro let us hold the ceremony on the (under repair) 14th green.   He sang in barbershop quartets and other choirs most of his life, and a great a cappella men’s choir sang three beautiful songs.  The family said words as well as some of his friends, his ashes were scattered on the course, and then we had a get together at the family’s home.  Maybe it sounds weird to say, but it was the best funeral i have ever attended.

My dad and i had to go back to the mall because the boots we bought for him yesterday were slightly defective.   We have a replacement pair coming to the house by mail this week.  Some days, i look around and say, “Wow it is only three o’clock!” Some days i turn around and say, “Holy Crackers!  How did it get to be 8 o’clock!”  Yesterday was a Holy Crackers kind of day.  {Trivia question – without using reference materials, who knows any of the etymology of “o’clock” (any small piece will do)?  I have one very simple, specific, short answer in mind, but will be pleased to check out whatever you come up with.}

I wanted to get back on track by jumping out of bed this morning and walking with Lucas and then going for a run.  I was foiled by circumstance (and laziness).  Lucas and i both slept in until 7.  I forgot that my mom was playing the Offertory at both services at her church today and that my dad was going to go and stay with her.  I don’t like to leave Lucas alone for any reason, and certainly not while he is still recovering from surgery.  His mouth seems fine and he seems totally fine, except you can tell his stitches are bothering him on his right shoulder and he will try to scratch them if no one is watching.  So, we busied ourselves with other things.  Lucas and i did our walk, had breakfast, cranked up some RPG, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, did 4 loads of laundry, worked on both mom and dad’s computers with updates, backups and file maintenance, replaced the “waist cinch cord” in one of their winter jackets, failed some online trivia quizzes, spread some e-cheer, and then i went running.

Ran 1.43  Pace 9’05” – despite the time off, i ran a decent pace and i made it to the top of that hill again, then i just walked it on home.

No floor exercises so far.  I may get motivated and knock them out, or i may do double duty tomorrow.

After i finally had lunch post run (about 4:30) Vance and i went to the putting green to sneak in a little practice and competition before dark.  We just did an 18 hole challenge this time, and we did a running total of skins instead of canceling each others skins out.  I came out of the gate very nicely, but lost the touch between 13-15.  I rallied a bit the final three.  Vance won, two holes up and 10 skins to 8.  I did chip one in from off the green (after rocketing past the hole on the first chip) in order to not go down another hole.  It was fun and hopefully we will do this with more regularity.  It really helps both your feel for and confidence with the shorter chips around the green.  There are so many cases now where i will chip over the fringe instead of putting through it.  Hopefully i will finish the golf basics intro soon and do some more posting on golf as well.

I will try to think up a good prize, or a longer gaming structure for a better prize…