Today’s my last day at OUCS – and I’ve a mixture of happy/sad feelings about it.
Happy as it: puts the Charlestoning Ghost partly to rest, sad: because I liked the people -and- the work there. However, selfish-ghost requires selfless-peetm as the cure – so I give it up.
Abstinence required in other places around here too – the selfish-ghost haunts a lot of places that are now out-of-bounds [the college: bar, dining room, events, ... ]
So, here I am in Finland at an academic conference – one that I’m to present a keynote at [on which note my nerves need quelling somewhat!]
Finland is lovely – or it would be but for the fact that tonight there are parents here grieving for their children: cut down really before their lives had even started. Understandably, it’s hard to enjoy myself.
I’m also awaiting some news as I write this … from a woman [she’s not answering] – the word, when/if it comes will at least [no doubt] set a course for me – never a bad thing. Is it?
So, life goes on.
Finland is quite lovely, and full of bustle, which is surprising really – I mean, given the size of the country, and its population, there’s really no one here!
I’m in a place called Vaasa. Beautiful buildings, the Finish language [or is it Swedish?], water, crisp air – and with cab drivers that regard a Harley Davidson as the ultimate motorcycle three so far]! Ok, so I agree – although my other ultimate bike is a 999S Ducati. All I need now is both of those [or either] and an opportunity to go touring with my one remaining brother. BTW, I would add that it’s cold here – except that when I mentioned that to a native, I was told that it’s actually rather mild. It’s zero degrees, but cold apparently starts at -35! Yikes.
So, tomorrow I once again return to thoughts on thoughts – how is it that we, us humans, do what we do – either well, or as is often the case, not so well as others? If I ever find out I’ll return to the comlab and do some more AI perhaps.
Today, things just haven't gone right – much.
I still have a cold – and its got heavier – and drove me to have to go back to bed this pm. "I'll nap for a few mins", which turned into about four hours. So, that's a chunk of the day missed. I was also due to go to a wine tasting this evening – but having the snots make that socially unacceptable.
My 3Com 1100 switch is refusing to 'play ball' – but, what with my cold I'm not so inclined to investigate the why in detail today. I also think my ISP was playing silly buggers as I was tweaking it – which didn't help the head scratching. Still the Silenx fan I installed in it works a treat … so much so that I thought at first that it was duff – yes, it's that quiet that I had to see it spinning to know it was working!
I missed my son a lot. Sometimes I think school is cruel – not from his point of view [on one of his non-moaning mornings] – but from mine. As I work more or less totally from home these days, it seems that when I've returned from walking him in, that *my* life is cruelly affected. It's funny how just hearing your child patter around the place can light up your heart. He used to be Home Educated, and while that largely failed on a number of fronts for us, I do sometimes wish it were still the case – although I'd have only sneezed all over him lately and made him ill I suppose!
Just heard from a ex-Oxford friend and office mate of mine who's in Princeton: a lady who it was impossible not to soak up a smile from in any given day one was fortunate enough to be in her presence – even if it were but 'fleeting'. Jana, I miss you – come back! OR – at least get on Facebook!
Brian Clegg pisses me off 
I just read some of his stuff: his review of a novel, and then his blog. I hate [too strong] people who can write — I mean my 'reviews' are usually one liners, or even one word-ers ["crap", "Get it and read it", ...]. Yes, I'm sure I could do better, but I'd never be able to do 'a Clegg'. Brian doesn't really piss me off of course – I'm just jealous!
One good thing from today – I now know what Spirax Sarco 'do'. I've seen this company's buildings for about 20 years, and walk by their head office when I'm walking Daniel to school – but, until today – although I've often asked myself – I've not known what they actually produce. Many years ago someone told me it was zippers, and maybe that's why it's always slipped my mind to 'go see' myself. Anyway, today I finally remembered: it's stuff to do with boilers and steam heating. Must say that I preferred thinking it was zips.
P.S. In the bit about Brian there are two hyper-links. Do they appear the same to you – colour etc? One of them is yellow/orange for me, whilst the other is a light blue. I wish I could figure out the difference my style-sheet makes of these. I would investigate but well, you know – atchoo!
Been quite busy today – well, tonight mostly.
The first thing that’s ‘entertained’ is a 3Com 1100 switch. That’s a ‘proper’ switch – although slightly long in the tooth I’ll admit! Having one of these in the home presents many a happy hour [no wonder I don't meet girls!] of fun and frolics. However, before it goes live, it just has to have the fans changed!
This type of switch – super clever as it is – was designed to run in a rack – in some kind of machine room, where its fans could merrily sing along with all the others – and thus make not the slightest bit of difference to the overall cacophony! Home is a different beast all together then!
So, I’ve ‘Mr. Screwdriver’ on charge [the mountings of the old fans need drilling out], and tomorrow I begin the hunt [local at first] for some replacement – quite – units. If that fails, there are plenty on eBay. Just to be uber geeky, I must say that I like the sound of Silenx fans. There, that’s done.
Second stuff tonight – now the switch is in bits – was to design a better logo for our research-based Numeracy Intervention website. Actually ‘better’ doesn’t really do the job justice. The first logo was purely temporary, and now that we’re to go ‘live’ on 1st November, I thought I’d have a bash at something more creative. Please have a look – http://www.numeracyintervention.net.
