Overdue Update

I am indeed still alive.

We left the DC area as early as we could Friday morning, heading to the trailer in West Virginia. There was only a light drizzle falling as we departed; we heard from various friends that the weather became much nastier as Eduardo moved up the coast, dumping several inches of rain. Despite the ugliness along the coast, the campground was merely damp and overcast overnight Friday and was quite nice the rest of the weekend. The dampness was of no issue to us anyway, as the trailer was pleasantly dry and the furnace kept the temperature comfortable all night.

I had brought some magazines to read and my C1 definitions to study during our spare time, but I didn't open any of them. All of our time was spent walking, chatting, napping or generally lazing around the campground with no particular agenda or schedule. Ahhhh.

Even the trip home Monday evening was uneventful: traffic was lighter than expected and the weather was pleasant enough.

I'm still labeling photos which I'll post to my web site later today.

Overdue Update

I am indeed still alive.

We left the DC area as early as we could Friday morning, heading to the trailer in West Virginia. There was only a light drizzle falling as we departed; we heard from various friends that the weather became much nastier as Eduardo moved up the coast, dumping several inches of rain. Despite the ugliness along the coast, the campground was merely damp and overcast overnight Friday and was quite nice the rest of the weekend. The dampness was of no issue to us anyway, as the trailer was pleasantly dry and the furnace kept the temperature comfortable all night.

I had brought some magazines to read and my C1 definitions to study during our spare time, but I didn't open any of them. All of our time was spent walking, chatting, napping or generally lazing around the campground with no particular agenda or schedule. Ahhhh.

Even the trip home Monday evening was uneventful: traffic was lighter than expected and the weather was pleasant enough.

I'm still labeling photos which I'll post to my web site later today.

Latest Geek Project

A couple of weeks ago, Kent bought himself a new Mac Book for his birthday. He bought Parallels at that time, a utility which allows a virtual machine to execute. In effect, one can have a Mac window boot and execute some other operating system (Solaris, Linux, Windows, whatever) while still running Mac programs in parallel. (This is different from the Boot Camp utility which allows one to boot the computer into one operating system or another, but not execute them at the same time.)

One of his birthday presents this weekend was a home edition of Windows XP which he installed on the laptop to run Windows apps simultaneously with Apple apps.

Last night, he installed Vic Ceder's CSDS square dance application with WinAmp and PaceMaker in the Windows XP virtual machine. Although some minor configuration updates still need to be made, it does indeed work rather smoothly: he was able to play and control square dance MP3s via CSDS.

I was more than a little amazed at this. It's one thing to execute simple Windows applications in a virtual machine, it's quite another to implement a hardware abstraction layer which can snag the library calls for seriously ugly I/O, translate them seamlessly to MacOS calls and perform the juggling act without a significant performance impact on something as time-sensitive as music. I'm seriously impressed.

We'll still keep the HP laptop for calling as it is kept relatively pristine to avoid bizarre software conflicts which might manifest in the middle of a dance, but if we can work out the rest of the configuration we'll purchase an extra license of CSDS for the Mac Book.

Latest Geek Project

A couple of weeks ago, Kent bought himself a new Mac Book for his birthday. He bought Parallels at that time, a utility which allows a virtual machine to execute. In effect, one can have a Mac window boot and execute some other operating system (Solaris, Linux, Windows, whatever) while still running Mac programs in parallel. (This is different from the Boot Camp utility which allows one to boot the computer into one operating system or another, but not execute them at the same time.)

One of his birthday presents this weekend was a home edition of Windows XP which he installed on the laptop to run Windows apps simultaneously with Apple apps.

Last night, he installed Vic Ceder's CSDS square dance application with WinAmp and PaceMaker in the Windows XP virtual machine. Although some minor configuration updates still need to be made, it does indeed work rather smoothly: he was able to play and control square dance MP3s via CSDS.

I was more than a little amazed at this. It's one thing to execute simple Windows applications in a virtual machine, it's quite another to implement a hardware abstraction layer which can snag the library calls for seriously ugly I/O, translate them seamlessly to MacOS calls and perform the juggling act without a significant performance impact on something as time-sensitive as music. I'm seriously impressed.

We'll still keep the HP laptop for calling as it is kept relatively pristine to avoid bizarre software conflicts which might manifest in the middle of a dance, but if we can work out the rest of the configuration we'll purchase an extra license of CSDS for the Mac Book.

Crikey! Gross Insensitivity Ahead!

Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin died this past weekend, killed by a sting ray. For all of the eulogizing of him on CNN, Yahoo! news, LJ, the Australian Parliament and other such reputable forums of discussion, my sympathy extends to his family but not to the man himself.

Every time I saw him on television chasing down some hapless critter all I could think was that if the crocodile bit his head off, it would be entirely deserved: when people do stupid things, they should expect stupid results. I guess he did love animals in his own way: he owed his fame to tracking & harassing them with abandon in their natural habitat for cheap entertainment. IMHO, if he loved critters all that much he should have demonstrated his appreciation by leaving them alone.

Irwin was killed when a ray jabbed him in the heart. He died doing what he loved, harassing wild animals for fun & profit. In a twisted sense, I suppose we should all be so lucky.

Crikey! Gross Insensitivity Ahead!

Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin died this past weekend, killed by a sting ray. For all of the eulogizing of him on CNN, Yahoo! news, LJ, the Australian Parliament and other such reputable forums of discussion, my sympathy extends to his family but not to the man himself.

Every time I saw him on television chasing down some hapless critter all I could think was that if the crocodile bit his head off, it would be entirely deserved: when people do stupid things, they should expect stupid results. I guess he did love animals in his own way: he owed his fame to tracking & harassing them with abandon in their natural habitat for cheap entertainment. IMHO, if he loved critters all that much he should have demonstrated his appreciation by leaving them alone.

Irwin was killed when a ray jabbed him in the heart. He died doing what he loved, harassing wild animals for fun & profit. In a twisted sense, I suppose we should all be so lucky.

Not exactly what I expected...

My Personality

Neuroticism	60
Extraversion	47
Openness To Experience	54
Agreeableness	54
Conscientiousness	99

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report MySpace Stuff, MySpace Codes and Personality Test by Pulseware Survey Software

Not exactly what I expected...

My Personality

Neuroticism	60
Extraversion	47
Openness To Experience	54
Agreeableness	54
Conscientiousness	99

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report MySpace Stuff, MySpace Codes and Personality Test by Pulseware Survey Software

Travel Planning

I've just completed our flight arrangements for the Cleveland square dance fly-in in mid-October. We'll be flying to CLE from BWI on Thursday, Oct. 12, returning on Sunday, Oct. 15.

Many thanks to cuyahogarvr for working his travel agent magic for our Denver 2007 IAGSDC trip next May. While I had a hotel selected, he was able to confirm it was the best geographical location for us, found us an upgrade to a minisuite and booked it all for less than the numbers I had researched on my own. Yay!

Travel Planning

I've just completed our flight arrangements for the Cleveland square dance fly-in in mid-October. We'll be flying to CLE from BWI on Thursday, Oct. 12, returning on Sunday, Oct. 15.

Many thanks to cuyahogarvr for working his travel agent magic for our Denver 2007 IAGSDC trip next May. While I had a hotel selected, he was able to confirm it was the best geographical location for us, found us an upgrade to a minisuite and booked it all for less than the numbers I had researched on my own. Yay!

Weekend Photos

Photos from our Labour Day weekend at Roseland, West Virginia, are now on my web site. Click for the fond memories... :-)

Weekend Photos

Photos from our Labour Day weekend at Roseland, West Virginia, are now on my web site. Click for the fond memories... :-)