04 November 2012
Random Odds and Ends
04/11/12 05:36
Part 1)
It’s been one year since I started in my current job. Now, overall I felt things had been going well. We’d been getting things done. I’d learned a huge amount of stuff and was far more able to manage the systems, make recommendations, and steer the IT ship as it were. I felt pretty good about how the job was going. Then last week my boss took me aside:
“I think we should do lunch Wednesday to decide where we’re going from here.”
Like I said, I felt pretty good about how things were going, but there was this little part of my brain that was worried that he was going to fire me between the salad and entrée and leave me with the check. Well, the meeting was Wednesday and it went great. He outlined a list of projects that he’s like to see implemented over the next year and beyond. Server upgrades. A whole working from home initiative. Planning for when I will need an assistant. Investigations of using wireless Android and iOS devices on site. An overhaul to the offsite backup system. Everything I’d been thinking about already, so in most cases I was even ready to outline how I wanted to attack the problem. We were totally on the same page. So, it looks like I’ll stay employed for at least another year, and I got a good lunch out of it.
Part 2)
This week we nearly had a case of Catricide. You see Thursday Marsha hadn’t slept worth a darn. She stayed up late watching something or other. Then she woke up every hour or so and it was 20-30 minutes before she’d drop off. Then she woke up at 3:30 with me and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. (Yes, it’s true. I tend to get up between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning. It’s quiet, I can write, I work out, I have a leisurely breakfast, then I make it to work by 7:30. It’s a pleasant way to start the day. I’m the one in the corner office laughing at those of you that drag in five minutes late with a danish in one hand and a hairbrush in the other.) Anyway Marsha was dragging. She was groggy all day. Never had the energy to do much. Finally at about 1:00 she texted me “I’m going to take a nap”.
I found out later that Marsha settled down on the couch and was just about to doze off when Momiji decided it was time to meow. Not the normal little almost inaudible meow that she’s used ever since we got her. No, for some reason she decided that this was the right time to pull out a psycho Siamese crossed with a bagpipe yowl that resonated throughout the house. Marsha was awake in a second and checked on her. Momiji was fine. Marsha was just settling down again when some ten minutes later Momiji cut loose with another window rattling yowl. How in the heck a cat that small can make that much noise is beyond us. Marsha was awake again and this established the pattern, Marsha would just be dozing off when Momiji, sometimes in the other room, sometimes on the coffee table right in front of the couch would meow and wake Marsha up. Yelling at her made no difference. The spray bottle made no difference. Momiji would just wait until Marsha (and Geiger who was also trying to sleep) were dozing off and then she’d raise the roof. When I got home at 4:00 Marsha was still awake and starting to seriously consider serving roast cat for dinner. The funny thing is that I’ve never heard the yowl. Momiji won’t do it around me. She saves it for when Marsha is home alone.
Part 3)
Remember that earthquake last weekend. Rattled most of western Canada, except in Lantzville. Felt from Vancouver to Calgary, except in Lantzville. Tsunami warnings all across the Pacific, except in Lantzville. locally the effect was fairly minor, or so we thought. This week it was discovered that the hot springs in Gwaii Haanas National Park had gone dry. Apparently the earthquake shook up the rocks enough to cut off the water. Now where there had been pools of bubbling warm mineral water, there are now just rocks. These had been a huge tourist attraction and the economic impact of the loss will be significant. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/11/01/bc-hotspring-haida-gwaii.html
It turns out that people weren’t the only ones flocking to the hot springs. An endangered species of bat has been coming to the springs each year to give birth in the warm air near the pools. Now that the hot springs are gone there is a question about if the bats will return and if it will impact their survival. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/11/03/bc-bats-earthquake.html
Major events always have unexpected consequences.
Doug & Marsha
Pix: Marsha went down to the beach to take some pictures, three steps from the car she slipped on a wet rock and twisted an ankle so here are all the cool cats in Marsha’s world.
It’s been one year since I started in my current job. Now, overall I felt things had been going well. We’d been getting things done. I’d learned a huge amount of stuff and was far more able to manage the systems, make recommendations, and steer the IT ship as it were. I felt pretty good about how the job was going. Then last week my boss took me aside:
“I think we should do lunch Wednesday to decide where we’re going from here.”
Like I said, I felt pretty good about how things were going, but there was this little part of my brain that was worried that he was going to fire me between the salad and entrée and leave me with the check. Well, the meeting was Wednesday and it went great. He outlined a list of projects that he’s like to see implemented over the next year and beyond. Server upgrades. A whole working from home initiative. Planning for when I will need an assistant. Investigations of using wireless Android and iOS devices on site. An overhaul to the offsite backup system. Everything I’d been thinking about already, so in most cases I was even ready to outline how I wanted to attack the problem. We were totally on the same page. So, it looks like I’ll stay employed for at least another year, and I got a good lunch out of it.
Part 2)
This week we nearly had a case of Catricide. You see Thursday Marsha hadn’t slept worth a darn. She stayed up late watching something or other. Then she woke up every hour or so and it was 20-30 minutes before she’d drop off. Then she woke up at 3:30 with me and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. (Yes, it’s true. I tend to get up between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning. It’s quiet, I can write, I work out, I have a leisurely breakfast, then I make it to work by 7:30. It’s a pleasant way to start the day. I’m the one in the corner office laughing at those of you that drag in five minutes late with a danish in one hand and a hairbrush in the other.) Anyway Marsha was dragging. She was groggy all day. Never had the energy to do much. Finally at about 1:00 she texted me “I’m going to take a nap”.
I found out later that Marsha settled down on the couch and was just about to doze off when Momiji decided it was time to meow. Not the normal little almost inaudible meow that she’s used ever since we got her. No, for some reason she decided that this was the right time to pull out a psycho Siamese crossed with a bagpipe yowl that resonated throughout the house. Marsha was awake in a second and checked on her. Momiji was fine. Marsha was just settling down again when some ten minutes later Momiji cut loose with another window rattling yowl. How in the heck a cat that small can make that much noise is beyond us. Marsha was awake again and this established the pattern, Marsha would just be dozing off when Momiji, sometimes in the other room, sometimes on the coffee table right in front of the couch would meow and wake Marsha up. Yelling at her made no difference. The spray bottle made no difference. Momiji would just wait until Marsha (and Geiger who was also trying to sleep) were dozing off and then she’d raise the roof. When I got home at 4:00 Marsha was still awake and starting to seriously consider serving roast cat for dinner. The funny thing is that I’ve never heard the yowl. Momiji won’t do it around me. She saves it for when Marsha is home alone.
Part 3)
Remember that earthquake last weekend. Rattled most of western Canada, except in Lantzville. Felt from Vancouver to Calgary, except in Lantzville. Tsunami warnings all across the Pacific, except in Lantzville. locally the effect was fairly minor, or so we thought. This week it was discovered that the hot springs in Gwaii Haanas National Park had gone dry. Apparently the earthquake shook up the rocks enough to cut off the water. Now where there had been pools of bubbling warm mineral water, there are now just rocks. These had been a huge tourist attraction and the economic impact of the loss will be significant. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/11/01/bc-hotspring-haida-gwaii.html
It turns out that people weren’t the only ones flocking to the hot springs. An endangered species of bat has been coming to the springs each year to give birth in the warm air near the pools. Now that the hot springs are gone there is a question about if the bats will return and if it will impact their survival. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/11/03/bc-bats-earthquake.html
Major events always have unexpected consequences.
Doug & Marsha
Pix: Marsha went down to the beach to take some pictures, three steps from the car she slipped on a wet rock and twisted an ankle so here are all the cool cats in Marsha’s world.