Home Improvements

Here are some of the results of Dad's visit. There will be a part two with more photos eventually...

We lifted the composite boards from the covered back porch and moved them out here. Although I helped a little with the framing, Dad laid this all on his own.

Note the new security screen door. We also installed one of these on the back door to increase the air flow in the house with the added bonus that the cats love sitting in front of them and watching the world outside fly, creep, and crawl by.

This new room encloses the washer & dryer, water heater, water pump. Once I get it finished and painted it will be the screen for the projector. Unbelievably, none of the cats has climbed on top. Yet.


Obviously I have some painting to do here, too, around the new, smaller vanity and mirror in the master bath.


The new vanity and mirror in the guest bath are an even bigger improvement: the old vanity stuck way out (see below).


Old vanity:


A HUGE mahalo to Dad for these and all the other projects he completed. More photos soon...

Links

Future of Publishing (YouTube)

Mauna Kea Web Cam

Stars Over Mauna Kea

ISS Growth

Tsunami

Mahalo to all those who called to urge me to flee the oncoming waters. No worries, though - I am more than a mile outside the evac zone.



That is, until California stops just dancing around and finally collapses into the Pacific - on that day, I promise that I will head for the top of one of our very tall mountains.

Got Snow?

I try very hard to resist the urge to be obnoxious about how wonderful the weather is here in Paradise. Suffice it to note that one of the local sayings is "Lucky you live Hawaii." I'm sorry, though, this I cannot resist...

From the Associated Press: There's snow in every state except Hawaii.

Really, after that title, there's no more to say. Except, of course, "Lucky I live Hawaii." Where this afternoon, when it cools down a little, I will don shorts, short-sleeved shirt, and sunglasses and go take a walk by the ocean. Okay, so there was a little more to say :-}

Feelin' Good

I'm feeling rather good about myself today. My professional self, at least - the personal me needs some a lot of work.

My second contract renewal application was approved (!) so I now have a job through June 30, 2011 (although with a pay cut, but that's another story). I will have to apply for tenure this October to see if I stay employed after that (and I'll be applying for promotion at the same time). But for now, I not only have someplace that wants my professional efforts but I also have some extremely gratifying and validating comments from both my director and the committee that reviewed my dossier. Hmmm... how shall I celebrate?

Closing Tabs

Scalzi discusses a relic:
"The real irony of this {floppy} disc is that the amount of memory you can write to it (1.44 MB, if memory — heh – serves) isn’t enough to store the jpeg of the picture of it which came out of my camera (1.49 MB)."

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I can really get behind this sentiment from Cherie, which although technically isn't a New Year's resolution was posted around New Year's: "I resolve to keep on keepin’ on. It’ll either be enough, or it won’t."

Map Wish

I wish there was a program or website that had the outlines of countries and a list from which you could select cities and areas to be plotted on the map which you could then print. For example, an outline of Britain and then I could click the boxes for London, Oxford, Cambridge, Sussex, York, etc. and I would get a map with only those places I'm interested in instead of a map with so much stuff that it all ends up being kinda meaningless.

Of course it would also have to be able to show areas from different historical periods.

I'm no computer programmer, but surely in today's marvelous digital world that's not too difficult a task, is it?

New House Pix Postponed

I know that I promised some of you that I would post new pix of the home after the winter break, but I'm going to postpone for two reasons. First, typically, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped - a perpetual problem that I encounter every weekend. Sigh.

The other reason is that my dad is coming (!) in March to help with some minor repairs and improvements and I know the place will look a gajillion times better :-) after his visit, so I really will post new pix after he leaves (2nd week of April). Really.

Audible.com

I joined Audible.com this year and am enjoying it immensely. Many years ago I tried listening to audiobooks on cassette (yes, that long ago) but either performances have greatly improved or my earlier choices were poorly done (or both) because I could never get past the terrible attempts by the narrators to differentiate the voices of characters. Fortunately a few years ago someone forced me to listen to Jim Dale’s narration of the Harry Potter books and I realized that audiobooks could be done well, although I doubted anyone would ever come close to comparing with his superb performance.

What sucked me in was that Audible was having two specials and I took advantage of both and now I’m well and truly hooked. There are several levels of membership – the special I got was the most basic level for ½ price for 3 months. Each month I receive one credit and while some companies might swindle you by “pricing” items at more than one credit, I have yet to find a book that is more than one credit, so each month I get a book – not bad for $7.95. Naturally my first credit was for Liam’s narration of How the Irish Saved Civilization. Although I have greatly enjoyed the cassette version of this, it’s so nice to hear that amazing voice on the unbelievable clarity of my iPod.

The second special deal was a selection of titles for only $4.95 – incredible when you consider that sometimes audio versions are more expensive than the print. I was able to get one of my favorite books, O Jerusalem, in one of my favorite series, Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes stories. I wasn’t sure at first that I would like Jenny Sterlin’s narration, but for less than a Lincoln, I was willing to give it a try – and am I ever glad that I did! I quickly grew to appreciate her reading and she has an ability only slightly below Dale’s to distinguish one character from another. I now also have the first in the series (Beekeeper’s Apprentice) and with my next credit I will get my other favorite to complete my own personal trilogy, Justice Hall, which features characters from O Jerusalem. I probably won’t get any others in the series unless they go on sale, although I think I’ll try Laurie’s Touchstone eventually.

I’m grateful to Audible for providing decently long samples of the recordings so I can really judge the possibilities of the narration as either “I think this might turn out to be okay” or “Ewww! No way!!” Unfortunately one of my other favorite series, the Honor Harrington books by David Weber, falls into the second category. To me, Allyson Johnson’s narration brings to mind those terrible narrations that were so off-putting when I was younger. Even worse, while I’ve always thought it was the Royal Manti-coran Navy, her pronunciation is Man-tic-oran which makes me wince and is very distracting. Oh, well, there are plenty of other choices for my credits – after all, I haven’t even started on Neil Gaiman’s works yet and by every account I’ve ever seen anywhere, his narrations of his works are fantastic.

Even when my 3-month membership deal is up and the price doubles to $14.95/month, my credit will allow me to get audiobooks that are cheaper than the regular Audible or iTunes prices. My drive home seems shorter now, so it’s worth it for that, if nothing else. If you are at all inclined toward audiobooks I strongly urge you to try Audible.com.

Closing Tabs

Some of these stories are from a few weeks ago, but I still wanted to post about them:

From the incomparable Scalzi:
"Some jackass HOA tells a 90-year-old Medal of Honor winner he can’t have a flagpole in his front yard...Dear homeowners association: When a Medal of Honor recipient wants to have a flagpole in his front yard, you say “Yes, sir. By all means. Thank you, sir.”" At least they finally came to their senses.

I was fortunate enough many years ago to experience a shuttle launch and this piece captures the excitement and awe of getting ready to watch this memorable event: "When you actually see a rocket about to head into space, it’s a completely overwhelming experience."

I love attempts to show the scale of the Solar System and this is one of the more successful ones - on my big work monitor it took me something like 27 clicks just to get to Mercury. Of course you'll want to click and hold, but don't blink or you'll even miss the big guys.

Murphy's Second Law for Christmas Shopping

As a follow up:

As soon as you and a friend agree not to buy anything for each other, you will stumble upon the perfect gift.

Cat Lover's Daily Companion

It's here! And it's incredibly awesome! I'm so happy for Miss Lori* and her co-authors - great job!

I have to try page 67 - I think my babies will like that.

The answer to the question on page 21 - definitely good!

Love the lists on pages 40 and 220 - on that second one you can find out where my youngest got his name.

No, I'm not going to tell you what's on those pages - you really should buy the book for yourself. And for Christmas gifts. And birthday gifts. While you go do that, I'm going to open my book and learn some more and have some fun and admire some great photos and....

*Yes, she's a friend, but just like when I promoted her jewelry last year, I wouldn't urge you to spend your hard-earned moula if her products weren't worth it.

Truth and Fiction

I love it when truth is stranger than fiction: National Geographic reports that Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Shelters.

Murphy's Law for Christmas Shopping

The less inclined you are to shop for Christmas presents, the more likely you are to:

a. find absolutely nothing at all for the people you most want / need to get something for
b. find the perfect gift for someone you have no intention of buying anything for.

Anyone care to disagree?

Quiet Thanksgiving

Even though work has been quite draining lately, I am thankful that I not only have a job, but one that I do enjoy most of the time, with a schedule that fits my body clock, and interesting colleagues to share in the journey.

I'm thankful for my wonderful new house, despite the occasional twinge of panic when I realize that I'm actually a homeowner.

I'm thankful for my fantastic car which acts up in mild ways every now and then just to remind me of all the grief I don't have to deal with because she is so fantastic.

I'm thankful for friends who put up with me and put me up.

I'm thankful for the way that things which could go terribly wrong and be incredibly inconvenient somehow always work out rather well.

I truly am blessed and although I certainly don't know why and don't think I deserve it, I am thankful to be so - today and always. I hope you and yours have much to be thankful for as well.

Semester from Hell

Although it seems like I say this  every  semester, this one is particularly gruesome. We still have three librarian vacancies (share the workloads!) and our director has been on sick leave and limited duty since July (more workload!) and we had to let a staff member go, so the librarians are now doing interlibrary loans for our subject liaison areas - and because of the librarian vacancies I now cover 10 subjects* and since most are big subjects (astronomy, biology, history, marine science, physics) with lots of loan requests, I say yet again - added workload!

This leaves me with near-nil energy for anything else - I haven't even figured out the subject of my 10-page paper due Dec. 8 - so I finally gave up on painting and started positioning bookcases and emptying boxes of books onto shelves, but even this pleasant task doesn't claim my attention that often. I did completely re-think the bedroom and if I can ever figure out what's wrong with my camera, I'll post pictures - I really like the new arrangement.

So if you've sent me an email and I haven't answered, I'm sorry. I'm just very blah right now - nothing major and this too shall pass, but for now: blah...

* I don't imagine anybody actually counted, but if you did and came up one short, it's because I'm co-liaison for English.

Haiku

Contract Renewal
Due tomorrow, oh goodness!
A timely finish?

Pulling out hair
So tired of praising self
I am my own slave

cross-posted from Haikubes

New Mailing Address

I was finally able to get a PO box. I sent an email, but if I inadvertently missed you in the mass of addresses, drop me a comment or an email and I'll get it out to you.

Congratulations, Lori!

My friend Miss Lori is smart, talented, fun... Ya know, all-around fantastic. She makes ceramics and jewelry and takes excellent photographs (whew!) and now she has co-authored a book! And her book is about cats! Does it get any better? I don't think so, friends.

I've already put it on my Amazon.com wishlist and I think you should, too. I wonder what my chances are of getting my copy autographed?

Shifting Boxes

Quiz Time:

When searching for one specific box in ~8 rows of ~70+ boxes, the desired box will be found:
a. in the first or second row.
b. smack-dab in the middle.
c. in the very last row, which ironically would have been the first row had the search begun at the other end of the room.

If you chose a: I want to live in your world.
If you chose b: nice sense of humor.
If you chose c: welcome to my heavy, sweaty world.

Toward the end I began to fear that I had shifted a box I had forgotten to open and would have to shift them all back again. But the time was well spent - I was able to organize the boxes more and I did actually find the box I wanted.

Believe it or not, they don't all contain books. Just most of them.

Now if I could get some painting done, I could start unpacking the books. But I can't bring myself to load up the bookshelves just to turn around and take the books off to get at the walls to paint.

{sigh}