fractalnavel

<rant>

geez, that windows xp sp2 thing looks to be a royal pain in the ass.  gotta install patches for a bunch of other stuff before even considering upgrading.

this is stupid.  the people who really need sp2 are in that position because they don't upgrade anyway !  so why now expect them to install something of this magnitude when they won't even do minor fixes ?  all it really accomplishes is annoying those who are already responsibly managing their systems.  and i'm fine the way i am, thank you.  i already have a firewall and manage my email and security well enough.  don't force me to go through that level of headache (sp2) in order to continue future patches when it's not necesssary.  all this will really accomplish, in all likelihood, is increasing non-compliance, and make things worse.  the few people who need this and who do attempt the upgrade will be greatly frustrated.  and that's a shame, as they are the only ones that need to be reached with this.  pissing them off will add them to the disenchanted masses.

so i'm betting no or negative impact on the security scene due to this, and increasing annoyance with microsoft from the general user community.  screw the tech types who preach to themselves about the need to plug the ms holes; it's a human engineering problem, not a technical one.  good computer science and engineering does not translate to usability.

<to be continued>

look what followed me home

good thing i haven't been working, as there was an 18 foot hobie down the road for sale (probably pricey?), and a star - for $900 ! gotta wonder what kinda shape that last one was in, though, as they usually go for upwards of $10k for one in good shape.

but that was an abrupt start, wasn't it ?  it's hard to adequately describe the last couple weeks.  hell, i can't even remember exactly what i did when, it was that busy.  suffice to say that most of it revolved around the water - sailing, fishing, crabbing, eating, boat cleaning & repairing.

my sailing skills, if you can call them that, are comical, but improving.  but then, i'm comparing myself to people who have been doing this nearly all their lives.  i'm just beginning to get a glimmer of what it must be like to really understand the wind and water.

anyway, here's some stuff from the trip, in no particular order:

• went on an overnight camping trip with my nephew (alden) and his dad, with his scout troop.  one of the duponts gave them five acres of waterfront property (complete with dock) of a mostly undeveloped 900 acre estate, essentially next door to my sister's place.  interesting to be around scouts after such a long time since i was doing that.  the point of the outing was to wake up early the next morning (like 4-5am) and get out crabbing & fishing, then get everyone's families together to feast on the results that afternoon.  ended up with upwards of five bushels of crabs.  the fishing was nearly nonexistent, however, which i take was unusual.  i got a ray (a “double head“) on the hook which snapped the line, then caught an undersized flounder, and a spot or two.  there were more spots caught, but the trout, bluefish, larger flounder, etc. weren't biting.  a couple ugly suckers called oyster toads were pulled up.  wish someone had a camera to get a shot of those mugs - yuk. regardless of the quality of the fishing, it was good to be out on the water (the boat was one of the parents' 25ish foot seahawks). but the crabs were mounded on the picnic tables, all you could eat, which made up for the feast the mosquitoes had made of us the night before.
• scraped and scrubbed a 16' hobie, and the capri and sunfish in the picture.  that was a couple days' work all together.  scrubbed a few sails in there, too.  some were looking a little green.  and then i watched and helped my brother in law (eric) (trying to learn here) as he patched up the sunfish with fiberglass, fixed hardware, etc. 
• 
  

  bummer
  went as crew on eric's star for the wednesday night races at the miles river yacht club.  had great winds, like 15 knots, as opposed to last year's near dead calm.  but less than a minute before the race was to start, the head plate tore out of the mainsail (after already losing a couple battens), so we headed back to the dock.  bummer too, as it was a great day for sailing.  wish i had a picture of the downwind run the 20 or so stars were making, with a relatively huge skipjack sailing crosswise through the middle of them.  hell, there were a lot of pictures i wish i had from this trip.  but that's hard to do when hiking off the side of a boat. 
• biked into st. michael's with alden one morning.  it's a ten mile trip (one way).  well, we actually went to the yacht club.  got lunch, played some pool, and hopped into the pool there as well.  on the way back i picked up a six pack of amber groslch at the bozman general store.  never knew they made it.  tasted more like newcastle brown than an amber.  yummy.
• on the 29th there was a full moon.  a blue moon, actually, being the second full moon of the month.  mostly clear sky that night, lotsa stars.  eric & i took out the hobie for a moonlight ride, since the wind was kicking up nicely.  awesome time.  eric said that was the fastest he'd gotten that cat to run.  i was hanging way off the side on the trapeze handle; too bad we didn't have the harness with us.  so we were getting wet hitting the waves, zipping across 'em, clear night, warm water, bright moonshine.  can't bottle that.
• we caught our own crabs off the dock near the house, including a softshell that made a good breakfast.  started to learn all kinds of crabbing terms on this trip.  not like the locals, though.
• lotsa sea nettles in the water, but that didn't stop me.  i got caught behind the knee once when i capsized a sunfish, but otherwise just little stuff.
• joined the family for a sunday service, and a picnic afterwards.  a universal unitarian group.  very different for such as me with a catholic background.
• played a few chess games with alden.  god, but i suck at that now.  and did some other family type things with them.  a niece got dropped off at her school in annapolis - a sophomore now.
• oh, yeah - we went to the national gallery of art on the mall in d.c. for a day, taking the train part way in to avoid potential traffic and parking difficulties.  that was fun.  we saw this one saint portayed holding eyes in a plate or on a twig several times.  also visited a smaller gallery with asian art.  no crowds, nice day.
• and of course, sailed the various little boats in their “fleet“ there - two sunfish, the capri and hobie.  busted the old hiking straps in the capri on a nice windy day.  had her heeled over on the rail, nearly fell out - twice, once on each side.  we replaced 'em - with seat belt strapping.  cool.
• took a look at eric's 28' hammer-something, an old wooden cruiser he has moored out in the creek.  very cool.  would like a chance to sail that, but ran out of time - these people have to work !

wow - almost two weeks!  so i got to spend some time with everyone, found my happy-place a few times.  and brought home a couple dozen frozen softshells to share with my brother and his family when the come to visit - tonight.

yeah, i've got to clean house & stuff to get ready for them.  we're supposed to be going to king's island tomorrow, and probably the fireworks downtown on sunday.  saturday is up for grabs, could be canoeing (near fort ancient), sailing (brookville), the ohio rennaissance festival, biking, museums, or whatever.  my sister in law may want to geocache, my nephew may want to skateboard at a nearby park.

and i'll be turning over one or more boats to them as well.  the sunfish for sure is my niece's.  she's been to sailing camp the last two years.  it's seaworthy but needs work, could be a father-daughter or mother-daughter project.  and she may also want the capri as well.  that one we'll share ;-)  but if she wants to get more sailing time, she'll have to educate the rest of her family.  it doesn't seem they've done much.  and i'll have to teach them to rig and launch, etc. the capri as well.  which is kind of funny, since i've only just learned myself.

that's a bit over two months of visiting this summer, started just before the fourth of july.  job-wise, time for procrastination is over.  it's been fun.