fractalnavel : travels

travels: a few impressions

fractalnavel — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:02:54 GMT

thoughts are slow to come - so, some images...

ran across the sky in motion in today's apod. i don't always click through to these, but the pic was broke, so i investigated.

glad i did. the video has meditative imagery and music fitting for this date.

wandering around on the eastern shore over the holidays, we spotted this cozy little vessel, with clearly demonstrated amenities.

i like the light & color in this one. more on my sister's flickr...

so it's christmas morning, and i'm sleeping on the "library" floor at my sister's - when the phone rings at 6:30 in the morning. and then again a bit later. and then again... eventually, much later, turns out this bozo - er, gentleman - has given my other sister a lump of coal - er, diamond - for christmas. etiquette ? what etiquette ?

fine, that's enough for now. when visiting, too much happens to record properly, unless i'm in the "how will i blog this" thinking mode - which i decided to give up years ago. better to live life directly, not through the lens. consistent with this, the pics above are not mine ;-) check out the others in those collections, if you're so inclined.

y.a.s.c.u.p

fractalnavel — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:21:44 GMT

oh, just a bunch of little stuff that's been accumulating, in no particular order:

went to the dentist for my cleaning appointment today - and they had mis-scheduled, something about a system change-over. also, the lady who has been doing the work the last couple of years has moved on to a dental research job. odd, i wish i had had a chance to say goodbye, good luck, also kind of curious about the position. well, no problem: re-scheduled for saturday morning (yuk - i'll miss my cartoons ;-) ), and treated my self to a japanese lunch / dinner (yum - sake clams, seafood udon, and chirashi without the rice).
i've been trying to get back to working out (again), and the big problem is eating right - or rather, enough. compounding this has been the year-and-a-half-old mini-mt.-trashmore in the kitchen, preventing my from being able to prepare food there. so finally, it occurred to me that cleaning that up was probably the most effective thing i could do at this point to improve my weight training efforts. the results (hum along with a christmas tune while reading):
- eight bags of miscellaneous garbage
- three garbage cans of beer bottles
- two bags of pizza boxes
- one bag or garbage can each: beer cans; plastic pop bottles; beer cartons (eleven years' worth - !); junk mail.
this still leaves:
- six heineken kegs;
- another garbage can or two of beer bottles;
- an unestimated amount of old magazines;
- perhaps a bag or two more of mail related crap;
- years of dust bunny droppings.
i just ran out of containers, that's all. and beyond these basics, there's more, so much more.
the local FOX affiliate ran a new self-promotional ad late night last night. it went like this:
"we've got great boobs - and weee show 'em !"
well, i was laughing. i mean, come on - conservative old bastion fox, running that sort of thing ? of course, the "boobs" were the main characters in its syndicated sitcoms and animated features. yet at the end of the ad, they had a bra over a couple of round cut-outs where the breasts would be, in which the "boobs" were being shown, and when they got to the "we show 'em" line, the bra dropped away. wow. i somehow doubt this will continue to run. funny while it lasts.
hey, i had jury duty last august - ! yeah - me ! kind of ticked me off, as i was working at the time. $19 per day doesn't come close to making up for the time. but hey, well, whatever, i managed to talk myself into something approximating a positive attitude, and even figured out what bus routes to use, etc. - no sense in blowing parking money, stress, gas & pollutants for something like that. as it turned out, i was only there two days out of my allocated two weeks, got selected for a jury pool once, sent to lunch, and then informed to go home, a plea bargain had been reached. really oddly uneventful, after all my earlier fretting. i got a book read on those two days, got to see some neighborhoods from the bus that i don't normally pass through, and the weather was just perfect. got some nice girl watching done too ;-) also, right across from the courthouse was the place to get passports renewed, so i got that done too. interesting almost-non-experience.
travels, eh ? not been much of that lately. got over to my sister's place in michigan for thanksgiving, where the other brothers & sisters & families were gathering. first time in a couple of years. good to see everyone, rather uneventful, but nice to have a group of people around that get each others' senses of humor, for the most part. a number of things i could have done without, but hey, that's why i keep to myself most of the time, and a little bit of tolerance over the holidays isn't a problem. on the bright side, jeep has new shoes, really makes a difference, especially for winter driving.

and that's about it, as far as life goes. trying to live small, stay local. ignoring news for a while now, all it does is causes stress, not sure what, if anything, i can do. domestic & international situations, economy, whatever. calm before the storm stuff, really; my own version of peril-sensitive glasses. some possibilities i was hoping for a couple months back look improbable now, so i have to come up with alternatives.

tsisni yllaer uoy fi ,llew :slevart

fractalnavel — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:45:20 GMT

i could not dissuade my sister & gang from maryland from including me on their easter ohio visiting itinerary last week, no matter what horror stories of dust bunny avalanches & pizza box / beer bottle towers i threw at them. at least i managed to convince them that it was in their best interest to stay at a local hotel instead of attempting to find a spot to sleep here.

so sis & husband & their "littlest", 14 year old alden (who has got to be approaching / exceeding either or both of six feet & 200 pounds, pontoons for shoes (dad is 6'7'') ), arrived friday evening. couldn't believe the weather we were having, 60s and almost clear. so we did the usual out of towner dinner at montgomery inn (with left overs for me ;-) ), desert at graeter's, and ended up at mt. adams looking for some palatable music (blues? no. and the old jazz bar has been a sports bar for a while now). i was surprised at how relatively empty the area was; in the past, there were almost always lines for everything, or at least a sardine situation inside. must have been some combination of the holiday, time of year and unexpected nature of the nice weather. we sat in the blind lemon for a while, then walked around the rest of the area looking at churchs (the one at the top was open & people were doing the hillside stairs thing), pubs, etc. beuatiful night & views of the near flooded ohio river.

next day was a late brunch, and we ended up at the museum center for the "body" exhibit (huh - there are a number of these now, "body world" is apparently the original). only moderately crowded, we got in right away. it's an unusual display, and somehow oddly unsatisfying combined with a strangeness that didn't hit until a couple of days later. they seemed to have this penchant for stripping various layers off the body, but always leaving intact gentialia. what the hell is that all about ?

favorite overheard quote - four year old, reading a label: "mommy, what's an 'anus' ?". no prompt answer was forthcoming from mom.

the (omn?)imax was broken, so we wandered over to the shops for a bit, then saw flyers about the old train station control tower being open. apparently, the local train club has had that space for some time now. cool view of the tracks out back & the usual historical museum type stuff.

leaving that, we discover the omnimax is now working, so we go to that film, more about bodies - but not really associated with the exhibition. hmm, that should have been mentioned. i was wondering if alden could get extra credit for biology - or maybe marketing ?

nothing extraordinary, but nice to see people. it's been since last june with all the graduations.

and i traded my chocolates for homemade banana bread.

tech notes: ok, i'll bite

fractalnavel — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:27:04 GMT

i don't normally go to events like this, but i like the location & time of year. it'll be a good jeep ride, whatever the weather.

... happy artificial temporal boundary, tooo meeee ...

fractalnavel — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:23:32 GMT

... you need to have music for that.

so i'm sitting here on the night of the 30th, watching tv in splendid squalor (and pajamas), when who should show up at the door ? why, my brother john, of course ! what other nut in the family is going to finally take matters into their own hands and take the five hour trip down to check on my current state of existence.

see, i haven't only been delinquent here, but on the phone, mail & email as well. not that the thought hadn't occurred to me: "gee, i hope everyone is still alive & kicking" - well, perhaps not kicking - and the complementary thought as well: "gee, how will anyone ever know if anything happens to me".

it's a bit of a dilemma.

a local friend knows that the only way to get hold of me is to drop by. but that's hardly a satisfactory "solution". so, as you can see, i'm making my presence known in the usual, new-era-socially-acceptable-ways again. *sigh* although i prefer email to phone, there's im and this blog and the family group and, finally, mail - which - woops! - i haven't pulled out of the box in a week or more. dang. the connected life is not for me.

nothing profound about any of this, just thought that such a visit bore mentioning, along with the outcomes thereof.

anyway, it was good to have a visitor, despite the total lack of housecleaning. went and got steaks at aj's (slab o' cow has been haunting me of late), and just sat around & bs'ed. after breakfast & more bs, he left the next day. we figured sending home a picture of me lying under a fallen log out back & covered in leaves would probably be going a bit too far ;-)

still doesn't solve the problem - no one had heard from me in more than six months. so what is the procedure for such living circumstances ? does the landlord just walk in when the rent goes too far overdue ? i assume that some sort of catastrophic event in any other location will go immediately recognized or reacted to when (if) discovered. at that point everyone will know as much as there would be to know. so i'm thinking, i need to keep at least some instructions around here in a very obvious location, labeled "if you're seeing this, it's already too late". (note to self: hmmm - sounds like a product idea. self: why do i always have to take care of things like this?)

i sure as hell am not going to just check in all the time, filing "flight plans" as it were. what, don't i value my life more than that, you ask ? apparently not, going by behavior rather than intent. as i've been only half-joking lately, i'm on the colt 45 disability plan - and i'm not talking about the malt liquor.

so as we enter the "new year", i pause on this occasion to ponder 42 ...

travels: nub's nob

fractalnavel — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:41:15 GMT

so much for unique post titles ;-) no stories here, just a couple notes.

don't ya hate that pushpin ?

stayed at a chalet called "zoo haus". apparently, it was built in 1965 and made a bit of news up there at the time. it's a 3 / 6 sided structure with a central fire pit and cathedral ceiling that extends through the circular three bedroom loft area on the second floor. a small spiral staircase by the front door leads upstairs. hard to tell which opening is the staircase once up there on the circular balcony. not a drunk-friendly place at all ;-) nor is the metal stairway, with about 18 inch wide treads.

decent stereo system, and we found a radio station playing retro classic rock, not old top 40s, so that was pretty cool. although the place seemed like the ideal hippie hangout for the era, it was most likely an upper-income pad.

we dug a trench through the two to three foot snow outside to get to the grill for saturday dinner.

only a short hike from the hill, and very affordable, we will probably stay here again sometime. the only drawback was that the open floorplan and ceilings caused all sound to carry well, meaning that the snorers and early risers (well, one - me) were a small source of annoyance to the others.

although i prefer colder, drier weather, people were glad that temps stayed near 30F all day saturday. it was one of my sister's friends' only third time out. you could see her visibly improve throughout the day.

well, afternoon. this was not a die-hard skiing group, and some other planning was lacking, so there was no friday night or saturday morning skiing. eh, what the heck, it was to be a "social skiing" weekend anyway. i followed the other folks around the green or blue runs most of the time, messing around. i know how to have a good time whatever's on the menu.

the snow was great, no ice at all. we found out later that thursday a blizzard blew through, dropping twelve inches or better. we drove up in the tail end of it on friday. it snowed all day saturday. so everything was fresh and soft.

i headed out saturday night as well, and a couple staying with us came with me. the best, though, is the sunday morning skiing. always is. no one on the hill, sunny weather and no company means that i can go out, ski hard and toast my legs in less than two hours. they have some wonderful looking glades there - i wasn't up to actually skiing trees. but the rest of the area was fine. the usual complaint is the short black runs, which is unavoidable with the limited vertical available in the midwest. but damn, it was great anyway ;-)

only a few pics from my sister. not sure what most people do with a camera. i always think in terms of telling a story, or perhaps capturing some unique view. seems everyone else thinks in terms of portraits. oh well. but here's one of me, ready for the online dating sites. just kidding.

i took a six-day "weekend" - ! it's nice just to sit around on each end of the trip. saw a few movies. ate at a good japanese restaurant. and my favorite mexican place. drank good scotch and beer. got stuffed a couple times, got hungry a couple others.

and best of all, forgot about work. what was it we were doing again ?

i don't even care.

[eh?]

fractalnavel — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:04:07 GMT

a comic pointed out by a friend

dentist this morning. meetings this afternoon. it's no contest as to which is more painful.

actually got a lot done the last two days. that stops today.

on my way skiing tomorrow. gone until next tuesday. taking bets on events in my absence.

travels: a place

fractalnavel — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 01:40:52 GMT

looking forward to a kick-back trip. haven't done anything in a while. it will be good to get out of town for a bit. i'm thinking a six-day "weekend" is a decent goal. starting next thursday. don't come looking for me. i won't be there. anywhere.

have to point this out, silly techno-farts: i received this map via email, as a pdf attachment, which appears to be a scanned image of a printout of the mapquest webpage. oh, fer chrissakes...

tech notes: hack job

fractalnavel — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:08:29 GMT

did you ever have to hack your way through your work projects ? friggin' 99% undocumented "sdk"'s will do that to you. or rather, me. had to guess & crack my way to database passwords, and reverse-engineer some code to dig out a needed application setting. after, of course, digging through the binaries, the data model, and the data itself scattered through two applications. this was after spending days getting the crap installed and running in the first place.

so, finally, the sdk. that needed a good deal of installation rearranging as well in order to debug the broken sample code. no api docs. gotta love the .net framework in cases like this, good (free) tools are out there to help.

nah, no specifics on this. feels like wasted time, but given the absent documentation it was still a necessary investment. now it's my turn to do some knowledge transfer.

oh, yeah, went skiing sunday for the first time this season. just locally. got the top on jeep for that little trip, then too lazy so far to get it back off. finally some reasonable weather, in the 20's.

oddly uneventful, really. met up with a couple of friends i hadn't seen in a while.

hmm. emotionally flat. i think it's because of staring at code like that lately.

i have to practice my evil laugh more. where do you sign up for the evil laugh training ?

yeah, that's somewhat relevant. no, i don't feel like explaining.

"abandoned" ?! whaddya mean, "abandoned" ?

fractalnavel — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:37:00 GMT

higlights of the last year. ok then, _low_lights. whatever....(read more)

travels: when does winter arrive ?

fractalnavel — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:02:00 GMT

i mean, really, it's been so danged warm this season. except for a week in early december when the temps hovered in the teens, i swear the thermometer has been above 50 more than below. probably wrong there, but i shouldn't even have “50” in mind until march.

and yeah, the top & doors have been off regardless ;-)

so i was thinking of meeting a brother out in louisville last night. he's working there for the next few weeks, and being only an hour and a half away it makes sense to consider. but i wanted to check with a brother-in-law first about a boy scout ski trip that keeps going on again, off again. i was thinking it was off, seeing as how i hadn't heard anything more, so i called just to be sure. turns out the trip is on, so no louisville this time around.

cool. it's at the same neat old cabin out near where the west virginia and maryland panhandles meet that we were at last year. even without the skiing it's a fun place to go. sounds like there will be far fewer scouts going this time, kind of a shame. too much warm weather has apparently kept the skiing motivation low.

so i'll be driving out along us-50, not the interstates. it takes about the same time to get there that way, and it's a prettier trip. it'll probably be a bit less adventurous than the last time i took that route; too warm for much snow, even in the mountains. well, maybe not, but i'd like a little less intensity this time. i'll be taking a bit of a different route into terra alta, over the aurora pike instead of via fellowsville and kingswood. the last time i came back out of there that route was pretty much impassable and i was advised to go around.

also different this time around: i'll be at work for part of the day today ;-) silliness. wanna know what i'm working on ? access 97 applications !! fairly bizarre, but like many places, they have legacy apps that they do not have the budget to convert fully. as i was reviewing what needed to be done, it occurred to me: these things were pre-y2k compliance ! wow. flashbacks ;-)

so, well, anyway, i'm just going in briefly, then home to pack and take my leisurely drive east. the maryland folks will be driving out after a full day's work, and so won't be there until 10-11. i don't want to do that. besides, that's a neat old cabin to be in when it's quiet. won't have it to myself though, the owner will be there.

oh, and i have tire chains, a tow strap and good jumper cables this time ;-)

is it february second yet ?

fractalnavel — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 00:07:00 GMT

kinda thinking about that poor groundhog poking his head out of a hole, looking for spring.

that's me, finally showing up on a blog. this one sits in most of the categories here, just so's it covers bases.

just took 25 minutes to order a pizza by phone. good thing i have a couple beers in me, pretty funny, really. is technology crippling people ? i didn't use my usual order-over-the-web method since i wanted a couple of items added to one of their pizzas that the web page wouldn't let me do. hell, it wouldn't even let me order more than five items on a pizza. it's a sad, sad world ;-)

me? been workin', that's what. it seems our tiny, digital-local blogging group also took the holidays off. jon is doing bowling releases only. craig is off doing his other blog, rarely, and getting weirder by the moment. i resolved not to comment there, i wanted to see the unperturbed result. yeah, it curved off, higher order derivatives increasing.

lots of stuff of minor kinds happening over the last few weeks. went up to michigan to visit some family for christmas day. inadvertently decapitated a neighborhood snowman. had a pi [sic] fight with my brother. went out to maryland for new years. watched the crab drop. had some wonderful (bold, italic, underline) meals courtesy of my sister (venison tenderloin, and more - latkes, ...). a menorah in an advent wreath ? o-k. saw “narnia”. picked our own oysters and ate them as we got 'em, my nephew doing the shucking as eric & i ate. putted around the water a bit on a ten horse skiff, looking for non existent fish (i was following the birds before i figured that the birds were probably following me...).

fan belt came off halfway home, did repairs in the rain, since luckily the belt wrapped itself around the fan shaft instead of going away altogether. autoparts store in the boonies was closed, of course, on january second.

launched a website this week. it's ok, kind of mom & pop, but if you don't invest more than that golden threshold, that's what you get.

only a few weeks left of stuff to do, other projects, same place. kind of a shame, since working less than a mile and a half down the road has let me ride around with the jeep top & doors off most of the winter so far. very cool, no pun intended. stop at the coffee shop on the way in, coast through the park into the lot, under the overhangs so i don't worry about rain. i would love to work there longer. but i didn't apply to the openings they had. why ? i dunno. fear of failure ? partly. but also low pay (so what? beats none at all), and i really, really, should be moving on. always far better to be leaving something good than running from something bad.

anyway, that's the resolution to that last post. i didn't want that particular position, nor the long term commitment. i just wanted to stay on at this place. and be able to really stretch my skills. unfortunately, yet again, this is not to be. i see the unnecessary bogging down of vision and motivation at this place, like all places, and it's sad, since there is so much potential with only a little push.

which lesson i should apply to my own life, yet do not. anyway, here i am, and there i was, and the intent was not to leave people hangng, just had to work lots of hours.

on the metablogging topic, i've been trying to sort out why or why not to write. the purpose has changed. the rants are less of a motivator nowadays, likewise my celebration of personal weirdnesses. keeping in touch is still a good idea, though, so there's that, for a while.

the thinking and creating and discovering continues, however, whether exposed to others or not. i am tired of leaving breadcrumb trails for those who never had any intention of following. of little matter in any case, since i do those things for me. a shame to be lost to the world. that responsibility is shared, but i've done enough in that regards, since the obtuseness of the Other would otherwise destroy that which is being born.

not an issue, since the Idea exists in the environment, bound to persist and be expressed by any who lend an ear or a mind to the metaphysical ground.

the train is coming. it cannot stop.

travels: bird food

fractalnavel — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 11:44:00 GMT

how many stupid thanksgiving post titles can i come up with ?

still sitting at home right now, need to make my way north. still have to pack. had that discussion last night. “what time is dinner?” “four o'clock; where are you at?” [in disbelief:] “in an office!”

i'm hungry. good thing it's thanksgiving.

other news: amazing what little things you can get away with that no one will call you on. well, not to your face, anyway. like wearing paisley with plaid. or driving around in a jeep in twenty degree weather. with the top & doors off. one guy in the coffee shop parking lot laughed about it. even though he didn't “get it”, at least he participated.

which reminds me, i've gotta put a top on for the long drive.

i'm hungry.

is-ness (ii)

fractalnavel — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 03:16:00 GMT

impressions...

ahh - so that was a wine tour, mostly. or so it seemed when they got back home. beer too. and i am a happy beneficiary of the fruits (and grains) of the tour ;-)

so i got to see a couple of good movies, and one of nick's hockey games, and one of allie's swim meets. fun stuff. it's nice to like one's family. even got treated to dinner with nick and his grandparents at an irish pub after the game, watching michigan football.

wireless broadband is wonderful. i have it here, and they recently got it there. makes life too easy. i kept thinking i should be sitting in the lazyboy chair to do my computing, where i could watch sunrises out the front window, but i was in back watching sunsets and the premium cable tv channels that came with their cable service on a promotional basis.

sat outside reading in the sun one afternoon, with a carafe of hot (fresh ground) coffee, watching the hayrides from the neighboring dairy farm go by. i kept thinking i should be doing something to entertain the unwitting passengers. or maybe just sit next to the field and wave.

a giant pumpkin followed me home from the hockey game, finding a nesting spot on the front lawn. it may get carved; if so, i'm supposed to get pictures. barely got that sucker to fit in the back of the jeep with the goalie gear.

their ten year old chocolate lab played shadow and nose all weekend, eating most of my pizza crusts and apple cores and other doggie things. he finally got away from me this morning, escaping for an hour of roaming the cowfields, accumulating the expected odors. big old lovable thing. kathy cleaned him up. my thought was just to hose him down. this is why i only have plants.

had a lot of grandfather clock assisted dreams (“...bong...bong...bong...”). most notable was when i accidentally invented (quantum) reality in magic lab. which was sort of like the egg laying itself.

and so here i sit, sipping on a rich stout from northern michigan, contemplating one navel or the other.

travels: is-ness

fractalnavel — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 04:02:00 GMT

location note: north of detroit. the lord and lady of the manor (manner?) have departed for a biking related fall color tour in northern michigan. i got my tour on the way up here ;-)

just a short note, a bit pooped after wrestling with my yardwork, bills, isp's and dvd burning the last couple of days. everything wanted to quit on me in the middle of everything else. finally got most stuff settled, with the exception of the dvds. if it's not one thing, it's another. even spent some time looking for a usable utility to close the cd tray, since my arms aren't 300 miles long. everything has an “eject” option, nothing has “close”. weird. but even after getting the tray closed, the new burner software is offering up yet another obscure error.

of course, having my broadband going out just as i was starting to pay bills (coincidentally, right after i paid the cable bill) didn't help any. then the dial-up access quit too. this was after i discovered that my online resume, on my aol webspace, had decided to quit working sometime in the months since i last checked it. appears to be an aol issue with dhtml behaviors delivered via .htc files. so i moved that over to my own space, because i had just told a job lead where my resume stuff was, and pointing people at broken crap isn't good. not that it mattered much, since it wasn't long after i had moved things onto my own server that the broadband went away.

sigh. the silicon gods must've been bored and looking for a laugh. i'm going to sick the flying spaghetti monster on 'em.

meanwhile, it's nice to have home cooking. mmm, chicken noodle soup ;-)