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Sunday, April 17th, 2005
So I have several projects I'm meaning to do, working on the house this summer. They are generally divisible into two categories; woodworking projects and patio/stone projects. Woodworking - Today I finished installing the wall unit I've been building for Sylvia's room, that's been dragging on since late last year. Oh happy day! (Actually the desk part of it remains to be done. For now Sylvia's work table fits okay in the space where the desk will go, and she has not quite outgrown it yet. I plan to build the desk in August or so.) Ellen will be painting the wall unit in conjunction with painting Sylvia's room, which she is planning to do in the next few weeks. Before she can do that, I need to install a chair rail around the room; I ought to get to that sometime this week. Also Ellen was mentioning that it would be nice to build a small shelf on the wall by the head of Sylvia's bed, to hold a box of tissues and some other things.
- Two summers ago I built Sylvia a sandbox in our back yard, with the intention to build a playhouse above it. That is currently the next project on my plate, and I am going to start designing it this afternoon.
- Ellen has asked me to build an enclosure for our garbage cans, which are currently loose in the side yard. I will be doing that after the playhouse is finished, hopefully in a month or so. I need to do this in conjunction with some of the patio work below.
- Also in conjunction with the patio work, I would like to build a small shed by the side of our house, to store our barbecue and some garden tools.
Patio The major project last summer was laying a bluestone patio in our back yard and a slate walkway next to our driveway. A few things remain to be done before that is really finished. - The slate walkway is just slightly too low, about 1/4 - 1/2", and it drains poorly. A quick project of a couple of hours will be just going down the length of it, lifting up each rock and packing more sand under it to bring the walk up level with the side of the driveway.
- A section in front of the porch, where I am going to build the enclosure for the garbage cans, needs to be leveled and filled with sand and stone. This is only about a day's work, but I need to finalize the design of the enclosure first.
- I would like to extend the back yard patio in one place to make it reach the fence. This is where I am planning to build the shed.
posted afternoon of April 17th, 2005: Respond
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Wednesday, April 13th, 2005
Say, I just noticed that most of my archive links are broken, which means a lot of search engine referrals are going to be broken too. If you're coming to this site from outside, with a maxid= or k= specification in the URL, this is not the page you want. I am going to try and figure out what's going on and if it can be fixed. Update: Okay, the problem with maxid= is fixed so search engine archives should be pretty accurate. k= still does not work and I suppose I ought to fix it but not right now.
posted afternoon of April 13th, 2005: Respond
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Friday, April 8th, 2005
I have been reading Foucault's Pendulum for a week now. (I started it last Friday, when I had a long train ride, because I thought I was going to need a long period of concentration in order to get into it.) This is another book that has been on my shelves for years, taunting me and intimidating me. But guess what: it is not difficult to read. Quite the contrary -- it is difficult to put down! I was anticipating a Gravity's Rainbow-type of experience where I get a lot out of reading the book, but only after putting huge amounts of effort and concentration into it. But this book is like a clear pool of warm water on a sunny day. Early in the book I was identifying strongly with Belbo and wondering how sincere that identification was. I am still not sure quite how to put into words, what my suspicion was -- somehow I was afraid that I was being conned into liking Belbo, that I was buying an incomplete characterization. I am not thinking about that as much anymore, since the section where Casaubon was in Brazil. I am assuming that the citations at the head of each chapter are genuine though I don't know that I'll ever actually check that out. If they were inventions, that would be kind of disappointing. I was thinking this afternoon, that reading the book is giving me a curious time-dilation effect, and that this effect is common to the books I have really enjoyed.
posted evening of April 8th, 2005: Respond
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Okay, it did! My "Edit Post" facility is however broken.
posted afternoon of April 8th, 2005: Respond
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Tuesday, April 5th, 2005
Okay, it did! My "Edit Post" facility is however broken.
posted morning of April 5th, 2005: Respond
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I'm just trying to see whether this one will come through.
posted morning of April 5th, 2005: Respond
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Monday, April 4th, 2005
The site is back up and ASP is scripting courtesy of Selisoft. I'm tired right now and am not going to link to them but I will do it tomorrow. This computer is pretty slow so the blog is going to take a little while to load. I have ideas for improving the performance but they will have to wait a while too. I am going downstairs and watch "The Daily Show".
posted evening of April 4th, 2005: Respond
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Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005
My former employers, Xyris Software, who have been graciously providing me with web space free of charge for several years now, are reorganizing their server space and givin me the boot. So I've got to look around for an ISP or figure out how to host the site on my home computer. So this site is going to go down at some point in the next week or so and not come back until I get off my butt and work something out.
posted evening of March 23rd, 2005: Respond
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Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
PZ Myers introduces me to the latest meme going around the academic blogs. Here are my answers: - You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
Not sure, I think an epic poem like Iliad or Beowulf but that is a hasty thought, such an important decision would take some consideration when the time came. - Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Don't be silly. Well maybe. When reading short stories, I think that happens; but not in novels. Mostly. (Note: the name "Jessica Swanlake" was running through my head when I wrote this but I'm not sure why -- it's Roger has a crush on her, not me...) - The last book you bought is:
The Economist's Tale by Peter Griffiths - The last book you read:
Ditto - What are you currently reading?
Call it Sleep by Henry Roth - Five books you would take to a deserted island:
I'll think about this for a while and then update. (Or not.) - Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why?
Whoever reads this, consider it passed. Update: Roy did this too, and passed the stick to me, so I am retroactively crediting him.
posted afternoon of March 22nd, 2005: Respond
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I've been reading Call it Sleep by Henry Roth for a little while now, and enjoying it. This is a book which I bought many years ago (either at Yesterday's Books in Modesto, CA, or at the used book store on Market St. in Potsdam, NY) meaning to read right away, and has been sitting balefully on my shelf ever since... I think a good essay topic would be the difference in experience between reading a book you have just acquired (and shades of such experience depending on the source -- bookstore, yard sale, second-hand shop, found...) versus a book that has been on your shelf for a long time pleading to be read. Lord knows I have enough of the latter sort to keep me occupied for a while. As I was turning the pages in the middle of Part III, The Coal, I ran across a bookmark from some previous reader. It is a piece of tan paper about 2 1/2" square, on which has been scribbled, "He's having a nervous breakdown".
posted morning of March 22nd, 2005: Respond
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