For the past week I've been on my own while my wife and children visit her family and instead of doing what I should do (which is get outside, get some exercise, get some sun) I find myself inexorably drawn back to the computer in my office.
I've been working on a couple of projects of late: Version 2 of my SQL Server Auto-Dictionary (of course) is coming slowly to a close (needs some debugging, needs a few more reports, needs some kind of install and I sure would like for it to talk to remote servers via a web service but that may be version 3).
Another version 2, that of my survey tool, has been pulled forth from the ether. Just a few more jolts of intellectual electricity for it and I'll be able to tell Ted that "It's alive, it's alive!"
Finally that web site that my wife wants for her business--well, I've started work on the virtual gears and pulleys that will allow her to maintain it in the way that she wants.
I've also decided to reformat and reinstall the operating system on my primary computer. Before doing so, I wanted to do a full backup and so bought a 500GB Western Digital MyBook external drive. I actually have about 400GB to back up which is fortunate because this 500GB drive actually arrives as a 465GB drive (formatted capacity).
It's also not the busiest bee in the hive. I started the backup about 30 hours ago and I think it's only about half-way complete. I don't think the drive is going to be as useful a backup mechanism as I had hoped. I'll try it again after the reformat/reinstall though. There may be something amiss with my computer that a reformat/reinstall will rectify and that will lead to faster transfer speeds (is windows desktop indexer *really* off?)
The Dark Tower series by Steven King has really pulled me in...it's a kind of mini-vortex so ferocious that money for new books in the series (there are 7 of them, in total) is sucked out of my wallet, into the wire and over to audible.com in NJ.
Yesterday I completed book number three in the series, which is entitled "The Wasteland" and ends with a great sequence where the heroes do battle with a godlike locomotive. The weapon of choice in this battle is the riddle. I haven't read a lot of Steven King in my life--a few of his books of short stories (Skeleton Key, Different Seasons) but the one or two full length books that I tried to read turned me off (Christine, The Talisman). Perhaps the difference here is that the voice of the narrator helps keep my interest through the slow parts...
The descriptions of the places in the Dark Tower series are vivid and colorful: deserts, abandoned houses, fields of flowers, seashores. The descriptions of the gunslinger himself are especially captivating. I still find myself constantly finding comparisons with Blood Meridian. The aloof loner is a such a central figure in American culture and mythology, conjoined and inseparable from the culture of great open empty spaces and the west.
I've been working on a couple of projects of late: Version 2 of my SQL Server Auto-Dictionary (of course) is coming slowly to a close (needs some debugging, needs a few more reports, needs some kind of install and I sure would like for it to talk to remote servers via a web service but that may be version 3).
Another version 2, that of my survey tool, has been pulled forth from the ether. Just a few more jolts of intellectual electricity for it and I'll be able to tell Ted that "It's alive, it's alive!"
Finally that web site that my wife wants for her business--well, I've started work on the virtual gears and pulleys that will allow her to maintain it in the way that she wants.
I've also decided to reformat and reinstall the operating system on my primary computer. Before doing so, I wanted to do a full backup and so bought a 500GB Western Digital MyBook external drive. I actually have about 400GB to back up which is fortunate because this 500GB drive actually arrives as a 465GB drive (formatted capacity).
It's also not the busiest bee in the hive. I started the backup about 30 hours ago and I think it's only about half-way complete. I don't think the drive is going to be as useful a backup mechanism as I had hoped. I'll try it again after the reformat/reinstall though. There may be something amiss with my computer that a reformat/reinstall will rectify and that will lead to faster transfer speeds (is windows desktop indexer *really* off?)
The Dark Tower series by Steven King has really pulled me in...it's a kind of mini-vortex so ferocious that money for new books in the series (there are 7 of them, in total) is sucked out of my wallet, into the wire and over to audible.com in NJ.
Yesterday I completed book number three in the series, which is entitled "The Wasteland" and ends with a great sequence where the heroes do battle with a godlike locomotive. The weapon of choice in this battle is the riddle. I haven't read a lot of Steven King in my life--a few of his books of short stories (Skeleton Key, Different Seasons) but the one or two full length books that I tried to read turned me off (Christine, The Talisman). Perhaps the difference here is that the voice of the narrator helps keep my interest through the slow parts...
The descriptions of the places in the Dark Tower series are vivid and colorful: deserts, abandoned houses, fields of flowers, seashores. The descriptions of the gunslinger himself are especially captivating. I still find myself constantly finding comparisons with Blood Meridian. The aloof loner is a such a central figure in American culture and mythology, conjoined and inseparable from the culture of great open empty spaces and the west.
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