03/09: More cleaning
Today Batman has arrived, albeit without Robin, to complete the cleanup after the bats. The place has quite an odour still, which is mostly downstairs. That's a mite odd. As the wife was due to come at 2pm to pick up her exercise bike, I put it on the trolley and took it outside in order to make it easier to move to whatever vehicle she wants to take it away in. I highly doubt that it will get much use. It never did when she was here. I remember picking it up for her some months ago. It barely fitted in my Xterra!
We had a verdict from Batman. He said the bats had been in the attic for at least a year. I very much suspect the painter that vanished of having let them in when he was preparing the wood for painting, which of course he never did. I wonder how many tons of bat guano are sitting on top of the bedroom ceilings upstairs. While he was here though, I had him plug gaps where things could get in at ground level also.
There are still a few little things that I'd like to tidy up in the garden but what with it being 98 degrees outside, I don't think I'll bother. The lawns clearly needed water so I started with the back lawn. In an hour or so I can move to another area of the back. It'll take a while but I can give all the lawns a good watering.
As far as the wife coming for the exercise bike, as she was due at 2pm and by 3:30pm had not shown up nor emailed nor called, I put it into the garage and figure she has no interest in doing anything with it.
The smell of the anti-bat scent is almost overpowering. I think I preferred the smell of bats. These chemical scents are pretty awful. It's just something else to get used to, I guess. It is giving me a slight headache. How many weeks or months it'll take for the smell to fade is anybody's guess.
Well, most of the back lawn is watered now. I'll do the front tomorrow.
I headed off to work at 7pm and returned a shade past midnight. Still no word from the wife about why she didn't pick up the exercise bike nor any proclamation that she wouldn't be able to make the date. I think we know where I stand on further appointments.
We had a verdict from Batman. He said the bats had been in the attic for at least a year. I very much suspect the painter that vanished of having let them in when he was preparing the wood for painting, which of course he never did. I wonder how many tons of bat guano are sitting on top of the bedroom ceilings upstairs. While he was here though, I had him plug gaps where things could get in at ground level also.
There are still a few little things that I'd like to tidy up in the garden but what with it being 98 degrees outside, I don't think I'll bother. The lawns clearly needed water so I started with the back lawn. In an hour or so I can move to another area of the back. It'll take a while but I can give all the lawns a good watering.
As far as the wife coming for the exercise bike, as she was due at 2pm and by 3:30pm had not shown up nor emailed nor called, I put it into the garage and figure she has no interest in doing anything with it.
The smell of the anti-bat scent is almost overpowering. I think I preferred the smell of bats. These chemical scents are pretty awful. It's just something else to get used to, I guess. It is giving me a slight headache. How many weeks or months it'll take for the smell to fade is anybody's guess.
Well, most of the back lawn is watered now. I'll do the front tomorrow.
I headed off to work at 7pm and returned a shade past midnight. Still no word from the wife about why she didn't pick up the exercise bike nor any proclamation that she wouldn't be able to make the date. I think we know where I stand on further appointments.
02/09: A gardening we will go
Damn! It's bloody hot today. 95f according to my thermometer and I've spent the last hour out in it, mowing the back lawn. That perishing Black and Decker corded electric mower makes things ten times as hard as it needs to be though. First there's the teeny little grass box. That will fill in about 6 paces with the mower. That has to be removed before any mowing can take place. Then the next problem is the flap that falls over the grass exit hole in the back. It doesn't just fall, blocking the exit for the grass but is pulled down by a strong spring to ensure it blocks the exit hole. The only way around that is to put a bloody great big plank across the handles and under the flap to keep it propped open. It's the most retarded design of lawnmower I have ever seen. Simply leaving the flap down causes the mower to slow and jam as soon as the compacted grass builds up behind the flap. Why does Black and Decker find it so hard to build a decent lawnmower? It is not, as they say, rocket science.
There... See what I mean about the tiny little grassbox. The whole thing isn't even a container - just the tiny little recess at the back end of the black part lying on the ground. The plank certainly helps though.
Anyway, that's the back lawn mown. All the lawns are now mown. Again, in a couple of days I'll have to blow the excess grass cuttings off the lawn into a pile somewhere to shovel up and dispose of. Next, I'll have to take a look at the borders but only after I have cooled down. It's absolute torture working out there in that heat. Needless to say, the sky is blue with no clouds. If I knew I was staying here, I'd get a petrol lawnmower and have done. That would take a fraction of the time to mow the lawn as I wouldn't spend literally half my time pulling the cable out of the way.
And there's one well-mown lawn. I'll blow the clippings off another day, when they've dried out and are light and easy to blow.
Meanwhile, the kitchen is a bit more sparkling than normal as I felt energetic having pulled a few more weeds out of the front and back borders. The one thing that looks grubby quickly is the cooktop. It seems to attract cat paw prints and cat fur like a magnet. The vines in the borders are easier to pull out than you'd imagine but I simply can't find the roots underneath all the big bushes.
In other news, I got Chenglished. Here's the Chinese original and the Chenglish version. I'd love to know what the Chinese version really says.
In further news, I noted that the Sony Touch E-Reader is now down to $135 in Staples. The rapid price drops of all the e-readers indicates to me they're clearing old stock ready for something new. I have no idea what that will be but it's clearly not a good time for anybody to buy an e-reader. My best guess is colour is on its way in.
There... See what I mean about the tiny little grassbox. The whole thing isn't even a container - just the tiny little recess at the back end of the black part lying on the ground. The plank certainly helps though.
Anyway, that's the back lawn mown. All the lawns are now mown. Again, in a couple of days I'll have to blow the excess grass cuttings off the lawn into a pile somewhere to shovel up and dispose of. Next, I'll have to take a look at the borders but only after I have cooled down. It's absolute torture working out there in that heat. Needless to say, the sky is blue with no clouds. If I knew I was staying here, I'd get a petrol lawnmower and have done. That would take a fraction of the time to mow the lawn as I wouldn't spend literally half my time pulling the cable out of the way.
And there's one well-mown lawn. I'll blow the clippings off another day, when they've dried out and are light and easy to blow.
Meanwhile, the kitchen is a bit more sparkling than normal as I felt energetic having pulled a few more weeds out of the front and back borders. The one thing that looks grubby quickly is the cooktop. It seems to attract cat paw prints and cat fur like a magnet. The vines in the borders are easier to pull out than you'd imagine but I simply can't find the roots underneath all the big bushes.
In other news, I got Chenglished. Here's the Chinese original and the Chenglish version. I'd love to know what the Chinese version really says.
In further news, I noted that the Sony Touch E-Reader is now down to $135 in Staples. The rapid price drops of all the e-readers indicates to me they're clearing old stock ready for something new. I have no idea what that will be but it's clearly not a good time for anybody to buy an e-reader. My best guess is colour is on its way in.
01/09: Finally - information!
I finally have some information. Apparently I'd been given inaccurate information about some courses in the local college. Now I have the correct information regarding duration and cost of some of the modules. Interestingly I got that from the local branch. I expected to be sent to the bigger branch but the local guys came up trumps.
Meanwhile, I took half an hour and pulled a barrow load of weeds put of the front border. There are more to come but it was too hot to do more. South Carolina in the summer is a place where you sit back, watch the weeds grow and brew moonshine, not a place to do much in the way of gardening - aside from the cannabis growers. I gather that as a relative of tobacco, cannabis grows well in this climate. It must do - there are plenty books on how to grow it in the bookshops.
The grass is recovering nicely on the lawn from the tree removal and the damage from people walking all over it. Another 6 months like this and the lawn should be completely lawn. As I sit here, the Roomba is trundling around. It seems to get into difficulties about every 5 minutes and needs to be rescued. If this is a fine example of artificial intelligence, give me a stupid machine every time. The great strength of the Roomba is its ability to get underneath furniture. Humans have to either ignore the dust underneath or move the furniture to clean under it. The grass is even beginning to cover where it was covered with soil. Ages ago when the trees were felled, some people came around to help filling in the stump holes and sprinkled the remaining soil around the grass. Unfortunately it wasn't such a smart idea as it killed the grass. That's beginning to recover now though.
Work was uneventful in general and I'm glad to be home. On the other hand it does mean I have to do some gardening tomorrow. I have a back lawn to mow and the front border to tidy. I suppose I should work on the back border too but I know for a fact that the hedge trimmer will quit after about half the front border. It is nice to have a cordless one but in this instance I believe a petrol trimmer would have been an advantage. Having said that, we didn't want to spend much when we bought it as it gets fairly light use. There's a lot to be said for petrol-powered garden tools - particularly as most of the cordless electric stuff bizarrely uses out-of-date NiCad technology. NiMh batteries would be so much better but they can't be charged by a NiCad charger.
Meanwhile, I took half an hour and pulled a barrow load of weeds put of the front border. There are more to come but it was too hot to do more. South Carolina in the summer is a place where you sit back, watch the weeds grow and brew moonshine, not a place to do much in the way of gardening - aside from the cannabis growers. I gather that as a relative of tobacco, cannabis grows well in this climate. It must do - there are plenty books on how to grow it in the bookshops.
The grass is recovering nicely on the lawn from the tree removal and the damage from people walking all over it. Another 6 months like this and the lawn should be completely lawn. As I sit here, the Roomba is trundling around. It seems to get into difficulties about every 5 minutes and needs to be rescued. If this is a fine example of artificial intelligence, give me a stupid machine every time. The great strength of the Roomba is its ability to get underneath furniture. Humans have to either ignore the dust underneath or move the furniture to clean under it. The grass is even beginning to cover where it was covered with soil. Ages ago when the trees were felled, some people came around to help filling in the stump holes and sprinkled the remaining soil around the grass. Unfortunately it wasn't such a smart idea as it killed the grass. That's beginning to recover now though.
Work was uneventful in general and I'm glad to be home. On the other hand it does mean I have to do some gardening tomorrow. I have a back lawn to mow and the front border to tidy. I suppose I should work on the back border too but I know for a fact that the hedge trimmer will quit after about half the front border. It is nice to have a cordless one but in this instance I believe a petrol trimmer would have been an advantage. Having said that, we didn't want to spend much when we bought it as it gets fairly light use. There's a lot to be said for petrol-powered garden tools - particularly as most of the cordless electric stuff bizarrely uses out-of-date NiCad technology. NiMh batteries would be so much better but they can't be charged by a NiCad charger.
31/08: Frustrating
Today I took the day off as arranged. During the arrangements made at the end of last week, I said I'd find out about doing courses in Midlands Tech. Thus, today I went down and discovered what was to be discovered. Then I went home to apply for courses online. Well, the online system is less than intuitive and I shall now have to return to Midlands Tech to get somebody to do it all for me. Once that's done I can complete my end of the bargain. I've not done so badly so far anyway.
In other news, I tried again to get the Roomba to work. It does work but the battery is on its last legs. For some unknown reason it has a NiCad battery when everybody else uses NiMh. Still, it has not lasted too badly. It doesn't seem to do so well with cat hair but then it's a sweeper rather than a vacuum cleaner. If it were a true vacuum then it would have been so much better. I reckon the upstairs guest room and hallway are now pretty dust-free. As far as the boy's bedroom goes, it's a pigsty and there's no way of cleaning it without a bulldozer so I shall not venture there.
Meanwhile, today I cooked again. I eat a lot of cold foods. It's a lot easier than cooking and costs just about the same. Cabbage, carrots, beans and mash again. My staple diet.
Today I did the 2nd part of the latest batch of garden maintainance. Here are the before and after photos of the side lawn. Cutting the monkey grass at the bottom of the bush makes the bare patch caused by ivy (which I chopped last time I mowed) seem much more apparent.
Before
After
My next task will be the back lawn. That's a job for Thursday. Then there are the triffids springing up in the front border. I hacked them down not so long ago and they have sprung up again. I think I shall have to pull them out rather than cut them down as I did last time.
In other news, I tried again to get the Roomba to work. It does work but the battery is on its last legs. For some unknown reason it has a NiCad battery when everybody else uses NiMh. Still, it has not lasted too badly. It doesn't seem to do so well with cat hair but then it's a sweeper rather than a vacuum cleaner. If it were a true vacuum then it would have been so much better. I reckon the upstairs guest room and hallway are now pretty dust-free. As far as the boy's bedroom goes, it's a pigsty and there's no way of cleaning it without a bulldozer so I shall not venture there.
Meanwhile, today I cooked again. I eat a lot of cold foods. It's a lot easier than cooking and costs just about the same. Cabbage, carrots, beans and mash again. My staple diet.
Today I did the 2nd part of the latest batch of garden maintainance. Here are the before and after photos of the side lawn. Cutting the monkey grass at the bottom of the bush makes the bare patch caused by ivy (which I chopped last time I mowed) seem much more apparent.
Before
After
My next task will be the back lawn. That's a job for Thursday. Then there are the triffids springing up in the front border. I hacked them down not so long ago and they have sprung up again. I think I shall have to pull them out rather than cut them down as I did last time.
30/08: Baffled
I'm still baffled as to why I'm in the midst of a divorce. No attempt has been made to communicate nor any attempt to negotiate nor to resolve any issues. No attempt at marriage guidance was ever undertaken. No - I was slapped with a divorce summons and then the wife moved out. It's utterly crazy. I know what the summons stated and nothing in it seemed true or accurate. It just seemed to be "something" slapped down on the paper to fill a space. Oh well, it'll be interesting to see what the Judge makes of all that. If it wasn't so sad, it'd be laughable.
Meanwhile, it's another work day today. I'm getting used to shelving toys now. I never thought I'd be shelving toys. They're a little harder to shelve than books because it's not immediately apparent where they go. Getting them to sit right on the shelf can be a little annoying - particularly when the packages are not correctly weighted.
My new business is now open for business though it'll take a while for the first sample stock to arrive. I'm working on getting images of the stock at the moment for the website. I don't anticipate getting any internet-based trade but it's handy to have an online catalogue anyway. That way I can just give the web address and I don't have to print a catalogue - people can look it up on their smartphones. All I can say is thank God for divorce summonses as that's what gave me the idea for starting this business. There was a need out there that wasn't being met.
Today I did a 1pm - 6pm shift and then ended up being asked to come back and do an 8pm until close shift. That gave me an extra 3 hours which gave me 8 hours for the day. Not a bad haul! In between shifts I even managed to cook some mixed beans that I'd soaked overnight. That'll all go for a nice dinner tomorrow evening :)
Meanwhile, it's another work day today. I'm getting used to shelving toys now. I never thought I'd be shelving toys. They're a little harder to shelve than books because it's not immediately apparent where they go. Getting them to sit right on the shelf can be a little annoying - particularly when the packages are not correctly weighted.
My new business is now open for business though it'll take a while for the first sample stock to arrive. I'm working on getting images of the stock at the moment for the website. I don't anticipate getting any internet-based trade but it's handy to have an online catalogue anyway. That way I can just give the web address and I don't have to print a catalogue - people can look it up on their smartphones. All I can say is thank God for divorce summonses as that's what gave me the idea for starting this business. There was a need out there that wasn't being met.
Today I did a 1pm - 6pm shift and then ended up being asked to come back and do an 8pm until close shift. That gave me an extra 3 hours which gave me 8 hours for the day. Not a bad haul! In between shifts I even managed to cook some mixed beans that I'd soaked overnight. That'll all go for a nice dinner tomorrow evening :)
29/08: blown and edged
Well, I had some time today so I blew what I could of the grass clippings off the lawn and edged it as well. The petrol edger didn't start in a very promising way as it kept stopping but then it seemed to pick up and I got the job done. I wish the same could be said for the petrol pressure washer. I tried and tried to get that going and ended up with nothing but blisters and out of pocket for the price of a spark plug and still it wouldn't start. So my edging went well with the edge working all the way around the lawn. There are still some dead patches where somebody has sprayed Weed & Feed or whatever. I notice the variety of grasses is less but that there are dead patches. Perhaps whoever sprayed, didn't spray the right stuff. Anyway, here's a nicely edged driveway.
Realistically the only way to get the grass clippings off the lawn - I got a ton off with my blower - is by using a mower with a grass box. There is a grass box on the mower we have but it's so small that it's simply full in about 6 paces. That's really not worthwhile. If you compare the pictures, you can probably see a slight difference. A week or so and some rain and the clippings won't be visible.
Realistically the only way to get the grass clippings off the lawn - I got a ton off with my blower - is by using a mower with a grass box. There is a grass box on the mower we have but it's so small that it's simply full in about 6 paces. That's really not worthwhile. If you compare the pictures, you can probably see a slight difference. A week or so and some rain and the clippings won't be visible.
28/08: A mowing we will go
Phew. Today I don't work until later so I mowed the lawn. That was hot, sweaty work and with the higher mower setting whereby I'm not cutting the grass so short, it took me an hour as opposed to half a day. Mind, that was just the front lawn. I haven't done the back or sides yet. Those will have to wait for another day. I haven't collected up the grass cuttings yet (the beige looking areas are grass clippings). I figure I'll wait until tomorrow when they have dried out and are light and easy to blow then simply blow them off the lawn into the gutter and shovel them up. I love my petrol blower. One of the best garden gizmos I bought. The chainsaw and wheelbarrow I bought are good too.
The weeds seem to have sprung up again since I last slew them. I wonder whether bi-weekly maintainance is too infrequent. I'll have to work out some kind of schedule for that. Mind, having said that, work has been so hectic and irregular over the last couple of weeks that my maintainance is out of synch right now. I figure I mowed July 1st, July 16th, August 1st and now August 28th. I remember the 1st recent mowing as it was the same day of the court appearance and the in-laws drove slowly past with my stepson in the car, looking at everything.
Carlotta escaped and came out into the garden with me. She came back in shortly after I did. It allowed me to empty the two cat trays and change them out with fresh litter without worrying about her getting out. When I called her she came running across the garden to me.
A couple of things I noticed when mowing. One is that the stump holes and bare patches caused by the tree-fellers last year are now beginning slowly to be covered by grass. The bare patches caused by people getting out of cars on the left hand side of the drive are slowly getting covered again by grass too. The big bare patch on the side lawn seems to be recovering (thank the tree fellers for that). A couple of other bare patches will take a while to cover. The stump hole beside the garage is taking a while also. I imagine this time next year all the stump holes will be covered with grass and the bare patches will be clear. All that's needed is for nobody to walk there.
One of the more bizarre things to come out of yesterday's casual chatting while waiting for the mediator to pop in was the way the bat issue had been handled. Rather than receiving an email to the effect "I understand there are bats. Would you call Terminix and get them to deal with it and I'll pay the bill", the whole process had to go through attorneys. That was utterly bizarre. Mind, there have been a lot of bizarre things with things that could have been handled simply by email going via attorneys. As long as the style is non-confrontational and pleasant, I don't mind receiving occasional emails. I never have. This is, of course, very symptomatic of what seems to have gone wrong. One person I spoke to months ago summed up the issue as "What we have here is a communication problem". Clearly that needs to be addressed. Then maybe we might get somewhere.
The weeds seem to have sprung up again since I last slew them. I wonder whether bi-weekly maintainance is too infrequent. I'll have to work out some kind of schedule for that. Mind, having said that, work has been so hectic and irregular over the last couple of weeks that my maintainance is out of synch right now. I figure I mowed July 1st, July 16th, August 1st and now August 28th. I remember the 1st recent mowing as it was the same day of the court appearance and the in-laws drove slowly past with my stepson in the car, looking at everything.
Carlotta escaped and came out into the garden with me. She came back in shortly after I did. It allowed me to empty the two cat trays and change them out with fresh litter without worrying about her getting out. When I called her she came running across the garden to me.
A couple of things I noticed when mowing. One is that the stump holes and bare patches caused by the tree-fellers last year are now beginning slowly to be covered by grass. The bare patches caused by people getting out of cars on the left hand side of the drive are slowly getting covered again by grass too. The big bare patch on the side lawn seems to be recovering (thank the tree fellers for that). A couple of other bare patches will take a while to cover. The stump hole beside the garage is taking a while also. I imagine this time next year all the stump holes will be covered with grass and the bare patches will be clear. All that's needed is for nobody to walk there.
One of the more bizarre things to come out of yesterday's casual chatting while waiting for the mediator to pop in was the way the bat issue had been handled. Rather than receiving an email to the effect "I understand there are bats. Would you call Terminix and get them to deal with it and I'll pay the bill", the whole process had to go through attorneys. That was utterly bizarre. Mind, there have been a lot of bizarre things with things that could have been handled simply by email going via attorneys. As long as the style is non-confrontational and pleasant, I don't mind receiving occasional emails. I never have. This is, of course, very symptomatic of what seems to have gone wrong. One person I spoke to months ago summed up the issue as "What we have here is a communication problem". Clearly that needs to be addressed. Then maybe we might get somewhere.
27/08: Reading around
Well, my interest in an e-reader didn't last long. Apparently there are major problems getting most e-readers to handle PDF documents. Apparently they all want to scale the pages and handle the graphics very badly. That's just not worth the time of day - that and the tiny screens on e-readers. Let's just say I'm still not impressed. I wasn't impressed by e-readers before. I like the e-paper display better than the e-ink display on the current models. The iPad etc have a very interesting display but I'm not a fan of backlit screens. The iPad has a screen that's big enough for reading on but I'd like to see more of the front taken up by screen and less by the silly border. Clearly both tablet netbooks and e-readers have quite a way to go in development. Word has it that there're going to be a rash of new e-readers in October. That should be interesting!
Today was mediation day. We did get a result but it depends upon further information being obtained and I have a week to acquire that information. Unfortunately I'm bound by secrecy from stating exactly what happened during the mediation.
Meanwhile, nothing much else got done today. I didn't manage to sleep at all last night. Probably the stress got to me. It does mean I should in theory sleep like a baby tonight.
I still don't understand the vitriolic, almost pathological hatred I now receive from a woman that once swore in front of God and the congregation and a minister to love and honour me until death. I still love the woman I married. I just wish she'd come back from wherever she went.
Today was mediation day. We did get a result but it depends upon further information being obtained and I have a week to acquire that information. Unfortunately I'm bound by secrecy from stating exactly what happened during the mediation.
Meanwhile, nothing much else got done today. I didn't manage to sleep at all last night. Probably the stress got to me. It does mean I should in theory sleep like a baby tonight.
I still don't understand the vitriolic, almost pathological hatred I now receive from a woman that once swore in front of God and the congregation and a minister to love and honour me until death. I still love the woman I married. I just wish she'd come back from wherever she went.
26/08: Plaiting fog
Today I feel as if I'm attempting to plait fog! I went to the college having had no luck over the phone nor via their computer system and had to book an appointment with an "advisor" to get onto the courses I want to do. This has very much a feel of something that's going to take forever. It has taken already since about February! It took them an age to decide to charge local rates. Out of state rates were simply out of the budget.
Meanwhile, I'm preparing for tomorrow's mediation session. I imagine this will be both interesting and fruitless, knowing the other person's flexibility. I wish it had not come to this and have no idea how it did come to this point.
The one bright spark is that tomorrow is payday at work. Judging from the way people are vanishing, either they know something I don't or they're having a lot of luck. Thus far one woman has left to work in a bank and two have left to work at the airport. There are a few new faces now including some that I've never seen but who are actually returning faces. I wish I knew what magic they wrought to get themselves better jobs. It's either some kind of magic or as I suspected in yesterday's blog entry.
In other news, the sight of yet another PDF file that has to be printed in order to be readable had me looking at e-readers with a new light. K-Mart has one for $100 that looks pretty reasonable. Unlike the one produced by the bookshop where I work, it uses e-paper rather than e-ink and thus does not flash when the page is turned. It doesn't have an illuminated menu either. At work they make great play of the fact their e-reader has a replaceable battery but the fact is that by the time the battery does need replacement, the thing is so far behind that there'll be something far better out. As an example, I have a PDA purchased in 2004. It still works, 6 years later and still has the same battery. I just don't use it any more. I did try an e-reader for it but it was so horrible I didn't bother.
Meanwhile, I'm preparing for tomorrow's mediation session. I imagine this will be both interesting and fruitless, knowing the other person's flexibility. I wish it had not come to this and have no idea how it did come to this point.
The one bright spark is that tomorrow is payday at work. Judging from the way people are vanishing, either they know something I don't or they're having a lot of luck. Thus far one woman has left to work in a bank and two have left to work at the airport. There are a few new faces now including some that I've never seen but who are actually returning faces. I wish I knew what magic they wrought to get themselves better jobs. It's either some kind of magic or as I suspected in yesterday's blog entry.
In other news, the sight of yet another PDF file that has to be printed in order to be readable had me looking at e-readers with a new light. K-Mart has one for $100 that looks pretty reasonable. Unlike the one produced by the bookshop where I work, it uses e-paper rather than e-ink and thus does not flash when the page is turned. It doesn't have an illuminated menu either. At work they make great play of the fact their e-reader has a replaceable battery but the fact is that by the time the battery does need replacement, the thing is so far behind that there'll be something far better out. As an example, I have a PDA purchased in 2004. It still works, 6 years later and still has the same battery. I just don't use it any more. I did try an e-reader for it but it was so horrible I didn't bother.
25/08: Chocolate teapots!
Most computer systems are as much use as a chocolate teapot. I do like that phrase. It's one an old friend named Wayne used to use frequently. At work the catalogue search frequently misses the mark. I could copy and paste the exact description and it won't find it. In other life the same applies. Today, for example, I was trying to get a course arranged on the college website since it's so hard to get to the campus with my current work schedule. I've been trying to do that for days and it either won't recognise the course or it tells me it doesn't exist. I'll just have to take a day off and go down there. I find this happens so often with people's computer systems that it's just not worth bothering with them.
As far as applying for jobs goes, I press the send button and God alone knows what happens then. Sometimes the applications seem to go. Sometimes the site throws a wobbly and loses all the information that I've spent the last hour typing in. Hardly ever do I hear back. It's pretty much the same for posted applications. On the other hand I did read that 9.6% of the US population is unemployed and thus I'm competing as a foreigner against people with local qualifications that the local employers can relate to with ease. It's too much work for them to check-up on a foreign qualification when they have locally-qualified people applying whose qualifications they can understand. The die is weighted heavily against me.
I saw a headline in a magazine that declared the web to be dead. Basically what it was all about seems to be that browsing the internet is no longer interesting for people and they instead demand their information from iPad, iPhone apps etc. Now that all seems to me to be saying not that the web is dead but that it has changed its format again. Anybody remember connecting via Telnet and getting information that way? I do and that was only fifteen years ago. What has changed is that people now view everything online with a healthy dose of skepticism.
At work, there was a tidy-looking woman sitting, reading a book. Suddenly her phone rang with a voice ring-tone. It bowled me over a bit to hear it say "You're a smelly pirate whore". Not exactly the kind of thing I would expect from a woman's phone - even in the colonies!
Meanwhile, Batman rang but missed me. I rang back and left a message. Now though I have my work schedule for next week so I know now when I'll be free for him to come and work.
As far as applying for jobs goes, I press the send button and God alone knows what happens then. Sometimes the applications seem to go. Sometimes the site throws a wobbly and loses all the information that I've spent the last hour typing in. Hardly ever do I hear back. It's pretty much the same for posted applications. On the other hand I did read that 9.6% of the US population is unemployed and thus I'm competing as a foreigner against people with local qualifications that the local employers can relate to with ease. It's too much work for them to check-up on a foreign qualification when they have locally-qualified people applying whose qualifications they can understand. The die is weighted heavily against me.
I saw a headline in a magazine that declared the web to be dead. Basically what it was all about seems to be that browsing the internet is no longer interesting for people and they instead demand their information from iPad, iPhone apps etc. Now that all seems to me to be saying not that the web is dead but that it has changed its format again. Anybody remember connecting via Telnet and getting information that way? I do and that was only fifteen years ago. What has changed is that people now view everything online with a healthy dose of skepticism.
At work, there was a tidy-looking woman sitting, reading a book. Suddenly her phone rang with a voice ring-tone. It bowled me over a bit to hear it say "You're a smelly pirate whore". Not exactly the kind of thing I would expect from a woman's phone - even in the colonies!
Meanwhile, Batman rang but missed me. I rang back and left a message. Now though I have my work schedule for next week so I know now when I'll be free for him to come and work.
