Are we a Quora?

I have just found Quora, an intriguing site of questions and answers. It's not about "What is" questions, more on a broader canvas with no definitive answers to most queries. Very philosophical and good natured stuff. I have no doubt that hackles will rise at times but the members seem more 'Grown up' than on a lot of sites.

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May you live in interesting times..........

Wednesday was very interesting. Still no David and more logs than you could shake a stick at. I probably could but I'm a highly qualified stick shaker with years of experience. On Monday we managed to stay ahead of the jobs, on Tuesday we broke even but Wednesday was bad. We both went home with our brains locked up. Thursday, "Huzzah", David came back and we are motoring again.

Much better today with all three of us working like mad things to clear as much as we can before the long weekend. Chris has done another virus run and we had three problems pop up in our area of responsibility. Most appear to be simple to fix but one is claimed to have a root kit so we are probably going to re-image it on Tuesday, just to be sure.

The two of us.

Pop song title.
Still just James and I in the office. Plenty of work to do and we are just about managing. There will come a time, however, when it will run away with us unless help arrives. Dave and Paul will be back next Tuesday so it's not too great a worry yet.

It never rains..............

As anticipated on Saturday evening when I was chatting to Russ, we are now two. Annual leave and sickness having removed the other three. James and I are coping within our own capabilities and, so far, all is well. Sometimes life gives you a shove in order to show you which direction you should be heading. Or something like that. Corey came to see us at 7.30 this morning, full of beans and grinning all over his face. The first I saw was him waving to me...........amazing, I thought and waved back. Confusion of small child and he has stopped waving now, Doh! Samuel stayed with us Saturday into Sunday and, it must be said, he was so well behaved and helpful. I find both my grandsons utterly engaging and wonderful, is that why we call it 'our dotage'?

As pay day is this week, I am expecting to buy some wood and set to constructing Sally's new stage set. It should be fairly straightforward to make the first pillar and once that is tested and working, the rest should follow. At some point, I will also have to build one of the Zig Zag boxes to test out the plans and the working of the illusion. That will prove to be more complicated I suspect.

I have noticed a follower called Gerry has registered. As you are pictured with a guitar, Gerry, could it be that you are the chap that introduced Hazel and I over thirty years ago? Why not post a comment, if you are, I know how to contact you.

Lets get 'Jiggy, Jiggy'

By which I mean, I have re-jigged the side bar to show more information and present it in a smaller area. The old visitor map has died and I have now ditched it in favour of the simple counter you see now.

Last evening, I watched a new show, to me anyway, on channel 5. It's called Impossible and is not only very well produced but a fascinating insight into the psyche. The presenter actually told the two contestants the answer to the final part but because of what had gone before, the declined to believe him and won nothing instead of the six grand in the case. Very easy for me to say that, I was watching from an armchair and have the additional advantage of having worked with quite a few professional magicians in my time. The presenter is a very talented chap who has been working at this for many years and is totally at ease, or appears to be, in that sort of environment.
I just found this on You Tube. Enter the Dragon

Remember "The Flumps"?

Image by Jacob Whittaker via Flickr

A colleague asked if anyone knew how to get a ring tone of the theme today. I found an episode on You Tube and also found an online audio ripper called listentoyoutube.com. Using Audacity, I edited and normalised the audio and sent it to my colleague. It took about a minute in all. Very simple, all for free and 60% in the cloud.
I have been bitten on the bum for doing a favour for a colleague! I gave the ring tone of the Flumps to Karen and she has infected my PC with it. It just keeps playing randomly. In the end, I called and quoted Derek (Blaster) Bates, "Dear Sir, we know what it is and we know who done it, but for gawds sake tell us where it is!"

And so I did.

Go home, that is.

I am up to my eyes again, more work than I can reasonably get through and still taking on even more. I must be mad. This has not been a great week for me, I appear to have a form of spiritual clumsiness at present. I'm not tripping over things or making mistakes as such but it seems that things are just happening to me without rhyme or reason. My back went into painful spasm on Saturday after I had finished the job I was doing and I am still having twinges even now. Yesterday, the power supply in my work PC died just too late to be fixed until this morning so I am still catching up with my logs. We ran the first 'Drop in session' in our faculty this morning and picked up a bunch of complicated jobs to do. That sort of thing has been happening ever since Saturday.

Hazel has been allowed to return to work as of tomorrow, Thursday. She is still struggling with her arm but will be 'phased back' at a very slow rate. With luck, this might improve her health as she hates being stuck at home.

As another example of my karma this week, I have just found a note on my windscreen warning me about not displaying my parking pass. A till receipt had fallen on it. Doh!


Do you remember Google Wave? Yes? Well, sadly, it's gorn now but some very clever chaps have found a way of having collaborative spaces that we can use from anywhere as a sort of cut down Wave. Try this game, Colcrop, and this video.

And another week goes by................

OI, I should have gone home by now...........

That was the week that was,

it's over, let it go.

So much happened and still very little achieved. Hazel is feeling happier now though, she went back to the physiotherapist today and is now feeling a bit better. I had my dental work done on Thursday, the filling replacement was quick and simple with no needles, woohoo! The hygienist was very painful and I wished I had had a needle or two. Doctor on Friday and got the official results of my ECG and cholesterol tests. ECG was good, Blood pressure is good and pulse is fine for a man of my age on beta-blockers. The cholesterol is much better but she has now cut my thyroxine from 200 down to 175 and I have to go back in a few months to get checked again.

Unbeknownst to anyone, I have begun a small project that involves data collection and inserting it into a series of time lines. I thought of several ways of doing this but finally realised that the easiest way to compile all this data was in a blog. So I now have a small private blog that looks nothing like one but is acting as an online filing cabinet. It's surprisingly accessible and very easy to keep up to date. I recommend the idea.

The second time around?

Well, yesterday worked quite well. So I will have another go today. I am still finding some words are not always so easy to create. However, the bigger they are the easier they seem to be to produce. It is the small two or three letter words that seem to cause me the most trouble. We had some fun and games today after I left the office. I drove up to the physiotherapist in order to pick up Hazel and Sally after Hazels treatment. When I arrived, I found that Hazel had had a fainting spell and the paramedics had been called. Fortunately, there were no problems and I was allowed to take her home. 

A new era

For the first time ever, I am writing this blog using speech recognition software. This, for me, is a major step forward. I know that many other people have written their words by using this technology in the past but this is the first time that I have felt I wanted to try it out myself. So far, I am very impressed. I have undertaken a small amount of training with my computer and, as of now I have only seen my computer make one mistake. I am also trying out text to speech at the same time as voice recognition. Currently I only have Microsoft Anna running on this computer but I intend to find out whether I am able to use a better voice for my needs. 

So far I have only used speech recognition software to create the text and delete words in order to change what I have already written. I have not yet found out how to navigate the toolbar successfully. In fact, I have just spent a very frustrating few minutes trying to place two words into the previous sentence.

I am, however, beginning to come to terms with the rather eclectic method of doing this. Some words, some very simple words, are very difficult for a computer speech recognition system to understand. In fact, it seems that the commonest words are the most difficult of all. I will, however, persevere with this system because I can see many advantages for the future.