Cooling down

Well, depending on the part of town you're in, it was 8C-10C overnight, this last night. That's 46F-50F, for you Yanks.

Cold enough that we went around and closed all the windows.

Winter-ish, here in Brisbane...


--GG

Not all ugly ducklings turn to swans

Today, when I picked up The Girl (4yo) from daycare, she showed me a small fish tank with a few tiny aquatic snails slithering around in it. ''Later,'' she told me, ''they will grow into butterflies.''


Well, maybe.


--GG

The laptop whispers to me

As I've mentioned, I've been staying up 'til 1am to 4am --2am is typical -- to try to wrap up my Dissertation. Generally, I call it quits for the night when I close my eyes for an eyeball break, and realize I've dozed off while sitting up (or, with my forehead on the edge of the desk).

The fan on my wife's laptop makes a soft ''hmm-HMM-hmm-hmm, hmm-HMM-hmm-hmm'' sound. Just now, it started saying “The WALLpaper the WALLpaper...”

Which is weird, because we don't **have** wallpaper. Just paint.


Time for bed...


--GG

Will get a wooden dado plane

Something I geek out on, that most people don't, is ''classic'' wood- working tools.

When I graduate, I plan on -- over the following year or two -- picking up an adze, a mortissing axe, a hewing axe, a one-person crosscut saw, and a dado plane (pictured), fillister plane, and plough plane.

Some good sources for me to remember (not an endorsement, as I haven't tried 'em yet):

-Hans Brunner tools (here in Aussie-land -- in Brassall, here in Queensland -- a bit east of Ipswich; maybe two hours' drive?)

-The Best Things (in the U.S., in Virginia -- but can mail-order)

-The Tool Exchange (in Caloundra, up the coast a bit in Queensland)


--GG

Saddest thing

There are few things more pathetic than a little kid who has just thrown up on himself, and desperately wants a hug. Because, of course, he has vomit all over his shirt -- and you don't want to get it on yourself.

So, what do you do? You pick him up and hold him, anyhow. And later, you throw your clothes in the laundry, and take a shower.


--GG

I'm related to the Hollywood Undead

My cousin's wife's nephew is the rapper with the white hoodie in the band Holly wood Undead.

Video clip here -- the ''Late Night Carson Live" performance.


--GG

Upwards trajectory

Did the usual ''Saturday errands'' thing today. However, The Girl went to her swim lesson (swimming pool in the mall), but The Lady and I didn't do the parental co-swimming with our twin boys: the boys, and ourselves, were still a bit energy-lacking from being ill (and not eating very much) over the last few days.

Also, watched the twins in the parents' room while The Girl and The Lady did the grocery shopping (also in the mall: weird to me, but very handy). I felt pretty fatigued, just sitting there reading the newspaper while keeping an eye on the boys. Even more fatigued pushing the grocery cart back to the car.

Foolishly stayed up 'til about 3am last night (or really, ''this morning'') working on Dissertation stuff. But, had a good two-hour nap (along with the twins), after our errands. I may just go straight to bed tonight. Nothing for dinner (8:40pm, right now) -- although I'm hankering for some Neopolitan ice cream.


I'm so windy I could drive a sailboat. The Lady is threatening to make me sleep in another room...


--GG

Time is consuming us

So, I have until the first of April to get my (very!) revised Dissertation off to my committee.

I was going along, making fairly good progress -- reverting back to my ''get the kids to bed, the work from 10pm 'til 2am'' routine.

But.

Monday, I watched the kids during the day. Then The Lady comes home, feeling poorly. I spend the evening looking after kids, plus helping to clean up vomit. Late night for everyone. No Dissertation work.

Tuesday, The Lady stays home from work; I look after the kids. Tuesday night, I stay up 'til 3am, doing work stuff that I'd meant to do Monday, and that I needed done by around lunchtime on Wednesday. So, no Dissertation work.

Wednesday, I get in to work, finish off what I'd been too tired to finish the night (or ''morning'') before. Finished it in time -- but felt poorly. Not sure whether it was lack of sleep, or that I'd caught whatever The Lady had. Went home around 5pm, and felt worse. Yep: The Lady's stomach bug. Went to bed around 8pm. No Dissertation work.

Thursday, usually would go in to work, but didn't. Cancelled my 11am meeting. Slept most of the day. Luckily, The Lady was feeling a bit better, so she wrangled the kids while I slept, slept, slept. Still feeling poorly, though: went to bed around 10pm, rather than stay up to work on Dissertation.

Friday (today): The Lady not much better -- although I am. I get winded surprisingly easy, though -- although perhaps not shockingly surprising, as I've only had a bowl of soup and a fistful of soda crackers in the last 48 hours. Eat some ''normal'' food, which helps a lot. Stomach feels normal. The boys are unwell, though: hard to get B2 to sleep, but finally succeed around 9:30pm. **Finally** get to work on Dissertation tonight -- although will go to bed ''early'' -- i.e. at midnight or 1am, not 2am.


Mildly concerned about ''progress-to-time-remaining'' ratio -- but not yet freaking out.

Yet. :)


On the plus side: while trying to get B2 to settle, tonight, got to [re-]watch three episodes of The Office tonight.


--GG

Grandma

The Girl's perception of Grandma.



(Family members will understand why this is funny. Other folks can mail me off-list, if curious.)

Ayep!


--GG

Geeky amusement

Had a meeting with a local govt. dept. today. About a year ago, they got a new database, developed by someone who (apparently!) was an academic, rather than a ''working'' programmer:

Variable names tend to be from 20 to 60 (yep -- SIXTY) characters long. Ouch!

(Or, ''field names'', I suppose -- that's what DB folks call 'em, right?)


Example: "IncomeFromYearAfterEnteringWorkforce" instead of "IncYrAftWrk" (or similar). The nuisance bit for the govt. IT folks that work with this data is that standard statistical software (e.g. SAS, Stata) has a limit of about 30 characters for a variable -- so before they can run any analyses more complicated than a database-type query, they have to alter many of the filenames.


Sixty characters long... I was chuckling over that all day...


--GG