Punderings

The redcoats are coming!  The redcoats are coming!  (OK, we’re not sure exactly what Paul Revere et al said as they were riding out to Concord, but the phrase “Blah is coming!” always makes me think of Patriot’s Day.)

Really starting work on my website now.  It’s always been a when-time-permits project, but I’m tired of not having time, and wanting to wait until I have the look/layout ready.  I need to start taking the XML-ish lesson to heart, and separate my content from my layout, and just start writing.

I hate wading into CSS – it’s really not that hard, it’s just I never can justify enough time to actually learn enough of it to make sense.  I suppose the whole lack of graphical abilities has something to do with it.  But if I had time, it’s just another programming language, and it’s pretty simple.  Some of the C part is actually quite nice, and a few of the selectors are pretty cool, albeit reportedly are not well supported yet.

But I have real reasons for needing a website, since I have holiday season plans that I want to complete.  A big project – kind of silly, in a way – but one I really have stuck in my head I want to do this year (well, into January probably so we don’t have to do shipping around the holidays.

What is it, you say?  Well, that’s a secret.  You’ll just have to wait to see.

OK, well I’ve sent a lot of birthday cards in the past 30++ years, but I’m working on a new system where I actually send them out more regularly than every 5 years.  We’ll see if it lasts.  I feel pretty good about this: right before my birthday I went out and bought a good supply of cards, so in case I don’t have time to find the perfect one on the spot I have some known-funny ones all ready and waiting.

Just about to pop over for an energizing swim at the club before coming back to do some useful work.  It’s amazing how hard it is to get to work out – even when you do it regularly.  But equally amazing how good you feel afterwards.  Swimming is kind of like flying for me – it’s a great stretch, the water in this pool is great (I fear the day I can’t get to this place anymore) and of course while exercise seems like it makes you tired, it actually gives you more energy.

Wish me luck!  And this card is only a day late – well, two days late, plus delivery time…

Call it the extended TiVo effect; or the Netflix envelope, or whatever.  We don’t watch much live TV – hardly ever.  But we watch a fair number of DVDs.  West Wing in particular comes in season-sized boxes from Amy’s good friend from college.  She sends a new season every couple of months or whenever she flies up to visit us.

So we’re watching West Wing, much much later than everyone else.  It’s not the few hours/days delay that the TiVo gives you, but it’s the couple of years later that waiting for the friend who bought the box set to finish.  It works fine for me; I really don’t miss the daily TV or discussing it with friends.  Discussions happen online anyway, so the immediacy of the watercooler conversation doesn’t quite apply.

We’re finally on the last season.  Amy is far ahead of me, but I have indeed finally found out who the “secret military space shuttle” leaker was.  It was fairly nicely done, with the broad hints in the wrong direction, then the tiny hints just far enough beforehand to make it interesting.  I really like the double-play of the last 2 minutes of the previous episode re-done in the next episode.  Now I’m trying to think back to what previous episodes had the real clues to whodunit – the more I think, the more bits I see in the past.

(I’m not sure why I’m trying to avoid spoilers, since there really aren’t many people who would care about WW who haven’t already figured this out, but that’s how I started, so here we are.)