Doug Faunt's Journal

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Plans change
Foo, I won't be going to the UK and help sail NANCY BLACKETT across the North Sea on a "we did mean to go to sea" trip in July, since it's been canceled. Please note,

brisingamen and

peake.

But I will be spending a whole week in Montreal around Worldcon, staying in a hostel before and after, and it looks as if, with information from

papersky, I've got all that transportation sorted.

I'm still feeling the effects of jet lag after a week in the UK, and I think that indicates motorcycle camping in the Sierras instead of another trip to the UK. The cats will approve. They've been very needy since I got back, and means I really don't need a long term house-sitter until late September or October (assuming BOUNTY is still sailing west then).

Current Mood: disappointed

April Books
Mister Midshipman Easy - Marryat - to be read stack
Revenge Of The Spellmans - Lutz - previous
Rebels On The Air, an Alternative History of Radio... - Walker - blog
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime - Haddon
The Graveyard Book - Gaiman - Hugo nominee
The Irregulars -, Roald Dahl and ....- Conant - library browse
Game, Set And Match - Deighton - ???
The 21 Balloons - Pene du Bois - blog mention

The dead mouse
I found it. In a pair of shoes that aren't worn very often.
I was lucky that I found it by following the trail of flies back to it, as unpleasant as that was, instead of by putting my foot into the shoe. And it's a canvas and rubber shoe, so has been washed out with copious amounts of water and is baking in the sun. After it dries, I'll dump some baking soda in it and continue the airing.

Off to theatre last night -because of the heat and shade at my embarking BART station, I ended up on street level in SF at the other end of Powell Street station, and so ended up having dinner at John's Grill, as in _The Maltese Falcon_. Not bad for a tourist trap. And the menu has a large page of commentary, written by Fritz Leiber, about the book.

The play was _War Music_, another play about the Trojan War, basically written as a poem/translation for BBC Radio, by Christopher Logue. It's a great radio play, performed here by a baker's dozen of the ACT company with not a lot of staging. It was an OK staging, but it'd make a very good Drama on 3 production, too (it's probably been done).

Nap time now.

What does Cheney know about the greater good?
His assertions that torture is effective (ha!) of course lead to the arguement that it's done for the greater good. I view Cheney's using that argument as derisory.

Hot!
It's 92 degrees (F) outside. I did a couple of hours of tree work, but the resulting debris is going to sit on the ground for a bit. Now to take some ibuprofen.

The Gloucestershire Council has apparently decided that quiet in libraries is old-fashioned - they're playing pop music in four of their libraries. 29 minutes into here:
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4fmcoyopa/archive/radio_4_fm_-_monday_1800_20090420.ra

My illness lasted about 24 hours, and my cough is mostly gone! I'm puzzled.

The humanure experiment is working out well, but I don't know how much my compost bins will accept. I'm going to try to get a bucket of coffee grounds to add in. I just have to get to the coffee shop with the bucket early in the AM, and pick it up at normal coffee time.

Again!! 2 degrees of fever, achy muscles, etc.
The is the third time since Christmas. I'm going to check in with the doctor on Monday.

Fragile infrastructure - fiber sabotage
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/04/11/MNJB170JM7.DTL

They've finally admitted that there's no security on these manholes.
I have a manhole cover hook (J hook) and before I got that I was pulling up manhole covers with a pair of big screwdrivers. And a standard crowbar means you can do it safely. BTW, this was part of my job at the time, so it was legitimate. A white van, a flashing barrier, a couple of traffic cones, coveralls and a hard hat, and nobody would say anything.

If they'd spent $250,000. on real security....

BTW, if this should happen to you, it's really useful to know who your local ham operator is- we can communicate without that infrastructure. http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_12115324

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: birds chirping

Spring is here
I walked over for coffee this morning with a Tshirt, no sweatshirt, even.

The dead-animal smell is worse, and I've investigated every place that I can see easily.
Unfortunately, there are a number of crevices that I can't get to without major furniture and book moving. Smelly candles only made things worse. Is "Febreze", a product I only know from Car Talk references, effective?

I'm still stuffed up and coughing, but at a lower level. I'm still functioning poorly.

And tonight is Earth Hour, 2030 to 2130, local time, http://www.earthhour.org.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: West Coast Live

March Books- hm, I though I'd done this before
The Hidden Family-Stross -blog
The Clan Corporate-Stross -previous
Zoe's Tale-Scalzi- Previous
Super Spy- Kindt- Unshelved
Two Sisters- Kindt- previous
By Schism Rent Asunder- Weber- previous
Green Sailors In The South Seas- Hackforth-Jones-previous
Blood Red Snow White- Sedgwick- friend
Merchants War-Stross - previous
Opening Atlantis- Turtledove - library browse
One For The Money- Evanovich - umra
The White Mercedes- Pullman- bookstore browse

Fever dreams- be careful what you wish for
I'd been thinking that I'd not had any interesting dreams, and was thinking back fondly on some fever dreams I'd had in the past.
So, last night I had a repeat of the symptoms I had at Christmas, including 1 degree C of fever in the small hours. The dream I remember was about JB from KPFA and the old Ampex 350 tape machines we had there before the move in 1992.
It wasn't worth it.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: R4- Six O'Clock News

One of those evenings- the way things used to be
I have a small item to mail, and just found a small cardboard box with a mailing label from Heathkit to me at cisco Systems at 1350 Willow Road, MP.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: AIH

Bye, bye, P.I., and maybe the Comical, too.
As It Happens had a good piece on the closing of the paper P.I., and also a good reading from a Herb Caen column from the Chronicle, possibly the next to go.

It's worth a listen:
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/20090317-aih-1.wmv

I subscribed to the Chronicle after I went back to South Carolina after the Navy, through the mail. And I've subscribed it the whole time I've lived here. I believe in newspapers (it's genetic), and it'll be a big change.

Current Mood: sad
Current Music: AIH

You never know about your neighbors
I walked out of the house this afternoon to go to the hardware store, since they have a bit of a sale on, and saw people struggling with moving in furniture next door. Since I had my work gloves on, I pitched in.

It turns out some of the people who arrived to help a little later are at Pacific Maritime, and I mentioned that I was sorry I'd not taken up a second maritime career 15 years ago. And when my antennas were pointed out by my long time neighbor, the landlady, a couple of them mentioned that they were taking radio operator courses, so the conversation immediately turned to GMDSS and Element 7 of the FCC Commercial License array. Most people have never heard of GMDSS, but I just finished taking the Operator and Maintainer license exams, so was able to lend them study software. They were a little surprised.

Lots of PayPal and online activity doesn't count
So, a bank where I have an account deactivated the account because all I've done is make several deposits and a couple of dozen small withdrawals by PayPal. And I've logged into the web site for that account a number of times, but none of that counts.
If I go to an ATM or drop an envelope into a slot, that counts.

Silly people.

Short ride on a slow machine
Part of my Potlatch preparations were the title- it's not that slow, but....
On the way, I'm going to Fry's, Halted, and Weird Stuff, then to the hotel.
And I may get wet coming home, but I've ridden in the rain before, and the roads are washed as well as they can get.
I'm cleaning up the kitchen so the cat-sitter won't be totally revolted. Between shedding cats and shedding rugs, my dust bunnies rival the one the cops near Canterbury found.

For the past few weeks the goal has been to get something out of the attic, out of the basement, out of my shack, and out of the lumber room, every day. But my most productive hours on that are the early evening, so live music and theatre has suffered.

It'll be good to see people at Potlatch, and I know I'll miss some people who won't be there.

And the news from the Obama administration is just got me grinning. It's not perfect, but it's not stupid.

Current Music: KPFA Evening News

way to go?
Hm, I'd rather go out laughing than talking squeaky. But I guess helium is easier to get than nitrous.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7912356.stm

Current Mood: bemused
Current Music: R4- Six O'Clock News

it's a wierd day
The house several down from mine got burglarized at noon today.
I found a library book I lost a year-and-a-half ago behind a drawer in a file cabinet.
I met Serge-lj for dinner in downtown Oakland tonight, and now have a roomie for WorldCon.
There were UPS deliveries after 8PM- apparently they're overloading their drivers.
There's much rain, so I've not gotten out of the house much.

Do these look like Facebook entries?

Damn, I'm glad he's not the President.
>The District of Columbia is one step closer to getting representation in the U.S. House. On >Wednesday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted eleven to one to >support the DC House Voting Rights bill. Senator John McCain cast the sole opposing vote. The >bill would permanently expand the 435-member House by two seats. One seat would go to Washington >D.C. and the other to Utah.

January books
1 McLean- When Eight Bells Toll -found
2 McDevitt- Cauldron- Nebula nominee
3 Raphael Carter- The Fortunate Fall -?
4 Parrot- Tall Ships Down- MarHst mention
5 McLean- South By Java Head -found
6 Richman & Sheth- What's Your Poo Telling You- Unshelved
7 Turtledove- The Man With The Iron Heart- library browse
8 Doctorow- Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town -free ebook
9 Chabon- The Final Solution - ?
10 London- Tales Of The Fish Patrol- ebook, Bay area geography
11 Ross & Richards- Behind bars:Surviving Prison - blog mention
12 Mara Kay- One Small Clue - blog mention

Rural county taxes
When I paid the property taxes in Bamberg County, South Carolina,
I rounded up by 12 cents, just to make it an even dollar amount.
Included with my receipt was a dime and two pennies refund.

Current Music: Left, Right and Center