Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
Time to learn a new model. Last year was butterflies. I still rather like butterflies. But, time for a new challenge. The small green thing is supposed to be a cat, neko in japanese. I feel sure that I can get it figured out after a couple more sessions. Right now it. looks rather like a horny toad. A roadkill horny toad.
Weather permitting it will be back to the office tomorrow morning.
Decided that my photos needed a sleek new home. And they needed the home RIGHT NOW. So off to the Apple Store. (Hey, I am old. I am into instant gratification.)
All of us antique computer hacks remember when disk drives were as big as washing machines and held about 12,000,000 bits of data. So, this thing is seriously cool. Too me. Most likely not to anyone else.
And in keeping with the new/old theme. A couple of my oldest digital photos. Taken with a Kodak DC260 in January 2000.
So what got me into this gotta have new external drive mode. Well, At breakfast this AM a friend was afraid that her computer had died and taken her photos with it. The computer was revived. And I copied her documents and photos to an old flash drive. Her computer is about 9 years old.
BUT WAIT … my photos live on a 10 year old FAT32 formatted drive. Time for an upgrade.
Trying to learn to like my neighborhood. I adored my old neighborhood. Absolutely and completely loved it. My new neighborhood, I barely tolerate. But, hey – this is my forever home so I might as well try to at least “like” it.
To that end, after I finished up a fine 6 hours of telecommuting, I went in search of “critters”. And this is what I found at the Long Branch Nature Center/Park about one mile from the Asylum.
Spring came blowing in today. It was too windy for photography – but I am not going to complain. It was warm and sunny.
I am doing some rather tedious work on “my” hospital system. So, I telecommuted today. It is VERY quiet in the Old Bat Cave. And the new speedy wifi service here is good enough to connect to the hospital system. So for about 6 hours today my Mac pretended to be a Windows 7 PC. Feel like I should rinse Forbin off or something!
Faithful readers may recall that my computer’s always have names and this one is Forbin after the human in Colossus: The Forbin Project, a 1970 sci-fi book and movie.
It wasn’t all work today. I did make it out for a few photographs. And a little warmness.
This really bad “starving artist sofa painting” appeared on the wall right outside my door. I open my door and there it is. It showed up while I was in Hawai’i. When I went to Hawai’i there was a door. But, the door was removed when the across the hall apartment was renovated. And, someone must have died and left this “art” behind. Well, at least it isn’t in the land fill.
So how is this “new improved” wifi network.
I switched over to the bad-old network and got this reading:
And then back to the new network:
Not earth shatteringly good like a couple of weeks ago. But, way better than the old 2.4 Gigahertz network.
Reminder from Carlton:
Avoid Beginnings. That was one of his little sayings. I need to avoid a beginning. I told someone that I would help convert a photo catalog from Aperture to Lightroom. I haven’t a clue how to do that. I will never need to know how to do that. It is only my ego that says “Sure I’ll help” Absolutely no good can come from going down that path. I said I would. But, I am going to bail before I mess something up.
Computer – which is what I call “Alexa”. Today I got the Echo and the Dot connected to the WPA2 Enterprise system using their MAC addresses. Life is a little less secure for the Asylum’s network. And a little harder for the IT Department … but I am good to go.
So, what do I use these toys for any how?
“Computer” isn’t as good as the one on Star Trek, but she is getting there. And I am really interested to see if Amazon, Google, Apple or someone else wins this race.
Today is the 4th anniversary of the worst day of my life. The day that I first heard and promptly googled Merkel Cell Carcinoma.
Took that shot on Saturday.
And a little post processing fun never hurts.
Just an ordinary day. No complaints. Well, except that spring is still MIA. And the “new improved” Asylum WiFi is a bitch to connect to – so for now – I still have good speed. Suspect that will come to a crashing halt when I have to share the bandwidth with 500 of my closest friends.
But, the deployment has been such a clusterfuck that I may well decamp to FIOS. I could be over reacting. Or not.
Went on a little field trip with 3 of the inmates to inspect the bluebells in Bull Run Regional Park. We were about 5-8 days too early for max bluebell viewing – but the sun was shining, there were very few people and there were bluebells.
Also a raccoon.
Which is about as good as my wild life photography ever gets.
An all around good way to spend Sunday after noon.
Cherry blossom fireworks tonight. But it was a bit too cloudy and I think there was a building in front of them. So, no pictures. But, I adore fireworks. Especially my own personal ones right out my window. Gotta say this apartment isn’t great for fireworks. Maybe I’ll have to move. Just kidding. This is my “forever” home.
Speaking of forever homes… I made it over to far distant Maryland for our dear friend’s funeral. No trouble at all until the last ½ mile. The on-foot part from the bus. Google walked me right into a construction zone. I had to get directions from a real live human person. The horror!
Carlton, you would have liked the service. His boys did good. Old friends said nice things. The preacher actually knew Cliff. Not from church – he is Becky and Charlie’s pastor and he knew Cliff more socially than spiritually. Did you know that Cliff was on the board of Wesley Theological Seminary? And, that Charlie is 51 years old? Doesn’t that make you feel old? Well, maybe it doesn’t – since you are past aging. What happens if I catch up to you? It didn’t seem right, being at a Kendall family event with neither you nor Cliff present.
Cliff and Camille have sent 250 kids to college. Our foundation will send their foundation a nice “in lieu of flowers” check. And I will have to make an effort to not lose the connection to the boys.
Suddenly taken GRUMPY today. I was walking across one of our lobbies today. The one that has an unfortunate echo effect. I had an almost uncontrollable desire to yell “I hate this funking place”. Which would have at best gotten me a visit from the social worker and at worse a transfer to the Terrarium where you are locked up and have no access to dangerous implements.
Before I committed social seppuku, I scuttled back up to my room. Locked my door. Made a pot of good coffee and watched a short film about AI. (Available for you viewing pleasure – free – for the next few days at Do You Trust This Computer
This link was sent by a friend along with the reminder that I am the warden of The Asylum and not an inmate.
By dinner, I recovered my sanity sufficiently to come to dinner and heartily enjoy a steak, baked potato and Guinness. Oh and something green. Spinach, I think.
And, I was told it was time to “make a gratitude list”. OK.
I am grateful for:
Nobody is promised tomorrow.
I worked a lot of hours today. And, I am tired. Had quesadilla and cheap red wine for dinner. Over dinner we had an animated conversation about colon cancer, surgery and treatment options. Only in an old folks asylum or at a medical convention would that be considered acceptable dinner table conversation.
And now, I am going to not think about connecting devices to WPA2 Enterprise Networks anymore today.
The day got off to a good start. Logged a couple of miles on the “dreadmill”. Took some pictures in RAW format to play with using the new improved Lightroom.
Went off to a “meeting” about our Asylum WiFi. I have no problems with it. But, I think I am in the minority. Did my estimated taxes. That was the primary task today.
And, this afternoon I went and took 146 photos at The Asylum Talent Show.
I selected 4 and turned them in. I did not turn the one above in.
But this one – I did turn in.
Anyhow, I will be glad to go to work tomorrow to get some rest!
Wonder if anything happened in the world today? Best fire up the BCC World News.