Just playing around

playing around with Thunderbird's RSS news aggregator.

What's an RSS news aggregator, you say? Why not ask the Wikipedia? Stunningly not all that informative on why you'd want to use a news aggregator.

Say you're like me and you're interested in what goes on in the VFP community. There are sites you can check out to see what's new. And there are many foxpro gurus who post to their own blogs. Only, as with most blogs, they post irregularly. And the only way to know if there's a new post is to go and look at all those sites.

Wouldn't it be nice if you had a program that kept track of all the blog entries you'd seen and would let you know when a new one came along? Well, yeah, they have stuff like that. They call them News Aggregators.

Take that, Wikipedia!

This was a pretty senseless post. But i just want to see how Thunderbird handles me posting a new entry to my blog.

(Also, I like the wikipedia. But it is a little lacking in detail on this subject.)

Mr Kol Kuts Closing for Renovations!

I went over Mr Kol Kuts today, to get my usual sandwich for lunch. They had a sign on the door that said they would be closed for the whole of next week (Sunday to Sunday) for renovations.

While I'm excited for renovations to my absolute favorite deli, I'm not prepared for them to be closed for an entire week. It's going to be a terrible trial.

So if you see me lying in the gutter, shaking with bloodshot eyes, I'm not normally like that. It's just, you see, I need my fix.

Perhaps I will get on the news. Governor Pataki can fight in the courts for my right to have really tasty deli sandwiches made for me for reasonable prices. Congress will pass a bill giving me (and only me) the right to appeal Mr Kol Kuts' closing to the federal court.

What's Your Pop Sign?

Find Your Pop Sign

Myself, I was born in the Year of the BeeGees! My birth-song is "Boogie Oogie Oogie". Which, you know, as disco songs go, is one of the better ones.

Now what does this tell me about myself?

Nothing. But it's kinda funny.

This is interesting...

I found this on Slashdot, thought I'd reference it here.

New Scientist has an article up with a brief synopsis of a variety of recent (or not so recent) scientific conundrums. You can read the article: Thirteen Things That Do Not Make Sense

The missing question is, "Why thirteen questions? Why not twelve or fourteen?" Certainly there are more mysteries in the universe, more things that don't jive with the common conception of the world.

Note that the Homeopathy thing might just be bunk.

Also, I heard about this on NPR yesterday. Apparently, we've screwed up the world good and proper. The effects of human activity will continue to be felt for hundreds of years. Even if we cut off all fossil fuel use and reduced emmissions to zero, the earth will continue to warm and the seas will rise for hundreds of years. That's the conclusion of new research on global warming.

NPR has the interview I heard on their website, here.

Foxpro Just Wont Let Go

I am going to vent a little about Foxpro right here. So, if you're not really interested in what I do for a living, you can probably skip this post. And you know, depending on how cathartic this post is for me, I may be putting more technical stuff on this blog.

A WINDOW is one of the elements of the Visual Foxpro UI. We use it quite often in CATS. One instance in which we use the WINDOW widget is something we call "Anyscan". It looks like this. We use it to display records to the user so they can quickly and easily scan the data.

Normally, in foxpro these WINDOW things are very simple. They're easy to use and uncomplicated. That is, until I get my hands on them. I torture them, I make them into freakish mutants with super-powers. And they get me back by not behaving properly.

I have a window that wont go away. The commands which would shut down a normal window have no effect. I am the bank-robber shooting bullets at superman. My commands run and return with no errors, but the window remains, impervious. My creation is out of control.

The problem, I think, is that the window has an outstanding reference floating around somewhere in the code. Unfortunately for me, VFP provides few tools for determining where such a reference might be. I've used them all, to no avail. I'm not sure what the next step might be.

But in 40 minutes I get to go home. And my frankenstein window can run amok for another day.

Private Accounts Are So Stupid!

God! What the hell is wrong with the president? What could he possibly be thinking on the issue of privitizing social security. It just doesn't make sense!

Have I mentioned that I think he's a lunatic? Cause he's totally nuts and it shows.

I will write more later. But it's after 2am. I need to get to sleep.

Television... Check!

Well, I honestly didn't mean for this blog to be all about my apartment and furniture, but you know, that's what's taking up most of my attention right now. Just be greatfull I'm not talking about work. I promise to mix it up a little in the future.

Java and Mike came by the house this morning to help me move the tv. I cannot thank them enough. They are the best. Rewards of an as yet undetermined variety (perhaps a cornucopia) will be provided.

It was a team effort, but the television (all 160 lbs) of it, is now in place in my apartment. And it looks marvelous!

Can you guess what show I'm watching?

The first quality thing I watched was A View To A Kill and believe me, if there's an argument for big-screen televisions, it's Christopher Walkin punching Roger Moore. It was worth the weight.

As an extra special bonus, the cable-box comes with a PVR (like TiVo). So it's all very exciting. Now we need the couch to get here and we'll really be in business.

Yay! Cable!

Ah, the wonders of modern technology. I'm in my apartment, I'm using the internet. Woooooha!

More later, gotta get back to work.

Wack the Rat

I'm gonna call this my last official night at the old Bellin homestead. The cable guy comes tomorrow. And even if I don't have a tv, I'll still have internet. And that should be enough to keep me entertained.

For the last six weeks or so, we have known that there is a mouse in the house. I witnessed it scurrying across the room and under a door in the basement. Since then it has attacked a spider plant (throwing dirt all over), eaten half a chocolate train, shorted out the oven, and done other assorted damage.

Today, I came across this animal in the kitchen. Making its way to who knows where. I looked at it and said, "I see you! I see you, mouse!" To which, if it could speak, it would have replied, "I am quite obviously a rat."

I continued calling it a mouse (thus taunting and confusing it) and it sidled off into the living room. There it hid behind the love-seat and I prowled around.

We may never have recovered from this dead-locked position, except that reinforcements in the form of my father arrived carrying a broom and a Swiffer. He gave me the broom and orders to terminate with prejudice. To which I replied, "I don't want to kill it. You kill it."

But the rat was flushed out by my father and it fell to me to finish the job. I felt very very terrible. But the deed was done. And the rat, like the parrot, is no more.

I would like to thank Wack-a-Mole for providing me with the skills required. As Densel Washington's character in Man On Fire (the movie my father and I were watching at the time) says, "There's no such thing as tough. There's trained and untrained."

Moving In... nice and slow

Well, I spent my first official night at the apartment last night. My bed was due to arrive at 7am this morning, so I needed to be there. I wasn't gonna try to wake up at 6:30 to meet them.

It worked out well though, because they came promptly at 7:15 with my brand new mattress. (It's not much to look at, right now. I don't even have sheets.)

I hung out with a couple friends during the evening (they gave me a present), and then spent the rest of my free time banging together pieces of wood. The result, well, you can judge for yourself.

I am nowhere near ready to move in. I need to collect all my stuff from here to be transported. And I still need to buy about 1000 things. And even a couple more serious pieces of furniture. Plus, there's no food, no soap, no shower-curtain in the bathroom. I also need a hair cut.

But I am very happy with the way the place is turning out. As you can tell.

And finally, I present the beautiful stairway. Those are my stairs.