Today, my flatmate and I walked down to the market in Kitchener. He wanted to buy some stuff. On our way down we stopped at a place called Way Station books off
Regina not far from uptown Waterloo. It's full of academic books. There were a few I thought
I might like to pick up, but, alas, I don't have the cash right now.
It'd be kind of nice to get a copy of Herodotus and Euripedes. (I'm misspelling their names).
When we left that store it was starting to rain. We stopped in at the store my cousin works in and talked to her a few minutes, then continued on. The rain got harder
as we travelled closer to downtown Kitchener. It eventually did stop on our way back a few hours later. By the time we got back home, I was so tired my flatmate thought that
I was going to pass out. I did fall asleep for a while a little while after getting home.
I've been slowly ripping all my CDs to Ogg Vorbis format. I've been slowly turning my workstation into a jukebox. I've been using the shuffle flag on
Ogg Vorbis player. So far so good, except the shuffle doesn't seem very random to me.
Also I have a bunch of .mp3s that I'ld like to include in the mix. So, I wrote a
program to give me a better shuffle, and include the .mp3s. It includes my stack implementation from Mel(my XML Data binding for C program).
With that, I've got about 6 hours of music, without replaying any song. My next project will be to have it remember which songs need to be louder (some of my .mp3s are from
the Wail website and they need to be turned up so you can hear them) and some
of the songs I've ripped I don't want to hear as often as the others, so I'ld like to tell it not to play those all the time. And not play multiple songs I don't care for together...:).
The source code above should work on any POSIXish system. (IE not windows, though porting shouldn't be impossible, but probably not worth it.)
Yesterday, I saw an ad for a job that had requirements that matched my skills
rather well. It's been 20 hours or so since I sent them an email to find out
what they are, (I didn't send a resume, because I want to verify they're
an actual local place first) I still haven't heard back from them. It's not like I was asking hard questions or something.
Just 'where are you?' Assuming they ever check their email in a day, I would have expected a response sooner.
My shuffling programme is coming along nicely. I've got up to having it remember relative volume preferences, and remembering enough information about how long ago a song was played that quit the program
and come back and it'll never play the same song. Next on the chopping block are:
remembering how much I like a song, and the ability to choose playlists.
Well, we finally hear that the US is paritally lifting the ban on beef.
So, we can probably expect beef costs to rise in Canada as the producers try to recoup
the costs of the whole deal, pretending that there were lowered prices
during the crisis. (Actually, by my count, ground beef prices had fallen
a bit at the grocery store, but not as much as I expect them to now rise.) Sigh, unfortunately, my
requirement for ground beef is rather inelastic, so I'll likely continue buying the same amount regardless of the price.
In other news, some friends are getting married today, and some other friends
are having their first wedding anniversary. Congratulations to the bride and groom and Happy Anniversary to the other couple.
Monday, a friend had to go out for the day, and left me to look after her
two sons all afternoon. That was great. At the end of the afternoon,
she mentioned that she needed someone to look out for them in the
evening as well. Yay, more time to play with them. While I was playing
with them, at one point I was lying on the floor face down and the 4 year old climbed
on my back. So I thought, hmm, I'll do a push-up, get some extra workout
for my arms. So I did, except, he was actually kneeling on my back, and
when I got my arms completely straight he fell onto the right side of my
neck. I caught him so he didn't hit the ground hard, and he was fine
afterward. At the time I thought I was fine too, but the next day it hurt my
neck to turn my head to the right. It still does a little bit, but not so bad now.
In other news: I've found another perfect job. This one is at the University
doing programming as a research assistant. I'm pretty much exactly the low end of what they're looking for
I just hope they look hard enough to decide on an interview so I can convince them
that my apparent lack of some of the skills they're hoping for can actually
be a good thing.
So the power was out for nine and a half hours last night. No biggie.
I finally got a chance to use my telescope for something useful. The moon looked kinda cool, though there was a
light and high cloud cover that distorted viewing. I came to remember why
I stopped using my telescope anyway. No servos, no autotracking, no nothing. I couldn't even remember or figure out how to use
the higher strength lense. I just couldn't focus when it was in place. I seem to remember doing that when I
was in high school. Eventually went to bed after 11 last night and the power came back at about a quarter to 2.
In more normal pursuits, I finally got my hands on a copy of the Septuagint. Wow, that's a thick book.
My copies of the Old and New Testaments together in English are considerably smaller.
Yesterday, I went down to Mississauga with some friends and we hooked up
with some people to play baseball (actually 3+ pitch with 4-5 players
per team). First time up I got tagged at first base. Second time, I made
it to first, then second from the next hit. Then, as I was taking off
from second base on the next hit, my right calf cramped right up. It
felt like the muscle pulled away from the bone, twisted, then reattached.
I could barely walk for the rest of the day, though I tried to keep walking to walk it off. I soaked the leg in hot water
when I got home about 11pm. This morning a massage-therapist friend
massaged it for me and it felt like she twist the muscle back. I can walk again, but I don't really want
to walk very far from my apartment, or leave the apartment much. Last
night climbing two flights of stairs was pretty slow, though today after
the massage I could do it, but I haven't tried running it yet. I think that'll have
to wait a few days.
So, despite having a leg that's not quite working right, I seem to be having an okay social life. I spent much of Monday with my massage-therapist friend and her children. Tuesday she invited me and another friend over for supper. In the meantime, I've also been trying to read through the book of James in Greek. It's a whole lot easier than Hebrews. The difference actually shows up on the WOW! scale. I'm not sure if that means the writer of Hebrews was more or less educated than James.
In complete non-news: I'm still waiting for a call back from UW about that research assistant position I applied to just before the power went out. It's really odd, but I feel more confident about this job than any other from the past five months. About how I felt after my interview with the TSE (now TSX) way back when.
Saturday, I helped some friends move, I had to be careful with my leg
'cause, Friday I was walking across King Street with the lights, and looking
up the street noticed an ambulance bearing down on me with its lights on.
I immediately dashed for the curb, took two steps and then had to hobble
quickly the rest of the way as I could feel the flesh ripping. Not fun. I hobble walked home but it wasn't too bad
later that night. Of course, what I really should have done was stop, and take two steps back
so that I was standing in front of a car that was waiting at the red light. I would have been out of the way, and no new pain.
Anyway, after helping my friends move, my massage therapist friend gave me another massage. This time including the back and neck. I felt good, for a few hours after, but of
course, my back tightened up again. I'm going to look into getting a referral from a doctor and charging my coverage...
Tuesday night I was out, after I got home, my flatmate mentioned that my brother had called. He was in Southern Ontario. So I called him back and we arranged to meet in the morning. They showed up at around noon, and after lunch we went down to Hamilton to visit my other brother. He let me drive. I haven't done so much driving in one day since ever. I'm not sure when I do get my G2 whether I'll be able to handle driving for the eight hours to get to my parents place. Anyway, the day was a blast.
Long walk
by alan on Sun 3rd Aug 2003 12:49AM
Today, my flatmate and I walked down to the market in Kitchener. He wanted to buy some stuff. On our way down we stopped at a place called Way Station books off Regina not far from uptown Waterloo. It's full of academic books. There were a few I thought I might like to pick up, but, alas, I don't have the cash right now. It'd be kind of nice to get a copy of Herodotus and Euripedes. (I'm misspelling their names). When we left that store it was starting to rain. We stopped in at the store my cousin works in and talked to her a few minutes, then continued on. The rain got harder as we travelled closer to downtown Kitchener. It eventually did stop on our way back a few hours later. By the time we got back home, I was so tired my flatmate thought that I was going to pass out. I did fall asleep for a while a little while after getting home.
shuffle this
by alan on Tue 5th Aug 2003 6:05PM
I've been slowly ripping all my CDs to Ogg Vorbis format. I've been slowly turning my workstation into a jukebox. I've been using the shuffle flag on Ogg Vorbis player. So far so good, except the shuffle doesn't seem very random to me. Also I have a bunch of .mp3s that I'ld like to include in the mix. So, I wrote a program to give me a better shuffle, and include the .mp3s. It includes my stack implementation from Mel(my XML Data binding for C program). With that, I've got about 6 hours of music, without replaying any song. My next project will be to have it remember which songs need to be louder (some of my .mp3s are from the Wail website and they need to be turned up so you can hear them) and some of the songs I've ripped I don't want to hear as often as the others, so I'ld like to tell it not to play those all the time. And not play multiple songs I don't care for together...:). The source code above should work on any POSIXish system. (IE not windows, though porting shouldn't be impossible, but probably not worth it.)
Well, yet another false lead.
by alan on Thu 7th Aug 2003 7:51PM
Yesterday, I saw an ad for a job that had requirements that matched my skills rather well. It's been 20 hours or so since I sent them an email to find out what they are, (I didn't send a resume, because I want to verify they're an actual local place first) I still haven't heard back from them. It's not like I was asking hard questions or something. Just 'where are you?' Assuming they ever check their email in a day, I would have expected a response sooner.
My shuffling programme is coming along nicely. I've got up to having it remember relative volume preferences, and remembering enough information about how long ago a song was played that quit the program and come back and it'll never play the same song. Next on the chopping block are: remembering how much I like a song, and the ability to choose playlists.
Beef ban rising
by alan on Sat 9th Aug 2003 6:03PM
Well, we finally hear that the US is paritally lifting the ban on beef. So, we can probably expect beef costs to rise in Canada as the producers try to recoup the costs of the whole deal, pretending that there were lowered prices during the crisis. (Actually, by my count, ground beef prices had fallen a bit at the grocery store, but not as much as I expect them to now rise.) Sigh, unfortunately, my requirement for ground beef is rather inelastic, so I'll likely continue buying the same amount regardless of the price.
In other news, some friends are getting married today, and some other friends are having their first wedding anniversary. Congratulations to the bride and groom and Happy Anniversary to the other couple.
Sore.
by alan on Thu 14th Aug 2003 9:32PM
Monday, a friend had to go out for the day, and left me to look after her two sons all afternoon. That was great. At the end of the afternoon, she mentioned that she needed someone to look out for them in the evening as well. Yay, more time to play with them. While I was playing with them, at one point I was lying on the floor face down and the 4 year old climbed on my back. So I thought, hmm, I'll do a push-up, get some extra workout for my arms. So I did, except, he was actually kneeling on my back, and when I got my arms completely straight he fell onto the right side of my neck. I caught him so he didn't hit the ground hard, and he was fine afterward. At the time I thought I was fine too, but the next day it hurt my neck to turn my head to the right. It still does a little bit, but not so bad now.
In other news: I've found another perfect job. This one is at the University doing programming as a research assistant. I'm pretty much exactly the low end of what they're looking for I just hope they look hard enough to decide on an interview so I can convince them that my apparent lack of some of the skills they're hoping for can actually be a good thing.
Power!
by alan on Fri 15th Aug 2003 5:20PM
So the power was out for nine and a half hours last night. No biggie. I finally got a chance to use my telescope for something useful. The moon looked kinda cool, though there was a light and high cloud cover that distorted viewing. I came to remember why I stopped using my telescope anyway. No servos, no autotracking, no nothing. I couldn't even remember or figure out how to use the higher strength lense. I just couldn't focus when it was in place. I seem to remember doing that when I was in high school. Eventually went to bed after 11 last night and the power came back at about a quarter to 2.
In more normal pursuits, I finally got my hands on a copy of the Septuagint. Wow, that's a thick book. My copies of the Old and New Testaments together in English are considerably smaller.
Baseball hurts too.
by alan on Tue 19th Aug 2003 12:16AM
Yesterday, I went down to Mississauga with some friends and we hooked up with some people to play baseball (actually 3+ pitch with 4-5 players per team). First time up I got tagged at first base. Second time, I made it to first, then second from the next hit. Then, as I was taking off from second base on the next hit, my right calf cramped right up. It felt like the muscle pulled away from the bone, twisted, then reattached. I could barely walk for the rest of the day, though I tried to keep walking to walk it off. I soaked the leg in hot water when I got home about 11pm. This morning a massage-therapist friend massaged it for me and it felt like she twist the muscle back. I can walk again, but I don't really want to walk very far from my apartment, or leave the apartment much. Last night climbing two flights of stairs was pretty slow, though today after the massage I could do it, but I haven't tried running it yet. I think that'll have to wait a few days.
Life
by alan on Wed 20th Aug 2003 7:55PM
So, despite having a leg that's not quite working right, I seem to be having an okay social life. I spent much of Monday with my massage-therapist friend and her children. Tuesday she invited me and another friend over for supper. In the meantime, I've also been trying to read through the book of James in Greek. It's a whole lot easier than Hebrews. The difference actually shows up on the WOW! scale. I'm not sure if that means the writer of Hebrews was more or less educated than James.
In complete non-news: I'm still waiting for a call back from UW about that research assistant position I applied to just before the power went out. It's really odd, but I feel more confident about this job than any other from the past five months. About how I felt after my interview with the TSE (now TSX) way back when.
more Life
by alan on Mon 25th Aug 2003 10:19PM
Saturday, I helped some friends move, I had to be careful with my leg 'cause, Friday I was walking across King Street with the lights, and looking up the street noticed an ambulance bearing down on me with its lights on. I immediately dashed for the curb, took two steps and then had to hobble quickly the rest of the way as I could feel the flesh ripping. Not fun. I hobble walked home but it wasn't too bad later that night. Of course, what I really should have done was stop, and take two steps back so that I was standing in front of a car that was waiting at the red light. I would have been out of the way, and no new pain.
Anyway, after helping my friends move, my massage therapist friend gave me another massage. This time including the back and neck. I felt good, for a few hours after, but of course, my back tightened up again. I'm going to look into getting a referral from a doctor and charging my coverage...
New Fun
by alan on Wed 27th Aug 2003 5:18AM
It turns out my brother and his family are coming to visit tomorrow. This was rather unexpected on my side, but I'm looking forward to it now.
Suprise visit.
by alan on Fri 29th Aug 2003 12:54AM
Tuesday night I was out, after I got home, my flatmate mentioned that my brother had called. He was in Southern Ontario. So I called him back and we arranged to meet in the morning. They showed up at around noon, and after lunch we went down to Hamilton to visit my other brother. He let me drive. I haven't done so much driving in one day since ever. I'm not sure when I do get my G2 whether I'll be able to handle driving for the eight hours to get to my parents place. Anyway, the day was a blast.