I find it odd to see how we humans mistreat the planet upon which we live. We've known for decades that we're destroying the Earth and that, unless we stop living as we do now, there will be very little left for future generations... yet we continue to destroy, abuse, waste and generally screw up everything we can.
Items like this one on Yahoo News are perfect examples of half-assed efforts to pretend to be environmentally friendly while not actually achieving anything. "There is no outright penalty for noncompliance, but states that fail to submit plans could lose federal transportation funds, Leavitt said." So these new rules aren't rules: they're guidelines with no force, no depth to them. Ignore them as you will. Half-assed.
Introduce rules and enforce them, dammit. Offer incentives. "Cut your air pollution by 35% in the next year or we'll fine you 35% of your county's budget. Cut it by 70% and we'll give you extra budget the following year." That'd work. Arrest people who pollute wantonly. Fine companies that throw away huge amounts of stuff. Force people to recycle. Chain capitalist Earth-killers to trees and leave them there to experience Nature's revenge as the worms chew on their toes and the crows peck out their eyeballs! Er, sorry... hippy streak got a bit carried away, there...
Of course, some scientists say that it is not possible to prove 'Global Warming' as the source of the weather changes that are so obvious in many parts of the world. Bollocks, I say. I don't honestly care whether science can prove precisely what's causing what: we all know we should be using fewer fossil fuels, spreading less pollution, wasting fewer resources and not throwing as much stuff away as we do. So why don't we do it?
Money, obviously. Those little bits of coloured paper that we all think are so important.
What I want to know is when will the human race grow up? When will we finally realise that chasing around all day and destroying everything in sight just to 'earn' some more coloured paper is utterly pointless? When will we learn that we cannot afford the luxury of a throwaway society?
Some great news today: apart from the lapsing of work into the more familiar "normal working day" after three weeks which included at least two 12-hour office stints, I received notification that my Freebox had arrived. The postman had tried to deliver it on Friday, when I was out.
The Freebox is a wonderful device: not only is it an ADSL modem that (at least in Paris) achieves speeds of around 3Mbps, but it also does IP telephony and receives a television signal via the same phone line. I went and collected it this morning and finally - finally! - could work from home!
I'd forgotten how wonderful it is to be in the peace and quiet of my own living room, with the cat asleep on my lap while I work. Bliss.
I know: I shouldn't get my hopes up. I should leave them down there, wallowing in the mud next to the hippopotami¹, floundering amongst the algae and single-cell life forms. Unfortunately, I'm human (or close, at least) and was born with an optimistic streak that even many years of knowing Psycho cannot destroy. So I continue to hope, beyond hope, that this week will not be as busy as the last three.
Sitting in the office, working on reports, until after nine in the evening on Friday did not help this hope. Neither did working over dialup for several hours on Sunday morning. Nor coming in early this morning to finish things. Nor does the prospect of spending the afternoon fixing the documentation and bugs. Still, where there's life there's hope, as they say... and I'm reasonably certain I'm still alive.
The good news is that I have received notification of my ADSL modem being delivered - or at least an attempt having been made on Friday, apparently. Of course, I wasn't there, so it'll end up at my local post office where I will collect it. Hopefully², this means that I will be able to work from home on Thursday: a pleasure I have not had the opportunity to experience for the last two months. In fact, the last time I tried to do this, my boss called me into the office to work on those darned reports. That was doubly annoying because I had tagged the day for home because of deliveries: I had to cancel them all and goodness only knows when the companies will come back again.
Anyway, apart from Sunday morning being a huge steaming pile of dog vomit, the weekend went by calmly. I watched several (bad) movies³ and played hours upon hours of games: some real R&R for once.
The baby rats are growing fast now: they look like they've been shaved, as their fur is just starting to grow out a little. We can almost see what colours they will be, which is really cool. There's one in there who, if s/he retains the colours that are showing now, will be incredible!
Ooh, look... I just noticed that it's almost midday. Time for some lunch!
¹ A little Flanders and Swan reference, for the more cultured amongst you. Oh, and yes, I studied Latin.
² See what I mean? Pesky optimistic streak again...
³ This one was bearable and amusing, this one was good but very dated, this one was excellent, as expected, and this one was surprisingly good: the story wasn't appalling, the Playboy-esque scenes weren't overdone, the acting was bearable and I even quite enjoyed it!
For the past two and a half weeks, I've been working my skinny little butt off on one particular project. I sort of screwed the initial analysis of what was needed, which hasn't helped at all, but there have also been several other stumbling blocks in the way. Quite apart from the bad attitude from certain other groups, I've found the lack of cooperation and unwillingness to do any of the real work quite infuriating. The fact that they screw it up when they do finally do it doesn't help, either.
However, this week, I decided that enough is enough. I caught myself whining like a spoilt little schoolgirl¹ on Tuesday and realised that I was just wasting energy that I could be using more profitably. Yes, there are things to complain about and it does us good to have a bit of a winge sometimes, but there's a limit to such things that had been passed.
So I sat Psycho down and spoke to her about it. She's a major whiner, as you all know, so I made it clear that this had to change, for both of us. Slippery slope and all that.
Since then, she's become much more bearable.
¹ Or like Psycho, if you prefer.
Saw this little meme over at SuperSrah's and couldn't resist...
ABCs Of Me
Act your age? In some ways I do, but in others I act younger.
Born on what day of the week? Monday's child is fair of face (yeah, right).
Chore you hate? Washing dishes. Especially greasy dishes.
Dad's name? Herbert.
Essential makeup item? Uh, what?
Favorite actor? Jean Reno.
Gold or silver? Silver. Gold doesn't suit me unless it's white.
Hometown? Shoeburyness.
Instruments you play? Tiny bit of piano and some VERY bad attempts at the guitar.
Job title? IT Analyst.
Kids? A kind offer, but no thanks. Excluding rat-babies, of course.
Living arrangements? My own place. On my own. Woohoo!
Mom's name? Jean.
Need? More money, fewer concerns.
Overnight hospital stays? On morphine, when I put my back out. Funky.
Phobias? Spiders and stupid people. OK, just spiders.
Quote you like? "The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote." - Kosh.
Religious affiliation? Yes.
Siblings? Four older brothers.
Time you wake up? 6:30 a.m.
Unique talent? Getting other people out of trouble.
Vegetable you refuse to eat? Broccoli. Blech.
Worst habit? Getting other people out of trouble.
X-rays you've had? Teeth and back.
Yummy food you make? Pancakes (I can flip 'em, too). Chicken Ding (put in microwave... wait... *ding*).
Zodiac Sign? Capricorn.
I spent Friday evening looking after Biscotte, since Psycho was off getting her hair abused (again) somewhere in Paris, for free. Thank the gods she gets on so well with the lady who does the styling: it takes for ever, but she doesn't have to pay. Since, over the last couple of months, I have bailed her out financially at least three or four times, I don't mind cat-sitting if it means she stops spending twenty millions euros on her hair every freakin' week.
So anyway, I was over at her place, watching film after film¹. Having fed the cat and the hamster, I figured I'd feed the rats, too: she has three females in my old rat cage. It was then I noticed that Charlotte had something big and red at the end of her foot. At first, I wondered if she'd done something to her leg and her foot had swelled up. I moved out of the way of the light, so I could see properly... and discovered that it was, in fact, a baby rat.
Charlotte is the newest arrival of the three adult rats and, after a quick check of the other two for huge testicles (for which rats are renowned), I figure she must have been pregnant when Psycho bought her. The others are definitely female. She'd given birth to four squirming little transparent-skinned, red, alien-looking babies who were squeaking away as she nursed them under her: a very small litter, thankfully.
To say Psycho and I were surprised would be an understatement: we've only ever had single-sex (or 'snipped') animal pairs, with no threat of offspring. Suddenly, there's four tiny little lives in the corner of the cage. At least we now understood why their mum had always eaten so damned much!
So now I'm hurriedly reading up on baby rats all over the Internet. I also have to ask myself the question of whether I want some male rats again: presuming the litter contains at least one male, he'll have to be removed. Rats are fertile at five weeks and can have standard litters of as many as two dozen: the propagation rate is exponential.
While I have no problem with rats in and of themselves - quite the opposite, in fact - I'm not sure I have the time or energy to commit to them. Cage changing is a fairly messy and time-consuming business (especially with males), but the most difficult is the socialisation. Rats do not like being left alone. They enjoy human company and coming out to sit on a shoulder or go for a wander. There's also Pie to consider - his reactions, the dangers and so on. It's not an easy decision.
The alternative is to give them to a pet shop and hope they don't sell them as snake food...
¹ Me without PC = boooored. After Le Chinois with Jackie Chan and Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken, I finished with Grosse Pointe Blank with John (& Joan) Cusack.
I had a spam message in my inbox this morning that really caught me out¹. I saw it sitting there in Outlook and, since the program was still grinding through a bunch of spam checks, I had time to wonder what it was:
From: Forrest Dow
Subject: Ross
I don't know a Forrest Dow, of course, and the name sounds made up. Then again, with the current American trend of calling children 'Antwone' and 'Rafayel' instead of using intelligent spellings, one can never be sure.
Could this be a request for a job reference? That would be unusual, but not impossible: Scary Ross and I have worked together before², but he'd get that from our boss, so it didn't make sense. It could be a character reference, since I've known him for a dozen years and more: that would hold up a lot better, in fact, and would be possible if he were applying for a police job, as a postman or for a gun license³.
Worse, could there be a problem and he'd been kidnapped, taken off-line, conscripted, sold into slavery, dipped in hot wax and hidden in a clothes shop window disguised as a mannequin, had all his fingers chopped off or been abducted by aliens for experiments involving anal probes?
Of course, Outlook eventually finished scanning and returned control. With trembling hand, I double-clicked...
O n l i n e U n i v e r s i t y D e g r e e s
Obtain Diploma, Degree, or Masters...
Oh buggery... conned by a spammer. What an incredible coincidence for them that I happen to know someone called Ross. Bastards.
¹ One of many spams, of course, but this one didn't fall into the filter trap.
² Yes, that company is still in business. No, the fact that they are only in business because someone bought them out is not our fault, OK?
³ Perish the thought. Do GPMGs need a license?
Yes, it's finally happened. Last night, while setting the (third) alarm on my mobile phone, I received an SMS. Heading straight to the messaging options, I opened it and read something along these lines:
"You've won prize number 123456! Phone this number and find out what it is!"
Blah blah, marketing bollocks. As if it wasn't bad enough receiving three and a half kilos of spam every day in my email, they're now sending them by SMS. Well, at least they're the ones paying for their own stupidity this time.
An old English expression, "TGIF" stands for "Thank goodness it's Friday". Of course, personally, I'd go for something more along the lines of "TFIF", but that's just because this week has been so damned awful.
Starting with my presence at the pointy end of project problems (for which I am still getting major hassle and crap) on Monday, the week continued downhill into more difficulties and stress from all sides. This culminated in me being called in to the office yesterday afternoon - when I had planned to have stuff delivered and work done on the flat, all of which I had to cancel - so that I could "work closely" with the guy who's helping me out. Goddamned bloody stupid-arse move: day started at 08:15 and ended at 19:10. Lovely. Eleven hours.
When I got home last night, I thought I'd try out the security system I had fitted in the apartment. In some ways, it's a bit paranoid on my part, but the bank was doing a special offer, so I figured what the heck. I switched it on, but then remembered I should let the cat out, so switched it off.
Unfortunately, the system did not like this. The siren went off: 85 decibels for 90 seconds at 11 o'clock in the evening. Great. My neighbours love me now, I'll bet. I have a feeling that I will unsubscribe from the service and go for some window-locks and a tough door instead... I haven't even switched it on today simply for fear that it goes off while I'm out, won't switch off when I get home or something else equally stupid. We'll see if I grow accustomed to it, but I doubt that will happen. Damned thing doesn't even have a screen where I can check status or anything! Gah!
There have been some high points to the week, it must be said. Last night was quite funny, for instance: I took Pie down for his evening stroll and both the other cats turned up, with their owners. Very pleasant, both of them, although Franck's owner is somewhat garrulous. Lenin also decided to attack both Franck and Pie at different times (he's due to be, uh, 'snipped' on Monday, so until then he's a tad over-excited), but it all worked out OK.
Admittedly, it's a pretty low 'high point', but it'll have to do in the quagmire of crud that is my life right now.
MySQL is now back on the server, complete with the DBI and DBD stuff, so I figured I'd see if my 'old' (i.e. not recreated and imported) blog was still intact. Thankfully it was, so I've been able to just re-post my entries from the last couple of days onto it, switch off the new database and - as a bonus - get all my templates back! Cool!
I just spent most of the day reimaging my laptop, restoring about 10Gb of files and finally being able to read my email a couple of hours ago. Stupid blasted BSoDs... I hate 'em.
I just did this one over at Flowerhead's, so I figured I'd go ahead and put it up here. Out of courtesy, of course, and not because the MEME WORM HAS CRAWLED INTO MY HEAD AND EATEN MY BRAAAAAIIIIIIINS!
Nope. Not at all. You can put answers in the comments!
1. Who are you?
2. Have we ever met?
3. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
4. Describe me in one word.
5. What reminds you of me?
6. If you could give me anything, what would it be?
7. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
8. Are you going to put this on your weblog and see what I say about you?
9. What do you love like a fat kid loves cake?
10. What makes you come back here?
P.S. Something's VERY odd with the blog right now: entries getting chopped short and all sorts of stuff.
OK, I figured I should give a bit of an update, since the server disappeared, then suddenly came back. Basically emp.org is a voluntarily-run service and the tech guy who looks after the server said – the last time it was compromised – that if it happened again, he wouldn’t rebuild. So when the monkey-boys attacked, he switched everything off. Thankfully, someone else stepped in and offered to host on a new server in a different location and to meet all the security requirements. Excellent!
To be honest, I lost most of my blog setup in the transfer: I exported the database entries before the move, which was a surprisingly good idea, but I forgot to grab all my templates. Very annoying. I did find a few lying around and managed to find the place from which I originally copied the footer setup, so the front page - at least - looks fairly normal.
The comments are now working, which is good news, and I've switched to the built-in MT database ("Berkeley") rather than MySQL. That was mostly a choice of frustration: the MySQL stuff hasn't been set up on emp.org yet, so I'd have to sit around and wait for the poor overworked techies to get to it. Rather than hassle them with my pathetic little blog, I figured I'd just rebuild and import. Et voila!
So... what's still wrong here? Well, most of the templates, for one thing! The comments look weird, the page-per post looks ugly, the archives are buggered and the whole trackback thing looks decidedly skewed. I suppose this would be a good time to consider a bit of a redesign, particularly if I could be bothered. I'm bizarrely tempted to go blue instead of purple. Or orange. I'm sure this will pass.
The webcam is, of course, still down and will remain that way until I can get my ADSL installed in the new place. Then I have to figure out where to point the thing. I don't want to blind any of you by wandering past half-nekkid or something equally appalling.
I also have to keep my promise to Ms Jackie and post the "before and after" pics of the new place. I have a little .MOV file from the digital camera, so I can take some screen grabs from that to show the place when it was empty. The shelves are now finished, PC and desk installed, sofa placed and so on. The bathroom still remains to be altered, of course, but I'm getting used to taking a shower instead of a bath (despite not being too happy about it), so that's less of a rush now.
In other news, Pie and I are slowly settling in to the new place. He's struggling a bit, since there's a courtyard (he's always been an indoor cat up 'til now) and two other cats in the building. Unfortunately, this means I have to put up with a lot of mewling as he complains about all the changes, the new feline neighbours and being shut inside the apartment when he would rather be out in the open. It's quite painful to hear, but I think we're slowly reaching some sort of compromise.
Psycho is still seeing her bloke, which is good news. He's unfortunately working as a salesman while he finishes some studies to become a veterinary assistant (or something), which means he's not around as much as she or I would like. I still have to put up with her crap a little too much for my liking, but things are changing for the better. She starts a new job tomorrow, too, which is excellent news: and it's right opposite her apartment, so she can't whine about having to travel!
Work's been a total bitch the last couple of weeks: I screwed up somewhat on my analysis of the reporting requirements for this project, so that's running late and everyone's worried. Such is life. I guess I'll have some crap to take over that one.
Anyways, it's great to be back!
Hmmmm. As Scary Ross noted, the comments pop-up link below does not seem to be working. I have no idea why, to be honest. For the moment, it is possible to comment, but it's a bit of a pain in the butt: you need to hit the link on the left to the current entry, and put your comments in there instead of via the pop-up. I'll try to figure out why that's gone screwy...
Thanks to the wonderful efforts of a certain Javier (and the continued technical support of Rob), the employees.org server has been rebuilt and moved to a nice, safe location. Yes, I'm BACK! Woohoo!
Of course, I've had to rebuild almost everything from scratch, so if you find stuff that doesn't work, please let me know. I need to get my post footers back, for a start.