I’ve downloaded the whole “Achieving goodness in a complex world ” portion of the social criticism website into my palmtop, for reading in bed.

Tonight’s selections will include Thucydides – Pericles’ funeral oration from The Peloponnesian War, then Albert Camus – Writing in an age of insanity: for truth, liberty and optimism (Nobel lecture)/// and if I swallow that whole, I’ll move on to start on Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment (Which will surely take me more than one night. 🙂 ) A classic I never got around to in high school…. it seemed ot be offered for reading in all the classes but mine. Long overdue read.

Sweet and sweeter… the database program for WiD has come together in record time, and seems to be very polite to the ancient laptops that they’re using. I sort of wanted to experiment with wireless, but they’re really not up to that sort of spending level yet… (but they said they’d let me know if it was to happen, I was the guy for the job!) Perhaps a few more days of debugging, (Ideally with work being as slow as it is here, maybe 2 more days) and the mission will be complete!

I just have to do fine-tuning now, lay out the reports the way they’d like, and teach folks how to use it. Very simple system, identical to the paperwork they used previously… but with drop downs to spare them repetetive typing. if they want official paperwork, all they have to do is print it.

I’m very proud of myself. 🙂 The guts of the program were all in my library already, and there were precious few bugs to iron out at all.

Get a new company harassment policy in the mail. There’s a list of NOs, kind of like you’d see at a hotel pool. I’ve only had the list in my possession for a second but No. 5 is already my favorite: No Taunting.

Man. That’s going to be tough.

Not a lot happenning today… Dale’s back, and Sappho’s out and about, so I’m sort of chugging steadily along, wrapped a few holiday presents, even! I suspect that come 5pm, things are going to get tricky.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard is on the radio. “It’s all good,” he says.

Hooray for online shopping!

Now, I just need to grab some tape from work, and wrap some of these lovely local ones are….(and I have to get Blackie a new toy, since some naughty orange cat who will go nameless (see icon) got into my goodybag and played with it to the point where it’s not fit to give away, now.)

Holiday cards are winging to folks today… huzzah!

I think that toys are coming in more and more weirdly-shaped packages these days. What ever happened to tossing it in a cardboard box, with a little cellophane window on it? Why the huge thick semi-laminate vaccuum formed on there?


Aragorn’s Verse

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
'specially for Chris. :)

occiput & refractory

refractory (rih-FRAK-tuh-ree), adjective:
1. Stubbornly disobedient; unmanageable.
2. Resisting ordinary treatment or cure.
3. Difficult to melt or work; capable of enduring high temperature.

Refractory comes from Latin refractarius, “stubborn,” from refragari, “to oppose, to withstand, to thwart.”

occiput (OK-suh-put) noun, plural occipita (ok-SIP-i-tah) or occiputs

The back part of the head or skull.

[From Middle English, from Latin occipit, from oc-, from ob- (against) + ciput, from caput (head).]

Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.)
Is planning a ban on smut.
Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut.
And his reverend occiput.
Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut.,
Grit your molars and do your dut.,
Gird up your l–ns,
Smite h-p and th-gh,
We’ll all be Kansas
By and by.

Opening para of Ogden Nash’s 1931 poem on Sen. Reed Smoot whose anti-porn stance led to a newspaper headline “Smoot Smites Smut”.

occiput & refractory

refractory (rih-FRAK-tuh-ree), adjective:
1. Stubbornly disobedient; unmanageable.
2. Resisting ordinary treatment or cure.
3. Difficult to melt or work; capable of enduring high temperature.

Refractory comes from Latin refractarius, “stubborn,” from refragari, “to oppose, to withstand, to thwart.”

occiput (OK-suh-put) noun, plural occipita (ok-SIP-i-tah) or occiputs

The back part of the head or skull.

[From Middle English, from Latin occipit, from oc-, from ob- (against) + ciput, from caput (head).]

Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.)
Is planning a ban on smut.
Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut.
And his reverend occiput.
Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut.,
Grit your molars and do your dut.,
Gird up your l–ns,
Smite h-p and th-gh,
We’ll all be Kansas
By and by.

Opening para of Ogden Nash’s 1931 poem on Sen. Reed Smoot whose anti-porn stance led to a newspaper headline “Smoot Smites Smut”.