Out of the Frying Pan

Oh. That's all right, then.

Checking a flight status, this notice popped up:

During the merger integration process, United®- and Continental-operated flights may use aircraft painted with any of the following names: United, United Express®, Continental®, Continental Express® or Continental Connection.

For quite a while it has seemed that United flies customers on any dang plane they want with any carrier they feel like (code sharing).

Relativity studies

Messing around on the Web, I feel greater suspicion than ever about genealogy. Some errors get picked up and then repeated and repeated ad infinitum in various family trees, even when a reasonable person would wonder: Was the mother REALLY born 15 years after the "child" died?

One wonders if there are any really reliable genealogies pre-cooked. I have my doubts. Nevertheless, for people poking around at family things, here are some things that might be interesting:

• Washington State Digital Archives is a huge online archive of state records such as births, institutions, auditor, cemetery rcords, and much more. Big-time de-commidification of information going on there. Just last night, in fact, I was able to untangle a mess some mis-begotten trees had gotten me into. Is that being "treed"?
• The there's the cousin calculator.Perhaps useful as a score settler (or keeper).
• Wiki-Tree has a rather large idea: "a central place on the Internet for kin information about all people we know ever lived, automatically construct bloodline trees, and watch the gradual emergence of global family forest of humanity."

Still too much information

No matter how often I see this, I just don't seem able to take it in. Here, you try again.

Advice to ponder from a local hospital

Last night DC and I noticed this mystifying advice newly posted at an entrance of Longmont United Hospital. Probably it relates in some way to the (barely visible) "Do Not Enter" signs, but how?

Mind-bending

Dover is making origami paper printed with Celtic designs.

With apologies to Edward Said, this is dis-orienting.

Gender bendings

So I'm not as masculine as some I could name, but..."We think http://tryon.typepad.com is written by a man (71%)."

cptryon.org comes in at 62% feminine and patriciatryon.com tips back the other way: "We think http://patriciatryon.com/ is written by a man (70%)." Which is odd, because the content at cptryon.org is almost entirely by men and there is almost no content at the other domain, as our accountant, sad-eyed, would explain. HT, Jordana

An interesting encounter

Three hours door to door and more money than I seem to have calculated properly on the exchange rate, I'm back from Apple on Regent Street with doubled RAM (remember "Ram Doubler" back in the day?). But the genius bar couldn't fix the network preferences in 10.4.11. I expected the genius bar staff to be reasonably conversant in Unix: wrong! Anyroad, the recommended "fix" (is this a fix?) is kicking up to 10.5, which box lies malignly in my brief case.

This poor Mac Book Pro 3,1 (yes, that would be the one that doesn't like to be wakened from naps) was bought a year ago with the expectation of its handling email and some light word processing; it has a hard drive sized right for those tasks. It wasn't intended for movies and a CS3 Suite.

Of course, the plan didn't include having to buy a CS Suite for this machine.

Of course, I wasn't really aware of having a plan. Life is a relentless encounter with plans we didn't know we had.

"Lord, I am not worthy..."

Off I trudged in the rain to church, full of the reluctance and recalcitrance that characterizes my usual demeanor these days: I was mad when they said to me: "Let us go to the House of the Lord."

But ingratitude would have been surpassed by churlishness to turn away from the discovery that St George's Cathedral is reached by any one of four buses that pass the stop on my doorstep. Of course the double-decker squadron -- four in a row -- passed for my review just as I approached the bus stop, but at that point I was committed, which is to say determined to get to where I did not really wish to go, and I hailed a cab for the short ride.

The gathering hymn was "Alleluia! Sing to Jesus", one of a few arrows that fly true across the confused hymnody of the Church. There is a fine choir which today sang the Byrd Mass in F. The homily was tenderly directed at the second reading (Philippians ahem 4). The Mass ended with the singing of Salve Regina (simple tone) and, afterwards, the organist played a marvelous bookend: a kind of fantasia by Vaughn Williams on the melody Hyfrydol (the tune to which the opening hymn is set).

Even though I was hardly in the cranky mood that soon envelopes me after the Eucharist these days, I was disinclined to shake off my habit of sliding past anyone greeting congregants after Mass. But there was no one at the large doorway other than the celebrant and it would have been disrespectful to turn away from this kind looking man.

His comment about the weather was all it took for me to say, "But I'm not from here! We have sunshine!" "Then send it!" he promptly replied. My throwaway comment about the lovely structure (it is, though austere compared to many here) was met with a quick mention of its history: opened in 1848 as the first church to be built in UK after the Reformation, heavily damaged in WWII bombing but walls survived - "Pugin did a good job," he observed.

Pugin! Somehow I had made my way to Pugin's only major church designed in London. If I had known there was one here, I would have wanted to go. In spite of myself, I did go.

Shopping list

Dear Marks and Sparks,

High on the list of things I do not require is the item you promote as "100% RECYCLED TOILET PAPER". I'll wager that I am far from alone in wishing not to make the mental construct of "100%" and "recycled" in connection with this product. I'll say no more.

On another but perhaps not entirely unrelated topic, I have worried recently about whether your produce packer has been winding you up with the sticker "Perfectly Ripe Plums". Yesterday I was gratified to see that this increasingly meretricious tag had been replaced with the more accurate "Plums". But today, you surpass yourself in accurate description of these mid-size purple pebbles: "Plums - Ripen at Home". Alternatively, you might suggest, "Plums - Ladies and Gentlemen, Load Your Slingshots!" But perhaps I think too much of what would be appreciated during quail season on the Front Range.

Other things come to mind about my shopping list, but it's Friday night, so possibly this is all you have time for.

Faithfully,
Mrs Patricia Out of the Frying Pan of the Front Range

A little dollop of arrogance alongside that main course of species-ism

The NY Times reader comments, always a source of information about what passes latterly as received wisdom, include this pearl today: We as a species can not afford to be wrong about what is happening to our planet.

Tell me again why our vote on this matters?

Not subtle, but also not good

So tonight, Little Red Riding Hood-like, I tromped off to the earthly delights of amazon.com, where their featured items are:

Amazon's recommendation, or maybe just their prediction, is made in a fashion not especially subtle: "folded wings" of the flanking shirts submit visually to the brightest, most commanding image in the center. But OTOH in this, the week of his coronation, is it a good thing for him that Amazon still deems saleable the shirt of his primary primary opponent?

So...

How 'bout that Boris Johnson?

Fr Aidan Troy, CP goes to Paris

Or, put more properly, is sent to Paris. Let's pray that something of his good spirit remains in Belfast.

Seven months on, I wonder why this entry is still getting hit. The world is small and strange, each to its own IP address.

Messing with success

We've been going to Steuben's in uptown Denver since soon after their opening in 2006, usually every week. When I'm in town, it's often where I stop for lunch. Pleasant, unpretentious place with dependable food, cheerful waitstaff, and a kitchen that is usually pretty on top of things.

That seems to have turned on a dime. For one thing, there seems to have been a big turnover. The one person I recognized, the MOD's assistant, saw that my lunch went almost untouched. It was generous of her to comp our lunch, even though I hadn't complained. 

For some reason, Steubens (apostrophe or not -- I forget) owners seem to have decided to tinker with what was working really well (at least from a customer's POV). You might have better luck; I'm inclined to give it a miss for now.

I'm not somebody you want to write to about this

When someone emails me requesting permission for something because "The Lord has given me an arrangement" the thought occurs to me to refuse simply on the grounds that "The Lord has not told me to grant your request." I don't, but some tired nights it's a near thing.

Maybe so

Heard on the radio during this afternoon's commute from Greeley: "Animals are an important part of the human-animal bond." The possibilities for unpacking this make my head hurt.

Remembered

Can you imagine? A young woman I gave a ride to maybe ten years ago remembers me and facebook friended me. I remember her so clearly: intelligent, hard working and bearing up with so much. This is like a hug across the years. It makes me smile.

Delusions in a dark room, with space heater

When playing backgammon with Mac here, it's easy to imagine I'm skillful, when it's simply luck -- or Mac has decided to play me for a sucker, again.

All dolled up

Barbie vs. Bratz is a street fight. I'm not prone to public prayer, but please, God, could they BOTH lose?

Prince of Peace announces building campaign

That's what the headline says.

This is absolutely nuts

The final version (well, there's already a change I would make to it: including in the credits that all the words are from John's funeral homily) of Gail's video already has over 130 140 views. (The counter on the youtube page runs a little behind the "myvideos" page.) This is after only about 38 hours. I'm having fun imagining what she would say about this.

Huh.

In the "who woulda thunk" mode, there's a blog devoted to deconstructing my favorite comic, For Better or For Worse.

Alternate views

Of blogs, for instance: the LOLinator.

This is a recommendation?

Praising his own recipe, someone writes: "It’s never going to win any awards for health or taste, but we like it." (I was more or less with him on the "taco soup using ground beef" thing until he got to the "one can of condensed cheddar cheese soup.)

Oh, dear

One hopes this doesn't reflect my true view of the subject I'm working on, but just now when doing a search I carefully entered the name of the book by Jack Flam as Matisse the Man and His Rat.

The art of procrastination...

ANIMOLOGY: What Animal Are You? Your Result: Tan Giraffe   Loner. You're a sort of a loner, but you are very brave and a quick thinker. You have a little secret: you like to help others. Soul Mate is the Red Jaguar, but you hate the Marroon Panda.
Gold Falcon
Ocre and Gray Dolphin
Red Jaguar
Yellow Trout
Teal Cat
Silver and Red Wolf
Blue Fox
ANIMOLOGY: What Animal Are You?

What will you die from? Your Result: Peacfully; In Your Sleep   You are very optimisic and have a lot of friends. Most people adore you and will become depressed when your time comes. You will lead a successful life, and will become everything you've ever dreamed.
Framed yourself
Got Framed
Working too hard
Depression (if you know what I mean)
Hit by a car
Murdered
Friend Murdered You
What will you die from? Make Your Own Quiz

Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt

What character best describes you from HBO’s Rome? Octavian You are very intelligent and well educated, you think everything through and observe all around you. Despite your intelligence, you have self-doubts, which you will only confide into those closet to you. People underestimate your ability to lead others. Click Here to Take This Quiz

HT pfcp

In time for Oktoberfest (but I thought he was a carpenter)

Christ the Savior, Brewer, celebrates 100 years with pride, simplicity

Memes, a great work avoidance strategy

First, in the yeah, right category:

You Are a Purple Crayon

Your world is colored in dreamy, divine, and classy colors. You hold yourself to a sky high standard, and you are always graceful. People envy, idolize, and copy you without realizing it. You are an icon for those who know you. And while it is hard to be a perfectionist, rest assured it's paying off! Your color wheel opposite is yellow. While yellow people may be wise, they lack the manners and class needed to impress you.

What Color Crayon Are You?

But scarily on target...

Your Superpower Should Be Manipulating Electricity

You're highly reactive, energetic, and super charged. If the occasion calls for it, you can go from 0 to 60 in a split second. But you don't harness your energy unless you truly need to. And because of this, people are often surprised by what you are capable of. Why you would be a good superhero: You have the stamina to fight enemies for days Your biggest problem as a superhero: As with your normal life, people would continue to underestimate you.

What Should Your Superpower Be?

And for the if only it were true category:

Your Birthdate: July 13

You're dominant and powerful. You always need to be in charge. While others respect your competence, you can be a bit of a dictator. Hard working and serious, you never let yourself down. You are exact and accurate - and you expect others to be the same way. Your strength: You always get the job done Your weakness: You're a perfectionist to a fault Your power color: Gray Your power symbol: Checkmark Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

√ √ √

;-)

Customer service...

Too funny, nataliedee.com! (HT aryspop)

Painting Denver blue

Patrick the Painter is making his contribution to taking Denver from a purple to blue state, perhaps in recognition of next year's convention? Anyway, ya want a discount? Tell Patrick you're a Democrat.

If you're a Republican, pretty soon Patrick Nesvadba might not "take" you at all -- but then again, Republicans might not want to be taken.

Walk Score

A nifty little site that tells me our 'hood is not very walk-worthy. But we haven't lived in one in 13 years or so.

Go ahead and spam on this; I'm logging your IP address, will edit your comment to make you look stupid, and will think about whether I'm in a nasty enough mood to report you :)

Say Amen, Somebody!

Hoping that the market finally says amen...

Vital Cities?

City Vitals - an interesting set of metrics. Denver ranks fifth in "Creative Professionals" ("percent of workers employed as Mathematicians, Scientists, Artists, Engineers, Architects and Designers") and third on the "Weirdness Index", the definition of which I do not really understand ("Average of the extent to which the metro area’s 10 most distinctive consumer behaviors exceed the national norm for each behavior" - say WHAT?).

Rain delay

The screwy thing is that, at six innings, it was an official game -- the Phillies had a one run lead. So who's staying in their dugout, not doing a dern thing to help keep the field in the game (not to mention rescuing a couple of hapless groundskeepers)? Yes, that would be our hometown heroes.

...but is it ART?

(Don't answer that!)

What is a Freegan?

...we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able.

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 34%

 

A rather wishy washy performance. At least you are less than half aligned with evil. However your patriotism and allegiance to President Bush are lacking. You certainly harbor a few treasonous thoughts, which will no doubt result in the deaths of at least a few of our troops. Please get yourself straightened out immediately. Read a book by Ann Coulter at once!

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Convenience

Another great thing about the Internet is being able to buy tickets online for MLB. We get singles, coz it's Mr T's thing. My thing is to drop him off at the ball park after church and seeing him look like a boy with a train on Christmas morning :-)

Procrastinating

Email husband about leaving tea kettle on counter when housekeeper comes instead of putting up on highest shelf in cupboard.
Make cup of tea (rinse dirty cup instead of retrieving clean one).
Check out Dover sampler for the week.
Email friend to tell her about Dover sampler.
Make copies of some Dover files.
Organize those copies in clip art storage.
Contemplate emailing aunt a copy of cute clip art of old-fashioned girl resting head on cute dog.
Go through newly organized files; failed to organize animal clip art, so have to look at thumbnails.
Find image and attach to brief email.
Decide image is really too big (83 k) for WebTV; smash image size to reasonable amount in PhotoShop.
Re-attach image.
Decide it is still too big (45 k).
Re-smash image.
Re-attach image; evaluate.
Send email.
Panic to see original image on desktop; try to restore to clip file, where there appears to be a duplicate.
Remove file from desktop.
Sigh.
Think tea is getting cold.
Consider going to kitchen for more hot water.
Look up URL I need for CSS design I need to try out and get going on now.
Discover that my short term memory is still pretty sucky; shrug and decide it is no worse than that of most middle aged people.
Look up URL again.
Get it right, except that this is the sales page. I need the code page.
Retrieve code page URL and enter correctly.
Enter email address as requested by form.
Get response that email address is not recognized by system and that the code word is the last word of Chapter Three.
Fumble through book for last word of Chapter Three.
Find and enter (it's "lifestyle"; go figure).
Get annoying notice that code page is actually a zip file and the file is being emailed to me.
Wait for email to arrive.
Find that file is not attached to email; email has link to download file.
Follow link.
Panic when realize that link is opening in open browser window (this one).
Oh, wait. It's just downloads the file; it doesn't open a page.
Sigh.
Look at downloaded, opened zip file.
See it's just a collection of Web pages.
Decide reluctantly to get to work.
Sigh.
Think about getting to work.
Sigh.
Think of mother saying, "Patricia Ann, don't blow your breath at me" when, as a child, I would sigh at tasks assigned (usually cleaning room, which I could stand to do in this office, in the linen closet, and in little piles accumulating in the bedroom that have to be stashed on bed when housekeeper comes).
Decide that if I don't get to work, there won't be time to make chicken enchiladas for dinner, like there wasn't yesterday.
Decide to stop procrastinating, but blow my breath a couple more times, first.
(Save this list and view weblog.)
Check project management interface to see whether there isn't something more pressing to do.
Well, there isn't.
In fact, there's only this job assigned today and none of the others I have done in four plus hours of work so far have anything to do with this one.
Look at tomorrow's list.
Nope. Though I notice that the books I've put off emailing to Melissa are on the list again for tomorrow.
Wonder briefly if I will mail books tomorrow.
Sigh.
Email husband about funny weblog entry and wonder whether he will think funny.
Save blog again and view.
Think of two or three other friends who do not read blog regularly and who might also be amused.
Email them.
Save blog again and view.
Check email for husband's reply.
None yet. Maybe he doesn't think funny.
Consider that maybe he wants chicken enchiladas, too.
Oh, jeez. Discover *unwanted* ping.
Oh, no.
Sigh.
Go to work.

Dover

It's a silly thing, but one of my favorite things about Friday is that this is the day of the week that Dover sends me a link to free samples for the week. The link to this week's sampler will degrade pretty quickly, but there will still be a link to sign up for their email. Over the years, I've spent hundreds of dollars on Dover books. Sometimes the samples include something I would have had to scan, which puts a smile on my face.

If we were not an empty nest, the number of coloring pages and other child-pleasing things would interest me. I'm sure I've mentioned Dover's advertising before; it just puts a smile on my face on Friday mornings :-)

But I've never BEEN to Baltimore!

You are a 99% traditional Catholic!

 

Huh! Despite your upbringing as a heretic Baptist, you have attained a glimmer of the glorious doctrines of the Faith! You should share your incredible understanding with others sit down, shut up, and try to be at least a little less dissolute.

Do You Know Your Baltimore Catechism?

HT, erm, never mind... I can't think he'd be that pleased :-)

Mars is good...

Lurid cover removed -- Ed.

You're Stranger in a Strange Land!
by Robert Heinlein

Most people look at you and think of you as a Martian, even though you were born on Earth. Silly Earthlings, er, people. Anyway, you've been telling people about free love and relaxing like it's some radical idea. Most of them want you to go back to the '60's (or Mars), but others are in your groove. Grok on!

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

HT, Odie.

Let's see how well this works...

It is spectacularly annoying that blogger -- without any advance notice -- decided to "upgrade" my account.

So, for a lousy $4.95 a month, let's see how this works.