Drykath's Journal

5:23pm: Celebri-what?
So I tried out that Capital One image-on-card thing. I did a little processing on this image...



... to get it to fit the card and hit submit. I just got back this email...



I'm not quite sure how to feel about that.

11:54pm: Plus, testing a new LJ client
So here I sit in West Virginia, watching someone get an ankle bracelet removed by a sheriff. Go fig.

Anyway, upon being reminded that this journal is at risk of a severe case of bit rot, which can be wholly blamed on a lack of free time, or more accurately on the persistent series of higher priority activities vying for my attention, I started thinking about the list of other things that I would like to accomplish at some point but realistically will never have the time to do.

So first up in the series: Netstalgia. Tag line would have been "Fond Memories of Irrelevant Things" or something along those lines. The idea was to have a place to archive off classic things like the dancing baby, the hamster dance, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera ... up to more recent stuff that obtains "Internet classic" status - i.e. survives more than a week.

I did purchase netstalgia.net a little while back, but have been holding out for netstalgia.com ... but so far it's been renewed by the current owner every year. Don't want to start developing anything, as that'd likely make the domain worth something and thus more difficult to obtain. So here it sits, a low value idea that's not going anywhere simply because of the chance that it might.

3:57pm: Furry Connection North Parade

An experiment in streaming media. This had previously been posted to YouTube, but with their 10 minute limit the content had to be edited down slightly. Not by a whole lot, but enough that it made me curious how much effort setting something like that up is to do. Video taken by my wonderful Gryphon.

( Video behind a cut as it starts downloading immediately )

Actually I'm thinking with only a little effort it should be possible to modify the Con Pics code to allow uploading of video content.

11:43pm: Thought for the moment...
Dragons are environmentally friendly. We can sometimes use half as much paper as other critters. After all, the guest list often doubles as the menu.

10:38pm: I don't post often, but...

Lung

2005 - 2009

9:32pm: Oh yeah, before I forget...

I'm in Portland, Oregon for the weekend. I'm speaking at a PostgreSQL conference.

But if anyone asks, it's just another stop on the campaign trail...

6:41pm: The Gryphon would kill me...
But the Dragon wants.


... On second thought, nah; I get accused of hoarding the covers enough as it is anyway.

5:38pm: Insert Gas Pun Here
So two things happened.  It was pointed out to me in no uncertain terms that I hadn't updated LJ in a very long time, and that I'm probably a little overdue.  That, and I just refueled my car for the 200th time.  So what better use is there for all of this data than to put up some nice and pretty graphs illustrating surprisingly depressing information? ;)

My car is about 12 years old at this point.  Over the last 12 months it's averaged 22.99 miles to the gallon.  Not too, too bad.  Maybe not as good as when I first got it about 3 years 9 months ago, but it's still holding out...

Personally I attribute much of that negative slope in the regression line to moving to the city where I don't drive as much.  Back in PA it was a 40 minute drive to work each way, rarely hitting much traffic, if ever.  Now in Ohio the daily commute averages between 10 and 20 minutes, or more if that congested exit is really backed up.  That, and the car's simply getting older.

The lowest price I ever paid was a jaw-dropping $1.79 per gallon.  Yeah, those days are long gone...

That's of course based on where I filled up at the time.  It shouldn't make a difference, but it's calculated based on the total I paid compared to the gallons it claimed was dispensed, versus the price labeled on the pump at the time.  I kinda wish I had kept track of the latter just to see if the variance I'm seeing is just rounding error.

And all together what's that total?  $5,998.08 spent on gas alone, ouch.  But that's over a total of 1365 days 2 hours 26 minutes, between first and latest fuelings.  About $4.39/day, not bad.  Sometimes lunch costs more than that.  That bought me 2,249.53 gallons, and took me a total of 55,521.23 miles.  Yeesh, so I drove this car around, mostly in circles, far enough to drive around the world 2.23 times.

As mentioned above, the lowest I ever paid for gas was $1.79 per gallon, yet the most was $3.70 ... erk.  I've never driven less than 50 miles between gas stops, 52.7 miles to be exact, but at one point managed 461.85 ... I think there's a data entry error there, considering I average 290.69 miles between being gouged, where I typically get 11.78 gallons and pay $31.40 for it.

So that got me thinking, there's one bit of information I'm missing: Just how effective is my driving distance per dollar?


Wow, by 2012 I won't be able to drive anywhere.

12:37am: Local weekend thing, short public notice
Alright, so it's very short notice and only of interest for those in reasonably close proximity to, though granted if you'd be likely to attend you're probably already well aware of this and have planned accordingly.  But just in case...

We've moved down to the west side of Columbus, from the edge of Dublin to the edge of Hilliard, and are planning to throw our housewarming the evening of this Saturday, the 1st of September.

We were going to do a housecooling, but then figured an ice cream cake would be better som eother time, in favor of just using the grill.  So instead, it's your standard good ol' housewarming.  Flamer jokes have already been made, sorry to disappoint... ;)

Come join us!  Feel free to send any questions to me or to the Gryphon.  Hastily thrown together flier up online...

11:11pm: Post-AC Report
You know, I never did write anything about that...

But in this case it's bloody hot.  For some reason the central air went fzzzzt, and the rental company couldn't get it together enough to call their heating & cooling vendor before they were gone for the day.  Yeesh.  It's scheduled for repair tomorrow, but until that point we're just worried about the critters, especially the ones that need cooler environments.  We have a good amount of air movement now, so they should be fine, though.  Stay well, reptiles.

12:05am: Is never easy
So our initial walk through today revealed several significant problems with the new place that was supposed to be in move-in condition as of the time the keys were turned over.  Significant problems meaning a health inspector will be called come first thing Monday morning.  Normall I like to think I take pretty pictures, but there wasn't much beauty to be found here.  Another round with the lawyers, yay...

But on other topics, I went looking for a LJ friends analysis thingamabobber online, found a few links, but everything was either non-functional or had vanished.  So a little while back I wrote my own.  And then accidentally let it go overnight.  In the morning it was in the 'D's and had a few million user->friend associations stored.  Oops, sorry LJ.  But hey, why let good data go to waste?  So last night I expanded it slightly and wrote a little web interface to it.  Go ahead, type your user ID in, try it out:Haven't really tested it much, but in theory it's solid.  If you break it, let me know. ;)
It's pretty useful for finding out "hey, I didn't know this person had a LJ account" or even figuring out who you should know but don't.  So if I just not popped up on your list, you now know why.  Got a few flaws, though.  It caches data for a week, so it might be slightly out of date.  And right now it just tells you who's a friend of your friend (i.e. You -> Friend -> Someone), while it could be argued that figuring out a mutual friend relationship would be better (i.e. You -> Friend <- Someone).  Why doesn't it do this?  Eh, laziness on my part.  It'd be pretty trivial to do, so if it turns out to be useful I'll just make it happen. :)

1:55pm: The AC Phenomenon
And now a Moment of Zen:

Just a moment ago I found myself genuinely surprised that the door opened so soon after I pushed the button, and that the elevator was completely empty.

11:41pm: A thousand and two.
It's been pointed out to me, granted in a rather indirect statement, that there has been a distinct lack of updates on one topic in particular on this journal.

Ling!
The little lizard is doing wonderfully.  She's back entirely on solid food, and definitely seems to be trying to make up for lost time.  Now that they're both eating it seems we're going out to the store for reptile food much more frequently.  There's still a little bit of uncertainty about her eyesight and ability to focus on objects, but overall I'm just so glad she's doing this much better.

Lung, who rather stubbornly refused to be photographed this evening by stationing himself in his log, has recently found himself at risk of sometime losing his nickname of "Tubby" and is absolutely refusing to be outdone.  His latest trick is to run across the entire cage and try to steal any worm brought anywhere within any proximity to Ling.  On occasion we've actually had to position Ling so that she can eat something out of direct sight of Lung.  Otherwise, apart from the first bout of confusion when first reintroduced, they're completely happy cohabiting once more.
That's the problem with keeping the water dragons in a tank.  Ling doesn't mind driving, but Lung really likes to use the turrets.

So yeah, I wasn't going to comment on that 24-hour entry.  Was supposed to be quietly removed.  However many people that have done a good amount with websites will know the server logs store a good amount of information that can be quite interesting in analysis.  The Referrer, for example, will tell you just what exactly has linked someone to a picture in particular...

11:13pm: A thousand.

12:16am: Results of the weekend
Hmm, would take too long to describe everything that went on over the weekend, so here's the aftermath from which everything else can be deduced... ;)

1) The hand is healing up well from the dog bite.  Nearly have all flexibility back there.  The puncture is still a little sore, it probably will leave a slight scar at most.

2) Starting to look at a couple tips on the patent process.  I'm weird.  Occasionally a section of my mind will drift during certain activities, such as showing, driving, things like that.  This time, well, it just so happened to be in the middle of sex.  Pondering something that might be worth claiming then selling off.  At least I didn't yell out "eureka!" ... not that I could have very easily at that moment anyway.

3) Approval went through, will take a look at the house tomorrow.  And probably take lots of pictures.

Helped furs move, had lots of great people around to visit... The kind of relaxing yet full and productive times that hopefully become routine.

But what to do with all the extra "Drykath's Bitch" stickers...

12:05pm: Reciprocation
Happy Birthday Wishes to wingywoof , one of the most reliable Happy Birthday Wishers around.

11:02pm: Deep Dish +1, Parking -1
To those who had been trying to get hold of me over the last few days, sorry about that absence.  That infection took much more out of me than I would have hoped.

Otherwise life's been quite busy as of late, but luckily has given me this quick moment to send an update while I wait for someone, if only just to prove I'm still alive and kicking.  And throwing a resume out here or there (shhh...) ;)

3:38pm: Oh Noes, Tokyo Toes
Supposedly I'm now required to post these here. ;)

8:45am: For those not in the loop...
Ling is very sick.  Outcome is uncertain, but we're doing everything we can.

2:52am: It needs to be preserved.
Few and far between are the things that keep me up so late these days.  I have an image from early, early childhood of standing just outside my grandparents' garage during a warm summer night, looking up into the clear star-filled sky, and seeing a handful of little twirling circles.  Coupled just with a phrase I can only conclude now that it was a dream generated by a mind of only a few years trying to assign meaning to the words "spend the night."

That's the first of a series of memories that even the DBA in me would have trouble counting of those grandparents, their house, and my time there.  I was absolutely blessed to live so close to my grandmother and grandfather as to make the visits routine and commonplace.  Spending the night included.  That was my second home, a fixture throughout my youth, the most solid thing I had. ... That by no means is to say the rest was bad, but put against anything else there's just no competition.

He asked me a couple weeks ago, just before I had to leave to catch the flight, how long I was going to be up here.  I just told my grandfather, "too long."  For once there's some comfort in ambiguity.

I left a place that in over twenty years of memory had changed remarkably little.  Sure the house had evolved in bits and pieces over time - and had some recent disarray if you really knew where to look, painful yet ignorable - but as a whole it was still exactly the same, the one home I've known for as long as I've been around.

It  terrifies me that if probability has its way that was the last time I'll see it like that.  I had tried to prepare myself ahead of time, but the effect is still the same. ... And yet, like a cloud, floating above all of that waits the peaceful understanding that whatever the still unwritten future holds there will always be a path laid out leading back to that place, guided by little twirling circles in the bright starry night.

1:35am: Looking at lizards can be bad for your teeth.

8:32pm: (It's not true.  He's actually a zombie.)
I'm alive!  No kidding, despite journal activity to the contrary.  Just busy, busy.  Which is not a bad thing, mind you; it's just a little annoying when you've been needing to post something.

So for the moment just so that this post has something a little more than fluff, a very recent set of photos:
http://www.scalefeather.com:2005/~drykath/Zoo06/

Hee, Dino may be too hot to touch...

7:34pm: I knew there's a reason they call me that.
Alright, fixed the dryer.  Now can have clean clothing again.

So lots of things from the Really Sucky Day earlier in the week are getting resolved.  This is good. :)

10:25pm: Whoo, connectivity!
Yay, got a solid Internet connection once more. ... That is all for now.  Much more to come. :)

12:34am: CREATE FUNCTION SetHomeToColumbus AS $$ DECLARE Drykath POINT BEGIN
Drykath := (83d 5m 1s W, 40d 6m 57s N);
Kilanon := Drykath + interval '2 weeks';