TubaOrNotTuba

One of those cable TV shows that fills the quiet time between suppertime news and prime time just showed me a life skill: how to light a candle at the bottom of a tall vase. Using a sprig of spaghetti. Of course, those of us who grew up in the shadow of a church already knew how to light candles, but there is certainly a new generation in need of enlightenment. Moving right along, while you try to visualize the concept.

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Someone noticed that my cubicle is shrinking. Not the contours; the space inside. Seems that every single technical problem requiring hands-on with a broken computer is answered by piling the equipment within reach of me. Time to put a roof over the top and brick me in, à la Cask of Amontillado.

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Robbed! That snow storm should have come earlier, and with more force. Instead; regular duties for all involved. Come on! I don’t intend to stay in school mode for much longer. Unexpected holidays are part of the negotiated package. To be fair, my homework was done, and the pain lasted only a few moments.

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Apparently, history is written by the winners. Usually. I’m sure that there are a few stories to be found in remote libraries, where we hear about how it was “on the other side”. Not the point. I just watched yet another POW story (in this case, Hart’s War), with lots of plot twists and substandard housing and people wearing incomplete uniforms. And after all was done, I wondered… how many prisoners weren’t American?

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For those times when we have to share the house, by ourselves, the dog and I have come to an unspoken understanding. If I sleep, he sleeps. If I watch TV, he sleeps. If I leave to purchase foodstuffs (such as steak and mushrooms with a side of chocolate pudding), he will stay outside and scare away door-to-door evangelists and roaming squirrels (insignificant difference). If I eat chips, he will (in keeping with the unspoken part of our deal) use his paw to remind me of my duty. That’s about the extent of it. We never argue…

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Watching the truck approach the loading bay, all that was on my mind was that this was going to be a lot of lugging. Two hundred and twenty-five kilograms of brand new laptop computers. Mine for as long as I require to get the “imaging” completed, and then the order will head out to make four score teachers happier. Perhaps not in time for Christmas, but my holiday spirit isn’t as shiny and bright as it used to be. Tarnished.

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I want to ask why, but not too loudly. Came home from work, this evening, to find my son tidying up around the house. Not son #3, who still lives here; son #1, who hasn’t for a number of years. I should be grateful for the added manpower, but my experience (with life) is that random acts of kindness are rare.

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Tonight marks the start of another online course, for me. My involvement with MOOC is coming up on a “one year and counting” date, and I’ve tended to stay in my comfort zone. This course, the eighth, is different for me. I’m finally looking over the fence into the neighbour’s yard. Entrepreneurship.

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Reminder: get a good (night’s) sleep whenever possible. Fatigue is bad business. Ask the rail engineer that trashed his train over the weekend. Or the famous senator that smacked a stop sign (on Parliament Hill). Both may have fallen asleep at an inopportune moment. I’d hate to slump (any further) in my bus seat, or miss my stop completely. Early to bed, if early to rise is a life requirement.

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This afternoon, somebody brought a brand new Surface RT into our department, for a little assistance. Twenty minutes and four technical brains later, the device connected to the local wifi. Somehow, this rates as a “fail” for user convenience. Upstairs, I’m trying to enter a couple of pages into the VC codec, following a hard reset. Using the remote, I entered one before having to hand over the room to another group. Tomorrow, a couple of hours and the job should be done. Common to both of these anecdotes: virtual keyboards. After forty years of entering what I wanted to communicate into various computing devices, I still believe that the standard keyboard is the real unsung hero.

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