Ovens and Laptops

What do they have in common?

Minds of their own.

Actually, I personally believe all machines do, but these two are plenty of examples for tonight.

After finally getting home and taking a walk, it was time to try keeping the oven hot enough to bake the squash. See, 350 is just not hot enough to keep the oven interested, and higher temperatures only hold its attention about 10 minutes or so before it starts wandering back down. In fact, it's so bored that it doesn't bother changing the temperature reading on top.... just leaves that for un-smart people to figure out, you know, the people who don't open their oven to check the temperature every 5 minutes.

So, you ask: you can tell exactly what temperature the oven is by how it feels? Nope. I just observed that turning the heat up to 400 - to see if we could move the squash along for the 2nd hour in the oven - seemed to make the oven realize, "oh, it wasn't actually at 375... it was really down to 360 but, if that's what she really wanted, it could start climbing again..."

In between these jogs to the kitchen, I continued messing around with Stacey's laptop to see what had been killing it lately. Continued trying out some of Daddy's suggested tests to see if one of the memory cards was bad. First I had taken out the right-side card and the laptop didn't really die... then I had replaced the right and taken out the left, which successfully killed it twice, albeit over about 3 days (which is a long time to remember what you're testing, how, and even why).

The obvious conclusion from the above exercise: The right-side memory card must have problems, so let's put that one in my computer and see if I can kill it!

Unfortunately, here we are, an hour later and still kicking. In fact, directly after this switch, for the first time in about 6 months I suddenly had a "Good" Internet signal instead of "Low" (which is plenty adequate), but that's not funny and also beside the points. The points are that:

1) If you have 1 of 2 memory cards in your laptop, it will run at a decent rate but apparently just slow enough to not grab the Internet.
2) If you have 2 of 2 memory cards in your laptop, and one of them is not locked all the way in, your laptop will run like it has chronic fatigue syndrome but will pick up the Internet... if you can keep from screaming during the 5-minute wait for a clicked button to indent.
3) If you try switching the cards between right and left sides, they may just lock in, get the computer booted without freezing or dumping the physical memory, get the Internet running and even defy your friend's efforts to tire out the memory by looking up heaps of online photos.

Well, that's enough fun for tonight.

Independent Life

Actually, I have not just been sitting here admiring my wheels all this time. Actually, I can't admire them at all because the little Civi is off getting a beauty rest.

It is kind of fun to not have a car. I have to find someone to take me to work. I have to find someone to take me back home. (Cannot be the same person.) I have to be ready in plenty of time for 6:40 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. I have to not go places on lunch break. (Making great progress in reading La Chute.) I have to not run errands after work or go places in the evening, unless with Stacey. I have to amuse myself in the evening. (Well, at least I will have to once I get ahead of all the housework, personal business, and everything else in life.) I have to plan ahead and make more friends who will give me rides.

Yes, this is really a great way to live. Everyone should take a vacation from their car once in a while.

Sure, it's fun to go along through life, playing "Let's pretend we are independent and self-sufficient". But come on. Can any of us really believe we are either?

Snazzy Civic

Look!!


Daddy found me these gorgeous new wheels.

Bright blue Monday

Monday was the best day at work ever!

My email <dinged> and I answered it. My phone rang and I picked it up and helped someone. During the phone call two more emails arrived in my Inbox, and I took care of one of them while still on the phone. I hung up the phone and <bling> it rang the very second it touched!

Can life be any more complete?

No title tonight

Oh... was I supposed to write some more about the Vermont trip? As in Days 2 and 3? Let me make a mental note of that (Check - bing).

Actually I wanted to finish something mentioned earlier. Some friends and I read through The Hunchback of Notre Dame (or Notre Dame de Paris, as it should really be called). Being such a seasoned book critic, what should I say? It was certainly intense, laugh-provoking, and interesting - even the huge chapter detailing Paris architecture of the 1400's. Which chapter, by the way, has one of the finest passages of the book. You really should read the whole section on the Exchange building, but here is the end:

Moreover, a building should be appropriate to the climate. This [the Exchange] is evidently built for our cold and rainy sky. It has a roof almost as flat as if it were in the Orient, so that in winter, when it snows, the roof can be swept; and it is evident that roofs were made to be swept.

What exquisite sarcasm! What kind of a mind comes up with that?

Well... but after finishing the book, I really think I dislike it tremendously, especially the ending. Why do we have to write and read sad stories filled with suffering and people's wickedness? So earthly life is like that - but it's not all like that, and even if the bad were 1%, does that still justify whole novels full of it? Why can't we have entirely happy stories, ever? Why is conflict inherent to a "good" plot?

Leaving that book behind... I am barely through the first chapter of La Chute, by Camus, and there is already a pageful of splendid things to share! So that will be coming.

Now I know it is only September 6, but it is really Autumn now. No achy joints exactly, but the change in the weather is making my throat overpoweringly sore, as it did sometime back when our late spring finally arrived. So start enjoying Autumn now!

Please try again

Is that why it feels so hot? and taking three steps outside works up a sweat?

Because it's 91 degrees?

Oh come on. I really do not find that an acceptable explanation. Especially with the humidity at only 28%.

Pre-Labor Day headlines

Can you tell I've been around Mommy today? Here it is almost midnight, and I can't sleep, so I'm posting. But this is the "I-just-got-back-from-a-party-and-lots-of-talking-with-friends-
so-I-know-I-can't-sleep-till-I-unwind-a-little" type of "can't sleep". (It will be interesting to see if Blogger posts that as a whole non-wrapped string, as it's looking here in the Compose box.)

By the way, there is no better company than people who grew up overseas or were MKs or - even better - both. They know all the weird and scary and gross stories. I'm just saying you'll never be bored.

Mommy should be home about now, if it's 12:00 AM here, 11:00 PM out in Iowa, and the traffic was tolerable.

In other news, there are about 3 portions of green tomato crisp left, which I'm thinking of putting at a "Buy Now" rate of around $60 each, until such time as the bidding soars beyond, or until people let me know they just can't afford that, or until Stacey and I decide to eat them.

Passing the torch

I am so proud of my brother! Jason (apparently) just drove himself all the way from Iowa to Texas, a good 14-hour drive. Now it's his turn to bop around in the little '89 blue Toyota. He DID get to the "independent-with-a-car-at-college" stage one year earlier than me, but I guess we can't hold that against him.

(This may mean nothing to you - but this post is brought to you indoors, courtesy of succesful signal-catching angling! Just in time, as this is the first cool evening post-vernal equinox.)

August is Pie Time!

Hi everyone. Not sure who would read this after such sporadic entries, but anyway....

I am trying to reform. Stopped one activity last month and another one gets dumped this month. Now if friends will just stop showing up and visiting, maybe life will calm down.

Despite all the busy-ness, just look how productive I've been! Guess what I made??

This


Green Tomato Pie!

It was so much fun to make, despite how rather pathetic the crust turned out.

I gave some to friends. Everyone thought it was weird but no one disliked it. Some of them might even have eaten more than the sliver I gave them.

I took some to work and won some small triumphs:

-3 people asked for the recipe
-1 fruit-pie-disliker ate a second bite
-1 tomato-hater said it was pretty good

Everyone tried to guess what it was. Some thought it was green apple, some thought it was pepper, or rhubarb.

All in all it has made for a lot of fun, now to find away to use all my green tomato pie juice. Probably would be yummiest just to drink it, don't you think?


Oh by the way, did you notice? That is the first ever on-blog photo, first try. So give me a break if the formatting ends up terribly, I have no idea how it will actually look.

Vermont Trip - Intermission

Oh my goodness! Have you ever eaten mustard greens?

I am just eating them for the first time now and you will never guess what they taste like.

They taste like spicy mustard!

(1/3 the heat of full-strength Dijon to be exact)

Vermont trip, Day 1

I had already arranged to take Friday off and leave early on Thursday - hopefully 3 p.m. Too bad I was feeling ready for bed before 2 p.m. Not an auspicious start for what would be a weekend full of driving and visiting. The hopefully 3 p.m. turned into 3:15 p.m. once I got into my car with CDs and Mapquest at hand and realized my water bottle was absolutely empty.

Driving through Ohio is supposed to be painfully, dreadfully boring. Once getting through the excitement of Fort Wayne interstate changes, I was delighted to discover that at least the speed limit suddenly improved to 70 mph. The first thing I saw in Ohio after the Welcome sign was an even bigger one proclaiming FIREWORKS! for sale. Ohio was only moderately boring, I guess, since I only missed one highway merge. It is pretty farmland, but definitely feels different - not like Iowa at all, and not really like Indiana... kind of Ohio-y-ish.

Some good friends of the extended family, whom I did not really know but called that week (!) were very hospitable, put me up for the night, shared a delicious dinner with real homemade apple pie, and drove me past the old Hoyt home and the high school where Daddy went and the church. And their three boys introduced me to Charlie, who is not just a guinea-pig but a Charlie-pig. He eats parsley like some of us eat chocolate and apparently does a really entertaining job of downing a banana... unfortunately the parents vetoed that show for the night, but we did watch him get started on a big fat carrot.

Vermont

Don't you like taking weekend road trips during the summer? I do. Vermont sounds just perfect for this weekend. Especially since my very good friend from Germany is there for the summer.

Just wanted to share that exciting news with y'all. :)


Okay, I had better go back and finish the dishes.

The End of the World and related matters

Look! We have Internet for a few minutes! It may be due to the open window, through which mosquitoes (baby ones too, I just found one on my hand) and other fascinating bugs are coming to investigate my screen light and the lamp.

(Shoot, my mosquito-slapping reflexes need to be honed.)

Everyone should read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, even in English. I know it sounds like a dry old classic, but it is truly more of a comedy, so far. Just listen to this:

Meanwhile, the licensed copyist to the University, Master Andry Musnier, leaned towards the ear of the furrier of the king's robes, Master Gilles Lecornu.
"I tell you, sir, this is the end of the world. The students never were so riotious before; it's the cursed inventions of the age that are ruining us all, -artillery, bombards, serpentines, and particularly printing, that other German pestilence. No more manuscripts, no more books! Printing is death to book-selling. The end of the world is at hand."
"So I see by the rage for velvet stuffs," said the furrier.

Yes, and when they come out with an automatic translating device that deals with idioms, it will be my turn to say "The end of the world is at hand!" And when they figure out a way to just tell computers and technology what to do, it will be the turn of my software engineering siblings. And when they develop a hybrid grass that grows to two inches and never past, it will be my darling mother's turn to say it.

Or it's like that weather forecast where the annoying sarcastic little dog gasps, "Oh NO!!! On Tuesday and Wednesday it is going to be cloudy in Hawaii! Hawaii, it is the Apocalypse for you!!"

By the way, while we are discussing the end of the world and other seemingly remote things, I would like to publish my last will and testament for if they ever get to Time Travel. Please, please, send me anytime but the Eastern Hemisphere before 1491. No matter how early or remote, life will always be civilized if there is chocolate. (And I really think life would be more civilized if we kept it to the days before they started adding sugar to it.)

The Importance of Being a Good Speller

(Is "speller" a word?)

Today I took one of those three-minute typing tests, in which the text tried to inform me how important it is to spell well. I tapped away while it told me in an awfully wordy, annoying way that, if you ask the best spellers -- really? who are the best spellers? -- they will all tell you that the dictionary is their best friend. (Or something to that effect.) It said bad spellers have terrible vocabulary -- although I didn't catch which came first, the poor vocabulary or the poor spelling -- And that writing with good spelling is lots easier to follow.

Well, that's not true if all the well-spelled words are constructed into a confusing mess of grammar and logic, but it does have a point. I mean, look at this:

Were hiring, start T oday-16 June 2008

Okay, maybe that's more a punctuation issue. But seriously, if spam email titles want to be read they'll have to stop being so depressingly inaccurate to begin with, going and telling people that if they had been on the ball, they could have been hired and could have been starting work
T oday.

By the way, 107 WPM is not sufficient to finish a typing test. I think it would take closer to 150 WPM for the whole text. (Not that anyone's missing anything by not finishing it!)

The blessings of bad reception

For most of the week I have been scarcely able to convince my wireless card to pick up the connection, even when the laptop has been happily plugged in all day and resting on its favorite chair with its back to the window, through which, I'm guessing, our beloved signal comes.

And then it hit me! Just take it outside!

It's 9:23 on a Friday night. There's still a little light. We have a tornado watch till 10 p.m., but come on, really - it's already done raining and the mosquitos are probably ready to have their opening-season party. The laptop rests just perfectly on the new mailbox-box containing the old mailbox, and an extension cord gives me enough length to sit comfortably just outside my window which is nicely decked out with wasp nests.

This is great. I think it will have to become a tradition!

The Force not so unDark as appear it may is

Feel like talking Jedi-Force-Master-speak I do. Just rather extremely annoying to be. Just also how annoying can be to show you I want, sentences which their verbs all the way at the end have, but which not the general "verbs ending phrases and sentences" etiquette allow, as for example the fine Germ languages exemplify does, which either the pronoun from the verb separation of dictates or as in other cases occur can the helping verb rather than the verb itself all the way to the end sends, all which the inferiority of imagination prove does, since Jedi-speak only a Darkly cheaply copied and twisted version of English word order present can.

Realize I do that thus discrimination against outer-space languages I myself practice and thus forfeit to be sued in the courts I do myself render.

Back from Aslan's world

Today is so beautiful! The world looks like Narnia did last night.

Normally I would never think to see a movie on Opening Night, but somehow everyone else instantly thought of that... I did make sure of our tickets by purchasing them Thursday right after work. What a great strategy, except that it was rendered moot by other friends who walked in and got theirs 15 minutes before the movie.

Okay, I won't critique Prince Caspian now, since most of my family hasn't seen it yet. Just a couple notes -

-It is beautifully made, and absolutely full of sound that vibrates you right down to the cellular level. That, or some of my sound sensitivity has been jacked up way too high, which maybe explains why I jump so much.

-Unlike Narnia I or Pirates III, there is no surprise post-credit scene... at least, there wasn't at our theater. No last scene almost makes you feel more gypped than missing it when it was there.

-Jason especially is going to enjoy it!

(Speaking of which - Jason, let me know when you get the soundtrack.)

New car photos - Edited

Okay, as promised, here are some photos of the lovely new '95 Honda Civic - that is, a link to an album with some photos:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v603/SharonLHoyt/Warsaw%202008/

Hopefully that works. If it doesn't work I'll scream.

Just kidding!

I even threw in a couple photos of our place, for free.

-----

Edit Note: Apparently that copy-and-paste line above doesn't work. Let's skip the screaming and follow Mommy's bright idea:

Go down the sidebar to the Photos section
Click on "Photobucket Albums"
(You will be on my main Photobucket page)
On the list of Albums at the left, click on "Warsaw 2008"
Bingo, you're there.

As mentioned before - you are welcome to view anything I have on that Photobucket link.

A little letter

Dear family and friends,

I am writing to share some exciting news with you all!

It is especially exciting for me because it brings you all closer.

Internet access is finally here at home!


love,
Sharon

Latest

Guess what? I have a new car!

But I forgot to take a picture, so this little description of the most important points will have to suffice for now:

'95 Honda Civic, white, 114,000 miles, power windows and a CD player (provided by previous owner).

Can you believe all that? A '95, so extremely new! Less than 15 years old, unlike the '89 Toyota - which latter is practically as old as I am. Only 114,000 miles... wow, I can't remember driving a vehicle under 200,000. Power windows can be really annoying since I am always rolling my window down and forgetting to put it up till after I've turned the car off, but oh well, just have to train myself. And the CD player! There' s a radio with it, which is nice too. But having a CD player is just too wonderful.