yak shaving

[MIT AI Lab, after 2000: orig. probably from a Ren & Stimpy episode.] Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you're working on.

Been thinking and acting on organizational systems lately. Setting up a new office and the prospective job change and forced be to focus on what needs to be done. This link is an interesting series of post on the Getting Things Done system I use and find very helpful.

http://www.43folders.com/gtd/index.html

What I Do

This one is for my parents. They still won't really understand but at least they can send this link to their friends and go see...my son does have a real job. We're not sure what it is or what he does but he does work. :-)

Sustainable Development Through Knowledge Integration - Pathways Project

Double the speed of your web browsing.

Here's a terrific little tip I have tried out myself. It will greatly increase the speed of your web browsing with Firefox, if you are using it over a broadband or a fast LAN connection.

Hanging out with great-grandma

I suppose this gives being down home on the farm a new meaning.

Christmas morning.

My wife unwrapping presents on Christmas Eve with my daughter and nephew.

All set up for Christmas dinner with the wife's family.

The secret ingredient(s) ... orange juice, cloves, anise, wine vinegar, brown sugar, chives and about six others.

I know there is some seed in here somewhere...

Don't miss this weeks special - The secret lifestyles of rich and famous turkeys - see them at the spa, the supermarket...

What happens when turkeys run afoul of the Department of Homeland Security.

The final product.

The chairs for the living room have arrived.

Trying out the purple velour outfit from grandma and grandpa

Moving up, moving out

CleanSoftware.org is a resource to help Windows users find the best free daily-use software, free from nasties: adware, spyware, harmful/intrusive components, and threats to privacy.

Computers do not have to become slow, unreliable and infested with unwelcome software during the natural course of computing. Simply being careful about what software you install on your computer will have a dramatic impact on the quality of your computing experience.

There is a lot of excellent free software available today. Unfortunately, over the past couple years the Internet has become littered with deceptive and borderline dangerous software. Many "free" programs threaten your privacy; others clutter your computer with intrusive components.

Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858

Glogg

"It has none of the coma-inducing sweetness of mulled cider, let alone the melted ice cream overkill of eggnog. Instead, it combines the robustness of a serious wine with the headiness of a strong martini. It also goes surprisingly well with food, which is no small consideration on a Champagne recovery day."

Glogg varies. Traditionally the spiced wine is set afire and poured over sugar so that the granules melt into the punch, adding just enough sweetness to smooth the bitter edge.

TRADITIONAL GLOGG
Time: 40 minutes

1/4 cup raisins*
1 cup blanched whole almonds*
6 cardamom pods*
Pinch ground nutmeg*
6 cloves*
2 sticks cinnamon*
1 teaspoon dried ground orange peel*
(available where spices are sold)
1/3-inch piece fresh ginger*
1 bottle dry red wine
1 1/2 cups aquavit
5 ounces cube sugar

1. In a large stainless steel or other nonreactive saucepan, combine the *. Add the red wine, and allow to steep for 30 minutes. Add the aquavit and place over low heat until steaming, but do not boil.

2. Place the sugar cubes on a flameproof perforated ladle. Carefully light the glogg with a long match; low blue flames will dance on the surface (be careful of face, hair, and hands). Hold the ladle with the sugar over the pan, and use a second ladle to scoop up the burning glogg and pour it over the sugar. Continue until the sugar melts into the pan. Put out the fire by covering the pan with a lid. (If you do not wish to light the glogg, the sugar can be added to the pan with the spices, and stirred until dissolved.)

3. Serve glogg very warm in small cups with a few almonds and raisins in each.

Yield: 5 1/2 cups (10-12 servings).

HIGH-OCTANE GLOGG
Time: 10 minutes

1 quart aquavit
2 bottles inexpensive dry red wine
1 bottle ruby port
5 tablespoons sugar
4 cardamom pods
12 whole cloves
12 allspicberries
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup blanched, slivered almonds
1 cup golden raisins

Combine all ingredients but almonds and raisins in large enameled or stainless steel pot. Bring slowly to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar, and heat just until liquid starts to steam, about 10 minutes. To serve, place a couple of almonds and raisins each in small cups and ladle glogg over.

Yield: 1 gallon.

The first recipe was adapted from Jan Wickstrom, executive chef to the Swedish consul general. Remember that Wikings, as the word is pronounced in Norway (or Norge, as they spell it on their postal stamps), had a lot of practice drinking until the government put a clamp on all things alcoholic.

The word "berserk" is a Norwegian adjective, "berserker" is a Viking term, and Vikings were Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. They went berserk in the summertime, too, when they tried to drink to get to sleep during the midsummer when there wasn't much nighttime. More Icelanders are alcoholics than any other nationality. Too far north. You don't hear about Laplanders being alcoholics, but that may be because they have only reindeer, and they keep moving about, and stills are too cumbersome to pack onto reindeer as the North People travel hither, thither, and yon.

Caution: Fire is dangerous in the hands of folks who have had a few slugs of glogg. Have a fire extinguisher ready or invite a fireman to the party. He'll know what to do in case of rash behavior.

Remember to say "Skol!" before your first sip. The glass is raised high as the wish is cried out. There's a long o in "Skol." It rhymes with "shoal." Glasses are not thrown against the fireplace. That's English.

Rage against the machine

Kent Norman kills computers. You know you've thought about doing this.

The Apple Product Cycle

EPIC 2014
In the year 2014, The New York Times has gone offline.
The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned.
What happened to the news?
And what is EPIC?

This is a very interesting and entertaining speculative fiction bit. It
requires Flash. It is 8 minutes long. Make sure you have the full 8
minutes undisturbed, the amount of info is fairly large and it is worth
listening to! The topic is the future of media.

Note that a lot of the ideas have been around for a while (esp. in the
context of the Media Lab's research at MIT) but....

Interesting Alaskan Blog

Stumbled across this through the next blog link at the top right hand corner of all the Blogger hosted blogs. Reminds me of our trip to Alaska and a lunch stop where you could ride in a dog sled for a suitably extortionate price.

I've always wanted to have a dog team.

http://dogsleddenali.blogspot.com/

This one makes my heart swell.

What a difference a year makes. The baby now has more hair than her uncle.

Christmas 2003

Christmas outfits and little girls. Always a fun combination.

Yes sir, three bags of hay for the reindeer and a latte, extra hot.

Afternoon light on the water.

Baby and mommy under glass.

Our first christmas. Note beautifully arranged and coordinated mantlepiece. Let no-one say that Home and Garden Television doesn't have an educational affect on certain female mid-career professionals.

Interlaced garlands. Next year we'll go for the matching mural. :-)

Family ornaments from woodwards 30 years ago. They didn't make it onto the tree this year due to the tendency to shatter when the tree is pulled on by a curious baby.

The snow is so deep this year in the mountains that the elk have been reduced to eating garlands.

We got our first piece of furniture that wasn't a hand me down on Saturday. For a while there my wife thought she might break 40 before it happened.

Front view

Hanging out on the new couch. We've learned to throw ourselves backwards off this one as well. Thankfully, daddy is always there.
(I miss that uncomplicated view of the world as a safe and welcoming place. For her it is a great game. Arch back and push with the legs and wait for the catch.)
Today I was sitting on the leather couch and heard silence, then some highly satisfied grunting. I turn around, she has climbed up onto the sectional and is climbing the cushions on the back to try and reach the windowsill and look out. The moment I looked at her it was 'baby light speed'; the arms and legs start going with the thought that if she got there fast I wouldn't stop her. Once her arms and legs get longer that theory will probably work. Until then, score one for daddy.

40 more pushups and I get a bottle.

We learned to say 'hat' on Saturday.

An excellent book I am reading on economics and investing. I also suscribe to his email list. I read a fair amount of the financial press and have found John Mauldin's email newsletter and his books some of the most reasoned and credible commentary and analysis. I'm only two chapters in but it has made me reconsider several assumptions I had in place about how the market worked and how I, of course, would come out ahead. :-) What I like best is the reference to numerous additional studies and the measured consideration of opposing points of view. I suggest checking it out.

For lawyers seeking a cause may I suggest....


http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/12/the_digital_per.html

Last week I stayed at the St. Regis hotel in Washington DC. It was my first visit, and the management gave me a questionnaire, asking me things like my birthday, my spouse's name and birthday, my anniversary, and my favorite fruits, drinks, and sweet. The purpose was clear; the hotel wanted to be able to offer me a more personalized service the next time I visited. And it was a purpose I agreed with; I wanted more personalized service. But I was very uneasy about filling out the form.

It wasn't that the information was particularly private. I make no secret of my birthday, or anniversary, or food preferences. Much of that information is even floating around the Web somewhere. Secrecy wasn't the issue.

The issue was control. In the United States, information about a person is owned by the person collects it, not by the person it is about. There are specific exceptions in the law, but they're few and far between. There are no broad data protection laws, as you find in the European Union. There are no Privacy Commissioners, as you find in Canada. Privacy law in the United States is largely about secrecy: if the information is not secret, then there's little you can do to control its dissemination. ....

See link for more.

We've finally managed to make some decisions to furnish our dining room so people coming by for New Years just don't have to come by and take turns sitting on our one couch. We ordered this carpet online (9' x 11')

My wife found this chair with slight damage so they discounted it. It also matches the carpet. .... Can you tell I've been drinking the koolaid? I'm starting to use phrases like... that color would really make the [accessory or furniture item of your choice] pop.

gratitous baby shot

Modern leather couch

Chair to also match the gold in the carpet.

Picked the carpet to match the stones in the fireplace.

One frozen vanilla yoghurt + 1 hungry baby = first brain freeze.

You know if you lived in Vancouver you could see fresh snow on the west coast mountains on a regular basis.

What, mommy wants to go back through the whole Ikea again just in case she missed something? Much longer and my first word is going to be Ponang. We lost Daddy after the second time through. I think he's asleep in the kids section with a stash of cinnamon buns to keep him alive until we come back. Mommy however, just shakes from excitement and talks alot about accessories and repainting the house. Unfortunately, I can't get these straps undone so I can climb on top of a beech veneer bunk bed with matching mass produced carpet, chair and desk, and call for an airlift.

I love the Internet sometimes ... while most of the time. It's affect on business and comparison shopping has been amazing. My wife and I finally agreed on a rug we liked for the front room. That takes some doing since generally I pick something and my wife doesn't like it or she picks something and I can't stand it. The caveat being eventually I see the error of my ways and agree that she was right to pick the item she did ... especially if Vern used it in a room on trading spaces. :-)

So back to the carpet....

Bought from a discount store in Delta with a "25% discount" with taxes in - $1025.

Before phoning back and confirming the order we thought we'd google just in case.

Ordered from Rugs USA, with additional shipping charges to deliver it to my door, brokerage fees and taxes... $560.

That's one of the most profitable web searches I've made.

Reflections

I've been working my way through a pile of papers in my inbox doing a
weekly review.
I ran across a couple quotations I wrote down for reflection.

Still, authorities must finally be judged by the same criterion that
applies to everyone else: what is the quality of their thought and what
is the validity of their conclusions?
The Plan of New York, Lewis Mumford (225)

In other words, by attempting to be practical and hard-boiled, Mr.
Adams, so far from helping the practical administrator has made his task
more difficult. The time for compromise is not when one is thinking
about a problem; for by hauling down ones flag to the enemy as soon as
one as surveyed the field and counted his forces, one lacks the power
not merely to reinforce ones friends in their attack, but to win over
such of the enemy as may have sympathies in the other camp ... the
regional plan with its genius for premature compromise, give these
people no effective aid.
The Plan of New York, Lewis Mumford (239)

Lewis Mumford

Went in for an interview and accepted a job offer last Friday on the RCMP Lower Mainland Effective Policing Team doing writing, research, policy work and public consultation. I expect to start in January. Going to really miss the people I work with now but need to know if I like doing policy or if I should just be happy playing with my computers.

Pretty in pink.

Open the door, close the door. Open the door, close the door. Shut the door all the way...wait for daddy to come open it again. Open the door, close the door, open the...

Still waiting...

Killing time...

Waiting to be picked up after waking up from her nap.

and auditioning for a role as the christmas tree in a Charlie Brown Christmas...

Total time to wrestle her into the mittens - 5 minutes. Total time they remained on - less than a minute. Free will can really be a pain sometimes. :-)

Watching grandpa have his new bed delivered for the suite.

Snow on the mountains on wednesday.

A little something from Grandpa at her birthday party to decorate her room.