Author: splicer

A week ago the pow­er went out here at Chez Splicer. Believe me, I was not hap­py to be dragged out of bed by the sound of the UPS. Well, I got to my beloved RS/6000 Mod­el 250 and shut it down prop­er­ly before the UPS died, but for some unknown rea­son it would­n’t come back on in the morning.

IBM built those things like Mack trucks. So actu­al­ly I spent the last week just try­ing to get the … Read the rest

Today is a beau­ti­ful day here in San Fran­cis­co. Sun­ny, prob­a­bly over 70. I wish I’d left my coat at home, but of course you can nev­er tell about some­thing like that. Bet­ter safe than sor­ry, no? I real­ly wish I’d brought my shorts and shoes – It’s a per­fect day to run. I could use a run, too. I’m blimp­ing out over here.

Walk­ing to the MUNI sta­tion at Embar­cadero I noticed some­thing quite odd. It’s a phe­nom­e­non I’ve … Read the rest

In change at the video store today I received a 1983‑S nick­el. It caught my atten­tion because the bust of Jef­fer­son looks «frost­ed» against the high­ly-shiny back­ground. Usu­al­ly the fig­ure does­n’t stand out so much, but on this coin, the field was pol­ished almost to a mir­ror-shine. I thought it was a brand-new nick­el, except that the shine was­n’t uni­form (hence the frost­ing). That was a lit­tle con­fus­ing, so I looked clos­er, and sure enough, it has a mint … Read the rest

I post­ed my résumé to a pop­u­lar local com­mu­ni­ty web­site two days ago. It was a big step to get a ver­sion of my résumé enough com­plet­ed to put it out for pub­lic con­sump­tion. I’m sure it will get more pol­ish­ing as I go, but I’m glad to get the ball real­ly rolling.

It does­n’t sur­prise me too much that folks are out there look­ing for peo­ple to work for cheap and fast and to start imme­di­ate­ly. One respon­dent actu­al­ly … Read the rest

Had a swim les­son tonight. I’ve known I’m a slow swim­mer for quite some time, but tonight I got a glimse into why. My coach gave me a kick­board and had me swim hold­ing my arms out in front. When I kicked my legs, I did­n’t move for­ward at all. I just kept on kick­ing and kick­ing and then I actu­al­ly start­ed mov­ing back­wards! Appar­ent­ly I’m not doing it right.

This tells me a lot about why I’m not a fast … Read the rest

I hate to have to drop a $20 bill to get to work, all the more so when the only per­son to blame is myself for over­sleep­ing. Oh well, at least I’m sleep­ing again. But when I final­ly flag down a taxi, I expect the cab­bie to actu­al­ly know how to get from the Cas­tro to Fish­er­man’s Wharf.

Hon­est­ly, I have no idea whether tak­ing Franklin would be faster than some oth­er option. I just know that a car will … Read the rest

Here’s my to-do list for 2005:

• Escape from Alca­traz Triathon (in three hours, yeah right!)
• Full Marathon (I’m think­ing maybe Chica­go. Goal: 3:15. Again, yeah right! But if I stick with it, no rea­son I can’t)
• Leave the North Amer­i­can con­ti­nent for the first time in my life
• Lose 20 lbs (prefer­ably before Burn­ing Man)
• Bench press my body weight in sets of eight (the last item will make this one a lit­tle eas­i­er, although work­ing toward this will under­mine

I start­ed 2004 at about 195 pounds. I fin­ished weigh­ing 175.

I began run­ning in 2004. I logged 367 miles in the course of the year. In 2004 I ran my first 5K, my first 10K, and my first half-marathon.

In 2004 I trained for and com­plet­ed my first triathlon, the olympic-dis­tance Trea­sure Island Tri.

In 2004 I went on two dates.

In 2004 I saw 7 bands play live music shows. Devo I saw for the … Read the rest

On Mon­day I opened my mail to find a let­ter from the com­pa­ny that I signed up with for the motor­cy­cle Rid­er Course. Appar­ent­ly they’re going out of busi­ness and will not be offer­ing the class­es that they have already sched­uled. The let­ter said that they will not be offer­ing refunds, but that what­ev­er com­pa­ny gets the con­tract to run the course will pro­vide the course for all the stu­dents that have already reg­is­tered. But at this time there’s no … Read the rest

http://www.rexxla.org/Newsletter/oorexx-pr.html

IBM released Object Rexx under the Com­mon Pub­lic License.

Thank God for Dr. Dob­b’s Jour­nal to keep me up to date on my first pro­gram­ming love. We’ve gone our sep­a­rate ways, but I still hold Rexx close to my heart and wish it only the best.… Read the rest