Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From Forward the Mage, by Eric Flint & Richard Roach (Baen Books, 2002; ISBN: 0-7434-3524-9 1, LC: PS3556.L548 F67 2002, DD: 813'.54--dc21 2001056468)

Gwendolyn threw up her hands. "I give up! The Fangs I can understand. Those reactionary maniacs are just as crazy as you are, but at least they deal with the real world."

"Well, of course they do!" exclaimed Wolfgang. "What's the point of being a vicious reactionary, if you're not going to deal with the real world? Might as well be a liberal!" He shuddered. "Such sane people, liberals. Really ought to be locked up, the bunch of them. For their own sake, if nothing else. Not that I'd wish a pack of whining liberals on a lunatic asylum! The rest of the inmates would all commit suicide, just to escape the platitudes."

As of this morning when I switched off the charger, my "12 V" battery has 15 V across it. This startled me, because I never remember that a lead-acid cell has a capacity closer to 2 V than the "a little more than 1.5" that I keep expecting. (Not that batteries usually measure what they're labelled as. For example, a fresh-from-the-store AA cell is 1.6 V; depending on what device it's trying to power, "dead" will probably mean something under 0.8 V.) I'll check it again just before putting it back in the car.

Then I came upstairs and had another "Doh!" moment when I realized why the iMac couldn't find anybody else even though everyone else replied to its ARP "who has" requests. Stuck a different Ethernet cable on it and all of a sudden it sees the world. So now I'm sucking iCab and Opera and Nifty Telnet through my narrow modem, and will see about the feasibility of iTunes later. (If iTunes for OS 8.6 is too big for my connection, I'll burn a CD at the home of someone who has broadband.) Interestingly, the copy of Microsoft Internet Exploder currently on it won't display http://www.opera.com. It refuses to treat it as a web page, and instead downloads the page as a generic file and sticks it on the desktop. Fortunately I wanted both iCab and Opera anyhow, so downloading iCab so that I can use it to download Opera is not a huge, time-wasting extra step.

Now if I can score a 250 W AT-style power supply before the one in my main Linux box downstairs finishes eating itself, and get my tires dealt with, I'll feel a lot more "together". (Except that I still need to pay my gas/electricity bill and sort out how I'm going to fuel my furnace. Urk. And figure out why neither electrical outlet in the bathroom is working, so I can plug in a space heater there. And put plastic on my windows. And ... drive myself nuts worrying about everything at once instead of a piece at a time ...)

Urk. Urgent distractions lately, and here it is nearly Samhain and me with no idea what Hallowe'en parties I'm going to try to get to (need to see how tired I am after car stuff, too), nor what I'm doing for a costume this year! (Which probably means repeating a past costume unless a really-easily-fabricated and entertaining idea pops into my head in the nick of time.) I never seem to manage to be prepared for the holidays.

Argh. Out-of-the-house errands today are just not going to happen. Plan B: in my next brief burst of energy, put the old tire back on the car and hope that it's still leaking slowly enough to just need a little topping up tomorrow; concentrate the rest of my spoons today on making sure I'm all set for tomorrow; budget time tomorrow for dropping the battery back into the car with the idea that even if it's not holding it's charge well (not sure whether its being down to 13 V after a few hours disconnected from everything is something to worry about or not), there'll be folks where I'm going who can give me a jump start to get home; think about going to a party tonight only if I get a big burst of energy this evening, which looks unlikely. (*grrr* A time of year when I wish to be social even more than at Christmas. *sigh*)

One of these days perhaps I'll learn not to overestimate how much I'll be able to get done the day after doing stuff. :-( Yesterday didn't look like much written down as a list, but apparently it counted as enough to screw with my ability to get things done today. I hate this.

Dealing with tires and such is hereby postponed until Monday, and I'm counting on y'all to hope really hard on my behalf, that no new automotive crises arise before then. (I also need to figure out just how much money I have -- and pay my electric bill before it gets cut off -- before I go buying car stuff. Ugh.)

Other than big public gatherings like Georgetown and Fells Point, what's going on in my local social circle Monday night?

I'm typing this in a Telnet window on a Linux box while the listening to iCab read the most recent entries of my LJ friends page aloud on the iMac halfway across the room. Kind of almost decadent except that I need to figure out how to make it read each user's entries in a different voice, and those of you who still use *asterisks* to indicate bold (or strong emphasis (the difference: <b> vs. <strong>)) get read aloud as "blah blah AsterIsk blah AsterIsk blah blah AsterIsk blah AsterIsk blah", and if you surround a word with multiple asterisks. Obviously you should all change your posting habits for my personal convenience. (Hey, I saw that finger!) (And that!) (Don't stick it out unless you're going to use it!) ... or, ah, maybe I'll just get used to hearing "asterisk asterisk asterisk" in a computer voice. %shrug%.

(What? What?)

Of course, I'm only half-listening. So hearing the computer say, "Can you roller-skate to shul?" was probably even funnier than if I'd caught whatever was just before it. (I'll either have the Mac read it aloud again when I'm no longer thinking about writing, or -- more likely -- just read my friends page normally after my nap.)

Naptime; then to change tire, deal organize garb & gear, and get to email. Maybe I'll have the computer read porn to me as I fall asleep. (The flat delivery and mispronounciations are actually rather distracting, but it still amuses me to know that I have that option.)