Cranky-D

There was a time when I only used Windows when there was a program that wouldn’t run anywhere else. The blue screen of death was my constant companion. Windows 98 would choke frequently and choke hard when it did. I ran down Microsoft like all the other hard-core geeks did, and used linux whenever I could.

Then it got better. I used 2000 server for a long time and it rarely died. I finally switched to XP and I don’t think it has crashed once after service pack 2 came out. Sure, it still has memory leaks, but my machine will stay up for weeks at a time. I happen to be using XP64, and the only problem I have now is that youtube crashes firefox every now and then. However, since firefox put in the “restore session” feature, it doesn’t bother me much any more. My new laptop uses XP and I have no intention of changing that. I added cygwin to get all the linux-like features I want, and I keep the functionality of the laptop that linux cannot provide yet.

There was a time when I thought that all programmers should be taught using minimal tools so that they would be able to handle situations in which they didn’t have anything other than a text editor and a compiler. I still think that, but since using VSTO I have turned into a complete convert to decent IDEs. I have to admit, even if you only know very few features (like me) you can still get a lot of help from it.

There was a time when I would reliably say, “Real languages compile to binary,” and laugh at garbage-collected languages as inefficient and not useful in reality. The world disagreed with me, and due to my shortsidedness, I lacked the skills to get work. Now I program in C#, the newest of the non-binary garbage-collected languages, and will avoid any work that isn’t in either C# or Java, because those are the languages that get you noticed by HR people.

There was a time when I refused to run Outlook because it is a giant security leak. Now, I’m working on a project which is an add-in for Outlook.

There was a time when I thought databases were clunky and unnecessarily complicated. Now, I’m going to push that we add a simple database like SQLite to the project to get rid of the issue of using XML to store data.

I know my future, and it is everything I tried to avoid in the past. I am going to end up writing code associated with Office products that uses a database, and it will be for the rest of my programming career.

It’s inevitable.

I am home from a night of fun and boozing. This late, you have very few choices on what to watch. Right now I have an “Intervention” on about the son of one of the singers from “Three Dog Night.” Okay. I get it. The boy is overshadowed by the accomplishments of his father.

Get the fuck over it!

Yeah, that’s all I have for him. He’s a fucking pussy. My father kicks ass and I will never be the man he is. You know what? That’s fine. I can still be the best man I can be. I won’t be him but I can still be a force in the universe. And my father also acknowledges that I am the man I am.

Maybe that’s what’s missing. Maybe this guy needs his father to say that he means something. But first of all, he has to be willing to be something on his own.

I just saw this guys mom helping him to score.

Jesus Christ.

Now they’re all crying. Whatever.

I want to smack them all in the face.

Gee, that isn’t suprising.

I returned from a visit to Southern California yesterday at noon. This will be the first (hopefully) in a series of posts about how that visit went. In this post, I will concentrate on my sister’s cat.

Let us be blunt. Her cat does not like me. Her cat does not like anyone besides my sister, as far as I can tell. However, I took care of the cat for about ten days, since my sister left my father’s home to visit my other sister in Anchorage, Alaska. I would advertise the Bed and Breakfast my sister in Anchorage runs if it really mattered because I actually had traffic when my blog is listed as abandoned at truthlaidbear and if I didn’t want to remain mostly anonymous.

Anyway, the cat turned out to be needier than ever. The first day went fine. I squeezed out the tuna water from a can of chunk lite tuna (which I would never eat, given that I will only eat solid white albacore) and sprinkled the powder from her pain pill in the oily liquid. She consumed the result, and I threw away the tuna because I knew that the cat would never eat it and that we cannot start feeding other neighborhood critters because it wouldn’t be long before there were raccoons, opossums, and skunks hanging around at all hours waiting to be fed. I scooped out the cat box, renewed the dry food, and placed new “wet” food on a plate. That night, I turned out the light around 11 pm.

The next day, I think I gave her the tuna water at the appropriate time. However, I was informed of my lack of attention to the cat box when she left a deposit on the floor due to the fact that the cat box was too full. I cannot be sure if that day was the time I got the message, but I did get the message that the cat box must be cleaned multiple times in a day if the cat is to be happy. Other food and water requirements proceeded normally. However, that night she managed to cry at least 3 times, waking me and my father each time.

The next night, when I turned out the light, she cried very soon afterwards. So I turned the light on again, and it never was off again while my sister was away. Not that she didn’t cry again, but it seemed to lessen the problem.

I backslid after that, not feeding her at dawn like she’s used to, but whenever I felt like it, though I learned that I should feel like it sooner rather than later. By the way, lest you think I’m a cat hater, understand that this cat will not allow me to touch her at all, nor will she display the slightest deference to me. If she would just suck up a bit, I wouldn’t even bother to comment. However, she refuses to suck up at all.

I checked on that cat at least 6 times per day, and probably more. One thing I didn’t want to happen is that cat dying on my watch.

She makes me miss my brother’s cat, who only liked guys (though he would accept petting from a woman in a pinch) and who would flop for petting at the slightest provocation. He’s in kitty heaven now.

In the meantime, my sister’s cat, who we think is about 22 years old, is deaf as a post, arthritic, and as particular as she was 16 years ago when my sister decided to take her on. She lived through a brutal attack on her about a year ago by a cat who jumped through an open front door to attack her inside my father’s house, and while recovering from that suffered a stroke that left her with only one working leg at the time; she got better in increments, and can walk fine now, though her back legs can move a little funny sometimes. My sister fed the cat water off of various canned meats, like broth for a human, using a syringe of sorts to get the food down her throat and into her stomach, and the cat came back. My dad said recently that she has used up 17 of her 9 lives.

So we have a contradiction in that this cat has a strong will to live, but is a one-woman cat. If a cat can be stubborn and willful, this cat fits the bill. I don’t mind taking care of her, really, but damn, she could be a bit more appreciative and not wake me up whining every damn night.

Naturally, I have washed my hands of the cat yet again. However, I know I will be back in that house, my sister will be gone, and that cat will still be there.

Alive. Complaining. Needy.

Such is life.

I saw from some postings at Lileks’ blog that pays that the iPhone is out. I cannot tell you how thrilled that makes me.

It’s not that I reject all things Apple because I didn’t drink the kool-ade. I don’t. I merely consider it overpriced and overhyped hardware that does not enjoy the software support a PC clone does. Even though the new machines will boot XP, I still consider them costly for what you get from them. I got tired long ago of supporting hardware that lacks a software base. Amiga, anyone? I still own two, and they still, probably, work, though I haven’t booted either one in many years.

My real issue stems from a bizarre notion that a phone’s job is to be a phone. My cell phone does one thing; it provides a verbal interface between me and whoever I’m talking to over the ether. It does not take pictures, I cannot surf the web on it, and while I imagine I could text on it if I wanted to, I really cannot see the point. I have never seen a phone that has non-phone features that did any of them well. Plus, I don’t care for the fact that actually using those additional features costs more money. The way I see it, air time is air time and it doesn’t matter how you use it. The cell phone companies, on the other hand, have convinced people that those features are worth paying even more money for.

One day my phone will cease to work properly, and I will have to replace it. I wonder what dubious features I will have to put up with when that day comes. Maybe, if they have the camera perfected to the point that it’s as good as my digital camera (unlikely), I may actually find those additional features useful. But I doubt it.

And hey, you kids, get off my damn lawn.