tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125052982011-12-21T06:47:35.168-05:00<i>noun.</i> 1. The region of space controlled by the Romulan Star Empire that is directly adjacent to the Neutral Zone.<br> 2. a. A region of space remote from the Imperial homeworlds. b. A region of space situated beyond Imperial centers of culture.Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.comBlogger3451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-65943570778599172852011-08-27T23:37:00.000-04:002011-08-27T23:37:35.671-04:00

Mother Nature seems to have it in for us here in the Tidewater region of Virginia this summer. Leaving aside the relentless summer heat that's just business as usual around here, including intermittent blistering 100 degree days, the month of August has hit us with a series of punches that are getting to be a tad bit tedious. First off, as incongruous as a burning swamp may seem, the Great

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-79645437487271706412011-08-23T22:12:00.000-04:002011-08-23T22:12:28.833-04:00

So. I'm lounging on the sofa just before 2 PM, working on my computer (I was telecommuting today), when I hear an odd noise over the A/C fan like it's suddenly windy outside, and hey, look, the chandelier is swaying slightly and the friggin walls are shaking! WTF?? Tropical storm winds and a bloody nor'easter don't make the walls of my house shake. And then it stops. Good lord, could that have

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-21033633537104537812011-05-29T23:02:00.000-04:002011-05-29T23:02:00.232-04:00

Last Tuesday, Hampton Roads was hit by a nasty band of thunderstorms with winds gusting to 80 mph – enough to blow over two tractor-trailers on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, as well as knock out power to 150,000 houses and take down trees all over the place. Whole thing lasted no more than 20 minutes. I was fortunate. Didn't lose power at all (7500 people were still without power nearly 48

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-88614172569531506362011-05-16T20:00:00.005-04:002011-05-16T20:00:05.187-04:00

StarTrek.com occasionally sends me an email "newsletter", actually a pitch for assorted Trekkie merchandise from the online store. No doubt this is a remnant of the days of yore, when said online store was operated by my erstwhile employer, aka The Company. Lord knows I haven't knowingly given StarTrek.com any reason to think I might order from them, at least not in the past 10 years or so. Be

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-76573877180791588222011-05-15T22:01:00.000-04:002011-05-15T22:01:58.772-04:00

According to the local Sunday paper, the Great Southern Brood of 13-year cicadas, aka Brood XIX, is crawling out of the ground, even as we type. From the looks of the map included with the article, it doesn't look like the inch-and-a-half long bugs (said to be akin to "flying chicken nuggets" to dogs, birds, and squirrels) frequent the Hampton Roads area much. But what did catch my eye in the

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-47685797423603184022011-04-19T22:59:00.000-04:002011-04-19T22:59:20.713-04:00

After much deliberation, I finally did something I probably should have done long ago: I had my "expanded tier" cable service shut off, keeping only the basic service (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and PBS). I've never been much into series television, at least not since the Star Trek franchise petered out with the cancellation of Enterprise. Since then, Battlestar Galactica is the only show that piqued

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-34662120821449489712011-04-10T23:35:00.000-04:002011-04-10T23:35:45.688-04:00

Embarking on my third unemployment claim in six years, I find that I still don't understand the timing of the process – specifically, when I am supposed to start filing my "weekly claims". You would think that should be simple to determine. You would be wrong. It all comes down to ambiguous, sloppy, and conflicting terminology in the various paper and electronic instructions and FAQs provided by

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-41807251984146509392011-04-07T21:31:00.000-04:002011-04-07T21:31:12.859-04:00

The second time I was laid off, I noted that the VEC had finally progressed to the point of delivering unemployment benefits via direct deposit or debit card instead of cutting and mailing paper checks (as they were still doing three years before, during my first layoff). This time around, I was hoping for more innovations or streamlining in the whole process, but so far my application for

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-45983617829553976102011-04-05T23:22:00.000-04:002011-04-05T23:22:12.338-04:00

... but it's the one I ended up with. See, I finally decided it was (past) time to upgrade my cell phone, a Motorola RAZR that I got back in 2007, when I defected to Verizon after AT&T summarily shut down the TDMA network they acquired along with Cingular, which my old phone had used. I liked the RAZR a lot, but the battery no longer held a charge for long, and the phone was undeniably, well,

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-82081011425305212032011-04-03T20:46:00.003-04:002011-04-03T21:22:42.034-04:00

Not making much progress yet on starting on the myriad of projects I have to do. None, to be precise. While everyone around me at work was being felled by all the cold and flu bugs going around, I somehow managed to avoid contracting anything myself. Until last week.Monday I felt the first stirrings of a cold – stuffy nose, scratchy throat. Tuesday it was gaining a definite foothold, with the

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-41260683290026082742011-04-01T15:59:00.003-04:002011-04-01T16:12:09.490-04:00

So, while I was nattering on here about my layoff/furlough/retirement (take your pick), all my friends from Decipher who ended up out in Denver working for Sony Online Entertainment (after the Decipher layoffs) had just gotten the axe from SOE as they closed three of their studios, including Denver.Guys, I am truly sorry to hear this. Wishing you all the best and hoping for a speedy turnaround in

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-73090203473709797772011-03-31T20:52:00.006-04:002011-03-31T21:57:54.164-04:00

Well, here we are again. Today, for the third time in just over six years, I joined the ranks of the unemployed. This time, however, it came as no surprise; the government contract I've been working on for the last two and a half years has finally come to an end. Actually, the original contract came to an end last September 30, but it got extended twice, for three months each time. We've known

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-44006141060917912392009-10-31T21:10:00.004-04:002009-10-31T21:54:57.174-04:00

... the Tire Gods decided to try a new method of flattening my tires.This is the sight that greeted me this afternoon when I took my recyclables out to dump them in the blue bin. That tire is one of the brand new ones I just had installed exactly one week ago. The left front one, to be precise. To say that I was not happy would be the most flagrant understatement of the year.After I got done

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-2321634539183076032009-10-27T19:00:00.001-04:002009-10-27T19:00:06.291-04:00

My quest to throw out 50 things continues. In Part 1, I listed my first 20. Last weekend I delivered another load of donations, this time to the Habitat for Humanity "General Store", which accepts and sells not only building materials, but also a wide range of "housewares". And of course, I continue to make donations to my trash can. Herewith the next 15 on my list.As before, if not otherwise

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-48226638484094682262009-10-26T19:30:00.000-04:002009-10-26T19:30:00.581-04:00

Finally got the painter's tape off the front door weatherstripping, so I can post pictures of the results of my recent door-painting project. Here's the front door (I plan to get rid of the ugly black storm door) ......and here's the back door, out on my deck. The color was picked as a pretty good match for the new roof I had done a couple of years ago. The picture of the back door shows the

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-21685621846580807362009-10-25T18:30:00.001-04:002009-10-25T18:49:02.144-04:00

So, I've had this Toshiba laptop for, oh, about three or four years now. (No, I haven't abandoned my Mac; it's just that most of the courses I've been taking at the community college are Windows-centric, so I got a Windows laptop back when my Mac wouldn't run Windows.) Anyway, when I first got it, I remember the sound working OK. You know, the little riffs that Windows plays when it starts up or

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-30278865548441529142009-10-24T22:02:00.005-04:002009-10-24T23:16:42.859-04:00

Evidently I failed to make the appropriate sacrifice to the Tire Gods after my first flat tire back in '06, or the second one in '07. True, they waited a bit longer before coming after me again (#2 followed #1 by less than nine months), but I'm sure that was only to lull me into a false sense of security. And now they're being more insidiously subtle in their smiting.Back in April, almost exactly

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-80513597075999076352009-10-21T20:52:00.005-04:002009-10-21T21:14:25.766-04:00

Greer's LawA computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do.... an axiom amply demonstrated by the web applications inherited by the project team for which I write documentation.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-53843108769247775702009-10-18T18:28:00.006-04:002009-10-18T18:46:17.869-04:00

The Northern Tool & Equipment flyer had this item advertised today. Good thing that it "works in low light...conditions", considering that it's "for indoor use only"!

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-20334630043609629942009-10-16T22:30:00.001-04:002009-10-16T22:43:03.219-04:00

I've read a lot of books on organizing and decluttering, though you'd never know it from looking at my house, which is intensely cluttered with everything from Star Trek action figures to the remnants of old hobbies and interests to, well, books on decluttering. My most recent read in this genre — which I borrowed from the library so it wouldn't end up creating more clutter! — was Gail Blanke's

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-40723922377166245752009-10-15T21:11:00.004-04:002009-10-15T22:07:17.259-04:00

Four years ago, I expressed my low opinion — OK, I classified the post under "rants" — of the news that some local teachers were no longer assigning zero grades, even when students didn't turn in any work (they would assign maybe a 50 or 60). There was a lot of flak about it in the newspaper, and to the best of my knowledge, they backed off from this policy at the time.But now we have news that

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-88126384105585626912009-10-09T20:06:00.003-04:002009-10-09T20:23:07.172-04:00

I'm still mulling over the sign I saw on the back end of a delivery truck a couple of days ago. It read:NOW HIRINGGranite and CorianFabricators and InstallersNow, I've always thought of "Now Hiring" signs as a temporary sort of thing — you put one up when you need new or additional staff, and when you fill the opening(s), you take it down. But this was a permanent, painted adornment to the truck.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-30624416444602603372009-10-06T20:55:00.002-04:002009-10-06T21:01:01.504-04:00

Weiler's LawNothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-57145029274439686202009-10-05T18:37:00.003-04:002009-10-05T18:50:31.262-04:00

In another dazzling followup post, I am proud to report that I finished my door-painting project yesterday. Second finish coat on the deck doors, two finish coats over the primer on the front door. After having brushed on the first coats last week, I got smart and hit Home Depot for a couple of mini foam rollers, a 4" model for the front door and a 2" one for the doors to the deck (which are are

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-38096434192715805192009-10-05T18:29:00.003-04:002009-10-05T18:37:10.849-04:00

I could take another picture of my microwave oven's display, but a plain dark rectangle wouldn't be very interesting. Yes, the display's revival appears to have been every bit as fleeting as I had anticipated. It lit up on Wednesday, and by Saturday the numbers – or parts of them – were randomly winking in and out throughout the day. Today it's gone completely dark again and shows no signs of

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-81570710195562443392009-10-01T20:28:00.004-04:002009-10-01T21:02:49.633-04:00

This is how the display on my microwave oven currently looks. That last digit should be a 2, and the colon isn't even a semicolon, so as you can see, there're a few missing LED segments. But that doesn't bother me, and there's nothing unusual about it; what's unusual is that there is anything to see at all.Let me back up a little. OK, let me back up six years. That's when I moved from an

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-62838794994024813022009-09-30T18:50:00.001-04:002009-09-30T19:00:26.778-04:00

Some time ago, I mentioned here that "I never dream about a workplace while I'm working there -- the dreams only surface months after I've left that place." But in recent years, I've found the dreams coming sooner after each departure (perhaps because there have been more departures?), and now they've finally caught up with me.Recently I've dreamed several times about people I currently work with

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-5802221539377213292009-09-29T19:30:00.000-04:002009-09-29T19:30:00.421-04:00

No, this doesn't have anything to do with Firefox or Safari; I'm talking about a more old-fashioned kind of browsing.I didn't realize just how much I relied on browsing at the Kempsville library branch to run across interesting books, until the branch closed for renovations last December. Since then they've been running an "express" office, to pick up holds and return books, tucked in the corner

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-7140315300513137102009-09-28T19:40:00.000-04:002009-09-28T19:40:00.334-04:00

After escaping from the Big Orange Home Improvement store a couple days ago with my ostensibly unbagged TSP substitute concentrate and my Kilz2 primer, I actually mixed up some of the TSP the same day and scrubbed down not only the front door, which I've been fixing to repaint for a year now because it's ugly, but also the patio door that I had installed three years ago and never got around to

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-54827074200489357402009-09-27T18:03:00.000-04:002009-09-27T18:03:00.733-04:00

My forays into fence-building and plastic shed assembly notwithstanding, I can't say I would think of my home improvement efforts as "construction". But evidently someone out there must, if I am to judge by the magazine subscription offer that arrived in the mail yesterday.Yes, I have received a "Contractor Discount Offer" for a 1-year subscription to the Journal of Light Construction, at the "

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-50390486400921796872009-09-26T13:43:00.001-04:002009-09-26T13:48:30.734-04:00

So, in the midst of running errands this morning, I stop in at the local big box improvement center, which shall remain nameless (it's the one with the orange signs), to pick up some TSP and primer so I can paint my front door. I head for the paint department, where I quickly locate the quart cans of Kilz2 latex primer.Things start to go downhill from then on. I make a complete circuit of the

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-3452138131096271542009-09-25T20:40:00.005-04:002009-09-25T22:06:33.439-04:00

Having posted about the board games and books of my childhood, perhaps it's time to mention another toy that, as it turned out, presaged my primary career path. I'm talking, of course, about the venerable Gilbert Chemistry Set.My set came in blue metal box, similar to the one shown here; in fact this may be the actual model I had. I remember the square bottles of chemicals like the ones in the

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-50066601194042284422009-09-23T20:08:00.000-04:002009-09-23T20:10:28.622-04:00

On the account login page on the local public library website, a notice starting with the following sentence recently appeared:If you notice that some of your holds have suddenly "disappeared", don't dismay.I guess that means if they "reappear", I should relieve.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-33831411657607011792009-09-20T16:42:00.006-04:002009-09-20T18:56:53.495-04:00

I'm always amazed by the games stores play with the copy in their sale flyers to try to convince us that their prices are great. I was reminded anew of this trend today by the Big Lots flyer in my Sunday paper, the source of the first ploy on my list:Compare to $xx.00! Almost every item in a Big Lots flyer is tagged with this vague phrase. "VistaQuest Digital Camera, $59, Save 34%. Compare to

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-72746326377449244092009-09-19T20:13:00.004-04:002009-09-19T20:36:11.055-04:00

So, the big yard sale is finally over and done. Didn't sell any of the big ticket items, like that 5 cubic foot freezer that's been cluttering up my garage for four years ever since I bought a full-size upright. But I did get lots of customers and sold a lot of small stuff – $156.25 worth, to be exact. Taking out the $11.11 I spent on the newspaper ad, and I cleared $145, which is a nice piece of

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-22597457902309401652009-09-18T21:17:00.002-04:002009-09-18T21:30:12.381-04:00

Those asters I planted last weekend started out looking pretty nice, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them – and the blossoms are almost all gone, thanks to something that has been steadily nipping them off until the plants look like this:See those little white dots in the bottom half of the picture? (Click on it to see the larger version, which may show them better.) Those are the

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-84815434377113917152009-09-18T20:55:00.004-04:002009-09-18T21:17:47.458-04:00

Well, I managed to keep up a post a day for quite a while, before missing Tuesday and Thursday this week. My excuse, such as it is, is the yard sale I've been planning for several weeks. Scouring through boxes and closets and bookshe;ves, I've dredged up quite a supply of stuff for this sale, and stashed it in the garage; most of what you see on the left side of the photo, and in the foreground,

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-79861285081924476092009-09-16T21:29:00.000-04:002009-09-16T21:43:38.140-04:00

In January 2007 I had cataloged the bulk of my books on LibraryThing, and at the time I had just over 900, not counting books on tape and CD and books in my "to sell" pile. Two and a half years later, my LT count is 1067, which now includes the 17 audiobooks I own plus a few books that I somehow missed in that first pass and have since added to my list. (And I'm still finding the occasional

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-1961248021308299862009-09-14T20:57:00.003-04:002009-09-14T21:17:07.036-04:00

The title being, of course, the answer to the question I posed yesterday. My AWOL Systems Analysis instructor sent an email to the class this afternoon to let us know that he has finally posted our "week 3" assignment, acknowledging that it's really week 4 of the semester so he's running a week behind.But that's OK, you see, because "most of you have not completed the week two assignment yet".

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-32270341118159569312009-09-13T20:08:00.007-04:002009-09-13T20:59:50.281-04:00

Remember when you were in college and there were these unofficial "rules" about how long students were expected to wait if the prof didn't show up for a class? At my school, I think it was rumored to be 10 minutes for an instructor or TA, 15 for an assistant prof, and 20 for a full prof (it was never stated just how you were supposed to know the professor's rank). But what do you do when the

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-13218890816284851212009-09-12T18:37:00.006-04:002009-09-12T19:06:04.256-04:00

Too tired to write anything profound. I spent a big chunk of the day getting pot-bound plants into the ground – a Blue Star juniper that's been sitting here for months, a black-eyed Susan that's been around slightly less time than the juniper, and three asters I picked up at Lowes a couple weeks ago.That leaves only a dwarf crape myrtle, one of the "Razzle-Dazzle" series (specifically, a Cherry

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-63378887023671460492009-09-11T20:44:00.003-04:002009-09-11T20:58:14.512-04:00

I don't have a typical breezy post today; just wouldn't be appropriate. The flag would have been flying at half-mast today at my workplace (which, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, is a military office) but I couldn't get a picture of it because I was telecommuting. And while I do have a flag – from my father's casket, because he was a WWII veteran – I don't own a flagpole to fly it from.So

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-59383375099340874962009-09-10T19:35:00.000-04:002009-09-10T19:39:13.964-04:00

My sole post last October was an announcement that I had finally landed a job after nine months on the unemployment rolls. I appended a brief description of the strange and abbreviated "first day at the new job" – which, it turned out, was just the prelude to an entire week of more of the same, exaggerated by a couple of orders of magnitude, a sort of extended, week-long "first day" that,

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-83188082638802685302009-09-09T19:11:00.000-04:002009-09-09T19:11:00.604-04:00

Last summer, I developed an inexplicable, very localized, highly uncomfortable, and long-lasting itchy rash on my left arm, right leg, and other random locations. When I eventually visited my doctor, I was pretty surprised to hear that it was poison ivy, because I drew a blank on how I could have gotten it. (Those of you who know me are probably aware that I don't spend much time outdoors in

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-38789660109575159112009-09-08T19:00:00.000-04:002009-09-08T19:00:01.537-04:00

You know you're taking too damned many pills when you can't keep track of them even with an organizer like this one, which is exactly what I have. I fill it up on Saturday night for the coming week, with the stuff I need to take first thing in the morning (actually an hour before I eat), the stuff I need to take before I leave for work, and the stuff I need to take before bedtime. (While I've

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-20954431738063314062009-09-07T20:34:00.001-04:002009-09-07T20:34:00.249-04:00

A few blocks from Oakland's Chinatown is Jack London Square, one of those working waterfront areas that so many cities have turned into a trendy shopping/dining/entertainment/lodging districts. My own foray into Jack London Square was decidedly low-key: I skipped the entertainment and lodging entirely, confining my shopping and dining to the Barnes & Noble and its café, respectively. (Well, OK, I

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-20014468346925703262009-09-06T19:30:00.000-04:002009-09-06T19:30:00.225-04:00

From last week's fortune cookie. I hope it means the yard sale I'm getting ready for will be a success.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-14657564089479853252009-09-05T20:32:00.000-04:002009-09-05T20:32:00.201-04:00

On my business trip last fall, the meetings wrapped up earlier than expected and gave me a free day, so I hopped the BART to Oakland's Chinatown and environs. Love the bilingual street signs. This is just a few blocks from the Oakland Inner Harbor Channel, which separates Oakland from Alameda Island. (More photos later from Jack London Square.)At another intersection closer to the heart of

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-77866213222329690172009-09-04T21:24:00.001-04:002009-09-04T21:27:46.502-04:00

Previously in Hinterspace, I mentioned inheriting my mother's knack for always selecting what turns out to be the slowest checkout line, abetted by idiot customers, clueless cashiers, and/or equipment failures. While this bizarre corollary to Murphy's Law continues to dog me to this day, I've never seen anything to beat this instance of bad checkout line karma, which occurred circa 1976, in down

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-22775822073017947082009-09-03T19:42:00.000-04:002009-09-03T19:42:00.688-04:00

The guy that used to live next door to me had a dog that was frequently out in their fenced-in back yard, where it would go into a frenzy of barking and jumping against the fence whenever it heard me in my back yard. It seemed to know I was there even if I was doing something as low-key as lounging in my hammock. Fortunately, he sold the house last year and moved (with the dog).The new neighbors

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-31188851791948559292009-09-02T14:03:00.000-04:002009-09-02T14:03:00.294-04:00

I've posted before about my peculiar brand of bad shopping karma, whereby my patronage of a business and enjoyment of its products only serves to ensure its demise. No fewer than six Waldenbooks stores that I personally and regularly frequented have bit the dust over the years, followed by the local Pepperidge Farm outlet.And then last December, the Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard stand in Greenbrier

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-13975893981558889582009-09-01T19:43:00.001-04:002009-09-01T19:43:00.490-04:00

Some time ago many of us posted maps created at this site, highlighting the states we had visited according to the rules of the State Game. By virtue of an almost overlooked stop at a parkway service area en route to a Maine vacation in 2006, as well as my business trip last fall to the San Francisco area, I am now pleased to be able to update my map with my 22nd and 23rd visited states, New

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-26639531412692097382009-08-31T19:24:00.000-04:002009-08-31T19:24:00.057-04:00

Not, strictly speaking, San Francisco (as this post is tagged), but close enough; this is in Alameda, which was my actual business trip destination.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-873184021945245132009-08-30T18:46:00.001-04:002009-12-01T17:50:21.117-05:00

I've posted before about various bits of nostalgia from my childhood, such as the Brains Benton books and Flash Gordon shows. But I don't think I've ever written about the board games I remember playing as a kid, which is a bit of an oversight when you consider that anybody reading this is almost certain to have made my acquaintance by virtue of our mutual ties to a certain game company (aka The

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-74364559106910455072009-08-29T19:11:00.000-04:002009-08-29T19:11:00.636-04:00

You know I was taking photos just as an excuse to stop and catch my breath, don't you? Good lord, I'm out of shape. The climb didn't seem to bother my companions, but then they haven't quite reached my advanced age (which felt at the time like it was about the same as that turreted Victorian on the corner); one's around 30, and the other in his 40s, I think. Thanks for slowing down and waiting

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-48132257653401781102009-08-28T17:38:00.000-04:002009-08-28T17:38:00.228-04:00

Back in the heady, early days of this blog – that is, just about four years ago – I posted a bit of a puzzle: a six-word coded message from a novel, to wit:Blime zax fernmo appentish wacko lushford.I asked my readers three questions:What is the translation of this code?What book series is it from?Bonus points for identifying the specific book in the series.Well, as it happened, no one ever

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-67857104705731200472009-08-27T19:00:00.000-04:002009-08-27T19:00:00.952-04:00

Just a shot of some of the charming houses I passed while trudging up the hill toward Haight-Ashbury. Oddly enough, I had to actually straighten the photo in Photoshop to show the true slope; apparently I partially compensated for the incline when I took the shot, making the street appear more nearly level.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-64436878966951432522009-08-26T19:00:00.000-04:002009-08-26T19:00:02.197-04:00

Yesterday I felt like crap after getting little sleep for the past two nights, so I called in sick. So the day shouldn't be a total loss, I spent some time perusing my old blog posts for inspiration, and discovered that all the images were missing from the first year or so of posts. Seems I had hosted the images on my own web space at Cox (I seem to recall that back Blogger didn't support

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-55756257493355076272009-08-25T19:23:00.001-04:002009-08-25T19:23:00.822-04:00

So, a while back I took up playing the Win For Life lottery. No big investment here; a single $1 ticket, twice a week. Two bucks a week is pretty cheap entertainment – heck, I spend three times that on Coke every week. And my expectations are not high; while the overall chance of winning any prize in a drawing is 1 in 21, by far the bulk of that chance (roughly 1 in 23) involves matching three

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-80178249970498307882009-08-24T19:00:00.000-04:002009-08-24T19:00:00.767-04:00

Is it just me, or is the medical community going out of its way to "discover" new nutrient deficiencies in the general population? I'm not talking about some newly discovered vitamin or a mineral that no one previously suspected was critical to some vital life process. No, I'm talking good old Vitamin D, discovered over 80 years ago and well-known to prevent or cure rickets.Your body manufactures

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-5846439470940199312009-08-23T19:00:00.001-04:002009-08-25T12:34:06.585-04:00

Almost my first assignment on my new job when I started last October was to head out to California on a business trip with my project team members. Our business was in Alameda; we stayed in Oakland, and rode the BART into San Francisco one evening and climbed the hill up to Haight-Ashbury. Kind of odd to see, for the first time, the district that was an icon of an era that encompassed my high

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-3884029575821119162009-08-22T09:02:00.000-04:002009-08-22T09:03:42.262-04:00

At least, I'm sure it was something like that I said when I accidentally caught my toes on the corner of the door Thursday night. In any case, it wasn't repeatable in polite company. Fortunately, I didn't have any company at the time, polite or not. The fourth toe got the brunt of the damage and looked like this by Friday morning after an ibuprofen-drugged night. ==>It might be broken. I stayed

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-58231128951132163522009-08-21T19:38:00.000-04:002009-08-21T19:38:00.390-04:00

So, a few weeks ago I'm browsing for Tupperware auctions on eBay, here on my not-quite-two-year-old MacBook, when suddenly I get this spinning beach ball. Not too unusual, when you're paging through even a small part of the 250+ pages such a search returns.Only trouble is, the beach ball won't go away. And then... the hard drive starts to click.I won't bore you with all the gory details of my

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-46653847030813407582009-08-20T20:00:00.000-04:002009-08-20T20:00:00.129-04:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Classes start today at the local community college and, glutton for punishment that I am, I have once again registered to add another entry to my transcript.I've been taking in-classroom courses (mostly so-called "hybrid" classes that meet every other week and you submit assignments online in the off weeks), like web server administration and ASP.NET, for the

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-12033553937644802812009-08-19T19:00:00.000-04:002009-08-19T19:00:00.732-04:00

Generally speaking, the avian population in my back yard is limited to the prosaic likes of mourning doves and blue jays. But one day back in March, I took a look out my back door in passing and was startled to spot this rather large bird (about a foot tall) perched on the deck railing. Though it may not be immediately evident in the longer view above...... a closer look (click on the photo for

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-39603232776579582162009-08-18T19:03:00.000-04:002009-08-18T19:26:16.637-04:00

As usual, I began the landscaping season with good intentions, not all of which have come to fruition. The area behind the mailbox (you know, the one that attracts ants) had a low-growing juniper (or some such evergreen, I forget) that I planted last year, but it had mostly died back, and then the nice retired neighbor, who mows my lawn because "it's really no trouble" when he does his,

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-7041548400250022482009-08-17T15:00:00.000-04:002009-08-17T15:00:00.712-04:00

I have regaled you before with tales of ants infesting my mailbox and gumming up my old air conditioner's electricals. My erratic blogging habits apparently sidetracked me from mentioning that (a) the little buggers reappear in my mailbox periodically, roughly once a year; and (b) since having the new A/C installed two years ago, I have had to have the contacter replaced not once, but twice, for

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-6342165213408610142009-08-16T17:49:00.008-04:002009-08-16T21:44:00.770-04:00

OK, having been extremely remiss for the past, er, nine months or so, I'm going to once again make a stab at reviving this blog. You'd think I could manage at least a few lines a day, wouldn't you? It's not like I don't have anything to write about; I frequently think of things I could blog about, but procrastination wins out.For those of you who only ever hear any news about me from my blog (

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-1843745482578845892008-11-08T23:17:00.002-05:002008-11-08T23:19:14.497-05:00

Living and driving in rural upstate New York for 25 years, I accepted the fact that it wasn't a question of if I would ever hit a deer, it was when I would hit a deer. Everyone did, sooner or later, including me; the damned things were everywhere.Likewise, when I moved to Hampton Roads, it didn't require great observation skills to quickly realize that it wasn't a question of if I would ever be

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-11555313075903912002008-10-06T12:26:00.004-04:002008-10-06T13:08:21.086-04:00

8 months, 68 applications, 12 interviews.That's what it took this time to land a job. Three years ago, it was 6 + 46 + 15. Stark illustration of the state of the economy: 33% more time, almost 50% more applications, 20% fewer interviews. And the interview rate is actually worse than it looks; only 7 of the 12 were actual full-scale interviews, with the rest being "screenings" over the phone that

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-64508283869075166972008-09-21T21:11:00.009-04:002008-09-21T22:51:16.776-04:00

Speaking of job-hunting, the usefulness of our local newspaper's online job listings took a major hit five months ago when they "upgraded" the website. It still provides a search by (ostensibly) "job category", but it's now virtually useless.Before the advent of the new-and-improved site, a search in, for example, the "Internet/New Media" category returned a list of jobs that almost always had

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-72582633066151107902008-09-21T20:49:00.003-04:002008-09-21T21:05:53.424-04:00

When I wrote about my unexpected Emergency Unemployment Compensation, I mentioned that the online weekly claim form no longer asked for the number or names of job-search contacts. Well, that lasted for five weeks. When I logged in to file my claim today, those questions had inexplicably reappeared on the form, just as inexplicably as they disappeared five weeks ago. Fortunately, I really did have

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-9891942795423289272008-08-31T10:00:00.000-04:002008-08-31T10:00:01.087-04:00

So, Thursday morning I woke up with the beginnings of a cold: stuffy head, runny nose, slight sore throat. Things went downhill from there, and by Friday I could delete "slight" from the sore throat and add a dull headache and occasional cough. Despite periodic swilling of ersatz Nyquil, I slept poorly, and accomplished approximately nothing all day Saturday.For once, I'm downright glad that I'm

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-77271742937918611502008-08-30T20:41:00.005-04:002008-08-30T20:59:33.328-04:00

OK, so I jumped the gun a bit when I said I was no longer unemployed, but rather "retired". It seems that while I wasn't paying close attention, the Federal Government decided to authorize Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) for us folks who use up our standard 26 weeks, e.g., me. So I get a letter from the VEC with a form to fill out to apply for EUC, which I send in and get approved for

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-56932793872070830192008-08-07T20:59:00.005-04:002008-08-07T22:12:37.120-04:00

Yesterday was a milestone of sorts in my job search. I emailed off my 54th job application. Nothing special about the number 54, but it was the last application that I "have to" make. See, the VEC requires the unemployee to be "actively searching for employment" each week in order to draw unemployment benefits for that week, and the minimum criterion for an "active search" is two contacts each

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-83179005152041205292008-07-23T09:00:00.001-04:002008-07-23T09:00:01.974-04:00

Think you've read everything sci-fi written by the grand master, Robert A. Heinlein? So did I, until recently, browsing my favorite section in the library, I ran across a totally unfamilar title: For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs. Why had I never seen it before? Although RAH died in 1988, this book wasn't published until 2003 -- and it was written around late 1938/early 1939, shortly before

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-63134599632152673472008-07-22T14:20:00.002-04:002008-07-22T14:26:26.835-04:00

I love to read -- always have -- and have had plenty of time to do so since my layoff. My favorite genre is, as you might expect given the theme of this blog, science fiction (with a touch of fantasy thrown in), though I also frequently delve into mystery, action/adventure, history, biography, humor, and anything else that catches my eye at the library. So I thought I might try my hand at a few

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-74948579887625320272008-07-22T09:00:00.002-04:002008-07-22T09:00:05.070-04:00

... but not a total dud, either. My very first Virginia Lottery "scratcher" (click image for a more readable view of the highlighted areas) paid back $5 on my $2 investment, from Mediterranean Avenue of all places. Considering that the roughly 1 in 4 chance of winning any prize at all is overwhelmingly provided by $2 "break-even" prizes, I considered myself quite lucky to get anything above that.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-33245257449268203102008-07-21T21:23:00.005-04:002008-07-21T21:34:09.415-04:00

As promised in my previous post, here are my new bookcases: finished, installed, and filled. A huge project -- to be honest, I'm not sure it's one I would have tackled if I'd realized just how big a job it would be -- but I'm pleased as punch with the way they turned out.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-24067124067694207892008-07-07T22:44:00.004-04:002008-07-07T23:32:36.021-04:00

Second bookcase is done at last, and thanks to timely assistance from my buddy Tim, moved into place in the living room today! Pix will come later once the shelves are filled; so far I only managed to hook up the TV, DVD player, and VCR with their myriad cables, connectors, and power cords.As I headed into the home stretch on this extended project, I was battling not only Tidewater's typical July

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-68602671576311727192008-06-22T21:46:00.004-04:002008-06-22T23:10:29.311-04:00

Since my layoff in January, I haven't said much here about job-hunting (unlike during my job search three years ago). My reticence has been largely due to a dearth of substantive responses from potential employers to my applications.Nine days after my layoff, having updated my resume, I sent out my first overtures to the workplace. In the ensuing five months, I have submitted a total of 40 job

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-18739121999795813742008-06-21T11:28:00.003-04:002008-06-21T11:55:07.697-04:00

After several weeks hiatus from the Great Bookcase Finishing Project (partly because a hideous heat wave made working in the garage untenable, but mostly because I needed a breather from, well, breathing the fumes of stain, shellac, and poly), I'm back on track and making furious progress on the second -- and definitely final! -- bookcase.This one is going a lot faster than the first, due to

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-80034558626224482302008-06-20T20:32:00.005-04:002008-06-20T21:12:08.623-04:00

If you run Firefox as your main browser, you probably know that Firefox 3 went live earlier this week. If you haven't upgraded yet, take my considered advice: Don't!I looked over the new features on the Firefox website this morning, and it looked good, so I downloaded and installed it. Les than two hours later, I was downgrading back to 2.0.0.14 (which, fortunately, I was able to locate on their

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-12453038372169326642008-06-12T23:45:00.001-04:002009-08-25T22:31:27.323-04:00

I hereby declare Rakal's First Law of Procrastination:Procrastination time for a household task is inversely proportional to the amount of time the task will actually take.Case in point: Some time ago, a bird tried to set up housekeeping in my bathroom exhaust fan vent. This came to my attention when I was startled out of a sound sleep one morning by the sound of something scrabbling around in (

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-8021783317017796162008-05-29T21:20:00.001-04:002008-05-29T21:23:31.532-04:00

The photo shows one of the branches I lost off my Bradford pear the other night (the one you can a good bit of in my previous post). Now, if you're familiar with Bradford pears, you know they tend to be brittle and break in windstorms, and you probably think that's how this branch came off. Nothing could be further from the truth.There I am, relaxing in a hot bath with a good book, when I

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-13544317193745074522008-05-27T21:50:00.006-04:002008-05-27T23:01:55.538-04:00

For some reason, I never got around to blogging about my second major home improvement last year: my new roof. (The first being my new air conditioner.) I shall rectify this omission forthwith, beginning with an overall shot of the house from the street, shortly after the work was completed. This doesn't really do it justice -- even if you click on it for the larger view -- because the color

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-85821793058424234052008-05-27T21:45:00.000-04:002008-05-27T21:46:45.389-04:00

After more trips than I could count to both Home Depot and Lowe's (because Home Depot is closer, but only Lowe's has the dewaxed shellac); after getting high on fumes of gel stain, shellac, water-based poly, paint thinner, and denatured alcohol; after turning my fingers brown with gel stain when I was too lazy to don yet another a pair of gloves; after moving half a room full of furniture to

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-5055063158502421372008-05-25T22:17:00.000-04:002008-05-25T22:18:13.697-04:00

Some time ago I wrote about my odd tendency to misread signs and headlines, with sometimes disturbing results. Well, I've gathered another batch of such cognitive misfires, which I present for your analysis.At $57.99, the Cheap Twill Jackets advertised for sale at a department store seemed mischaracterized. But maybe the price is more reasonable for Chaps Twill Jackets.I don't think I'm unusually

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-5186668722317415602008-05-24T10:00:00.000-04:002008-05-24T10:00:06.739-04:00

The food section of the local paper recently carried news of this culinary breakthrough: Land O Lakes half sticks of butter. According to the article, the new "half stick packaging allows you to unwrap a quarter cup of butter at a time -- convenient for baking and other uses where only a small amount is needed." Or, in Land O Lakes' own words:Introducing one pound NEW LAND O LAKES® Butter in Half

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-41083108130366983342008-05-23T10:00:00.001-04:002008-05-23T10:00:02.664-04:00

A month ago, I regaled you with the deluge of thunderstorm, tornado, and flash flood watches and warnings that filled my inbox over the course of roughly 24 hours. After a final flash flood watch alert at 6:13 PM that day, things finally quieted down for a week, at which time I got one tornado watch. While that's all I got for Virginia Beach -- a watch, no warning -- Suffolk wasn't so fortunate.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-26777036836892497322008-05-22T16:23:00.004-04:002008-05-22T16:52:49.165-04:00

Fans of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series have probably already gotten the word that book 5, A Dance With Dragons, is due out in hardcover on September 30th. (In fact, I'm amazed that I beat Dr. Heimlich to mentioning it.) Why, that's not even three years since A Feast For Crows!Still, a bit more than four more months before we can find out what's happened to the Imp, Arya, Jon

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-53903311994537770092008-05-22T14:59:00.006-04:002008-05-22T16:17:04.235-04:00

So, once that CSR deleted my ex from my car insurance policy, and somehow lowered my rate to boot, all is good, right? If you believe that, I'd like to sell you the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.Oh, on the face of it, it looked like it was taken care of. When I logged in to my account online, the Welcome message was back to welcoming only me. And on the Driver tab, he was listed as having been

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-28306477389499091642008-05-12T21:24:00.003-04:002008-05-12T22:31:49.544-04:00

I'm currently both ticked off and baffled by my car insurance company. For you to understand my mood, we need a bit of history. Six and a half years ago, I moved from upstate New York to the South Hampton Roads area of Virginia. It was 5 or 6 months before I got around to buying car insurance here (i.e., I waited till my previous policy was about to expire). Since my previous insurance company

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-81893024219533364792008-04-21T11:40:00.001-04:002008-04-21T14:44:10.887-04:00

[Updated at 2:40 PM...]Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 1:47 PMFrom: The Weather Channel AlertsSubject: Severe Thunderstorm Watch for Virginia Beach, VATHE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 209 IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING ...Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 8:01 PMFrom: The Weather Channel AlertsSubject: Tornado Watch for Virginia Beach, VATHE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-65811469777420198002008-04-16T21:25:00.004-04:002008-04-16T22:15:48.189-04:00

Last Friday was my consult with the surgeon about that spiculated mass evident on my recent mammogram. I showed up nearly half an hour early1, with my two-foot-square envelope of X-rays in hand, which gave me just enough time to fill out the half dozen forms that every medical appointment seems to require these days before the nurse called me in.Now, I've long since gotten used to the replacement

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-62025569147994615182008-04-12T21:45:00.001-04:002008-04-12T21:51:41.702-04:00

As I reread the instructions for the colonoscopy I'm supposed to schedule, I have to wonder what planet doctors come from. Evidently, not one where patients may be single, live alone with no relatives nearby, and have friends who all work during weekdays. If they did come from such a planet, they might understand just how stymied I am by the transportation requirements dictated for someone

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-18855244727107719942008-04-02T22:09:00.006-04:002008-04-02T22:58:55.806-04:00

Well, the "cone compression" mammogram turned out to be exactly what I anticipated (i.e., the same except they squeeze harder). And the results were pretty much the same, too: the "spiculated mass" is still there. So the radiologist ordered an ultrasound too. His opinion is that it's a small cyst and I should have a repeat exam in 6 months. However, my PCP already referred me to a surgeon for

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-17862803162343756092008-03-30T18:21:00.003-04:002008-03-30T18:33:21.130-04:00

I'm heading into the homestretch on finishing the first of my two unfinished bookcases. When I blogged about this before, I was still working on finishing the loose shelves and hadn't started on the case at all. But now, it's stained, shellacked, and had one coat of poly. All I have left is to sand the poly and then apply one more coat, and it'll be ready to move into my living room.And then it's

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-67050120438664384952008-03-29T21:53:00.004-04:002008-03-29T22:55:18.581-04:00

So, last Tuesday I went for my routine annual mammogram. Check in, update my insurance info, fill out the form listing all my medications, reiterate my family history, and sign the statement that says NO, there is no chance that I am pregnant, zero, trust me on this. Put on the silly wrap, get squoze four ways, and I'm done. Like I said, routine, like a dozen times before.Except...Wednesday

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505298.post-81454372957461508112008-03-25T16:06:00.003-04:002008-03-25T16:16:54.020-04:00

The thing to do is to make so much money that you don't have to work after the age of twenty-seven. In case this is impractical, stop working at the earliest moment, even if it is a quarter past eleven in the morning of the day when you find you have enough money.

Major Rakalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08661697998316419505noreply@blogger.com0