tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125052982009-12-06T22:50:53.081-05:00<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.comBlogger333125tag: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-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.com0