Month: May 2004

Bermuda – Day 2

Monday is a full day at sea. We slept in as best we could, missing breakfast by a long shot. We didn’t need to wait long until lunch was served, partly because of the time-zone change. Lunch was good; its not every day that you get curried lamb shank as a mid-day meal.

We spent a fair amount of time up on the deck, resting in the sun, watching the expansive ocean. The Horizon is an incredible horizontal line around you. Someone noticed a shark near the boat. I saw it, but it looked like it was dead or something. A couple flying fish skimming above the waves and a solitary sparrow that forgot to disembark before departure were about the only signs of life.

Its becoming increasingly obvious that the number of New England accents we heard in the embarkation line wasn’t an anomaly. It appears that a fair number of people are from the Boston area. You can tell from across the boat. It seems that in order to misshape words in the cambridge fashion, you need to apply a fair amount of force.

I’m not able to read much because the ocean is hypnotizing. Its rather smooth too, and the boat seems to move through the water with some urgency. That’s fine with me because I’m ready to snorkel.

Bermuda – Day 1

These entries are appearing a week late – internet access was too pricey on the boat.

To celebrate Michelle finishing law school, and to some extent, my survival, we cruised from Boston to Bermuda. The draw to this cruise was the long period of time spent in port, which is one of the main complaints I’ve got with cruises. We took the red-eye to avoid having to get a hotel, and were quite pleased with how easily the whole process went.

I’m not sure how people sleep on planes, even without an entire middle school class on their way to see government in action. Poor chaperones. We did get to Boston on time, and quickly sired a cab to the cruise terminal. We got there a little early, and I called Apple tech support on my dad’s behalf regarding an upset iBook. They couldn’t help me since I didn’t have the laptop, and he doesn’t have phone access. It was somewhat confusing to explain to the support guy. I’m calling from a pay phone in Boston on my father’s behalf, who is in the cascade mountains, and his iBook is having the same display problem that hundreds of others have, and he doesn’t have phone access, and he needs it for his daily work, and on and on. It didn’t go well.

Waiting to board, it seemed that most of the people were from New England. We set sail at 4 p.m., the harbor and airways around Boston busy with traffic, and quickly entered the Atlantic Ocean. Our first journey into the Atlantic.

For dinner, we dined in a small French-ish restaurant on the boat. We decided not to worry where the food came from and take a hiatus from our normal dietary conscience. Michelle gets the french version of surf & turf; its the first beef she’s eaten in months. She was in heaven when the waitress removed the lobster from the tail. I ordered filet mignon. It had a glazing sauce made with veal & fois gras. Its the first and probably last time I’ll have either of those; but it was really, really good.

Law School, Schmaw School

Michelle took her last final, ever. She’s now done with law school, and is somewhat confused about what is next. She knows exactly what is next, but its so different from what’s behind that she’s disoriented. With as much reading, studying, worrying, and uncertainty, its no wonder. But you’ve made it. Congratulations, Babe.

For those of you thinking about law school – you are crazy. But you’ll be in good company. The other people in Michelle’s class were also bright, fun, and dedicated (and crazy). Congrats to all of you too. Its been fun.

Parents – teach your children to RTFM

Most of my work involves helping people with computer problems. I help them convert a word document to a PDF, format HTML for use in an online class, or figure out why something isn’t working correctly. I’m pretty good at it, and people wonder where I learned all this stuff. Well, I learned it by doing and reading.

Lately I’ve been getting a fair number of repeat requests from repeat offenders. Many should know how to do this stuff by now, and most of it is very simple. Now I hate to be harsh, but there’s a saying in the computer world; If you don’t know something – “Read the F*cking Manual.” Hell, the link for help is right next to the link for the thing you have a question about!

I’m starting to get the feeling that this idiom may be lost for the older generations, so we should start teaching it to our children. Right away. Its an important lesson that can be expanded well beyond the computer realm to other areas of life. If you have a problem with your VRC, your conditioner, or your azaleas, read the f*cking manual. There’s got to be one somewhere. Check your library, or the Internet.

I realize this may sound somewhat cold, and it is. I do enjoy helping people that I want to help. This includes friends and family ( at the appropriate time and hourly rate). And I myself have been known to ask questions even when the answer may be staring me in the face. Its nice to have someone explain things to you, but its also nice to socialize with people as well.

I thought about this all day yesterday, then a friend came over for help selling his returned engagement ring on eBay. I thought about delaying the post, but he knows this isn’t about him.

I still haven’t worked out the appropriate parody to “Mommas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” It’ll take some time.

GM weirdness

I’m aware that the comment systems seems to be acting odd. I recently updated GreyMatter, and I’m not happy with the “improvements.” I think I’ll be moving the site to Moveable Type when 3.0 is released. Not that you care, but I thought I’d share anyway.