Today I saw the coolest presentation at my Rotary club meeting. The speaker was Dr. Richard Linderman from the Air Force Research Labs (AFRL). He talked about the latest super computer projects they were doing. Their super computer is made up of 336 Playstation 3s, and has 53 teraflops of (memory? ROM?) and 1.4 teraflops of memory on the headnodes on its 14 subclusters. Fat trees are also involved. Whatever this means.
Anyway, by using 336 Playstations linked together, they were able to build a supercomputer that would have cost ten times as much if they bought it through the usual government procurement procedures. And they are doing some rocking projects with it. They can use satellites to take real-time movies of the activities of a whole city. They can mimic the recognition functions that a human brain uses, to read text that is obscured. They are building a version of the human brain that "sees" things the way humans do. I think that this is a very worthwhile thing to do with PS3s.

And do algebra problems, too! Today I scored high enough on my college's math placement test that I can sign up for the college algebra class that I need for my degree in web design and management.

Maybe next year I will get up the courage to try the required physics course, The Science of LIght.
From the catalog:
This is an introductory course designed to acquaint students with the basic concepts of light and optics. Topics covered will include: Historical development of optical instruments, electromagnetic spectrum, lenses and image formation, light sensitive materials and processes, color filters, Kirlean imaging, and holography. The course will include numerous examples chosen from a variety of fields, including photography, human vision and nature.

That's what I like about working for an educational institution. It can be....educational!

Picked up the new RoadRunner modems for me and Mom.

Plugged Mom's in to her PC. Had to call the help number to reset the ? so it could get onto the Internet. Had to read numerous tiny sets of numbers and letters off the modem to the help person.

Got onto the Internet and then Mom's email wouldn't work. Got passed on to an Indian help desk to reset the email because the local help person couldn't fix that. After working our way through numerous steps with "Ar-Ar" [really, that's what his name sounded like], finally had email. My time: approximately one hour.

Went home and plugged my new modem into my Mac & router. Started up the Mac. Hey, look, I have Internet AND email, no problem, no help desk calls. My time: <1 minute.

It is good to belong to the true faith.

For a couple of years, I've had a woodchuck living in my back yard. I enjoyed seeing a small furry rodent go about his business. Now and again we would startle each other, but generally I saw our relationship as one of respect, tinged with the desire to avoid any close encounters.

This spring the woodchuck decided to enlarge his burrow and made a large pile of dirt around the opening in my yard, sort of like a catcher's mound. The manager of my condo must have decided this was going too far, because a Havahart trap appeared on the mound, baited with lettuce. The trap stayed over the burrow for a couple of weeks and then went away. I don't know whether my woodchuck was trapped and moved, or decided to move away on his own; it had other entrances to its burrow on the other side of the condo fence so it could leave any time. I thought I would be without a backyard rodent after that.

But one day I saw another woodchuck, much larger and darker than my original woodchuck, come out of the burrow. The condo manager must have seen him too, because the next day the dirt mound had been shoveled into the burrow to block it up.

This week, however, somebody, probably the big woodchuck, re-excavated the hole. I haven't seen him around, but it looks like he's moved in.

The Duchezz scores this as Humans 1, Woodchucks 1, so far. Keep tuned for all the excitement!



You have to look closely at the middle of the picture to see my original woodchuck.





The evil Havahart live animal trap. Did my woodchuck go to jail?

 Yesterday was a day of sunshine, scenery, wine, good food, and friends. It was lovely.

meirwen , the Duchezz Rowan and I took a bus trip to Finger Lakes wine country. We visited several wineries, tasted a lot of wine, enjoyed the scenery, had a very nice lunch at Americana Winery (www.americanavineyards.com/),  bought a lot of wine, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. When we got back to Utica we went to a fabulous urban restaurant on Genesee St., the Balkan. It has great food, German-themed wood carvings, doors, furniture, etc., an attractive piano bar, and the wonderful Heidelburg bread from our area. We shared some country pate with cornichons, and then I had the duck confit, the Duchezz enjoyed the seafood au gratin, and meirwen  had the chicken piccata. They were all perfect. 

Then we divided up the wine (how many cases did I get? Wow!) and drove home, happy in our day together. 

Organizing Rowan's reception: a little time

Getting to Buffalo and back: some gas & tolls

Picking up some beverages and paper goods for the reception: a few dollars

Getting to yell "You hit like a Laurel!" at Ro at fight practice: priceless

The woodchuck who lives in my back yard is out of hibernation and looking for food. He or she is eating things off the ground, maybe maple seeds that didn't take root last fall. I am so tempted to put out some apples or carrots for him, and I have to keep sternly reminding myself that it is bad to feed wild animals and let them think that humans are a source of food. 

He is so cute with his cinnamon-colored fur! 

Must...not...feed...cute...furry....animal......

 At last, a reasonably pleasant Ice Dragon!
The new site is big enough for fighting, fencing, merchants, bardic, schmoozing, and the Pent, without feeling crowded. 
It's an easy off I-90 exit 49, with lots of parking. There was room outside for archery and thrown weapons. 
The bathrooms are clean and professionally maintained. Yay! 

The Pent just rocked. Rhiannon did a great job running it.  Mistress Rannveigr entered some really great Norse food, drink, clothing, and research papers and won the Pent. Skyr and mysa (Norse curds and whey), nom nom nom. There was plain skyr, roast lamb marinated in mysa, skyr and cream, skyr and blueberries, and on and on. I got to eat like a Viking!

It was good to see everybody. We had the usual load of food at our table so nobody starved. Later on at drd_pyrat 's we ordered barbecue from Sticky Lips and gossiped about everyone who wasn't there. We should have placed a call to the party at Elizabeth and Antonio's  to congratulate him but we weren't drunk enough. 

 

drd_pyrat fed us a bountiful breakfast on Sunday, and we got to gossip some more. Then it was back to mundania. 

Coming up in three weeks is Rowan's elevation to Laurel, at Aethelmearc Coronation. Who's going to be there?
 

 

 After a long winter, I am going to sunny Austin, Texas for a week with my brother, his wife, and their noble dog Ford. Going to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, www.wildflower.org, to see the bluebonnets in bloom. Going to visit the Whole Foods flagship store for great shopping & takeout. Going to enjoy taking the dog for walks in a place where rosemary is grown as a hedge and doesn't have to live indoors all winter. Maybe we'll take in some of the wineries of the Texas Hill Country. 

Yes, I do suck. 

This past couple of months has been stressful. I had to fire one of the library clerks. The committee I chair at my college, Staff Development, has spent all its money for staff development proposals and now has nothing left until our new fiscal year begins in September, so people who didn't get their bids in are unhappy. Recovery from my smashed knee is still progressing, and it still hurts to walk. 

On the up side, our Shire has a new fight practice site, thanks to clovis_point . The snow has melted from my deck. I have a job that looks to be secure for a while. My car is fully paid and running okay, I have friends and family to visit, and I found a new series of books to read: Michael and Katherine Gear's series about prehistoric peoples of North America. These books are just fascinating! The Gears are archeologists and base their fictional stories on actual knowledge of how these people lived; what they ate and how they obtained and cooked it; what they wore and how they made it; their religious beliefs, their economy, their interactions with other groups, and their history. I found that I had spent so many years focused on European early history, and there is so much I don't know about North America's history. This spring I want to visit the Ganondagan State Historic Site, near Rochester, www.ganondagan.org. 

Happy Spring to you!

 As heard on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" this weekend:

www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,books/products_id,7847/title,Pride-and-Prejudice-and-Zombies/

From Austin, Texas:

www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/austin/entries/2009/01/28/sign_hacker_broadcasts_zombie.html

If you have the time, please, please read the comments! I think Ogedei's twin wrote some of them!

 It's been a day of good results.
Our Shire event is now posted on the AEthelmearc calendar. This means that other groups that wanted this date will hate us, but we have it. 
We got to go home from work at 4:30 because of the bad weather.  Of course, we get to go home at 4:30 every day. But my night people didn't have to come in, risking their lives over treacherous roads. Classes were cancelled, yay!
We decided to tell all the students that are taking classes at online universities that we weren't proctoring their exams anymore. Instead, a pricey division of the college will now accommodate them, for a fee. Yes!
It is good.

 I"m back to work as of this week!  It was a long haul spending two weeks at home, not being able to drive or even get around very well. My knee is still pretty bruised and swollen, and the doctor says it will take months for it to recover. But I can gimp around enough to get to work, the library, the grocery store, etc. 
Thank you again to all my friends for your help. I am so lucky to have found the SCA and the great people in it. 
Off to fight today's battles! 

 My knee became infected during last week, when it was supposed to be healing. I have a return visit to the doctor Monday morning. Still no going to work. The great library people at MVCC are coping with my continued absence and running the place just fine, I'm sure. But I don't know when I'll be able to go back to work, or even drive again. 

My family and friends have been most wonderful about helping out. wyz_azz  and clovispoint  came over last Sunday to take me grocery shopping, bring me books, and get my car tires inflated. rhiannon14  and barondiego  came over Thursday night to bring me dinner, water my plants, take out my garbage, and help me drink red wine. The Duchezz came over Tuesday to take me out for dinner and  our Shire meeting. Mom takes me to doctor's appointments and my sister has done shopping, car care, and installation of new batteries in smoke alarms. 

I sure hope that my knee gets better on its own and doesn't need surgery. And that I can drive myself around sometime soon.

No more brace or crutches. 

No work or driving for a week. 

Ice, rest, elevation, no compression. 

My face will just look like hell for a while. 

Thank you all for the good wishes and hugs. 

(Hooray for the Stargate Atlantis marathon!)

Mathilde

 After a very pleasant Christmas & New Years with my family and friends, and receiving all kinds of great & amusing gifts, I was looking forward to my birthday revels this weekend. Yup, I pack it all in to a small window every year.

Soooo, yesterday afternoon, at work in the library, I tripped and fell face-first into a metal bookcase. And smashed my knee going down.
The EMTs came. I got an ambulance ride to the ER. After X-rays and a head scan, they decided that nothing was actually broken. 

My face is really bruised and there still is blood leaking out around my eyes. My knee is in a brace and I"m on crutches. I got my sister to take my picture when she brought me home, but my face is so horrible-looking that I"m not going to post it.

The birthday plans were that my boss took me out to lunch today, my family would take me out to lunch tomorrow, and my co-workers would take me out to lunch Sunday. Looks like it's lunch Chez Mathilde! Hooray for takeout! 

The upside of this is that not only are my medical bills being  paid by Worker's Comp, so there are no co-pays, and that I have oodles of accrued sick leave, but also that I get to skip some really boring meetings  at work next week. 

Mmmm, Tylenol with codeine. 

Will post more later, because, really what else do I have to do? :-)

 So I sent my brother and his wife a wine basket, with wine and cheese and crackers, from www.winecountrygiftbaskets.com.

He lives in Texas, where you can receive wine through the mail, as opposed to New York, where that would be bad and wrong and illegal.

When he finally got it, the delivery people had been trying to deliver it for three days. 

An adult, over 21, had to sign for it in person, and be carded. 

The label on the box said "CONTAINS ALCOHOL. DO NOT DELIVER TO PERSONS UNDER 21 YEARS OF AGE. DO NOT DELIVER TO PERSONS WHO ARE VISIBLY INTOXICATED."

My brother was amused enough to call me up and read this to me. 

Had to have my car jump-started on a cold morning recently. Everything seemed fine until that night, when none of the dashboard lights came on. I couldn't see how fast I was going or where any of the heating controls were. I still had exterior lights, at least.

Went to the auto parts store and had all the fuses checked. They were all OK.

I didn't want to take the car in to the garage because anything they did, they would still charge me for an hour of labor @ $75/hour.
And I poked around on the Internet and found that my problem might be a computer module called a BCM, that would cost $1,000.00 to replace.
And I didn't have time to take a car day!

So I did what anyone would do. I googled BCM and Dodge repair, and found a site called www.justanswer.com.
You have to pay, and it costs more if you want a faster answer.
I went for the cheapest option and sent "Mark, a Dodge expert" $9.00.

Three hours later, Mark wrote back and told me to take the cables off of the car battery, hold the ends together for a minute, and reattach the cables, and that would reset the BCM.

I got the maintenance guy at work to do it, and it worked!!!! I have dashboard lights again! The clock needed resetting but everything else was perfect!  Hooray for the Internet!

 My family donated money to the public library for a memorial to my twin sister, who died 11 years ago. 

We thought that she would want others to have access to the TV shows that she liked.  I hoped that the DVDs would help other young people to grow up with the same twisted sense of humor that she had. I think the library did an excellent job making their selections. 

Here's a list: 
( list: )

 Happy Birthday, rhiannon14 !  

If you ever want to change your heraldry, here's one you might want to steal, um, borrow: