I’ve been suspicious for a while now, but kept coming back to the fact that I’ve been in the workforce for slightly more than 20 years, and on top of that, the software industry is supposed to pay well. So you’d think, the odds were pretty good that I was making the big bucks.

But nope, it turns out that when I get money from the ATM, the bills that come out have the exact same dimensions as when anybody else gets money from it. That was quite a surprise.

So I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Blair, it’s not the size of the bucks, it’s how many bucks you have!”

Well if that’s the case, then I’m really in trouble. I’ve never once gone hunting. The only time I’ve ever had any venison at all was when someone else shared some with me.

I’m so disappointed.

A lot of the commentary I’ve encountered about The Dark Knight has been about Heath Ledger as The Joker. Although some of his movies (most notably, Brokeback Mountain) got a lot of attention, I haven’t heard much talk about Heath Ledger. So I figured all the chatter now was probably due to some sort of “posthumous Ledger-mania” and didn’t pay much attention to it.

Going in, my expectation was that this would be “just another Batman movie”, and to a certain extent, that’s exactly what it was. What makes this one different though is that Batman wasn’t really the movie’s focus. Sure, there’s a lot of attention to how the Batman operates and all that (and lots of cool gadgets), but I really think this one was more about the Joker, Harvey Dent, and some of the other typically smaller characters and what motivates them. (Alfred, of course, has most of the best lines. “But I bloody well did tell you.”)

Definitely worth seeing.

But still, there is that very small but non-zero number of times when the stuff being forwarded is actually good for a grin. I’ll probably be sick of this one too in a week or so, but for now, here’s one Mom passed along.

You might remember when this accident happened 8 years ago this March.

This Southwest Airlines flight from Vegas overshot the runway at Burbank

The plane smashed past the airport fence, careened across the street and ended up with a collapsed landing gear, right next to a gas station.

But that’s not the amazing part!!!

On the one hand, no camping experience is complete without a campfire, but on the other hand, I’m not quite dumb enough to build a fire in the living room. (Besides, isn’t that what the kitchen is for? I’ve certainly had enough smoke come out of there!)

I don’t know if anyone realized it at the time, but the report on Day 1 was written that evening. And not from a coffee shop either. (I don’t much care for coffee and although they do have other drink options, I really didn’t feel a need to drive somewhere at 10:30 PM just to post an update.)

When I moved everything to the basement, I very deliberately left my wireless router set up and connected. My plan for that entire period (and it ended up stretching over several weeks) was to use my notebook for everything.

My experience has been that the notebook is a very capable computer for a number of tasks, most particularly email, word-processing, and most online activities, but typing with the keyboard so close to the monitor for prolonged periods tends to cause a stiff neck. To solve that, I have an adapter that lets me plug a regular keyboard and mouse into the notebook through its USB port. Just elevate the computer a bit, and it’s a bit more comfortable than it might be otherwise.

So that evening, I stacked up some of the woods scraps that were laying around and used the computer as a replacement for a campfire. The only thing missing was a video clip of a fire, but there are plenty of those available on You Tube.

Related:
Day 1 Photos
Day 2 Photos (Coming Soon)

(Somebody at the LA Times has a good sense of humor.)

I’m blessed to live in a part of the world where although this is inconvenient, it’s not a huge deal. It’s not like I have to drive 40 miles to the next town for my groceries or walk a day each way. The store that’s closing is part of a fairly large chain which seems to have a location in every strip mall in a 100 mile radius. And there’s a lot of strip malls in this area - the two nearest alternate locations are both less than three miles away.

So although it’s inconvenient, it’s not a huge disaster for me. Of course, the 100 people who likely worked there may have a somewhat different perspective.

I’m sure glad we’re not in a recession!

Several people tried to guess who last year’s set of eyes belonged to (not just the comments, there were a few emails too).

So here’s this year’s batch:

So, can you figure out who they are?

Last year’s eyes were:

• Claudia Christian
• Gigi Edgley
• Nichelle Nichols
• Tricia Helfer

Taking a closer look, the problem arises because I didn’t include the “www” at the beginning of the address, but Google could have fixed that a couple ways — probably the easiest would be a simple http redirect. (For example, try to visit http://dactylmanor.org/blair/zero/. I don’t have that set up everywhere, but it’s doable.)

After Day One of the Installation, the upstairs hallway, the front bedrooms, and half of the master bedroom had floors. Here’s the sight that greeted me in the living room. Power tools, nails and wood scraps were scattered everywhere.

Here’s the reverse perspective from the dining room.

All of the upstairs carpets had already been removed, ditto for the stairs. But as you start to go up, the flooring in the upstairs hallway becomes visible. I’m probably biased, but I think it looks considerably nicer than the carpets. (The best comment on this photo comes from Mike whose first reaction was, “Nice airhose.”)

The two front bedrooms had their floors entirely installed on Day 1, all that remained was some molding along the baseboards and the closets. (All of the closets were put off until Day 2.) It’s a trick of the lighting that makes these two rooms appear to be different color with different flooring material. Both rooms were painted a week before the installation started and the floors are red oak (though there is an occasional piece of white oak mixed in).

The flooring in the master bedroom looked great too…

…but it wasn’t quite ready for me to put a bed in there.

(To be continued!)