At long last we are returned from our two-week journey to the Far East (of Canada) and back.  I am planning on collapsing out of utter exhaustion very shortly, leaving piles of presents and garbage strewn  all about.  But I felt I should mark today as the first time Arthur got to make a D&D character, which he'd been asking us to do for months now ( Read more... )

Last night, Arthur and I were reading a poem about Charlie the chattering chipmunk that his teacher sent home. I asked him, "Can you think of any other words that start with the 'ch' sound?" to which he replied with a twinkle in his eye, "Charisma ( Read more... )

So I've finally given in to the dark side and got myself a smartphone. This is partly because my old phone died a death by a thousand and finally gave in, and partly because I really do have work-related needs for it, and partly because it's only minimally more expensive than a new non-smartphone, and of course partly because I'm a giant geek who ( Read more... )

So they have LEGO that you control via Bluetooth.
And they have a Clue version that sends you clues via text message.
What's next? Scotland Yard with GPS?

So, my Voynich experience was quite neat. The filming took place at Hart House at U of T on Saturday afternoon, in one of those rooms that actually looks the way university offices are portrayed in the movies, with book-lined shelves and old wooden desks and whatnot. I was imagining a larger production crew, but really I was glad when it turned ( Read more... )

My computer had serious virus fail yesterday (Security Tool malware) and now won't boot at all, not in regular mode, not in safe mode, nothing. It starts to load, then I get the BSOD and error messages, then it's hung up. Julia has a file on there that she needs urgently (like, today, ASAP). She doesn't need to fix the underlying problem, ( Read more... )

For readers of my essay, From the Dungeon to the Dictionary, I give you the latest Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:


( Read more... )

I'm writing this post, or rather, it might be more accurate to say that I'm composing this post, using a nifty little piece of software I picked up last week for use in doing transcriptions of audio files for my research. Of course it also has the side benefit of allowing me to play around and use voice commands to browse the Internet, to chat with ( Read more... )

Last night we went out for sushi and then out to see Star Trek (much better than feared/anticipated), in our last night of freedom (we just got home after picking Arthur up from my dad). Anyway, before the movie, I was waiting for Julie outside the bathrooms when I spied a nerdish-looking lad, maybe about 14, waiting anxiously a few feet away. ( Read more... )

Julia is having problems on her computer with the Vundo / Virtumonde trojan. There seems to be a lot of advice out there online, much of it contradictory, all of it suggesting that it is damn hard to get rid of. One program, VundoFix, claims to fix the problem, but I have no idea whether this is accurate or safe. So, dear f-list, I need your ( Read more... )