After 40 hours, I am home again.  Minus the delay and some unnecessary frustrations, the trip went well, though I will not voluntarily go on such a long, continuous coach ride again.  I did apparently sleep reasonably well, under the circumstances, and though I am completely exhausted and am looking forward to a shower and my bed, but I am not ( Read more... )

Pet peeve of the day: people who hang up without saying a word when I answer the phone.  Here's the deal: if you get the wrong number, and someone you don't know answers, you don't hang up.  Saying "sorry, must've got the wrong number" takes no time and no effort and doesn't leave anyone wondering what the hell just happened.  Plus it's nicer.  And ( Read more... )

How can I have lived over a year and a half here and not have discovered Al-Casbah, an Algerian restaurant in the vibrant Mill Road, really close to where we live?  Went there together with some people from work, by way of saying good bye and good luck to a colleague who is leaving to take up a permanent position at Princeton.  The restaurant is ( Read more... )

I have been aware for some time that some copyright rules, and the issues some people make of them, cross the line to the outright silly, but this is patently ridiculous:  J.K. Rowling is apparently accused of plagiarism (again).  Case in point: Rowling is accused of plagiarism regarding the fourth Harry Potter book because Rowling makes extensive ( Read more... )

It seems a fine irony that my last post to my LJ was some time in summer, and I was complaining about the heat.  Now that I decided I probably ought to actually use my LJ, since I happen to have one, I've been complaining for some time about the sun not bothering to show up for work for the last few weeks or so, making me tired and moody and ( Read more... )

We're past midsummer, and so the good part of summer is officially over. See you next year ( Read more... )

We have enjoyed a couple of weeks of almost uninterrupted wonderful spring weather here in Cambridge. This is really the time of year to enjoy the sunshine, while it is still a warm, loving caress. I never really could pick a favourite time of year, because there are unique and wonderful highlights to each of the four seasons, but one of them is ( Read more... )

I had completely forgot about the switch to BST -- i.e., summer time, or daylight saving time or whatever is your favourite euphemism for the annual trick by which we fool ourselves that resetting our clocks does not, in fact, equal getting out of bed one hour earlier during the half of the year with more daylight. Thus the usual late start ( Read more... )

therru , this link is especially for you:

http://www.entropyhouse.com/penwiper/who/extermaknit.html

(Yes, it's OK for others to be interested as well. ;-) )

My office windows are equipped with roller blinds. There's a control panel in the office that's used to control these blinds, and a couple of other things. There's also an automatic weather override, which makes sure that windows are not left open if it rains too much and such things. It also automatically closes the roller blinds when it gets dark ( Read more... )