Jim's Home Page

Halloween. A strange American tradition. There have been some great posts in the blogosphere about it. Mark's is rather amusing. For me, it means not too much. I doubt most people even know it's origin.

Boy I'm depressing.

Our top executive came to work today in a wig, dressed up for the day. So did a lot of the rest of the management. I think this is an attempt to raise morale. It didn't work for me. Sorry. How about a team building day yachting on San Francisco Bay?

The beginning of the week was hot. Record-breaking hot. And all of a sudden today, the temperature dropped 25 degrees to where it should be at this time of year, and I froze my tits off going out for lunch. I walked over to Rudy's thinking all the way that I should have brought along a jumper.

I got home from a hard day to a note on my door from the landlord. After the initial freakout, I realised 60 or so apartments had a note on their door too. The note said that tomorrow the landlord would be entering my apartment for an annual inspection. Wonderful. 13 hours notice.

Looking back at the last entry, I must have had a psychic flash. And no, it's not like I subconsciously realized it was that same time as last year, as the landlord didn't inspect last year. As a matter of fact, this is the first inspection I have had while here.

So fortunately, nearly everything was done. The things that needed doing required scrubbing, which was why they hadn't been done. Scrubbing with a recently healed broken wrist is not easy. I doubt I'll be typing with my right hand tomorrow.

Later: 10:30 pm, and everything is spick and span. My wrist is killing me. Wonder if I can sue the landlord for distress?

I went on a cleaning jag today. I think I cleaned every flat surface in my apartment. Dust bunnies evicted, etc.

If I did it on a more regular basis, it probably wouldn't be so onerous. Hmm, thought for the day and word for the day in one sentence...

I tortured the plastic on the weekend and sprung for a pair of BX-5 reference monitors by M-Audio to replace my aging Auratones. They arrived today, and I was eager to get home and set them up.

I unpacked everything and realised that the shop had sent me the wrong adapters. Not to worry. I plugged the monitors in and powered them up. Nice touch with the blue power LEDs. hehe. Then I sat down with the wire strippers and soldering iron to make up some cable.

Shortly thereafter, I had them running. They are superb, far better than the aging Auratones, which reminds me of just how quickly your ears can forget how good some things are (like quality bi-amped rigs like I enjoyed back in Sydney, and am now enjoying again).

As an added bonus, I got rid of the cables running across my lounge room floor.

Weird thought for today: ever get the horrible feeling while swallowing a bit of cold pizza with artichokes that the artichokes have grown back their thorns?

I've just hit 5000 workunits completed for Seti@home. Just in time, as Berkeley is just about to switch to the new client for Seti II.

I went down to the Salmon Festival today. There was lots of people and lots of fish. The best part is watching the kids feed the fingerlings in the holding pens. There are thousands of small fish in each pen, and when food it thrown in, it's like the old tarzan movies where the piranha eat the baddies: fish going crazy and churning up the water. The kids love it.

The festival is timed for the start of the salmon run up the American River. The hatchery was built to compensate for the lost spawning areas when the Nimbus and Folsom dams where built. A weir directs the fish into a fish ladder that they climb, right into the clutches of the fisheries guys, who strip the roe and sperm from the fish and then nurture the fingerlings for six months to a year. The picture shows salmon in the holding pen at the top of the fish ladder.

I didn't stick around too long. I was hoping that they would have a really good band playing, but unfortunately, the music was nothing spectacular, and as it was pretty hot, I headed home.

But it was worth it for the "piranha".