it seems something happened out there wherever my laloca database is stored, and content back to early ‘08 got zapped. luckily i last backed up in late june ‘09, and posting for a variety of reasons has been light since then.

google’s cache to the rescue, which has some of the missing posts between mid-feb and last june. stuff will slowly be coming back, but alas, some things may be permanently lost in the ether.

james (a.k.a. “host”) has a touch more info on how it all went *poof* – but in the end, he’s as clueless as i am.

silk longjohns are by no means the most alluring of intimate clothing in my lingerie drawer, but on mornings like this one (and relying on public transportation, as I do) I’m happy to wear them.

late january, and the first significant snow of the season. tonight it is supposed to turn into ice & freezing rain, which is only proper as I’m scheduled to drive up to delaware for a meeting in the morning. joy!

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in other news, you know you spend too much time online when you find yourself muttering, “delete, delete, keep, delete” as you sift through the stack of snail mail on your entry table.

it had to happen. i’d been steeling myself for the inevitable, and yet ignoring the possibility at the same time. we’d been together for nearly six years, after all, and relationships like that usually don’t even last that long.

at the beginning, it was all fun and games and gee-whiz. we’d spend hours together, snugged in bed or keeping each other company on trips and during meals. it was shiny and new, and i thrilled every time we touched.

as time passed, the luster began to wane. it took longer to get warmed up, and minutes would go by without any communication at all. about a year ago, i knew the relationship was doomed. but disliking change, and reluctant to start over again elsewhere, i closed my eyes to the dwindling flame.

until today. today, my 12″ powerbook g4 functionally died.

and so now, i’m staring a brand-spanking-new 13″ macbook. i couldn’t bring myself to spring for a pro, but the new aluminum-cased ‘book spoke to me. i shelled out the extra $300 for the larger hard drive (yes, i’m a size queen) and the backlit keyboard. it’s taking some getting used to – the black bezel around the screen, the gently curved case, the buttonless trackpad. and i’m hoping i can eventually overlook the high-gloss screen.

the old powerbook is sitting a few feet away, its battered case and bent power cable slowly gathering dust. it’ll probably be gifted to someone in need of a mac to play with and destroy, but for now, it’s just a reminder of a relationship that was.

this paper, Characteristics of Oral Culture in Discourse on the Net, has triggered some major IRC nostalgia. more than anything, i’m surprised at how complicated IRC looks, in retrospect. i used it several times a week my freshman year in college (in the computer cluster in the basement of mo-champ, if any late-80s, early-90s era brunonians are reading), mostly to keep in touch with friends at other colleges. hell, i even engaged in some early online flirting.

hey, looky – another providence reference. thanks, folks, i’ll be here all day…

boy, my sense of timing could use a tuneup. two of my favorite things – information and disease¹ – now taste great together, thanks to google and the harvard medical school.

it’s healthmap. and in these days of the census bureau goofing around with the protocols for the 2010 headcount, it’s a breath of fresh air.

hmmm. they appear to have a jobs listing…²
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¹ see – i didn’t even have to create new categories for this post. that’s how near and dear those topics are to me.
² just kidding! i really like my current job!

would be better if they were optimized for the iphone screen.

so say we all.

(that link will expire in about a month)

awhile back, my laptop was OOC (out of commission) due to a broken dc-in board. jesse, a tech-head friend, was kind enough to fix it in return for some beer and a trout-and-asparagus dinner. for several months, all was well in the world of laloca’s laptop computing.

then, just this week, i noticed the strangest thing. my laptop wouldn’t connect to the house wireless. or rather, it would connect, but it would self-assign an IP address. it was driving me nuts. could verizon’s service really be so bad that the router was konking out at least twice a day?

well, i’m sure it could, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. because i discovered that my laptop connects just fine as long as there’s another computer in the house actively connected to the router.

strange, ain’t it?

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other things i won’t have time to properly blog about:

• two problematic windows in the house were replaced, and a whole passel of storm windows were installed today. they’re burgundy, which is going to necessitate a repainting of the house’s trim. the difference on the first floor is amazing. suddenly, there’s no breeze.
• what with g and me working long hours, the dog’s getting more neurotic. i considered giving him a klonopin yesterday, but decided against it.
• i had to take 4 hours off work for a doctor’s appointment today (and managed to make it from south of 66 to walter reed in half an hour). i still put in an 8.5 hour work day.
• i should sleep more.

for the last several weeks, maybe months, my 12″ powerbook has been out of commission. something about the power input thingy needing to be replaced, according to my friend jesse who diagnosed it – not unlike the cartalk guys – from my verbal description. (“i plug it in and nothing happens. nothing happens no matter which of the 3 power cords i use to plug it in. and they all work on the other powerbooks in the house.”)

so i sent off to ifixit for the proper piece (according to jesse), and it arrived faster than expected.

and jesse came over yesterday to jessefixit.

i won’t bore with all the details, but turns out the last time the powerbook had been stripped down totally – likely when the CD/DVD drive was replaced twice, and when it was still under the applecare warranty – the idjits who “fixed” it botched the job. the heat sink was missing one of two screws it needed to hold it down to the motherboard, and the other screw had come undone and was floating about the innards of the machine. beyond that, the thermal paste had cracked and moved from where it was supposed to be, likely accounting for the excess heat in my lap whenever i had my ‘puter on for more than ten minutes.

luckily, g and james went out to get more thermal paste (and more potatoes and lemons, so there would be enough starch for dinner and i’d be able to make hollandaise for the asparagus), and jesse was able to complete the repair, mostly. the heat sink is still held down by a single screw – hopefully this time it won’t migrate – and i’m under strict instructions not to drop the ‘puter again.

then i made dinner, and it was good. pan-fried trout in butter, garlic, and fresh thyme; oven-roasted rosemary red potatoes, and steamed asparagus. all with as much hollandaise as you could want. james, not liking of the fish, made himself a steak. and gave the snuffster the bone. the snuffster was happy, perhaps happier than the laloca at the prospect of a functioning 12″.

and there ya go. a productive day, despite the disturbing way it began with me developing a nasty allergic rash to something in the bulb section of the merrifield nursery.

and boy, am i tired.

i’m kicking myself for not having taken a camera with me – i thought about it, then decided i’d be too tired/studying/whatever to have a chance to take photos. the architecture is gorgeous. i finally resigned myself to using my phone, ‘cuz i hadn’t even brought a sketchbook.

sometimes i’m an idiot. anyway, one of the greek revival buildings:

not a bad shot, really, but i wanted to get a better shot of the top arch. i wound up piecing it together, and as you can see that didn’t work out so hot.

*swoon* bet you wish you had my toys, eh? (or maybe just my boys…)

i predict it’s gonna be a tad difficult to pry me away from my study for awhile.