As you may have surmised, it's been a slow news month here in the Secret Underground Lair. In the Chicago area, we had our first snowflakes on Halloween. For the record, there was no measurable accumulation. Tonight, however, I think we have a "real" snowfall". Back up a few steps....
As I was crossing the street to go to church earlier Saturday evening, a thought came to me that "maybe a good idea for a blog might be a comparison and contrast piece between churchgoing now and when I was a kid". I'm not certain how this might be received in my little corner of the blogosphere though, as well over 25% of my readers are reading this somewhere outside of North America. However, I'll give you the short version.
I had parked Meerkat (our trusty Subaru Outback) across the street from The Bridge Community Church. I locked the doors and set the alarm, and Jennifer, Mr. T and I walked across the street. I was wearing a layered combo of a Scottevest hoodie and vest. The Bible I currently use is the English Standard Version (ESV) and it was in the right pocket of my vest on my Amazon Kindle Fire. In my left hand I held a Monster in a nondescript Rubbermaid container.
Okay- the "commercial" is over. The point is this: none of this stuff even existed when I was a kid. In fact, none of it even existed when our kids were... kids.
But, I digress. Tonight was Meerkat's first official snow. And for those out of the loop, there's a difference between "snow" and "official snow". I googled "recordable snow" and found a link from NOAA to Chicago snowfall statistics. Mmmmmm.... DATA! The problem is- it did not answer my question: what is an officially recordable snowfall (from the FWIW department, I think it is one inch [2.54 CM]). NOAA seems to categorize snowfall as being either "trace", "measureable" or "1 inch or more". This year's first snowfall occurred on October 31, and it was definitely a trace. Tonight's snowfall (November 15) has not ended as far as I know, but is definitely at least an inch... by any standard, this is a "recordable" snowfall!
While I'm on the topic of data, I'd like to share an epiphany (from my FWIW department, a few years back, IBM did a few television commercials with the theme "epiphany", and the whole concept of epiphany stuck from that point on). Several months ago, my cell phone died. However, in the nature of cell phones, it did not loose all of its functionality- it just could not make or receive telephone calls. So, being a modern day Renaissance Man, I repurposed it as an MP3 player. It seems to be happy in the role of an MP3 player, but its software needed a bit of figuring out.
When it comes to music, I'm all about the music, of course- but after that, there's the data. The music player software on the phone is pretty user-friendly (BASIC!), and it does what it should do- play music. A cool feature for me, though, is "playlists". Even though I have less than 400 songs in my library, there are some that I listen to more than others. I like the Top 50 played songs playlist more than all of the others, and I had been using it for a few weeks before I realized that no matter how much I played with it, the order of the songs on the list did not change. So, I had pretty much wasted those weeks, trying to influence something which turned out to be static. In order to change the order of the songs ( and eliminate some from that list), I had to go back to the library (library= all songs) to influence the Top 50.
That's all for now. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Stream of consciousness
(cue the dream sequence music)
I was having this dream. In the dream, Thor was underwater. As is typical of my dreams, I can recall much of it in great detail- and in color. And for the record, no, it wasn't really that Thor: it wasn't the Norse demi-god or the Marvel© superhero of movies, comics, or larger format monochrome comics. No, it was a Norse dude, though, who possessed some sort of super powers, but here's the scene: his dad and family (along with his Dad's once-best-friend-who-is-now-his-worst-enemy) are all underwater, chained at the ankles with their hands bound behind them by an unknown super villain. My dream's hero, Thor, somehow is not chained or bound, apparently as he is estranged from his family but not allied with the other family. So, as the dream (sequence) opens, I see Thor regarding this scene. The other thing that makes me understand that this is not the "real" Thor is that there are two mighty hammers. For some strange reason (hey, this IS a dream, and I'm really not making up any of it), there are two mighty iron-headed hammers with oaken handles wrapped in strips of leather, and they are suspended underwater, floating heads-up and held by the base of the handle by the same iron chains that bind the other folks that Thor sees. He knows the only way to make things right with his father and to reclaim his "Thor-ness" is to grab one hammer in each hand, and get them spinning at a furious speed, and then bring the two spinning hammers into contact, which will free everyone. Of course, physics still apply underwater, so getting these two beast-like hammers to spin at all requires a Herculean Effort on Thor's part. But, he's whatever/whoever he is in my dream, and he rises to the task. He grasps the leather strap handles and begins to spin, and as the RPMs increase, he starts to sweat (underwater!). "MUST... INCREASE... SPEED!," he says in superhero-speak.
(That was probably my longest blog paragraph ever!) I need to take a brief pause here to talk about superhero-speak. I googled the phrase, and I think I may have actually coined it, but the actual concept of superhero-speak is well-known among both comic book and screenplay writers. In English (at least- I'm sure many other languages rely on a similar formula), superhero-speak is evoked when the protagonist (and/or often the antagonist) of a story is faced with a scenario in which they can save their life, or do what is best (or most evil, in the case of the antagonist). In addition to the (usually quite easily resolved moral dilemma), there is the forementioned Herculean Effort required to complete the task which will save (doom) all of Mankind. Because of this effort, the hero can only gasp out the most important words, and generally only three words.
The first word is an auxiliary verb which is probably the first thing on the superhero's oxygen-deprived mind- generally, something along the lines of MUST or CAN'T. Capitalization is vital (it is in English- the entire three word sequence MUST be capitalized! and end with an exclamation!). The next word is a transitive (action) verb, and describes what the superhero needs to accomplish. The last word is a noun, which can be singular, plural or collective. So, true superhero-speak is something like, "MUST... INCREASE... ENERGY", and not, "MUST EAT DONUTS."
So, "Thor" finally got the hammers rotating at tremendous RPMs, and then brought them together; the shockwave shattered the chains and caused the bindings to wilt, and everyone floated to the surface and was safe....
And this is when I woke up. At 0300.
Sleeping arrangements for me are generally something of almost a compromise. Jennifer and I have been married for twenty-seven years, and we both snore. Not a big deal- after that many years, allowances are made. The previous weekend threw me for a loop, though.
One of my coworkers is off on a leave of absence which will last approximately through Christmas. In this time, everyone will need to pick up a bit of the "slack" caused by this absence.
... and this is where everything really started, as my "normal" sleep cycle was completely thrown off the past weekend... the end of Daylight Savings Time.
In the United States, clocks get pushed back an hour ("Spring Ahead, Fall Behind), except that thanks to the "well meaning" US Congress, there is no logic to base the resetting of clocks.
And so here I sit, penning a blog at stupid-thirty because I can't sleep, hoping someone will read it.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
I was having this dream. In the dream, Thor was underwater. As is typical of my dreams, I can recall much of it in great detail- and in color. And for the record, no, it wasn't really that Thor: it wasn't the Norse demi-god or the Marvel© superhero of movies, comics, or larger format monochrome comics. No, it was a Norse dude, though, who possessed some sort of super powers, but here's the scene: his dad and family (along with his Dad's once-best-friend-who-is-now-his-worst-enemy) are all underwater, chained at the ankles with their hands bound behind them by an unknown super villain. My dream's hero, Thor, somehow is not chained or bound, apparently as he is estranged from his family but not allied with the other family. So, as the dream (sequence) opens, I see Thor regarding this scene. The other thing that makes me understand that this is not the "real" Thor is that there are two mighty hammers. For some strange reason (hey, this IS a dream, and I'm really not making up any of it), there are two mighty iron-headed hammers with oaken handles wrapped in strips of leather, and they are suspended underwater, floating heads-up and held by the base of the handle by the same iron chains that bind the other folks that Thor sees. He knows the only way to make things right with his father and to reclaim his "Thor-ness" is to grab one hammer in each hand, and get them spinning at a furious speed, and then bring the two spinning hammers into contact, which will free everyone. Of course, physics still apply underwater, so getting these two beast-like hammers to spin at all requires a Herculean Effort on Thor's part. But, he's whatever/whoever he is in my dream, and he rises to the task. He grasps the leather strap handles and begins to spin, and as the RPMs increase, he starts to sweat (underwater!). "MUST... INCREASE... SPEED!," he says in superhero-speak.
(That was probably my longest blog paragraph ever!) I need to take a brief pause here to talk about superhero-speak. I googled the phrase, and I think I may have actually coined it, but the actual concept of superhero-speak is well-known among both comic book and screenplay writers. In English (at least- I'm sure many other languages rely on a similar formula), superhero-speak is evoked when the protagonist (and/or often the antagonist) of a story is faced with a scenario in which they can save their life, or do what is best (or most evil, in the case of the antagonist). In addition to the (usually quite easily resolved moral dilemma), there is the forementioned Herculean Effort required to complete the task which will save (doom) all of Mankind. Because of this effort, the hero can only gasp out the most important words, and generally only three words.
The first word is an auxiliary verb which is probably the first thing on the superhero's oxygen-deprived mind- generally, something along the lines of MUST or CAN'T. Capitalization is vital (it is in English- the entire three word sequence MUST be capitalized! and end with an exclamation!). The next word is a transitive (action) verb, and describes what the superhero needs to accomplish. The last word is a noun, which can be singular, plural or collective. So, true superhero-speak is something like, "MUST... INCREASE... ENERGY", and not, "MUST EAT DONUTS."
So, "Thor" finally got the hammers rotating at tremendous RPMs, and then brought them together; the shockwave shattered the chains and caused the bindings to wilt, and everyone floated to the surface and was safe....
And this is when I woke up. At 0300.
Sleeping arrangements for me are generally something of almost a compromise. Jennifer and I have been married for twenty-seven years, and we both snore. Not a big deal- after that many years, allowances are made. The previous weekend threw me for a loop, though.
One of my coworkers is off on a leave of absence which will last approximately through Christmas. In this time, everyone will need to pick up a bit of the "slack" caused by this absence.
... and this is where everything really started, as my "normal" sleep cycle was completely thrown off the past weekend... the end of Daylight Savings Time.
In the United States, clocks get pushed back an hour ("Spring Ahead, Fall Behind), except that thanks to the "well meaning" US Congress, there is no logic to base the resetting of clocks.
And so here I sit, penning a blog at stupid-thirty because I can't sleep, hoping someone will read it.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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