The weekend so far

I've actually been getting things done this weekend. Did a little work in the front yard on my way out to my walk yesterday morning; took a short walk that I didn't have to drive to so that I could reconnect with the flower_cat before she left for her Westercon meeting. Took the chaoswolf to her (Furcon) meeting, picking up Togo's sandwiches for lunch on the way. Brought mine and super_star_girl's back home.

In the afternoon I went out and hit a couple of surplus joints, including the big annual sale at Halted. Only things I got there were a pound of solder (leaded, hence soon to become extinct, but it works with my little temperature-controlled Oryx iron) and an ancient ethernet hub that must have been horribly expensive once, but was going for $.29/lb. I wanted it for its 1u rackmount case, of course. Should maybe have bought two.

After dinner, I went off to a party at Bill and Carole's (WANOLJ) that was advertised as a filk, but turned out to be small and completely without singing. Some decent conversation, but I started getting bored and sleepy, and left around 11pm.

In between the various expeditions, I managed to put in five or six hours of actual hacking on album-related web projects. I can now go from a directory full of .wav files to a web directory or a CD in one command (make put or make cdr respectively). It was originally done for my concert at Worldcon, and needs a little more work before it's also capable of generating the web page and liner notes. But it's working -- that's the main thing.

Public service announcement: family please read

I can't multitask. This isn't a matter of choice -- my poor bearlike brain is simply incapable of paying proper attention to more than one thing at a time. This means that, if I'm paying attention to something like not bumping into the car in front of me, I am not paying attention to you. Yes, I know it's a problem, and yes, I know it drives you crazy, but I can't help it!

Recent events have also proved conclusively that this problem renders me almost completely incapable of delivering a timely verbal warning. I may repeat your name, or repeat a word like "no" or "stop" half-a-dozen times, but I will not be capable of thinking up a timely and helpful phrase that will keep you from doing whatever stupid or dangerous thing I see you doing. Luckily, nobody has died or been seriously injured as a result, but if you hear me babbling for goodness' sake stop what you're doing and make sure you're not in danger, because I won't be able to tell you what the problem is. I'm not coherent or rational at that point.

When I was trying to teach someone to drive, I wasn't able to tell her that she was turning far too sharply, and wasn't able to tell her to stop. Luckily, she hit a bush rather than a pedestrian or a brick wall, both of which were in the vicinity. When somebody decided to get out of my car when I was stopped at a red light rather than waiting until I could turn onto a side street and pull over safely, I wasn't able to tell her that the light was about to change -- I could only babble "no-no-no" in shocked surprise. The light did change, when she was halfway out of the car. If I had been even a little bit distracted, or if the driver behind me had honked their horn at the wrong moment, or if my foot had slipped on the brake pedal, I could easily have started moving at that point. DON'T FUCKING DO THAT!!!

Don't assume that I'm paying attention to what you're saying when I'm in another room, or when I'm driving, or when I'm reading or talking to somebody else. Don't assume that I can hear you at all, or that it will register in my poor confused brain if I do hear you. Get my attention, and watch me to make sure I haven't concluded that your long pause meant that you were finished and I've gone back to what I was doing. Don't assume, if I don't follow your excellent directions, that I'm merely stupid. I may have seen something you didn't, or I may simply be trying to get into a situation where there are fewer distractions so that I don't do something stupid. Or I may be hopelessly confused, and be operating off some incorrect assumption that causes me to totally misinterpret what you're saying. Sorry about that. It's not your fault, really.

Hopefully, the only person I kill when I'm distracted for the last time will be myself, but I don't have a whole lot of hope. Please pay attention when you're around me, and please cut me a little slack. Yelling at me or arguing with me will only make things worse.

That concludes today's public service announcement. We now return you to your regularly scheduled friends list. Have a nice day.

Excuse me?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Muslim world divided over Pope's apology

Pope Benedict's admission that he was "deeply sorry" for offending the sensitivities of Muslims does not necessarily mean that the worst crisis of his papacy is over yet. Speaking in Rome yesterday, the Pope said that the views of the 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus that he quoted last week - describing Islam as "evil and inhuman" - were not his own.

...but presumably he wouldn't have quoted them if they didn't say what he wanted to say.

Now, it is possible to argue -- and I've seen several attempts over the last couple of days -- that Muslim terrorism has a higher bodycount during the last couple of centuries than Christian. Possibly even if you omit 09/11 and the IRA. I'm not sure about the crusades. But the former head of the organization once known as the Inquisition is hardly in a position to cast stones, and he damned well ought to know better.

So you're saying that...

... "Summon children" is a second-level parenting spell.

At least if their bedrooms are upstairs.

Weekend wrap-up

Not as productive today as yesterday; mainly just worked on a few loose ends in the track info scripts and Makefiles. The results are here. Still need to work on the index.html page and updating it when the track list changes (not much of a problem with concerts; more useful when you're working on an album and the track order is unsettled). Also still need to insert the track notes.

Got in a walk of about an hour and a quarter -- maybe 4 miles. Went to Bed, Bath and Beyond, coupon in hand, and bought a carpet sweeper, two toilet-bowl brushes, and a two-step folding stepstool. The carpet sweeper is, alas, not fully mechanical like the old ones: it has to be recharged. It makes up for this in part by working on surfaces other than carpet. The idea is to have something small enough to keep in the living room area, and light enough to pick up and use whenever the floor looks like it needs cleaning.