Sunday, August 19, 2007

Thoughts On The Nature Of The Universe

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Actually, I just haven't had much to say. And when I have had something to say, I usually forget what it was by the time I get to the keyboard.

The job search is what it is. I apply and hope something happens. So far, there hasn't been much. I did attend a job fair last Tuesday but if you've ever been to one it's kind-of like a vendor showroom at a convention. A lot of activity but not much really going on. Lots of potatoes (forgive the pun) but no meat.

I've been working quite a lot this week. So far in this part-time adventure of mine, the highest number of consecutive days I've worked is three. Today marked day four of a six day stretch. It's not hard work, I'm just not used to it.

I'm still hitting the garage sales. Haven't found a bike I'm willing to pay to "upgrade" to yet. I came close this morning but it needed brake pads - a $5-$10 additional investment - and they wanted $25 for the bike. My bargains lately have included a Palm M105 PDA for $3 (not much under the hood but it gets the job done - mostly), 1qt and 2.5qt Calphalon sauce pots (with lids) for $10 (both, not each), and a surround sound amplifier for... free. The guy said it "doesn't really drive my bigger speakers" but I figured I would be willing to throw it away for him if it didn't work out for me.

There was something else I was going to tell you that happened to me this week but my body is begging for sleep and my mind let it go almost as soon as I thought of it.

OH! Now I remember!!

My father sent me an interesting email a couple of days ago. I am an armchair genealogist and have been aggregating family records from several different sources over the course of the past five or six years. I usually fiddle with it in bursts and have actually had to rebuild my data file twice and am looking at having to do it a third time. Anyway, as it happens, someone from one of the remote branches of my family tree on my mother's side traced his family name (Terrien/Therrien) back several more generations than I have and sent a brief narrative of the lineage to my mother's cousin (the major family historian). She sent it to my dad and he sent it to me. It's good data that I can incorporate into my files but the most exciting thing is that it connects a couple of dots I hadn't been able to connect. I am currently evaluating a couple of different genealogy programs because I need to upgrade at the very least and, since I need to rebuild the file from scratch, it would be a good time to switch gears (although it looks like I'll probably be staying with the original program).

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