Heading Out

Waiting for a shoe to fall

2006-08-16T20:41:00.000-05:00

There is something about signs, and their interpretation. See, there I was the other day just chatting about retirement. And in my plan I would be sitting at the large window working on my Poser stuff, and I would be looking out of the window at the tree where the Actress had mounted a bird-feeder. Here is where the birds, squirrels and occasional chipmunk fight over the seeds and nuts (though actually it was a rabbit that ate the peach I threw out the other day).

Alas, due to a misunderstanding, the tree is gone. We had a stump I had cut long (so that I wouldn't fall over it) and we decided to have a handyman take it down. Sadly he misunderstood and took out THE TREE. So now I won't have that much to look at if I were to retire, until we plant a new one and it grows. So maybe I should stay where I are.

The times, however, are changing, with "she who guards my door" now on leave for six months, and our receptionist likely having to move as her husband has changed jobs, perhaps I should change also.

Decisions, decisions, should I take a leave and write another book? Do I feel like finding an agent ? The omens continued grey today. Having spend some hours outfitting the first two lectures in Powerpoint with individual sound-on-slide accompanyment so that the class doesn't have to come to a room to sleep, i discovered that the sound cut off about 20 seconds into each slide. Rabbits!

Oh, the Actress has a film part. Starts at the beginning of next week. She is quite excited, and it goes with the vaudeville that she is in that comes off this weekend.

The old life is getting a bit busier, and not as complex. Wonder if Hatless will get the job he's just applied for. And the Duchess, seeing a tumbril in her future, is moving into my territory. Wonder if she is bringing an axe?

Never let it be said that Academic life is dull.

And another short update

2006-08-13T22:10:00.000-05:00

Well, to explain just a little of what is going on, the current Administration here is in the midst of great change - the Provost (Prince Regent) is now gone, and we await the new rule, while the person that sits between that position and this humble servant is soon also to disappear. There have even been the odd suggestion or two that I apply to move up - well, and here I was planning to retire.

We are thus in the period of great change, since back in the old Department there might well be two senior faculty leaving within the next few months, and (as those who read TOD may have gathered) there are no viable replacements to be found. Industries that have had their death extolled on the covers of Business magazines have a remarkably hard time inducing students to take undergraduate positions, let alone graduate, or so stay in academia. We once listed all the PhD's around the world who were between wet-behind-the-ears, and back-in-diapers. After we had filtered just a little, I seem to remember we were left with about a dozen names. It has got worse since.

This should therefore, you might think, be a glorious era to be in this business. Not really, since already enrollments are going up rapidly, as faculty numbers fall, and soon the big boys will corner all the R&D dollars, just as they did the last time around. They don't actually do much with the money, but it keeps it from the rest of the screaming hordes.

So should I stay or go? I'm a little behind schedule now, but I must confess that it is amusing to be the fly on the wall, and watch to see what will transpire, this time around.

Living in interesting times

2006-04-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

It has been suggested, since life here is currently on occasion more dramatic than a novel, that I should update this web site. So, with some apologies for absence (TOD has now reached 10k hits a day and my conscience makes me write there more often) herewith a little update on some parts of the story. I will try to add more over the next month as a further part of the drama unfolds.

As you may remember the Ri had instigated broad slaughter on his arrival. The Crown Prince headed for the market square in a tumbril before Christmas, and the Mighty Boyar went soon after. Wishing to at least provide a semblance of democracy to the process the Ri then send the matter to the Commons, where it was debated, sent to committees and all the other furbillows that provide the semblance of democracy. In time the voice of the people was heard (about a couple of weeks ago) and lo! They had agreed that doing away with a level of the Aristocracy was an acceptable practice. Thus while transient Dukes will reign for another year, at then end of that time they will be gone and we will be one of the few places in the country without them.

Our current Duchess is not amused, but has another problem in that all the minor barons beneath her are stepping down, and need replacing, and in the current climate it is not clear who will come to the fore by the beginning of next semester.

The Dauphin had at one time feared for his own neck, but by some adroit moves has survived to reach the final four in the running to be the new Crown Prince. The interviews are over the next two weeks and so it will be interesting to see how that comes to pass. I had a shouting match with one of the other candidates some years ago, and so we will have to see how that goes.

In my own personal case, I believe I was to be replaced by a newly hired person - unfortunately so far we haven't found one we like. This is a bit of a bother since there are other things (such as TOD) that I was setting up to keep me amused in my dotage. However we now have two golden BB's rolling in our hands, one of those experiments that a student did where the guidelines were not fully defined, and so the experiment ran on parameters that "will never work." Gobble, gobble is the sound of me eating those words. We have one of those neat photos that will probably get unveiled before long. Glad in a way that it happened after the TV crew came since we may want to keep this a little more obscure until we have worked out more of the ramifications. So, for the short term, I will bumble on, but this needs to get resolved fairly soon since the iron is hot and somebody needs to strike it.

How would you like your head?

2006-02-01T23:12:00.000-06:00

Well i made the major presentation on the golden bb today to our ghost of a Prince. It is a bit hard to convey a vision to someone who believes in doing things the way he did them twenty years ago, and wants to enforce the mold.

So tomorrow I have lunch with one two steps over his head, and thus will probably write to the Ri in the morning to make sure that he is not blind-sided. If I am to play this game I need to remember some of the political tricks of my youth since this is too novel for some, though I have to say that most who start to listen grasp it quickly. But then when you get to be a ghost I guess it gets harder.

Tonight we went and saw the Red Neck Tenors, I would highly recommend them I ended up buying two CDs one for us and one as a gift, and yet that does not convey the success of the show. I cried with laughter more than I have in years, and yet the singing was equivalent to the Met - which is where some of the cast had previously sung.

Tomorrow begins with a visit to the bonesetter, then to prepare for the lunch. Today, following the arrival of our new king, those who are no longer in favor called a meeting, to try and form a group that the Ri "should listen to because of their experience", ah! How to tell them that yesterday's hero is just that. Having lived that cycle more than once, I am not sure whether to speak up or not.

For now, having listened to the RNT CD, it is time to tiptoe away again, G'night.

Much noise and little progress

2006-01-16T23:07:00.000-06:00

This year the wood pile sits almost undiminished, though I have taken to chopping up some of the old wood and burning it late at night to keep the house warm til morning without electricity. Also it feels better. Mum is sounding a little more confused, and her leg is swollen now, though it goes down if she elevates it. I fear she is getting almost no exercise, and complains of the cold weather keeping her in. She could not find the TV controller this time, and one wonders how helpful the carers are.

Being an obedient soul I went in and wrote two reports today, that have to be given on Wednesday. Then I get to prepare a presentation for Monday. (It was supposed to be Tuesday but they called and I have to drive through 2 states to get to a meeting Monday evening, wander a conference Tuesday and drive back that night.) And another for Thursday - drive to a fourth state, meet on Thursday morning drive a hundred miles and meet another set of folk on Thursday night, so that i can drive back here on the Friday. And I give a seminar the following Monday - sounds like the semester has started again.

Well politics is still keeping the place astir, the ghost of the Duchess is rumored to drifting off to another world this summer, and Hatless is interviewing, since he anticipates riding the tumbril relatively soon. At some point it might be appropriate to ask as to who is steering the ship, and to where. We will have to see, perhaps the Dauphin expects that this will be his chance?

Well I seem to have lost all my downloaded figures for Poser from a couple of years ago, the only one I miss at present is the Horse set, and the viking set - since I needed an axe. Even if I found them I have a feeling that they might no longer easily load, since I have had that problem with the odd old file that turned up, and that I am not trying to get to work in the new version.

I am also enjoying Battlefield Britain and the episodes which show how the battles evolved are what I would like to learn to do. The only thing is that so far they have not really detailed the ebb and flow of the fights very well, but that could be because the only ones I have seen so far have been up to the Conquest, and there may not have been enough detail to use.

And I have given up on oil books for a couple of days, and am enjoying Robin Hobb's "Shaman's Crossing."

I think that is just about it for now!

Winter Doldrums

2006-01-10T22:33:00.000-06:00

We're in that part of the year that gives us the grey days, and often with them, the grey moods. After spending a fair amount of time over the past four weeks in charge of a small committee to give some direction to a campus effort, this is now done.

The charge related to the same topic as TOD, but, given the short time fuse, and the limited number of folk in the initial group, I chose to do something a little different. Starting with a sense of who was expert in what, I wandered around and chatted with them, and then, from that, built up a sense of what was possible. I then wrote this up and am only now calling the original group back to review the final document. What it ends up with is that the group that will do the work are largely the younger faculty as against the older faculty on the committee. Now we will see whether I can pull this off, or get quietly set to one side because I did not use the accepted procedures. If I had we we would just be sitting down for our first meeting, given everyone's activities over the break. And actually we came up with a totally different program than I would have expected before I went out and started talking with folks.

One of the results of this is the possibility that I might have to head up the transition, but it now appears that the ghost of the Prince Regent may not actually be exorcised, but rather will linger on, since he appears not to intend to move on to other pastures beyond the veil. And part of this exercise may be an effort to create a position for him, which, of course, may mean that I can move back. We will have to see.

Other than that I am relearning the modelling programs, since it would make some of my posts at TOD more understandable (I realized this while writing about Sago Mine last week). I am also trying to put figures into the models, and using Poser for this, but that means learning Poser again (since I haven't used it for a couple of years). So with a couple of new contracts, and with our Indiana one just going to be extended, life is getting fraught again. And the Ohio contract presentation is next week, so I need to write that presentation before Friday.

So maybe it's the workload, or the let-down from getting that report out, but it is a little harder this week to get excited about this being the first week of the semester.

Dare I go home?

2006-01-05T18:37:00.000-06:00

Well life is certainly more interesting. And soon I will probably have to give some of my colleagues a little advice that they will not want to hear.

As you may have noticed we have had a bit of a bloodbath here, and since the search committees for new Chairs were also put in stasis today, you may anticipate that this is not over. Which puts me in a bit of a dilemma, and has led to a partial step-back from my retirement.

Having developed a fair number of bb's to lead the response to the charge I was sort of stuck with before the vacation, I think I have developed a consensus that we can make them into a program. The problem being that to make the program viable it has to be put in place by someone who believes in it. Oh! And I had promised the Actress I would quit this year. Um! So, dare I go home and tell her?

So how do I win this one. Well among other things I have to tell my colleagues in this mess a reality of Academic Life. It is that a new Administration will develop its own successes and that those who were the Prima Donnas on campus in the last Administration will generally not succeed in the new. And as an example I wll likely hold up my own case where, despite proven success, ours was the most damaged by the advent of the last Administration. Why? Because the new one would get no credit from our further success, they had to find something new to prove their ability. And thus they drew (and heavily) from us to develop new programs. Now it is those new programs that will be under attack.

And it is in this light that I am selling my bb's. A new program, aimed directly at the new mission statement that the new Ri has brought through the faculty and into play.

Ah, I spent two hours this morning with the Dauphin and since I am at the stage in my career where I can afford to be honest ( what are they going to do - fire me? He spent half the meeting slanting the arguments into why I should stay) it is going to make the next few months interesting.

The problem is that my reputation is in something else, and after lunch today I had 4 hours to get a proposal in to get us another year of life in one of our fields of study. It ended up that I had about 2 hours to work on the proposal, doing both Scope of Work and budget, but it got in. The more formal process, through our official channels will now likely take me a couple of weeks. The only problem is that it means I have to go, in person, to present the proposal in a couple of weeks, at a time when I am supposed to be at a conference somewhere else. Ends up I will be doing the usual stupid fly and drive routine that I was supposed to be quiting.

For those interested age spots show up at around 60 and get markedly worse each year thereafter, he said staring at the hands that are typing this. Oh, and the answer to the above question is NO!

Staged versus real excitement

2005-12-29T21:48:00.000-06:00

Given the alternatives I think I would have preferred watching King Kong, which had a number of exciting moments. Today the Engineer was to fly back to the West Coast, and so we turned up to drive him to the local airport, expecting no problems, and with plenty of spare time. When we got to the local airport (which took 2 tries since we drove past it the first time, not recognizing what it was) they checked him in, and then said, "well we aren't sure that the flight won't have problems." It was only with a bit of chat that we discovered that the airport was actually closed because of the fog. So the Actress and the Engineer chatted some more, and found that he could be booked out of a larger airport a mere 70 odd miles away, and on a flight that left some 105 minutes later.

So we hopped back into the car, and I turned the wrong way out of the airport, adding about 20 minutes to the trip. Did I mention that it was foggy. It was also raining (which at this time of year in Maine is rather rare apparently, it is more commonly snow). Then we had to find the second airport, not a trivial or instantaneous process. We get there some 15 minutes before the flight, but the Engineer has to check a bag and the line to the electronic baggage check is hardly moving. But the flight is 15 minutes late, and 10 minutes after he joins it, the baggage line is still not moving. However a friendly attendant chats with the Actress and lo, the bag moves to the front, and the Engineer trots off to the security line. Turning up just before a flight, young etc etc - yup, fits the profile, and so off he has to go for the extended search, as they finish calling all seats for the flight. The Actress is mildly perturbed, but in the end, just as they page him from the plane he finishes at security and disappears into the concourse. We wait 30 minutes, he does not reappear, and so, at a much more leasurely pace, we head back up North.

One Persian rug, and a Chinese dinner later we have also found out that he made it to la Guardia, and then "something happened." We don't know what, but he will be spending the night there and should be on a flight tomorrow. But it is hard to get reassigned to a different plane, due to the time of year.

Now the forecast tomorrow is rain, but the locals are saying snow, and we have to travel through the more distant airport. So methinks we will be up a little earlier than usual and away, just in case. Two such adventures in two days are better left to the movies.

A trip to Rockland

2005-12-27T22:29:00.000-06:00

Today we took time out to drive over to Rockland and the Farnsworth Art Museum, with the collections of 3-generations of Wyeth's. It was very definately worth the trip, and wandering around the galleries that surround the Museum would have been an additional pleasant few hours, had we not made insufficient plans to do so, and had, therefore to leave earlier than we would otherwise have liked.

It is already on the list for a second visit when we return here later next year. Other than that, living off the last of the Christmas feast, and noting that the maid did not take the small tip I left in the envelope are the full strain of the burden of our day. The snow is thin enough and new enough still to be pretty, and the air is clear and good. This is continuing to be a great vacation. (And even the e-mails are relatively quiet this week).

'Snow joke

2005-12-26T22:09:00.001-06:00

Walking down the town street after dinner, the snow falling in gusts and the street lights on, made it just the scene of winter in Maine that you would think. Only a little over an inch more as I head for bed, but it is still coming down. A quiet Boxing Day with rain this afternoon as the boys showed us around town. We found one of the artist colony type shops open and bought a few small things.

Tomorrow is a work day for all but us tourists so, depending on the depth of the snow, we will go out to see what the surrounding country has to offer. And if the weather is too bad I suspect that there is always a shopping center somewhere. Talking about energy today, it is a growing concern up here, but there is not a lot of sustainable fuel (apart from trees) apparent. And they seem quite environmentally conscious and worried about nuclear. But I am on holiday, so no sermons, sorry Bishop. (grin)

A Very Merry Christmas was had by all.

2005-12-25T22:39:00.000-06:00

Staying at a hotel at Christmas has benefits and disadvantages, especially when staying near one's child, but for a variety of reasons we do. This morning a slight contratemps since we had put a do-not-disturb sign outside the door, after getting in a little late. So at 8:30 am we get a note under the door saying that they would not clean the room, since they could not get in. It seemed to foredain a less than good day. But after we arose and got ready, the maid was still working the hall (an hour later) and so we did have our room cleaned after all.

The day was spent, after church, in typical familial manner, though we brought the UK Christmas pud from a local store. Had Cornish Game Hen and everything worked out well, with the only problem being how to get a new CD cabinet back home. I was mildly amused by the fact that last year we were at St John the Divine in New York, in a packed assembly while this year, we were in a very much smaller and less well attended church, and yet both worked very well, and were enjoyable in their own ways. There is much to be said for a more rural existance.

Well I hope you all had as good a Christmas as we did, and may your New Year be Prosperous and Happy.

Dreaming of a White Christmas in no longer needed

2005-12-23T22:56:00.000-06:00

Well there we were sitting having a pleasant Thai dinner to heat the inside, when we looked out and saw a fairly heavy initial fall of snow that has now steadied down into a light but continuing fall. So I am glad we got the last of the stuff for Christmas taken care of today i was a little surprised that this little corner of Maine is a bit hillier than I expected, but it is just about as crowded in the parts of towns that we have been shopping at. All should settle back down by about Wednesday of next week I should imagine.

( A quick look out suggests that it may even have stopped snowing). The joys of hot chocolate on days like this. Nothing much else of note, though while I have been checking what is going on back home I am trying to keep a non-existant input until I get to visit he who I guess should be called the Ard Ri since the earlier title did not conate the brutal efficiency of the executions to date.

So now some more family time, and some new facets to life. But the problem with hotel rooms is that there is only one place to write and sleep and the priorities just changed.

G'night all.

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse.

2005-12-20T23:29:00.000-06:00

Well this might, in time, make this post a little less anonymous, but the bloodletting continues. Just today there was news of a couple of female occupants of the tumbrils as they rumbled down to the market. And one of them was the Duchess, who it was that raised the question as to whether that entire rank of the academic nobility was doomed, and the answer came back yes.

So we will see what happens as the campus struggles to decide how to perform without one layer of management, and the other changes that go therewith. I myself decided to keep a low profile (or at least leave for a week) though talking with the Dauphin this morning, even he is not sure that he will survive this reshaping of the campus.

In another place I have talked about the solution to our coming energy crisis being solvable, not with a single silver bullet, but with bb's. I am working on about three of these at the moment, and preparing the paperwork to start one of them, and doing the meetings therefore took virtually all day, and even then some folks have already left. This will be the idea that I will call the golden bb, and we will see how far it flies.

We are packing and ended up sharing a couple of gifts since they would not fit into the suitcase. There is probably another case load sitting outside the two full cases right now, but with a little patience maybe I can squeeze more in. And so we wander off toward the North East, where rumor has it that it is cold.

Making silver bb's

2005-12-19T23:29:00.000-06:00

The world's oil problems will not be solved by a single silver bullet, but by a large amount of silver bb's. So quoth Congressman Bartlett, if I remember correctly, at the Denver World Oil Meeting.

And so I spent my day in meetings trying to build consensus to build a mold for bb's. Talked a lot, broke to have an office party - we draw lots to give away all the odd stuff we pick up at conferences and things over the year, and the students had more fun with these than most. I ended up with a lavender candle.

There is a respite from politics as we all wend out way through the next two weeks. I am charging the cameras and starting to think about packing, while trying not to think about all the things that won't get done while I am away.

One of the grad students became a father for the first time the other day. Came in today for the first time, complaining of being tired, and left almost immediately. Now I need to get his attention and remind him that he still needs to get some work done - ah, the joys of being Scrooge.

Christmas concert tonight, slightly better than usual. Mum needed to go to the bathroom when I called, so the conversation was a brief 5 minutes. All is well, the scarf arrived and is appreciated, it is cold and ice on the roads.

I think I have 1 whole student signed up for one class last semester, though it may be another glich in the machine. There is increasing pressure to write a book, though it bemuses me why we should do it before we have proved that anything will work. Goodness knows there are enough "the world is doomed" books out there already.

A continuing thought on being unknown

2005-12-15T22:29:00.000-06:00

I see that the subject of anonymity is being discussed again. I still have not decided if I ever will unveil, since the work that I do is quite heavily related to the TOD site, and by being unknown I can more easily be honest.

It is interesting, however, that when I went to the Denver meeting some of those there knew who I was, and I did get introduced a couple of times as HO. Fortunately I had my badge turned or off, and at this meeting, at least at the present time, there was no-one there that knew me in my professional life. That may well change since I suppose that some of my work may eventually show up there and so there will be folk in the audience who know me from both sides. I did discuss this with a couple of colleagues and they both felt that there was nothing to be gained at present, and a lot to lose by coming out. And this despite (or perhaps because) I am long tenured and close to the door.

But while it does make it awkward, it also allows me to make some comments at both places that I would not make otherwise.

The tumbrils roll, like drums in the night!

2005-12-14T21:55:00.000-06:00

Well there I was, lulled by the blandness of the Tsar's reign into forgetting the bloodletting of a succession. Already the Prince Regent rode grimly to the square, now he has been followed by the Boyar, jesting to the last, and one other of the Boyar's rank went down with him (though that may have been voluntarily). Stepping down to the next level of us more humble minor nobility, I was sat at a table today and realised that 5 of the 12 of us would be gone by August. Of those there are two that I do not think went willingly into the cart.

So now we sit, and wait while the Taoiseach consolidates his position and decides how the island will be ruled for the next few years. From what I hear they ought to grease the tumbril wheels 'cos they're going to rumbling some more before we're done. Even the Dauphin is seeking advice on what he should do. Hatless is gone, as is his originally chosen heir.

The ghost of the ci-devant Prince is now trying to find a place that might not force exorcism (tenure being a wonderful thing in that regard) and so called me over for lunch (which turned out to be going to a Departmental Xmas party to which I had not been invited, though they were very welcoming). Then a little hint or two that the recommendations from our task force might perchance include his field. Just another little complication to life's merry dance.

In chatting with various folk about the campus future, I can see it is going to take a bit more effort than I thought to get a bandwagon rolling in any one direction. But slowly, and by chatting individually with folk, hopefully I can build a consensus within the month. That's all the time I have, and it involves weaving a future that may entrap me just a little longer. Pity that the Irish and the Scots speak different languages these days.

Yay, I did not go to work today!

2005-12-10T22:55:00.000-06:00

The exam is written, and taken twice already, and I am left trying to evaluate art as practiced by engineers. There are three highly creative pieces, some very thoughtful ones, and a couple of "the enginerd strikes again" type. So Monday will be the fun of the evaluation and grading (in truth).

Well, having treid to get the task force going one suddenly sees that any broad vision is going to be restricted by who is here and what they are interested in. This cold water in the face, leads obviously to the conclusion we need to team with others, but with the head of the Prince Regent still recumbent in the gutter, I am not sure whether it is appropriate to seek guidance from his spirit, or try and navigate the fog of the succession fight to determine who to get advice from, and to whom one should tie one's flag.

If I said that student issue has not died, but continues to create enemies - this is amost absurd, except that in seeking for a person to blame . . . it does not help that my back is largely uncovered these days.

Talking to a colleague it transpires that my resignation is no longer held as tightly as I thought, which means it is time to move the announcement, except that I hate to do it before Xmas.

Other than the TOD books, I am now reading "Eldest" by Christopher Paolini, whose first in this trilogy was written apparently when he was 15. Does not bode well for the wait to the final book (he's now 19), but they are a good read.

Once I had a little routine, be patient, hopefully soon I can return to it, but, the way things are going, it will only be on bloody feet. Well time to go throw another log on the stove, and perhaps to try some Orangecello- the Montpezat that was the weekend wine is, sadly, not to be recommended.

Lots of not much

2005-12-07T23:39:00.000-06:00

On days like this I should print off the little calendar that the Administrator prepares for me and carry it around, since without it I am invariably going to forget something. In this case a meeting on student evaluations, just after class and a hasty trip over to a Christmas Party to ensure that I did not give offense.

Speaking of which that little affair with the missing form for the student is still going on. Must have been about a dozen memos or more today and now Hatless and the Duchess are beginning to joust though e-mails. The only sure loser now is going to be the student, and I think my hand will now get slapped since I pulled the Administrator out of the fracas and we will return to being flies on the wall.

At the Christmas Party (where they had prepared a plate for me, before it all disappeared) I finally had someone ask if the rumor of my departure was true. After three months or so I am surprised that it held up as long as it did. Must needs go visit the Dauphin and get the train moving, though I had hoped it would happen before we got into Christmas and now we have the rather odd case of the Prince Regent to add complication. (I was told by four different people today that it had happened, but there is still no form of an announcement.)

Finished the book A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer tonight, and it was one of those books it was really hard to put down. The basic premise is that fertility has changed to the point that (on this planet) woman are the large majority, and men marry into the family of sisters - one per family, with there being lots of sisters in the family that suddenly become wives. Very light-hearted and well written, so I guess I will wander the stores seeing what else I can find that she has written.

Tomorrow we will get into choosing which of the student pieces we will display - the first one that came in was easy, since the choices were glass and wood - but since the big visit coming tomorrow was cancelled due to the weather, maybe the rush won't happen until Friday.

The only thing certain is change

2005-12-06T22:50:00.000-06:00

Ah, well I think I am still tracking red footprints across the floor. Yes it has been one of those tumbril days here in our little world, and the Prince Regent has just made the trip down to the market square. Now rumor had been rife for a bit that he was, as they say, heading out, but not quite this soon. And of course, this morning, I was trying to get my own little departure organized. I guess that goes on the back burner for a little longer.

Back in July a form was not properly filled in for a student. Not my student, nor was I paying him, but the lack of the form was only discovered when the Administrator went to put him on some of our funding this month. We spent about half of yesterday and an hour this morning collectively deciding that no-one was to blame for the considerable fracture of a whole set of rules that ensued (a lie) and when, later in the day, I moved to correct another flaw the discussion had revealed (which had nothing to do with the student) the grapevine suddenly ran with the news that I had it in for the student. His advisor perhaps, but we had nothing to do with the first problem, and the student had nothing to do with the second. But accepting blame is what Administrators are for, so I will grin and go on.

The students deliver their projects on Friday and are already concerned about my definition of artistic merit - grin, it actually means that I don't want the surfaces left unfinished, but we will see what they all come up with.

In preparation for the dread day I ordered the new training for Vue the other day, and need to get back into the modelling programs since they are, at least nominally, one of the hobbies to keep me out of trouble into my dotage. It's just that I haven't even loaded the last upgrade onto a machine yet, nor one of the new programs I bought to suppliment the old. At least TOD is still generating some interest, though what with that and the new committee work it may be that modelling will have to slip into the background for another semester.

Tomorrow should be a little interesting as we see how the players move around the board and position themselves, and so to another late night to bed.

Me and my big mouth

2005-12-06T00:00:00.000-06:00

Well we had the meeting on where we go from here today, vis-a-vis a campus energy initiative and having sat quietly through most of it, I ended up doing the usual and so am now heading up one of the task groups, with a first report due in a month.

A nasty little row about a student whose paperwork got lost seemed to take most of today, even though we have now agreed to have a meeting between interested parties tomorrow to find an answer. And it also showed that there are some downsides to writing e-mails that come back to bite you - though hopefully in this case I am more the fly on the wall, but we will see.

It was another day when in the end I shut the door to get a report finally revised, or almost, since I have a Memorial Resolution that is a more immediate matter. And here the internet proved to be a boon, since it allowed access to a fair bit of information to fill out a background that few of us here were that familiar with.

And so, again, it is midnight in Glockamorah (well there it is likely 6 am) and I am still writing - thought we weren't going to do this? But here we are in the unfolding events, and so there is only one shot at writing this down.

The beginning of an end

2005-12-04T23:05:00.000-06:00

Since one of the objects of this site was to comment on the stages one goes through with retirement, I guess I had better start posting a tad more often. And here is the current progress.

At the beginning of the semester I had a chat with the Dauphin, who tried to suggest I wait a bit, and then that I talk it over with the Duchess (who did not seem to care one way or the other). However they asked that I wait until the new Taoiseach got settled in. Well that could take forever, and so I sent a little note on Friday saying that it was about time we did something- with the intent of getting some sort of announcement out in the next few days.

However in the general scheme of things the energy business is getting me twitchy and, as one of the "techno-nerds" it would be fun to get back and see how much of it we can play in. The problem is that if you think outside of the conventional box then you have to take a whole lot of time getting folk to understand what the box means - ah, well. And giving up this position will remove a pulpit that I could use with some fun. (I am now invited to lecture on the topic about once a month). We have a meeting on this tomorrow, and while the chances of anything happening are looking smaller and smaller, it is something that may have some impact on what happens next.

It is amazing how much change a year can make. Last year I was looking around the office and thinking about how difficult it would be to give it up. Which was, I suppose, the big indication that I was not ready. Now, it gets more frustrating almost daily having to deal with the administrivia. I suppose that part of it is seeing the train wreck of Peak Oil and Gas, that is going to derail so much, looming more imminently. It makes the running down of colleagues and departments, which I got inured to about 3 decades ago, seem more remarkably childish and non-constructive. And I suppose also that I must be conveying some of the lack of interest that end-points generate. It is hard to get enthused about an effort that will not generate much until some time after one is gone. It makes it evident that they need to get another leader in here with the dreams that I have, to a surprising measure, been able to fulfil.

And hopefully it will mean that I can also write things like this much earlier than the late hours of the night, which has become the only time often available over the last few months. On which note, let's see if I find time to post again this week?

The day is getting closer

2005-11-20T22:13:00.000-06:00

Well in keeping with the original idea, it is time to confess that the time for a public announcement about stepping down is getting imminent. We had a party the other week, and I did mention it to a couple of friends at the end (the lubricity of lots of wine) so the story will slowly leak, but more importantly it is time to let others know so that they can plan accordingly.

There is lots of activity in our field (hence the lack of posts) and so it cannot be said I am leaving a sinking ship, especially since I plan on staying on as a faculty member for a year or three. But the increasing demand for meetings, and the paperwork they consume is now starting to cut into everything else to a greater extent than it did. Plus I think I am about done with nursing egos. Usually it has rolled off my back like a bead of water, but there have been a few cases recently that have grated a little more - or it may be that, seeing the end, I am less tolerant.

So maybe I will have another talk with the Dauphin this week, and see where it goes. Though I think I will wait for just one more decision first. Other than that we are off to see the Engineeer for Thanskgiving and hopefully the warmer weather there. Then it will be off to DC for about a week, and then we are at the end of the semester. Must needs get the remaining tasks taken care of to allow all this to happen.

Mum continues fine, though the cold weather is now keeping her indoors. Sent some flowers the other day, but the heat of the place does not allow them to survive long. The ones that went to Dalry sit in the foyer (which in Scottish houses is less well heated) and thus will last for maybe a few weeks.

Well how odd?

2005-10-25T23:24:00.000-05:00

It is to be regretted that I haven't posted here for a bit. For those not following the other site at which we post, The Oil Drum has become something much larger than expected, and to keep up the interest has required more regular posts, that have eaten into the time that I have available.

Thus this site hasn't seen me much. But since it also serves to record me, as opposed to TOD which is all about Peak Oil, just a wee note of progress, or lack thereof. Having quietly suggested to the powers that be that this would be a good year for me to quietly return to "one's first love," it is amusing to note that I was asked by both to keep it quiet while our new leader settled in, so that moves could be worked out as to how possibly to work the situation.

So for a couple of months I have been quiet, but time is ticking away, and so if something is to happen this year it must happen soon. We have a related meeting next Monday, and so maybe at that time things may get clearer.

Other than that, Mum is now getting two glasses of sherry a day (one at lunch one at supper) and seems to be thriving on it. I wish there was a way I could get over before long, since in the winter it gets a bit more lonely for her, but it is difficult in the immediate short-term because of this little political thing, inter alia.

Oh, the title, well I wanted to check on one of my co-authors of the TOD site, and when I went to his old site, it had been taken over by another individual. Since this is the second site where this has happened, I begin to get mildly concerned.

So maybe I shall start popping up here again a little more frequently.

Slowly getting there

2005-09-22T23:44:00.000-05:00

This has been one of the more brutal beginnings to a semester. Starting out just a little behind,I have encountered one of those cumulating crises months where nothing is major, but everything takes just that little bit too much time. I dare not list all that has to be done, but go in every day with only the most critical burned into the daily brain.

And then we get days like today. We started at 7 am with a meeting of 30 people, that should have really involved no more than 5. But I confuse getting things done with political correctness. Two of us had identified an opportunity for funding - and had done the underlying paperwork - today we sat and watched for 2 hours while the Dauphin and his "interesting' Philosophy blew that idea into a bureaucratic idiocy. To have the idea work we had to get something out this week, and at most it had to be short enough that a CEO could read and understand it in 5 minutes. A page and a half at most. We left with the document being about 20 pages long and as much realistic use as . . . well never mind, but it's white and comes in a roll.

Then the senior graduate student wanted to discuss job offers. For half an hour - he just does not understand basic body language - maybe I should escalate to an occasional gentle throat massage with both hands.

And then I locked my door, and for 2 whole hours wrote and actually got to the "conclusions and recommendations" part, which needed a bit of thought, so I opened the door to walk and think - well I did get that two hours.

A meeting with our professional fund raising department, then an interesting conversation with a possible donor, that left us feeling that someone had just just tried to take us to the cleaners but had been deflected at barely the last minute. And now we are moving into the afternoon and there is another meeting to decide a new contract budget. I cut our estimate in half - what the heck, it would be a fun thing to do and a realistic cost would drive the customer away (haven't I been here before - yes many times - have I learned the lesson - what lesson? This is why I live at the University, dear friend). Another graduate student comes in - where did the doorkeeper go - oh! Don't ask!

We had some unbelievable number of visitors to TOD today (55,000 hits) - and so guilt demands I post something short there. We get to meet the new Taoiseach (the Tsar is dead and all that - I would call him the Ard Ri but then those of us who can claim some lineage to the Dal Riada might get accused of prejudice. The leg is sort of getting better I can actually sit in my old chair for an hour now with little bother ( but no longer).

Mum now gets a glass of sherry in the morning and a tumbler full with supper at about 7 pm. She takes a little longer to warm into a conversation than in the past, and I have yet to schedule a visit this semester.

Yet another friend died this week, somehow it puts a lot of this into a different perspective. I will try and write more. Be patient the academic year is young, ' tis only I who am old, and watching a scenario in which I have unofficially resigned, but the only folk who have received it are acting as though it never happened. But it did, and in reality while last year did not feel right, this time it does. Sayonara and all that. (Oh, and the new Taoiseach is older than I. Ain't that odd.

Operating under automatic pilot

2005-09-01T23:34:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday after lunch, but just before my scheduled class, we left on a trip to find some money. The party included the Duchess, the Dauphin and I. We reached our hotel about 11 pm and had just got in when the remnants of Katrina blew through and took out the power. Fortunately it was before I set the clock, but it killed internet access (though the hotel emergency generator functioned as designed). So up we got at 5 am and after getting lost twice found our meeting, some hundred miles away. My role was somewhat nebulous but I managed to do the "Gloom and Doom" during the day that the rest of the world found out how bad NO was (we did not being in the meeting all day). On our way back we stopped for dinner at the same place John Major and Bill Clinton had dinner, and stared down on an empty Ohio river. The internet still did not like me, and so early bed since we were back up at 5 am today to catch the plane back. Getting lost in fog on the way to the airport was interesting, and losing two of the team in the airport even better, but finally we got back home.

Being a tad tired I did little but listen to gossip until it was time to go home. And had just got home and poured the relaxing toddy when the phone rang. The husband of a colleague had died, and she was still at work. That sort of a day - we came back for dinner here, but she still has to start to do all those detailed things, and was due to make a major presentation Tuesday. So we will work on that in the morning - after class. (The story of my class, now 16 strong) will unfold in its devious way over the next week or so.

And so, since it is at 8 am, another rearly morning before a full day. So much to say, so little time.

Here we are back again

2005-08-25T20:43:00.000-05:00

And the semester has begun. And suddenly all those free moments that existed over summer are filled with the committee meetings that go with the beginning of the semester. And we live with the procrastination of others. We are off to make another big presentation next week, and instead of me scribbling a Powerpoint in the evening hours before hand (seemed to work well in two meetings last week), we are going to have a 3-hour meeting to discuss our presentation next Monday. Don't these folk have anything else better to do. Not to mention we leave Tuesday so the time to prepare new material is almost non-existant.

The class schedule is still taking some working out, given some conflicts, but hopefully will be taken care of tomorrow. And lo, already this semester, the executed head of a Dept Head has rolled down the hall. And the new Tsar does not appear until next week. I am looking at three proposals that I was supposed to write in the past week, and realizing that the two days set aside for a final report draft included today and tomorrow where all my time has been consumed in meetings and such. Looks as though the weekend has been booked.

It was interesting today to give a presentation on Peak Oil to a group that included some of the upper echelons of the campus. One got the feeling that they thought this was just a ploy for us to get more money, despite the facts facing them from the gas stations around campus. I suspect I will see some form of rebuttal from a couple of colleagues afore long.

The Conference ended well, I caught our hospitalized colleague back in the hall, and snatching a snort from a bottle in his bag during lunch - but other than that he was well behaved and left early. I think I got invited to lecture in China, the question is do I really want to go. (One does not say No! one just obfusticates until it becomes clear that one is not going - so I have to decide whether I want to - since, again, they are willing to pay).

One of the side benefits of helping write TOD is that I am buying and reading a fair number of books on the subject - pity that most of them really don't contain much new information, just the same stuff repackaged. I am also getting a bit grumpy tonight since I just got The Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper by Sequentia, and it is more song than harp, and only a couple of the tracks are likely to be played again.

I wonder if they were telling me something when the new security system locked me out, and had completely scrambled my codes, and only my codes while I was away. Wonder how long before I can get back into a routine, which now must, perforce, include the stationary bike and other exercises to keep my day largely discomfort free. Lots of wonders, no free time, yep the semester is here again.

Oh, my aching back, or the joys of Co-Chairing at a Conference

2005-08-21T21:49:00.000-05:00

So here we are, desperately trying to find seats for those wanting to get into the morning session, while the organizers dash off to print another two dozen sets of notes on the papers. And we succeed, and it's lunch-time and there is a chance for a few minutes breather, and the hotel liaison comes over. As co-chair would I mind coming and helping with one of the conferees, who has passed out in the bar and banged his head, and who is being taken off to hospital by the paramedics. (This is lunch). So I go and we do the "what is your name," "what is the day" (in French) and he seems not to be concussed, but off they take him, in brace and stretcher to a local hospital.

So I return for my own lunch - and get asked to talk to one of the session chairs of the afternoon. Their team (due to set up a booth this afternoon) are stranded in Denver, can I chair his session, while he builds the booth alone. (I grab a passing grad student I had brought and we give partial assistance until I have to go get the afternoon rolling). We have to rewrite the paper the other grad student is giving (don't ask). The session this morning was 20 minutes late after the first speaker, and after we had re-arranged all the rest of the day to handle this, the last speaker of the morning gave what was planned to be an hour review in 20 minutes. (Which got the hotels staff mad because we had asked them to put lunch back, and there everyone was grousing that they were late). One of the afternoon sessions ran out of oomph an hour early, and this was the one I had to go back into and chair and bring back to enthusiasm.

Catch a breath for ten minutes and down to the exhibition hall, where I was going to rest and chat at the booth we had, for the first time. agreed to put on. Three and a half hours later I realize we should have done this years ago, since we were so busy, but it is amusing that - from the other side - one can see those who consider themselves the Conference Royalty. Yes, a different perspective.

The company paying for the hosting rights must be having a very good year, the drinks of wine were water glasses that were comfortably filled. Ah, only two more days and then home. Somewhere I should have kept notes on all those folk I promised to talk to in the next two days - but I did not. So all I have left to do is review the papers for the session I have to chair in the morning . . . . .zzzzzzzz!

Technology has an immeasurable impact

2005-08-11T23:24:00.000-05:00

So there we were. chatting via iChat with the Engineer, in full video and no longer thinking much of it. Tonight, as a side benefit of the TOD site I sat in on a lecture on exponential growth that took place in Colorado, and didn't think too much about the process (the lecture was excellent). I routinely take technical pictures, wander into my office and send them,. within minutes, to a sponsor.

Work is done in minutes that, when I first came to campus as a junior faculty member, would take me days to analyze. We take it so much for granted, and that came to me today as I looked at the profile for the incoming freshmen. Half their bands and movie/TV star folk are people I have never heard of. I suppose they are the start of the Harry Potter generation.

On campus we are starting to see the seams come apart as the budget crisis tightens, and now blame becomes the name of the game. Do I have any funds left, how can they be sequestered away (this while I sit huddled with the Administator trying to get it all committed so that there is nothing left to steal). All this in the full knowledge that we have to find a way to solve this problem,but no-one thinking to put their head on the block.

And at the end of the summer, as the sun burns down on an exhausted crew we have, finally, a beautiful experiment that, in a minute and a half, proves one of our premises for a contract. Take the photos, mail them off.

And the exercise bike comes tomorrow (it has been in town for 3 days - don't invite my opinion of our local delivery service).

In May I had a routine, at the end of the summer we have "survive the day" I cannot recall us ever being this busy, and the energy crisis has not yet even begun to bite.

Well time for the last few nights rest before I begin, too late as always, to refine the lectures for the new class,

Only a few more days of rest in the summer

2005-08-05T21:06:00.000-05:00

With the new semester only a couple of weeks away, the determination to grab a final few hours off is matched only by the ease with which folk slip into my office. Some bring good news, another little chunk of money has come our way, others bad, the experiment that would conclude a contract was ended but less than a full set of data points were recovered. Two more road trips have been tagged into the schedule, and there is "great interest" in my class this semester. (This time last year it was just about now that I discovered that the enrolment had been capped at zero, which made it difficult to get students to take it at the last minute).

Mum is definately aging and the Traveller said that almost everything is slowing down, as she also sleeps a lot more. You notice it in the phone conversations, that used to run about 40 minutes, and then 20 and now don't often last much more than 10. And her comments and interests are much reduced.

In the never-ending game of politics here, apparently Hatless is not too happy that I have taken over something that he has been happily claiming as his for the past four years. It was sort of inadvertent, but someone has to move us off dead center, and having said the wrong thing at the wrong time (or vice versa) I guess I am going to get the obligatory 15 minutes before being dragged off stage for perhaps one of the last times.

Odd thoughts begin to cross my mind, such as how can I reclaim the office I had before I moved downstairs - given that the faculty that moved into it has now really taken root.

Well the new Tsar shows up in a month, and we'll see what this new (but still aged) broom brings to the table. The rumors continue to swirl, but almost nothing yet of substance.

In the continuing investigation as to what makes the hip feel good I have discovered that 45 minutes of an easier exercise tape works better than 30 minutes of a more intense one. Also we are getting a reclining exercise bike for the anniversary this year (it is supposed to be shipped already) and so I decided to see if cycling through the news helped. Not having the new bike yet I used a rather decrepit old one from the garage and found that 20 minutes on it required 20 more minutes of walking before I was comfortable again. Well at least it's an excuse not to exercise too much for another week or so.

Summer is a vacation - right !

2005-07-26T22:07:00.000-05:00

So there I was at the end of last week, thinking that I would spend the weekend scanning through the 50 papers from which I have to pick the "Best Paper", and chairing the committee means I really can't duck it. And lo there is this e-mail saying, "where is your presentation for Houston - it was due last Wednesday".

So pull out some related presentations, clog them all together in Powerpoint and discover I have to cut 260 slides down to 60. Just get this started when the Specialist comes in. "You are working on the Presentation for next Tuesday aren't you", he says, as he heads out for a quiet weekend. I say a naughty word 'cos I had forgotten that one too. Pull another 200 odd project slides into a file, and head off home.

It took the weekend to do the first one, (it is a review paper), which meant that I came in Monday with, as I thought, the morning to trim down the second one. No such luck! As I wander across the parking lot, there is the sponsor waving from his car. The dear soul was supposed to have arrived at lunch. I do believe I was less than polite.

So after the usual chat I manage to ease away long enough to get that almost done before he returns. And after running through it with him, the day is over.

Today was the big presentation before the assembled wheels, and it started at 8:30. For political reasons I pulled in the Duchess for the welcome, rather than the Dauphin, and after a tentative beginning (I was not sure she knew what we were talking about) she turned out to be really helpful. Must send a small token her way tomorrow. And that meeting went on all day today and finishes at lunch tomorrow. (They are returning because the demo we ran did not completely work for weather related reasons, the first time that has happened in a fairly long time).

Which is a bit of a pain, since the Canadian data is not fully compiled and they want a progress report tomorrow, I have two other presentations to prepare for next month and yes, there is still that CD with 50 papers on it sitting, hidden, within the bowels of this laptop.

In the midst of this I went to show a short video of some of the work, and remembered that the last copy went off to India last week, so that one of the grad's could show his folk what he is doing - and iDVD has been upgraded. So my attempt to slip away for 5 minutes to start another copy burning didn't work, since I kept missing out a newly required step that wasn't in the old version - grrrr!

Yep it's been a lovely weekend ! And sadly, when I called Mum on Sunday, she mentioned that the nursing staff were wondering why she had not told us that she was ill. Hmmm! Fortunately the Traveller is almost recovered from getting a new hip, and should be able to go up there this coming weekend, but one does wonder. It sounds a lot worse than the sunstroke she was telling us it that it was last weekend.

Cruising the credenza

2005-07-20T23:44:00.000-05:00

The stiffness in my hip results in a five minute walk around a wall in our house at frequent intervals. I have used it to get part of the way through the new Harry, and tonight it had another use.

Wandering around and thinking about all the data that is slowly falling into graphs,and then into pictorial representations, i suddenly had one of them thunks. (A thunk is when you look at something from a different angle and suddenly realize something that should have been blindingly obvious about 2 weeks ago). And gee I haven't had one of those in about a year. So tomorrow we will go and see if we can make something work a bit better than it has before. Heeee!

Speaking of which we are now debating security issues - such as do you need a record if you thumb-lock a door? We are beginning to think that the one place we put one in without a recording system was a mistake. (Too often we go in and find a student in there who was let in by someone else). So tomorrow we debate a change.

And it begins to look as though August is going to mark travelling month since there are three trips on the calendar already.

And my "help" on the problem I discussed the other day took most of the hour of hour appointment to get through the first two paragraphs of the background I had sent and the remaining two pages (where it got complicated) was brushed off as just needing more time. (I think I knew that, and am not holding my breath).

Two down, one to go

2005-07-19T22:18:00.000-05:00

Well I have the new Hogwarts Chronicle, but bought it at 11 am, instead of queueing with those that bought 185 copies at our local bookstore last Saturday early am. I re-read the 4th and 5th books first, in order to catch up with things and have now just started into the new volume. So far, so good!

It keeps me amused during times where things are getting complicated again. There is this problem, for which I need some help. Ask for said help, via the Administrator, and she gets told I am the resident authority. Try again with an e-mail. Get told that this is far too complicated for the recipient, what I need is some help. Finally track down a source of possible help (and thus have a meeeting tomorrow). The comment so far is that this is a complex problem for which help might be needed. Grrrr!!!

We are sufficiently short handed at this point in the summer - with students and staff trotting off on vacations - that it is a continuous effort to ensure that all projects have enough people to keep going. It means also that I get raw data at 5 pm that has to be translated into recommendations for new tests by 9 am tomorrow (the answer is now stuck on the outside of my office door).

We are going to get a "free" demonstration of a new biometric lock to compare with one we installed some months ago (and which has worked fine to date). Free, however, means about a day of work drilling holes and running cable, and - when we are finished - if we don't like this new lock enough to pay for it after a couple of months . . . .

When I called Mum on Sunday she was in bed, and each time by the time she had got out , the phone had transferred and I had rung off. This went on at 10 minute intervals for an hour before the lady bringing her supper picked up the phone and we could talk. She had been sitting in the sun all day (first time she could all summer) and had a little sun stroke - it getting all the way up to 80 degrees.

I still need to walk about 5 minutes in 45 to keep the joints from stiffening up, but am making progress towards getting better - the pains are turning into familiar ones that have been treated before, but that interval is just long enough to write a post such as this.

And so back to a stroll around the credenza and more pages from the real wizard (i.e. J.K. herself).

Our ageing company

2005-07-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took off at lunch to chat with the Bear, over the odd glass of wine (we drank the bar out of red - but it was only 1 bottle). He retired about 13 years ago and we were reminiscing about things. And I mentioned my stepping down. Turns out he has a fracture in one of his hips now. Then we began talking about one of the senior technicians, of my age, who had worked, at one time or the other for us both. He passed away on Monday.

Today one of the staff was called to see her doctor to "discuss the test results", and did not come back. And others made sure that I was dragged away from the computer to walk every half hour of the day. The Administrator had to go home with a reaction to a shot she was given this morning. Things are not going well.

So here I am trying to get this data into a form that a layman can look at and grasp the meaning of. Not fantastically difficult. Some 20-odd years ago we did it with crabbed together software and some fancy program writing. Now we decided to rely on Excel. Which does not like the size of the data set. So it was manually divided and loaded. And gradually over 3 days I have got it down to where I can get a set of graphs out in about 15 minutes. So the grad student comes in and watches as I now start to pull the trendlines off the curves and post them into Photoshop so that the spacial meaning of the results are easier to understand.

After about 10 minutes of watching as I work out how to do this he suggests that he can do it faster. Good - so he gets to spend the night developing a procedure that I have just finished doing - but . . . .

And I get to re-correct his last paper, which means I need to work out how to present his data in a format that people can understand. I think I might just lock him in a closet with Tufte's three books and not let him come out until I have finished the new Harry Potter.

A somewhat better day

2005-07-12T23:08:00.000-05:00

Well I dropped by the second and more nominal of my bosses today to mention the passing of the torch. Much more of a ho-hum response, which I had expected in both cases but only got here. So there will be a meeting tomorrow. Interestingly one of them thought I should be there (the actual boss) while the other did not - so we will see what happens. I am not volunteering to show up. I left it to them to decide when I should write the formal letter - we will see how long it takes for the news to percolate out. It may be a while, depending on how the new Administration develops (rumors at present include one that the new Tsar has asked for a guillotine to be set up in the square but so far that is only a rumor).

And as it turns out I was wrong and was invited to the Panel, though this may now change. Suddenly we are again being buried in requests for proposals, which is more awkward now since I will likely not be as involved in either getting or running them, but still it is hard not to respond. May take a while to overcome that problem.

Our fork lift broke today and so we had to revert to some primitive methods for moving things around, Stonehenge man would have been proud. And all the doors now function with the card swipe system, so all that is left is to clear up the mess that was left.

Now if I can survive until going back to the bone cracker on Thursday - may need some of that medicine again!!

Step one has been taken

2005-07-11T23:07:00.000-05:00

Well today was one of those that was meant to be devoted to data analysis, but wasn't. A little problem with a faculty member who seems to think that the whole object of my existance is to ensure an adequate salary for said person during the year and summer, but with no oversight over what said person does in any other way led to a meeting with my immediate boss. After the discussion on said individual I just casually mentioned that it was about time to hang up my socks.

And this was more of a block buster than I had expected. Since there is no obvious successor, and I turned down the invitation to stay for a couple of more years, strategies have to be evolved, and so I was asked to keep this secret for a while (so now me, that individual and you all are the only ones that know). Tomorrow I go talk to the next person along the line - using the recalcitrant faculty member as an excuse, and we will see where this all pans out.

Back wise the pain is a little easier after the chiropractor and I could move somewhat more freely - the telling time will be tonight, since it might be that I may be able to get a little sleep.

Which would help with trying to get the building secure. They installed the new card readers on Friday. But the campus security and janitors did not have access rights. And no-one thought that our back door was not card protected, but still opened with their door key. Nor did some of the faculty who came in at inopportune times, and one of the grad students thought it an insult that we would suggest that he use the back door. So there was little to no constructive work done today, and we were out to dinner tonight.

We are all getting older

2005-07-10T13:42:00.000-05:00

Just called England, after sending e-mails to ensure that all was well over there with those we know, after the bombings. Mum has had a series of falls, to the point that the home called the Engineer to let him know. Yet when I talked to her today all she complained about was that she was getting older - though she eventually admitted that they had had to call the paramedics in to help after one fall.

The Engineer cannot get up there just yet since his hip is still in repair and he is not allowed to drive that far for a couple more weeks. In my case I am at the point that I walk for 5 minutes, take a pill, and am fine for about three-and-a-half hours, and then I do it again. Makes for a restless night, but hopefully the bone cracker is back from his vacation tomorrow and can fix me up.

Just finished Newton's Wake by Ken Macleod, not really that easy to get into or keep track of, way too complicated a plot - ah, well. So its back to The Rover by Med Odom (and its sequels).

Still can't decide whether to decide to go tomorrow, but I think I will bring it up and see what happens.

Signs that it is time

2005-07-09T12:48:00.000-05:00

Yep it's a Saturday afternoon in vacation time, and where am I, but in the office writing two monthly reports and setting up a data analysis program for one of the projects. We are still busier than ever, but politics is beginning to seep, even into summer.

As you may recall we are about to anoint a new Tsar, and the current Prince Regent is thus trying to get the ship in reasonable shape before tha August arrival. This means (other than giving the Residence a major overhaul) getting some new initiatives on the road, as well as straightening up the finances.

And so there are machinations under way to get on the Panels that will be in place when the Coronation occurs (this gets you into the seat of power as it is recreated). In some amusement I heard that one of these initiatives follows an idea that I proposed (you get no prizes for guessing the area). However it might be interesting to take a bet on whether I get asked to be on the Panel. Since the members are, in part, going to be selected by the Duchess, I think (and I told my source this) my baggage is too heavy. But we will see.

Anyway it is, I suspect, about time that I started dropping heavier hints about retirement. Folk are still saying that I will be here until I croak, but ribbit ribbit there was also the recent study that says that those who retire earlier live longer. And so I have a meeting on Monday where I guess I should bring this up. But when to tell the staff, and the Administrator ?

No peace for the wicked, and I suspect that I have dodged work long enough for today.

How is the water?

2005-07-07T23:01:00.000-05:00

I began this about a year ago , thinking that it would be interesting to document the thought process that leads to retirement, as much as anything else. Along the way I found that there aren't that many folk out there that talk about the Administrations point of view, and so I stuck a little of that in there, plus some other things, and it has been an interesting experience, leading to the totally unexpected success of the Oil Drum.

But now it is time to revisit the original reason. Back then a couple of thoughts in The Chronicle seriously impacted my anticipated submission of "notice" to use the old English term. And suddenly we became rather surprisingly busy, as we still are.

But a year has passed. At a recent conference I was one of the few "Old Guard" and I realize that we need to undertake a major initiative to get us on the front line of the coming Energy Effort. But I do not plan to be here for all of that, so it is better that they bring a new person in to build that effort, rather than change horses as it starts to build, and thus lose momentum.

Plus, it must be said, the climate has changed. Too often now I am running into faculty who, though paid to spend part of their time on research, demand excessive reward for what, for 37 years I considered part of the job the State was paying me to do.

So now, as then, I debate when I should turn in the letter, or even if I should write one. Perhaps I will bring it up next Tuesday. It is an irrevocable farewell, but somehow not nearly as hard a one to face as last year. (Maybe I should blame Prof G and Ianqui for that? - grin)

Maine - a more typical view

2005-07-05T22:35:00.000-05:00

Maine - a more typical view
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

But this was much more typical of the rest of the time there. Went for walks along the river, and almost posted a little ditty on Weddings, but forebore.

But if they make it this far, welcome to the Bishop and the Mother Superior (grin).

Maine fog coming in

2005-07-05T22:33:00.000-05:00

Maine fog coming in
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

Well it was a bit more scenic without the parking meter - but the fog came and went most of the day.

Maine in fog

2005-07-05T22:32:00.000-05:00

Maine in fog
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

This was typical of our first day in Maine. Very foggy and a bit nippy.

From the glacier

2005-06-25T23:17:00.000-05:00

From the glacier
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

Somewhere on this picture is a bald eagle in flight. Just don't ask me where. It flew from right to left as I took the photo, but may have been too far away, though I, and others, could see it.

What a surprise

2005-06-25T23:08:00.000-05:00

Highland Games, Alaska 2005
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

Glancing through the Events brochure, we found we were in time for the Highland Games. Listening to the massed bands of Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks as they picked up the refrain to "Amazing Grace" raised goosebumps. And I had never seen the "Farmer's Walk" competition before. You carry a 168 lb weight in each hand and see how far you can walk. The winner did over 300 ft.
They also had tossing the caber, the hammer, the stone, and all the other old favorites.

One reason for light blogging

2005-06-25T22:56:00.000-05:00

Muskox in Alaska
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

Sorry that this has been sparse recently. But I will try and post the odd pic from our trip to compensate. This is south of Anchorage on the way to Seward.

Almost a quiet day

2005-06-11T22:54:00.000-05:00

So there I was, quietly finishing "Twilight in the Desert" which is a sort of a denoument of the Saudi promises to supply us all with all the oil we need for ever. Then the doorbell rang and it was the Prince Regent returning something borrowed. So he offers me a beer and off we trot to the local hostelry where we have a chat over said beer.

Now you should know that about 20-odd years ago I happened into a bar where our resident Tsar of the time was having a drink at a conference and that got me into a very interesting project. But there were a number of times I wished that I had stayed sober than night. So anyway I did make some comments about life, the universe, and how the world will probably change absolutely in about eighteen months. Just minor chit chat you understand.

So now I have to decide if I should let the matter drop or do the full court press thing and send a memo explaining what should be done etc etc. Or I could remember that I was seriously intending to step back and start the slow reduction of work that will lead to my retirement in the non-too distant future.

We were supposed to do a community service project today, but only 3 of us showed up with a minimum of 8 being needed, so after an early breakfast, and a hard look at the sky we all went back home and I fell asleep for a couple of hours.

The back is still not quite back in business, though it is close, and so I am starting to exercise again, but relatively gentle tapes so far. Would that I had time for the memes that tempt, but for just a wee while longer there are things that must be done.

I would recomment the Alma Alexander books "The Hidden Queen" and "Changer of Days" both were enjoyable, and the series this time was not too long or drawn out.

Tick, tock, time is a wastin'

2005-06-09T21:07:00.000-05:00

Profgrrrrl had a photo, more time ago than I care to search, that showed the supplies that she was putting in for last semester. It included a bottle of gin, and, somewhere near half way through the semester she mentioned that she hadn't yet hit it very hard.

Well, alas, I cannot claim to the same discipline. Consider, today, where after a month one of our good folk is still unable to make a relatively simple experiment work. How to convince him that academia is not all gentle study, and that when you promise to deliver a result by a certain time (like last month), that involves a certain commitment on your part to get it done? He and his students plod on at a rate that is worth, surely, at least one drink tonight.

Then of course there was the Duchess, earlier this week I got a brusque note from the Duke suggesting that I was not keeping all the appropriate Admin folks aware of our new initiative. So I started to send some info, and it is, as it was before, like throwing gold bracelets into a deep dark and empty well, - no response. What's that, yes I do think that calls for a second splash.

Oh, the piece of equipment that is vital to a third group of experiments has been taken , unasked, by another group on campus to work on something that has to be done by August, and we had it here because our deadline is July. Have another splash, old son!

And four different groups want proposals, and two want presentations, all by next week. Fortunately the diligent grads have been writing papers, so the odd snip here, and the odd clip there, and gee, I only need a finger in the glass for this one.

Whaddya mean, the storm knocked out the main drafting computer - it had a surge protector on it - whaddya mean someone stole it last week - whaddya mean we lost all our design drawings - which clown didn't back up those files - Oh! Him !

Where did I put that second bottle?

Back to England by phone alone

2005-06-05T18:41:00.000-05:00

Called Mum today and the weather in the North of England is very cold. She is suffering from cabin fever, since the Traveller can't get up to see her for another 7 weeks while his hip gets better. Her knee is also acting up, but apart from an occasional additional pill (on top of the 8) not much else is being done for it to date.

In the last week we have had two sets of visitors, we had a day where the staff were all committed to a University function, and three of the faculty were out of pocket on Friday. So how much work did we get done on the various projects - virtually none. It does get very frustrating, given the amount of work that we are committed to, and that it is largely up to faculty to run the projects, to see how far behind they seem to be content to let the work get.

After the visit to the Chiropractor on Wednesday I was out of pain for the first time in a couple of weeks, but in the chaos of all the meetings, forgot to get the appointment confirmed for Friday early enough and so lost it. I will not be able to go until Monday. Which is a bit sad since I think I am slipping back a bit.

ProfG has commented on how busy The Oil Drum has been keeping us, and our growing respect for those who are more prolific writers. Believe me that is echoed here, and magnified. Though it is proving interesting and rewarding to date.

And Bujold definately had the better of the book list cited. Now it is time for the duo by Alma Alexander The Hidden Queen and Changer of Days to see if they compete.

Now come the visitors

2005-05-31T23:11:00.000-05:00

We travelled slowly to the wedding, breaking the journey for dinner, and then for a night's rest before completing the trip on the second day. This meant that I could at least walk to the ceremony. It was infuriating that I forgot my video camera since it was a very photogenic wedding - ah, well.

And then back and a day of recovery, which was really needed to prepare for the problems of today. I did get the short article out for a journal (deadline today) and passed along to the Dauphin the Powerpoint I had used for the service club talk I had given on Peak Oil last week. It will be interesting to see if any of them are ever used, or if this will become another opportunity wasted. I suspect that everyone is waiting for someone else to do something creative in this area, and I had hoped that someone else would, given the proximity of the ta ta moment. However, although he is the obvious choice to lead the charge, experience to date makes it less than likely that he will, and that such efforts as do occur will be oriented toward certain preferred directions.

We get a visitor for the Canadian project tomorrow, and since we have destroyed two instruments so far with another being air freighted in over night, I am hoping he will end the streak of delays. Then a meeting on the new project, and suddenly I remember that I have to do half the presentation tomorrow - how nice. And I still have that DVD to burn for the grad student, and the presentation for the Ohio folk must be done by the end of the week.

Let's talk of better things. Suddenly I discover that I prefer Lois McMaster Bujold over L.E. Modesitt Jr. How do I know? Well after getting three parts through the Corean Chronicles and all set to read the new one (Alector's Choice) I meander into a bookstore and there is the new Bujold book in the Chalion series. So needless to say, rather than finish the first set I am now re-reading The Curse of Chalion, to be followed by Paladin of Souls and then the new one, The Hallowed Hunt.

Too many new books is not entirely a good thing, since it means I don't do much else but read. Oh, and go to the Chiropractor.

Back in shape

2005-05-24T23:04:00.000-05:00

On the second visit to the Chiropractor today he continued to have me walk and try and bend and then, after the electronic stimulation, this time he could get my back to move. It feels much better, though the muscles are still complaining bitterly and sitting is still a bit of a pain. Tomorrow is off and then I go again on Thursday morning.

Talked to the folk in Indiana today and we now have that contract extension in hand. This led to a note from Hatless making all sorts of nice sounds and suggesting that I not consider retirement yet. But somehow it feels more right this year that I at least step down from the Administrative bit. The art committee are going to walk our building and look at the art in it next week, most of it is mine I suppose, and the question becomes what do you do with the paintings, sculptures etc that have gathered in my office and then migrated out and beyond. I suppose I need to start thinking about that.

And data is collecting on the work for Canada. But I suspect that my absence at the meeting on the Ohio project today will not be good. I need to get over there in the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of over there and noting that profgrrrrl is heading out to Asia. Lo, in the e-mail today came an invite that I go visit some folk over in India. I made sort of half-interested noises and we will see what transpires. Also the CD came for the case of wine work, and I got a note that they need my paper for publication before the end of the week. And Grad student pointedly reminded me he had just sent me another first draft of a paper to review.

What was that about summer being a quieter period?

I am not supposed to write this sitting down

2005-05-23T22:47:00.000-05:00

No, I haven't been caned again. Been close to 50 years since that last happened (once for stealing the Headmaster's strawberries - ah! the folly of youth). No I did something to the muscles of my back a week ago, didn't do anything about it, and then tried exercising again on Saturday. Most of the time since has been spent lying on my back, side, other side, back etc etc trying to get comfortable.

Today it was bad enough that I went to the Chiropractor and will again for three more days. It will get better. In the meantime I have finished two books on the Merchant Princes by Charles Stross (The Family Trade and The Hidden Family). I presume there will be more before long and I will be getting them.

There is also a new Modesitt out in the Corean Chronicles Series, so I have had to re-read Legacies, and Darknesses, before moving on to Scepters and the new one, Alector's Choice. If I could only sit and read it would be good. (I might even then finish Kunstler's book (The Long Emergency) it reads a lot better than Posner's new one on Saudi Arabia, which I found in the end read too much like a catalog).

Well the back has stopped me going to a big meeting on the Ohio project tomorrow, and may keep me out, though I am hoping to get and help get the Canadian project finished. We would be there except for a couple of things not working.

I need to get the back fixed since we have to drive some 500 miles to a wedding this weekend. 'Twas ever thus. Well off to find the medication and, as they say, so to bed.

Stubborn old ferret

2005-05-18T22:33:00.000-05:00

There are some situations that can only be solved by steadily working forward, fixing each problem as it arises, and moving incrementally on. And so, by this very slow progress, today we got two of the projects back up and running. One of the frustrations is that one needs to let the grad students learn by doing the fixing. So you smile, wander out of the room, and go and hit the wall somewhere unseen. But we are, just about there.

Which is good because the new Admin meeting we are all to go to with the Prince Regent ran well over time (a common event) but did stop when he stopped talking. It was all about the budget, and in the end all we learned was a further justification for the model that will be used to allocate resources.

One wonders, after these meetings, how the impact of Peak Oil will change priorities and discussions. At present the major focus of national funding lies in other areas, and there is little indication (outside of rising numbers of students) of the situation that the various Academic Administrations can take note of, let alone react to.

On my way out of the Admin meeting, I talked to our Distance Ed guy, who asked when I was retiring - good question (he is I think about 4 years older than I). I meant to tell him that I was delivering my class documents (17 CD's) to the teaching department office, so that they wouldn't need me around to give it any longer. I did each lecture as "sound on slide" Powerpoints and broke each lecture into about 15 minute bits. This seemed to go over well with the clientele, at least according to the comments they sent to me.

Summer is the time to think of other things. Be it noted that having recently uploaded the new version of Strata, when I went to open it today after installing Tiger, the program appeared to have vanished. But a quick trip to the Strata web page got me a fix, that brought it back to life. Now if only I could find the fix to find my hard drives . . . . .

An emotional night was had by all

2005-05-17T22:20:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the School Choral farewell concert, and with the handing out of roses at the end to those graduating, there was the usual odd emotional conflict over this mark of the rite of passage. The roses were red this year, but it seems to me that they used to be white.

The day otherwise remained one of frustration, yesterday there were personnel issues, and trying to keep four different projects going with broken equipment or software problems associated with all of them. Today did not move us much forward, but in all cases we are so almost there it is almost taste-able.

I am supposed to be giving a talk to our local service club next week on the Peak Oil issue, and so trying to decide how to convey the coming problem in 20 minutes to folk who have no clue what is coming down the pike and keep it interesting. At the same time I have started reading Kunstler's "The Long Emergency" - he writes well but I think is radically overdramatizing. But I suppose he almost has to if he is to get some attention.

Some time in the next couple of weeks we can hope that the pressure of the semester will quietly dissipate and we can settle into the quiet round of summer. Why is it that I have these goose-bumps that suggest it might not happen ?

I am also thinking more and more of moving out of "the Big Office" next year and retiring back into "my first love of teaching and research" and while that is true, I suspect that it will be met with the usual incredulity. But we shall see.

Books and Mum

2005-05-15T15:56:00.000-05:00

Well while doing the cool-down from an aerobic exercise tape yesterday I did in the dodgy back. So now the blogging will be interspersed with the typical male self-pity until such time as I can get up the energy to go to the Chiropractor. In the meanwhile I have only one more set of grading to get done and its finished for this semester.

And while being very driven to do this, I could not help but notice that the books in the front room have magically separated into fiction and non-fiction, and that some should be put away as being read. So for no good reason here are the piles:

Non Fiction
Rifles and Ammunition by H. Ommundsen and E Robinson (borrowed because it describes the rifles of WW1 that I want to model - Ommundsen was killed in Flanders in 1915)
Forgotten Tragedy - the sinking of HMT Rohna by C. Jackson (the Actress's Dad was on it)
I Thought my Father was God by P Auster (Gift from a Public Radio station)
Liturgia Luterana - self evident
Meesterprenten Images de Maitre - notes on a lithograph exhibition in Belgium
Worse than Watergate - J. Dean (left over gift from the election - disappointing)
Battlefields of Britain - D. Smurthwaite - to be used in modelling later (needs to be put away).
The Stone Carvers - Hunt (The story of the carvers at the Washington Cathedral - I also got the video)
The First World War - H Strachan (bought for the color pictures so that I can get the models right)
The Dick Cheney Code by H Beard (a gift I still need to read)
The End of Oil - P Roberts (fairly well written but with an obvious axe to grind)

I was going to go on to list the fiction but the last title fills me with guilt and so I shall return to grading.

Mum was a little blurred in her speech today, but the Traveller had his hip operation on Monday, was released Friday and did a little walking yesterday. And so the world turns.

Home tomorrow

2005-05-12T00:03:00.000-05:00

I can tell when I have irritated someone in the office. When I go to look at my airline tickets I am either leaving at 5 am or getting in after midnight. Such is the flight tomorrow - wonder what I did?

Things here have been kinda odd, the most interest in both my paper and our exhibit came from abroad - and both delegations came and talked several times. I began to wonder if I was supposed to do something to offer our services, but did not.

The paper was the usual meander to the remaining stalwarts, and did not evict much interest at the time, but led to conversations afterward that went on a fair while (to the tune that I lost where the purported dinner group went to). On the other hand I did still get a group chuckle with the old opening (about 15 years old) and it flowed well to make the end point. And it will lead to a couple of visits to our place later in the summer. And at lunch I sat with a table of strangers and the guy on my right introduced me to the table - which was embarassing since I had no clue who he was.

Would that the call to the office had gone as well, it took 3 calls to get some movement on our Canadian work. Maybe that's why the late plane ?

The problem with putting Russian CD's on your iPod is that you have no clue what the songs are or what group until the song starts to play, but it makes for more amusing background music. Wonder if I should cash my chips in or play a little before I leave?

One more round

2005-05-11T00:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's gloom was a little early, today I got to see the proposal rankings and we made 7th out of 42, and so have a little more money (they funded 10). So I dutifully attended all the sessions, twitched when I discovered that though paying for wireless it did not cover the conference rooms so my sneaky plan to sit at the back and blog did not work.

I think my sense of gloom is a general one, this is the world meeting on this particular topic and the attendence this year was apathetic. There are some fierce political wars going on relating to this particular issue (which you would at first sight have thought would be totally apolitical). The result is that probably two-thirds of those here are manning display booths (including ourselves) and the other third are probably only here because the competition are.

Still after tonight's reception (where, in contrast to last night, the booze was free) we decided to go down and check out the casino. Unfortunately one of the booth folk had mentioned that the dollar slots gave better odds. So four of us upped twenty bucks each on a what the hell. As the last to go I pulled the old handle and suddenly had $50. And as I walked away I dropped 3 of the dollars in the next machine. Now we were ahead $150. So I offered to divvy up the money - "no, no!" they cried, "we must have more." Ten minutes later it was all gone.

So I wandered back to blackjack, sat down and played with $50 for two hours, had three free drinks, tipped the dealers $10 and came away with my stake. (Actually plus $2.50).

Interesting to note, we had three dealers, the first two were male, mildly amusing, got loads of tips, the third was female, spent more time trying to help some of us who were shall we say alcohol challenged, and got more abuse than I would have taken. Oh, and after I had been winning for a while, a quite nice lady happened to sit next to me. I was relatively flattered but shortly thereafter came up here to blog (honest!).

Do I hear a female voice warming up in the wings?

2005-05-10T00:14:00.000-05:00

Hmm! The deal was that I would be contacted today to go and chat with the person that holds the money relative to one of our contracts, in the hope of getting more.

So I waited, and waited, and eventually went for a walk around the building, which is a lot colder than it has been here before (except when we came in the winter) with a blizzard blocking the Interstate nearby. Then I had a burger which was about a third of the cost of those in the casino.

And then I came back and blogged some more. Very relaxing, though one does wonder what happened with the arranged meeting. Well it is time to put the smile on the face and head down for the Reception. First one must,however, prepare.

I just wish I could remember the names of all the people that I haven't seen since this time last year, and then for only a few minutes. Are we ready Smile . .two three . . .Smile . . .two three

And since there was a problem with blogger we can add the results of the Reception. Firstly the DVD acted up in the player, since I could get it to run fine on the computer we are not sure if the player was damaged in shipping or not. So we need to check in the morning since I can burn another DVD on this laptop if that is what is needed (at least I think I can) but on the other hand we may need to find somewhere to get a new DVD player.

The other problem was that in talking to our sponsors there was that faint air of chill that suggests that we have become yesterday's child. It is not clear since, as with many organizations there are a lot of internal politics going on, but our chance here is apparently not doing well, and we must arrange a different route to moving forward. (It would be nice for my ego to suggest that they are finally accepting that the path forward may be in the direction we suggested a couple of years ago, but that may be too late to save the whole program).

Well we will just have to wander around and be polite for another couple of days and see if we can't learn more. I did note the competition making a heavy pitch in a moment or fifteen.

Why our image has problems

2005-05-07T23:24:00.000-05:00

Some years ago I joined one of our local civic service organizations. We meet, for some obscure reason, at 7 am, and next week the head of our IT division is scheduled to talk. I was mildly surprised to be asked, by the guy who runs the speakers, to bring a projector to be used with a laptop, to the meeting. And I would have done, except I will be out of town. We did call over to the IT Dept and found that they had two and so thought the matter closed.

Today we were selling brats as a fundraiser and I heard the rest of the story. Apparently (and this is not a University organization I am in, so the teller was somewhat bemused by this) when the word was carried back to our Lord Electron he admitted that his dept could supply the machine, and arranged for a secretary to come in early that morning to get and bring a projector over to our meeting (which is some way from campus) for him to use. I would suspect that this story will get some mileage around town, and none of it to our benefit.

I am flying out tomorrow, and have been scheduled to make (so I gather) the critical money pitch on Monday. For some reason we are supposed to make up our remarks in the fifteen minutes between being told what we need to ask for, and the meeting itself. It would be nice to have both more guidance and time, and these are never meetings I am comfortable with, though in this case we now know each other quite well.

The sudden success of the other blog is somewhat surprising, but also frustrating a little in that it is likely, given some of the comments made and yet to come, that it is better to remain anonymous. It is frustrating since I cannot turn to someone and comment on the success, and the various comments. And so I console myself by re-reading "If", which hangs on the wall.

Staying Awake is mandatory

2005-05-06T22:33:00.000-05:00

Dean Dad has mentioned the never ending task (it sometimes appears) of the end of semester rituals. I am, tonight, very sympathetic since it is over a week since the Actress and I shared a meal at home, and I am not sure when I will again (though it is probably in about a week).

Tonight was an athletic benefit, and why it was now is absolutely beyond me. It was not well attended. Since, in the circumstances, they were also holding an auction to raise money for the programs, one also felt constrained to put in the odd bid. And I was struck by the fanaticism of golfers. Through a combination of silent and live auctions we came away with an oil painting, a jacket and polo shirt, a massage and sauna, and an ice cream cake for a combined total that was less than any one of the golf packages that went on the block. Now admittedly some of the prices were rather ridiculous but the way that all the athletic type items (ball game tickets as well) went I felt that I had made a worthy contribution to the cause for at least some significant return (and noted in my diary to be really busy somewhere else this time next year and in the fall). (And no, the ice cream cake is going as a donation to a staff party).

I think also I might need to put a chain on my door, or a flashing dragon or some fiendish sign to say I am busy. The Preface for the exhibition brochure had to go out today (as had the paper, but that was done by noon). A mere thousand words, and I don't think I got to write a consecutive 50 of them without an interruption. While it was very flattering to be asked, it is something I never thought would be one of my tasks (it is the intro to the first art exhibition by an artist in another country). I have no idea what is involved, and the guidelines were at best vague. Well I have done the deed, let's see if it worked.

I also had to take our Environmental test today, just to be sure I knew what to do in an emergency. Well having been through more than one, and having learned from those the test (oral and informal and all that good stuff) was not hard it was just that it took an hour and they were largely distracted by tales of how we were actually solving external problems more than just complying with internal regulation. It is just that today, and in fact this month, I don't have free hours. But regulations said that it had to be me, and now, and so it was.

We also finalized our student positions for the summer. Tomorrow is full, and I leave on Sunday. Off to Sin City Junior - just as long as the bed is comfortable and the room is cool. The Prince Regent wanted to meet next week on the budget, and when I pointed out it was not practical at the designated time, our dear Dauphin, who was in charge of setting it up was rather dismissive. I am increasingly under the opinion that he will be delighted to see my back. But then I have felt that since about two days after he assumed his current position.

"Gotcha !" said the cat

2005-05-05T22:27:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago the day started with the cat throwing up on the rug. Well the day went down hill from there, and while Wednesday was somewhat of an improvement it was also the day the Assistant Principal drove into the Actress's car as it sat alone and defenseless in the parking lot at the local school. I was, therefore, looking forward to today where my only real goal was to get a paper and a Preface out.

So after exercise (couldn't find the usual tape so tried one that required a dowel that I couldn't find) I wandered out and climbed into the car. A new day! And there it was, right in front of the windshield. The cat's latest offering. I just started the car and drove off!

Neither task was finished, there were just too many occasions when I had to go and take care of an issue. Grad students popping in for reassurance on trivial issues, more debate on how to get to Alaska etc.

There has been this little saga with Bryce 5.5. Monday night I could not load it since it was ordered through a secretarial account and I didn't have the password. Tuesday I had the password but the credit card had been rejected; Wednesday night the program downloaded, but the Expander program I had was out of date. So today I loaded Tiger, there went another hour, had it upgrade my Mail account, there went another half hour, and then finally could get the program to load. I haven't dared try and actually run it yet, and one of the "bonus package" programs has downloaded with some form of error.

So more in a spirit of disinterestedness than usual, I sat down to watch the British Elections. I can remember two elections in the past, in one I sat and listened by Short wave to the BBC as George Brown, deputy leader of the Labor Party lost his seat. In another a salesman was trying to get me to take out a subscription to the paper, and with a week to go before the election in the UK I challenged him to find a mention of it in the paper. He could not.

Times have indeed changed, since on a second display, I am watching the returns as they are formally announced, courtesy of the BBC and on my computer. Times have indeed changed.

And his latest isn't that good either . . . .

2005-05-03T17:27:00.000-05:00

What a day. As I said as I walked into the budget meeting this morning "When your day goes downhill from when the cat is sick all over the White carpet first thing in the morning, what can you do?" And it did!

After cleaning up after the cat, and dropping by the office on the way to the meeting, I heard that the repair part sent for the toy was the wrong one, and that the project for which the visitors were here was not ready for presentation. Then one of the team going to the Conference came in and we agreed the work on another contract was so far behind that he should not go to the meeting, but work here. And it is all non-refundable.

So I went to the meeting and despite having an agreed approach before the meeting, in essence it all collapsed into chaos. Whatever the Dauphin and the Prince Regent have discussed made most of our efforts to get this onto an even track just a complete waste of time. And this when, for once, we were almost all there.

And so I came back to the office, to find that the grad student responsible had not been sending in the information he should have been on another contract, and that, not surprisingly the putative recipients were more than mildly irritated. And the visitors were here, and already part-way through their first presentation.

To cut a long day short the first trials did not work, the second ones lost the data, but the final one (about the time we were ready to give up) worked actually better than had been hoped. And so we may still be alive on this one.

Then a quick check on the one that my colleague will be staying to fix, and it is worse than ever. So I will quietly meander over to the bar in about 3/4 of an hour and have dinner with our surviving visitors, and hope that the morning will bring a better day.

Oh, and I tried to download the newly ordered Bryce 5.5 and they had declined the credit card.

On the other hand, as I blog this, I am uploading the last lecture of the semester to blackboard (in all its four parts and 400 meg) and when it is done, all I have to deal with is the final, and the last homework. It is done - whoopee!!

Oh, and the title of the post - Orson Scott Card just reviewed the demise of the Star Trek franchise. As someone who watched those things regularly every week when I first came to America, the whole review climbed up my nose, and I didn't really care for "Shadow of the Giant" that much either.

So now I will cheer up, paste on my party face, and go have dinner!

Only grading remains

2005-05-02T23:17:00.000-05:00

Well the last class CD's have been burned and mailed. The final plea for more time to get the homework in has been listened to. The final lecture will be posted in the morning, and all that remains is to collect the final and grade - we're almost done.

But in the meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they say, we have visitors in the morning to see one of the projects, and at 4 pm we were still some distance from having a good presentation to give. The work for Canada is also still an "almost there" with the additional snag that one of the critical pieces of the work does not have the strength that we had anticipated in meeting the goal. Tsk! And they asked if we could undertake more work in a phone call this morning.

Just for a change I was taken to lunch, I can't decide if it was to break the news that our work for the folks in Ohio is over, or just that we need to do more PR on that effort. (Being a little nervous about the decision I talked way to much instead of listening, as I should have).

The presentation that was so hastily put together on Friday apparently passed muster, and will appear on the program, which means that I will be heading west at the weekend. And that only leaves the presentation for the end of the summer, which paper, as I discovered today, was due a little time ago. While the paper is written getting the permission to give it has not yet come through.

And tomorrow, when I should be entertaining our visitors, instead I get to sit in another meeting deciding on how to address the budget problems, which seem to have got about 50% worse in the last ten days. A cut is likely inevitable, though it is hard to see where this could now come from without laying people off, and with a staff that has been around for an average of over 20-years that would be very tough.

What we need is more enthusiasm. Yes, right, what a good idea. Wake me when somebody finds some.

Don't argue with a machine

2005-05-01T19:08:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday I finally got to one of the last two classes of the semester, added the sound and twiddly bits (which means I also have to cut it into fragments so that it will download at the far end in less than 2 days). Only one more to do, get posted, and get the disks mailed and we are just about there. And, like most, I am about ready to see the semester over.

We drove to another city for a music event last evening, and were tied up with the rehearsal last night and then this morning the whole thing went, I thought quite well. (Though I am the tone-deaf one). Apart, that is, from it being colder than expected and a whole lot windier. It was in the City where the Advocate spent some years and so we drove around looking at some old haunts. In six years it has changed a lot, with the bit we saw becoming much more modernized and gentrified. Even the river is getting a major clean-up.

Coming and going we used the Magellan - I drove up,and the Actress drove back this afternoon. So here we are, in the middle of the city and I was not sure that the GPS had actually found us, and so kept trying to suggest turns. Sometimes it is actually quite smart to keep one's mouth shut, especially when you're wrong. But it really . . .well never mind.

Talked to Mum yesterday, and the Traveller had just been up to visit. He is in quite severe pain, and goes to have a new hip put in a week tomorrow. he is paying for it privately (though whether that is him, or the insurance that he had from the company when he traveled I am not sure). While Mum's cost was about five thousand pounds, then about $7,500 his is now going to be over eight thousand pounds, which is going to translate into closer to $15,000.

Why be an Administrator

2005-04-29T21:00:00.000-05:00

I have noted that there is no Academic Admistrator linked in the faculty at Crooked Timber , and my discipline doesn't appear either. We also appear under-represented at this site that Prof G led me to. So accept my lone voice, crying in the wilderness (and Prof B this is all your fault).

It is just that I am more and more coming to the conclusion that every faculty member should be forced to be an Administrator for at least 5 years, just to understand the absolute frustration of the job. Now I will admit that it is a Friday evening, and I have enjoyed the fruits of a Cline "Ancient Vines Zinfandel" that was much better than the Keenan Merlot at twice the price that I enjoyed last week, but even so!

Consider this, it is 1:30 pm and at 11:30 am you had meandered down and talked to individual A about an ongoing project. The individual was waiting for individual B who had just gone to lunch before doing something. At 1:30 you meander back and A is still waiting. You meander across the hall (this is the normal academic hall) and there is individual B. Who has been there for over an hour, working on "important stuff." So you very gently suggest that A is waiting and act as escort across the hall. You wait until the current issue is resolved, and go back to your office. An hour later you wander back down and lo you have to do the same thing over, but in the other direction.

This has been going on for over a week. The two individuals were both eligible for the retirement meeting earlier this week. And I have been doing this "disinterested interlocutor" role for about a week now. I got mildly irritated at this process mid-week and B disappeared for over 2 hours in a huff. (They are jointly supposed to be getting this project completed).

I am going to retire from this position ere long, and these folks, who have worked together for over 20 years, need to recognize that I am not going to be around to handle this effluvia much longer. But it is, forgive me for mentioning this, an ongoing problem in trying to do the "herding cats" job that pretends to the current requirements of Academic Administration at the lower levels.

So midway through this I get a little e-mail that no-one has seen the presentation I was supposed to submit for the Conference in a week (it needed to be loaded on the CD). Now that could not be because I had not submitted it - perish the thought. So I wheedle and beg and get an extension until 5 pm. And then ubiquitous student shows up and takes half an hour while I let him convince me that the experiment he wants to run is valid (actually its obvious but never mind, he had obviously spent a lot of time preparing the presentation). You may have noticed I haven't had lunch yet.

Then another student team come in and their results were "unexpected", I gently take a few minutes to explain why (and 15 minutes later in the day to do the same thing to their faculty mentor).

Ah, and then I get the third frantic call from our contractor in Indiana. Where is the response that they have to have in today to their award of contract? So I call around - whaddya mean that most of our contracts folk took off at 3 pm - so we have to send someone over to hand carry the printout around for the acceptance signatures (this is the last day of the month you understand).

Chest pains, whaddya mean chest pains, I'm not allowed to have them, the faculty have to have answers (actually it's called indigestion and them purple pills sort of work most of the time - but it helps to have lunch).

And you know what? After I wrote the memo, no-one responded until the Dauphin did, and then there were several comments, but no initiative. So then I suggested a path, and lo the Dauphin is leading a charge. Doesn't it make you feel proud.

Actually, no! I have gone looking for the green bottle, I am sure I had it up here somewhere . . .

The green grass in the other field

2005-04-27T21:22:00.000-05:00

At the discussion on retirement this morning there were probably at least four staff members to each faculty member present. I don't think that there was anything new said, though Specialist, on the way out, realized a question it was too late to ask.(It related to how unused sick days count toward length of service. Three different folk had heard three different answers from the speaker). A colleague asked if I had calculated my pension "I have a spreadsheet" I replied, "and after a lousy meeting with the upper Administration I usually come back and look at it." At a certain point when you discount from your current salary the pension you might be making, the pay seems awfully low. What was also eye-opening is how many of my group are thinking about going, or at least starting to make the calculation.

Today saw more efforts to try and get a couple of contracts finished close to time. Since there is little I personally can do it is more talking to the folk involved and making sure that there are no bottlenecks. In which regard one of them called for use of the toy, and disconcertingly it failed to do what was expected. It took a lot of the day for Specialist to realize why, and it may take all day tomorrow to fix, and it was just one of those - who'd a thunk it moments. But the monitors will be here next week and they all have to be running. A couple of folk were in most of last night, and we may get one ready to rumble, if not both, tomorrow.

So after a fairly fraught day I sat down to catch up on e-mail etc. The Dauphin responded to the memo. But sadly only by defending what he took to be a negative comment on a trivial part of the overall. That is not going to help, but increasingly I begin to feel that he does not have an overall sense of the situation.

Then as I downloaded the 97 pages of homework for the other blog I realized I had forgotten to have my door closed at day's end. In strolled a faculty member that should have been getting one of those two contracts finished, but who had been on vacation for a couple of weeks. For one reason or another there went an hour and a bit, and then a second faculty rather shamefacedly shambled in. His particular sin (as it had come to me in fragments over the day) was that there had been a significant issue early this morning. He had apparently done, shall we say a "Bolton" and had been heard throughout three floors of the building. So that took another while. Oh I also spent an hour with a visiting ex-student grateful that we had helped get him a new job, and helped him with some needed information. And so that was how my day went, a little advice here, a litle chastening there. There was also watching and realizing the problem of an ageing and possibly ailing staff person, and trying to assess how this will change things. And trying to decide how to handle it.

So needless to say when I eventually did get home, ol Jimbo's AU's were immediately necessary. And, rather nicely, the Nurse had sent a shirt to go with the full kilt (though I did not think I was quite that large). I also have the large shoulder pin, and so I guess that I am running out of excuses as to why I can't wear it.

Hmm, I have been waiting for the Congressman from Maryland who is supposed to talk on energy for the past hour, while watching CSPAN with the sound off. The chamber has about four folk in it apparently. Maybe it's time to try and finish the "Bean" story (Shadow of the Giant) by Orson Scott Card instead, and where did I put that little bottle?

Transitions

2005-04-26T12:44:00.000-05:00

Not all of life is pleasant. As a team, some of my research staff and I have worked together for a very long time. But after watching one of the team work for the third day on something today, I suggested that perhaps we had better bring in the graduate student to finish it. The suggestion was not taken well, but reflects, sadly, that loads are going to have to be redistributed and I will need to monitor that situation a lot more closely. We are getting older, and our capabilities change.

I sent the memo last night. It spelled out in some detail some of the negative impacts on productive faculty when negative decisions are made by the Administration. While it would be interesting to have a reaction, given the current state of things it may well just quietly sink into the water, like a well cast stone, without a ripple. Except that this was not the intent. On the other hand I may wander into a meeting next week and be given my head on a plate, we will have to see.

Three people have asked if I am attending the retirement counseling session tomorrow, and a couple of other casual acquaintances across campus have also asked if I am going. I must be showing my age more this week.

Having closed down the tape transfer for the summer I was planning on getting into modelling the 2nd Battle of Ypres, using the four programs Strata, Poser, Vue and Bryce to develop bits and views. I even bought the new book (which one week later Poser is giving away if you buy the program - rats!). But so far I have managed barely Chapter 1. The calendar is already filling up for the next month and then we start travelling for a bit. maybe if I retire I could do that?

Ah, well dream time is over, its back to grading, and planning a conference session, and doing a bit more of the "managing by walking around" that seems to be my main function these days, just to keep things close to being on schedule.

You're Number Three

2005-04-24T21:41:00.000-05:00

In talking to Mum today she began by asking about my hip, which apart from a trick habit of occasionally twinging and a couple of unanticipated collapses when I've stood, afer sitting too long, hasn't really been much bother. Well she had her hip replaced (privately) in the UK about a couple of years ago. Now she tells me that the Traveller will get his done (also privately) on May 9th. So she expects I will be third. I must see what can be done to postpone that as long as possible.

The reason that I mention the privately is that in both cases had they gone the the British National Health there would be for her no relief (she was too old and had had a stroke) while for him the wait is about 18 months to 2 years. The joys of heredity.

I am currently re-reading the "Ender's Shadow" series by Scott Card again, so that I can bring myself up to speed to read the latest one. I think that they started out a bit better than the original "Ender's Game" series but the standard is not really holding up.

In the passing of the season I am also putting away the tape transfer system until next winter. I cleared one drawer (with three left) so there was some progress, but there are too many other things to do in the summer.

I'm still pondering about the memo - I have to write it tomorrow or it becomes a non-issue and irrelevant for this year.

Strop! Strop!

2005-04-21T20:51:00.000-05:00

While I did not notice any Pink Hair at our social event this evening, and, without such witnesses, could thus pretend to be sober, there was the occasional use of the appropriate social lubricant to get one through this evening. It was the second consecutive night in the start of the social season that winds up our semester, and year. And so I sit, contemplating a little administrative seppuku.

We, in common with many other places are being hit with more budget cuts. Very often when these things happen we pretend that we can cope and find a way of being as productive as we were before but with less resource. Except that sometimes we don't. And this is very rarely documented. So I thought I would.

It is somewhat dangerous ground to tread. and a simple example at the low end of the scale might explain why. Some time ago I got a campus parking ticket, it infuriated me for a variety of reasons and kept me mad for about 3 days. During that time the deadline for submission of a proposal came, and went. The proposal was drafted and we had a reasonable chance of getting the award. The proposal was not submitted.

Over the course of my career and for a number of reasons, largely morale related, I have not submitted, or not fought hard to get, a number of awards. The potential loss of income and opportunity for growth has, in some cases, been significant.

If I say nothing then my career will likely soon end in any event, but if I confess to this attitude it may be slightly accelerated. Why do it? Because the hard financial costs of neglecting faculty morale, often in trivial ways, are rarely shown to be significant in actual financial cost. This might give some numbers. On the other hand it seems remarkably childish to say "you gave me a parking ticket and it cost you $x,000, Nyah, Nyah! Nyah!"

So I will think on this some more, but I have now been thinking about this for two days and am still inclined to write the memo. (And I think I may now have that nightcap that might really move this into drunken blogging -Grin - and so I will return to silent contemplation).

Housteads Camp

2005-04-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

Housteads Camp
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

With the wall on the top of the hill, the military camps, such as this one at Housteads, were on the south slope of the hill. The remains are largely covered in grass, but the outlines of the fort still remain. (Being cheap and it being late, I did not go closer to view them).

Hadrian's Wall bit

2005-04-19T21:41:00.000-05:00

Hadrian's Wall bit
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

One of my pet peeves with the movie "King Arthur" was that it suggested that Hadrian's Wall ran along the valley. This shows a bit of a remnant rebuilt and as you can see it runs along the crest of the hill.

The Kirk from grave

2005-04-19T21:39:00.000-05:00

The Kirk from grave
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

And this is the view from the family grave up to the Kirk where my parents were married.

Dalry main street

2005-04-19T21:38:00.000-05:00

Dalry main street
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

As you drive down the hill into the village, this is the view down to the bottom of the main street, from about half-way down.

Across the Valley of the Ken

2005-04-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

Across the Valley of the Ken
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

OK, here in quick order are five photos from the trip. This first is from the top of the hill overlooking Dalry and down to the river Ken

The second day back

2005-04-19T21:03:00.000-05:00

This is generally my lowest day, when the loss of sleep and time-sense wreaks the most havoc. Today that was over-ridden by an almost frenetic level of activity, just trying to stay in one place. First half-way through the Admin meeting I was called out, to be reminded that in my absence someone had promised I would give a tour directly after the meeting, which meant I could not stay to finish the raging debate about where we were going to cut our budgets.

Then after getting back to the office we were blessed by a visit from a company that we are trying to get into a research partnership, so there went another couple of hours. Straight after that was the need to get a presentation together for some wheels we will be meeting with all tomorrow (though I won't give the talk - sigh!). Then a quick read of a student paper before a meeting on that, and where it needed to go. These were all interspersed with urgent talks about a piece of equipment that has broken at the worst possible time, it seemed to be fixed by the end of the day, but as I left it failed again.

We get another VIP visit on Friday, and the net result of all this is that we are making zero, nada, nothing in the way of getting two research efforts finished. In fact most of today things seemed to drift backwards.

Tomorrow is completely out, which means that the only time I have to really work on anything will be Thursday, and I am not sure yet whether I need to be in on meetings then.

It was interesting at this morning's meeting we were discussing how to keep our most productive researchers motivated, and to extend that energy down a level. Given that I have previously made many of the mistakes that the Dauphin is currently apparently making I tried to suggest another approach. Unfortunately I suspect that it will not be until the Prince Regent cuts him off at the knees that he will realize that arguments about theoretical outcomes rarely are effective when money is needed, and you have the only sizeable remaining pot.

I'm also surprised

2005-04-19T19:44:00.000-05:00

In conformity, and following Jimbo, Dr. C, New Kid, to name but three, I was quite surprised to find

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

30% Yankee

20% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Not a happy welcome

2005-04-18T21:15:00.000-05:00

Ah, me! Yesterday was not one of the better days. I had looked at my ticket and read the wrong line, so that when the flight actually left London at 8 am I had read it as four hours later. Thus I was still at breakfast when, checking to make sure we had plenty of time to get to the airport, I suddenly found I had missed my flight.

Things ultimately worked out, though I did not sleep on the plane, and ended up not getting home until around 10 pm, rather the worse for wear.

As a result today was supposed to be relatively quiet. Except that I had forgotten we had agreed to give an external group access to the lab this week, and so I had to pay the gracious host for an hour or so this morning. Then some of the work done while I was gone was not acceptable, and it was easier to go down and redo part of it myself as a way of motivating folk to get it right. Then we had to correct the computer restrictions on my class for next semester which was again telling folk it was full before it was. Fortunately this year, embittered by my experience last summer, I noticed the problem early and hopefully got it fixed.

In the greater scheme of things I am again trying to stay awake until reasonably late as a way of coping with the jet lag, and did video chat separately with the Advocate and the Engineer tonight (while trying to work out why we lost sound on one line for a bit). Roll on the end of the month when we can collectively do this at the same time instead of only one-on-one.

The brain is slowly falling asleep so I will let the body follow its example.

The joys of English Pubbery

2005-04-15T06:57:00.000-05:00

After leaving the North I have come to visit Friends, and must be nice since they comprise 60% of those who know my real identity. I stopped off on the way at the Marriott Marble Arch, initially with plans to meet up with relatives or friends, but the whole hotel experience there was in the end not pleasant, and thus I left earlier than planned to come down here to the relative quiet of Marlow.

By wandering around with the camera I can pretend I am working at getting textures for castles and buildings in Strata. And to justify it I can show the picture from below (the roof texture of which was pinched from a barn outside of town). But it is really just a time to escape, and to pretend to smell the buttoned-down roses.

Mainly however we reminisce, drink the local beers, of which there are many. I also listen to his sound recordings, going back to WWII. It is probably going to be wise not to blog too much, given our afternoon activity. So we may be on hiatus now for about three days (Grin).

Burning Bush

2005-04-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

Burning Bush
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

This was the day to go back to the small village that Mum came from, and chat with her sister. So taking the new road from Newcastle west toward Carlisle, I turned off, through Brampton and Longtown to Gretna (the home of another family story).

Then after stopping for gas at Dumfries (home of Rabbie Burns) I took the Stranraer road to Castle Douglas and then north to the village. Coming in I saw this new monument - which only went up last year.

It turns out that Dalry was one of the sites where the Covenanters objected to some of the implications following on the presumption of the Divine Right of Kings. In this case it resulted in the king's representatives roasting a man in Dalry with branding irons. The king (as alas has become the habit with a number of rulers whether regal or elected) felt that since God obviously had chosen to have him born to the monarchy then his wish was sort of the way it was meant to be. When others objected, his followers did such interesting things as chaining young girls and old women to stakes in the tidal foreshore. Then sitting in boats as the tide came in, they patiently waited for their victims to recant as the water inexorably rose. They didn't.

Which leads me to muse that it is the Jewish faith that has ten commandments, those who are true Christians must surely count (and logically similarly obey) eleven. But, sadly, the eleventh is the one most often overlooked - as it clearly was in this case.

So, having run out of memory card this picture comes from the digital video and to my ancient eye seems to have the relevant bits. The names of local victims of that period are cut into the leaves of this Burning Bush.

After taking my Aunt out to a pleasant lunch at the Clachan, I then chatted about the usual sins of the rest of the family, before climbing back into the car for the return journey to this lobby.

Coming back I went past the memorial to Old Mortality in Balmaclellan. He spent the last 40 years of his life finding the unmarked graves of the Covenanters that had been slaughtered and erecting monuments to them.

Then on down to Brampton and Greenhead, where I turned off the new road and onto the old Military Road as it paralleled the Old Roman Wall. Cunning new owners, however. When I got to Housteads, the main Roman camp, things had changed. The site used to be clearly visible from the road, looking across the valley.

Can't have that! Bad for business! So in the intervening years since the last visit, they have planted trees on the downslope right beside the road, and these trees now completely obscure the view. Parking alone is 4 English Pounds. Yikes!

Sidetracked on a Sunday

2005-04-11T12:46:00.000-05:00

On the one side of the family we had been coal miners as far back as history would be tracked, which, in this case, was to a fellow born in the 1690's. He was employed at a small village called Tarry, which sits up on a hill overlooking the small village of Eglingham midway between Alnwick and Wooler. Since another branch is rooted in Wooler a pleasant day could be spent driving first up through Alnwick to Tarry, and then on to Wooler to tape Humbleton Hill (where once there was a battle).

But pulling into Alnwick there was a note that the Castle was open. Aha! This is the first time I have had a chance to get there, and while I was vaguely interested in the Castle since I could get good textures for the Castle behind Mousetrap Farm that I am trying to recreate, that wasn't why I wanted to go.

The Castle houses the Museum of the Northumberland Fusiliers, and if you go up to the top floor of the museum there is, on an alcove window, a painting of the 1st Battalion marching through Flanders in the fall of 1914. There are two rows of drummers, a couple of rows of fife players, two mounted officers and then the file of troops. The interest ? Well about 7 months later the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Battalions marched to the same Flemish town (Ypres) and my Grandfather was the drummer on the front corner of the 7th. The story is much more complicated than you likely want to know, but in essence this first Brigade of the Territorials was thrown straight into the 5-mile breach the Germans had just created by the first use of gas in war. Two thousand men did not come back from that afternoon, and as a bandsman my Granda had to go drag back the ones he could rescue.

Any way I wanted to see what was in the museum and was quite surprised to learn more in the Ducal apartments. First there was an explanation as to why our earliest known ancestor had married a girl from Shipley (in Yorkshire). It seems it was due to the arrival of the wife of the first Duke, who brought her husband up from Yorkshire, and between them they got the mines organized. And since they presumably brought a household and servants, and Tarry is but 8 miles from the Duke's Castle . . . .

The other enlightenment was the Fenwick name in the family, through my Great Grandmother. It turns out that this was a noble and military leader of these parts back when, and the way the name can be traced, at one time one of them must have married one of us.

The day was spent, therefore, wandering around the Castle, and the new Gardens which the current Duchess is installing for someone said around $30 million. The Percy family have been around since 1066 when the family arrived with Willie the Conk and took their share of the spoils. They are obviously not hurting for the occasional crust.

But after tea and wandering about the Treehouse they have just built that could have easily come out of the first Myst, and from which I stole more textures and shapes for my castle, it was time to go on to Tarry. The road is a one-way street that runs up the hill to a copse that I had assumed was where Tarry used to be, since there is still a bouse there. But when I got up there the house was relatively modern, and since the road was single track I drove on to the edge of the moors higher up the hill looking for a place to turn.

Parking looked over the dry stone wall and there was this band of green going up the hill, and what looked suspiciously like an old pit heap. So I wandered around in the bitter wind finding grass and gorse covered outlines of what I suppose were the old houses and mine offices, the likely yard area and the tip (which had the characteristic red inside). It almost looked as though someone had been doing a little archeological work in the way some of the edges can been cut to expose the sub-surface. But the most critical finds were looking at the debris thrown out from the rabbit warren than now covers the site. Old bits of glass, plates, and other small items, and bits of coal and ash.

At peace and happy I wandered gently back to the hotel and after dinner started gently blogging, and discovered that we had achieved a certain exposure for the Oil Drum. I was somewhat surprised and mentioned this when, in practice for today, the Advocate called to check on the arrangements for today. So now he knows whereof I blog. (Which makes 3).

Not so foggy now

2005-04-10T16:10:00.000-05:00

The movie on the way over was "Sherlock Holmes and the Silk Stocking" which kept me awake too long for a decent sleep. The plot involves, in part, London being a foggy town in Dicken's time. But it, and the North of England were still foggy in my time. And it wasn't the mild benevolent type of fog seen in the movie. I can remember walking to college through a park, and holding my hand up in front of my face - just to say I couldn't see it, and I couldn't. Those were the days of the incredible Smogs that lasted days and were almost impossible to get through (and which killed many people).

And then, after a quick change in London, on up to Newcastle, where the land of my birth made me welcome by snowing. It melted fairly quickly and by the time I had dropped off the cases, and gone to see Mum it had all melted. She had got the dates wrong and had been dressed and waiting for me to show up from before lunch, which she had not had. But I got there after dinner and they had just given her a very large curry, so I was partly forgiven. I'm afraid in future I must also send a message to the staff so that everyone knows the plan.

We went out the next day for lunch, again bitterly cold and the restaurant was up on the edge of the moors so while the view was pleasant, we decided, instead of driving around for the afternoon we would go back to her room. This could also have been driven by the fact that she had taken a certain pill that morning which made long travel times embarassing.

So we went back, just in time for the Royal Blessing - I thought the Russian diva sang a wonder Credo, and must see if it can be found on a CD. Then we watched the Grand National, since Mum had a horse, though sadly it finished something like 17th (but, given that 19 out of 40, didn't there was some measure of rejoinder).

And so back to the Holiday Inn where, despite all the commercials in the US, there was only dial-up, a too costly choice, and so the search continued for a new hotel.

Travelling Light

2005-04-06T18:36:00.000-05:00

Sorry, couldn't resist, but it is one of the Cliff Richard songs that burned a hole into my head while at school.

It is the generally considered opinion of my friends, family and co-workers that I go sort of nuts in the 24 hours before I fly overseas. Well we're there, so I guess I had better shut up. (As in the twins from the Victorian - or was it Edwardian - House). In which vein I wonder if there will be a 49-up ere long.

As you can see, all those opinions can't be wrong. But in company of Jimbo and Dr.C, not to mention Mel and Dr B's input I have done a little for the academy today myself, and finally got the revised paper uploaded and off in final form. Doesn't it make our Victorian hearts proud that one of my colleagues took the electronically revised copy from two earlier sets of electronic inputs, printed it and sent me his corrections meticulously and editorially accurately marked in with a fountain pen.

By tradition we go out to eat steak tonight,since I try and eat local food wherever I end up. And since I am going home to English breakfasts and things it's probably an indulgence, especially with the rude note from the medic, but life is how you live it.

Depending on where I come to rest there may or may not be more of this in the next week, if not sleep well, smell the roses and enjoy the last relatively carefree summer of your life.

Corporal and other Punishment

2005-04-05T22:47:00.000-05:00

There are a number of ways to describe being worn out but after the conversation at New Kid I should probably not say that I feel "whacked" which was a descriptive phrase of my youth.

Thinking of which I wonder where I read that article today about having someone take a cane to your posterior to make you feel better. Having gone to one of those minor English boarding schools (remember the song?), there were more occasions than one should admit to where, after Wednesday lunch, one "assumed the position." And it is supposed to be the "English disease", but something must have missed me because it was the very opposite of pleasurable in my case. (Which might lead on to the question as to why it happened as often as it did, but we don't need to go there).

Speaking of punishment, burning CD's for a DL class has to be in there somewhere. I try and send them out for the month at the beginning thereof, but taxes and a couple of social events got in the way of that at the weekend. So today I prepared a guest lecture for the Duchess's class this evening and burned CD after CD after CD - four per person, 2 lectures per CD.

Poser 6 showed up today in all its "Winter Queen" glory - sigh! I leave on Thursday and can't decide whether to load it to play with, or to explore Vue 5. Such decisions. For now I just stare at the examples and dream.

G'night, y'all.

A Winter of Cheating?

2005-04-03T12:53:00.000-05:00

Back last summer I had a nice little exercise routine going in which I did a couple of cardio tapes and a couple of weight tapes each week. It seemed to keep me in reasonable shape, but then I started travelling, and then there were more meetings early in the day (and lots of similar excuses). So I dropped back to the 30-minute exercise tape that I used to use only when I had been away for a while as a break-in back to the routine.

Thus all winter instead of doing the 45-min and 50-min tapes I have been doing the shorter, easier (Crunch Turbo Sculpt) one. Today it was time to get back into a better habit, and so I went back to the 45-min Firm (Maximum Body Shaping) tape. Not for the body shaping - I am doomed to pear I suspect - but it does give a better workout and 15 more minutes should be doable. Of course I make the change just before I go on travel.

Which means I absolutely must do the taxes today, beautiful though it is. But first the call to England . . . .which went well. Mum was delighted to hear I would be there on Friday (though I have told her this for the last two Sundays). The Traveller was there yesterday and took her out for lunch, and to see the displays of daffodils in the surrounding villages. I will probably do the same. The display outside our window here is a suggestion that next year I plant more outside the front as well as the back of the house.

Ups and Downs

2005-04-01T19:36:00.000-06:00

The meeting in Oklahoma seemed to go quite well, though the key presenter for our team had to cry off since he was too ill to get out of bed. My little bit seemed to go over well, and we did present the "problem solved" slide, though I spent more time explaining why we could not tell how we did it, because of patent issues, than I probably should.

And so in a mild state of euphoria I travelled back, the mood was downed a little by finding my car with the back window down, since the cables (it turns out) had become tangled (a mere $330 I am assured). And then I made the mistake of checking e-mail one last time. None of the 3 White Papers sent to Ohio had survived the cut. Rabbits !

So it ended as a bit of a dismal night. Then I came in this morning for a meeting on another proposal and found that IT had "delivered and installed" my new iMac by setting the box beside my desk. Someone said that I looked as though the world had just settled on my shoulders. No it was just the futility of relying on parts of the infrastructure for help, and the realization that we are, if anything, too busy since we can't put enough time into some of the efforts to make them work. And yet, with lots of possible funding, we can't afford to neglect any avenue that might keep everyone well fed next year.

So I, discouraged, spent the day moving stuff from one computer to another, reloading programs, chasing down procedures and passwords to transfer some obscure files, etc etc. Now I have to tidy all the mess revealed by moving to this smaller footprint machine (even though it's the 20-inch monitor).

Time for a night off - methinks!

The hobby for my retirement

2005-03-29T23:08:00.000-06:00

Storm clouds of war
Originally uploaded by Heading Out.

Well I decided to learn to post pictures, and so we try with this one. It is Mousetrap Farm outside of Ypres just before the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915. It was built in Strata and the figures are done in Poser. I still need to add some cows and a couple of horses and the ruined castle behind it, but learning to do all this is going to keep me amused into my old age - so I hope. Actually Strata has just teamed up with Bryce and so I can probably improve the trees and grass as well.

Creaking backs

2005-03-29T22:03:00.000-06:00

I don't know if it's because of the weather but back ache is going the rounds. I can only stave it off by exercise, and travel (groan) makes it worse. The Actress has been usually relatively unsympathetic but today made her first visit to a Chiropractor (and goes again tomorrow and Friday). After being a bit sore most of the day she is now definitely improved.

The Administrator is alas not in quite such good shape. Yesterday she was the subject for a new student, as she was being X-rayed for her back problems. Since the student was inexperienced she was the "training aid". It meant she was on the table too long, and so she was in quite a bit of pain today.

Well today I delegated another report (this is going to my head) aand got the presentation all done. My part will only take about ten minutes, so hopefully we can have the whole meeting over by lunch and I won't have any problem getting back. Since some of the work is fairly new we are doing a careful dance to make sure it stays relatively secure. Getting a patent very rarely generates any money, but it does help in selling the programs, so we'll see how it goes. The time I nominally saved (is this Juxom's Paradox ?) was spent in working on a couple of budgets for existing contracts that are about to run out, so that we need to ensure that all the money was appropriately spent. Eye glazing work mainly, and I did drop off once in front of my screen.

Talking about security the first firm that promised us a quote hasn't come back with numbers yet (even though we told them we needed them in a hurry) and the second came back with this proprietary system that will cost a maintenance fee and buying special cards from them. That is not the way we want to go since cards can be given to friends or lost on the one hand, and having to develop a separate system rather than using campus ID cards is isolationist on the other. So we are going to see if we can't find some other vendors around. Given the times I am surprised at the lack of basic packages.

So if things go well (hollow laugh) when I get back I won't be able to get into one office - since it won't have my fingerprint, and my new computer will have arrived and been installed. (It's actually here but for the first time we did it through the campus IT folk, what that means is that instead of opening a box, sticking the new machine on my desk, running a firewire from the old one and moving the programs, I now am waiting for a week while our central staff install the only two programs they have, and then it will be ceremonially brought down, and I can spend the next twenty minutes installing the remaining ten or so programs that I normally use. But I must set a good example. Bunch of Rabbits !

Another week

2005-03-28T22:10:00.000-06:00

The Specialist came back from a couple of weeks off this morning, and came in to catch up on the news. Which led into a series of grateful delegations of duties - "Go get a lock and we'll see if we like it!" - He chose the thumbprint and we'll see how it goes.

"Call and arrange matters for the small course we might teach," I got that one to him just in time since the person arranging it on the far end called just thereafter. And so it went most of the morning and part of the afternoon, me remembering what had come up, then giving it to him to fix. That's the nice thing about going out of town , since you won't be around someone else has to fix it.

Well actually that's not all true but it was a good excuse, and I had the second draft of the report to revise, and a new set of assignments in to grade. And now its time to do the taxes, and so we gather all the papers, and start - ugh!

And we have a tour next week, so everything must at least look as though it is working, even though the tour will be at night. Oh, and I need to call our Dreamer to find out if that crazy idea that floated out on a mist of alcohol might have some reality. Maybe tomorrow?

Am I sensing a slight case of panic in this post ? After all I have all of tomorrow to do the presentation for Wednesday - if I forget a couple of things - like the meeting first thing in the morning, but that is about the budget so I had better go to that one.

Raw Days

2005-03-27T22:07:00.000-06:00

The weather was cold and wet this morning and we headed off for Easter services and a triple Baptism after breakfast. Sitting in the pew behind one of the families I saw that the Baptism candles they were presented with had been made in Hong Kong. Nice candles mind, but it seems that almost nothing is being bought from American suppliers.

I talked with a friend who is rebuilding a barn, and he had gone out to buy an electric hand drill. All but one of the models were made in China. Of the security locks we were looking at that use fingerprint identification, almost all were made in China. What are American companies allowed to manufacture here ?

Today I transcribed Highland Great Pipe, lowland small pipe, border pipe and French pipe music. The problems with doing some of the foreign tapes I picked up, who knows where, is working out where the breaks are. There was a beautiful childrens choir from Prague, but they had run some songs together and I'm sure I totally failed to properly separate them.

Mum was fine, though the ex-Marine across the hall passed away this week. Her 11 am glass of sherry is now regularly appearing in her room again. And the Traveller will be there to see her next week, and me the week after.

What, more Guilt?

2005-03-26T18:09:00.000-06:00

Yep, he's done it to me again. Here I am trying to give some advice to Jimbo about taking off some time to smell the roses. And what am I doing?

Well after lying in bed until what I would call a disgraceful hour (except I think profgrrrl might object to the term) I spent the rest of today revising that report. (And posting to The Oil Drum ).

So here I sit, Milliadoiro's "Auga de Maio" is gently burbling away to my satisfaction, one of Jimbo's AU's is by my side, and I am re-reading David Weber's "March Upcountry" (and then all the others) before the new one in the series "We Few" shows up on my door next week.

In the greater scheme of things, my friends, what we old ferrets most regret in our later years, is spending too much time at work, but I have to confess that I would not apply that advice until you had tenure. And some of us never took it. And I write notes trying to dissuade faculty from doing that very thing in my real job. So what can I say? Maybe if I feel guilty enough I'll go and have another AU, . . . or two?

Hey, its only a report

2005-03-25T19:14:00.000-06:00

The folk from Oklahoma had asked that I send the progress report by today and that I go down to present it next week. On Monday that was no problem, by today it had reached a serious issue.

Most of the week turned into budget discussions and on how we should protect our corner of the Universe. Do we go to card swipe or PROX cards, or fingerprints or handprints or face recognition, or encrypted keypads. So we had a couple of vendors come in (small hint to such, when trying to sell a product be aware that some of the audience at a University may do research in what you are talking so glibly about - no not me - some of the folk we had invited in). There is going to be a battle with our Purchasing Department no matter what we pick. And so an admission, since I am going to have to fight that battle, I could have appointed a faculty committee to make the decision on what we do. I did not, your very own local dictator sat, listened to the presentations, chatted with each individual who appeared to have any interest in the subject, and made a decision. Now all I have to do is survive.

The reason, incidentally for the haste, is to do with what is about to happen to our budget.

Yesterday I dropped into an Admin meeting where the Dauphin was making a presentation. He said some kind things, after noticing I was there, but somehow also conveyed the impresssion that I may have one of the larger egos on this campus, to which of course there is little in the way of effective response. Lots of this sort of administrivia all week. But the report had to be done. So I shut my door and worked on it, and except when I let someone in to have some coffee, which led to about five folk coming in one after the other before I could shut it again, I did, finally get that thing out in first draft. But tomorrow it must be revised, and so tonight the libations will be small, and the evening quiet. (But there will be some libations since we did, after all, get another contract today. And on the other hand the class this morning might as well not have happened).

Tada ! Tadee! Tadillyum ! Tralee!

2005-03-23T19:13:00.000-06:00

Well the Advocate called just on 5:30 pm and his last interview was successful. So after medical school, and residency and fellowship he will finally move into a practice in the North East this summer. It sounds to be just what he was looking for and he is suitably ecstatic. As are we, and being vicarious enjoyers we have decided to go out and celebrate a little. After all this may be one of only very few occasions we may get to do this.

So goodnight report (though only quarter done) sleep well grading, rest quietly budgets (and tax returns) tonight we are going to savor the moment, smell the flowers, all that stuff. Grin, grin , grin.

Oh, and I never said I could carry a tune either!

Divided personality

2005-03-22T23:36:00.000-06:00

This has been another chaotic day at our corner of the campus. At the end of last week I thought that we were caught up on proposals, I had mailed the latest paper, and had only one quarterly report to prepare for our folks in Oklahoma, before heading over to Europe at the beginning of next month.

So I came in, and went to the Admin meeting, where I was informed of the size of our fraction of the upcoming budget cut. It was an ouch moment and would have been easier if we had that sort of money, but of course we don't.

Then I heard that our friends in Ontario had called last night and needed some data and a cost estimate today for a proposal for some new work. Which meant that the data had to be generated and with no-one else free ( not that I really was) off I went down after lunch and ran the test to get it, and our part of the proposal went over the wires at about 3 pm.

And then the Oklahoma folk e-mailed that they really wanted the report this week, and for me to go down there and present it next week. (A sickly grin appeared as I weakly agreed to do so).

Tonight was devoted to a couple of hours of recruiting and then a little change in this blog. It may have become apparent that just recently it has become more and more fixated on our upcoming oil crisis. Since that really wasn't why I started it, I was delighted when Prof Goose suggested we start a separate blog as a forum for that topic. So we did, and in future most of my posts on oil will appear at The Oil Drum. We hope to see you there.

A Slight Disagreement with Professor Cole

2005-03-21T09:08:00.000-06:00

In reviewing the current situation in Iraq Tom Engelhardt discusses the "word that cannot be spoken" about the reasons for the war.He quotes Juan Cole on the American plans that intended the privatization of the Iraqi oil industry as a counter to OPEC dominance of the world oil supply.

I believe however they understate the situation. For while until recently Saudi Arabia were allowing that they could produce up to 20 mbd they are now admitting that they cannot. It is likely that as far back as the Vice President's Energy Group meetings four years ago that the Administration recognized the mess that we are now heading into. The only large supply that remained relatively untapped was the Iraqi one (recognizing, as the good Professor does not yet, that Saudi oil production is not going to be able to reach much more than 10 mbd given the declining production at Ghawar and the "Queen" fields).

In such a case with the Iraqi oil going to people like the Russians and the French, rather than to us, there had to have been a concern about long-term supply to the US. If they were aware, as due diligence would require that they were, that world oil supply was about to peak and then decline, then it makes sense to grab the last remaining large supply that had the potential to keep the world out of oil supply trouble until just about the end of the second Bush Administration. Unfortunately as Professor Cole points out, they neglected to consider that some of the Iraqi people might not take kindly to the concept.

Professor Cole sees the argument merely as one where the Administration was seeking to gain a counter to OPEC strength, in reality the goal was likely that of trying to ensure a source of oil, prior to the time that overall supply starts to diminish. Unfortunately with world demand having grown faster than anticipated, and with about half of the Iraqi potential still being shut in, the crisis has come a couple of years too early.

Cassandra's fate

2005-03-20T22:10:00.000-06:00

There are times when you realize how we got to where are today, and where, very sadly, where we will be in six months. In part, it is because no-one either considers that the issue is real, or if it is they have a touching faith that some mythical someone is already aware of the problem, and will solve it with just some minor disturbance of the market.

You can bring up the problem of Peak Oil in conversation and slip in some numbers, and it's one of these "Yes, yes, but let me tell you about temperature when I got up yesterday (or some similar earth shattering matter)".
Bearing in mind that it now seems inevitable that this will hit, and relatively hard, before the next election, at first it seemed odd to me that no politician seemed to really be getting ready to ride this issue. But then it is a very uncomfortable topic, wthout any obvious answers. In this regard the topic lurks on the back pages of the dailies, and as I have commented, is occasionally aired by pundits on shows who hasten to assure us that things are well in hand (even as within a couple of weeks they are shown to be hopelessly ill-informed).

Now while I could mention how Winston Churchill was castigated right up until the moment he was disastrously proved right, I was more interested today to find out what happened to the original Cassandra. Despite her accuracy, she was raped, enslaved and murdered. Now that is an encouraging fate to contemplate if one were to speak up.

UPDATE
I was remiss in not noting the comments in the House by Congressman Bartlett (R-MD) last week who discussed Peak Oil for an hour, although he confused the issue a bit, I thought by including Jevons Paradox (which put simply in this context is that if we find a way of conserving energy, then as an unanticipated consequence we will also create additional ways of expending it that end up making us no better off). In this case I don't believe it will apply, although one could make a case that using more ethanol in gas might fit that bill. The Congressman is a physiologist, endocrinologist and an inventor.
In addition Congressman Gilchrest (R-MD) also spoke to the topic, and the potential benefits of alternate energy sources.

Sunday pm transcribing

2005-03-20T17:18:00.000-06:00

Just to show how much more ancient I am than profgrrrl I note that the music slowly wending its way through the computer includes, this week:

Vangelis: Antarctica; The Mask; The best of Jon and Vangelis
Andreas Vollenweider: Down to the Moon; Caverna Magica; Dancing with the Lion; White Winds
Jeffrey Reid Baker: Everyone's Favorite Synthesizer Pieces
Gary Numan: Living Ornaments 80
Wyndham Hill Artists: A Winter's Solstice 3
Dr Demento: Christmas
Ravi Shankar: Inside the Kremlin

There is a new shop opened just down the road a spell and they cater to those of us who like slightly more exotic things. But alas they had no Earl Gray and so I had to compromise with First Flush Darjeeling and some Lychee Flavored black tea. They also had some small portions of imported cheese and while the Actress quickly snaffled all but a small morsel of the Italian cheddar, she left me the Gorgonzola - a good excuse to go and have some (and finishing it have an excuse to go back to the store for more such goodies).

The aches of age

2005-03-20T17:05:00.000-06:00

It was cold yesterday, but being male, I put on a fairly light jacket to go and watch the St Paddy's Day parade. Well the wind got into my back, and so I will be moaning about this most of the week. (But only with the lower lip you understand, the upper one will be kept properly stiff).

We went on to a party in the afternoon, and (while I should have learned from a lesson a couple of decades ago) I may have sort of talked myself into accepting another commission. Well they have to decide if they can commit the money, and maybe get some other folk to go along with the plan, but this is where I started to get into trouble back then. It will be interesting to see how it progresses, but hard to remain anonymous if I blog about it much.

Mum was fine today though she told me the same tale three times. The home has been giving them a small glass of sherry at 11 am for the past three weeks, and then suddenly they stopped it at the end of the week. I suspect I may meander in there with a couple of bottles when I go over.

I have been doing the easy exercise tape for a while now, with lots of excuses for not switching back to the harder "The Firm" ones, but the need is there, and maybe they will help the old back, so . . .so. . . well maybe next time.

An insignificant vote

2005-03-20T16:56:00.000-06:00

Well with all the controversy this week I meandered over to Unfogged which I had read some months ago, but dropped, and note that he is dropping Prof B from his blogroll. Not that it counts for much, but I actually prefer hers - so I guess I won't change mine.

Wheesht !

2005-03-18T22:56:00.000-06:00

I think I will take my old Gran's advice and follow Dr. B's request from before the time to duck. In fact I think I will quietly tiptoe away and spend my weekend in the politically incorrect pastime (perhaps appropriate in the circs) of learning how to wear the Highland Great Kilt.
For those not aware of the difference to the more conventionally seen one, this came (from the Nurse) as a single 11 yard length of fabric and you have to pleat and fold it properly to get it not only around the middle but also over the shoulder. For us portlier folk it means we don't have to keep sending it off to get remade as we age less than gracefully. Yep it sounds like an appropriate thing to do.

Turn about and Russian oil production

2005-03-17T10:47:00.000-06:00

There is a body of opinion that suggests that one of the main causes for the collapse of the Soviet Union was that the Saudi Arabian monarchy dropped the price of oil, thereby co-incidentally doing fatal harm to the Soviet economy, which was relying on the price it got for their oil exports to provide an underpinning to the economy.

Given that the world is now moving rapidly into the period where supply does not meet demand and where production is, in fact, peaking, one wonders if the current machinations over in Russia - where oil companies are being taken over and production is currently declining, might not be a little bit of Putin having learned his lesson and now taking his turn at tweaking us in a reversal of roles. After all he has little to lose, and a larger income to gain, and as for Western economic stability . . . ..

Saudi admission on a lack of oil reserve

2005-03-16T17:34:00.000-06:00

Well that didn't take long. The Saudi minister just commented on ABC News this evening that they are running out of light crude. And people are saying that they don't know why the price is going up! I think we might call this the Ostrich Syndrome. The Saudi government have been saying there ws no problem for years, and suddenly now, as demand starts to go back up -whoops! Er! Maybe they were overconfident!

I would suspect that predictions that demand will rise by 2.7 mbd this year are now just so much hot air. Because we are unlikely to see much more than a million barrel increase in supply over the course of the year. And that means it has become a sellers market, and the price will never be this cheap again!

This is a wierd feeling. Those of us who have looked at the numbers have seen Hubbert's Peak coming, and now it is very close to being here. There seems to have been little planning from a government being run by folk with a deep background in this industry. Yet having played Cassandra, and apparently going to be proved right, what is gained? We are now at a point where there are no known answers. One cannot create oil out of thin air, nor instantly legislate its appearance at a refinery. The Arctic Refuge oil will not be here for years and we need an additional source of supply by October. It is interesting to note that were the oil pipelines still flowing in Iraq then this problem might have been delayed for a year or two, but they aren't and it isn't. Well time to bury my head back in the sand, after all I will only be joining the MSM.

Unravelling numbers

2005-03-16T08:56:00.000-06:00

Today's Washington Post contains the following quote on the OPEC decisions, giving some indication of where the anticipated increase in oil is anticipated to come from.

Global crude consumption is expected to hit 86.1 million bpd during the seasonal demand peak of the fourth quarter, up from 83.7 million bpd on average for the first nine months of 2005, according to projections from the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

Naimi said Tuesday Riyadh had already raised production by 250,000 bpd in anticipation of the deal with more to come next month. Kuwait said it would add 120,000 bpd in April.

Adding 2 million bpd from Iraq, exempt from a quota, total OPEC supply will be above 30 million bpd and close to September's 25-year production high.

What is interesting, apart from the fact that World demand is now expected to grow by 2.4 mbd (higher than earlier estimates) is that, if Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait have increased their overall production, and the rest are producing at their current maximum, then if the total is less than it was last September, then this recognizes that some of the other members of OPEC are seeing a decline in their overall production capabilities.