Author: Elaine

Icewm

Using this article on Icewm, I installed Icewm on my Linux box as the windows manager. I had previously been using the Gnome desktop article. As it says in the article, installing Icewm instead of Gnome was llike doing a hardware upgrade. Gnome had a lot more bells and whistles, but I didn’t use most of them, so I am quite content with the speed of Icewm instead.

Dreary Weather

If the dogs were kids, they would be whining, “but, Mom, there is nothing to do!” with our second day in a row of dreary weather. I feel a bit that way myself. We are all pretty spoiled her in sunny Colorado.
For the first time this fall, I saw ice on the stock tank this morning. I plugged the heater inn, even though it was thin enough the horses could break through if they wanted to drink. I am not sure it will get above freezing all day today and would rather no worry about whether to turn it on tonight.

I Give Up

“They” won. I’m not sure how long I’ve used my old email address, maybe eight years? Certainly I started using it long before spam was more than once a week occurrence. Currently, my load of junk email is now approaching approximately two hundred a day. The only way I have been able to cope at all is with two layers of filtering.

However, I am starting to lose stuff in my filters. I check, but it can be hard to see the rare good item in all the junk in the reject folder. Since my web host provides virtually unlimited email addresses, I have set up a new address for personal correspondence, several addresses for the various lists in which I participate, and a “throwaway” address for registering at websites.

I have tried to send my new personal address to those who know my old one. I can also be contacted at the link in the side bar to the left.

Wildland fires

This Gazette article describes the wildland fires that started in Colorado yesterday. Fortunately, I am looking out the window at a drizzly rain, so perhaps they will be able to get them under control today. The closest of these two fires is about thirty miles away.

Palmer Park

palmerpark20031028.jpg

I had an unscheduled half hour to spare yesterday, and since I was in the neighborhood I decided to check out “Palmer Park”:http://www.ccss-online.org/html/palmer-park.html.

California on fire

“At loss for words”:http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object.cgi?object=/chronicle/pictures/2003/10/28/mn_satellitefires_ap.jpg&paper=chronicle&file=FIRE.TMP&directory=/c/a/2003/10/28&type=news via “Making Light.”:http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/

Vegetable Empire

While looking for some information about how perl scopes variables, I found Steve’s place- Vegetable Empire, an entertaining page which includes information about carnivorous plants and other oddities. The page about the plants will take a while to load if you are on a slow connection. His perl tutorials also look excellent.

Two Crows Joy

This was not a great morning to wake up early. I woke at three, and felt very awake. Finally, after tossing and turning for a while, I decided to get up. It wasn’t until I looked at my computer that I remembered the time change, making it even earlier than I thought. It will be a struggle to stay up until nine tonight. I did look out the window to see if I could see the Northern Lights, but no such luck.

It was a little windy this morning, but sufficiently pleasant that I took Dudley out for a walk at nine while the horses ate breakfast. We saw deer and Dudley briefly chased them without much conviction that he could catch them. While we were up on the plateau behind our house, I saw two large crows flying together in the wind. They took turns dodging into each other, for all the world like kids playing chicken. Made you jump! I don’t know if they were fighting or playing some weird corvine game.