Saturday morning I was at the Sunnyvale "Trader Joe's".
Waiting in the lines I observed a young mother in the adjacent
queue shepherding her two charges which seemed to be
named Billy and Hillary. Bill was the younger, but
Hillary the greater challenge to the
frazzled mom; both were being annoyingly mischievous.
Much bemused eyebrow-raising amongst others in line,
hearing those two names being called in exasperation.
Their ages did seem to be less than seven; one can
barely imagine somebody christening their offspring
such back then... I wonder if their family was
blessed with a third child now, another girl, how
would she be named?
Later, afternoon: I was hanging out at the high-class
glasses store in the Stanford Shopping Center, flirting
with Rose like last year. Once
more I'm trying for acceptable specs in these `designer'
"Oliver Peeples" frames (with the updated prescription
I just got). She easily persuades
me to pay more for premium add-ons & upgrades, though
never as much as she'd like - it's a pleasant struggle.
At work Sunday I was alone, alternating
between actual computing and watching "The 400 Blows"
in the conference room. Those lacking familiarity with
the movies of François Truffaut may be snickering at this
film's title, as it suggests something vulgar;
but I know it as the first of the four biographical
"Antoine Doinel"s. This one's a wonderful black & white
window into late-1950's Paris. <1>
I've only seen it once before, twenty years ago in my
parents' basement on a small portable television
tuned to PBS. As for the work, such a lot of bother.
Getting closer to a solution but not there yet,
despite much time spent this weekend.
The system I'm building/augmenting/maintaining is
quite complicated; until now I've generally only
needed to be concerned with one or two out of a dozen
of its component applications. This problem's so big
that it involves inter-process communication and the
fix may be to a lot of areas. Sheesh!
I've had one of my neon tubes lit for several days
now, the tinted blue one which "snakes". This is what the
effect's called where the tube of light within the glass
tube moves. In my case about three inches at one end (or
electrode) revolves slowly, which is nice; and about
a foot in the middle flickers irregularly, which
is not. Nobody knows what causes this effect; impurities
are traditionally blamed (though how such can survive
the bombarding phase of glass bending is beyond me).
Another unexpected inner-tube neon effect is
called "jelly beans" - I've seen this happen once (and
only once) in my first neon tube, the `clear blue'
ellipse which N has attached to his ceiling. Instead of
the usual smooth tube of light, several regularly-spaced
constrictions made a few inches at one end look
like a string of beads - I called them diamonds,
but it seems that the jargon term for this standing
wave is jelly beans. Check for these effects
in blue or clear neon tubes <2>
that have been left on for long periods.
Catching up on the journal called "Self-Realization Through
Profanity" - this entry is why I like him.