Cupcakes into darkness

I made some 18 cupcakes Thursday night and set my alarm early on Friday to ice them...see the glorious creations below (pre the little candy bees and butterflies I put on them).

Then I carefully packed them in my cupcake transporter and took them down to the car to take to work.  At which point one of the latches gave way and 15 of my 18 cupcakes ended up face down on the grass.


KHANNNN!!!!


Sorry, just went to see Star Trek into darkness.  Good movie.  Clever weaving of original story line into reboot.  Good special effects.  No cupcakes.

not trying it out at that price

I've been looking at bluetooth dongles & found one that looks sweet...the AZiO BTD-V400 Micro Bluetooth Adapter.  This is a US company & there's lots of sellers...in the US (from about $14 upwards..who won't sell to Australia.  I even found one on ebay.com.au which said won't sell to Australia.  Then an advanced google search led me to an Australian domain that just sent me back to amazon and the same companies I'd been looking at.  I finally found one who will send it, for $22US, plus $48 for the freight.  I'm just not paying that for a microdongle in a small sleeve of plastic.  You'd think someone would be buying in bulk and on-selling in Aust.  I wonder if theres some setting that aren't approved here.  It did have 80ft reach.  Interferance perhaps?

Back to officeworks to pick up a Targus version for $23.

On a funner note.  I learned to ice cakes fancily the other night

The top design is called Mr Whippy.  The bottom is called garden.  The missing one looked like a big pink rose with a leaf and ladybug on it...you missed it.  I ate it.

interesting weather we're having

Ive just read Germany has just had issues with mycotoxin in cows milk due to contaminated feed from Serbia (milk can't be consumed) and a New Zealand malter is rejecting barley due to the biggest ergot outbreak in New Zealand in over a generation.  In both cases, perfect weather conditions for the respective fungi to grow and produce toxins.  Since they picked it up there's no hallucinogenic beer for the Kiwis.

free time warning...

I downloaded sculptris...thanks Amanda.  My free time has fallen down the black hole of awesome software. 

I just tried to make a dodecahedron with a tail (the start of a phage).  So far (in 20 minutes) I've made something that looked remarkably like a duck head...which has now turned into a brain and spinal cord.  It all looks very, very cool, but not what I was aiming for...yet.

do not call

I put my mobile on the do not call register today.  I got an unknown call a couple of days ago that I missed and didn't bother ringing back, then today it rang, I picked up and missed the call (answer and it hung up).  I thought I might have messed up the answering and found this number had been calling multiple times a day  - ooh maybe its a sessional teacher needing to call me.  I did have one call at work today & he had called last year on my mobile and I'd ignored it as an unknown number.  I'll call back. ...Answering machine with if you are returning a call to "insurance company I will not advertise by naming here" and are interested in ....press 1.  I proceed to hang up as soon as they get to press one. 

I've never contacted these people, so some company that has my mobile has sold the list - bad company.  I did a search on the number and apparently there's a lot of complaints about them multiple calling people who never even contacted them. 

So, my phone won't block them without downloading an app that is allowed to phone out from my mobile and thus spend my money.....what the??  My phone service also does not provide this service.  They recommend getting on the "do not call" list.  So badda bing there I am. I also put them on my contact list labelled SPAM, so if the calls do come through, I will see and ignore them easily.

If do not call doesn't work, my friend, Spam, may end up having a lot of numbers over time.

note to self

Do not download books to kindle when you have jobs you should be doing.  I was going to work on some important paperwork today.  Instead I lazed around all day reading.  It was relatively pleasant in the morning and I could have got things done.  By the afternoon it was just oppressive & I no longer felt like doing anything other than finishing one novel and starting the second.

new games!

I installed guildwars 2 today.  It downloaded 16gig of update.  Seriously!  At least, that's how much I've used and that's all I asked my computer to do.  It may have also been updating windows & checking email on my ipad, which is now set to airplane mode.  Its a good thing my internet kicks over tomorrow to a new month, because I only have 500mb left on my month before shaping now.

doh

A year ago I transcribed 90% of a set of letters from a great great uncle who died at the Somme.  Then I went back to work & didn't get back to it.  Since then my computer has died, but thats ok, I had back ups.  So I thought I'd pull it up, finish it off and format it this break.  Unfortunately the only back up I can find only has the 1st letter  typed up plus the start of the second.  There's 17 pages of this stuff.  Let all go back to square one.  Pausing now to back up again.

While backing up, I found a backed up folder that was titled "manually backed up files" the date is post the transcribing of the letters....and I backed up the family tree stuff, but not the folder with the transcribed stuff in it - sigh.  

I'm sure I used to make gingerbread houses in 2 days

I still haven't finished.  One is almost done (sans chimney) and I ran out of royal icing.  The other is missing the roof completely.  I have been working on and off on them all day.  (In between swimming, taking my academic dress in to be dry cleaned, shopping and getting a photo with Santa)  Wait, maybe that's the problem.

urge to do stuff...waning

Day 3 of my holiday and I wake up foggy headed, with a dry tickling cough.

Yesterday I went for my first proper "go to the pool and swim (aka flounder, breathe water and powerwalk when my arms give way) for 1/2 an hour"

I then made a couple of gingerbread houses (or at least made the components) and got in a little shopping on the side.  Turducken anyone?  Our local award winning butcher is making them.  They have as of yesterday, a standing order to make over 90 more for next week - I just bought one of the frozen ones, since it was just going to come home and be frozen till next week.

I went to bed with good intentions to swim again this morning and then decided to minimise the chances of turning the cough into something worse.  So, instead today I will walk the strand.

In addition, one more trip to the shops to pick up a christmas present, do the decorations on the gingerbread houses, go to the graduation (I'm in the procession as I have some students graduating).  I'll walk after that, since the graduation is near the strand - though I may change out of my academic dress first.  Somewhere in there I need to list some houses to look at next week.

I think thats enough for a day when I'm only perking up after coffee.  So it won't last.

26oC at 8am - joy.

first day of annual leave

So I had a massage.  I was also going to make gingerbread houses, but the new fridge was turning up, so I didn't want to be doing stuff in the kitchen.  I also downloaded 8 books from Baen books, because I need some holiday reading AND THEY DON'T DRM!!!...hmm I'm sure I did something else.  Oh wait, I mowed the lawn this afternoon - for an hour.  How did that slip my mind?

To do

I came in early to hose out the freezer part of my office fridge before turning it off for the christmas break – berry juice leaked in there when it partly defrosted & if I leave it one and the power goes off while I’m away, magenta coloured  ice will stain the carpet.When I sat down at the computer I found an email with some information that I can now send onto some students (I enquired about this yesterday moring) so now that’s done & now I’m going through my to do list to clear up some more jobs before I leave.  

1.      Discuss some student results (nope, needs someone else to be here)

2.      Hand over some grad student reports (nope, needs grad student to give me one more form)

3.      Write promotion stuff (nope, waiting on some paperwork I need to analyse to grind through someone elses hands)

I’m noticing a trend here.  Now looking on my to do list for stuff that doesn’t require anyone but me.  I really am not a team player.  Give me stuff to do that doesn’t depend on other people.  I’m much happier.

Now finishing this blog post after spending the whole day setting up an online resource for undergrad students.  This didn’t require anyone but me.  Glee and satisfaction.

new rule for my sony ereader

No buying DRM books through the Sony Store till I can figure out how to strip the drm before I put it on my Sony reader.  Sorry bookstores, you're out of luck.

Once again, I've had the waiting circles freeze my ereader mid book, requiring a reset and another sync with the desktop app to get the reader to recognise I have the right to read these books.  Maddening.  And what do I do if this happens on holidays when my computer with the downloaded rights is not available?

I must try a drm book on my kindle and see if it happens there too.

In comparison, I've read 30-40 books on both platforms that weren't drm'd and I've had zero problems.

Go Baen and Smashwords!

saw this on kickstarter

This looks interesting - watch the video - I really like the USB sticks near the bottom of the page.  I have a soft spot for steampunk.

2nd Solar eclipse

I have seen the 2nd solar eclipse of my life, with fine blue skies in a zone where it was about 94% total.  Normal cameras just blow up sun.  Taking  a photo through welding goggles produces a crescent though.

star wars memories - quality free commentary

I remember in high school, all the rumours, and gossip that there would actually be 9 star wars films, 3 before the orginal trilogy and three after.  The general conclusion from those who actually read up on the more reliable information was that there were only 3 more to make...the 3 prequels...if they ever were made.  Then, eventually, they were. 

And now!  On the new owners site - release date for Star wars VII - 2015.  Seriously, I'm counting decades from the original conversations! 

In the words of Winston;

“Never, never, never, never give up.”

 

[refraining from adding quality judgments to any of the situations above, since that's not what this post is about]

Related to royalty!

Well, if you trust someone elses family tree work...and you track back to 1000AD via my mothers paternal Grandmother..and then forward again via a sibling.

It seems I am related to Jane Seymour, wife of Henry the 8th.

I've had a look at her paintings and I don't think we look alike at all.

gaming

soo many games where this would have been handy.

Another attempt at an ebook

I have been slowly reading through some of my old books again and found a couple by Ann Maxwell; Dancers luck and Dancers illusion.  I once again really enjoyed them, so I looked up the author.  Sadly, although the story was well and truly set up as a space romp series, Dancers Illusion was the last one written.  I'm missing Fire Dancer, the first book.  Now, Ann Maxwell has written a fair chunk of books in various Genres, so I decided to see if some of the other sci fi was in ebook format.  I looked up Timeshadow rider and yes, yes it is.  Unfortunately, the sites I could find want me to download "download manager software"  ??? I don't need this for a simple ebook file.  Or they want me to become "a premium member" of their site, pay money and probably give them my contact details.  Or they just look really dubious and I'd want to scrub the file with all sorts of malware/virus checkers.  I'm not a team player, I'm dubious about joining anything.  Just let me paypal a one off book and I'm happy.  BTW One of my sony shops briefly pops up the book before it goes on to say 1-0 of 0 books....hmm.

urge to buy ...waning

I was rereading a book called orphans of chaos by John C. Wright.  I never bought the next two in the series, but thought "you know what?  I'm enjoying this.  I might buy the next one.  I'll buy it as an ebook".  Off I go to look at the sony shops.  They only have physical versions.  I'm trying for an ebook so I go wider.  Nothing on Smashwords, google only has hard copies.  Then I find a US site that sells ebooks in epub (though I have a kindle too, so it doesn't matter that much) version.  Its there!  I go through the process of signing onto the site.  The author has said no DRM, so thats always good.  But I can't buy it because its only allowed to be sold to US people.  ><  Apparently author rules (or perhaps authors publishers rules).  So I go to the kindle store...this edition is not available for Australian buyers.

Why? 

It can't be a price import thing.  I would have bought it locally using the Aus Sony shop by preference...but they didn't have it.  They have a physical copy for not much more than they charge for ebooks, so its not that they can make a bunch more from the physical copy.  Since they HAVE a physical copy, its not that the book can't be bought here.  I can't figure this one out.

Now I could buy the physical version.  But I just don't feel like it at the moment.  If there hadn't been an ebook anywhere I probably would have and thought myself lucky it was still in print, but I feel like I'm being offered a digestive biscuit, while everyone else is offered a chocolate biscuit.  I find my appetite fading under those conditions.