A lazy Sunday... (so far)

I've been up since about 7 am, and in light of the utter quiet around here, am sitting in the spare bedroom, where I have set up the eSlate to do wireless Web browsing.

I've been trying to come up to speed in doing Cyrillic under Linux. Again. I had some trouble finding a posted copy of the Cyrillic HOWTO, but finally found one. Unfortunately, the writer makes lots of references to Linux versions that are quite ancient (3.x, 4.x). I tried to implement his suggested script for enabling Cyrillic in the Linux console, and spent some time trying to figure out what's changed since the time the document was written. In any event, I succeeded in creating a script that does the appropriate things, so now I can read KOI8 characters that appear in my mail.

Unfortunately, that won't allow me to read characters encoded using Windows-1251, but hey! One step at a time, okay?

* * *Galina, Lee and I watched Hearts in Atlantis last night, courtesy of Pay-Per-View, if only because it stars Anthony Hopkins. I found myself awash in sadness as I watched the film, and as much as I enjoyed Hopkins' performance, I came away with the feeling of "What's the point?"

Perhaps the point lay in Bobby's echo of Ted's parting words, to the effect that he would "not have missed a minute of it for all the world," despite what I see as layer after layer of disappointment and sadness. Maybe the effect Ted had on Bobby - the thing that "opened my eyes," in Bobby's words - is what allowed the boy (and the man) to transcend that disappointment and sadness.

I'm not sorry I saw the movie, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to see it again.

Cheers...

It occurs to me...

...not often, but it does sometimes occur to me:

See if there's a more recent Cyrillic HOWTO that's being maintained... in Russian!

I did that just now and downloaded something not more than a year or so old (which is almost brand spanking new, in terms of Linux HOWTOs).

Regrettably, though, I've otherwise lost the urge to pursue the issue right now. As noted yesterday, I have 6 pages to translate sometime today, and it might not be a bad idea to take care of tax details before tomorrow's onslaught at the store (people just go crazy asking to send their returns via Certified Mail, with a Return Receipt Requested, which escalates the price of postage by $3.60).

I will, of course, be going the extension route.

Now for some coffee and some breakfast. Then, to work.

Cheers...

Nice and quiet...

The translation went pretty smoothly, and though I didn't keep track of the time, I estimate the whole thing took less than 3 hours. I followed up with a brief session with TurboTax (it takes about 5 minutes to publish an extension), and then I invoiced work done since the 8th.

* * *Talking about government paperwork, I have a load of it to do for the store by the time Lee and I leave for Texas (next Saturday, dontcha know!). I also have to make sure Drew knows how to do all of the services we're advertising in a flyer that's supposed to come out about the time I leave.

* * *The Mighty Fax program, by the way, doesn't support faxes from scanners, at least not directly. I'm thinking I'm going to have to install PaperPort or something similar to interface with the scanner, which will then allow "printing" to a printer which is actually the Mighty Fax application.

It's that or go out and get a commercial program by, say, Wednesday night and get everyone up to speed in it.

* * *Drew's been applying himself to tissue-and-balsa modeling with a vengeance. He picked up an inexpensive small model to learn, I think, more about rubber-band powered flight. His completed model of a German Messerschmidt looks very good, but when it came time to fly the thing, it went nose-up and then fell to the ground. I don't know what the problem is, but I suspect it has something to do with the balance of the plane.

We still have to do his tax return, but I suspect he might go the extension route, too. It depends on how I feel later tonight.

Cheers...