Aaargh!

I am probably overly moved by my emotions right now, but I am of the opinion that the only thing worse than having Google return only two hits for a term one is seeking to translate (and to have one of those hits link to a web page in a related language), is to have Google return only one hit, which links to a copy of the document one is translating.

Cheers...

Garden follies...

I tried growing eggplant last year, although I suppose one can argue as to how hard I did so. I saw a number of blossoms on the single plant that I containerized, but in the end, not only did I not see any eggplants of any size or shape, there did not appear to be even the shadow of eggplant over the entire enterprise.

And this year, I'm noticing that pretty much all of the blossoms being created by my tomato, zucchini, and eggplant holdings seem to exist in a vacuum (or at least, an environment free of any pollinating insects).

I should probably do some research to find out how necessary pollinators such as bees are to the plants in what passes for my garden, but at any rate, this morning I went out and—equipped with a small watercolor paintbrush—I made good and sure that various plants flowers got good and pollinated.

At least, I think they got pollinated.

Now, to wait and see.

Cheers...

Having loads of fun...

Every once in a while, one runs across two terms that sound as if they mean the same thing, but don't. A good example of this is the difference between fissile materials (which can sustain a nuclear chain reaction by themselves) and fissionable materials (which can only undergo fission by exposure to fast neutrons).

I ran across another such pair today: out-of-band emissions and spurious emissions, and I'll leave the difference in the meaning of these two terms as something of an exercise for the curious reader.

It was a day to push the limits of my creativity using PowerPoint, to "uncorrupt" an emailed Word file, to help Galina finish painting the adjacent bedroom, and to have "a whole lotta ABM defense going on" in a surprise rush translation.

In between everything else, I managed to figure out how to streamline the task of adding "issues to be addressed" to the current job in org mode ("current" meaning the job for which time is currently being "clocked," which is a feature that I've only recently started using). Now, if only I can remember to log my time properly...

To top it all off, the ostinato known as "the invasion theme" from the first movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7—the "Leningrad"—turned into one extraordinary earworm that haunts me still, mostly because I can only replay snippets of it in my head.

And it's only 10 pm!

Cheers...