There's always something else.

Right now the basement is almost ready for the carpet people. We desperately need to vacuum and/or scrape the floors so that they don't just blithely carpet over any nails or stray bits of plaster, leaving a permanent lump in our new floor. I also should sand the edge of one door to remove some paint. That doesn't have to be done before the carpet is put down, but it would make clean up much easier. Finally, just now as I was removing some of that blue painters tape from around the area we stuccoed, I managed to tear some paint off the wall. :-/

Maybe I was a bit too enthusiastic, but I thought the blue tape wasn't supposed to be able to do that. Its nothing that can't be fixed, but it will have to wait until after the carpet folks are done. So, all that really should be done ahead of time is vacuuming and sanding, but right now our basement is a huge echo cavern and our neighbors would not appreciate either sound at this time of night.

So, all I can really do before morning is move the modem downstairs. I'll be doing that in just a few minutes, after I've had a bit of a rest from my cleanup chores. I'll have to do the rest in the morning before the carpet folks arrive at 9:00 am. That means I need to be up at something like 6:00 am if I want to be awake enough to do the work and have it finished before they arrive. Its currently unlikely that I'll get to bed before 3:00 am. So, I'm not actually going to get to sleep tonight, it seems, other than a short 3-hour nap.

Urp.

So, I'm awake again after... *blurrily stares at clock* ... two hours of sleep. The carpet layers are due in 90 minutes and so I have about 30 minutes to wake up enough to go and do the sanding and vacuuming that needs to be done. Waking up wasn't too unpleasant, other than the fact my stomach is staging a revolt. It doesn't like the coffee I'm having to force down, and would rather have me just go back to bed. Instead I'm chasing the coffee with Tums. We'll see who caves first.

Origami Lenses for Camera Buffs.

This article talks about a new folded optical system (its technically not a lens) that can replace a telephoto lens 8 times its size. It works by multiple internal reflections, much the same way reflective telescopes do.

Too Sleepy.

The carpet layers are here and its all gone monkey. Why don't any of the people we are dealing with talk to each other? What is the point of a single central contact point, if no one who shows up here has ever been informed as to what was decided???

EDIT: taxlady got everything sorted out. It turned out to have an easy solution, but I was in no condition to figure that out. Anyway, things were fixed and the carpet guys are almost done now.

Crinoids can Run?

As someone who is interested in alien physiology and what biomechanics has to say about ways of getting around, I was pleased and astonished to discover that Sea Lillies, a type of Crinoid, can run. It seems that this has also astonished a number of marine biologists who thought this species of animal could only slowly creep along.

Subway Comparisons.

Here's a website showing a bunch of the worlds subway systems, all at the same scale. Yes, Montreal's is in the list. Ours may not be the tiniest and most pathetic subway system on the list, but we're a contender.

We have carpet.

The carpet guys have come and gone. There is now no reason for me not to take a 4 or 5 hour nap. So I shall.

Sleep Compression.

With the flick of a switch, fall asleep instantly and get 8 hours worth of rest in only 2 or 3 hours. It sounds wonderful, but I'm sure as hell not going to be the first one to do long term use tests of this thing.

Spare T-shirt <--> Ninja!

( Cut because its a large image, but its Ninjarific! )

Meez Meme - Baaaaa.

Because I got bored:



EDIT: I fixed it because the shrinking potion animation was stuck on me always being shrunk.