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The Coming of Summer
Jun. 23rd, 2008 07:14 pmHot Days. We've had some very hot days lately. Friday it got up to 98 degrees, and it wasn't that nice Thursday or Saturday either. My office is set in the back of our 1906 house; part of it used to be an enclosed upstairs porch and the other part is a later add-on. The result is that none of it has good insulation, and it starts getting pretty hot when the temperature edges up about 75 or so. When things get into the 90s, it's unbearable.
Fortunately, a couple of years ago, I came up with my own way to beat the heat. When it looks like it's going to be way too hot a few days in a row, I haul my computer downstairs to the dining room and work from there. So that's where I was from Friday to Sunday.
As I was moving my computer downstairs this time, I was thinking, "What'd we ever do before wireless LANs?" And then I realized how short-sighted that was. It was just for a relatively few years that computers were truly tied to those little blue cables. I think I got my first DSL hookup in 1998 and had my main computer running wireless by 2002 or so. Of course that's just tracking the home penetration of the internet, as I was working with wired networks starting in 1989, and even before DSL I had to think about keeping my computer next to a phone line.
In any case, today the temperature was down to the point that it was actually cool. Typical wacky Berkeley weather.
Hawaii. I've been bemused that since my dad's moved to Hawaii it's been hotter here a couple of times that it was there. When San Jose (where they used to live) was 105 last week, it was about 20 degrees lower at their new home. I never think of the Hawaiian islands as being cool, but I guess that's true in the summer.
In any case, they seem to be settling in well, although it's apparently harder to get things (e.g., phone service, internet service) done correctly in Hawaii than it is here. They're also starting to learn the fearful facts of having to order things from the mainland.
Organization. On Saturday I went on a bit of an organization rampage ... at Donald's house. Before gaming I was reordering all of our D&D3E books so that we could actually find stuff from our campaigns, and I idly mentioned that it'd be nice if we had a bookcase for the books, right behind the gaming table. Mary immediately suggested that we clean out a bookcase that was down a hallway, and repurpose that for gaming use. We did, and I think it's going to be a lot easier to find stuff for the game from here on out (at least until Donald moves, at which point I need to figure out how to make D&D books available in my household).
I also spent part of the afternoon (while playing Donald's Eberron game) organizing all of my Descent pieces. I got two Plano boxes and they were just about perfect for cleaning up all the bits: one box for characters, one for me. I still need to figure out a decent way to organize the dungeon building tiles, but this is a great start that should work out well next time we play.
And that's all got me in the spirit of trying to clean up my office some. We'll see how far I get there ...
Fortunately, a couple of years ago, I came up with my own way to beat the heat. When it looks like it's going to be way too hot a few days in a row, I haul my computer downstairs to the dining room and work from there. So that's where I was from Friday to Sunday.
As I was moving my computer downstairs this time, I was thinking, "What'd we ever do before wireless LANs?" And then I realized how short-sighted that was. It was just for a relatively few years that computers were truly tied to those little blue cables. I think I got my first DSL hookup in 1998 and had my main computer running wireless by 2002 or so. Of course that's just tracking the home penetration of the internet, as I was working with wired networks starting in 1989, and even before DSL I had to think about keeping my computer next to a phone line.
In any case, today the temperature was down to the point that it was actually cool. Typical wacky Berkeley weather.
Hawaii. I've been bemused that since my dad's moved to Hawaii it's been hotter here a couple of times that it was there. When San Jose (where they used to live) was 105 last week, it was about 20 degrees lower at their new home. I never think of the Hawaiian islands as being cool, but I guess that's true in the summer.
In any case, they seem to be settling in well, although it's apparently harder to get things (e.g., phone service, internet service) done correctly in Hawaii than it is here. They're also starting to learn the fearful facts of having to order things from the mainland.
Organization. On Saturday I went on a bit of an organization rampage ... at Donald's house. Before gaming I was reordering all of our D&D3E books so that we could actually find stuff from our campaigns, and I idly mentioned that it'd be nice if we had a bookcase for the books, right behind the gaming table. Mary immediately suggested that we clean out a bookcase that was down a hallway, and repurpose that for gaming use. We did, and I think it's going to be a lot easier to find stuff for the game from here on out (at least until Donald moves, at which point I need to figure out how to make D&D books available in my household).
I also spent part of the afternoon (while playing Donald's Eberron game) organizing all of my Descent pieces. I got two Plano boxes and they were just about perfect for cleaning up all the bits: one box for characters, one for me. I still need to figure out a decent way to organize the dungeon building tiles, but this is a great start that should work out well next time we play.
And that's all got me in the spirit of trying to clean up my office some. We'll see how far I get there ...