The Curmudgeon Speaks

This is the time of year unlikely to be discussed by the tourist bureau. The temp reached –27 last night and rose to -12 today, but it snowed. It might be called “the dark times”. You do have to find a way to manage to live here.

I like to think of myself as a manly man, but not necessarily in the classic sense. My wife describes me as “not particularly handy”. I do take care of some of the mechanical issues. Someone has to. So, I wash clothes and blow snow.

I have been struggling with moving the snow lately. It has taken all of my strength to push the blower into the snow so that the machine can blow it off the driveway and walks. I was starting to worry that the aging process was really starting to kick in. Then I noticed something. When I pulled the snow blower backwards I saw that the snow on one side was being pushed forward rather than being blown aside. Part of the mechanism that fed the snow into the blower had stopped turning. I was basically pushing the snow ahead of me unless some of it slid sideways into the part of the pickup mechanism that was working. Several hours of great exercise and I finally achieved this insight.

I actually knew what was wrong. Instinctively. I had sheared a pin. This I actually understood. I spent many summer days in my youth baling hay. A very manly man thing to do. My girl friend’s father ran a custom baling service and I stacked bales on the rack. It was honest work and I got a great tan. This is where I learned about shear pins. When the baler inhaled too much hay or the hay was too wet and tough, we would constantly shear pins. The shear pin would give way and I suppose prevent damage to the baler.

Anyway, I did not have a shear pin so I sent Cindy to the hardware store. I was tired and grumpy. Not in a curmudgeonly way. More like I am cold and tired and I am grumpy way. So Cindy came back with the shear pin. I could not find the hole it was supposed to be put through. At this point Cindy and I have our first “discussion”. I was politely asking that she hold the handle of the snow blower down so the front end would raise up and I could see better. I think she then tried to drop the front end on my hand. She suggested she get a flash light. Dumb idea, but it did identify the problem. The shear pin had sheared off in the hole – there was no hole.

Now the part about the tools. Someone took my tools, few as they were, down to Minneapolis and made the decision the tools would be more useful there than here. I guess the issue with the snow blower was not anticipated. How to pop a shear pin fragment out of the snow blower shaft? I have a screw driver, but no hammer. It turns out that the ball from a car hitch is heavy and kind of works like a hammer. The shear pin is removed, the healthy pin in inserted in the hole. No way to tighten the nut.

So, I need a wrench of some kind I can turn within the blades of the snow blower to tighten the nut on the shear pin. Again, we have a short discussion regarding my missing tools. Cindy goes back to the store to purchase a wrench.

She comes back with a complete tool kit – several hundred dollars worth of stuff. Fancy stuff I cannot name and I am not certain how to use – just in case I need to change the transmission on my truck I suppose. She goes in the house because she is tired of having discussions with me.

I do have a pretty impressive box of tools.

Legacy is a nice way of saying “old and dated”. Hence, the discussion of the challenges posed by legacy systems is a perfect topic for the curmudgeon.

I write multiple blogs. I am easily bored so it seemed like a good idea to use different software for each blog. The blogs would look different and the administrative experience would be different. When I switched from running my own servers to renting space on a commercial server, I was able to take advantage of special install scripts. Companies write scripts that install server programs and the companies that sell server space purchase these scripts to making program installation easy for customers.

As time goes by, the effort that gets invested in a blog accumulates. My original blog, created in 2003, has more than 1000 posts. The other two blogs have been around for far less time and have far fewer posts, but still the accumulated time is substantial. So, here is the issue. The script written to upgrade these more recently created two blogs corrupted the blogs. Bluehost, the company providing server space was able to help me revert to the earlier version, but damage was done to the database. Not the fault of Bluehost. I am not identifying the script company.

So, what does this have to do with legacy systems. I am a captive of the old software. I cannot upgrade and to move the posts to new software, I must manually copy and paste the posts and resubmit any images. So, if I have 500 or posts, this would take considerable time. The question is do I put in the effort and manually upgrade or do I stay with a system that frustrates me at present and is likely to present future problems. I have decided to invest the time to switch – a half hour or so each day.

I have also decided to take the opportunity to rename what I have decided is my microblog. It will be called “blurts” to indicate a series of short statements. I have a long form post blog and a short microblog focused mostly on resources I want to save and share. The new system allows import and export functions which will offer me an alternative to dealing with the database backend.

I have already experienced one benefit. I disagreed with what someone wrote two years ago. For whatever reason, he noticed the reposting of the comment and wanted to know if I was trying to pick a fight. I will have to think about that. It is nice he finally read what I had to say about some of his claims.

This being limited by our past commitments is a problem in many areas. Sometimes, I it is worth the extra effort of starting over. Now, back to the process of copying and pasting.

I read a story in the NY Times that I thought was appropriate to the season. Kind of a warm fuzzy story with a hint of hopeless optimism (or maybe that was the wine). Like all newspapers, the Torrington, Conn., Register Citizen, is struggling to maintain readership and ad revenue. In an attempt to involve the local citizens, the paper has added a service that I know would attract me. They have converted their news room into a coffee shop. They workers still meet to discuss stories for the next issue, but they invite the citizens to participate and share a cup of coffee.

The Register Citizen has adopted a version of the Google business model. If Google assumes Google benefits when people use the Internet, The Register Citizen seems to assume they benefit when anyone becomes a participant in local news. The offer an online version of the paper, put effort into their own blog, and even attempt to develop the journalism skills of interested citizens.

So, good on ya Register Citizen. You are a little out of my news region, but perhaps the links in this piece will bring you a couple more readers. I did enjoy your piece on the Possum Queen competition, but most of your news is just too local. Blog on.

The holiday season is a time for giving. I agree, but I need less help than others must assume.

First, I have decided I am anti-diamond. Doesn’t it seem like there are an unusually high proportion of advertisements for diamonds this time of year. Now, that the political ad season has past someone is determined to torture me with diamond ads. I do not plan to go to Jareds or to purchase chocolate diamonds. The sentiment in these ads seems to be that I if really love my wife I would let her and everyone else know by purchasing something that the ad folks promote as the symbol of affection. Of course the more costly the symbol the more appreciation. Who gets to decide which symbol serves as an expression of affection and why is a public display acceptable as a way to express private feelings? What does this say to people who must spend their resources on more basic and useful things?

My suggestion – travel – together or alone. Give the ones you love an opportunity to experience and learn. A rock is just a rock.

Second, this also must be the time to ask for money for charitable causes. We seem to be receiving a large number of phone calls. This must work because people are in a positive mood. I do not know how to sort out which cause is most important. I think during the holiday season responding to human suffering is most important. Cindy adopted a family through a service organization that attempts to assist victims of domestic violence. This is a holiday decision. We seem to have received many requests from the various colleges we have been associated with as students and now as university employees. Returning money to your employer seems a strange thing to ask. I know enough about the way state institutions work to know that the state provides a fraction of what it costs to run the institutions and alumni money is really necessary to provide a reasonable level of service. However, this would seem to prioritize a gift to the institution from which I graduated over the institution that employees me.

So, I think I am set. I have a plan.

I am a big fan of bookstores and coffee shops. I like it best when I can enjoy both at the same time. I don’t actually purchase that may books in paper format any more. At least not like I did a few years ago. I still listen to audiobooks and read using Kindle for the iPad. I think sitting in the middle of stacks while trying to write is inspirational. Some folks go to the library for this setting, but most libraries don’t have a coffee shop and most don’t have the kind of books written in the past year or so. Libraries smell like old books. I think historians like this smell, but not those of us who write about technology.

Grand Forks has some nice coffee shops, but not the kind of book store I like. Evidently, there is not a market for a real book store in Grand Forks. I don’t get it. Every suburb of Minneapolis has a Barnes and Noble or a Borders.

UND has outsourced the college bookstore. Barnes and Noble was here for a few years. Then came Follett. It started out as a book store. There was a large section for selling course books for students and a reasonable trade book section. I guess the kind of books I read are called trade books. Then they decided to interchange the part of the store dedicated to trade books with the part of the store dedicated to clothing and other UND branded goods. Evidently folks in Grand Forks would rather buy sweatshirts than books.

When I go the the coffee shop to work I feel like I sitting in the corner of Younkers or Daytons. It is just not right. College book stores need books.

I happened across the National Geographic documentary “Camp Leatherneck” on netflix streaming last night and watched it. I recommend it.

I had no intention of watching the program as a prelude to Veterans’ Day, but it ended up as a great attention getter. Whatever the political overtones to our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no denying the commitment and courage of the soldiers serving there. The term patriot has been stolen and cheapened, but some still deserve the title.

If this is democracy, we need to move on to democracy 2.0. Maybe we need to move back to democracy .9. I thought last year I was voting for some ideas I valued – for a better method of assuring health care because my wife has a preexisting condition, for a more supportive approach to the less fortunate. This year I have no idea – the rhetoric seemed to about what candidates were against and not what they would accomplish. I voted against the candidate who seemed to be running on the platform that his opponent voted for Nancy Pelosi and against North Dakota. They must mean THEIR north dakota – the place where people take care of themselves and save what is left for a rainy day. Never did figure out what that was supposed to mean and it seemed to lack a plan beyond rolling back what had been accomplished. Glad we can’t roll back preventing a total collapse of the economy.