So... What are YOU doing? - Part 6

[tango]

Got out to the church and fixed the computer. There was something on it that was bothering the secretary. It looked like something that pretended to be an anti-malware program but was actually annoying. Curiously the existing antivirus software didn't catch it - I suspect it was something that threw up warnings of troubles in the hope the user would then download a piece of software to "fix the problem" that would actually create a more serious problem.

It was curious, trying to see what the thing would do and looking through the list of processes to see if anything looked out of place was quite a slow process. In the end a process that didn't look like it belonged yielded the result, and from there it was just a matter of time before it got sent to the recycle bin in the sky. Now I just need to let the secretary use the computer for a while to see if the problem recurs.

And as if that wasn't enough fun, I took a look at the sound board because it's got a weird pattern of electrical noise that's getting into the works somehow. Trying to get that nailed is proving an exercise in frustration. It may be time for some new hardware.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Movie time. 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith'. I'm usually not a fan of Brad Pitt but this one's a bit older. Pretty funny movie

 

[Lamb]

Wondering what to make for breakfast. I'm not hungry but will be soon.

 

[psalms 91]

Im working on tomorrow, just got done making deviled eggs

 

[Lamb]

I need a nap. I only have a thousand steps today and didn't get many in yesterday because we were so busy. Should I dare to take a walk?

 

[tango]

Making holes and filling them in again.

Trying to find out why my study is so cold and drafty. I thought I'd nailed all the gaps in the walls but it turned out I missed a couple, although the worst of them are naturally in the most inaccessible areas. Imagine, if you will, a beam 9" high nailed to 2" wall studs, with a gap in the brickwork letting in a nasty draft almost exactly half way down it. So I can't sensibly get at it from above or below without a lot of contortion and lateral thinking.

I also found a few drafts between the makeshift walls and the ceiling, which are now filled with fiberglass. Downstairs (in the space below) I found a couple of small gaps I'd missed, largely because they were behind sections of the suspended ceiling framework I only recently managed to take down, so got those filled too.

The study is still cold - it's probably the room that's most exposed to the weather and the ceiling will need some major work when I can move everything out of there - but it feels a lot less drafty now. A major problem is the stone block construction because once the insides of the stone blocks get cold it's almost impossible to warm them up again.

It really is remarkable just how many drafts I've filled since I started this project. It will be interesting to see how soon I get the next delivery of heating oil - last year it was clear I'd cut usage by 30% compared to what the oil company expected. This year with one entire heating loop drained I'm expecting it to be significantly lower. I just hope the electric heaters I'm using to keep the worst of the chill off don't end up costing more than the oil I save.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Enjoying Starbucks Christmas Blend. The only time of year they seem to get it right

 

[MoreCoffee]

Enjoying Starbucks Christmas Blend. The only time of year they seem to get it right

I'm posting threads that more or less match the rudeness of some threads recently posted by others in CH. Not rudeness in the sense of being uncivil and crude. Just rude in the sense of being direct, a little impolite, and wholly partisan. It is an experiment to see if "what is good for the goose is also good for the gander".

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Sounds like fun. How ya been?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Sounds like fun. How ya been?

It is almost fun and also sorry business to conduct.

I've been good, I am organising a pre-Christmas lunch with some friends including the former parish priest of my parish.

I've also visited a close by parish (closer to my home than my own parish church building). It's all good.

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Waiting to video chat with my family!! :wub: YIPPEEEEEEEE!! :happy-run2:

 

[tango]

My study is warmer but it still feels like there's a chill hanging in the air. I've found a few more tiny cracks in the mortar, so fine the thermal camera doesn't see them but broad enough to let cold air seep into the room. I've filled a few more of them with sealant as a stopgap measure and now the heater can maintain temperature in there, but still it feels like there's a chill hanging in the air that just won't quite leave. And it's only going to get worse because the next few days are supposed to be colder.

 

[Andrew]

Just got done with hanging up lights with my dad, as usual the sun was blinding me dead on

 

[NewCreation435]

pulled the Christmas tree out of storage and put it up and took down all the Christmas decoration boxes from the attic. I've told my wife that we need to thin things out a little and get rid of some decorations and stuff that we don't use. We must have 15 boxes of decorations.

 

[Lamb]

Getting started soon on a portrait of my sister's 3 kids for her birthday.

 

[tango]

Well despite the cold weather the unheated parts of the house didn't manage to drop below 50 degrees. Not warm enough for living space by any means but not as cold as I feared.

We also had an uninvited guest. My wife went to make lunch yesterday and suddenly called me. She had seen chewed paper in the pantry. Sure enough, the label on one of the cans of food had been chewed and a few other things had been chewed as well. We had a mouse. The annoying thing with a mouse isn't the food it takes but that it ruins so much more food. It ruined two of my chocolate bars that I had a friend bring from abroad because I can't get them locally, among a few other things. Anyway, since it liked my chocolate so much I baited some traps with the chocolate. And then the waiting game began. A few hours later we checked the traps and Mr Mouse had discovered his love for my chocolate was his undoing.

I had wondered how a mouse had survived so near the area that has the cat's food bowl and water bowl, but if it was hiding in cupboards the cat wouldn't be able to get at it. Obviously the lure of food and warmth was enough for it to take up residence in an area that had the general aroma of cat. And of course there was the irony of having a cat but having to catch the mouse myself.

We left the traps out overnight in case there was more than one mouse but nothing had triggered them this morning. Now I just need to figure out how the thing got into the pantry in the first place.

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Listening/watching stuff with Jordan and playing on my phone.

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk

 

[tango]

Trying to figure out a library for a piece of code I want to write. The sample code doesn't include any of the functions I need and the documentation is rather lacking. The support rep is in a different timezone so getting help that way is very slow. I think I've found the definitions I need, I just need to figure out how to translate them from their native language to the language I need to use and make it all work. Thankfully all I've needed to do is look dredge a mountain of sample code looking for headers in plain text format, I haven't needed to reverse engineer anything. Reverse engineering gets ugly very fast.

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Waking up and eating breakfast.

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk

 

[tango]

Looks like I've got an easier ride than I feared. The tech support guy is going to do the ugly work for me, apparently I'm the first customer they've had who has wanted this precise functionality which is why they've never created the definitions before. Which is handy, I spent some time last night going through it all but it's nice to know everything will work right out of the box. If you get the headers wrong everything will compile but you might get errors that make little sense. It's handy because it means I can get on with writing the functionality I need rather than fighting to translate header files from two languages into a series of function definitions in another language.