Oddball Question Day
2008-01-31, 4:17 p.m.

Day 1258 Oddball Question Day

I was thinking this morning. This is really dangerous. But in the course of this good think, I came up with a few questions.

Set up for the first deep thought:
Eric�s girlfriend is lactose intolerant. It�s something that�s developed as she�s reached early adulthood. Her dad is also a lactose intolerant kinda guy, so she comes by this particular affliction honestly.

Besides the extreme bummer of not being able to drink milk, eat cheese, enjoy a nice hunk of cheese cake and all the other associated nasties of being intolerant, she�s actually lucky to have developed this affliction when she was in her early 20�s. Lactaid is now one of her bestest friends.

Here�s question #1 � What ever happened to babies that were lactose intolerant back in the early 1900�s (or earlier?) Did they just die of starvation and/or dehydration or what? Cuz, as a baby, before the advent of Similac or Enfamil of soy substitutes (or lactaid), what did young babies who were lactose intolerant have for nourishment? Or is this lactose intolerance thing just a cows milk issue? I just can�t imaging a baby not being able to take nourishment from it�s own mothers milk.

Set up for the next deep thought:
We just had high winds again all day yesterday. 60mph + gusts. (Plus a whopping 2 inches of snow. Wow.) 3 weeks ago (also on a Wednesday) we also had high winds all day, with 70mph + gusts. I remember choosing to be happy about having the opportunity to be outdoors in relatively decent January weather cleaning up branches & leaves after the wind.

Here�s question(s) #2 - Well, after the 70mph winds cleaned out my trees, how is it that in only 3 weeks I have MORE dead branches that succumbed to lesser winds? WTF!?! Now I have to be happy about being outside cleaning up wind damage AGAIN, only this time it�s February? Uhh, Mother Nature? I�ve got a kitchen to do. I can�t be farting around outdoors just yet, so lets ease up on the winds fro a month or three, mmkay?

Speaking of which, the cabinets are ordered. Now I have about 5 weeks to get the kitchen ready. Electric to plan out & move/install. Plumbing to plan out & move. Ceilings to repair, walls to patch, floors to rip out. We can finally get rid of that horrible parquet that can�t stay flat in the summer. Oops � two minutes till my simulation is done. Hold on . . .

Dang it! This is the third time now. At least. I have this stimulus file � it simulates all the input signals to my device. I save it in this �compressed vector waveform file� format. I tell my simulator to run � it toodles off and spends 9 minutes with the wheels spinning, smoke coming out it�s ears, looking for all the world like it�s doing something. Then, when the simulation is 99% complete (it tells me this) I get an error message that says something to the effect of �the stimulus file was not of the �compressed vector� style specified in the settings�. But I just ran the same flippin file 20 minutes ago. Tweaked a parameter or two, re-saved it and asked to run it again. And WHY tell me at the end of the simulation that you have a problem with the input? Can�t it figure that out at the beginning? (oohh- Oddball question #3!!)

Cripes. Had to back out of the tool, re-start and re-load the project. Half way through the simulation again. Hope the damn thing finishes. I have plenty other things to do besides play with finicky simulators. In fact, I hear a laser or three whispering my name. I think they need to be blown up or something.

Speaking of kitchens and things to do (cuz I was), There will be little or no progress made on the kitchen tonight. First, we have bowling to consider. Got to get in my relaxation. (Oh sure � NOW the simulator finishes without errors. Hold on . . .)

Hmmm. Didn�t see what I wanted to see, so we re-tweak a few things and run it again. I suspect it�ll have that inut file problem, I�ll exit, reload & rerun, then be dissatisfied with the results in another 17 minutes.

Meanwhile. Tonight. No kitchen progress. Bowling (priorities people, priorities!!), then, FINALLY, Lost is back. I�m gonna watch it AND record it, so I can go back and re-watch it later. Like before the Super Bowl (yet another progress killer!)

Who to root for in the Super Bowl? New England�s stadium is about 6 hours east of here. The Giants? The New JERSEY Giants? Probably about a 7 hour drive. Maybe less if one avoids the whole NYC thing and approach from PA and the western parts of New Jersey (very pretty country too by the way). Still, outside of Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh; the New England, Philadelphia and NYC teams are the next closest to us. Realistically, we could get to any of their stadia in 7 hours or less.

(Shit. Failed to simulate again. I�m changing formats away from that pesky compressed version. Nothing but trouble those compressors . . .)

So who to root for? The Pats and their potential perfect season? Or the Giants (who beat Buffalo oh those many years ago on a missed Scott Norwood field goal attempt) playing the role of spoiler � and gave the Pats a run for their money only 4 weeks ago?

Maybe I�ll just hope for an entertaining, high scoring game, and try not to spill my roasted chipotle salsa on the carpet.

Was this fractured enough? (Deep question #4) Hope so.

I gotta go bowling. After watching this next simulation bomb.

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