The (e)Mail is Here

Most people, when they start their email client, are happy when it has no problems and they see new email.  Me, I want to do something with it.  I'm not going to write a better email client, but I do want to make it more useful.  So to make this happen I've been looking at how to better categorize incoming emails, such as spam.

So how do you do this?  there are a number of steps that need to be done before you give an email a thumbs up or down, so if you're not into this sort of semi-technical stuff, you might want to go find a cat video for a while.

so what happens when you start your email client?  To you it looks like it shows you your inbox, and you're happy.  behind the scenes theres more that happens, each with its own points of failure and quirks.  For my example below I'm working with the IMAP protocol.  there are plenty of others out there (POP3, Exchange, Lotus Notes, and so forth) but they work about the same, more or less.

First off, your client connects to the server.  for this it needs to know the server address, the particular port, and what security protocol to use. The address is pretty much like an address for some building - it tells where the server is located.  now there is a lot of other magic out there for taking "imap.google.com" and getting to the correct server that holds your email, but that is for later.  The port specifies what to connect to at that address.  think of it as a particular office in the building that your address is for.  This building has a lot of offices, all of them with some purpose, most of which we don't care about right now.  We want to go to office 993 and only there, since whatever is in that office will know how to talk to us and vice versa. the final bit is the security protocol.  while you could communicate back and forth in plain text, this isn't really recommended.  Basically the protocol allows you to encrypt the text going back and forth between you and the server.

And by text, I mean human readable text (in most cases).  if you could look at the data that is being sent back and forth, you will see that it looks like a set of command line interfaces.  in fact, if you were so inclined you could use a terminal emulator and talk directly to the email server, manage your email, and read and write emails directly.  I prefer an email client, though.  Things are so much simpler that way.

So after we connect, the server would like us to tell it who we are.  The user ID and password are used for this.  now because we are connecting securely, this information is passed in as readable text.  You are connected securely, aren't you?  and once you are authenticated, you're ready.

Well, up to a point.  now you probably need to see what is out there.  usually your client will now get a list of all the directories and subdirectories out there, so that it can present those in a way pleasing to the user.  there are a number of special directories, such as trash, the in box, and so forth that we'll come back to later.

Now that we know what the directories are, we will want to know what is in them.  So your client will usually open the folder you are interested in, read the list of emails, and manipulate them as it needs to.  Sometimes it will maintain a list of emails locally, sometimes it will only work with the ones on the server.  in our case we'll assume that it only gets the list of the header information.

Now you, the user selects an email.  Your email client will opens the folder, retrieves the requested email, marks it as read, and closes the folder, before formatting and showing the email to you.  Deleting an email follows the same pattern - open the folder, do the action, close the folder.  Now you can keep the folder open, as long as you remain in the folder, and your email client probably does that, at least until you change to a new folder.

Now email is pretty much a pull technology - it waits for a request from the client before the server responds with the data.  it is also single threaded in that you cannot have multiple requests for data at the same time.  there are some push models out there (for instance, IMAP supports a Subscribe/Idle set of commands) but it is still pretty much one connection, one line of inquiry.  

So how can we monitor multiple folders at the same time?  IMAP will only let you have a single folder open at a time - opening multiple folders won't hurt anything, but it also probably won't give you what you want. 

the first way is opening multiple instances of the connection to the server.  This would allow each folder to be monitored separately and on its own connection.  this does have the advantage of keeping everything  separate, but then you have to manage multiple connections.  you also have the disadvantage of some servers only allowing a small number of connections open at a time.  keeping all of these connections active will take up resources that would be better used elsewhere.

the second is polling the server periodically to see if there are any changes.  this had the advantage of only keeping a single connection open, but the onus is on the client to poll the server to see what is new.  

A hybrid approach could be used.  We could poll the folders periodically, but use the Subscribe/Idle to have the server push changes in one of the folders (like the inbox) at us as soon as they happen.  

So I started with the subscribe model on my categorizer.  After a couple of false starts, and a reading of the RFC for IMAP, and realizing that what I was wanting was not within the capapbilities of the IMAP protocol (hey, i want to subscribe and monitor all folders, not just one) I backed off of this and went to a polling model.  while this is working I will probably implement a version of the hybrid approach later this week so it will be more respoonsive.  

the watcher will keep an eye on the inbox, mainly to watch for new emails arriving.  as each email arrives it will run it through the categorization algorithms and move it to a new folder.

the polling will watch all of the folders to detect changes, primarily to find the moves and deletes.  a deletion will signify that the email was categorized correctly, while a move will usually mean that it wasn't.  Since i'll only be training when the email is deleted, or possibly moved to the trash, I'll need to detect  these correctly.

So, todays takeaways - 

Mail libraries cover most of the details, but not everything, and especially not the process.

Sometimes you have to go back to the IETF RFC for something to see how it works.

Just because you can send a command doesn't you should send the command.

Everything was simpler back when this stuff was first done, at least in hindsight.

Snow Day

Today was a snow day for most of the North Texas area.  For those of you in the far north, a snow day is something that happens when the area gets so much ice and snow that schools and businesses cannot open.  In our area this is usually about an inch of ice.  It's not that we're a bunch of wusses down here, but people just don't know how to drive on this stuff.  A typical ice storm down here will usually have overturned pickup trucks all over the place, because if you have a four wheel drive pickup jacked up with 18 inch risers so you can drive through mud, then a little bit of ice shouldn't be a problem.  

There's a particular interstate exchange down the road a ways called the High Five.  it is where I-635 and US-75 meet, and is monstrous.  The primary ramp from I635 west to US75 north is uphill, and presents itself nicely to a small hill just to the west of it, a hill which is heavily populated by every news crew in town every time inclement weather comes along, each of them waiting for the inevitable bunch of over ambitious but undertalented drivers trying to go uphill in an ice storm.  usually there will be a couple of people at the bottom, stuck there until things thaw.  But this isn't a deterant to some of those yahoos.  Nope, they say, I'm a better driver than those idiots down there - all I have to do is gun it a bit and i'll coast on up this hill.  I just watch them bump into each other on the way up and down like a mechanical version of a lava lamp.

We also aren't used to preparing for this sort of event.  A typical Sunday at the local grocery store will be almost empty, with a few cashiers and stockers moving about, and the non-church crowd getting things done and out of the way before the mega-churches start letting loose.  This particular Sunday had full parking lots, pull stores, and every single cashier running at full steam.  I was in there to get a roast for dinner, so i could spend some time observing.  There were some normal shoppers in there - they were the ones that had a reasonably full cart, containing what looked to be a normal mishmash of stuff.  then there were the panickers - they were the ones with six loaves of bread, toilet paper, and bottled water, while carrying their lattes.  and then there were the other prepper types, that were stocking up on the beer and munchies, because if you were going to be trapped someplace for a while, you may as well be fat and drunk.  And this was repeated at all of our local grocery stores.  There was mention of shortages on the news that evening, to my amusement, along with the obligatory truck wrecks.

Tomorrow is also a snow day.  It didn't get warm enough to melt the ice, so no major melting.  and anything that did melt is now going to freeze even harder.  while they do treat the main roads with salt and sand, once you start getting into the neighborhoods the only movement is kids sledding down the streets, and idiots in pickup trucks going to make their name trying to drive uphill at the High Five.  

So I stayed home, along with my daughter and spouse, all of which are off from their respecttive schools.  I mainly kept an eye on everyone, watching a marathon of how it's made shows on the science channel.  Tuesday will be more of the same, but possibly with a field trip to a fast food restaurant for a chili dog.

I'll probably dig into GitHub a bit.  i took a look at it yesterday, and I do need to put some of my stuff out on a repository in some form or fashion.  I'll also finish digging into the MailKit library a bit more, just to see how the sequence of events fires off, and then start wiring it together with the bayes filter I was working on Friday.  If all goes well I might have something that works by Wednesday.  Heck, even if it all blows up I might still have something by then, just not as polished.  

What to Do

Sometimes the question isn't how to do something, but what do to in the first place.  I'm pretty good at the How, but coming up with the What is the tough part.  then again, if it was easy I would probably be more entrepreneurial.  I'm not worrying about the Who, the Where and the When.  Those sort of get dictated by the What.

So here's my partial list of things to do.  I'm not saying I can do these things, but sometimes a bit of thought on the subject will lead to something that I can do.  This won't be the last of these - Sometimes I feel the need to expound on something different every once in a while.

World peace

So how do you bring around the end of wars, strife, conflict, and so forth?  Mankind itself has been at war with itself since, well, the beginning of mankind itself.  When you think about it, most of it comes down to competition and the need for power.  Wars are fought over numerous things: land, resources, ideology, power, discovery and immortality.  So if you cannot remove the source of the competition, you need to redirect it in some way.  

The competitive spirit can be seen in a number of different ways.  Sports and direct competition isalways a good way.  beating someone in an event is always a good way of keeping this going, whether in the buildup or the event itself.  Take the World Cup (or the Superbowl, for those of you in the states).  the game happens periodically, but the hype before the game lasts a longer time.  the competion itself may only last a few hours or weeks, and involve twns of people, but entire populations get behind their teams, for better of for worse.  

for us non-physical types, this competition can be had through more cerebral competions, whether the math olympiads back when I was in high school, to the programming contests, to the hackathons.  Competition is strong in the software industry, as can be seen in Silicon Valley emplyment.  

World hunger

World hunger is actually a relatively easy problem to solve in theory.  the world is already capable of growing enough food for everyone to be properly fed.  The problem is not in this but in the political, logistical, and idealogical areas.  This is not only food, but also just about any other resource.

Politically some governments don't want to have anything to do with another government.  This has the effect of placing artificial barriers on getting things from one location to another, or mistrust in the goods that are offered.  Some people will refuse to take what s offered gratuitiously, and others would rather throw out or destroy what they have rather than see it be used without profit.

Logistics is the process of managing and transporting goods from one location to another.  It involves not only getting things from point A to point B, but doing it in the correctt time, in the correct way, and using the least amount of resources in the transport.  For instance, Some food can be tossed in a container and dropped anywhere, while other items will need refrigeration or delicate handling so that it will not spoil.  

Finally, ideology is related to politics, but can be more ingrained.  Politics may prevent somethingfrom happening, but there is a way for the two sides to possibly work together, and still get things done, whether directly with a treaty, or obliquely through some third party, allowing everyone to save face.  an idealogical barrier will prevent this from happening, since it is part of the parties inner core to hamper or halt this, due to differences.  

Where do lost socks and pens go

Yes, some things will border on the silly.  but think about it.  you toss your things in the dirty clothes hamper, dump them into the washer, followed by the dryer, and as you put things away, you realize there is one lone sock sitting there.  you don't remember dropping only one in there, but it must of happened,  sometimes you toss it into the sock drawer by itself, sometimes you put it someplacce special, but invariably it remains alone for the longest time.  I have had this happen multiple times, in different situations.  I have gone through my entire sock drawer, matching up everything two by two, and come up with extras.  I buy socks six pairs at a time, and after a while attrition kicks and and I cannot match things up.  Now sometimes I do toss a sock out, whether because it has worn out, or gotten stained, but that doesn't always account for all the missing foot covering.  So where do they go? I don't know.

Pens are the same way.  you grab a pen, and they invariably get set down someplace, never to be found again.  Now I know where some pens go - they stop working, so I toss them.  Some I hand to other people, since they look like the y need a pen more than I do, and some get used for other purposes.  but there are others that I put in specific places, such as in coat pockets, the car, satchels, and the like, that mysteriously disappear over time.  It is probably due to one of the reasons listed above, but I like to imagine, like Douglas Adams, that they have transported themselves through some pen shaped wormhole to a planet suited for a pen based lifeform, where they do pen-related activities and live the pen equivalent of the good life.

Now I know where hotel pens go to.  I've got a lifetime supply that I have picked up over the years.  I use them as decoys so I don't lose my good pens.  

Clearing the list

I've got a number of tasks I've had on my list of "stuff to do" for quite a while.  some of these are simple, such as correct the notation in a couple of tunes i transcribed, while some are more complex and along the lines of create a better way to filter and categorize email.  So i'm trying to knock some of those out right now.  

The music one isn't too hard.  basically I've got a book of music that I've been working off and on for about 10 years, and every once in a while it needs to be updated, or someone finds an error.  In this case it was an error in a tune that needed to be corrected.  To do this it is a multi-step process, the first of which is to make sure I have all of the software and the source material.

First off I fire up Finale and open the tune source in there.  years ago I notated everything in an earlier version of Finale, so loading wasn't too much of a problem.  I found out that it had been a while since I last updated things, since the first complaint I had was it needed to update to the new format.  I think I originally had things in Finale 2003, and now I had Finale 2008, so there are minor differences.  I should get the latest version, but probably won't for a while - this version does what I need it to do.

Finale is a software package for notating and writing sheet music, and has quite a number of features that make it stand out from those various free packages.  It does have a couple of drawbacks, though.  the first is it takes a few steps to get it into a book format, since it is geared towards writing orchestral scores and part sheets for a single piece of music at a time, rather than a book of distinct pieces.  

So I made my changes (which involved removing and redefining some section marks.  I saved the results, and started step 2.

Step 2 is getting it into a document capable of creating pages, indexes, text, and images.  To do this  I went with Microsoft Word.  My version of this software has also changed, so there are some differences in formatting involved here and there.  to get the music into the word document I first print it off as a PDF or XPS file, expand it out to a common size, and then do a screen print, pasting the results into the word document.  Yes, it is a bit convoluted, and i lose some resolution here and there, but it works.  

After pasting in the new image, I realized that it looked different.  In the past 10 years the resolution has gone up tremendously, but I haven't kept the document up since about 2006.  I'lll need to go through the book a tune at a time and correct everything.  I'll also look at a better way of embedding the images into the document so that they look better.

the other thing I was doing this week involved spam classification.  I (like most others) get a lot of unsolicited email, commonly known as spam.  I have a spam filter, but it isn't the greatest.  I've tried a few others, but in some cases they fall short.  I'd like a filter to be able be more accurate, and possibly categorize the mail even more.  Put the Faire related stuff into one folder, the Need to Keep stuff in another, the spam into the spam folder, and the Nigerian scam emails into it's own special place.  So I am playing with this to better hone some skills in design and testing, and investigate techniques for categorization  and detection of spam.

So at the first cut of things there are a handful of boxes on the sheet.  First is something to work with the email server.  second is the classification engine, and third is something to tie the two together.  I'll need some more stuff, but those are the first cut components.

so first, the mail library.

I didn't want to write the raw connectivity to the mail server.  IMAP and POP3 are well defined, complex, and I didn't feel the need to do that part of things.  A couple of Google searches later I found a number of dot net libraries that I could make use of.  After writing some test applications and seeing how they behaved, I finally settled on MailKit.

http://jeffreystedfast.blogspot.com/2014/02/introducing-mailkit-cross-platform-net.html

https://www.nuget.org/packages/MailKit/

This library was relatively simple to use and had everything I needed.  after making sure that I could easily navigate through my email and view individual messages I added the NuGet reference to my project solution and continued on.

One thing I wanted to do was to be able to run this as a separate process from the mail client itself, which would allow it to be used for a wider array of clients.  there are two ways to get email from a server:  POP3 and IMAP.  POP3 doesn't leave the email on the server, while IMAP does.  IMAP also gives you a number of other capabilities, such as folders, and the capability to run multiple clients at the same time.  While I have seen separate filter applications for POP3, they need some specialized setup on the client to read their email through the filter application, and the application also has to act as a pseudo email server.  It also makes it very hard, if not impossible, to secure the channel because the filter needs to sit in the middle of the connection, which it can't if you want it to be secure.

IMAP, on the other hand will allow multiple clients accessing the server at the same time, each on its own connection.  this would allow the filter application to be a separate client and manipulate the email separately, which would then be reflected on the actual email client.  

So I had my email connection.  I created some scaffolding around it to make it do what I wanted it to, and went to the other side of the software.

To filter software you need something to do the actual filtering.  there are a number of different things that you can do:  whitelists, blacklists,  SpamHaus lists, and text analysis, to name a few.  a good spam filter will usually make use of another of different things to better do things.  

A whitelist is a list of email addresses (usually) that you will unconditionally accept as being valid emails.  while it can be other things than an email address, those are usually the main thing that is accepted.  I will be implementing a whitelist based on email addresses.

a blacklist is the exact opposite.  It is the list of email addresses that you will immediately toss out as being spam. These are usually a bit harder to manage, since spam will not always be consistently coming from the same people all the time.

SpamHaus maintains a list of IP addresses and domain names for known spamming operations.  You can connect to their servers and check the senders IP and domain to see if it comes from one of these locations.

http://www.spamhaus.org/

textual analysis is the process of looking at the text and determining whether it is spam or not based on the text.  usually there will be a set of rules and algorithms for this process.  I'lll be exploring a number of different methods down the road, but the first will be a naive bayesian analysis of the words in the message.

the Reverend Thomas Bayes developed his theorem on probability well before the US was a country.  basically it allows you to calculate the probability of an event happening based on the total observed population.  for our spam filter the probability of an email being spam is based on the probability of each individual token being in a spam email, and then combining the probabilities together based on the total occurrence of the tokens in the entire set.

To do this I need to be able to tokenize the message, and then compare these tokens to a database of words and their probabilities.  once I have the probabilities I need to be able to calculate the probability that this email is spam, and then act on it accordingly.  finally, once the user has acknowledged that the email has been categorized correctly (or incorrectly), then I need to feed this information back into the system so that it can learn.  this feedback loop is necessary, since me guessing what words are spam related and what words are not is not going to happen.

I got the analyst working this afternoon.  it wasn't too hard - I created an in-memory repository to hold the data, and made sure I could serialize it in and out easily.  the actual math isn't hard - basically it is the sum of the probabilities of the message being spam (we'll call that P) divided by P plus the sum of the probabilities of the email not being spam (we'll call the last part NP).  so P / (N+NP).  

the database is relatively simple - it is a list of words, the number of times they have occurred in an email. and the number of times they have occurred in a spam email.  the training function is also relatively simple.  after the user acknowledges that the email is categorized correctly, I can then update the appropriate row in the table - increment the number of occurrences, and if it is a spam message, the spam count.  

the final part will be developing the interactions with the mail server.  I have the capability to watch the mail folders for changes.  when a change occurs my application will be notified.  here's what I see as happening:

when a new message arrives, categorize it.  if it is spam, move it to the spam folder, and if it is good, leave it in the inbox.

if the user deletes the email from the inbox, it is validated as good.  update the database by incrementing the appropriate word counts.

if the user deletes the email from the spam folder, it is also validated as spam.  update the database.

if the user moves the email to the spam folder, or vice versa, then we had an error in validation.  again, we update the database (or we can wait until the delete time again - that might be easier)

this can also be extrapolated out to multiple categories.  we do the same process, except there are more folders to monitor.  when an email comes into the inbox, we again categorize it, but instead of being a single percentage we do the same process for each category we are tracking.  the category with the highest percentage will win.  moving the emails will again trigger the miscategorization action, and deleting will trigger the validation action.

While doing this I determined that I will need a couple of other components, primarily dealing with the UI and running the application itself.  I'll need a Windows service to run the actual spam filter, and a UI to allow the user to manipulate the parameters for the system a bit.  I also might need another small UI to enable better testing by allowing me to run the filter outside of a service, since services are annoying, to say the least, to run in a debugger.

So next week I'll get my middle layer in place - the one tying the mail components to the analysis components, and I'll have a fully functioning spam filter.  

And the music reedit - that will be needing done some time or another, too.

Monday

Wake up.

Drop daughter at school for holiday camp.

Have breakfast.

Do dishes.

Stretch and exercise a bit.

Eat lunch.

Take some stuff to Goodwill.

Teeth cleaning at dental hygienists school.

Pick up daughter.

Get some groceries.

Cook some groceries.

Eat dinner.

Put daughter to bed.

Watch the evening news.

Help Wanted

Every once in a while I like to look T the job market, and see what is going on.  I recommend this for everyone, but don't make it an obsession.

Now there are a lot of sites and apps that make this much easier than browsing the local paper and circling likely candidates with a pen, which I distinctly remember doing in 1987 and 1988.  I've been through the headhunter/recruitment firms, I've talked to people directly.  I don't flip companies much.  Once I find a place I'm usually inclined to stay there for a while, unless it isn't a good fit.

So I'm looking out there.  Basic search parameters are something as a Microsoft developer/architect, and something very close.  Believe it or not, there is a lot within 10-15 miles of me.  Richardson used to have a strong telecom presence, and Plano and Frisco both have a number of places along the tollway.  But one place stuck out to me.  It is a small firm that I had never heard of, and the location was just down the street from me.  So I sent them my resumé.  

My resumé is not short.  While it lists only two companies I have worked for, it is over four pages in length.  I've done a lot in the past fifteen years, and the standard "designed, developed, and tested software in a Microsoft environment for multiple clients" just doesn't do it justice.  It's long enough that your typical recruiter will weigh it and toss it because anything that size has got to be padded.  But mine isn't. Each of the projects mentioned there is a story.  Each has different facets in what I do, what I am, and how I do things.  

I included a short cover letter telling who I was, and I was on a sabbatical.  And it got their attention.  I actually got a call the next day from the company president, and agreed to talk to them the next day.  Him and I spent a pleasant hour sizing each other up, answering each other's questions, and finding out what got each other's attention.  I got there attention with an honest cover letter and a resumé, they got mine by being down the street and being a viable company.   

Before going any further with this firm they wish to make sure that they hire the best, and they believe in using a standardized test for a baseline.  While in some respects this type of testing doesn't really tell the whole story, accompanied by other things it will give a good baseline to measure candidates by.  I'll take the tests this week and see how I do.  

So back to the sites that you can look at for jobs.  There are quite a few, and that is not even counting the direct company sites.  They are populated with more head hunters than a South American jungle, and there seems to be quite a lot of insurance places looking for sales people.  A lot of these places also have corresponding apps.  I'm not familiar with the Android apps, so you'll have to hunt those down on their own

Place to look if you're looking

Dice.com

Monster.com

CareerBuilder.com

TheLadders.com

GlassDoor.com

Indeed.com

And others can be found at 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_employment_websites

iOS apps

Monster

Glass door

Career builder 

Job aware

And if you know of more, send them over. 

Exercise

As I lay panting on the floor, I have come to realize that I am well out of shape.  I'm fifty, not too much overweight, and most of my medical measurements are within normal parameters.  but physically I need help.  I tire too easily when doing any sort of working out, I work in a profession that is almost all desk work, and the most exercise that I get is when I walk to the restroom.  I need to change that.

I've been going to a physical therapist for the past couple of weeks to get my back into shape, and that is working.  a forced hour every couple of days is doing some good, and I started wondering, "can I keep that up?" or even expand on it a bit.  maybe not an hour, but something more than plopping on the couch at the end of the day.

I've tried this before.  a Bowflex, free weights, a treadmill, and other stuff have come and gone in the house, but to no avail.  the Bowflex at least had the advantage of being able to hang clothing from it for a time.  I've downloaded apps to my phone and tried them, but usually they get ignored after a while.

Over the weekend I did go biking a couple of times.  Now when you think biking, you might be thinking those thin guys in the skin tight suits that you see in packs and riding bikes that cost roughly the same as your first car. Well, that wasn't me.  For these two treks it was on a trail bike with 26" tires, and the speed was slightly faster than a walking pace.  And ice cream was involved.

My daughter is six.  I've been threatening to rip the training wheels off of her bike for months, and even did so in November, but put them back again.  On Saturday I pulled one of them off, and tower her if we could make it to Culver's, I'd buy ice cream.  There was wailing and gnashing of teeth, but we soon set off for the mile and a half trip.  I carried three things: my phone/wallet, a two for one coupon, and an adjustable wrench.

If you can remember back to your first trip or two without training wheels, it is a harrowing thing.  You tip left and right, and finally land in the grass.  It is the same with only one wheel, except you only have to worry about crashing one direction.  There was crying involved, but there was still ice cream at the end.  So we persevered.  

One think I realized is the remaining trading wheel was pushing the bike the other way, which made it hard to balance.  I was able to adjust this quickly by pulling the training wheel up and out, meaning that if she wanted to use the training wheel she'd have to lean into it a bit.  So she did. But there were periods where the training wheel wasn't in use.

Culver's is a burger and ice cream joint a short distance from us.  Their claim to fame is butterburgers, but their frozen custard comes in a close second.  For comparison, imagine a bowl of the best from Dairy Queen.  Now make it denser, with better flavor, and have, in addition to real vanilla and good chocolate, a flavor of the day.  Saturday's flavor was chocolate covered strawberry, which rates up there quite a ways for me.  We skipped the burgers and cheese curds this time around, though. 

Sunday's trek wasn't as far, just up to the park and back.  The cold front was starting to come in, prefaced by the freshening wind, and the rain not much behind it.  We made it back before things got nasty, though. 

In a couple of weeks I'll remove the other training wheel, or bend it up so far that is isn't useful.  If all goes well then she'll be on two wheels after that, and maybe get a larger bike for her birthday.

I'll keep doing the physical exercise each day.  I have started this two weeks ago with the physical therapy, and will continue to do that along with more strenuous stuff as I build up to it.  

Free Reeds

The last couple of days have been spent in doing a myriad of things that needed to be done around the house.  Cleaning light fixtures, taking stuff to goodwill, washing laundry and dishes (in the wash machine and dishwasher respectively) and cleaning up after the cat throwing up repeatedly.  I've still got a couple of rooms that need some serious demessing, but th house is about to the point where I can just put away the things there out of place.

I spent some time with one of my upright basses this morning.  My Merchant bass had a problem with the neck that was fixed a few years back, and I was afraid it was coming back again.  Fortunately it isn't a problem and should be good for a few more years before I need to take it into the shop.  That means I have two accordions, a couple of flutes, and a balalaika to repair.  I've got a spare folding table that I can turn into a workbench for this purpose, as long as I can keep my daughter off of it while I'm doing this.  I'll probably tackle the newer accordion first, since shifting the blocks will be simple.

I haven't really played accordion since I was around ten, when I got one at a garage sale.  I played for a while, learning the odd polka or two, but I'm no Al Yankovick.  That one disappeared into the annals of history during my college years.  It wasn't until I picked up a concertina that I started getting back into the free reeds again.  Now the are some differences in how they are played, though.

First off there are the obvious differences.  The accordion has a bunch of buttons on the left, and a keyboard on the right.  Usually you play the melody on the right, and the chords on the left.  And another important thing - when you push or pull the accordion you get the same notes.

The Anglo concertina (there are different kinds) can have anywhere from twenty to forty buttons, but usually thirty.  These are split between the two sides of the concertina, and like the accordion there is a bellows in the middle.  But unlike the accordion, you will get different notes depending on whether you are pushing or pulling on the concertina.  So not only do you have to worry about hitting the correct button, but you have to be moving the bellows in the correct direction.

Another difference is how things are laid out. On the accordion the right hand is pretty much like a piano keyboard.  From top to bottom (if you're strapped in) the notes go up in half and whole steps.  The left hand is a bit more complex, but is usually in fifths.  The home row is second from the front, the first row is the third up, and the third through sixth rows are major, minor, dominant seventh and diminished seventh chords.  And there's a bunch of them.  Usually 120 buttons, giving you twenty notes and their chords, enough to cover the entire spectrum of the keyboard and then some.  Usually there's some repeating to allow someone to hit a note in a couple of different positions. 

The concertina, well, isn't quite as neatly laid out, though there are some patterns that make some sense after a while.  The home row (usually the center row, or second away from you) will be the lower notes, while the row nearest you will be the notes a fifth up.  These are repeated on both hands, with the right hand being an octave up.  The pull will give you the minor a whole step up.  So for a D/G concertina, you get the low G major, low A minor, D major and E minor chordings.  These are very common in Irish/Scottish music.  

But, this only covers the buttons nearest the top.  Once you start getting into pinky territory the rules change and can be different from player to player, depending on where you learned.  The third row gets even worse, since there isn't too much of a pattern to it.  Actually the pattern in it is to supply the notes that the other two rows don't have, so that you get a fully chromatic instrument.  A good way to think of how a concertina operates is take a harmonica and split it in half.  Like a harmonica you get different notes whether you breathe in or out, and some of those notes can get a bit wonky depending on where you are at.  

And after that it gets even worse.  So far I have been going on about the Anglo concertina.  there are a number of different kinds, such as the English concertina, the bandoleon, the Melodeon, Harmoniums (which are pumped with foot pedals like an organ), as well as different shapes, sizes makes and models.  

Both instruments are strapped on in some form or fashion.  The accordion is like a backpack on your front, while the concertina is more of a set of handcuffs.  The accordion also weighs quite a bit more, though some of your larger concertinas can be weighty after wielding it for three hours on stage.  

I've never played an accordion professionally, but I heard that they are a lot easier to amplify than a concertina.  because of the size there is a lot of space to drop a microphone inside, or even multiples, and get a full sound out of them, much like amplifying an acoustic guitar.  the concertina is a bit harder, since space is at a premium.  my current rig is an AudioVox two microphone system that puts one mike on each side, velcro'd on close to the straps.  those run to a box on my belt, and from there a cable (or a wireless pickup) to the sound board.  I have used multiple microphones on stands, as well as another portable system, but this one works the best for me.  while the stand system works, it allows no movement at all, and unlike a singer you have to remain precisely between the two microphones, since the sound from a concertina can be very directional to the sides.

I have owned three concertinas in the past twenty years, two of which I still have.  The first was an old Hohner I picked up at a flea market.  This is one of the mass marketed models with the red end caps, paperboard bellows, and generally good for not much more than learning.  It was, however, cheap, at around $40 at the time.  It worked well for a few years, though after a while it was held together with duck tape and warm thoughts. I gave it away when I left Michigan, since I already had another one.

Hobgoblin had a model called the Goblin, which was a thirty button D/G.  I picked it up at a celtic festival in Chicago for around $500, and it has traveled with my for quite a while.  I played it in Michigan as well as Texas, and it has served me well.  I still play it every once in a while, since the sound is mellow and goes well with other instruments.  the only drawback I have had with it is the end caps are wood, which over time has become worn, allowing the buttons to slip a bit, and sometimes getting stuck.  I know a lot of people that have seeen me play this instrument at a show will remember me getting a nasty look on my face, and grabbing a screwdriver, jam it into the end piece to push the button back into place.

my last instrument I have had since 2004, and it is made by a local concertina maker in the Dallas area by the name of Harold Herrington.  I think he is retired now, but someone has taken over his business and is continuing the trade.  the Herrington is a smaller bodied concertina, but heavy.  Because it was a custom instrument I was able to get the notes as I liked, keeping the D/G fingering.  He uses steel reeds, which make for a louder tone, but they also don't go out of tune or get affected by temperature like brass does.  The metal plates on the end, with a plastic alignment plate underneath keeps the problem with button slippage at bay, and wider straps make it more comfortable to hold.  This one was $1500 back when I got it, which is comparable to other instruments in the range.  I probably won't get another, since past that point in terms of price you are primarily getting into nuances of styling, or antique models.

Nap time

Sometimes the best way to attack a problem is to ignore it for a while. Sneak up on it from a different angle.  Heck, take a nap and let your subconscious mull it over for a while.  

And sometimes you don't have a problem, but the nap is still welcome.  

Today was such a day.

I spent some time arranging and putting away things upstairs.  Legos, hot wheels, trains, a blanket fort, a doll house, and a bunch of Christmas decorations were moved more or less to where they belonged, or at least closer to where they should be.  We now have floor space where there was once a quagmire of toys.

Actually I did have a conundrum to work my way through.  I'm doing some learning on neural networks and was running into a problem on how to represent nodes in the best way.  I hacked together a couple of things this morning, but wasn't pleased with the results.  It was during my mulling over period (the aforementioned nap on the couch) that I devised a good way to do this.  So remember, kids - that person you see at their desk with their eyes closed may not be resting, but solving the worlds problems.  Don't disturb them.

Today's dinner was leftovers.  Over the course of the week we normally accumulate dibs and drabs of stuff that are not large enough to prepare for a meal, but if you add them all together you can get a meal out of them.

Weekend

I spend this morning helping a friend relevel a shed.  It isn't hard - you take jacks, raise it up a bit, and replae the blocks underneath, repeating as needed.  all in all it took about an hour.  the soil and rain patterns we get here cause shifting, and perioducally we need to check the supports to make sure they are still ding the task they are supposed to be doing.  there were only three that needs to be fixed.

I spent the afternoon playing music with some friends.  We've got some shows planned in March, and are planing our sets out.  I'm working with a talented bazouki player and vocalist, a great fiddler, and myself.  we've all worked together before, so it is a matter of getting together.

a group of musicians is different than just about any other team, whether it be sports or a work group.  while there are similarities, the musicians group needs full trust on the other members. it has no opponent to blame.  it has no office politice.  just you, your fellow musicians, and hopefully an audience.

Yesterday I was at the performing company orientation for Scarborough Faire.  a morning spent getting information from the company director, the entertainment director, security director and site director, and then signing up for events.  There will be plenty of new things out there, non of which I'm going to tell you about.  I'll leave that up to marketing to reveal that at the proper time.

I have been associated with Scarborough for almost twenty years, and am currently the music director.  so how did i get there?  well, it began over twenty years ago, at a festival in another climate.

I was the director of puppeteering at the Michigan Renaissance Festival, outside of Holly, Michigan.  these aren't your small puppets, but the large body puppets, much like mascot at a sporting event.  i had a crew of around eighteen, doing multiple shows a day, parades, lane work, and general mayhem throughout the day.

i also starting playing with a pickup band at one of the pubs.  a harpist, a hammered dulcimer player, a fiddler, and me.  i had started learning whistles and flute, and later the concertina.  The group formed the heart of SpiralDanse, a group that performed all over the area for a while back in the early 90s.  

i remained up there for about five years, until one spring day, while visiting a friend in Dallas, I went to a cow pasture outside of Waxahachie, and got pulled in.  the next summer I moved down and never looked back.

I first met the director when talking to him about the puppets.  I had experience in working with them, repairing and refurbishing them, and ultimately keeping them them operational.  I went to auditions, and did a short monologue and played a tune on the flute.  things were a bit different back then.  I made cast that year, and first saw the cast a couple months later.

Workshops were different back then, too.  The first few weeks were held at Navarro College.  While this space did give protection from the elements, it isolated us from the site for a period.  this did change in later years.  Auditions for groups were also don at the first meeting.  Chess match, music, dance, and a few others.  I went to music, and never looked back.  from the start it seemed to be something special, and pulled me in.  I learned a lot that season - ensemble play, new tunes, new pieces, how to play for dancers.  It was a small crew - a harpist, a couple of guitarists, a hammered dulcimer player, a drummer, and me.  but it worked.

the next year, the music director left to do something different.  as the question went out as to who the new director should be, all eyes pointed at me.  as I looked behind me, and realized that they weren't looking behind me, was when I realized what I was the one.  Did I handle the task admirably?  i must have - I'm still doing it.

My first year as a director I learned even more.  How to lead a group, how to teach music, and how to lead an ensemble.  I grew into the role, and prospered.  i learned about copyright and fair use.  I even took on the music directorship at another festival located north of Forth Worth.  Hawkwood was short llived, but quite a number of Scarborough's finest can trace their roots back there.  I was able to support both fairs because I had a set of rules and ethics between the two.  I would not put one before the other.  I would not reuse music between the two, keeping their own unique sounds.  I wouldn't poach people from one or the other, and I wouldn't play politics.  

it wasn't always a bed of roses.  One year I was sick and dropped out for a year.  there was a succession of other directors for a few years. When I was asked to assume the directorship again, I did so, and have held it in some form or another since that time.

 

I remember telling people we will not do a song.  

I remember when pub sing went from a sing along to a check box on the scenario.  

I remember when pub sing was given totally to the scenario, and musicians were asked to go elsewhere.

I remember a pub sing with more performers than patrons.

I remember when the melee was required, and pub sing went away to make space.

I remember when pub sing died. 

I remember asking myself Why I was at this melee.

I remember being talked to about my continued inclusion in the scenario melee.

I remember telling them there was no need for me to take another punch in a fight that I had no need to be in.

I remember telling them I would make their decision easy.

I remember going up the hill and joining the musicians.

and I never looked back.  I feel I made the right choice.  

 Pub sing came back a few years later, and has been there ever since.  It is one of the higher energy shows, enjoyed by hundreds every day.  While the rest of the fair is winding down, our show is still running at full bore, and will until the end of the day.  At this time we go to the front gate for a final parting glass.

At the end of each day the performing company gathers at the front gate, sings the parting glass, and closes the fair day.  never fail, rain or shine, wind or snow. 

The parting glass is an old tune.  the words are simple:

Of all the money that e'er I had
I've spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done
Alas it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Of all the comrades that e'er I had
They are sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had
They would wish me one more day to stay
But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I'll gently rise and I'll softly call
Good night and joy be with you all

there are other verses, but we don't do them for a number of reasons.  timing and interest are the primary ones.  tradition is another.

A member of the performing company wrote a multi-part version of this tune.  it starts simple - everyone is in unison on the first verse.  on the second verse the cast breaks into five parts, much like a movement of Handels Messiah.  I have told people that I have the best seat in the house - I am in front, and hear it all - the good times and the bad, the mistakes that others don't hear.  I hear the patrons behind me singing along, and it gets stronger every year.  I hear it when it is only the cast singing, and when there are hundreds behind me also listening.  I heard it for the first time this season on Saturday, and while a bit rusty, the song will be ready for opening day.  This song always has been a bit special to me.

Pantry

Today I pulled everything out of the pantry, or at least a good chunk of things.  There was a mess of stuff on the floor, and a mishmash of stuff scattered through the rest of the shelves.  Pulling things out and then reorganizing things as they went back in made everything fit and easier to find.

Last winter I replaced the shelving in the pantry.  Originally it was a number of fixed wood shelved, painted white and unadjustable.  There weren't enough shelves, and they wrist at the wrong heights in a few places.  Finally, the shelves stopped rather than going all the way up to the ceiling, wasting a lot of vertical space.

Over a long weekend I ripped those out, repainted, scraped, sanded, and filled holes.  The new shelves were grey Elfa shelving from the Container Store.  January is the month that their shelving is 25% off, so plan ahead.  This type of shelving hangs from a bar at the top, with brackets to support the individual shelves.  I also added some basket and slide out shelves, which let us get to some things a bit easier.  

We store some kitchen appliances in there.  The slow cooker, a slicer, and a number of baking pans are there, along with shelf stable food.  Things are roughly grouped, though it is still hard to find some stuff because the shelves are 16 inches deep. Move got some trays on order to put things on, which will let me pull things out and organize things better.  

Tonight's easy meal is cheese quesadillas.  Tortillas on a hot skillet, sprinkle liberally with shredded cheese, and heat until everything is melted together.  You don't even need any oil, and you can toss just about anything in there with the cheese.  

Quiet time

Today was rather quiet.  After dropping my daughter off at school, I finished staightening the kitchen and the breakfast nook.  The kitchen just needed the pile of stuff boxed up, and the nook just needed a few things put away. I loaded the car and took the first load to goodwill today.  A box of extra kitchen utensils, a bag of bags, and some miscellaneous toys. I reordered where things were at in a number of the drawers, putting things closer to where I need them.  Stirring spoons next to the stove, hot pads near the oven, and batteries in the desk.  I'll still move some things around, but things are mostly where I want them.  I didn't get to the pantry, since that is something that will involve removing just about everything and putting it back in a coherent fashion.

I did a couple small hacks on some of our appliances today.  The clothes washer is a front loader, and sometimes if you leave the door closed it gets that musty smell.  Leaving the door open cures that, but it also sticks out in the entryway.  I rigged up a hook to hold it mostly closed, allowing it to dry out before getting musty, but not swing itself open.  

The dishwasher was another annoyance.  If you've ever looked at how a dishwasher is hooked to the cabinets, it usually is a couple of little metal clips that are haphazardly connected to the dishwasher and then screwed into the woodwork.  These clips bend every time you open the dishwasher, so that after a while the clip breaks and the entire thing falls out of the hole, annoying all until you either reaffix it into its hole, or give up and just deal with it.  Well, it hit the annoying part today for me.  After loading the dishwasher, and having it tip out repeatedly, I looked at how it was situated in there.  I found that the cabinet had a quarter inch lip on the sides.  The dishwasher itself had a metal flange that was almost an inch back from this lip.  I conjectured whether dropping something in there, such as a 1x2, would keep the dishwasher from tipping forward.  The flange on the washer would push against the board, and the board against the cabinet lip, and nothing would move.  After a quick test with a couple of pencils, I made a trip to Home Depot and got the requisite piece of wood.  A few moments with a tape measure and a hand saw got me a board that, when carefully maneuvered into the space twixt the lip and the flange, prevented things from tipping forward.

My wife is off to a conference, so just the two of us this weekend.  She'll be back Saturday, about the same time as I get done down at the faire site. Saturday is orientation day for the Scarborough performing company.  I'll be interviewing musicians, collaborating with the dance director, and trying to keep my daughter from being too disruptive.  She gets by with a lot of stuff - she's cute.

Tonight's simple dinner is baked potatoes and brisket.  The brisket and barbeque beans were already prepare in the freezer, so heat and eat.  The potatoes were covered in olive oil and sprinkled liberally with kosher salt, and tossed in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour.  I used a toaster oven since the large oven is overkill.  I used to microwave them, but they were never quite as tasty as oven roasting.  You can toss in a couple of extra potatoes at the same time.  There's a lot of stuff you can do with a cold baked potato.

  

Hump Day

It's HUMP day, or as it is otherwise known, Wednesday. The middle of the week, the hump in the middle that leads down to that gradual end of the work week on Friday. Now if I can just got the image of those camels out of my head.

Hump day doesn't have as much meaning right now to me.  It is still the middle of the metaphorical week, but since my days are not dictate by a work place, what's to say I can't start my week on Tuesday and have them be ten days long? Other than the fact that everyone else is on a seven day week, that is.

Today was clean the kitchen day.  This has gone rather smoothly.  Clean off the counters, putting tongs away.  Move some stuff to another room for possible removal completely.  And then cleaning out the drawers and cabinets.

Cabinets are relatively easy.  We don't have too much in the way of extra pans or plates or cooking gear.  No, the problem lies in those sliding maws of doom known as kitchen drawers.  There's a couple of silverware drawers, a battery/screwdriver/tape drawer, and six that are roughly designated as "kitchen related".  It is where cookie cutters, ice cream scoops, large spoons, and random bits of stuff go to die and be forgotten.

So now the large space I just cleaned off is now covered with the debris from cleaning the drawers out.  Extra oven mitts, spoons, citrus spritzers, straws, chop sticks and a lot of other stuff too numerous to mention is not sitting out there, to be picked over by my wife before going into the give to the thrift store bin. 

Today is also spent in some of that stuff I put off because I never had time or was out of town.  A physical/wellness health check, a referral to a gastroenterologist for a possible prostate exam and colonoscopy, and physical therapy in the afternoon.  I topped it off with a chili dog (ok, two - but I had a free dog on your birthday coupon) at Der Wienerschnitzel. 

I also stumbled across an article or two on text categorization using LDA. Now I'm familiar with using Bayesian analysis for single category determination, and the extension of that into multiple categories, but this sounds like it will allow more of a single pass at an individual dataset rather than a pass per category.  Coupled with contextual replacement of terms with a common primitive to cut the dictionary size down, and there might be a decent speed improvement. I'll have to look into that after a bit and see how it fits into some of my predictive analytics research.  

I missed the music session last night, unfortunately.  I didn't want to go out again after the school event at Culver's.  I did, however spend some time working with some of the Scarborough music to track down that error.  And I couldn't find it. There is a chord that is off, but that invalid note in the bass line is not in the music I have.  My guess is that it creeps in yearly without anyone noticing, and rears up during individual parts practice in about three weeks.  I'll be ready this time, though.  Once we spot it in the wild I'll transfer my notes and observations back to the lab and correct it once and for all.

Also along the music front I have found two flutes and once accordion that will go on the refurbish list.  There is one silver flute that just smells musty.  This one will probably get aired out and a different case procured for it - I might even have one upstairs.  The second flute is a wood flute, maker unknown, that needs a complete pad replacement, some springs, recorking, and some general cleanup.  It was wrapped in tape and a bad glue job when I got it.  The accordion is probably the easiest.  I already did some work on it a year ago to adjust the voicing on the treble side, but I have the internal blocks misaligned so there is some cross breathing on some of the notes.  I've got another accordion somewhere that needs more extensive repairs - age and a disastrous plane trip broke a handful of reeds loose and I need to reattach them.

There's probably a few others around the house that will need some repairs.  My older Gremlin concertina needs to be tightened up a bit, and a plate put in to keep the buttons aligned.  Another flute (my Boosey and Hawkes with an unknown head) needs a new spring on one of the keys.  A soprano balalaika needs some neck repair work done, as does my Merchant bass.  And the rest of the stuff just needs to be played more.  

Tomorrow I finish the first pass at the kitchen, and start on the breakfast nook and pantry.  I'm now saying first pass on this stuff - the first gets the stuff broken up, and things starting to settle into new locations, but I'll need to take a second pass to keep the accumulated piles from adhering where they set down and get them out the door.  I'd like to get it to the point where if something is put down in the wrong locations it will look and feel out of place, and by that unease make someone put it away properly.

Tonight's cooking expedition involved smoked sausage and buttered egg noodles, lightly spiced with chipotle pepper and salt, with garlic vegetables (from a bag) on the side. Preparation is simple.  Take about a pound of smoked sausage, which was already fully cooked, add to about two pounds of egg noodles, which you have just cooked and mostly drained, and add salt and pepper to taste.  Add about a quarter stick of butter, sliced into pieces, and finish heating until melted.  You could add some other stuff to it, such as garlic or peas, but this was nice and basic.  And I've got enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Tuesday

Mornings in DFW can be a grab bag.  Today, for instance, it was crisp and cold, no clouds, and a bit of wind.  Last week it was in the low eighties during the day.  And other days it is rainy, at least this time of year.  

Today was a continuation of yesterday.  I knew the office would be one of the worst rooms.  Usually when I come home from a week on the road this would be the first place I would go, dumping things out of my bag, scattering things hither and yon.  There was a lot of stuff in there, and there still is, but it is better organized.

I've got a number of boxes of stuff to go to the thrift shop, some stuff to toss onto eBay, and a few things to offer to friends and family that might want them.  I found a fanny pack I had been seeking for a while, a number of games, and a lot of dust.  I tossed out half a rolling bin of old papers, and around 400 hotel key cards. Yes, 400. And that probably isn't all of them around the house.  For I'm like most other travelers.  I check in, do my work, check out, and sometimes don't give the key cards back.  The hotels don't care - they get them in large boxes and reprogram them as needed.  

Now those cards represent a large amount of time spend away from home.  Each card in itself represents three to four nights away, and I don't have all the cards from every stay I've ever made.  I figure I have probably spent roughly around seven years cumulative in hotel rooms.  

I mostly got the dining room cleared out, but since it is sort of a staging area for the movement of stuff, there is a bunch of boxes ready to go to the Salvation Army.  Now I just have to remember not to buy any of it back. Tomorrow it will be the kitchen, breakfast nook, and the pantry.  These shouldn't be as bad since I try to keep them reasonably organized so I can actually use those spaces.  

I'm also plowing through a bunch of back issues of magazines, books, podcasts, and music I haven't had time to read and listen to.  I've got about three months of each, stretching back to November. So that takes care of breaks and after dinner entertainment. 

Tonight's dinner is Culver's.  My daughters elementary school has a spirit night/fundraiser there every once in a while, and we usually try to go.  So no adventures in cooking today.  And I'll pick her up a bit early so she can build a Valentine's box for school.  A couple of quick errands and back home.

So nothing profound today.  More moving things around tomorrow, physical therapy on the back, and getting a cracked window on the house replaced.  

End of the day

The first day wasn't too bad.  I got most of the office cleaned out, and carted piles of old papers to the trash.  I've got a bunch of empty boxes, empty shelves, and a pile of stuff to throw on eBay.  A bunch of toys, some old laptops, and plenty of other stuff that i just need to take to goodwill later this week.

I stopped about 3:30, though - a while back i picked up a paving stone just a bit wrong, and threw something out in my back.  the pain was reminicient of a corkscrew being twisted into my spine, though with some exercise and some cortisone shots i was able to bring it into control, at least for a while.  I fell back into my old ways over the past year, and in the past couple of months it was flaring up a bit.  So for the next few weeks I'm going to a physical therapist to work on back exercises to strengthen things up a bit and make it stop hurting.  I hope that this can be later translated into the equivilent exersize time later on.  

Tonight's dinner was a chicken stir fry.  One of the things I am wanting to build the habit of is to cut a lot of the eating out at restaurants that we do as a family.  In a normal week we eat out lunch and dinner ten to twelve times.  even at a fast food place this will be around $20 for the three of us, and anything past that will run $30 to $40 a meal.  i figure we were spending over $300 a week on eating out.   So, rather than do this, i figure i can prepare meals here and cut that, while not all the way to zero, at least by 70 to 80 percent.  We'll still eat out every once in a while, though.  i like pizza and the odd chili dog every once in a while, and there are times when eating out is necessary due to scheduling conflicts.

To help me do this i've started planning out a menu for the week.   Nothing complex - mainly a quick mention of the main dish, and possibly a side or two to go with it.  This will also let me eat down what is in the freezer and pantry.  Digging through there is sort of like a Norwegian archealogical expedition.  There's something there that resembles food, but it is ice covered, frost bitten, and probably been there a while.  I can probably prepare them into sommething, though.  Brisket can be prepared with beans, vegetables can be mixed with pasta in a lighter dish, and that cup full of red popsicle stuff can be conveniently tossed out when no one else is looking.  

Tomorrow i'll finish cleaning the office, start on the dining room, and take a load of stuff to goodwill, or put it on eBay.  

And have leftovers.  That refrigerator isn't going to clean itself out.

So today the takeaways are create a plan, health care is expensive, and meals are a quick way to cut some costs.  

Beginnings

Th first day began as pretty much every other Monday. My spouses alarm went off at 6:15, my daughters went off at seven.  I had set mine to seven, but I was already up, partially because my wife was making noise in the bathroom, but mostly due to wanting to get started.  My wife left for her school, all dressed in medical scrubs, I drove my daughter to her school, dressed in whatever first graders wear these days, and came back home.  This is, by the way, pretty typical.  Except for the coming home part. Normally I would continue driving for another hour to get to work.

At this time I did..... Nothing.  Well, nothing too constructive.  I had toast.  I petted the cat.  I read some  articles and email. And the. I dragged out my list.

The list is the stuff I would like to do during my sabbatical.  And that's what it is:   A big line of items, haphazardly grouped together under a number of categories, roughly broken into clean the house, food, get in shape, and learn something.  I figure if I'm hitting a couple of things in there every day I'm doing good.

So first thing.  Clean the house.  Not a lot to go on there.  But the house needs it.  I'm a pack rat, much like a lot of the rest of the human race.  I relish my creature comforts, I like my toys, but there is a lot of buildup.  We moved about 6 years ago because our old place was getting too small (it was), but it also gave us space to spread out.  I could put the books on real shelves instead of boxes.  I could put those knickknack son display, and I could get more stuff.

And traveling a lot also added to this.  Since I didn't have to see the clutter every day, it didn't bother me as much.  Just in the last three months when I was working in the DFW area did I really start to pay attention.  Fifteen years of toys, hardware, books, and other assorted stuff added up to a lot of things sitting around.  I needed to get organized.

I'm not going to try to do the entire house all at once.  One room at a time will be good, since I don't want to get burnt out from my burnout solution.  So I chose a room to start with: the office.

My office is a 12 by 12 room, with some nice French doors on one side, a bathroom just around the corner, windows on two walls, a window seat, and clutter from floor to ceiling. 

And from the other view

There's stuff on the floor, on the window seat, in the windows, on the shelves, and on the desk.  So first thing was to remove everything.  Fortunately I had some space in the dining room.  Everything went in there but the desk and the books.  And now to put it back.

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But first a break.  Health coverage is one of those things you need to worry about.  When your working for a company they shoulder a lot of the cost.  Even when you complain about the payments you need to do, they cover a lot.  I needed to look into this. So I made a quick call (ok, the call was quick, but the on hold time was about twenty minutes) to the HR of the firm I had just left.  I needed to learn about COBRA, and what my options are.

Basically COBRA is a program by which you can continue the coverage you had at work, though you have to pay all of it.  In fact, the government requires this.  But they didn't say they had to give the coverage away, so you will have to shoulder the entire cost yourself.  For a family of three this would come out to around $1600 a month.  Ouch. But not unexpected, nor my only option.  I also have the opportunity to get coverage on the open market, and for quit a bit cheaper.  I'll explore that option a bit more this week.  You have 60 days to decide on COBRA coverage, as well as some other timings for normal health care.  

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Lunch, and read the news.  I like an early lunch and a light breakfast, but that's just personal preference.  And after that, time to put the office back to rights.  I figure I have three or four hours before I need to pick up my daughter and my wife gets home, at which point I'll get in trouble for messing up the house.

Eve

I just turned fifty. I've been in the IT industry for twenty five years, working in various industries as varied as biochemistry and retail.  But I noticed something a few years back - I was getting distracted, it wasn't as much fun. The pizazz wasn't there any more.  I was losing my mojo, for lack of a better word.  So, after changing jobs a few months ago, just to get a different view on things, I realized it was me.  Th job wasn't the problem, but my take on it.  So I decided to take a different tack.  Rather than fish around, trying to find a job that would pull me out of my bad case of ennui, I would go complete cold turkey.

I'll take a sabbatical.

So what is a sabbatical? What sets it apart from a vacation, or a period of unemployment?  For me there are two things that set it apart from those two.  Compared to a vacation, it is longer.  Not a period of weeks, but of months, or even years.  And instead of the primary goal being to become gainfully employed, the goal is to do something different, to do those things that I just didn't have time to do while working.

I wrote this on the eve of my break.  Last Friday I turned in my laptop and badge, shook hands and said my goodbyes to my team mates, and walked out the door.  I might go back, or my direction might lie elsewhere. I'll hopefully discover that over the next few months.

Now I'm not going into this without a plan. I have a list of things I want to do, from getting in shape, learning a few things, cleaning the house, and playing music down at the local pub.  And some introspection.  I'll need some time just to think about everything, and nothing.

I'll give myself a few months.  This sort of thing can't be rushed.