Tomorrow is Christmas day. But it is also Sunday and so, of course, I shall not be using my computer. Allow me to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas today, therefore.
I’ve just been pottering around today.
It’s also the season to think about trips. For a couple of years I have felt that I would like to go to see the Northern Lights. You have to do these things, before you get to the age when everything is too much trouble. But it is remarkably difficult to find decent tours online. Icelandair do something, but it looks very much like a flight plus a room plus a local tour, which, if you travel alone, means that you will spend most of your time alone. I gather that it is best to go at the New Moon when there is as little moonlight as possible. This will mean going in late January, which risks conflicting with the start of a new contract.
Earlier today I discovered that I had little more than 1 Gb of free space remaining on my hard disk. A quick check of the Ibn Abi Usaibia directories revealed that these were taking up around 80 Gb — not bad going, when you consider that all the images fitted onto a DVD originally. It turns out that the Abbyy Finereader 10 directory takes up nearly all of that. Quite why Finereader now requires so much space I do not know.
Fortunately I have the answer: my two 1,000 Gb back-up drives have more than enough space, so I am placing a copy of the directory on each of these, and removing it from my hard disk. Suddenly I shall be back in business!
I’m rather missing Ibn Abi Usaibia. Without that to OCR, I’m at something of a loss! And I can’t quite face grappling with the Origen book just yet.
Sales of the Eusebius book are still doing well. Indeed I have had enough orders directly that today I was forced to set up a spreadsheet to keep track of them, after I started to think that I must have sent a hardback twice to one bookseller. Another bookseller, LICOSA, from Italy, have not troubled to pay for the book that I sent them, I find. Italian booksellers seem slow to pay.
Wow do you take a Sabbath break from your PC?
Always. I *never* use a PC, or talk about computers, or think about computers or anything that I do with them during the week on Sunday.
You see, I work with a PC all day, and I use a PC for leisure too for most of the evenings, Monday to Saturday. The beasts are tiring, and compulsive to use. If I didn’t have a hard, fixed rule that I don’t use it at all on Sunday then I’d end up in the funny farm.
Not merely do I not use it on Sunday; I don’t even look at it. All IT equipment goes into the cupboard on Saturday night, the door is closed and not opened again, whatever happens, until Monday.
I recommend developing the habit. There is a reason for the Sabbath break. It really helps cope with modern life.
Well I’ll be. I know it makes sense.
Merry Christmas Roger.
Merry Christmas to you too!
I probably ought to clarify that this policy of mine is not out of Sabbatarianism, but out of self-protection. For people whose life isn’t spent at the keyboard, it might be a pleasant relaxation on a Sunday.
Funny enough I didn’t assume Sabbatarianism.
I wasn’t sure.
Mind you, doing the right thing on principle is probably better than finding out the hard way, as I did.
Merry Christmas!
Yours in Christ,
James Snapp, Jr.
I too would love too see the northern lights.I have seen the southern lights and was absolutely awe struck by them.
some of that jaw dropping amazement that has you out of the car whooping around is that they do seem to catch you by surprise and I can imagine the frustration of a journey taken to see the northern lights if they do not appear.
I hope you take the chance.
I hope to!
I’ve seen them twice — once from my backyard (although that may have been some weird magnetic thing, since it was in the wrong direction but over an iron deposit — or the north may just have had too much lighting blotting it out), and once in the right direction, from my dorm hall windows one night.
Going up north wouldn’t be a waste, even if you don’t see the lights. Tons of history, tons of scenery. Iceland is gorgeous like Tolkien, and the food’s good.
But I’d also suggest subscribing to spaceweather.com, so you’ll see the aurora if it comes over your part of the UK.
I’ll book something for Iceland early in the new year. I have a minor appointment to get out of the way first.
I wasn’t quite sure how spaceweather.com would help me see the Northern Lights?