InncoentBystander, thanks for sharing. I remember another thread on the topic, but it is nice to hear more about the organization again. It sounds like a good organization to be a part of (and, I don’t know if you had any part in it, but I like the web design.) It is also nice to hear about the refugee family you guys are helping as well.

But I am left curious, what other work do you do as a full-time job?

I've been a computer programmer for thirty years. My job title says "Senior Analyst Programmer". I've been with the same company for most of that time, but it has been bought and re-bought and changed names. Now there are only three of us from the original company, and the present company employs more than 4,000 people globally and has customers in ten countries. The database I work on, though, has been supplanted (by main force - "We'll take away your licences if you don't buy the new product") and I'm looking at the end of this project with three years to go to retirement.
I'm familiar with Unix/Linux and SQL databases.
Recently I've been amusing myself by learning Python.

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Wizard needs whiskey, badly!

Heres to the 3 years to go until retirement! May it go well.

I'm glad you've been able to stick through all the changes.

I am also in IT, but I am currently looking to get out of it. Our company (40 employees) was recently purchased by a larger company (1,000 employees) and what I had been doing made sense for 40 employees (making a new system to replace our SCO Unix manufacturing program), but doesn't make sense as the new entity. I will likely stay with the company but hope to be able to focus on only one department at some point. (Currently, I am Accounts Payable/Costing/ some Accounts Receivable/IT Support/the site HR representative/the site Trade Compliance representative/ Quality System Administrator/ and other things I've forgotten to list.)

More randomness; wildflower season is starting up here in north Texas.

These are everywhere on our place this year. Some kind of Verbena?



And the loveliest of the Texas wildflowers, the Bluebonnets are just starting to come up:

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Deartháir don phaidir an port.

I was thinking wild phlox, but I believe there's a very similar flower as well, so I'm not 100% sure.

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"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

Sorry, I haven't been keeping up with this thread!

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And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.

Why I teach... and where
Master of nine?

Pl@ntNet suggests Dakota mock vervain, Glandularia bipinnatifida (Nutt.) Nutt.

I would say you nailed it, Tunborough.


See what you almost missed? I'm telling you: strathspeys, man. Songs like Chì Mi na Mòrbheanna and Mo Rùn Geal Dìleas. Airs, like Hector the Hero. All great stuff for harp. But with that prospect, O'Carolan also appeals to me now whereas before, not so much. Some things just fit.

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"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

Yes, I believe he is exactly correct. Thanks Tunborough, and thanks Nano also for your suggestion; it was more than I knew.

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Deartháir don phaidir an port.

Nothing much happening here ... just come back from my second, five-day dogsledding expedition in the Arctic, but apart from that ...

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"Only connect!"

https://youtu.be/ezbWVysJAOY
https://tapm.bandcamp.com/

Meanwhile, without going back and quoting, from AaronFW et al, Firestarter is, in my opinion at least, an absolutely brilliant song. The Prodigy is, or was for me at any rate, THE 'big beat' band. And Firestarter is the ultimate 'big beat' anthem.

I also find that the lyrics, the video and the sounds all combine to convey pretty much exactly how I feel a great deal of the time. Seriously, one of my all-time favourite songs.

But yes, there was, shall we say, a merest smidgen of humour in suggesting that Nano play it on harp. I'd still like to hear it though!

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"Only connect!"

https://youtu.be/ezbWVysJAOY
https://tapm.bandcamp.com/

The credit goes to the free Pl@ntNet app on my phone. It's the first wild plant I've used it on, because everything up here has been dead all winter. We've got an inch or so of snow out there right now, slightly below freezing.

In other news, we're picking up a new canoe from the Holy Cow Canoe Company on Monday. Hoping to find enough open water for it before the end of the month.

Ooh! Didn't know about that one. Now there's an app I'd actually use. Thanks for the heads up.


We got dumped on with an uncharacteristic 6-8" of snow last weekend; it's 20F right now (-6.6C) and tonight it'll drop to 9F (-12.7C). Normally by now it would be in the mid 50s (10s C) with the nights easily above freezing, as it should be. We've stopped complaining and are just dazed and bundled up, numbly asking, "What next?". I mean, it's April 6, fercryinoutloud, and this is not Barrow, Alaska, although these days you'd think we're in competition. It did warm up for a brief while prior to this, but fortunately there hasn't been enough of it for the buds to sprout, only to be killed. So that's a plus.

Gotta love central heating...

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"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

Though, if you go up the taxonomic a couple of rungs, I found that Family = Verbenaceae, so it looks like we were both right.

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Deartháir don phaidir an port.

"Vervain" = "verbena". Same root.

_________________
"Only connect!"

https://youtu.be/ezbWVysJAOY
https://tapm.bandcamp.com/