Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer

The photo above is of my office this morning, not quite ready to be repainted. I've temporarily moved into Jeff's office for now, sharing his workspace. Many thanks to Scott Murray (a.k.a. "Frank") for helping move out my desk! As you can imagine, things are a little bit chaotic right now. If you haven't gotten any reply to your e-mail to me recently, I humbly beg your patience, thanks.

The FilKONtario Web site has been updated to include the fact that Michelle's the Special Author Guest next year. Woohoo, can't wait! As I mentioned before, her husband Tom (who was the one to introduce me to filk in the first place) says he'll likely be there as well.





Yesterday I challenged Blatherings readers to guess the purpose of the object above. Here are some of the guesses:

"Re: the office thingmy, I note in the zoomed picture that it has IBM embossed on it. It looks like it has something to do with rollers. Other than that, no idea. I was probably in grade school then... [ducks whatever Debbie throws] ;)" - Bryan Fullerton

"That whacky doofladget's a post-modern (WTHTM) Bat Signal!" - David Barker

"It's one of those late 1950s 'modern' design kitchen forks. The spoon for that set is even weirder." - Dave Weingart

"Going for the mundane answer I'd say it looks like a slightly oddball staple remover to me." - Lissa Allcock

"That little plastic item is hideously familiar in an I-can't-quite-remember sort of way. Something to do with 3480/3590 tape cartridges, I think... It's going to be niggling away in an irritating manner in the back of my mind until I remember, you know. ...or maybe it was to do with half-inch self-loading reel-to-reel computer tapes..." - Rick Hewett

"The mystery item is obviously half the casing of a taser. Note the fluted handgrip and one spine (the other spine would be on the other half, along with the control stud or whatever)." - Zander Nyrond

"I think I saw an IBM logo on it. I'm guessing it's a type of tool used to free jammed punchcards from card readers or keypunch machines. (We used flexible saws on ours.) Or it could be some type of shim that holds PC components apart from each other. Or it's the dreaded Ronco Fishkiller. Stick it in the fish's mouth, turn, pull, and you have yourself a perfectly filled fish." - Jim Poltrone

"It's a Klingon Dh'ebi, a concealable weapon for use by special operations teams.
Designed to look like a piece of incomprehensible office equipment, the plastic construction is immune to detection by all security scans, even those employing focused technobabblon beams. Whilst the double-bladed edge is lethal in the hands of a trained warrior.
As an added bonus, it's blunt so it hurts more..." - Phil Allcock

"It's a handy-dandy, never-go-anywhere-without-it, clip-on handle. That's right folks! With this little beauty, you'll always, literally, be able to get a handle on things. No pot holders in range? Clip! out come those brownies. Don't want to actually touch something filthy? Clip! Move it where you want it (and this baby is completely dishwasher safe!). Husband not cooperating? Clip! Dangle him out the window for a while. He'll come around! Don't wait! Act now! Operators are standing by! (Actual color, style, name, functionality, and any resemblance whatsoever with the included photo may vary.)" - Paul Kwinn

"It's a special tool for extracting jammed sample plates from a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Either that, or it's used to clean an espresso maker." - Michael Pereckas

The answer:

It's a tool for removing keys from a computer keyboard (even my technonerdboy husband Jeff didn't guess this), acquired during my first fulltime office job: programmer/analyst at the Toronto-Dominion Bank, Head Office. As far a I can recall, I used it only once: to switch keys around on my cubicle mate's keyboard as a joke (we both did it to each other, but I can't remember who came up with the idea first). The trick was to only switch two keys so that the change wasn't noticeable right away, prompting just a vague awareness for the first minutes of typing that something wasn't quite right. Ah, good times...

Other ancient tech artifacts discovered during my office purge:

- Flowchart template. Anyone out there still remember flowcharts? More significantly, how many of you still have a template or two kicking around somewhere?

- Special ruler for counting characters on the old-style computer printout.

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feadog, talking edna dolls, and a reading survey

Yay, one of the Feadog whistles I bought on eBay arrived yesterday! I was so excited when it arrived that I ripped the package open right in the lobby of our building and started playing The Swallow Tail, to the amusement of our security guard and another tenant. LOVE the tone, very round and pure. Thanks so much for the recommendation, Ju!

I recently discovered this page for learning tunes. A kind fiddler named Jim recently launched this resource to help in the tune-learning process, including a slow as well as fast recording of each tune. So far the only tune I recognize is Sligo Maid; I notice he plays a slightly different version than the one I learned. I'm trying to play along with his version, figure I might as well get used to variations.

And AUGH! Marty Fabish has pointed out that there is a TALKING EDNA DOLL available on Amazon.com. Description from the manufacturer: "Thinkway introduces real Voice Recognition with the talking Edna doll. She recognizes over 50 unique words and phrases and has multiple responses to each. Ages 4 and up. Includes 2 AAA batteries for "Try Me" demonstration only." Holy toledo, I am *SO* tempted. But do I really NEED a Talking Edna Doll? I could spend my money and time on much more useful things. Like books. Or Feadog penny whistles. Or electroshock therapy.

But dear lord, it's a TALKING EDNA DOLL! (Debbie pauses to slap herself a few times, take a deep breath, and continue with this Blathering in a feeble attempt to retain a shred of what remains of her battered dignity...)

Speaking of books, I'm quite enjoying The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Love the author's witty and unique way with words ("He laughed like a drain..."). I'm also reading a novel for younger readers called Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones.

A SURVEY: When do you do most of your pleasure reading? I used to do it right before going to bed, but I find that these days I tend to fall asleep within a few minutes of getting into bed. So now I have to purposely schedule reading time when I'm actually fully conscious, earlier in the evening. Don't watch much regular tv these days, but I do get in more reading time. I figure it's a worthy trade-off.

Found the following item during my recent Massive Office Purge, something I used in my first fulltime office job. Karma points to the first person who knows what it was used for. Karma points also to the person who comes up with the most creative answer. :-)




Any guesses?

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temptation

Congrats to Erica Neely, who successfully defended her philosophy dissertation yesterday!

So I made Chicken Mole a couple of nights ago, using a recipe on the back of a chocolate pasta package that Paul Kwinn gave me a long while back. Is it my imagination, or is the recipe below WRONG? (i.e. chicken should be added BEFORE simmering)



Click to enlarge.

I assumed it was wrong, so added the chicken before simmering, which made more sense. Also used some Sharffen Berger cocoa that Joey Shoji gave me. Very strange to see the tomatoes and chocolate in such close embrace, and it made me wonder: how was this recipe invented? Did someone methodically go through every ingredient imaginable to see if it partnered well with chocolate? Wish I had been around to help with the taste testing. I think.

Surprisingly, the combination of spicy and sweet turned out remarkably well. Jeff even asked for seconds, and he's pretty blunt when it comes to whether or not he likes something I've cooked. I wasn't too crazy about the chocolate pasta, but that might have been because it was somewhat stale.

Anyway, thanks so much for the gift, Paul! And apologies for taking so long to getting around to using it.

Curse you, Rachel! After you mentioned The Incredibles commercial merchandise in Blatherchat, I checked out a Disney store yesterday afternoon. For the first time in a very long while, I was actually severely tempted by movie-inspired merchandise. I drooled over the Edna mug, lusted over the Incredibles figures, especially Violet and Elastigirl. No Edna available separately, sadly, and I couldn't justify the cost of spending money on an entire mini-Incredibles figurine set just to get Edna.

Anyway, I resisted temptation and managed to walk out of the store empty-handed.

Just barely.

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Time story

Rand's brother David is in the cover story of the current (Nov.22) Time magazine. You can see an excerpt of the story here.



First spread of the article. Rand's brother is on the left.

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songwriting notes

Continuing to do a major office purge. During the process, I came across the early notes (see above) for my Lord of the Rings song, The Question. I got the idea for the song after posting this Waiting For Frodo comic strip. Click on any page to see a bigger version. For those truly curious about how incoherent I can get during the songwriting process, you can then see an even BIGGER page if desired by clicking on "ALL SIZES."

After getting a rough version written out on manuscript paper, the next stage in the process for me is sing the whole song to Allison & Jodi, then teach them their parts. I had the general arrangement figured out, but after going through it with A & J, we did a bit of rearranging. Jodi wanted to sing the line about Faramir, for example :-). And as always, they picked the song up pretty quickly at the first session, including some of the harmonies and counterpoint!

I always feel lucky to have the music partners I do. :-)

Erin's article about Nanowrimo is online at the writers' resource Toasted Cheese, for those interested. I was one of the people she interviewed for the piece.

Session tunes update (tunes I've learned so far):
The Swallow Tail, The Donegal Reel, The Galway Rambler, Cooley's Reel, The Boyne Hunt, The Sligo Maid, Drowsy Maggie, Ms. McLeod's Reel, working on The Green Groves Of Erin.

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