I haven’t taken a screen shot in quite some time. So, I took one while working on my CS 515 Data Structures assignment. In it you can see aterm, gvim, gkrellm, gaim, and docker. Docker is the “system tray” app at the lower left. Within it are 4 apps: Gaim, Azureus (bittorrent), a very simple Mono app for switching screen resolutions, and “Dr. Wright,” a program that can advise me about when to take stress breaks from programming. As you can see, having the huge screen real estate really does help for programming; even more so when working on programs with multiple files.

Miscellaneous items that you should know about:

1. When we arrived home last week, after our various travels, there was a blue towel in the back of our car. So if you are one of the people (Pam, John, Alex, and Peter are the ones I can think of) who had stuff in our car last week and you are missing a blue towel, let me know.

2. As far as I care, this school year can finish any time it feels like it. I’m ready.

3. The women’s frisbee team (Ultimate Mayhem, yes we know it’s cheesy) has our absolute first ever tournament tomorrow. We’re seeded dead last at Nor’easterns. *grin* Alicia (our captain) is like “Whatever. It puts us in the easy pool. They’ll realize their mistake soon enough.” You’ll be hearing more about frisbee soon.. I think I’m playing in a tourney for five out of the next six weekends. Squee!

4. A quick and easy test/demonstration for number-color synaesthesia: Look at this picture. All but a few of the symbols are black, and the colored ones jump out at you. You can’t not notice them, and you don’t need to search for them. They “pop” (and yes, that’s the technical term). Now, if you’re number-color synaesthetic, this image which shows mostly one number and a few of a different one, has the exact same popping effect. The different number just jumps out at you, the same way the different color in the first picture did. Doesn’t work for me; I have minimal color associations with some numbers, but not true perceive-with-both-senses synaesthesia.

5. Also, if you think this is nifty, this guy has done out the alphabet and a few words so you can get a sense of the colors he perceives these to be. (Both of these links from the Mind Hacks blog, btw. Crispy functional-neuroscience goodness. Yum.)

Aelscha and I visited my sister in Charleston, SC over our break. Naturally. I took several pictures. I haven’t had time to sort through them yet, but I have put them online for perusal. Some are rather junky, but others are crisp and look nice. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the frisbee tournament in Savannah, GA.

Earlier today I had some issues following an upgrade of the Courier IMAP mail server. Unfortunately some of the ways authentication is done have changed and some files were moved around the system. It should be working now. If you use IMAP or POP3 on threepwood.isomerica.net and encounter problems, however, don’t hesitate to contact me.

As of Sunday night aelscha and I are back home. Things are good, but I suspect my head will be embedded in schoolbooks for the next week. Vacation was excellent, despite a bout of stomach flu which made its way around our boat, the Bonac Witch. There are lots of pictures, though I didn’t take as many as I would have liked because I only had one camera battery. I should have brought my small inverter, though before our next trip I’ll definitely need to purchase more battery juice.