Respite from me

[drscott]

I'm off to Palm Springs Friday with excessor. We'll probably meet up with rootbeer1 and the famous Jack (qbear) for a bit of socialization. I'm scouting the place for retirement, but somewhat less enthusiastic since it's obvious that house prices there are rising rapidly - you used to be richly rewarded for putting up with the heat, but now nice houses are upwards of $500K. So it had better be a great place to make up for that.

I'm making some progress on C#. It's nice to exercise those ol' bit-diddling skills again. I rather like it as a simplified C++ / Java combo; and my application is easily rewritten if needed. I'd be dubious about basing anything commercial on it, since Microsoft fully intends to lock you in if you use it.

For fun, I'm reading a huge history of Europe. What a wild life I lead!

LJ-ing will resume after a week or so....

Comments

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

Probably? Probably??!

Let's firm that up to at least "most likely"!

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

If you'd like it firm, I'm sure we can handle it. :)

Just leaving myself space to back out if, for example, I get so burned I can't sit down, or hit my head on the diving board and suffer years of amnesia before returning (soap opera and Palm Springs seem to go together.)

[excessor.livejournal.com]

[rolls eyes]

I'm sure we'll see you, all drama aside.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I think we'll find some nice places there. You're right, the prices are going up, but there's a wide variation in the market. And it really depends on what you want. I'm hoping that, if you decide to move (which is, by the way, not my vote), you'll move into an 8000+ square foot home with a small, fully furnished cabana with a separate entrance that you'll dedicate for my use only. Oh, and I'm going need an 802.11g wireless network. And cable. I'd cook for you both in exchange. I hope you like TV dinners.

By any chance, are you reading Europe: A History, by Norman Davies? It's a single-volume history of Europe and is one of the best books I've ever read. But then, I love history.

I can hardly wait to leave…

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

That's the very phonebook of history I am reading. Constantinople was just founded.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

OMG. That's so cool. I've never met anyone who's read this book. I can't wait until we can talk about it.

Were you and I talking about this book a couple of weeks ago? I think it was you to whom I was describing a book that uses a printed form of hyperlinks to show related materials. This is that book.

The introduction of this book, describing the various answers you can get when asking the question What is Europe? is alone worth the price of the book.

I hope you didn't pay for it. I have it.

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

I saw a rave review of it somewhere and ordered the paperback from Amazon -- not expensive, $16 or so. Don't mind having it around as a reference since I never moved my Encyclopedia Britannica here. I really enjoy his little side-topics where cultural things get tied in to the chronology. In a very short space he can summarize a couple of books about something like Greek sexual practices.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the one about Greek sexual practices. Is it an active discussion, or he more impassive about it?

har har har

[qbear.livejournal.com]

We'll see you for sure!!

And we'd love to look at houses with you--it's one of our favorite pastimes.