Harley is still in the hospital, 3rd night. His cancer is identified as one of the more serious ones (large cell lymphoma combined with leukemia). We did get to visit him again today, briefly, and he was happy to see us. Right after seeing us the doctor started him on chemo. Apparently it’s common to give chemo even if surgery isn’t done, and this can sometimes help cats get some quality of life back for a time, but it would be temporary if so. ...

Harley has cancer. This is a huge blow to us since we just lost Simon, six weeks ago. M and I are stunned and feeling broken… We’re awaiting the results of one more test (exactly what type of cancer cells), but the ultrasound suggests that it’s entwined in his lymph nodes and spleen. It’s most likely not operable, and looks to be pretty advanced. Harley is being kept overnight at the vet, a second night, due to being quite dehydrated. ...

This week at work we’ve been experimenting with MogileFS ( link) which is a “filing system” capable of storing/retrieving many files across many hosts. It’s not a true file system, meaning that you can’t mount it and look at it with “ls” or “cat” files, etc. but using a custom perl module you can put files in and take them back out. Some interesting facts about it: It’s based on HTTP GET/PUT so I believe it would be a good complement to other systems we have at work (without going into too much detail, it’s no surprise to anyone that Shutterfly receives lots of picture files from users and stores them for later printing :) Also, the MogileFS tracker module takes care of ensuring that files are replicated like you want; for example, if you want 2 copies of each file living on different nodes, after the initial upload the file will be duplicated appropriately. In the event of failure of one of the nodes, other nodes that hold the same data as the lost one will duplicate the items again to ensure replication is maintained. ...

These are my notes from reading “Crucial Confrontations” (multiple authors, Kerry Patterson listed first, more info on http://www.vitalsmarts.com/cc2book.aspx). Here’s a quick quote showing what the book is about: Behind the problems that plague organizations, teams, and families, are individuals who are either unwilling or unable to deal with failed promises, broken rules, and missed deadlines. Others neglect to keep commitments or just plain behave badly—and nobody steps up to the issue. ...

My notes from reading the book “Influencer”

I’ve always thought of myself as an “influencer” but I have also been suspicious of books that claim to give me the power to “influence others”. Either it wouldn’t work, or would be unethical/sleazy, or more likely both. I’m part way into an audiobook I picked up, called “Influencer”. I’m about 2 disks in (out of 7) but so far I’m pretty pleased. The material is clearly laid out, and seems to give great advice for things that actually work without being scritchy or evil. ...

Simon is gone. He died about 1:15 am this morning (the 18th). He was suffering something sudden and debilitating; based on blood tests the doctor said it was almost certainly cancer. He was quite frail already and we didn’t want to put him through any surgery, chemo, etc. Other than being hungry and a little confused, and having doctors poking at him, we don’t believe he was in pain or suffering, but that it was likely to go that direction given much longer. ...

According to the emergency vet, Simon either has intestinal cancer or a (less likely but more hopeful) a massive infection of some kind. We will know more after seeing the regular vet for an ultrasound tomorrow. He’s lost a lot of weight quickly and is pretty much skin and bones. He had been having diarrhea and vomiting for a week or so, though we attributed it to Sophie at first. ...

I have a friend who is thinking about taking some courses to become certified as a paralegal. She’s heard that this might be a good career option but she’s not sure. Are any of you working as a paralegal or have you in the past? Or do you know someone who might like to comment? It would be interesting to know what opportunities are out there and what kinds of jobs you might find on getting training and some kind of certificate? Does it suck, is it rewarding, what types of people/personalities do well or poorly at it, etc. ...

Posted as a comment to this post in but I want to save a copy for myself. This was a response to someone writing a paper about how atheists come by their “morals” and why atheists don’t just naturally become murderers and thieves.