Yup, there's a backlog of articles that need to be written right now. Life stuff has been keeping me sidelined. I've managed to secure two days off work in a row (a rare event, but my boss needs my normal day off, so I'm taking his) which should let me get caught up on the two large articles I have on the go (being the "Anatomy of a manpage" and "Mac OS X initial long-running processes" articles).

I have started on an article that detail the anatomy of a manpage. What each section is for, what the conventions for the section are, and so on and so forth.

I anticipate having the article done sometime Friday night -- I work late tomorrow night, and probably won't finish it then.

If you're bored or curious, check out the site (it's my homepage listed here). If you have any suggestions, comments, etc., write to me at my e-mail listed here.

There is now an article on the traditional eight Unix manual sections on unixkb.com.

It's a little different than my average article so far, because I let a little opinion get in there.

Have a read, check out the site, and hit my page in the Authors section for my e-mail to give me feedback, if you wish.

The order from the American seed company arrived yesterday, via FedEx. A large sigh of relief was heard as we confirmed that the order was filled correctly.

We bought chamomile and a few more packs of seeds today. This weekend marks approximately four weeks before last frost in our zone, so there is much seed starting to do.

Our order from the American seed company still isn't here. It's annoying. In talking with the company, they admit that it's mix-ups on their end, which is refreshing -- but some of the stuff we ordered was supposed to be started eight to ten weeks before last frost, and that time is now past.

We ordered in mid-January, but we might get our order in early March. Needless to say, we're not impressed.

We ordered seeds from a company in the USA, and they're still not here. I'm not terribly impressed. By the time they get here, it will mean starting them later than we should, which means a reduced season. Bleah.

Started chapter two of The Ruby Way. I've done a little bit of work in Ruby, but not much. The book is serving its purpose well.

The burn on my hand is almost gone now. Hurt like hell when it was there, though.

I managed to burn my mousing hand preparing dinner. It's only first-degree, but it's a steam burn, which means it's pretty painful, and covers a pretty large area. I've been through half a dozen T1s, and the pain is finally starting to die down, which bodes well for getting sleep soon.

Ellen and I planted several more things tonight. Safflower, oregano, scullcap, and a few more. We're running out of space under the grow lights, so I'm hoping for an early last frost this year.

Much more stuff has been planted. I'll post a list when I find an hour to go through all of the seed packets and make the list.

Solved the pipe woes of the previous entry with a Dremel tool and a little bit of creativity. The pipe stem is a little shorter now, but that's the price you pay for trying to skimp on pipe cleaners (and use paper towel and wire instead).

Discovered FLTK (http://www.fltk.org/). Finally, an X toolkit I can deal with.

Just planted a bunch more seeds. Purple onions, wild tobacco, seven types of tomatoes, four types of peppers, a couple of ornamentals, and more. Fun, fun.

Ellen also got the new lights set up, which is a big win. We just have to install the bulbs and get a new power strip -- it seems we're out.

After writing a few hundred lines of string and memory handling code for a project I'm working on, I came to the realization that I'm an idiot. In short, I dropped to C where I should have considered C++. It's not like I don't have documentation for that language handy -- I've just never used it for a serious project before. Old habits die hard, I guess.

I just took delivery of our order from Salt Spring Seeds. Two books and about twenty types of seed (or including the variety packs, about three dozen).

Tomatoes, soy beans, kamut, oats, barley, tobacco -- it's all there. We also ordered the two books (the organic gardening one and the garlic book), and they look quite interesting so far.

Two of the Italian bean plants are closing in on two feet tall. Not bad for only being a couple of weeks old.

I re-potted a bunch of the beans and cucumbers last night. I used a mix of about two parts Gro-Brick (coconut fibre, I believe) to one part potting soil and one part vermiculite. The drainage seems to be good -- better than the peat pellets the seeds were started in (which were falling apart anyway).

Ellen and I just got finished picking out the seven varieties of tomatoes we will order from Salt Spring Seeds this year. Combine that with thirteen other things (including oats, barley, wheat, and tobacco), and it'll be quite an order. We're waiting on a similarly-sized order from an organic seed source in the USA, too.

Finally getting around to doing a little bit of house cleaning. I have three boxes of books ready to go to thrift, and I'm sure there will be another two before I'm done.

The eventual goal is to get rid of everything I don't need -- old clothes, books that have no more use to me (like Perl books), the million and one Cat3/RJ11 cables I've got kicking about (and I haven't used a modem in months)...