Got my first SSD disk installed in zmajček. Something by Intel, not too big, I'd say 120G, that Zlija smuggled for me from Moscow (!). His office sent him there for a few months, and he's visiting home once or twice a month while that lasts. So I had to wait a while, but didn't have to deal with the customs, nor with our importing kajmak skimmers.
I've heard that he's disappointed that Lena is now also a programmer. He went for an artist, and now got a colleague. Somehow doesn't feel the same.
First, I discovered that while I had enough SATA cables, I have run out of SATA power plugs. In my middle drawer I found some spare contraption, which now serves as an adapter, with about four times more wiring than actually used, but it gets the job done. The machine is significantly more nimble, specially the Toad, written in dot net, which used to take dozen of seconds to draw up all of its graphic elements - now it comes up in a second. Aha, so dot net is writing bitmaps to disk like crazy, eh? Whod'a thunk! Stupid m$.
I've also set all my temp files to go there, also Lightroom's next catalog. Eventually the largest bonus would be to put all the databases to the new C: drive, but the idiots from Redmond love to keep everything in master.mdb full-pathed, so nothing can be moved. I'll have to move system databases first, then my databases, then master and model. Sheesh, it would be easier to learn how to fix a car.
The utility provided by Intel (no CD, just download) is useless, as it insists on cloning whole disks, not just the one partition I need. The other one, from Paragon, costs 20$, which I'd gladly pay if they weren't insisting on harvesting my land address and name. Huh? Isn't my Paypal identity enough? You want to send me spam, there's my email. Fuck off, I've downloaded EaseUS's TodoBackup and got the job done during lunch.
Neša was sort of screaming before eating, couldn't stop him... until he ate some. Then he ate some more. Then called for repeats (this time, exceptionally, they were in the yellow room, watching mrBean cartoons on youtube - something we discourage).
The weather is still warm. This miholjsko summer is extra long, it's almost november and it's still warm. Twenty plus something. When the winter hits, it will be serious.
On first of november, this text came up on suština, as scheduled. This is a new thing in Byo: usually I write in english, then translate into the serbian version. This is the first where I changed direction. I still (january 2021) don't have a two-way synchronization between versions, so any record is first created in the fox version, because it can export - import would be near impossible. So the way now would be to create an empty record in it, move off it so it saves and gets exported (by the automatic process I wrote last year), then I can fill it in the python version (for serbian), then go back to english, like I did here.
The difference between ludajnača and gibanica is not only in the filling. Gibanica is a dish, ludajnača is an orgy.
Though, as a kid I didn't really like ludajnača. Was it too strong for a kid's senses, as was the case with kohlrabi and cauliflower in the soup? I didn't like them, now I do.
Or am I just that lucky that my maam cooks much better than my mother and grandmother? And she didn't have anyone much to learn from, she is mostly self-taught, by method of asking around, peeking into recipes (with googling as a discipline), and many years of empiric construction of eyeballistic intuition. The key, I reckon, is in the trying it out, persistent experimentation and "why not" approach.
Which is the key civilizational difference. Something like a shift from trade to scientific approach. And something even stronger in the background.
My immediate ancestors may as well be the last generation brought up on literal transfer of skills from the previous ones. Accent being on literal: there was no pedagogy, and not too much understanding of why is this done this way, and why it must not be done that way. Instead, there was a lot of it is done so because I say so, and must not be done like that or you get slapped on the fingers. The explanations were sparse in coming, perhaps there were none in stock.
True, there was austerity even when there was no lack. There was never excess materiel to give to a beginner to play and learn from own mistakes, be it cooking, fixing things, building or gardening.
During those crazy sixties, one of the ideas (we'd call them memes today) in circulation was to answer every "why" with "why not". Which incited questioning the limitations in place. And, somehow, the proces of acquiring a skill... why does the dish being cooked have to be stirred in this direction, and must not be in the opposite? "Because I say so" didn't work anymore, it tipped over to "why not" side. Rules, the reasons for which are unknown, will not be enforced, because neither those affected are happy with being affected, nor are the supposed enforcers happy to argue with them. And how can they, so bereft of arguments: they may know what to do, but not why.
The material austerity was not the only reason. Austerity of knowledge was stronger and heavier. Knowledge was hard to acquire and there was a lack of will to pass it on. A too smart student was a danger to the teacher - dented his authority, and if a chicken teaches the hen (there, we have a proverb), the hen's reputation suffers. Often a smart apprentice was a direct threat, tomorrow's calif instead of the calif... which old califs used to spot on time or they wouldn't become old.
But... our kitchen is not a court, it's not ruled by intrigue and plots, there's no emperor, there's no authority. There's good food and mostly successful experiments. The list of dishes I disliked as a kid, and now can barely wait to see on the table, is longer than the table. And I'm not gaining weight, good for me. And all that got decided in a single generation, and the next, as far as I can see, moves on along similar paths.
And so, we came to the point where, despite all that's said about the youth of today, we are happy that our kids are smarter than us. And they should be, or how else would the world progress?