Sabbatical

I mentioned earlier that I’m taking a sabbatical.  I didn’t really plan on it, I planned to do MCSE training and then look for another job.  (Most of the interesting work around here seems to involve the intersection of Windows and *nix OR being a hard core Linux evangelist and while I like LIKE Linux, I don’t necessarily think it’s better – on a general scale – than any other *nix OS.)  However, I got sucked into a really interesting project and started looking at all the practical things on the “someday I’d like to list” that I could do if I did take some time off.
The project that grabbed my attention is editing the English translation of Slegten Buck’s Stamtavle 1500 – 1928 (Registry of the Buck Family).  Much of the editing really consists of using Unix text tools to correct formatting, OCR, and spelling or translation errors that occur reliably throughout the document.  I want to convert it to GEDCOM format as well, for import into geneology software – preferably by coming up with a toolset that will work for other similarly formatted files as well.
In addition to playing with text conversion, I’ve also been working on learning to read French and I just signed up to take intensive Hebrew over the summer.  I’m also trying to learn Arabic, but so far I’m really struggling with the script.  I’ve also been doing some small audit jobs and finally getting my duplex fixed up (though my contribution has mostly been signing my name to bids, invoices, estimates, checks, …)  Finally, I’ve been doing a little bit of playing with some of the technology I’m interested in but haven’t had much time for – XML, Knoptix, AJAX, getting my home network the way I want it, etc.  I may also have an interesting LAMP conversion consulting job coming up.  It should be an interesting summer!