Sun, 28 Nov 2004
We now resume our regularly scheduled blogging
Okay. So I was having a bit of a bad time there. Things are mostly normal now. The downshot of going to Atlanta for a week, is that I haven't actually done anything but work for the past three weeks straight. Both weekends were pretty much travelling and dealing with conference things, so I hadn't had any time off.
I took Thursday off just to get away from everything, and take a break, but one of the leftover things from Wednesday still had a bunch of things that needed to get done, so I spent half the day checking e-mail and making calls to people. Bleh.
Saturday, I finally got out climbing with friends from Q, and I think it was just what I needed. After that, suddenly, the world seemed much more normal and less out of control. I think it's been over two weeks since I've had any kind of excercise to speak of. Yes, I still hate my job. Or at least aspects of it. But it's not so thoroughly disheartening. Yay!
[/Blog]
permanent link
Wed, 24 Nov 2004
Cold and wet and yucky
Bleh. So today was a pretty miserable day. My whole work day got turned upside down because of two different critical problems. Plus, there were two meetings that I couldn't really get out of, one of which I was supposed to chair, but wasn't really prepared for.
I got through everything okay, but by the end of the day, I was little more than a bundle of nervous energy. Bleh. It snowed briefly, which cheered me up some, but by the time I left to walk home, it was all slushy, and it was more rain coming down on me than anything else. Very cold rain.
These are the days when I really hate coming home to an empty house.
[/Blog]
permanent link
Fri, 19 Nov 2004
What I learned from my November vacation.
Okay, so I've been here a week. I'm going home tomorrow, finally. Yay! In the meantime:
- If you thing your computer is hacked, you can't trust any of the tools you normally use. On the plus side, whomever 0wn3d your box probably patched whatever security hole he exploited to get access.
- DDR is hard. Nevertheless, there are people who are very bloody good.
- You're pretty much stuck with spam. Sorry.
- Puzzle Pirates is still fun.
- There are a lot of interesting things going on in the other room. Talk to other people and find out what you missed.
- Make a fool of yourself. Other people generally don't mind so much.
[/Blog]
permanent link
Thu, 18 Nov 2004
The end approaches
It's Thursday here. The only day where I'm not in Training Sessions at the LISA conference. I went to a Tech Session, about scripting which was vaguely interesting instead, then had to buy my own lunch.
So far, things have been good. The talks have by and large been well presented, and the material useful to me. Socially, things have been very good as well: I've made a bunch of acquaintances; got in on the CA Certs Web of Trust signing thing; played some DDR. Largely, just had a good time. I even, perhaps not for the best, got suckered in to resubscribing to Puzzle Pirates, a social based MMORPG where all the combat and other skills are puzzle based.
Tomorrow is the last day of courses, after which I will be quite glad to go home, have a nap, pet my kitties, and finally have a weekend. I'll talk to y'all after that.
[/Blog]
permanent link
Mon, 15 Nov 2004
Sunny Atlanta
Alright. I'm nicely entrenched in the Conference Level of the Hotel where I'll be spending the next week of my life: The Usenix LISA conference. I'm sitting at a table with seven people, and four laptops, at 9:15ish in the evening. We're chatting away happily about various topics; some geeky, and some not.
The trip here was relatively painless for me. Despite having to get up ungodly early. Flights for me have typically been fraught with peril. Or at the very least, extensive delays. This time, however, despite the increases in security, I whisked through customs and security with a minimum of fuss.
I miss home already. I've been to an all day talk, and had a yummy southwest-style lunch. It's all good and fun, but I'm tired. I didn't really say goodbye to my kitties.
[/Blog]
permanent link
Thu, 11 Nov 2004
Getting deflowered.
It's been a crazy week. Cold, then warm, then now just starting to get cold
again. We actually had some really pretty flurries on Monday. I sat in my
office watching them for a bit. Yesterday was really warm again. And today
it's been windy windy, and getting colder.
It's been so windy, in fact, that a friend of mine lost her Remembrance Day
poppy this morning. I thought that was amusing, but I didn't think about
making some crack about her being deflowered until much much later. I was
kicking myself that I hadn't actually been able to casually make the comment
right then and there. I must be slipping in my old age.
I'll admit though, that this morning was really nice. It really smelled like
autumn. It's a nice earthy, composty smell. Yesterday, the whole town
smelled literally of shit. I think one of the nearby farms was taking
advantage of the warm weather to till and fertilise the land or something.
A the while, I've been rushing around trying to get ready for going to the
LISA conference next week. I've borrowed a laptop from work, and I'll be
stopping in to get my passport from the Passport Office tomorrow morning.
Plus I've found someone to drop in and feed my cats and hopefully give them a
wee bit of love.
See you all in a week! I'll probably be able to update from Atlanta, but you
never know. I might even have pictures if you ask nicely. I'm looking at
buying a large CF card for my camera.
[/Blog]
permanent link
Sat, 06 Nov 2004
Today, I:
- Made myself I damn fine omelette. Though I only had three eggs left, so it was a bit lacking of the actually omelette part.
- Did some laundry. Whites, so I could wash some bedsheets and the towel I use for a mat in the bathroom.
- Shook out the mat in the entryway.
- Had some coffee and read for a while at my favourite coffee (and gelato) store.
- Researched a few camera things. Telephoto lenses and CF cards to be specific.
- Scooped the cat litter. I am convinced there is nothing my cats can't poo.
- Made myself some dinner. Less exciting. Mac and Cheese, starting with the President's Choice version of Kraft Dinner, but with tuna, cilantro, onions, a wee bit of hot sauce, and fresh minced ginger.
- Swept and moped the entryway, bathroom and storage room.
- Played a whole lot of GuildWars
Not a bad day all in all. Still have to finish cleaning the bathroom tonight or tomorrow.
[/Blog]
permanent link
Fri, 05 Nov 2004
A random November weekend
Not that there's much Earth shattering going on these days, but it's been a while since I last updated, and time has marched on.
Work is okay. I now have four separate boxes of some sort that have fans in them in my office. Right now, they're all running. Three computers and one UPS. It's not too bad, but I think in general, I'm not going to have all of them running.
I'm more than a little sore at the moment. In addition to the usual climbing, where I pushed myself pretty hard this week, my not-so-regular squash partner, Dr. Thingo and I played squash twice. And this morning, I was quite please to win two games out of five against him. Usually I win one, or sometimes none.
At this exact instant, 5:17pm, Eastern Standard Time, the sky is a beautiful
mix of faded blues and pinks and purples. The fir trees outside my window
silhouette nicely against the colourful backdrop. It's probably the nicest
view I'm going to see for a while. The weather this weekend looks mostly wet,
and there's a possibility of flurries to boot.
In the meantime, I'm most likely going to be spending the brunt of my time
sitting in front of my computer playing the
GuildWars beta. Whee!
[/Blog]
permanent link
