bovine in the black cloak

Mon, 12 May 2008 02:57:05 GMT

After spending a decent amount of money on new furniture to go along with the old, I've been going room by room and really getting things set up in the new place. First up: the office.

This is my favorite room in the apartment, and it was a big part of what sold me on renting this place. It faces south and east, and the south and east walls are almost all windows. I'm in a top (3rd) floor unit, so it's a little bit off the ground. Time for pictures and some random cow trivia!

This is looking in from the doorway (which leads into the bedroom), facing southeast. I really didn't want to block the light, so I got some rack-style shelves without backs. I'm not even making maximal use of them yet, but it's a good start.

Incidentally, that Pooh bear on the top shelf? That was my very first stuffed Pooh; my grandma gave me that bear and a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner for my fifth birthday. The books are falling apart from the number of times I read them as a kid. The bear, too, is well-loved.

(Also visible are the shelves running above the windows; those were put in by my landlords, and oh wow are they nice. I keep my fabric and other random bits up there.)

Facing southwest. You can see the south window and the west wall, which includes the alcove where my desk goes. Whiteboard is currently being used to plan my summer. Also, the pile of con badges--

If Bovine Artifacts ever comes back, I'll do a lot of the work in my office making things I'd sell at cons. So, it seems fitting to have the Wall of Con Badges in here. From the top: PAX 2007; my Cow fur-badge, made by jedi_iwakura; two pins earned from volunteering at Sakura-con; my Anime Evolution 2007 VIP badge (with a doodle on the back by Scott Ransoomair, the guy who draws VGCats); RainFurrest 2007; Sakura-con 2001; and Sakura-con 2007. I haven't actually been to a con in 2008, although I've got plans for two or three late this summer.

Looking towards the north, back into the bedroom. (Note the difference in light levels; I didn't have any lights on in either room. The office just floods with natural light during the day. <3) Also on the wall is the Chick-fil-A calendar my brother gave me last Christmas, which has cows as one-hit wonder bands singing about chicken each month. This month's is the Beefcake Boyz, a boy band whose one hit is "Girl, You Know It's Chicken." (For those of you not from the South, which is .. about 95% of you, Chick-fil-A is a chicken fast food place that's actually pretty good. Their advertising campaign is cows trying to get people to eat chicken instead. EAT MOR CHIKIN.)

Looking out the south window. That's my balcony, and the trees outside at the very end of spring bloom. (Big winds came in this morning and blanketed the ground in pink cherry petals.)

My desk, with my laptop, drawing tablet, some water, and the cow calendar again.

More to come, as I finish other rooms! I'm currently working on the guest room (converted from the dining room).

Thu, 01 May 2008 04:29:25 GMT

5 updates in a month! I'm practically Posty McPostsalot all of a sudden, what.

I decided to retroactively declare THE BEAR, as weird_sleep calls it, a picture of the week for the period when I wasn't posting. Mostly because I like more excuses to look at THE BEAR, since it still makes me smile every time I see it. Hee. Best airport decoration ever, and it's funny because it's in a little mini-terminal that almost nobody ever goes to.

I think I want to get Bovine Artifacts going again, but I don't think I can until I get permanent residency or leave Canada. I looked into making it a Florida business licensed to my parents' address, but that really doesn't look feasible. :(

I've been biking to work again, trying to get into better shape and more into the whole thing. I also partially blame shashin, who is doing crazy things like biking to work from southeast of me via UBC which is like 30-something km total, in the pouring rain. Me, I'm just happy to be getting to and from the office without wanting to die; I'll start adding in more crazy in a few weeks, hopefully.

Speaking of UBC, Spanish class is going well! The next installment's tomorrow, which means biking to work, working a full day, busing out to campus, 2 hours of class, then busing home and getting home around 10pm. I really have no idea how I did full-time work and full-time grad school last autumn, but I sure am glad I don't have to anymore.

My goal for the weekend is to get the den/office/whatever all set up, with the new (Ikea! yay!) furniture and arrangements and cables run and things organized and everything. We'll see if I get all the way there. Also, apparently a bunch of amateur artists (mostly of the anime/manga persuasion, but others too) are getting together at Metrotown to work on separate projects but in each other's company Saturday, so I'm going to give that a try and see how it goes. It's a monthly thing, which sounds neat. I've been kicking around a story idea in my head, so I'm hoping to sketch out the things that need drawing and maybe have something to start playing with.

Speaking of the anime/manga persuasion, Anime Evolution (yay Caprica!) and PAX are four months out. I'm not entirely sure I'm doing the former, but I'm definitely doing the latter--my DS wants to hang out with tens of thousands of other DSes. I think I want to do a new costume for this year, but I really have no ideas yet. White Mage was so much fun; I'm not sure how to top that.

Time to build more cheap Swedish furniture! Yay!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:47:25 GMT

I mostly fail at doing an [anything] of the [anything]. I keep meaning to get back to doing a little writing every day and posting it in the writing journal; I wonder if that will ever happen?

I really did enjoy posting the Pic of the Week back last fall, before I got completely absorbed in my aborted attempt at grad school. So, maybe it's time to bring that back. The first post in this new edition is from my trip to Granada last spring.

Mind you, I got caught in a hailstorm heading home from work Monday, so maybe I'm (even more than usual) missing places where lemons and oranges grow on trees . . .

Like any good house in Granada, this one has multiple gardens--in this case, three concentric gardens. This picture is the innermost one, almost like a walled backyard or courtyard. There is also a middle one that was somewhat less private, with a low wall looking out from the hilltop at the entire city, and a very large outer one that is basically a public park now. (The house is owned by the Junta de Andalucía and used as offices; I forget what kind, now.)

Previous Pics of the Week can be seen in this photoset or, of course, by digging back in my journal.

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:29:04 GMT

One of the strange things about the greater Vancouver area is that one of the most relaxing places I've found yet is a university campus. arjache and I went up to SFU Saturday afternoon--on the nicest day so far this year (17º or so and sunny)--and it was tranquil and lovely. I've been there before, and I always find it that way; I assume it's crazy and full of students on weekdays, but never so much on weekends. The inner part of the Academic Quadrangle, also known as Caprica to sci-fi fans, is lovely, but if you move a bit further east it gets even better.

What I love most about the outer areas is how nice the balance between weird sci-fi architecture and natural spaces is. The walking paths are often weird and windy, rather than just simple pavement. The hills aren't levelled or altered; one part will have a staircase, and the rest will just be hill. It seems like most places, the outdoor areas would be completely paved, and maybe a fountain or something would get put in, or one or two trees left alone; up there, it seems like the buildings are what are out of place, rather than the natural areas.

It doesn't hurt that every direction you turn, amazing mountain or water vistas appear.

---

I have a file number with the provincial government now. They're currently deciding how much they love me, and if they want to tell the federal government that I am an awesome cow who would be a benefit to Canada and thus should be allowed to stay as long as I like. We'll see. Hopefully the ~~bribe~~ processing fee helps. }:D

---

I still can't say "provincial government" out loud without thinking "provisional government" and, with it, Bajor. It's good to know that I'm still a nerd.

---

My flights to Lima are settled. 20-28 January 2009, with both edge days being full days of airplanes and airports. Never enough time for everything, of course; over the next while, I have to decide whether I want deserts and islands or rainforests and jungles. It may come down to whether or not shashin can join me; in either case, it will most likely come down to money. Alas.

---

The Valente book is really interesting. At first, it seemed like your standard collection of fairy tales, where one story wraps the others, as our narrator weaves through volumes. What I'm loving is that this isn't just a set of stories with a wrapper; instead, you almost need a debugger to backtrace it all. At one point, the author is telling the story of the orphan, and the orphan is telling a story of a prince and a witch, and the witch is telling a story of her last days with her grandmother, and the grandmother is telling a story of her final test as a child involving a wolf, and the wolf is telling a story about the creation of the universe. Of course, the orphan is telling all of these stories, but we're now five stories deep, each in the middle.

All in all, quite enjoyable. Far better than I expected, both in storytelling and in mechanics.

---

Ugh. Something I never anticipated: if I ever do outside contracting/consulting again, I'm getting a clause in my contract that includes a penalty if my employer can't get me tax forms in a reasonable amount of time. :p (This year, postmarked 11 April 2008. Awesome. Actually, postmarked 11 April 2003; I assume it's just that the leftmost column of dots didn't strike, but it amused me nonetheless.) Fortunately I gave up early this time--last year I also waited until early April--and reported them to the IRS, so I was able to file anyway.

Kinda fun getting your refund before you receive the last 1099, eh?

My 2008 taxes should be simpler, of sorts, excepting that I'll have to file paperwork with two governments instead of one. But only one employer, a tax treaty to wipe out taxes on the American side (form 2555 for the win), and no more mortgage-related stuff.

---

I'm out of words for now, so here's a chair made out of stuffed pandas. Link courtesy eeyorerin.

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:49:23 GMT

This is kinda how I feel today. :D Link courtesy lolmike.

arjache is on a train heading here right now! Should be a fun weekend.

And I stopped off at the library and picked up more books, including Catherynne M. Valente's The Oprhan Tales: In the Night Garden, which ettinsmuir recommended on Facebook. That might be the nerdiest sentence I posted all week!

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:46:27 GMT

Mmm, waiting for Complimentary Coffee Maker Coffee to brew. Hopefully it won't be too horrible. Heh.

So I'm in Victoria. It's my first time here. Yesterday, after work, I caught a SkyTrain to a bus to a bus to a plane to a bus to a bus and got here around 9:00pm. I'm staying at the Bedford Regency downtown, right on Government Street and on Bastion Square.

Hotel good: It's a beautiful place. One of the oldest in Victoria, and with what claims to be one of the oldest English pubs in Canada in the basement. (I checked it out. It was really, really neat. Good food, good beers, and an interesting crowd of people.) Also, the room is very nice; it's more of a suite. I'm kind of surprised at how low the cost was, honestly; I feel like I'm getting off very cheap this weekend.

Hotel bad: It's a really loud neighbourhood and the walls are super-thin; I heard everything the others on the floor did, and got woken up several times. But oh well. I seem to not be too good at picking hotels.

The plane itself was an awesome experience. It's the sort of thing I'd really only do once--a flight like that is inefficient in many different ways--but it's worth doing once because seeing Vancouver, the Georgia Strait, and Vancouver Island from the air is definitely worthwhile, and because it gives a different taste of flying.

If the Nice Café is like eating breakfast at your friend's mom's house, then flying on Orca Airlines is like your friend's dad giving you a ride to Victoria. Except, um, in his Piper PA-31, which I never had any plane-owning friends. (On second thought, if your friend's mom runs the Nice Café and your friend's dad flies around in a Piper PA-31, could you introduce me to your friend, please? }:D)

No boarding passes, no security check, just some guy comes up, asks who's going to Victoria, and you follow him out onto the tarmac and climb on the plane. You fly over the San Juans, land at some sort of side parking lot of Victoria Airport, and the co-pilot points at a gate which leads out to the parking lot. (Not an airport terminal gate--a chain-link fence gate.)

So now I'm staring at my Victoria Regional Transit System Rider's Guide and Map. Current plan so far is to go to the Maritime History Museum, which is half a block away, and then back to the pub for weekend breakfast (it opens at 11). I think after that I'll head down to the Legislative Assembly campus and the Royal BC Museum. The transit comes in after that--I'm thinking about heading out to wander around the UVic campus or something; not entirely sure yet.

Oh, and the polar bear says hello:

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:03:53 GMT

I like when my life is ridiculous--like being an idiot and losing a trail while in the middle of nowhere (oops yesterday), or...

I got an e-mail from my dad today. Apparently they often feel bad that my siblings--who live a lot closer--get things like holiday meals and furniture hand-me-downs, so when something portable comes up, they like to send it my way. Personally, I don't care, because I have more than enough stuff and whatnot.

But.

That portable thing, this time? About 40,000 frequent flier miles that are on an airline my dad can't use, and that are going to expire if not booked by early April. They can be booked out almost a year from now, but the flights have to be booked soon.

Dates and times are going to change; these aren't finalized yet, but that's about what I'm thinking.

Incidentally, I used this as an excuse (plus, telling my mom about it) to update the Places I've Been (airports, flight maps, and other maps) page. Time to add a fourth continent, I guess!

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:20:23 GMT

Another month ends; another season ends, really, and today is the first day of Spring that actually feels like Spring.

I've got a lot of end-of-month ritual to handle--I forgot to do an end of February media post, so two months of media lists and comments; end of month financial stuff; the re-beginning of spring cleaning; and more.

Reiko introduced me yesterday to the guy who runs a used bookstore about four blocks from my apartment; I immediately bought six books, and need to take a pile over to him. Hooray for lending libraries with fees. :D

Before I get into all that, though, it's time for breakfast, and then I'm going to take advantage of this sunny day by going for a walk along the Strait out in West Vancouver (which is not so much west of Vancouver as north of it; but it is west of North Vancouver). Pictures to come once I get back.

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:28:50 GMT

Hello, internets! It's been a few weeks.

I'm kind of moving away from the other-blog format already. Maybe it's WordPress, or maybe it's my own style, but we're just not getting along. Palimpsest will likely be wiped soon and reused a third time; the domain name is increasingly fitting. Whatever. (I went back to a paid account, too; I actually renewed it the day of that pointless content "strike"...)

I finally got around to setting up my P.O. box here. It's useful for various things, but one of the best reasons is because then I can put a mailing address here, and I can start exchanging letters with e-friends. (I actually enjoy writing letters and mailing them and whatnot.) If you'd like to start exchanging letters, send me your mailing address, or send mail to:
cow
P.O. Box 95119
Kingsgate RPO
Vancouver, BC V5T 4T8

Should you decide to do this some other time, it's also in my profile, so you won't have to dig up this post. (Mail from the US is 69c in postage. Or just use two stamps and consider it a 13c donation to your postal service.)

Current reading: a couple more Ellis Peters / Brother Cadfael novels I found at a used bookstore. If you haven't read these, you should. They're like candy. Specifically, right now I'm reading The Heretic's Apprentice, the 16th in the series. And by right now, I mean I'm about to go read in bed once I hit "post".

Not a lot has happened in the last few weeks; I've mostly been working a lot, and winter has gone into Extra Innings so I haven't been out doing things. But there's a lot on the horizon for the next month or two, so hopefully I'll have actual content at some point.

Starting something new

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:42:42 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

Aki took me out with his wife, Reiko, and a bunch of their friends to get pyrogies. The Ukranian Orthodox Cathedral, which happens to be about six or seven blocks from my apartment, has a monthly Friday night dinner in the school gym. It’s a fundraiser, and it’s an interesting time.

We waited in line–out the door, down the street, almost to the corner–for an hour and a half. (I don’t think we would have waited that long if we’d known, but.) The food was tasty and everything was neat. I really enjoyed meeting their friends and getting to spend more time with them.

(Should you wish to try this yourself sometime, it’s at 154 E 10th Avenue, first Friday of every month, from 5-8. We got there at 6. I’m told if you get there at 5 or at 7:45 you’ll have much better luck.)

But it was also neat, afterwards, to be able to have them over to my place for a beer and conversation. It’s the fourth time this week I’ve done something that would count as entertaining guests, and it’s nice to have a place conducive to that. It’s also nice to see, as spring begins to bloom, my Vancouver life doing the same; I’ve mostly been dealing with settling in, learning my way around, and working all the time to really get out and meet people.

Honestly, I’m exhausted, and I feel like this entry had a lot less of a point than I meant it to. It seems a valuable piece of the record, however.

Poet of the Millions

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:21:24 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

This sounds like one of the more awesome things in the world on TV. In today’s Globe and Mail, front page, below the fold, there’s an article called Arabic TV takes a turn for the verse (added bolding is mine):

ABU DHABI — In the Arab world’s answer to American Idol, the contestants carry prayer beads, the judges are tenured academics and the hostess wears a fuchsia abaya. It is Tuesday night and in a lavish theatre on the edge of Abu Dhabi, the live taping of Million’s Poet, the most popular prime-time show in the Middle East, is about to begin.

Contestants are gathered in a green room, praying for God to bless them with a strong sense of rhyme and metre. The Crown Prince of Bahrain is in the audience. So are several of the ruling sheik’s wives. Most of these poets come from poor Bedouin villages, where their ancient art of Nabati poetry – composed spontaneously and delivered in colloquial Arabic – was slowly dying. Tonight, they will perform for a live television audience and 70 million viewers, competing for a cash prize of one million dirhams ($275,000) and the greater goal of restoring their tribe’s lost pride.

“This show is getting more response than soccer. More than soccer. Can you imagine that?” said Mahdi al-Wayli, a 33-year-old contestant from the village of Najan, Saudi Arabia.

I did a little digging and found a clip on Youtube:

Oh, and one more quote:

On this night, Mr. al-Wayli advances to the next round with the most votes, reciting an ironic poem that mocks the Islamic ideal of tolerance in a region ravaged by foreign invasion and war.

It strikes him that the only greater irony is that somewhere in Saudi Arabia, his Bedouin tribe is cheering him on, connecting with their collective past on prime-time TV.

I would love to see an equivalent on North American television. And yet, somehow, I don’t see it coming any time soon . . .

Now hiring…

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:33:38 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

Since I am supposedly tied into The Community, or something, I’ve been asked to post this:

My company needs a Gentoo admin/developer and a hardcore perl person, like, now. Really, last month. :)

If you can own the portage trees, the kernels, or the perls, and you’re interested in being imported to Vancouver, let me know. (If you’re not Canadian, it really helps if you have a bachelor’s degree in, well, anything, for visa fun times.) I’ll pass along resumés.

Benefits include relocation, awesome healthcare (the socialized stuff plus private add-ons for dental and vision), either a 6th or 9th floor space with big windows, and fun co-workers. Oh, and working in tech for a company that has no debt, has never had VC, and is profitable.

Revenge of the 1980s

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:55:54 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

I had planned to do some more creative writing tonight and hopefully have something to post, but I got distracted by lots of other things. This looks like a political post, but it’s satire and (hopefully) humor, so don’t page down quite yet.

One of them was Obama’s rally in Wisconsin. So I’m half-listening to it, and I hear him tell me that decades of money and influence got us up and let us down. Uh…what?

Not quite:

“We know it takes more than one night – or even one election – to overcome decades of money and the influence; bitter partisanship and petty bickering that’s shut you out, let you down and told you to settle.”

So, to review, Obama is:

never gonna shut us out
never gonna let us down
never gonna tell us all to settle

Uh, ladies and gentlemen, I think we all just got Rickrolled.

Clinton (D-NY), Not Voting

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:23:17 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

I don’t want this blog to be all politics all the time, but it is kind of that point in the news cycle right now. I’ll try to write about something else today or tomorrow.

Anyway! The bill to grant telecoms immunity for wiretapping just passed the Senate. I’m sure everyone can guess how I feel about that (rah rah free culture). Obama voted against cloture/to preserve the filibuster; McCain voted for cloture.

Clinton, however, didn’t vote. This seems like a critically important bill; granting past immunity for wiretapping is a huge deal, whether you’re for or against it. And had Clinton voted for or against it, I could respect that, because at least she would take a stand.

Not voting, and trying to have it both ways, is following the same kind of idiocy Kerry/Edwards did in 2004 and Gore/Lieberman did in 2000. It’s weak, it’s lame, and it doesn’t work. Why is the DNC so supportive of this concept? Take a stand, tell us what you think, and we’ll either agree with you or we won’t, but we’ll at least respect you for it.

Clinton (D-NY), Not Voting — what a coincidence; that’s how I feel about her, too!

Media: Dark Materials, and more

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:38:29 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

This is the first of my 2008 media posts; like so many people, I’m trying to track what I consume and record what I thought about it. As always, what I’m currently reading is in one of the sidebars, so that’s sort of a preview of what’s to come. I’ve got a page in the sidebar that will index these posts, too.

In this issue: Fullmetal Alchemist; Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy; and the Golden Compass movie.

Before the fold, FMA: I watched the first disc of this last night, and probably won’t continue. Episodes 1 and 2 were both horrible and somewhat horrifying–and this is from someone who’s seen a lot of weird stuff in my time. Episodes 3 and 4 were kind of cute, but rife with cliché and poorly timed; they could have done some editing and compressed that into one episode. Instead the pacing was slow, and I kept getting bored and going off to other things. I was really disappointed; I’d heard such high praise for the whole series, and instead I was just bored and annoyed. Alas.

Canflix only has disc one, so I figured I’d give it a four-episode trial. Done with that.

My His Dark Materials commentary is below the fold because it contains spoilers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Socialized medicine!

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:59:46 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

My provincial insurance kicks in at the beginning of next month. Yay!

In other immigration-related joys, I went down to the Vancouver Police Department today to get fingerprinted on an FBI form so that they can run a criminal background check for immigration purposes. It’s not often you get to FedEx materials to the FBI.

Licensing

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 05:07:29 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

A discussion with technoshaman on LiveJournal reminded me to put a license up on the blog content. Just like everything else I do, this content is Creative Commons, Share-Alike, non-commercial, attribution, 2.5 Canada. In short, you can do whatever you want with this content as long as it’s for non-commercial use and you acknowledge me as the creator; if you create something based off of something I do, release it under the same license.

It seems only fitting, if I’m going to be spending my days making the world safe and ready for open source and travelling around the continent advocating it, that I do what I say.

Speaking of Creative Commons stuff, for the last few years, I’ve hosted my photos on Flickr; during that time, Flickr got bought by Yahoo, and now Yahoo’s getting bought by Microsoft. I wasn’t thrilled with Yahoo, and I definitely don’t intend to give Microsoft money for photo-hosting, so I’ll be moving all of that content back to my own space over the next month or so.

Microsoft purchasing Yahoo just continues the trend: eventually, there will be two companies that matter in the Internet industry. Google and Microsoft is really not the good vs. evil battle it’s pitched to be, I’m afraid. I’m glad that my new job puts me in a position to help wage a battle to keep the web open, one application and one client at a time.

And in related thoughts, I submitted a proposal for a talk at OScon (O’Reilly’s open source convention, this July in Portland); there are some preliminary talks with a related open-source community about organizing more stuff there. It’s really my first opportunity to put these ideas into practice, and I’m excited to see how it goes.

Exploration

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:23:40 GMT

Originally published at palimpsest. You can comment here or there.

It’s been almost a month since I moved to Vancouver. I’m writing this in between staring out the window at the sun shining on the harbour down below; it’s a sunny, but cold, day up here in the frozen North.

The strangest feeling so far with all the immigration was the first time I went back to Seattle. As I’d changed my ID over and whatnot, I had to check the “visitor” box to get back into the States, rather than the “resident” box; it’s the first time I’d ever listed myself as a visitor to my own birth country. (Marking myself as a resident heading back in to Canada was cool, though.) Otherwise, things have been mostly normal: I go to work, I go home, I wander around the city.

Work is good, so far. More or less running a department is definitely a strange new feeling, and it’s a role I’m still growing in to. For example, when my boss–the CEO–asks a question about something, I’m frequently being asked to make a decision, not just a recommendation. That’s definitely still settling in, but with it comes the confidence to actually do my job. My co-workers are really neat people; they’re almost all geeks, but they’re the kind of capable and socially functional geeks that are really fun to hang out with. (I’d like to put myself in that category, too.) Last night was a work poker night, and I came in second out of nine, which means I’ll probably be tested a lot harder in the future. The loss was in an honorable way and to my boss, no less, so there are worse ways to lose.

Vancouver! It’s beautiful, and I’m only just beginning to discover it. I could ramble about the amazing transit, the beauty of the harbour, the fun conversations I’ve had on buses. I can also lament that it’s been a month and I’ve seen so little of it. (I’ve spent barely any time south of Broadway, east of Commercial, or west of Granville. I haven’t been to Granville Island. I haven’t been on the SkyTrain past Broadway Station.) It’s also certainly not perfect; I’m reminded of that every day, as I work in one of the harsher parts of town, and so every morning I see all sorts of human misery. It’s sad, and I wish there was more I could do about it. But it’s definitely a Real City, with Real City awesome and Real City problems. 24-hour transit, but poverty and crime.

I’ve got this blog on an actual working server now, and crossposting to LiveJournal. Hopefully I’ll be better about using it.

Posted using TxtLJ

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:51:18 GMT

Farewell, Seattle. Thanks for seven and a half years.

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:54:12 GMT

I just slept 10 hours. Woooo.

I don't normally get to sleep much when I go back to Florida, except this time I'm staying in my sister's guest room instead of my parents' weird nook thing, so it's actually quiet here. :D

It's kind of strange. I'm in between academic quarters and I'm in between jobs, so I really have nothing that needs worrying about. As such, I'm going to go spend much of the day at the tea house reading books and, well, drinking tea.

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:09:54 GMT

Also, if you'd like to receive a bovine Christmas / winter holiday card, leave your address here. (I'm making this in a separate post so I can screen comments). You likely won't receive it before Christmas, but you will likely receive it with a Christmas, Florida postmark. (I haven't done that in a few years, and there's something amusing about it.)

I should make some tasty mulled cider. Too bad I already moved most of my kitchen stuff, argh.

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:03:56 GMT

Various tidbits:

LiveJournal as library card: Does anyone in Seattle have the His Dark Materials trilogy? If so, would you be willing to loan it? I'd like to take it as plane/holiday reading in Florida, so I'd have to see you by Thursday.

LiveJournal as calendar: I'm going to have one last lunch at Preet's Casual Indian Dining, which is one of exactly two very tasty places I discovered on the Eastside over the last six months. It's at 8440 160th Ave NE in downtown Redmond; so, for those of you who work on the Eastside and want to see cow once more before I disappear to Florida and Vancouver, drop a comment here. I'm thinking 1ish but am open to suggestions.

LiveJournal as lol-bringer: My current company's sold. My favorite line from this is "The transfer is not expected to influence the Company’s [Square Enix's] financial forecast." I don't really have any more details than this; what I have heard is rumor and hearsay, and even that's highly confidential rumor and hearsay. I was really excited to be working with a company that was part of Square, so it seems somehow fitting that the week this was announced is the same week as my last day of work. I'm now learning what it means again to pay full price for good games, though. :/

(p.s. I want that re-release. So, so very much. Possibly SQEX's greatest game ever, re-made in an awesome way on a good platform. Argh that I'll have to wait for the English version, which will likely have much poorer voice-acting--whether or not someone gets called a spoony bard in the translation.)

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:57:44 GMT

I don't rant about things in my industry much, mainly because it's a topic few people care about, but I want to get this on the tubes:

As sysadmins goes from job to job, one of the big things they learn over time is who to work with and who not to work with. F5 and Cisco are expensive, but make good products. Same with NetApp; we used NetApp filers at DUSA and at my current gig, and I've been very happy with them, although they're really quite expensive. I could continue the list, but this post was mainly to express a frustration:

I will never, ever, ever work with CommVault again.

Their product--an "enterprise" (industry buzzword: it translates "sucky, broken, and full of Java" :D) backup system--is middling to okay when it works. Basically, it's the sort of thing you get working with twine and masking tape and then hope it never breaks and that you never need to make changes to it.

We had it working, sort of (we had to rewrite pieces of their Linux agent because it just didn't work out of the box) until an upgrade, which broke everything. Two weeks later, it's still broken. Their support team doesn't actually read ticket content; it just keeps calling you back (at the wrong number, mind you) with unhelpful suggestions. And so you go around and around until your maintenance contract expires, and then they stop helping you all together.

Oh, and confidentiality agreements keep me from disclosing the cost of this system, but I believe I can safely, qualitatively express it as "a stupidly high amount of money". Given the amount of time over the last six months I've spent on this, plus the money it's cost to run it, you could ditch this system and hire a full-time junior admin just to sit around and manually copy files to tape and still come out ahead. :P

I suspect my biggest regret, leaving my current company, will be that there isn't enough time to implement a decent, open-source, working backup system. Ah well; time to get more twine and masking tape and head back in . . .

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 01:13:27 GMT

I am craving some nachos from Bimbo's something fierce, but don't really feel like tackling them alone. If anyone feels like braving omglolblizzard 2k7 for nachos/burritos/margaritas/yum, let me know.

Otherwise, started packing today. I hate moving. I've done it enough that you'd think I'd be good at it by now...

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:09:56 GMT

One more post this morning, and then I'll stop. (Hey, I've been keeping all this in for weeks.)

I'll be working in this building:

It's on one of the floors in the little tower part, even. :D It's the Sun Tower; apparently it's where the Vancouver Sun was back in the day, and was almost damaged beyond repair from the vibrations of the basement printing presses. It's now been restored quite nicely. (Apparently, when it was finished in 1912, it was the tallest building in the British Empire.)

New commute: 2.5 km walk/bike ride or 3 stations on the SkyTrain.