journal for 2003-02-14
int-fiction
I’ve been wasting a lot of time lately. I think that there is some kind of force like entropy that acts on productivity. Given X input, only nX:n<1 is available. Yeah. That’s it.
Work on my entry for IntroComp (an interactive fiction contest) is going well. Really well, I think, actually. Gadget and I have been trading time playtesting our entries, and it’s been very helpful. I think I might have a nice start for a game, here, when all is done. If nothing else, it’s fun.
wireless lan
I really wanted to get 802.11 set up in the house, but I think it is not meant to be. Screw it!
Last time I wrote, I’d just ordered a Linksys WAP54G when the D-Link model wasn’t available. It turned out that the Linksys wasn’t, either. Finally, I ordered from Amazon. When I got the AP, it Just Didn’t Work. It gave me a config page, but didn’t work well. Finally, I called Linksys’ tech support and was told that the status lights I was seeing were messed up (I had suggested this myself) and I should exchange it. Well, I exchanged it and observed exactly the same behaviour. So, screw it! I’m sending the thingermajig back for a refund and I’ll do some extensive research on getting a new, non-802.11g-draft one. I expect the research will go like this: “Hey, Eric, what do you use?”
I’m also thinking about replacing plumcake, our Win32 machine. Mostly, Gloria uses it, but I use it sometimes to do VPNish things. It’s unbearably slow, and every time I use it, I think to myself, “It’s disgusting that Gloria has to use this thing.” I’m thinking about picking up a really cheap, quality 1GHz Duron or something and setting up dual boot. Gloria expressed interest again, recently, in doing more Slackware using, and I am happy to try to encourage that. She’s using nano for writing her journal, but I will eventually convince her of the glory of vi. Are you reading this, Gloria? Yeah, vi! VI! WOO!
I found CVS integration foo for Vim recently, prompted my mdxi to look. After thirty minutes or so of tweaking, I got it working in my goofy Win32 environment at work. So slick!
Ok, enough of that.
weather
Man, the weather sucks again. It’s been like -15° C mornings, lately, and the wind is just bitter cold. I need to get a balaclava or something. Of course, I’m in my usual warm-clothes-buying argument with myself: it’ll only be useful while it’s cold, and we’re late in the cold season already. Of course, come next November, I’ll wish I’d gotten it. Meh!
We’re expecting more snow, which sucks, since I thought the last snowfall might start dissipating soon. No such luck likely. I’m hoping it turns out to be just a dusting, since there’s a funeral to attend on Tuesday.
My (great) Aunt Dee died this week. She clearly hasn’t been in good health for some time now. We saw her after Thanksgiving, and she looked pretty bad. I guess this isn’t so unexpected. She and her siblings (my dad’s aunts, uncles, mother) were all really interesting people, and it’s sad (and my fault) that I didn’t know them better. I need to get better about communicating with my family beyond my siblings. There’s only one of Dee’s generation left, which is strange for me to imagine. Outliving my siblings would be very strange, and Jo had quite a few more siblings than I.
valentine’s day
So, it’s St. Valentine’s Day. I’m not a big fan of the day, but I certainly don’t dislike it the way some people seem to. I read some page on which the author complained, “It’s just a day where you need to do something nice for your girlfriend or not get laid for the next year.” I think it’s Just Fine. It’s another excuse to have a little celebration, and that’s OK with me.
Gloria and I are going to the Starfish tonight. Their new menu looks awesome. I had strange experiences shopping for her, but I’ll relate them later, of course.
work
Work turbulent!
Brian got laid off, which sucks. He got decent going-away package, I guess, so I’m hoping he finds something more stimulating. We lost a small group of people here, but IQE Europe lost quite a bit more, including the group IT guy. He was a Good Egg, which makes it a big bummer to see him go. He was pretty oldskool, and had some good stories to tell about The Time of Mel. We also lost some other IT folks over there, which will make my next visit (should one occur) sad.
Speaking of trips, our expense budget was approved, which means I’m green for OSCON 2003, which is exciting for a couple reasons. For one thing, it’s just exciting! OSCON should be good, and Perl Conference 7 should be awesome. The idea of being at the Lightning Talks makes me feel… I dunno, good. I feel like I’ll be more involved than I am, even if I say nothing. Working with so much proprietary software is getting overwhelmingly depressing. The more I work with it, the more I become committed to my objections, both on the grounds of performance and on the grounds of ethics.
I spent a few minutes playing with Win32 Apache again early this morning. It’s good. At some point, I’ll get MASH and PYL working on Apache and maybe get my personal projects in a PYL instance on Manxome. Speaking of which, I should update my projects tree a bit. Also, I should try to get jGal R1 out this weekend. I think it’s, like, done.
I need to learn Java and more C.