Tuesday, June 27, 2006

What dreams may come

A few days ago, I either had a lucid dream or dreamt I had a lucid dream. I'm not sure which is more exciting, but I'm pretty sure it was the former.

Second one total for me...

Monday, June 26, 2006

I'm such a tool

I thought almost all the relevant people knew I was in a different state. Of course, I didn't shout from the rooftops my intention to move. My flatmates didn't know the exact date of my exodus until 3 days prior. The Csima's didn't know more than about a week prior. Rob knew a few weeks prior. It seemed to get out though. It's a small community. After all, RY was at the little farewell pub outing. I figured that meant it had spread to the office crowd. I took my stuff from the office, which I heard was a concern of KP's. It would seem however that the Z's didn't know. They learned when asking for an address for the wedding invitation!

I was aware I didn't give a lot of warning, but I suppose I thought most people knew. Of course, RW had no way to know, and I didn't have time to specifically seek her out. I hope she can forgive me.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Vanishing Theorems

Esnault and Viewheg's book is available online. Q might find this interesting...

Friday, June 23, 2006

To everyone pestering me for job details:

So far things are going well. My main responsibility seems to be a combination of installation and support. We deal mainly with huge clusters. There are some lone machines that come through though. Our team installs and configures the software and tests the machines before they ship. Sometimes there's a problem and we troubleshoot it.

We also get malfunctioning machines from customers that we have to troubleshoot. I haven't yet dived in to the actual customer support.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Some of you might like...

...this Guardian story. Insightful comments included. :)

(Found via a blog.)

Friday, June 16, 2006

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

First day recap

Before my first day at junior high, I was so anxious I couldn't sleep. I awoke at 4:30 a.m., got dressed, gathered my things, and ate breakfast. Then I faced several hours of waiting before I could go. My point is I'm high strung.

I've been antsy for a couple of weeks. Waiting to see if I'd get the job... Waiting to see exactly what I'd be doing... Waiting to see if I could do it... It all makes day one that much more fun. I didn't get so much sleep the night before. I misjudged the traffic factor and arrived a few minutes early. I filled out some paperwork in the morning. I couldn't get my key yet. M showed me around. Our team communicates via IRC. (Isn't that perfect? I spend all day on IRC.) I was charged with some simple tasks. Unfortunately the network had issues and we spent a while unsuccessfully trying to track them down. So that was pretty much my day.

Monday, June 12, 2006

What I've been up to...

I promised an update. Here it is: Thursday after the move I went to talk to a guy about a job. I've been talking with him and his company since, and long story short I start Wednesday.

I've seen a few old friends since I've been back. A week ago, Texas Rob and I went to play pool, and then WS and we showed up unannounced at Matt's place. Matt's now married, so we met his wife who we all happened to know through Heidi. His sister also visited. Anyways, late night there...

OK, so that was rather short. But that's what you get... :)

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Book TV!

I love cable.

This book looks like it'd be decent. The guy took a 14 foot boat along the same trail as Lewis & Clark. He was a good speaker. Anyways, it's on the list...

While I'm on the subject of cable... I think EC would like this show.

Hot diggity

MIG welded for the first time today.

Agh, my neck!

Apparently no one realized that the reason I slept on the couch more than is customary at my old place was because my mattress is a bit too soft. After a week without the rock-hard couch option, my neck hurts.

Gotta fix this.

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Home Sweet Home

So it all started two weeks ago. When my sister left on that Thursday, I started packing. Fortunately I don't have too much stuff. I was quite able to pack it all at a leisurely pace, while allowing for some social diversions. My dad arrived on that Saturday in the afternoon. We picked up the U-Haul and some supplies, and then went to get dinner. My mom arrived that evening. They relaxed while I continued to pack. On Sunday we loaded up the U-Haul. I did leave some stuff at the apartment for you guys. Bert, your copy of Catch-22 was there. Rob, I had 4 books of yours I left there. And I left the good poker chips--Justin's hard plastic ones. We even went by the office to get all the crap I left there. The whole thing was so quick. My mom flew out that evening, and after we dropped her at the airport we began our journey.

We drove for a few hours that night before stopping in Bloomington. The Bloomington-Normal "metroplex" is a college town. Illinois State (go Redbirds!) calls it home, as well as a few smaller local schools. We arrived at 10 p.m. and went looking for food. We didn't have much choice. Denny's it was! It's popular with the school kids, too. Then we called it a night. On that Monday morning, we woke up to dogs barking. Our hotel was providing accommodations for the Heart of Illinois Dog Show!

We set out from Bloomington pretty early. We went south to St. Louis and hung a right to go through Missouri. The truck was suspect from the very beginning, but it really had problems with the hills. After filling up in St. Robert, the truck gave up. It wouldn't go in D; other gears worked. And the check engine light came on. We got a room and called U-Haul. They had to find a local mechanic. They said they'd keep calling us every 30 minutes to let us know how it was going. After an hour or so, they gave up on that. Hours later they found a mechanic, and with some more phone tag, he found us. By the time he arrived, the truck seemed to work. That is, it still had a misfire, the odometer didn't work, the temperature gauge didn't work, and the gear shift display was almost completely off the steering wheel, but the truck did move with a little noticeable strain.

We left Tuesday early and drove the rest of the way. As it turns out, the truck had no further issues. We made it home Tuesday night with time to see the Mavs.

On Wednesday I spent almost the whole day unloading and unpacking. I was quite set up by the day's end.

It's been a week since then, and I've been a bit busy. I'll write more about that soon.