BOFHJournal - August 2006

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31/08/2006 [17:00] The last day of August. Where has the summer gone? I really need to do something to capture it before it vanishes for this year. I'm sure I'll think of something in the next week or so. In the meantime I've got things to be doing and people to be seeing. Also shopping to do. How I can manage to eat enough on my own to require going to the shops as often as I seem to be doing I don't know. Still, it's not just food I'm buying at the moment. A new pair of sandals, contemplating a new pair of day-to-day shoes for rough ground, that lens (I really shouldn't have), stuff like that. It's been another day of ups and down. Some excellent stuff sorted out for next week, as well as a lunch meeting and potentially some networking kit for a friend's workplace, depending on how things go. Not much else is going on to be honest. It's probably time to go home to be honest. Thursday this evening and there's at least one film I definitely want to watch, if not two. Of course, I'm actually hosting the evening so it's not going to happen before I get there...

30/08/2006 [11:10] Ended up going for a Thai meal last night on the spur of the moment with a friend. Damned good food. I really must start going there again with people. Walked around town for a bit after the torrential downpours before heading home for some tea and a chat. I think I got to bed some time around 01:15. Unfortunately this morning I felt really terrible. I don't know if it's the coffee followed by tea I had, the Thai food or some of the possible side effects of having a "live" injection like the MMR but I've a pain between my pectoral muscles and generally feel a bit lethargic and achey. Maybe it's just another late night and an early morning. I've had breakfast (for once) to try and give my body enough energy to fight whatever's going on and I'm meeting someone for lunch in a few hours which should help (as I'll be forced to eat something then too). Am thinking about taking this afternoon off just to have some down time. I think I need to take a break and not go climbing tonight, again. A shame but I've been pushing myself a little too much recently and I'd rather get some proactive recovery in before anything breaks. Currently Thursday and Friday appear clear as far as I can tell. This is actually something of a relief. Not entirely sure how the weekend'll go yet but I'm hopeful it'll be pleasant. [14:05] OK, lunch was nice (company, food, etc.), but I'm still going home shortly. There's relaxing and stuff needs doing.

29/08/2006 [10:10] 10 Damnit, the hairdressers doesn't have an appointment until Thursday. I was hoping to get it done today. Ah well. Weekend was damned good here and there. Friday was excellent with gym leading to going to the pub for dinner rather than cooking, meeting a friend for a drink and then a pleasant evening at home. Saturday was spent in town buying a Will kit and then going shopping for food (the house was almost empty given how much I've been away recently). Saturday evening was very enjoyable consisting, as it did, of an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet where the main ingredient was duck pancakes, a viewing of Snakes on a Plane (really, I can't explain why I liked it) and one of my favouritest people. Not many ways it could have been better. Sunday I decided to go for a run, and did so. Very refreshing, wish I had the chance to do it more often but usually my evenings are chock full of other things. Not entirely sure what else I did... oh yes! Gardening. I mowed the lawn, cleared the errant weeds and grass away and trimmed my bushes (hur hur). Everything looks a lot tidier now. It should last the next few weeks without looking messy at least. Monday was a lazy day. I actually had breakfast, then went for a really, really long run picking a running partner up enroute and splashing her with puddle water, before coming all the way back again. That one really did for me and the rest of the day was spent on the sofa doing some preventative maintenance for work via laptop. I'm really not getting back into work yet, it's odd. I think I need a proper break so as to get myself reset and ready to do things. This morning Shaun's back in work after a protracted period away. It's good to have him back as pretty much the entire management structure all seem to be away at the same time. Unfortunately this means that a lot of stuff is going to fall on his head this week. Hmmm, I wonder what's making the monitoring display box throw such a hard drive spasm... [16:45] OK, spent the day with a co-worker going through some of the patch stuff I've been talking about on and off about for the past few weeks. We've come to the conclusion that it's just Too Hard to get the information we need and in the end the most sensible thing to do is to do the thing we thought we were going to do anyway because it makes sense. Honest, that's how it went down when we looked at it. As a result I've been going through doing some preliminary work for the upgrade of the load balancers from vanilla Solaris 10 x86_64 to update 2 of same. This'll mean GRUB's on there, there'll be better console support and generally the boxes'll be a bit happier. There's a ton of updates which this reinstall will neatly sidestep given they don't install cleanly in some cases. But it's nearly time for home and the evening's fun.

27/08/2006 [20:35] You know what I miss? Someone to share carrot and coriander soup with on a Sunday evening. Odd how some things get you sometimes. Still, more for me. On the other hand I've got tons done today.

25/08/2006 [16:10] Tired again. No, I know; "stupid". But it was such a good conversation and I was still buzzing tremendously from a flawless train journey (perfect connections) upon which I watched DivXen all the way home, and then an exhilarating cycle through town on my bike with some really quite excellent tunes in my ear. Since I started this entry I've been out for lunch and to drop some switches off at home for pickup later in the week by a friend. I also meant to tell you something but I don't remember what it was. I'm sure it'll come to me before I publish this entry. In the meantime I can say that I went to the doctor's recently and had my MMR done twenty-nine years late, found out my blood pressure was 125/60 and generally that I'm in good health. Oh, I know what it was. As I was talking to my parents at Piccadilly station in Manchester I realised I hadn't made a will and that's something you should do when you have a house and stuff, probably. Anyway, I worked out who I'd like to get my savings, books, computer stuff, A/V equipment, camera, etc. and the actual house. It's something I've been thinking about doing for a while, just never got around to it until now. It's actually been kind of fun to do, don't ask me why. Anyway I sent the email with my preferences off a few minutes ago. I know it's not a Will but given my parents are next of kin... actually no, I'll get a pack from WH Smiths over the weekend and fill that in properly. Other than that this weekend will hopefully contain climbing, cinema, a meal which I cook for someone and, with luck, some sleep. It's a long weekend so I'm sure I'll have the time to do everything I want to (such as more sleep, some reading, clothes washing, house cleaning, washing up, food shopping, DivX watching, cheese eating). Hmmm, next week's currently looking fairly OK with something happening most evenings. Mustn't think about it any more in case something bad happens. For now I'm off to the gym, then, probably home for the evening. Maybe the pub for a swift drink later on.

24/08/2006 [13:35] I had an excellent night's sleep. Pretty much exactly what I needed given the kind of things that've been going on in my life recently. Had some unfortunate news list night though from one of my friends online, but it was kind of expected so not that much of a surprise. Anyway, I picked up The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon which was sitting on my mother's bookshelf before I went to bed last night. I knew all about it already but hadn't ever got around to reading it before this morning. I found the book a little... frightening, actually. No, I can't really explain why. As many others have said, they found it saddening, enlightening or uplifting in some ways. But for some reason there was something to it which frightened me in a way I don't really know how to expand upon (which in itself - for those of you who read my journal regularly - is something of a calendar event). Suffice it to say I woke late and didn't get up until I'd finished it. That's something I haven't actually done in a very long time. I may start again on weekend mornings when I'm not actually due to go somewhere or aren't actually somewhere else other than my bed already. Other than get up, I've started reading a discourse on Locke's collected essays entitled Human Understanding which belonged to my father and his father before him. It's extremely heavy going but it has reminded me of a word I'd forgotten about; "prolixity". You'll be unsurprised to learn (on knowing, or finding out its meaning) why I like it. I've also been for a walk around the area to attempt to get my bearings and discovered a perfect place for power-kiting, some blackberry bushes and immersed myself in the very essence of suburbia. For those of you who don't know, my parents recently moved back from Leeds to Manchester (Sale) having lived in Salford previously while I was growing up. It's about time for lunch, after which we're going to go into the centre and look at some of the things which have changed since I was last living here before I get on the train this evening and I head back home again. It's going to be a long day I think. Still, the sun is shining here, there's a light breeze and I'm with my parents in their new ("and last", yeah, thanks for that dad) home. Other than my brother being here to complete the set there's only one other thing that'd make things better.

23/08/2006 [19:30] OK, hands up who stayed up too late last night given they had to be up for 06:30 this morning? Anyone? Anyone? Just me then. Right. Yeah, none too smart, especially given the punishment I've given my body in the last seven days or so. Oddly I think I'm getting into the swing of things now. Leastways the bags under my eyes don't seem to be visible at all and I honesty have only fallen asleep once today. Was up and about in good time, finished my packing and cycled to the station in fine weather. The train was one of the rare all-the-way-through ones from my town to Manchester so I got to make myself comfortable, fire up the old laptop and watch three episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis (quiet at the back) before the battery gave out. Luckily I had an emergency iPod to take me the rest of the way. Manchester has changed again in the few months since I managed to make my first return visit in a few years. It's extraordinary just how much is going on here (in the centre) and how different it looks to the slightly dowdy place I remember from growing up. The cityscape is drastically and almost futuristically different and I spend most of my time when I'm walking around with my head tipped back admiring what is some really quite nice architecture. Happily, on my journey south by tram I got to see some of the Manchester I remember; the old iron bridges over the rivers and canals tamed by the red brickwork of the just slightly post Industrial Revolution-era boom as well as some of the beautiful new bridges which give me faith that there are still some people out there who know how to make a structure look fragile yet strong, purely functional yet beautiful and basically not a monsterous eyesore. I like Manchester an awful lot. I want to come back here again and bring my friends (old and new) to show them how things have changed. For now though, home-cooked dinner.

22/08/2006 [14:40] Wahey! Back at work! Woot! The end of the Convention went very well. The Monday programme items went smoothly, we dashed about like chickens with heads that were a little confused but in the end it all came off very well. Speaking of which not only that but once the closing ceremony was over and tear-down was complete I got to relax utterly in my hotel room for a while before going to the pool and swimming and sauna'ing for a while too. The ConCom and staff then got to go for a wonderful slap-up Chinese meal with Terry and some of the other guests before coming back for the standard Donal Room Party. I bailed out some time in the early hours so that I was able to be up and about very early in the morning to get back in time for a normal working day. Unfortunately traffic wasn't so stunning and I also ended up waiting for a delivery from Loyal Fail which didn't seem to arrive until I checked the letterbox and found a card saying that apparently I wasn't in and as it needed a signature I'd need to come and get it. I was in! So, I'm at work now, having got in a little late. Working through lunch and then heading into town to move a server from one rack to another, then to the sorting office to pick up my package and then back into town to head to the doctor for an appointment. I then want to go to the gym but I'm not sure how long that session will last given how tired I probably am. Also I need to be early to bed tonight as I'm on the 07:28 to Manchester tomorrow to see my parents in their new house and help them with some of the unpacking and similar. This is going to be a busy week. It's a shame as I had hoped to see a friend this evening but I'm going to be far to busy to do it. Luckily they're house-hunting anyway though so it's not like either of us had the time. Maybe next week. I'm trying to catch up on what I was doing Wednesday of last week and failing miserably at the moment. Still, I can have another go on Friday. I do know what I need to do today though. I can cope with that for now.

21/08/2006 [10:35] Really, really so very, very tired. But then really, really so very, very happy. The Con is going excellently well. Yesterday's events went very well. The highlight for me was sitting in the Tech tower with Tim, drinking whisky, watching the attendees for the Gala Dinner come in and staying cool and relaxed. Well, that and helping to co-ordinate the string quartet which didn't do so well in room but absolutely blew everyone's socks and the roof off with their 'acoustic' session in Reception after we'd got them moved and a drink each. Possibly the best after-Dinner entertainment ever surrounded by some of the best people ever. Wouss that I am I headed to bed about 01:30 as I was actually asleep on my feet. It was nice to get my head down so early for once, even if the sleep itself was interrupted and the room too hot. I'm running on adrenaline now I think. Although I think this was the case yesterday and probably the day before too. Hmmm, other things that stick in my mind... Oh yes. Introducing Peter and Diane to the pleasures of Avenue Q (must get them the MP3s when I get home), finding three different sets of gophers at the same time, tracking down some people who wanted to do fire-breathing/eating without permission (we wouldn't have minded if they'd told us in advance), watching people getting to know each other in the signing queue, laughter of people in the Hub during the Church of Om service and the really fun radio chatter which results in puzzled faces of those standing nearby as headset-enabled people burst into seemingly spontaneous sychronised laughter. I should head off and start actually doing my job, I think.

20/08/2006 [14:00] 20 Another late night. Not terribly late, but after the fun of the day had died down, everyone had retired to the bars and the drinking had begun in earnest I took the opportunity to spend some time relaxing in the Rotunda for a little while before going back to my room around 01:30 to relax a bit more and then get some sleep. Quite a pleasant evening all told with the drink and the company and the way that a large chunk of the ConCom eschewed the hotel's attempt at food and got someone to go out and bring in £88-worth of food. Happily we not only got a 10& discount, but also some metal cutlery, roses for all the women in the party and free poppadoms (and as much mango chutney as I've seen in one place at any time). Thus far I've spent time talking to Peter Morewood and Diane Duane, seen a short film by the Alchemist and Seamstress Guilds, eaten far too much more sugar, managed to eat some fruit, missed lunch most days, flirted outragiously with many, many women and helped a lot of people smile. I'm also in the dealers room at the moment and it's about to reopen after lunch so I better go.

19/08/2006 [15:05] Yet another late night at the Convention. Spent far too long eating pizza and then drinking beer in the bar with others. The remainder of the day went swimmingly with the Opening Ceremony and the introduction of the Guilds and their heads easily surpassing the humour and involvedness garnered last time. All the Guild Heads are very much enthused by their roles and I think it's all going to be really good. I've already been approached by the Seamstresses Guild's youngest member who is eager to collect as many tokens as possible. I've also just been told how many tokens are required to show that I'm a 'repeat performer'. They have no idea. All the guests are enjoying themselves, the membership is happy, there's been a few small injuries as you'd expect and only one lost child requiring reuniting with her mother. The person who needed my laptop for the work she needed has achieved what she wanted and I actually feel like I could do another three days of this without keeling over. Whether I can manage the remainder of next week with all its travel and visiting is another matter. I'm overdosing on sugar, drinking too much tea and probably not cleaning my teeth enough. Other than that, everything's grand. In a stroke of good fortune my room mate didn't snore at all last night. Or at least, I didn't hear them. Oh, did I mention that the hotel had another mini-flood on Friday? Just as before the heavens opened, the rain came down and had nowhere to go but into the hotel by the side door. Sandbags were deployed but that end of the hotel is off limits... again and the dehumidifiers are out in force. We're very close now to the Guest of Honour Interview (Terry) so as I listen in my left ear to the comms chatter which is causing me slight bi-polar disorder over the course of this event I hear that we're in desperate need of some brandy for Mr Pratchett before (or most likely during) his event. There's a phenomenal amount of cleavage on display at this convention. The number of extremely well-filled basques, bustiers, corsets and, well, leather bras is beyond reproach. It's enough to make you hungry.

18/08/2006 [14:10] Hello again from the Discworld Convention. Things are really getting off the ground now. Despite staying up far too late last night talking online and watching new Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis episodes after the bar closed I managed to sleep through most of my room-mate's snoring and be able to get up and have a very large breakfast after my shower and be plugged back into my walkie-talkie before nine in the morning. There's an awful lot of new people at this year's Convention and it's nice to see everyone seemingly enjoying themselves so much. Having a second Gopher Master alongside me is also proving to be more useful than I thought too. Everyone's in fine fettle, no-one seems stressed and thus far nothing's (touch wood) gone wrong. I should head back out and see if anyone needs any Gophers for anything but for the time being things are so well organised that there's nut much call for them most of the time. I've just helped open the dealers' hall and been talking with some of the members about this and that. Maybe it's time I actually had some food, like I promised someone yesterday.

17/08/2006 [15:35] Am here, at the Convention. Whole place has been redecorated. The wifi reception's not bad, all things considered. Not many gophers here as yet so doing a lot of the stuff myself, which is actually a lot of fun. More hungry than anything else. Food's dead expensive (as I knew it would be) and the drinks are even more so. Still, I have provisions and stuff and there is some kind of buffet this evening. I should get off, there are dealers arriving and things need carrying around. More later.

16/08/2006 [13:00] OK dates fixed on a few previous entries. I guess everyone reads me on LiveJournal now and doesn't notice when things go a bit askew on bofhcam.org. Had a good night last night. Quiet in the main but with some enjoyable moments. Early bed. Must remember that I set the alarm earlier for this morning and needs changing back. Also that soup does not make a complete evening meal. I'm so very hungry this morning even though I was awake and up and about early enough to have some breakfast. I've been flipping through a book this morning trying to plan some things as well as being stymied in buying a new lens for my camera. I've spend a lot of time thinking about this purchase and in pretty much every regard it makes sense. In the end I've managed to order it, but my life is planned to be so busy for the next eight days that I'm not entirely sure I'm going to be in for it to be delivered to home (how useless is that in this day and age?). I've tried to arrange it for Tuesday morning when I hope to be back from the Convention, but as far as I can tell I don't think I'm going to be home in time for a morning delivery. Still at least it won't be courier who can only redeliver. But then it is going to be Royal Fail or Parcelfarce and going to their delivery offices can sometimes be an exercise in pain. Otherwise I'm back on track with work and bored stiff by what lies ahead of me. Still, only half a day to go until I'm gone for a while. [13:45] Can I just say "Can I just say Bavarian smoked cheese at lunch time? Yes." [16:50] OK, in a few minutes I'll be heading off for climbing this evening and then packing and going to the Discworld Convention tomorrow morning around 10:00. As I said I may be doing journal entries from there in the evening if the wireless plays ball and there's nothing better to be doing. I imagine I'll take my camera, but it's not something I want to be carrying around all day, so I probably won't get many shots. Anyway, I need the break from everything I'm juggling at the moment so this should be just the thing. Tuesday morning, afternoon and evening are all organised, as are Wednesday and Thursday and possibly Friday evening too. Then there's a weekend at home rather than going on a climbing trip. I wish I was going but I need to stay in and by that time get some decent nights of sleep. Things are only going to get busier I think.

15/08/2006 [18:15] Well, bofhcam.org came back online some time this afternoon, which is nice. In other news the person I was hoping to see this evening has had to cancel so I've made other plans instead. It's nice that I've actually got something else I can easily slot into place, as it were. Just like last night. I didn't have anything planned and then someone cropped up and asked if I wanted a curry. Cue one very fun evening in a curry house followed by a drink in a nearby pub. A fun time had by all. Today I solved the problem of the failing to install UPS software. Turns out it was actually the problem of the idiotic sysadmin. One day I'll learn the reason why you don't have a finger macro that does "su -" when what you really need is "su". Don't ask, I'm just annoyed it took me so long to work it out. It does mean I can get back to the job I was doing beforehand after two days of struggling with my own ineptitude. I think I may go home soon and reflect upon my mistakes while decompressing and destressing in as pleasant manner as possible.

14/08/2006 [16:00] OK, for some reason the domain information for *.bofhcam.org. is currently in flux and on "client hold". This means that not only won't you be reading this on BOFHcam until it's fixed, but also that you can't see the photos from the party I was at this weekend either unless you use the backup URL. Anyway, about the weekend. I spent Saturday morning upgrading my bike with the new wheel, fixing the puncture, bedding in new brake blocks and fitting the new bar grips. After that I was able to cycle to Tesco to get some nice food for the weekend, then to work to collect the cheese I left there on the Friday. Around midday Kate and Nigel and Co. turned up with Dave the dog in tow and we set about running through the wedding photos I've now uploaded. After the job I've had trying to get down to a sensible number I'm quite pleased with the ones I've felt able to publish. Anway, after they'd left the remainder of the day before the party was spent looking through more photos and having a very pleasant lunch. Mmm, Reblechon. The party itself was almost a standard Keith party except for a few changes in the shape of new people, new situations and just how many shots were taken with my camera. Cormac got hold of it and attempted to fill the memory card. All in all about 740 shots were taken. As you can see, there's significantly less than that in the collection. Left the party around midnight to help Nigel walk Dave and also on account of being quite knackered but ended up being awake for quite a while anyway. A great party for the most part. A wonderful day on the whole with a few great highlights. The morning was lazy and consisted of a very large cooked breakfast and lazing happily on the sofa until someone mentioned coming to the pub. A quick game of pool and a few drinks later there was time for a walk around town to work off the late breakfast before saying goodbye to those people heading off for distant parts. This morning everything seems to have been broken. Including me. I'm so very tired (something to do with late nights and activity). Other than that a lot of bits of things are broken; I can't install UPS software on our Solaris 10 boxen, the DNS is screwed for BOFHcam, turns out the old UPS software was still running on some machines along with the new stuff. Other than that things are just peachy keen. Also, I get to have curry this evening.

11/08/2006 [16:15] I've been expecting some kind of karmic payback for the good time I've been having recently. Therefore when I got on my bike to leave work last night and was instantly aware of just how flat my rear tyre was I knew it was obviously my time. After a few seconds searching I found what appeared to be a large, rusty industrial-sized staple firmly inserted into the rubber. Once extracted I walked my bike home trying to put as little weight from the bike on the folder tyre as it rolled alone. This lead to a fairly good arm workout but also meant that pretty much everyone was already in my house (Cormac has keys) by the time I got there. The evening was pretty quiet with just one film watched and James and I popping upstairs to work on the wedding photos now and again. The film was Lord of War which I have to say is a rather excellent way to spend some time, even if some of the lines gave me considerable pause for thought. I was quite pensive, thoughtful and shaken by some of the feelings it elicited. I've rationalised pretty much all of them now, but it wasn't good for a while there. Still, I slept OK, so I think I have a handle on things. After getting up this morning I tried removing the tyre from the rear wheel of the bike so I could fix the puncture. Twenty minutes late I'd not only not succeeded in removing the tyre I'd also managed to gouge some small bits from the alloy rim and apparently split the brazing where the rim is joined to itself. Basically I buggered the rim. In the end I gave up, got a co-worker who needed to drive somewhere anyway to give me a lift into town where I spent some time talking to guys in my favourite bike shop. £60 for a handbuilt wheel using the existing hub and axel versus £59 for a new wheel entire with a Deore hub and axel. I went with the new wheel as well as a new set of brake blocks, a proper set of tyre 'irons' (plastic) as part of a multi-tool and some new handlebar grips. Basically this puncture's cost me £90. I think that's a good start on whittling down whatever karma imbalance I apparently seem to have. Today has been all about collecting patch revisions, looking things up, getting very bored and working out which machines exist at the moment and which don't. That and going into town to buy cheese. Now I'm just marking time, working out what to do with Monday and wondering how wet I'm going to get walking home with a bike wheel in one hand. I should get to the gym this evening, do the bike maintenance and get the house ready for the weekend.

10/08/2006 [18:10] Tired. Didn't sleep much last night. Needed the window open and there was a bit too much noise. Still, had a pleasant evening anyway. Spent some of it on the sofa watching Dog Soldiers for the first time in a while as well as upstairs generally trying to keep cool. My house gets so hot sometimes it's silly given how cold it can get in winter. Day one of the great patches/etc. collection and with the aid of awk, cut and sort it looks like it may actually not be too bad to work out what all the machines have. I just have to SSH to every machine and collect what I need. My thanks to Larry for his astute suggestion. I'll be looking into it more later. Otherwise the day's been pretty good. Started very well and didn't really get much worse to be honest. Bit of stress in the middle but that seems to be under control now. Well, settled anyway. Turns out my laptop is going to be very useful at the Convention so I have no excuse for not bringing it now, which is cool. It'll mean I don't feel like a total geek for dragging it along. Just have to make sure there's no incriminating evidence on it, given I'll be lending it to someone else now and again. For now though, let's see... Something planned for tonight, tomorrow night, Saturday and Sunday are hopefully going to be pretty fun, Monday should be good but may end up being normal (which is fine too) and with luck Tuesday should be fun as well. Call me crazy but, so long as I don't plan too much in advance, things should be fairly interesting for the next couple of days or so. Of course, now I've said that they won't be, but hey, Life is short and there's no sense in being too depressed about things that go wrong*, just have another go. It's all good really; the hurt's as useful as the pleasure is, well, pleasurable. * I reserve the right to still be depressed when they do go wrong though.

09/08/2006 [15:50] 30 Well, I think today is going to be an OK day. I've been given a monster task in the shape of auditing all the machines for firmware and patch levels. All of the machines. This isn't a small job, but it's actually going to be quite interesting as it'll require gaining some knowledge I don't already have. Which is why I'm here! With luck it won't take me too long once I've written some scripts to collect all the information and do some kind of initial sorting for me. Of course we have all kinds of different machines and there's going to be more than the Recommended Patch Clusters to deal with given the extra stuff we have on most of them and some of the weird and wonderful hardware we have hanging off the back of most of them. Unfortunately I'm not climbing this evening either, which is pretty bad. I may go nuts. However gym last night was pretty fullfilling. Spent twenty minutes on the treadmill at some insane pace before doing the tail end of my normal weights routine and some body work. You don't really care about the details. So instead of climbing I have something at home to keep me happy and amused, so it won't be that bad. Also pizza for tea. What else... Oh yes, I've been recommended a new cheese. We like cheese. My new target for purchase which happily the cheese shop in town seems to have is Reblechon. I'll be getting some on Friday to sample over the weekend.

08/08/2006 [17:00] I started off today very well prepared for the evening of activity I thought was going to be happening. Unfortunately my activity partner was forced to go to a meeting this afternoon and evening which may or may not have netted them a rather good job, so I can't really complain as they've been after something that stops them going nuts for a a while now. This means that I'm at something of a loose end this evening. I should have gone climbing yesterday rather than going to the gym and doing photos, then I could have done the photos this evening. I think instead I'll pop to the gym again this evening for some cardio-vascular work for once and get my lung capacity back up, while listening to some music for a while. There's always an opportunity to do some more photo work too; I still have too many to give to the bride and groom. Otherwise today's been a day or reorganising my week, putting things in place to keep the evenings busy and generally getting on with the day-to-day management and arrangement that is my life at the moment. I seem to be perpetually in about three conversations which all need constant attention and varying levels of concentration and involvement. Still, it keeps the mind busy between installations, compilations, discussions on the NetApp and potential iSCSI interface stuff and documentation jags. Oh, yeah, the Discworld Convention's coming up soonish. End of next week basically. Turns out there's wireless there so I'm dragging my laptop along to do some stuff in the evenings when everyone's finished getting rat-arsed on the real ale and gone to bed. This means probable journal updates between the 17th and 21st. Aren't you lucky?

07/08/2006 [17:45] Weekend goodness in almost every way. Missed out on a few things by being elsewhere but there's a chance I can make up for it before the end of the summer if nothing else. The day's been pretty good. I've achieved all kinds of things, put in place some stuff for tomorrow and had to pass on climbing because I haven't been to the gym (which I'm paying for), done any washing or washing up in a long time and I really need to deal with the photos from the wedding. I also need to eat something filling and get an early night so I'm all rested and stuff. Tomorrow is going to be all kinds of busy here and there what with one thing and another and I'm still not sure I'm completely recovered from the fun of the weekend. What else, what else? Nope, I think that's about it. Gym, washing and washing up and an evening spent dealing with photos.

04/08/2006 [14:00] Coo, yes, last night. Eleven people for Thursday:! Talk about packed. Haven't had that many people in a while, it was excellent. Also a brand new person (who wasn't scared off) and someone who hasn't been for three years! All good. The films were rather fun too, even if there was a a lot of chatter (as there should be). I'm feeling in fine fettle today as the morning's gone well, I'm off to Wakefield in a few seconds and there should be a ton of fun organised between now and at least Wednesday morning. Life is short. It's all good.

03/08/2006 [15:35] Today is really dragging at work. There's not much I really want to or need to do now that I've fixed as much of the machine that frotted itself yesterday as seems to be visible to a fairly rigorous investigation. I'm sure there's tons of things I could be doing (like upgrading the kickstart areas to Update 8) but I so can't be arsed it's not even funny. Part of the problem is that my coworker has brought in more sweet things to eat than anyone should see in one place, let alone be allowed to eat. I've eaten far too many of them and need to get up and run around, or similar. Maybe some poi. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Or some racking of kit, or maybe some more doughnuts. That might work. Yeah. I'll do that. More sugar. Yum. Couldn't hurt...

02/08/2006 [12:05] Thus far this morning I've been: slightly late for work, solved a tricky issue with someone, made arrangements for next week, missed breakfast, remembered my insurance documents but not phoned about them yet and explained to a colleague just returned from honeymoon that his workstation was the sacrifical lamb for the RPM updates I did last week and it didn't go too well. Other than that, there's work to do, climbing tonight and... I think that's it. Just another day on the farm. Oh, I need to spend some time with the wedding photos, but I don't know when I can do that as yet. Annoyingly I've tried to bid on a new lens on eBay and had it cancelled because I haven't got five or more positive feedback comments for previous purchases. There's a reason for this: I don't have the money to fritter away on eBay purchases. If I did I wouldn't have bought things on eBay and would be able to afford the full-price lens. Gah. [17:10] Even with someone else (with feedback) bidding for me I still lost the auction. Damn. Will go climbing shortly to dull the massive pain I feel. Not terribly much from the loss of the lens, but because the servers I've tried to update today broke in horribly bad ways when my workstation froze up during an 'up2date' run over SSH to them. I'm now going to have to spend rather a long time unpicking the mess that I've accidently created. Stupid things. That'll be tomorrow though. For now I've made arrangements for next week, the weekend after this and hopefully will manage to juggle things such that things don't come tumbling down around my ears as they stand a very good chance of doing if I'm not careful. I really should be careful.

01/08/2006 [02/08/2006 - 11:40] Sorry, yes, this is a day late. I got kind of busy in the morning and was then out for the afternoon helping someone with an issue they were having. Suffice it to say we managed to get it sorted and a satisfactory situation resulted. Erm, the day was fairly quiet other than that. Probably not worthy of an entry at all, but there's always something to write about which will be a useful reminder when/if I read back one day. So, yes today was the day I got to help a friend with an issue. Other than that, I had some useful documents arrive, learned a new thing, had a useful conversation and managed to get to bed before midnight! The final point is probably the most significant of the day, now I think about it.