BOFHJournal - May 2008

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April's Journal

13/05/2008 [16:55] I went home in a bit of a funk last night. Not quite sure why. Maybe it was tiredness or dehydration or something like that. Whatever it was I surely didn't feel like much contact with the outside world. Once I got home I grabbed a picnic blanket, a beanbag and the book Kris had given me and went outside to read it for a few hours. I haven't read for such an uninterrupted period for a good few months and it was marvellous except for the slight ache I still have in the left side of my neck muscles near my spine. It doesn't feel serious at all, just a bit stiff and annoy and has been there for a few days now (so no, it's not meningitis). After reading I popped online for a chat and ended up staying on far longer than I thought I would. Mark one up for the need to get information across and genuinely enjoying contact when I was sure I wouldn't. I like that though. That and the fact that I spent the rest of the evening in a much better mood. Probably having pizza and a beer helped too. I woke in the middle of the night (probably due to dehydration) so was a little bleary when it was time to actually get out and about. Today I've written a lot of good emails, set up the first of the web boxen, got the DNS sorted and generally have a good idea of what I'm doing tomorrow. Rather than risk the day going bad at this point I'm going to count my blessings at finding somewhere that had a Canon LP-1014 lens case (soft, damnit) in stock and go to the gym. Dinner is being had Out this evening. Should be nice.

12/05/2008 [16:25] We rowed on Friday. That was excellent. Really, really good. I found myself at 5 set rather than Bow (something I wasn't told until we were getting the boat out of the bay) and everything came together for pretty much everyone. It was so good I was moved to email the coach (who wasn't there) and tell him so. Incredibly we were on the water for about three hours which meant that by the time I got home it was 21:50. Showering and making dinner took me to 22:40 so I didn't really settle down to eat until 22:45. Not a brilliant way to live for an evening but perfectly tolerable. I watched some television and went to bed feeling quite pleased. Saturday I wasn't actually in the boat for the outing. This is the first one I've missed out on while still actually being available. In solidarity and to see what we look like from the bank I came along on my bike anyway and was interested to see just how some of the other squad row. I didn't feel right shouting out helpful things and I'm not sure people would have appreciated it. Back at home I made the effort to cut the grass, trim the hedge under the window and replace the rear derailleur and chain on my older bike. I'm pretty sure I did a perfect job but the chain is still skipping. I can only assume it's because the cassette is worn and the chain's not stretched (enough) so doesn't conform to the shape of the teeth. I guess that means I need a new cassette too. Ah well. It's worth it to have two bikes in cycleable order. Getting things done there meant I was a bit late for Rosie and Ian's housewarming. Luckily they've moved closer by again so I was able to get there in short order. That was a lovely way to spend the evening but I was absolutely knackered and needed to prepare for the race the next day so left at about 22:00 and came home. Kris was around so we had a nice chat before I went to bed. Due to be on the water for 08:00 I was up for 06:00 and sending mails and things by 06:40. Down at the boathouse we prepared ourselves and the boat and headed down to the start line with the masses of other boats also taking part. The first leg of the Head (2.6km downstream) was one of the best prolonged bouts of rowing I've done to date. I remembered everything; not to grip too hard with the feathering hand (no lactic acid buildup this time!), to hook and pull with the outside hand and most importantly to put the power down with my legs. It seems like everyone did and we put in a reasonable time. The row back was a little slower due to the number 2 seat catching two crabs in quick succession but we still held off the boat behind us which was excellent. All in all I think we improved in technique (possibly at the expensive of power) over the last (first) race. Not a brilliant or note-worthy position in the final times but nice to know we have somewhere to aim at. After the rowing I was free to wander off as I'd not been chosen for the Sprints in the afternoon. Heading home for a shower and a chat I ended up back out in the the brilliant sunshine and into town to rescue Kate from her revision for a few hours. A late salad-based lunch, a drink and some sorbet and we wandered back to her house to sit on the steps and drink tea as we discussed interesting matters further. In the end I decided to force her back into revision mode and came home to chill, chat and generally relax. This morning my door surveyor was caught in traffic so arrived later than expected however all was well so I still got into work about when I expected to. Today has been mainly about updating all the linux boxen with new kernels and thinking more about hard drive sizes for the new web teams' Xen kit. I should head off and get my hair cut before I start getting tan lines on my head. Turns out I'm not in the boat for tomorrow's outing so I think I'll go to the gym for the first time in a while (not counting today's ergo session at lunch time).

09/05/2008 [16:40] Today improves just a little bit more over yesterday. This is good. I've been for a run (6km, 24 minutes again), done some finishing work on the approximately 170 Perl modules I have to install and basically written a lot of good emails. Last night was interesting. We all met out on one of the grassy public areas in town and lazed around on my blankets eating the pizza Keith and I went to order. I learned a new thing or two which was a tad odd but when I think about them rationally they mean nothing, which is as it should be. Once a few people had wandered off we decided that watching a film on the laptop on the grass probably wasn't going to work so the remaining people wandered back to Cormac and Steph's to use a large widescreen laptop. I'm afraid I fell asleep before then end as I'm wont to do these days but rallied enough to make my way home in the balmy night air. I'm out in a boat again this evening and then not on Saturday. However I think I will turn up and run alongside the boat as bank party in case there are any nuggets of wisdom to be gained. I'll also get a chance to watch my own boat in action to see how everyone else is improving. It turns out that while five of the squad are in both races and all the training sessions between now and Sunday afternoon, I'm not one of them. No Sprint for me on Sunday and, as I said, no place for me on Saturday either. Still, I do get to do the x2 2.6km Head course on the Sunday morning. That should be enough. Despite not wanting rowing to be my life and being glad that it's not I am a little disappointed that I haven't been selected for both races. It makes me think that perhaps, as per usual, I'm not as good as others in the boat. I would like to be down in the 7 seat a bit more as I really enjoy it a lot there (and frankly think I do my best work when I am). I guess cox and coach just don't see it happening. Life goes on and there's an awful lot more to it than having a big stick in your hands and trying to slide backwards through the water as fast as you can.

08/05/2008 [17:20] Today has mostly been a much better day I think. After I got home last night I had someone come over to talk to me about doors. I wasn't in the best of moods but the price we ended up discussing (and have now agreed) seemed Not Too Bad. I don't think I'm being stiffed anyway. I was still feeling quite low mood-wise and really just needed to chill out for a while. So in keeping with my newfound semi-consistent attitude I had a nice big meal because it seems to me (and other people who I care about and who care about me) that I'm probably not eating enough these days given the amount of exercise I'm doing. After that I cycled over to Cormac and Steph's place and basically shot the breeze for a while, something I don't think I've done with friends in a long time. We ended up cycling to Tesco and back (they're lovely and close) before coming back and having a drink in the almost Mediterranean night air. I cycled home and spent a few minutes chatting and discovering I was still pretty down. An early bed seemed like the best thing. This morning I woke horribly (05:00 again) early. I really need to get around to closing my curtains while the mornings are so bright. I really do think that helps me stay asleep those few hours longer. Still, once up and about I decided to get into work early and achieve some things. I did too. Mostly it was writing a long and important email and attaching various things to it to make it just a bit better. Of course I forgot to explain what two of the attachments were (for) but I got to explain in person just before I dashed out to have lunch with Kate in town. Had a great time as always and people-watched for an hour or so before heading back and diving head-first into all manner of Perl module stuff. Made fantastic progress on that score and I think I may have a definitive way to install all the modules the web team need on their new Xen servers. All fifteen of them. I think now though it's time I went home and tried to find out if it's possible to have a Thursday film night outside on a public space in the centre of town with a number of blankets, two laptops and two copies of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Plus attendant pizza, drinks, dogpiling of people and things of that nature. This could be interesting... Oh, turns out I won't be rowing on Saturday or for one of the races on Sunday (the sprint). I don't think I care (given I don't want rowing to be my whole life) but it does feel a little like I'm being left out of the boat, etc. I know it's because we have twelve people in the squad now but even so... maybe it was my attitude on Tuesday or am I just not pulling my weight enough? Oh well, time to fix my bike, clean the house, have a life and generally sleep in for the first morning in a month!

07/05/2008 [16:30] Yesterday's outing was pretty crappy. Beautiful weather, good feeling but I did abysmally, the boat wasn't set and the crew the coach has selected for the two races on the weekend just doesn't feel right. Not to mention the fact that I'm in the Bow seat. No, I didn't like last night at all. Not only that but after putting the boat away I was braced by someone else from the club to ask about the clearing up of the barbeque we had there three weeks ago. Turns out some stuff was left out/not put in bin bags and something got some cooking grease on it. I have no bloody idea how it happened but as one of the people who spent upwards of three hours cooking food that night before going home well before the end of the evening I got the blame for it being so. I pure couldn't be bothered to make a fuss so I just asked what I could do to help, did a whole lot of picking rotten food packets out of a bin and dropping in a bin bag and then spent time washing grease off a bakers loaf crate which is used for storing shoes when people're out on the water. Didn't put me in a great mood anyway considering this was 'thanks' for the work I'd put in. I went up to take part in the debrief and wasn't particularly positive and frankly just wanted to give my place to someone else in the boat for the weekend. Arriving home I really didn't want to talk to anyone but put in the effort because, well, sometimes it's worth it. I went to bed fairly early after making sure I'd eaten and drunk enough. I managed to sleep in a little later this morning by actually closing my curtains for once. I don't think that's been done regularly since the end of September last year. It's not something I do, anyway. Still feeling a bit down I headed into work and spent a good long chunk of time getting angry at CPAN and Perl modules. The web development guys want about seventy modules installed on their new Xen (DomU) servers and some of them are a right bitch to get installed. A break here and there to chat and receive deliveries made things a bit more bearable. In an effort to take a break from rowing for at least a day I went for a run at lunch time instead. The weather was extraordinarily warm for the time of year but I still managed to put in a good 24minute time for the old 6km route. I think my legs are stronger with all the rowing I've been doing and the long 12.7km runs I do on the weekends. Hurrah for that anyway. I'm off home shortly to see a man about a front door. No climbing tonight so I may go and help Cormac and Steph unpack a bit more.

06/05/2008 [14:15] Hurrah for bank holiday weekends. I've done so much it's brilliant. Plus the weather has been fantastic too! So, Friday night I went to the gym as per and then came home to relax. Had a lovely evening chatting and generally doing this and that. I ended up watching a film on my own just because I could. Saturday I was up nice and early and down to the boat house for an outing with the squad. After some excellent core exercises we got out on the water for another rather good technical session, just like Tuesday. Only this one was done in much nicer weather. After that I came back and completely weeded the garden, path and driveway. Not only that but I swept away all the loose tarmac gravel from the driveway. Hopefully it'll all be taken away by the bin men in time! With no Cormac and Steph to take me to Tesco I decided not to do much else that day so stayed in and had a very wonderful and enjoyable afternoon learning how to achieve certain goals. Not quite sure what I did with Saturday evening. It's all a bit of a blur. Sunday I do know that I was up and about in time to be down to the boathouse again for a double outing. Unfortunately our first outing cox had broken her collarbone being knocked from her bike by another cyclist so we did two 30min ergs instead with her giving technique advice. After that we were out on the water doing even more technical work (which, frankly, I love) and then after that I decided on the spur of the moment to do a quick 10km run. This last was possibly a bad idea, especially as a few of us had planned to come back to the boathouse on Monday morning to do a 20km erg session, but I did it anyway. I don't think it killed me but the last few kilometres weren't as easy as they normally are! I wobbled home on my bike and had a nice hot shower after stretching. Food has become an even more vital part of my life these days so I had a second breakfast before lunch. After some chilling out time Sam came over and we went off to see Iron Man (good, worth seeing, probably not more than twice) which was a great way to catch up and generally enjoy the last part of the day. Feeling like I'd been cut in half (hungry) we stopped off for a takeaway curry on the way home before I stayed up for a while to let my food go down and then became unconscious in bed. Monday! Monday was a bank holiday so obviously I was up around about 06:00 and looking for things to do. At 08:30 I was at the boathouse and with three others from the squad we embarked on another 20km pull. 79min 14sec later (incidently, to the second what I got last time) I was done and with aching muscles in my posterior. I cycled home in mild but perfectly tolerable discomfort. For those of you who care, that's the kind of discomfort you get after a big bout of exercise, not injury. After a shower and food I pedaled out to Tesco to stock up on food for the week and a bit. That wasn't 100% good either but by the time I was home all was well. I walked half way to Kate's a few hours later to walk her home to see my house and have a quick cup of tea before we walked back into town for our semi-regular dinner thingy. The weather was fantastic so we took the opportunity to amble and had a lovely time discussing this and that and enjoying the topics of discussion which came up. Walking home afterwards the night air was a perfect temperature and only my shoes (which I don't wear that often) were a problem with a mini-blister on one achilles heel which shouldn't last more than a day or so. After getting back I popped online to chat to Kris for a while and fill her in on the day's activities before bed. This morning I've discovered that not only am I in the boat for next Sunday's sprint (400m, full power) but we're also going to be taking part in a 2600m there and 2600m back head-to-head race too! That one's really going to require us to dig deep! I don't think I'll need my hands next Monday so that's OK. Today I have been rationalising the asset tracking system and our machine list on the twiki. Now that is scintillating work! Not. Rowing tonight to prepare for the weekend ahead.

02/05/2008 [16:50] How much would you pay for a new front door (hardwood) including the frame being replaced, all the fixtures and fittings, VAT and stuff like that? I've been ballparked a figure of about £2000 which feels excessive to be honest with you. Other people are talking about me getting a (composite) door for £595 and fitting it and the frame myself. One person in the office tried that (and he's a pretty handy guy) and found it rather difficult. I'm not sure which way to go at the moment. I do know that the company I've chosen for the moment will do a composite door job for less than two grand. I may see what they can come up with. It's the labour I guess which is the killer. Right at the moment I'm just not into DIY in a big way. Maybe I'll be more so when it comes to the kitchen. I've been fighting with PHP today. Not sure if I've broken anything moving from 5.0.4 to 5.2.5 but I'm having a devil of a time finding a php-pear RPM for 5.2.5 and building the source RPM isn't going well. I think I'll head off soon, go to the gym and then collapse for the evening. Three rows to do, two bikes to fix and a cinema trip before Monday. That's a bank holiday so I'll be off work and doing fun things, including dinner with a friend in the evening I think. 01/05/2008 [09:50] Welcome to May. May. Already it's May. Seems like it isn't long since Christmas. But now I think about it a lot of time has actually passed and with it all kinds of happenings, situations, incidents and accidents. There were hints and allegations... Anyway, things look a lot more exciting, clear and hopefully are beginning to sort themselves out into some semblance of a life which I would be happy to lead. Of course there are and will be some wrinkles and folds still to be ironed out but, given things which have come to light recently and decisions I've been making, things seem a bit more bright and hopeful than they have been in a while. There could perhaps be, potentially, some good times coming. Although not for a little while longer unfortunately. Still, like waiting and saving for that toy (yes, even when you're 32 you still want toys) it's so much sweeter when you finally get to Have it. Well, I'm waiting and saving. I think it could be good. Unfortunately, as is the case in life there must be balance. The current balance is maintained by Cormac and I arriving home last night (climbing was pretty good actually, I was close to getting back to my best, maybe) to find a Police forensics van parked outside my immediate next door neighbour's house. His front door had some substantial screwdriver marks in the frame. The break in hadn't been successful but it put me on edge as his front door is in plain sight of the road we're on. Mine (and my entire front of the house) is hidden behind a large leylandii hedge. I have to worry that they've already 'cased my joint' as it were. I can only hope that they saw that my door has a five bar lock as well as the Yale lock and it'd take significant effort to gain entry (at least I hope it would). Something tells me that perhaps having the upstand light in my lounge come on in the evenings with the blinds closed helps too... Gah, I hate this feeling of wondering if my house is going to be broken into and ransacked while I'm not there. I've upped the frequency of images captured by the camera in the lounge in the hope that if something does happen it'll be recorded. However I'd much rather not have to worry about it at all. Cormac's going to hopefully pass on the details of someone who quotes well for door+frame replacement so maybe I'll get the door replaced (finally). I'm thinking a nice wooden door in British Racing Green with some nice shiny brass numbers and letterbox. What do you think? Today I've lunch in town, work to be doing and probably a normal Thursday this evening. Although now I think about it, at least two regulars won't be there as they're standing for the council as Green Party candidates. [18:20] Not quite the productive day I was hoping for. No word from Cormac on door fitters, no progress on the web developer's boxes and a long and ultimately costly (or will be when we get the email telling us how much we're going to have to pay) telephone call to Red Hat to work out how we're going to get more than four virtual hosts on a physical host and have them not consume real subscriptions when we join them to RHN. I'm off home now. I think it might be a quiet one tonight.