phik

I spent most of today reasoning through a set of DLM and mds_open changes with Peter, that will represent a pretty significant departure from The Old Way Of Doing Things, as far as Lustre metadata is concerned. Then I spent a few hours alternating between watching Jacob play the sims, and trying to implement said reasoning. Now it’s almost 06h and I’m running out of steam, but these changes give me vastly renewed hope in our metadata story.

Just for the record: Kalpana Chawla, the Indian-born American astronaut, was on her second mission. In looking for a citation, my interest was piqued:

Her first shuttle flight was in 1997, also aboard Columbia. She was never part of the Indian space programme; she immigrated as a graduate student and started working at NASA in 1988. Aside from being the first Indian-native in space, she was apparently also the first female aeronautical engineer in the history of the Punjab Engineering College.

I booked another trip to Edinburgh, this time for March, to make at least a passing attempt at having a vacation. This time, I chose a week which might fall right before we ship 1.0, so I’m sure that I’ll be relaxed and unworried, without a care in the world. Pretty soon Patrice isn’t going to let me visit anymore, because she thinks I never have any fun. As it turns out, just working someplace else is about as much fun as I have these days.

Mike likes to tell jokes about how happy I would be if he resigned, to draw attention away from the fact that he fears the murderous rage that would overcome me. You won’t like me when I’m editable.

I spent today trying to tidy up loose ends, which only marginally succeeded. I sent a lot of email, and wrote a bit of a report, and paid bills, and didn’t have any meetings which makes today in some ways my favourite day of this week.

I had my first taste of the mythical Ooey Gooey Warm ‘n Chewys today. The box suggests that you warm them on a dinner plate, and at first I was tempted–after all, if you go by the scale on the box, you’re talking about cookies the size of frisbees. Then I thought that maybe they expanded, because they are after all cookies of the space age. Nah, just use salad plates.

As to the adjectives, they are indeed ooey, gooey, and warm. They aren’t really chewy, but they’re a lot chewier than, say, Milanos. They unfortunately also have a bit of a super-processed chemical taste to them. I’ll produce a final verdict when I finish the box (of ten).

For dinner, I pan-seared some chicken breasts that I’d been marinating in Alton’s orange brine. This may have been the most moist chicken breast I’ve ever had, in spite of the relatively imprecise pan-searing. I brine everything now. Chicken, pork, especially shrimp, tofu, pasta, salad, cookies, everything. You don’t know what you’re missing, unless you’re not missing it, and you know who you are.

…and now it’s almost 03h again, which is plenty late for these old bones.

Simon likes to help me watch hockey.

Simon likes to help me watch M.C. Hammer.

The thermostat–in one of the warmest parts of the apartment, mind you–displays a rockin’ 58 degF. It’s at least five degrees colder at my desk, and at least ten degrees colder in Ice Planet Kitchen. I can’t stay here for another winter, there is absolutely no way. I am not paying a $200/month gas bill for a 48 degF kitchen.

I mentioned xfrisk to the gang today, and before I knew it, we were playing this lost relic of the 1990s. Here are some things that I didn’t remember about xfrisk ten years ago:

• Xt doesn’t like WM_DELETE events, so don’t even think about closing that window like you close every other window, with the little X. Goodbye, game.
• You can’t change colours after you decide that you’re finished adding players on your host. Pay closer attention, I guess.
• Don’t press the Mission button. Goodbye, game.
• Don’t resize the stats window. Goodbye, stats.
• The rules of the game? Continental borders? Memorize them, I guess, because they’re not in-game anywhere.
• You can’t save your game, so when someone clicks on that little X, you get to cry yourself to sleep that night.

So we only played one game through to the end without someone forgetting one of those rules. sigh.

Simon optimizes his warmth by completely covering the wireless router and snuggling with the cable modem.

Joe and Jacob came over tonight, and we made food. Carrots, and shrimps, and salads, and some potatoes that Jacob ruined.

I dropped a shrimp on the floor, so we thought we’d give it to Simon. Honestly, though: Simon was having none of that. Mostly he just wanted to rub it on himself.