I hope it's a long ceremony, 'cause it's gonna be a short honeymoon.

2008-01-15T11:04:00

Finally got paid. Well, exactly when they said I would, it just seems like it has been forever waiting. Also: it always seems like a lot of money when it comes in, but as soon as I start adding up the bills and taking out the savings it starts to approach zero. Tyler joked years ago that one day if he worked hard enough he’d be worth nothing. It’s good to keep your sense of humour when you are in debt. I am well past being in debt, but it still feels as though there is never enough. The future is a tangled mess in my mind right now.

Things that I did over the weekend:

Switched from sendmail to Postfix. Wish I had done it sooner.
Upgraded my file server to FC4. Ditto. Although AFS authentication doesn’t quite work anymore.
Set up a heterogeneous distributed compiler system using four computers, five processors, six cores and three different operating systems to build FC4 applications. Why am I doing this? So that I can issue commands like make –j 12 (dork) and expect good performance.
Went to Terrigal and floated in the ocean for an hour. The water was awesome.

By far the best use of my time was going to the beach. A big part of coming out to Australia was the idea that I’d be able to go to Terrigal just about anytime I pleased. Years ago I had this perfect moment there. There had been some files and it had been smoky for days. Then on the last day we were in Australia the wind cleared it away and I was at Terrigal on top of the skillion. The colours were intense. It was beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like that anywhere else.

Perfect Moment

2004-08-25T02:20:00

it rained last night, dispatching the bulk of the fire
up here.  i understand from the news there are some
south of here still.  the skies really cleared up today,
making today the best beach day i've had out here.  we
hiked up the skillion, basically this big chunk of earth
thrust up in complete contempt for gravity at the edge
of the ocean.  i wished i had brought my camera up
there, as the contrasting colors, dark blue ocean,
golden yellow beaches, blue-green australian overgrowth
and light blue sky were worth beholding.  maybe it was
just as well, because film, be it virtual or no, doesn't
seem to do the real thing justice, you know?
 
i hope you had a good vacation (or is it not over yet?).
how is life in america?  i will shortly have to
readjust to it.  i will give you a call from chicago, in
case my flight is delayed.  happy after now and good
future years.

I wrote that on January 8, 2002 from Gosford, Australia. Fires seem to happen in places which I call home, and there were some bad ones near Gosford at the time. When the rain cleared some of the smoke and I could see the blue skies for the first time in days, I had this perfect moment (maybe it was a moment of total clarity, whatever that is) at the top of the Skillion, and I had to share it with someone. My heart told me that I should tell this girl I liked back in the states. Thus the e-mail. Later I would find out that she had a boyfriend. It feels like it has been so long since I had a moment like that. I'm not even sure who I would tell if I did have another such experience.

Anyway, that's not a very happy thought. I'm headed off to Maine tomorrow, for the National Folk Festival and probably to do some hiking. I'm going to stop in New Hampshire to visit a friend who has left The Company to study patent law and get a degree. I will be sure to take lots of pictures and hopefully post some of them here. I will need all my low light skills to capture some interesting moments at the festival.

The Twilight Report

I hope it's a long ceremony, 'cause it's gonna be a short honeymoon.

Perfect Moment