Older blog entries for macricht (starting at number 121)

7 Dec 2001 (updated 7 Dec 2001 at 03:17 UTC) »

Gah. Working on a massive paper. Busy. Been mucking with molecular dynamics and bad OpenGL code.

Oh well, things go on.

TV
So, I got a WinTV-PVR card. Seems like the guy working on the kfir driver for the PVR disappeared off the face of the earth. Oh well, took his code, and now I have sound working.

Now, if I can just get the MPEG encoder working.

Slides
Also putting slides together for the AIChE National Conference in Reno, NV. I was supposed to be going to IPNS then, but alas, that fell through. So, now I'm going to be the only real warm body in my department during that week. Suckage.

Friends
Went to a wedding of my two best friends from college. The whole group was there, and then some. I lovehate weddings like those.

For those who care, my life still sucks. Maybe there are some things that I should just learn to accept...

Is it Q, or is it q?

Well, back from my 2 week stint in Chicago. Learned more than I ever wanted to know about magnetic bilayers, neutron sources, and undulators and wigglers.

But the big thing was the people I met. From the students from multiple universities and backgrounds, the beam line scientists and administrators, the contacts made were just cool. Now I just need to remember to email the people I met...and possibily drop by. Especially after going to a White Sox game in the back of a police car...

Now, I need sleep. Tomorrow, I'm taking some time off, and looking at the flood of Debian email I got w.r.t. Imlib1 patches.

Work

I am now getting sick of traveling. I got back from OLS last week. Now I jump on a plane on the 11th for 2 weeks in Chicago. Reason? I'm going to an all-expenses paid trip to go learn advanced scattering techniques at Argonne National Labs. What kick ass is the fact that I'm a student, some gov't agency is picking up my tab.

Cool isn't it? However, I'd like to stay in one place for a little while, so I can get some real work done...but...

Wherever you go, there you are

Recent events (namely, seeing my jerk roomie somehow pick up yet another GF) has caused me to think about what I'm doing to make me so damed lonely. I can count when i had my last real date using a calender, and total dates from college to now on one hand.

It bothered me as to what I was doing wrong. Then it came to me. I've stopped moving.

See, when I was in my undergrad engineering program, I decided to co-op (BTW, people entering college who are faced with this option...DO IT. It'll teach you a lot more than a classroom ever will) so I can pay my bills. I snagged a job with then Union Carbide (now Dow) in West Virginia. So, every other semester + summers, I was either in West Lafayette, Indianpolis, or some site in West Virginia. My work sessions were on the order of 4 months, so I was constantly living out of boxes and moving about

It was only when I entered grad school that things started settling...and I noticed what was missing. I've now been in the same area for almost 3 years now, and I miss my constant upheaval. I've grown so used to change that I cannot deal with, well, being settled. And I so want t o be settled in, focused on my research. But like a vampire without his native soil, I feel uneasy and foreign.

Did I sell part of my youth short? Did I curse myself to the empty life I live now? Have all the little pains in my life been self inflicted instead of some random chance? Did I forget to stop and learn things along the way? Am i too late?

Things to think about, I say...

The Great White North

Well, went to OLS 2001. Talks were okay. The dinners and afterwards were better. Finally got to put more nicks to faces, and it's always good to see the old GIMP gang. GPG/PGP keysigning also went well, and got a few more sigs to my key. It was also nice to meet Federico's new wife, she does seem really nice, and a good fit for Federico. I wish those two the best.

However, I never got to say goodbye to them. My food allergies kicked in at the Ximian party. Had to go home and suffer through a semi-nasty immune system response.

Also fixed some Imlib1 bugs at OLS during some of the talks. Drooled over WINE doing DirectX. Also got to Montreal to meet phil and dria.

Where am I?

A week off does things to one's mind. I need to dig through my research notes and find out what is left to do. I know I have a poster to do...

Music

Manish and myself ended up in a music store in Montreal. Bought some CDs at his suggestion (two Delerium albums, Poem and Karma). Both aren't bad, and are now in my regular playing list. Also listened to my recently acquired copy of Apoptygma Bezerk's Seven. Some of the tracks (Nearer and Mourn) just reverberate in my head for some reason...

514 nm
More dynamic light scattering. For those who don't know what that is, it involves me sitting by a 800mW argon laser.

In the dark...

For long periods of time...

Ok, each sample takes 5 minutes, and 3 repeats + sample changing time. Not short enough to make the experiments "fast", and not long enough to do something else. I.O.W. tedium.

I wanna go back to my neutron beamlines now...

Code
Looking at writing a little script to go through and comment all my ogg's properly...

...and I've been getting...

The Return of Imlib1
Imlib1 bug reports. Most of them have been good bug reports. Detailed, and people willing to feed back the proper information.

Then I got an email from a Debian developer taking over the package, and we had a nice chat about the Debian specific patches in their deb.

That wasn't the problem

The problem was this one. Somehow, the person who is listed on that bug got a CC or something. I simply requested that one, the bug be put in GNOME's bugzilla, and to attach the problem file to the bug.

But no. I proceeded to get chewed out for not fixing the "fscking" bug AND...get this...that I had the GALL to ask for the file to be as an attachment to the bug.

I almost ripped the guy new orifices. Note the plural. I'm so sorry that I'm not responding to your bugs I've only been notified as of 12 hours ago. I'm so sorry that your needs for a feature that is used by maybe 1% of PNGs out there isn't working. Lemme drop my research, writing my prospectus, and my LIFE for your little bug.

I have a patch in hand. I'm going to take my time with it, just for this little bastard.

Tired.

Busy.

Stressed.

Pissed off.

Befuddled.

Damn, I hate life.

Wish I could just figure it out. Now, back to my attempts at writing a GNOME programming tutorial and figuring out why there's a BMW outside my house.

Stuff

Research spinning up again.

Really bad news from the home front.

Oh well, that's how things go.

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