2011-01-25: day +44.
Long day again today. For work, I had to prepare and give an overview of JIRA and how it is used where I am currently working. Preparing the presentation was pretty straightforward - just a few key points, a link to the Atlassian YouTube video and some screen shots.
The issue was that I had not done a run-through of the presentation (i.e., practice) before that. Normally, that isn't an issue as I do think quite quickly on my feet. However, with only 4-5 hours sleep last night and gut-wrenching cramps, I felt my performance was less than sensational.
Luckily for me, the audience was quite forgiving and things were OK. I just don't like feeling like I didn't deliver my best all the time.
2012-01-25
A long day.
Actually, yesterday was day +43.
This was a loooong day. I got up at 5:30, got ready for work and plowed through a ton of things. I managed to catch up on a lot of email (down to 33 in the inbox) and then had to go out to supper with a bunch of people from work. That meant getting back to the computer and work at 10:30 or so. Yikes.
Then, a quick restart of some services and adding about 30 people to JIRA for the training tomorrow.
Now - Bed!
This was a loooong day. I got up at 5:30, got ready for work and plowed through a ton of things. I managed to catch up on a lot of email (down to 33 in the inbox) and then had to go out to supper with a bunch of people from work. That meant getting back to the computer and work at 10:30 or so. Yikes.
Then, a quick restart of some services and adding about 30 people to JIRA for the training tomorrow.
Now - Bed!
Life, the universe and everything.
Technically, yesterday was day +42. (The Answer!!)
I say technically, because in is 12:20 on the 25th, but I still haven't gone to bed yet.
It was a Monday. I did no research. I worked. I packed.
I say technically, because in is 12:20 on the 25th, but I still haven't gone to bed yet.
It was a Monday. I did no research. I worked. I packed.
2012-01-23
What can beat a brunch with friends?
Yesterday was day +41.
We had a lovely day yesterday other than both waking up with migraines from the Chinook.
We met our friends for a leisurely brunch at Bolero's and had a great time together with great conversation.
That was followed up by a bunch of running around and more chores at home. The evening was nice and relaxing, but we both found it a bit difficult to sleep.
We had a lovely day yesterday other than both waking up with migraines from the Chinook.
We met our friends for a leisurely brunch at Bolero's and had a great time together with great conversation.
That was followed up by a bunch of running around and more chores at home. The evening was nice and relaxing, but we both found it a bit difficult to sleep.
2012-01-22
Chores feel good
Yesterday was day +40.
Today, while my sweetie was at a course I focused on chores.
Book-keeping, year-end filing updates, dishes, stove cleaning, vacuuming, bathroom cleaning.
Sounds like not much fun, right?
The reality is that I always find days like this immensely satisfying.
Today, while my sweetie was at a course I focused on chores.
Book-keeping, year-end filing updates, dishes, stove cleaning, vacuuming, bathroom cleaning.
Sounds like not much fun, right?
The reality is that I always find days like this immensely satisfying.
2012-01-21
Outlook 2003 ical to Mac
Yesterday was day +39.
Like many unfortunate people, I have to suffer through using M$ tools at work, including calendaring on Exchange and Outlook (2003).
Within their own domain, they are fine (not great - but serviceable).
When it comes time to try to include someone (i.e., me at home) that is using iCal, they suck. Nowadays, anytime I try to send a meeting invitation to myself, it comes as this garbage winmail.dat file.
Luckily, a good text editor (e.g., Textmate) can fix the issue. In your mail, right-click the winmail.dat file and open it with your text editor.
The first umpteen lines will look like garbage (they are :). Look for the characters BEGIN:VCALENDAR. Delete everything from the beginning of the file to there. Then, look for END:VCALENDAR and delete everything from the "R" to the end of the file.
Save that as whatever.ics, double-click it and voila, your meeting is added to iCal.
In other news, I was at the U all afternoon and I now have the LQPL server able to return the current quantum stack in XML format. YES!
Like many unfortunate people, I have to suffer through using M$ tools at work, including calendaring on Exchange and Outlook (2003).
Within their own domain, they are fine (not great - but serviceable).
When it comes time to try to include someone (i.e., me at home) that is using iCal, they suck. Nowadays, anytime I try to send a meeting invitation to myself, it comes as this garbage winmail.dat file.
Luckily, a good text editor (e.g., Textmate) can fix the issue. In your mail, right-click the winmail.dat file and open it with your text editor.
The first umpteen lines will look like garbage (they are :). Look for the characters BEGIN:VCALENDAR. Delete everything from the beginning of the file to there. Then, look for END:VCALENDAR and delete everything from the "R" to the end of the file.
Save that as whatever.ics, double-click it and voila, your meeting is added to iCal.
In other news, I was at the U all afternoon and I now have the LQPL server able to return the current quantum stack in XML format. YES!
2012-01-20
JRuby really rocks
Yesterday was day +38.
I actually got to do a tiny bit of programming at work yesterday!
We have some reports running in Confluence using JRuby as the programming language. As part of the plugin in Confluence, we have put in a fair bit of common code, including an old version of ActionView.
In some of the source data for the report there are these really long internal links, which mess up the column spacing. I first tried to get auto_link working to replace the link, but eventually gave up by the fourth module include. So, I wrote our own version of it. Short and sweet and solved the report format issue nicely.
Felt Good.
I actually got to do a tiny bit of programming at work yesterday!
We have some reports running in Confluence using JRuby as the programming language. As part of the plugin in Confluence, we have put in a fair bit of common code, including an old version of ActionView.
In some of the source data for the report there are these really long internal links, which mess up the column spacing. I first tried to get auto_link working to replace the link, but eventually gave up by the fourth module include. So, I wrote our own version of it. Short and sweet and solved the report format issue nicely.
Felt Good.
2012-01-19
Over to drogar
Yesterday was day +37.
Being that it was (another frigid) Wednesday, I went up to the UofC in the afternoon. So nice.
More activity on LQPL, refining the code to pass all the tests I had and then modifying the specs slightly (by changing and adding tests) to get more of what I want. For details, see my blog on drogar.blogspot.com.
Being that it was (another frigid) Wednesday, I went up to the UofC in the afternoon. So nice.
More activity on LQPL, refining the code to pass all the tests I had and then modifying the specs slightly (by changing and adding tests) to get more of what I want. For details, see my blog on drogar.blogspot.com.
2012-01-18
55.1
Yesterday was day +36.
Still amazingly cold in Calgary. I took the bus in as it was just too cold for the car and my sweetie was still feeling the effects of the migraine.
Work was OK. I'm really starting to consider what do I need to do as part of my exit to ensure it is smooth.
The funnest part of the day was doing more work on LQPL. I've been quite strict with myself in doing the behaviour driven development with HUnit. The fascinating thing is I spent about 40 minutes writing tests and then wrote the code to pass most of them in about 5. The even more fascinating thing is how comfortable I feel with the result of the code. The tests are really working like an example based specification, so I can easily explain exactly what is acceptable input to the parser.
I'm now one-tenth of the way through being 55.
Still amazingly cold in Calgary. I took the bus in as it was just too cold for the car and my sweetie was still feeling the effects of the migraine.
Work was OK. I'm really starting to consider what do I need to do as part of my exit to ensure it is smooth.
The funnest part of the day was doing more work on LQPL. I've been quite strict with myself in doing the behaviour driven development with HUnit. The fascinating thing is I spent about 40 minutes writing tests and then wrote the code to pass most of them in about 5. The even more fascinating thing is how comfortable I feel with the result of the code. The tests are really working like an example based specification, so I can easily explain exactly what is acceptable input to the parser.
I'm now one-tenth of the way through being 55.
2012-01-17
Work Effectiveness
Yesterday was day +35.
This was the first really cold day of the year. At the same time, my sweetie got a weather induced migraine, so I decided to work from home. Other than a few startup issues because I hadn't enabled the Java plugin for Safari, it was so smooth.
I always find it fascinating how much more productive I am when I do this. My availability is the same as when I am at work as I get email, IM, and phone calls. The difference, of course, is no hallway conversations and no drop-ins. Because of this, emails and tasks fall like flies.
Migraines. This has been the worst season ever for them in Calgary. One or the other of us is affected by one practically every week now. Some times they are just bad, sometimes they are debilitating. This is really going to influence our decision about what we do / where we go at the end of this year.
This was the first really cold day of the year. At the same time, my sweetie got a weather induced migraine, so I decided to work from home. Other than a few startup issues because I hadn't enabled the Java plugin for Safari, it was so smooth.
I always find it fascinating how much more productive I am when I do this. My availability is the same as when I am at work as I get email, IM, and phone calls. The difference, of course, is no hallway conversations and no drop-ins. Because of this, emails and tasks fall like flies.
Migraines. This has been the worst season ever for them in Calgary. One or the other of us is affected by one practically every week now. Some times they are just bad, sometimes they are debilitating. This is really going to influence our decision about what we do / where we go at the end of this year.
2012-01-16
Blizzards can be nice...
Yesterday was day +34.
... at least when you are indoors.
A lovely day - lots of RoR programming, writing tests and relaxing. My leg/hip has been sore for two days in a row, as we woke up to a bit of a blizzard this AM. I'm becoming a bit like the old-timers who can tell when the whether is going to change because their Lumbago is acting up :).
I'm a bit frustrated that I haven't been able to catch up on the daily blog here. I think this makes three days in a row that I start off with the "Yesterday" disclaimer. Perhaps tomorrow.
... at least when you are indoors.
A lovely day - lots of RoR programming, writing tests and relaxing. My leg/hip has been sore for two days in a row, as we woke up to a bit of a blizzard this AM. I'm becoming a bit like the old-timers who can tell when the whether is going to change because their Lumbago is acting up :).
I'm a bit frustrated that I haven't been able to catch up on the daily blog here. I think this makes three days in a row that I start off with the "Yesterday" disclaimer. Perhaps tomorrow.
2012-01-15
A relaxing Saturday
Yesterday was day +33.
A nice lazy Saturday - characterized by sleeping in and taking it easy through the day.
Some work done around the house, but mostly just kicking back and relaxing.
A nice lazy Saturday - characterized by sleeping in and taking it easy through the day.
Some work done around the house, but mostly just kicking back and relaxing.
2012-01-14
Templar's WATCH OUT!
Yesterday was day +32.
So, more than a month of being 55. I thought of doing a retrospective of how the first month was, but I don't really feel like it. Maybe later.
I had quite a good day. I started of with doing a review of an upcoming course I am helping with at the end of the month. It felt like a real accomplishment, as opposed to all those soft airy-fairy management accomplishments I normally have to satisfy myself with. :)
In the afternoon, I made it up to the U. Started off hearing Jonathan Gallagher's talk on Left-Additive Turing Categories, which was a run-up to his thesis defence next thursday. GOOD LUCK JONATHAN!
After, I had a chat with my prof, talked some more about getting the LQPL program going and set up for people and he gave me a paper, "From Reversible to Irreversible Computations" to start looking at. Then, I did some actual Test Driven Development in Haskell for LQPL and the work day was done.
My sweetie and I had a lovely supper and then off home.
So, more than a month of being 55. I thought of doing a retrospective of how the first month was, but I don't really feel like it. Maybe later.
I had quite a good day. I started of with doing a review of an upcoming course I am helping with at the end of the month. It felt like a real accomplishment, as opposed to all those soft airy-fairy management accomplishments I normally have to satisfy myself with. :)
In the afternoon, I made it up to the U. Started off hearing Jonathan Gallagher's talk on Left-Additive Turing Categories, which was a run-up to his thesis defence next thursday. GOOD LUCK JONATHAN!
After, I had a chat with my prof, talked some more about getting the LQPL program going and set up for people and he gave me a paper, "From Reversible to Irreversible Computations" to start looking at. Then, I did some actual Test Driven Development in Haskell for LQPL and the work day was done.
My sweetie and I had a lovely supper and then off home.
2012-01-12
JARD
Day +31.
Just Another Regular Day.
Meetings, Bloody Meetings all day long at work.
Yesterday, though, I forgot to mention I had the first meeting of the year with my thesis supervisor. Nice to get back to it. He concurred with my three month plans in general, although we will talk about a few mods (of course! That is why he is my thesis supervisor! ) One thing he is considering getting me involved in is a message passing language that is founded on linear logic. Could be quite cool. We also talked about some possible extensions and improvement to LQPL, although those are likely to be longer term. The biggest mod, which actually requires an update to the plan, is that he thinks it would be best to handle the coproduct case at the same time as the product case in inverse categories. One without the other is like peanut butter without jam. It just doesn't leave you satisfied.
That's actually quite cool as I really prefer to have something complete (hmmm - perfectionism perhaps?) before saying it is ready to go.
Well — off to write more HUnit tests!
Just Another Regular Day.
Meetings, Bloody Meetings all day long at work.
Yesterday, though, I forgot to mention I had the first meeting of the year with my thesis supervisor. Nice to get back to it. He concurred with my three month plans in general, although we will talk about a few mods (of course! That is why he is my thesis supervisor! ) One thing he is considering getting me involved in is a message passing language that is founded on linear logic. Could be quite cool. We also talked about some possible extensions and improvement to LQPL, although those are likely to be longer term. The biggest mod, which actually requires an update to the plan, is that he thinks it would be best to handle the coproduct case at the same time as the product case in inverse categories. One without the other is like peanut butter without jam. It just doesn't leave you satisfied.
That's actually quite cool as I really prefer to have something complete (hmmm - perfectionism perhaps?) before saying it is ready to go.
Well — off to write more HUnit tests!
2012-01-11
HUnit rocks, Cabal rolls
Day +30.
Woke up with a headache today, which was exacerbated by fasting for blood tests this morning. Ah well.
I did get to do some programming and got to add my first unit tests to the LQPL server. My coding to this point has been a spike just to make sure I had what I needed in socket libraries. So, I've done the set up and checked in my first test. Now, on to the standard do the test, refactor to green cycle.
I'm using HUnit which is quite straightforward and lovely to use. As I use Cabal for my build system, my first thought was to use the declarative test system with the cabal configuration file. Sadly, I just could not get that to work (although I shall try again later). Happily, using the cabal defaultMainWithHooks method worked perfectly, other than the deprecated warning every time it ran :).
Woke up with a headache today, which was exacerbated by fasting for blood tests this morning. Ah well.
I did get to do some programming and got to add my first unit tests to the LQPL server. My coding to this point has been a spike just to make sure I had what I needed in socket libraries. So, I've done the set up and checked in my first test. Now, on to the standard do the test, refactor to green cycle.
I'm using HUnit which is quite straightforward and lovely to use. As I use Cabal for my build system, my first thought was to use the declarative test system with the cabal configuration file. Sadly, I just could not get that to work (although I shall try again later). Happily, using the cabal defaultMainWithHooks method worked perfectly, other than the deprecated warning every time it ran :).
More on Osteoarthritis
Yesterday was day +29.
I think the diagnosis of "severe osteoarthritis" has thrown me for a bit of a loop.
I seem to be somewhat numb (or in denial:) about the effects of this diagnosis. In reality, this likely means no more marathons and possibly no more running. I immediatly thought of:
The emotional aspect of the diagnosis is kind of complicated. My dad was 55 (ha - my age now!) when I was born and just never seemed healthy. I remember him always talking about his arthritis - including painful hands and as he got older, less and less walking. So — perhaps he had this issue as well. One currently big difference between the two of us was that he was quite skinny. He was 6'4" tall and I think most of the time I remember he weighed under 170 pounds. I, as noted in my fitness blog, am 6'0" tall and currently weigh just over 200 pounds.
A lighter, brighter note... My sweetheart got her first engagement through Adopt-An-Artist and will be placing a number of paintings in the Calgary Liberal Caucus offices. Yayyy!
I think the diagnosis of "severe osteoarthritis" has thrown me for a bit of a loop.
I seem to be somewhat numb (or in denial:) about the effects of this diagnosis. In reality, this likely means no more marathons and possibly no more running. I immediatly thought of:
- Get a rowing machine (e.g., Concept2 type E)
- Do deep-water running.
- Losing weight to reduce stress on the hip.
The emotional aspect of the diagnosis is kind of complicated. My dad was 55 (ha - my age now!) when I was born and just never seemed healthy. I remember him always talking about his arthritis - including painful hands and as he got older, less and less walking. So — perhaps he had this issue as well. One currently big difference between the two of us was that he was quite skinny. He was 6'4" tall and I think most of the time I remember he weighed under 170 pounds. I, as noted in my fitness blog, am 6'0" tall and currently weigh just over 200 pounds.
A lighter, brighter note... My sweetheart got her first engagement through Adopt-An-Artist and will be placing a number of paintings in the Calgary Liberal Caucus offices. Yayyy!
2012-01-09
Osteoarthritis
Day +28.
My diagnosis came back from the doctor today. "Severe left hip osteoarthritis".
The interesting thing is that with the exercising I have been doing and the walking with my feet straight, the pain has decreased significantly. Apparently, it is not uncommon for the X-ray findings to appear more severe than it actually is (or a person's self perception of how it is).
I'm going to see if the UofC has deep-water running available and add rowing soon as well.
Work was cool. Nothing exciting, reasonably busy.
My diagnosis came back from the doctor today. "Severe left hip osteoarthritis".
The interesting thing is that with the exercising I have been doing and the walking with my feet straight, the pain has decreased significantly. Apparently, it is not uncommon for the X-ray findings to appear more severe than it actually is (or a person's self perception of how it is).
I'm going to see if the UofC has deep-water running available and add rowing soon as well.
Work was cool. Nothing exciting, reasonably busy.
2012-01-08
Wasted Days
Day +27.
After two very late nights in a row, there wasn't a lot of vim and vigour in the day today. Being in your fifties may mean you need less sleep than in your twenties, but I think it means you actually need more regular sleep.
I did manage to get one main thing accomplished today — a rebuild of the 15" MacBook Pro.
I initially made an OSX Lion bootable USB drive, as per these instructions or these. That worked fine, up to a point. Since it is a laptop, when I re-formatted the drive after booting off the USB, I decided to make it encrypted. Unfortunately, the OSX Lion install doesn't work on that. Then, when I re-formatted and tried again with a non-encrypted format, it still didn't work. I'm not exactly sure why — nothing really showed up in the logs and the error message was the rather useless "An error occurred - please try again" variety. Sigh.
So, I ended up reinstalling from my Snow Leopard DVD and then upgrading. Simple, and a bit time consuming, but at least now I have a working Lion Laptop.
It's been practically all weekend without programming and I miss it. Not fun.
A final note — we continue to be plagued by the &^%$*))(*%$% chinook winds. My head feels like a balloon and the migraine this AM was not fun.
After two very late nights in a row, there wasn't a lot of vim and vigour in the day today. Being in your fifties may mean you need less sleep than in your twenties, but I think it means you actually need more regular sleep.
I did manage to get one main thing accomplished today — a rebuild of the 15" MacBook Pro.
I initially made an OSX Lion bootable USB drive, as per these instructions or these. That worked fine, up to a point. Since it is a laptop, when I re-formatted the drive after booting off the USB, I decided to make it encrypted. Unfortunately, the OSX Lion install doesn't work on that. Then, when I re-formatted and tried again with a non-encrypted format, it still didn't work. I'm not exactly sure why — nothing really showed up in the logs and the error message was the rather useless "An error occurred - please try again" variety. Sigh.
So, I ended up reinstalling from my Snow Leopard DVD and then upgrading. Simple, and a bit time consuming, but at least now I have a working Lion Laptop.
It's been practically all weekend without programming and I miss it. Not fun.
A final note — we continue to be plagued by the &^%$*))(*%$% chinook winds. My head feels like a balloon and the migraine this AM was not fun.
Belated Christmas
Day +26.
Today we had the oldest daughter and family over for Christmas. Very nice, with Tacos!
Unfortunately, some indigestion has ensued.
I've also missed two exercise days and my left leg is really starting to hurt. The strange thing though, is that it is the lower part of the leg that is painful, rather like shin splints.
Today we had the oldest daughter and family over for Christmas. Very nice, with Tacos!
Unfortunately, some indigestion has ensued.
I've also missed two exercise days and my left leg is really starting to hurt. The strange thing though, is that it is the lower part of the leg that is painful, rather like shin splints.
2012-01-06
54 days to go
Day +25.
As the title says, I have 54 days of work left before School goes full-time.
I am just friggin' excited about this. I am really looking forward to being able to focus my energies primarily on the research, with no work issues to distract me.
My office at home is now fantastically well set up, as I just got a new MacBook Pro (17") and Thunderbolt display. All on it's own, the thunderbolt display is great — the added bonus is that the thunderbolt connection makes it work as a FireWire and USB hub. So, as I take the laptop between home and University, I only have to unplug the power and the thunderbolt connection. Doesn't seem like a big deal, I am sure, but to someone who has been plugging and unplugging almost daily for the last two years, it feels big to me :).
At the U, I have a MacMini, so if I am just going in for an hour or so, I can just leave everything. I also have a spare display that I may bring for the laptop, or just use it's beauty of a 1920x1200 display.
I got to do a bit of Rails programming today. Always nice to move tests from "Error" to "Fail" ;). I think, however, I will have to curtail that soon. I've been working on a proof of concept for a friend and it has been quite a bit of fun. The issue, however, is that it takes away from the little bit of time I have for programming and research related to the PhD.
On that note — status check of the goals:
- Started the LQPL server - loads programs and single steps through code
- Did some "flow" documentation of the main modules created due to separating the server and client code.
- I've been exercising lightly and regularly the last week.
So, progress is happening (yay!)
No Coffee
Yesterday was day +24.
Days 22 and 23, I had 2 grandé coffees each day. While that certainly upped my manic energy level, I crashed by the time I got home.
This day I resolved to only have my white tea. The results were great. More than sufficient energy for work and at home. Also, things that irritated the hell out of me the day before, seemed of small import when not on the coffee rush.
This coffee thing is a real bugaboo for me. I often go for days without it now, and then I'll find myself at the Starbucks counter ordering a "Grandé Dark, Light Room, please" and not even be sure why I am doing it.
Then I have that first sip and the rush comes.
I wonder if there is a coffee-drinkers anonymous? :)
Days 22 and 23, I had 2 grandé coffees each day. While that certainly upped my manic energy level, I crashed by the time I got home.
This day I resolved to only have my white tea. The results were great. More than sufficient energy for work and at home. Also, things that irritated the hell out of me the day before, seemed of small import when not on the coffee rush.
This coffee thing is a real bugaboo for me. I often go for days without it now, and then I'll find myself at the Starbucks counter ordering a "Grandé Dark, Light Room, please" and not even be sure why I am doing it.
Then I have that first sip and the rush comes.
I wonder if there is a coffee-drinkers anonymous? :)
2012-01-04
What do you do when...
Day +23.
What do you do when a company's actions seem calculated to make your job harder?
Fairly frustrating day at work, I think I'll leave it that for now.
What do you do when a company's actions seem calculated to make your job harder?
Fairly frustrating day at work, I think I'll leave it that for now.
2012-01-03
2012-01-02
2012
Yesterday was day +20.
The strangest thing happened to me at the new year's eve party. Part way though the night, I started experiencing an overwhelming sadness. Each stranger at the club seemed to just accentuate it, as did looking at people while dancing.
In my past, I've had times when I have experience "free-floating anxiety", but this is the first time I can recall having "free-floating sadness".
I woke up just feeling like I had a hangover. I thought not drinking was supposed to be a cure for that ailment :). Obviously, eating a large rich meal and staying up to 2 in the morning allows you to have those again. Oh yay.
We had a nice visit with my brother and his wife, hanging some of Marie's paintings and chatting about the upcoming year.
Finally, I found that a night of dancing and an hour of vacuuming do not make my hip a happy camper.
The strangest thing happened to me at the new year's eve party. Part way though the night, I started experiencing an overwhelming sadness. Each stranger at the club seemed to just accentuate it, as did looking at people while dancing.
In my past, I've had times when I have experience "free-floating anxiety", but this is the first time I can recall having "free-floating sadness".
I woke up just feeling like I had a hangover. I thought not drinking was supposed to be a cure for that ailment :). Obviously, eating a large rich meal and staying up to 2 in the morning allows you to have those again. Oh yay.
We had a nice visit with my brother and his wife, hanging some of Marie's paintings and chatting about the upcoming year.
Finally, I found that a night of dancing and an hour of vacuuming do not make my hip a happy camper.
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