Done recently (20110930 Fr - 1001 Sa)

[mdlbear]

Kind of a mixed couple of days -- a memorial service and a post that gets me all teary-eyed can do that. So can a defunct disk drive. On the other hand, I have a final determination on my current job title: Sr. Software Architect.

"Architect" makes me happy and comfortable, both because I consider programming to be one of the Useful Arts, like architecture, rather than an engineering discipline like civil engineering or a scientific ones like physics or materials science. Also, because I'm not really all that good a programmer anymore. I don't think I ever was. Sure, I can get programs written, but lots of other people are faster and more accurate at it. What I'm really good at, IMNSHO, is designing software systems in the first place, stringing existing programs together Unix-fashion with scripts and makefiles, and debugging (especially debugging other people's code).

The memorial service? Paul Metz (kshandra says it better than I could). The article that made me tear up? DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #44: How You Get Unstuck.

As an experiment, I'm putting the notes at the bottom so that if you follow a link directly to the post, you won't have them at the top of the page. Let me know what you think of that.

0930 Fr
  * up 6:40; W=199.4; drugs, nose, exercise, dishes
  . badblocks check on stargate still going.  10:30 and starting the
    next-to-last read phase.  Encouraging.
  @ Chrome Set to Overtake Firefox in Market Share [STATS]
  * stargate:  make sure nothing in /etc/ symlinks into /srv!  Use git clone
    as needed.  shorewall is a copy; named symlinks to /home/starport, which
    was evidently pulled via CVS from /users/starport.
  * going-away lunch for Daja
  : stargate:  just freaking weird.  e2fsck completed, but the partition won't
    mount.  Must look at the error messages when I get home, but this does not
    bode well.  Plan B is to use flash, and port-forward nova.
  * discussed my job title with John and Vikas; ordered business cards as a
    "Senior Software Architect".  I like this, because I consider software to
    be one of the "useful arts" rather than engineering or science.  In
    particular I've never been comfortable with the "engineer" designation.  I
    think there's a place for it, but I'll be someplace else, thank you.
  * requested vacation for 10/20-24 (just 2 days of vacation time needed)
  @ Edit with Emacs - Chrome Web Store - do I have to log in or
    something in order to download it?  Probably. 
    -> yes, I have to log in with my google account. 
  | 4ish: major headache, and can't find my aspirin.  Ouch.
  : definitely something wrong about the disk on stargate.  Put some butter on 
    it -- it's toast.  :(

1001 Sa
  * up 7:55; W=199.4; drugs, nose, teeth, exercise
  : YD up early; did dishes and started a crock-pot potroast for dinner
    ! pleasantly surprised.
  @ Allergy Recapitulates Phylogeny @boingboing
  * 11:30 memorial for Paul Metz - went with Emmy
  * buy:  tennis balls and resistance bands for exercises
  * buy:  niacin, diphenhydramine, omeprazole
  * humira ready for pickup at discharge pharm, noonish
    -> well, not ready, actually.  They had to go track some down.
  | L. ankle hurting.  Put a brace on when I got home.  Some numbness, which I
    don't like at all.
  * YD made potroast in the crock pot for dinner.  Tasty.
  @ filkertom: Occupy Wall Street's First Official Statement1
  @ Tiny Revolutions - The Rumpus.net (indirectly @rowanf)
    Ame:  DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #44: How You Get Unstuck 
    " You will never stop loving your daughter. You will never forget her. You
      will always know her name. But she will always be dead. Nobody can
      intervene and make that right and nobody will. Nobody can take it back
      with silence or push it away with words. Nobody will protect you from
      your suffering. You can’t cry it away or eat it away or starve it away
      or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It’s just
      there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to
      live though it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as
      far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across
      the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal. 
    " (my comment:)
        It’s been 21 years since my middle daughter, Amethyst Rose, was
      stillborn. Most of those years I’ve written something on her birthday. 
        Grieving isn’t about “getting over” your loss, but about coming to terms
      with it; not about forgetting, but about learning to live with the
      memory, and with the hollow place next to your heart that never goes
      away, but that eventually stops hurting all the time.  Just a few times a
      year. 
        Yes, our little girls have names, and stories, and talking about them
      helps.  Will always help. 
    * practice on two songs, edits on three

Comments

[kyrielle]

I don't follow links but read on my friends list with the cut-tag intact, so you'd think the change would make no difference to me - but it does. I like it. I read what you write about the list before I decide whether to expand the cut tag (usually if there's mention of links), and it's therefore convenient to have it at the end for me as well.

[mdlbear]

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah; I thought about how I read things on DW, and it just made a lot more sense.