Small.Island.in.World.Three

Guess I should write one of these. Now that I've had net access at home again for a while, my excuse for not doing so is long since gone gone.

Life these days is the typical sort of week cycle that we adult humans have in this culture. Two days are "class days" for me which involve morning class, afternoon homework/study/grad-BS. (The grad-BS seems to have a minimum of like 1 hrs in which I have to go by a mailbox, talk to someone about something, turn a form in, etc.) The other three days are hidec work, theoretically... they don't all happen that the work to do is down there or that down there has something useful that could be done. Weekends are weekends. A cycle of social engagements with a steady small stream of semi-random other ones. Productive time, hobby time, happy time spent with wonderful gal J.S. (for whom my love grows monotonically). The wheels spin, the sands fall, large bodies in space revolve.

I considered doing a quick timeline of what has been going on since my last posting. Major events, persons seen, new facts, scandalous revelations, key plot points to elucidate my character's inner motivations, etc. Not going to. You'll cope.

Which might lead one to wonder just what I will talk about. So I'll get on with posting my first ever book review.

I turn 30yrs old at around 9:15pm or 9:45pm tonight, don't recall which. I'm not really prepared for that, but the movement of the masses in space goes on anyway.

Got a iPod nano from my wonderful gal. After some kernel fun (which turned out totally unneeded, habits die hard), I've got a couple of gigs of tunes on it, via wallace (my gentoo machine). Thanks, baby. My early product review on this one is that it has a good solid feel, good sound. It does take more attention to start/stop than my previous (tiny capacity) player, so I don't know if the previous solution (player under shirt on lanyard, operate it through the fabric) is going to work (I hope it does since I want to wear it, not carry it). Right now I have it attached to my phone as they seem to share about the same "work-function" to use.

Extra friends in town. That should be nice.

Yep, done. Did it take too long? Sure. Did I procrastinate a lot? Yeah. Did I obsess over details that didn't matter? Oh yeah. Do I care? Nope.... well, maybe some. I really should get better at such things.

Anyway, just a few revisions (next week) and turning in, and the master's chapter draws to a close. The PhD chapter begins. The little storm clears to reveal a larger, more foreboding one on the horizon. It is still a ways off.

Sorry, dear reader, I had to put blogging on the back-burner. Now I can resume my frantic once-a-month updates!

Gee, what has been going on? My gal and I are doing great, thanks for asking. She has been a wonderful source of compassion and caring and support and calming and motivation and inspiration these long months. Thank you, baby.

I've frittered away much of the time that an old friend has been in town. It has been great having J.B. around.

I've put off any large changes to Darwin, my computer, lest I screw it up during my writing. Time to dust off the plans (something about ubuntu/gentoo dual boot, bigger hdd, beagle, virtualized windows, and some other things), make some sense of them, and tear this functional system apart.

Oh, my brother and his wife are expecting a child. That is cool. I've got being a crazy uncle to look forward to.

I am, of course, leaving out the hundreds upon thousands of everyday events that make up the tapestry of a life, and have altered me from he who lived months ago, into he who writes now. One that I will mention, Kurt Vonnegut dying. It has got me thinking/saying "If this isn't good, then I don't know what is." a lot lately. I read that his uncle lamented that people don't realize that sentiment enough, and thus Kurt's mental echos of that are now ringing in this head. Maybe I'll pass along this meme when I become the uncle. Kurt, you were a great guy, but now you don't move anymore (which creaps the rest of us out a bit) so you've been placed in the ground. So it goes.

That event also got me wanting to read some non-science book or two in the near future. One of Vonnegut's more recent would be nice. Or perhaps The Time Traveler's Wife. But also a classic or two.

Anyway, another thought for the day. There is some nothing to be done.

Gotta post quick, before the month name changes and I get another one-post-month.

Didn't make a rather unlikely schedule for thesis defense. Despite it not being really feasible once it was made, it would have been feasible had I been ahead of my previous goals. Or something. Short version, I feel guilty, and very likely should, but not for failing at something that wasn't possible when it was finally decided that it was the goal. That wasn't short.... whatever.

Life + time with my gal = good.

Might have wished the local Schlotzsky's back open after it not being so (if the universe works that way, which I don't think). Had I only known the power I had at the moment I was speaking the wish, I would have chosen different words.

Got a new usb thumb-drive device. Went overboard for the 4G model. Don't want to have to re-resolve this issue of pocketable bits in the next couple years. This prompted me to figure out that I should have been using vfat instead of msdos as the fstype when mounting such things lo these many years (so as to get those long names). Big self-head-bonk on that one. Now if someone would explain, in 30sec or less how to setup fstab so I can mount such drives to specific points, I would be very happy and grateful. That is, get my computer to remember which drive is which and be ready to put them with my name for them. Maybe I should just start reading the relevant pages and howtos > 5 min from sleeping-time so I get through them, but I'd rather just have the 30 second version.

Got another cheese-wire. Yet to open it. Someday I'll get to finishing my review of the ones that I wish to warn you, dear reader, away from. But not today.

Well, this is the last set of paragraph markers I yyp'ed when I started, so this post is at an end. Be sure to tune in for the next, same bat-channel, some bat-time.

Yeah. We all make them. I greatly regret a recent one. But when we are lucky, we are forgiven; we get the chance to learn. Learn to watch more diligently for the wrong choice.

One mistake I won't make, and I hope you, dear reader, don't either... is to vote using an electronic voting machine that doesn't include a secondary paper record of each vote as they are made. Diebold voting machines freaking suck. Don't use them. Cast a provisional ballot or absentee ballot or something if your voting district uses Diebold's horrifically unsecure machines.

Had a really nice weekend away from town. Sometimes life gives me these little vacations from things, and I often don't really know what I've done to "deserve them." But "gift horses", you know. Which is a really old, archaic saying, come to think of it.

Things and experiences relating to my wonderful girl continue in myriad fantastic ways. (Speaking of things I don't know how I deserve.) Can't wait to see some of her words in published print. Publicly done congrats on that, baby.

Need to buckle down on some thesis related stuff, but not in that overly hurried way of recent memory. Just some focused dedication. Speaking of which, I've come to believe that the simple models of effort & reward that we humans often seem to far towards in our thinking --those assuming some sort of linear relationship-- are just plain hopelessly naive. Life is more messy than that, and so is this sub-phase-space of life. The idea of working a little bit harder each day so as to get a little bit more reward/productivity each day... I just see no reason why that should even be close to the top of the list of preferred models of how things are. Much higher up the list should be the more complex idea of needing to time-shift priorities (sometimes even neglecting potential increases in process efficiency), shift entire segments of one's daily routine, and run closer to burn-out effort to get past the "divergence-point wall" into the next attractor basin of reward returns.

A simple defeater of the linear effort/return theory serves to make my point. Consider how telling those around you that you are "on a deadline" can change things. Those around you will make allowances for you, help you eliminate (or postpone) obligations, and even help you accomplish things. All these far beyond what they would if you were simply "trying harder to be productive." This non-linearity alone seems, to me, like more than enough to defeat the simple models.

So, by "focused dedication", I don't quite yet know what I mean. But it isn't simply "a bit more effort".

Anyway, more explanation now could meet the description of "me procrastinating." So later.

Just got done with a rather busy 1.5 weeks. Timetables were moved up on me. Some sensor samples got killed on the alter of rushing through steps. And the two runs of data taking don't make sense with each other, although the first and better done one looks good.

Many hours spent with a wonderful person continue oh so much better than I can explain in mere words. We enjoy listening to music together. Watching this and that together. Uncomplicated meals and warm embraces. So nice.

Although the aforementioned busy time cut into the time I would have liked to have spent with her. Hopefully some time spent together this weekend will make me forget all that.

In other news, D.T.'s mill is moving about, even if not always as perfectly as one might like, and without z-axis yet. Fay-town art festival was nice this year. Umm, and a brief war with some spiders in my place went rather well; no more seen for a while, but also not enough preemption, yet.

Oh, and Ziggy came in quite handy for doing some graphs (via gnumeric) while walking across campus one day. Even if I did get an amusing barb about the silliness of it.

Been a few weeks on the posting things. I feel perhaps a byte of bad for it, not more, probably less.

Spent the pre-4th weekend with some family,... that might be ambiguous, it was some of my family. My grandmother is doing well, which is a source of happiness to me. My 2nd cousin Madie was the young star of the gathering. With her extremely expressive face and toddler zeal she would have given any cuteness-competition a tough fight, had there been any.

Watched the World Cup action yesterday at Dave T's, then a nice potluck (with Natasha and Kirk in attendance). Today more World Cup.

Oh, and Bowman has been in town for a couple of weeks. At first staying at E's, now at my place. Always fun to have around.

As for thesis things. The continuing and major roadblock is data collection. Getting a setup, any setup, of good nanoammeter that both plays nicely with the other equipment and gives a recording of its data that I can sync up with the other data set(s). If I could get something working, the more clear-cut plodding of experimentation and data collecting could begin. And progress could be made. I remain somewhat deludedly hopeful.

It went well. There was a cloud in the way of the sunset. But I think the solstice hoops were lined up quite well. Just that one couldn't see it (unless one inferred the sun's location from the brightest spot on the top of the obscuring cloud). Perhaps a bonfire and then post-sunset party there would be cool, but that will have to wait for some more secluded area. As it was, my place did o.k.

This actually gets to the point of a party. Is it better to have a loose tangle of people finding their own subsets and topics? Or better to have a ready focus of attention at all points in time? Don't know. I sorta think the former (but the tightly packed tangle of people did o.k.).

As for my meeting this morning. It went both better than I had hoped, and worse by far than most fears. There is so much electrochemistry that I need/want to learn. Also I spent a few minutes in a machine shop today. I'm quite happy to share a genome with creatures whose habitat includes such places.

Much more I've thought to say, but it is too late. My bio-brain is low on information transmitters. But one last thing I've been meaning to mention for a while is that this guy (and those like him) give me some hope that civilization might not ever crash too far (given some constraints on death tolls). At least, there will likely be good seeds for the recivilization/re-tooling of humankind.

The cycles continue.

The master's thesis experiment possibilities are moving erratically. I suspect that if I were to stop and take stock of everything, I would notice that I don't have much chance of finishing the thesis by the end of the summer. So I don't stop to take stock. Just keep moving. I have an appointment with someone tomorrow morning who could hinge the whole endeavor for the better.

I had a great father's day phone conversation with my father. If ever someone (myself most of all) were to compile the story of my life, I think that the first chapter must be about him. He seems to be happily working hard, and I am deeply thankful that he continues to have health and vigor.

The summer solstice is tomorrow. Having a party to mark the occasion at sunset. I hope it goes smoothly.

Despite less data-taking than I wanted done today, I came into use of a nice probe station (among other things). So I'm feeling good about how that part of the day went.

I tried another sunset azimuthal angle measurement with "FileHenge".

Much better than last(first) time. Only off from theoretical by one degree. The rotating marker with the sight pins really helped (though it needs a better surface for seeing the shadow of the far sight pin). As did finding my solar observation glasses. Totally unhappy with the smaller compass I tried, so I used my good one again (in pic).

June began.

I've continued thinking about our place in the galaxy. Actually, in the same vein, I started thinking about henges. Not like this, like this.

It would be cool to build a henge. And such an "easy" project, a class of elementary kids could do it. Come to think of it, it would make a good science project for kids. As a pro, it builds their understanding up along the same path that the whole of personkind has developed. This kind of thing really should be done. The biggest thing one(s) need is time. Kids have that.

I made my first, handheld, version of a henge this weekend. We'll see how it works out. Plenty of ideas for improvements in the works.

Next. Potluck went quite well tonight. New faces, old patterns, good food. The tribe continues.

Next. (Note: I'm marking topic boundaries, I'm not always so kind, dear reader.) I feel I'm mostly over something that I never should have been stuck on to begin with. Occasionally such things happen. Perhaps I shouldn't stick. I do. Perhaps it is a fault in me. Regardless, time passes.

Next. I wish well to another (speaking of moving on). They have my best wishes.

Next. I recommend a star wheel. It may seem to be uninteresting pieces of paper at first (many years). However, there is a realm of things around us which our minds and bodies are too small to normally comprehend. It seems to really exist (barring the "unreasonable" skeptic). More sure than other "our place in it all" conceptions. And it will go on long after reasonable predictions have us long gone. We are but a small arc on a great circle.

Next. KXUA is nice. Good electronica in Ark. Rock on.

Got some SiO2 on my wafer-quarters. Except for an ugly bit of lint that got under an inconsequential area, they look o.k. Tomorrow some metal dep. Then the start of class times. Outside time-scheduled influence on my days again. I guess I knew the "find my pace at my pace" couldn't last. Unkind world.

Mood is barely better. I'm thinking I might just have to ignore it. "Time heals ..." etc. Or am I already doing that? I wonder if it is working.

Helpful reading. Like most ideas, it cuts both ways.

Among other immediate sure-things, perhaps it also explains the "objective" feel of certain thoughts. If one can assume a reliable conflation of "objective" for "inter-subjective". But I don't see why not, as we are likely to look with a human perspective even when we reliably feel we are not looking with our own.

B-day went about an A. Much thanks to all others for their parts of that.

Considered surrounding galaxtic cartography last week. We are a small part of something much bigger. It surrounds us. But it mostly extends out in a plane that lines up nicely with my horizon at dusk (as I type now), with the bulk of it to the south east.

Watched X-men 3 with some others on friday. Just like 2, I had appropriately low expectations for various elements, thus no disappointment. For other elements, I nurtured some expectations, and was not disappointed there either. For those things it passes as a good movie.

Then some holiday days from a busy summer that somehow seems to sail smooth (which could change at a moment). Didn't really think it was needed.

Made some use of the time to move Wallace (my home computer) to the 2.6 kernel. Been putting that off for a bit now. Happily, desktop user interactions have a bit more snap to them. Thank you linux kernel developers, you have an open invitation to hospitality from me. And thank you gentoo documentation writers for all your help on the matter. Still having some issue or other with opera stability, working on it.

Nice party on Sunday evening. And potluck on the unusual Monday. Such arbitrary things, these days. Imagine the fun and brain flexibility saved if we were to switch between various week-lengths in various years and/or seasons.

My mood moves not so well. Thought patterns seem like my neck of late; tight and ready to pull for ill with unexpected slight twists, or unexpected twists of slight.

29 is a prime year. The first of a prime pair. Something to look forward to.

Went to worship Thor, god of thunder, Bragi, (sorry B., rock seems to have as much thunder as poetry about it) and a couple of the muses (Euterpe and Terpsichore) last night in the form of Pinback (mostly because of their connection to Optiganally Yours) and Mary Timony. Mary has fun instrumentation/note chains. Pinback does good lyric rounds.

Dinner tonight with friends.

Throwing stark contrast between importance and non: Condolences to friend S.G.