shaver

Today was Saturday, so Chris and Mathew and I headed into the lab around noon, lest we miss any precious banging-head-against-machine time. We have a decently-sized node reservation for this weekend, which means that some 160 high-powered computers are set aside for the express purpose of making me weep hot tears. Actually, it’s not all that bad, but it feels like it from time to time. I’ve been helping out as best I can with other Lustre tasks, in addition to trying to organize this test-and-fix marathon and missing my wife terribly, so I have a reasonable sensation of accomplishment to fall back on.

If you’re not a regular reader of Mike Hoye’s Blarg, you should take some time to catch up, because he writes very well, and much more reliably than myself. In one of his recent installments he discovered that “Red Hat Package Manager” is etymologically related to “Fool’s Gold” and “Near Beer”, for which I must offer my deepest sympathies. I have friends who have built excellent software houses atop RPM’s shifting and sucking sands, and they have many grisly tales to share. I would recount some of them now, but I think I’m going to need to conserve my hot-tear supply for the rest of the week.

I cannot recommend The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen to you. Not at all. I was probably only marginally more bored during the proceedings than the cast, but I was not being paid nearly as handsomely for my time. “Avoid.”

Coop and I dined at what has been described to us as the best restaurant in the Tri-Cities area, and while the food was good, and while our other culinary experiences here make it difficult to name another strong contender for best, it was not an entirely satisfying experience. For the same price, in virtually any other city to which I would travel even semi-voluntarily, we could have had a much better meal.