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$ clear $ su - Password: # cat /var/log/nolandda |
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01:38:26 Thursday December 02 2004
Today was my first day at Arxan. I
set up my computer and cracked a simple piece of software. It is very
strange to be working in windowsland. Especially since they gave me a
computer with the newest whiz-bang version of Windows XP. I had not
realized how Linux-centric I had become.
This evening I went over and helped Cretia begin creation of a
database for the elementary school where she works. I ended up hanging
out with the Jensens for a couple of hours. Cretia apparently thinks
quite highly of my friends and myself. I find this odd.
As a side note I am unsure how much longer this log will be able to
reflect my work activities in any detail. I signed a fairly hefty NDA.
Above and beyond that some of the work done at Arxan is actually top
secret. I am not cleared for any of that yet and may never be. But
none the less it is not something that I can or would want to publish.
03:02:16 Monday December 06 2004
Weekend Update: Friday was insanely busy. I got up early and
hacked together something for my weekly meeting with Professor
Xie. Then it was off to work at Arxan. I spent the morning there. Then
at noon I rushed on to campus. Went to class. Attended my meeting. Ran
over to the Stewart Center for the annual Computer Science Employee
Appreciation Social (Nick? Pictures?). There
I sold geeky T-shirts on behalf of the GSB. Once all the financial
things were taken care of I returned home and crashed fairly
early.
Saturday was devoted to cleaning and watching Bubblegum
Crisis. I received a summons for jury duty. I filled it out, but
somehow I doubt that they will select me. I ran into Josette and Kevin at
Marsh. Somewhere along the line I
also fixed up the friends page to more accurately report
which pages are alive and which are dead.
Sunday was much more productive. I went in to the office and did some
more work configuring my computer. Terry also showed me how to make
perl play nice with postgresql and I put some serious effort into
The Salary Book Online. I made my traditional pilgrimage to the library. Terry and I had
Chinese for dinner. Note to self: Purdue west eateries are insane on
Sunday evenings.
Update: Photos here.
01:01:54 Tuesday December 07 2004
Tomorrow I am off to San Fran. Itinerary (also useful for anyone
looking to assassinate me):
Flight Number: 3921
Flight Date: DEC-07-2004
Flight Time: 415PM - 415PM
Departs: INDIANAPOLIS
Arrives: CHICAGO (Midway)
---------------------------
Flight Number: 933
Flight Date: DEC-07-2004
Flight Time: 525PM - 802PM
Departs: CHICAGO (Midway)
Arrives: SAN FRANCISCO
---------------------------
Club Quarters Hotel San Francisco
424 Clay Street
San Francisco, California 94111
415-392-7400
---------------------------
Flight Number: 418
Flight Date: DEC-09-2004
Flight Time: 725AM - 229PM
Departs: SAN FRANCISCO
Arrives: INDIANAPOLIS
So if any of these flights rams into the earth at hundreds of miles
per hour you will know why the log is no longer being updated.
The illustration for today is of Saint Nikolaus and Krampus. Today's something*positive strip reminded me of learning
about this particularly odd German folk tale. You see in Germany Santa
keeps a kind of demon chained up with him. He outsources all the
switching and beating and coal and whatnot to Krampus leaving him free
to specialize in giving good children gifts, sweets, and type two diabetes.
13:05:13 Tuesday December 07 2004
What the hell is a fob?
Everyone seems to accept that "fob" is an actual word. Where did
this word come from? No one seems to know. Merriam-Webster makes a bold guess
with:
fob2
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps akin to German dialect Fuppe pocket
1 : WATCH POCKET
2 : a short strap, ribbon, or chain attached especially to a pocket
watch
3 : an ornament attached to a fob chain
The word just sounds too silly to be real. I suspect that it was a
practical joke that got out of hand.
19:51:32 Friday December 10 2004
San Francisco... obligatory cablecar shot.
Wandering around town. It is apparently very important that everyone
understand the dietary constraints of flying rats.
You can't wander very far without finding a bridge.
Age discrimination.
I knew that if I wandered around long enough I would find it.
Shades of dot-com. After the annual meeting Arxan rented a phatty
yacht to take us around the bay. We had boat drinks. Boat Drinks!
A quick trip to Ghirardelli Square. See also: Ghirardelli Chocolate
Company
More Photographs
05:10:42 Saturday December 11 2004
Prison Loaf SuX0rz! Be sure to check out the slightly insane posts by the lovely and talented Sara with no 'h' here and here.
22:35:20 Tuesday December 14 2004
Sunday: The wonderful annual Christmas party at Alan
Welch's beautiful house. Chris, Lehmann, and I took Sara with no
'h' out for dinner at Kaza Khazana on account of her rejoining the
land of the free.
Monday: Work all day at Arxan and debugging with Professor Xie
all afternoon. Couldn't sleep.
Today: As a result of the afore mentioned not sleeping I have
been tired all day. Somehow I have managed to be quite productive
despite that fact. Did stuff at work. Mostly using my
debugger / disassembler / hex editor to craXz0r s0ftw4r3z. Also
I am endlessly filling out security clearance paperwork. If you have
lived with me or I have worked under you expect a call from the
feds.
After work I went onto campus to teach Chinh how my program works. It
felt good to be teaching again. I could tell that he was
learning. I acquired tickets for the graduation. After returning home
I made phone calls (my least favorite activity). Got reservations for
graduation dinner, straightened out a credit card issue, etc. Also I
acquired a MetaFilter account. The
usual login. No! Not that one; the other one.
03:30:39 Thursday December 16 2004
Quick entry: First paycheck at work today! I am all wealthy and what not. Exactly how does one choose a monocle to best complement one's tophat? Had dinner at Pizza Hut with Joe, his wife (name?), Terry, and David. Sara with no 'h', Lehmann, and I played chess and watched Saved. It is mostly a dumb movie, but good for a few laughs.
17:50:23 Friday December 17 2004
if(school == finished)
{
drink(beer);
}
01:25:53 Tuesday December 21 2004
Weekend Update: Friday I took my last exam in databases and met
with Professor Xie. Arxan was considerate enough to give me the day
off to prepare for and take my exam.
That evening I went out with Cretia. She and Scott
had some manner of argument that morning, and she was looking to get
away from the situation. So we went to a restaurant out in Deliverance
(a.k.a. Battleground Indiana) called TC's. I had some very excellent
catfish there and I got to meet several of the teachers that Cretia
works with. In the middle of dinner Scott showed up and followed us to
Scotty's even though Cretia refused to speak to him. It was kinda
creepy. I understand that he was upset, but he just did not seem to
understand that Cretia needed a little space.
On Saturday I prepared my house for the oncoming onslaught. Early in
the day I did some Christmas shopping. My will broke and I spent a
hundred dollars or so on myself. I spent the afternoon shopping for
gifts. I got a fair amount done. I managed to clean the house, do
laundry, and decorate before the evening was spent.
Sunday was the big day. I spent the morning making final
preparations. By 17:00 or so people had begun to appear at my house
for John's Christmas gathering. My network stood up to the strain and
a great deal of Starcraft was played. At 19:00 my parents arrived at
the party (long story). I hopped into my suit and we drove downtown to
Sarge Oak for a delightful dinner with Professor Dunsmore and Terry. I
strongly recommend the Toad Hollow pino noir. It is very tasty.
It was excellent to have
people who supported me through grad school in different ways present
at the same dinner. I cannot measure how much I owe each of them for
helping to preserve my sanity. After dinner everyone went their
separate ways and I returned to the Bacchanal at my home. There was
gaming and drinking until the early morning hours.
Today I was very tired, but I got a lot accomplished none the
less. Thanks to Dulaney I discovered a lot about checksum and
anti-debug guards that I did not know before. This evening I went over
to Terry's to help him with the cabling and furniture movement
required for his new AV equipment. After everything was set up we
opened some wine and began watching Sports Night (which is a
fantastic sitcom by Aaron Sorkin of West
Wing fame). The wine was very tasty and a good time was had by
all.
23:48:41 Wednesday December 22 2004
The fundamental problem with diaries of all types is that the times in
your life when you are most busy are the times you are most likely
forget or at least whitewash over the details. However, they are also
the times that you most want to remember and the times that you have
the least amount of time to journal about. This holiday season I will
try to keep up.
Yesterday was business as usual at work. The day seemed longer than
usual because everyone was in "get out of here for the holidays
mode". In the evening I headed out
for the failure party and sushi. The attendance was greatly reduced this
semester. Since I "got my graduate on", as they say in the common
parlance, this is the last of my failure parties.
Today was fairly uneventful. I did my job and went Christmas shopping
in the evening. After the stores closed I came home and watched Big
Fish because I need to get it back to the library. It was a good
flick. I think I had unrealistic expectations for it because of the
very strong reviews from Matt and Sara with no 'h'.
17:11:15 Thursday December 23 2004
First in a series of things I have been meaning to post, but never got
around to.
You may remember this
post where I was seeking
information concerning the identity of the angry Chinese man. Well thanks to Brad
that mystery is now solved. The deliciously deadly chilli oil available at the
local Asian Market is produced by Guiyang Nanming Laoganma
Special Flavour Foodstuffs Company. They make a number of other chilli based
products which I may have to try.
Their Chilli Oil was favored over all others by Purdue CS grad-students
because while it is devastatingly spicy it still has flavor. There
exist many pepper extracts which
taste essentially like spraying chemical Mace into your mouth and which
are intended to be diluted many orders of magnitude before human
consumption. They are essentialy pure capsaicin.
For those who like spicy foods I strongly recomend trying
one quarter to one half jar of LaoGanMa Chilli Oil in your next wok
full of stir fry.
02:58:24 Sunday December 26 2004
Christmas Eve: I woke up in A-town, having driven in late last
night. I went on a mad shopping trip. While changing shopping locations
my vehicle was hit from the rear by a friendly lady with a bunch of
screaming children in her car. This caused my vehicle to hit the
vehicle in front of it and for that vehicle to likewise hit its
predecessor. Fortunately no one was injured and everyone drove away
after talking with the nice police man. I completed my shopping and
headed to my maternal grandmother's house for the first Christmas
gathering of the season. My aunt and uncle were not able to make it
due to my aunt's recent surgery. After dinner and gifts we were whisked
away to church for midnight service.
Christmas Day: Traditional Christmas at the parents. The only
change was that two of my three sisters showed up with
boyfriends. This is a new development and not one I am particularly
fond of. I don't mind them coming to the larger family gatherings, and
I am even willing to compromise on April's fiance attending the more
intimate Christmas morning gathering. However it still feels very
intrusive. We are usually sill running around the house in our pajamas
for heaven's sake. Don't they have their own family gatherings to
attend on Christmas morning?
After a mid morning respite we got dressed and headed over to the home
of my paternal grandparents. Everyone was there and a good time was
had by all. Castor even showed up late in the evening and played a few
hands of bridge.
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