Chris Dwan

Author: cdwan

  • Brewing day!

    I’m totally psyched about brewing day. capital_l and technolope are coming down this afternoon at a time to be determined by how late they stayed up “playing video games and drinking” last night. I’ve got my guess … but we’ll see what reality provides. Two batches, a stout and a west coast ale.

    Installed a new rack in the cage yesterday. Moved servers and power around to compensate. The goal was to collapse our two-cage presence down to a single one, thus freeing up several hundred dollars a month. I tried out the camera in my phone, and got these. The quality is pretty good, provided that I hold the damn thing very, very still and there’s plenty of light.

  • Google Earth

    They just released Google Earth for the mac.

    Go get it. Go get it now. Then tell it to “fly” from your house to, for example, Rome, Italy. With the road overlay on. And a map of ATMs.

    Freakin’ brilliant.

  • Fresh air

    I have no idea what the weather is like where you are, but here it’s 53 degrees and brilliantly sunny. I’ve got all the windows wide open, and I’m exchanging the slightly musty air in the house for clean, fresh, chilly air. Climbing around in the crawl space must have kicked up a bunch of dirt and junk, since my sinuses have been a little active ever since. Now I’m letting it all flow out the windows. Feels great. Plus, I can hear the outside world again … which for whatever reason fills me with energy and purpose.

    As a side benefit, the *ahem* odor of the sauerkraut has also been building up a bit … so the windows are open for that too. Huzzah!

    On an even more positive note, there was a little woodpecker on my suet feeder this afternoon. Little bastard likes to cling to the side of it that’s away from the house, and every time I try to sneak past him to get a picture, I startle him away. Soon, ah soon, I will snap a picture of him and draw him in my book … then he will be mine forever.

    On a slightly less psychotic note: I’m gonna brew beer this weekend. Anyone within the sound of my voice is welcome to come down and join in. Those who help out are entitled to a share of the batch. Brewing a batch of beer takes about 3 hours from clean up to tear down, and I plan to do two batches. We’ll probably start around 10am on Saturday, though I’m open to doing it on Sunday if that would bring friends over. Brewing consists of (a) doing dishes (b) boiling a pot for about an hour (c) doing dishes. Thus, there is plenty of time for watching movies, listening to music, and sampling from previous batches.

    Okay, back to typing things like serveradmin -verifyServerSerialNumber

  • Top 5

    I must do what everyone else does, because that’s how one becomes cool:

    Let me make you a Top 5 list. Post a topic, list, category, whatever, in the comments, and I’ll post the top 5 according to me. Then post this offer in your own journal.

  • What I’ve learned by editing today

    I’m editing a big-ish document written by a smart man with poor english skills. Here’s what I’ve learned about myself today:

    • The passive voice is hated by me
    • I don’t know if the plural of “schema” is “schemas” or “schemae”, but I much prefer “schemae”. It is not “schemata,” thanks for asking.
    • I will sometimes write things like “This requirement requires reduced redundancy of replicates” and then start giggling uncontrollably.

  • The debate continues…

  • Electronic Music

    Please help me.

    I’m listening to the previews of the sountrack from “Underworld: Evolution” on iTunes, and I’m about to buy it because I haven’t gotten any new grindy-electronic music since Nine Inch Nails’s latest.

    Please give me a better option.

  • Plumbing

    Update on the plumbing from before: The leak in the tub was transient. The tub is now totally dry, as is the basement ceiling.

    We have either performed a perfect repair, or else we have redirected the leak to someplace where it’s not visible. Either way, I’m blissed out. Go us.

  • Endgame

    Intel loved my report. This makes me feel good. They also apologized several times for the hardware troubles. During the conference call (which included, give or take, everyone at Intel) my sales guy / boss was IM-ing me frantically saying things like “accept their apology!” and “nod and smile!” So now I’m fixing the tiny, tiny things they wanted changed (calling the processor by its Intel Trademark Name rather than the codename that everyone on Slashdork will recognize, stuff like that). Supposed to have it online by this afternoon. No problem.

    There you go. A positive, happy post in LiveJournal. It’s about work, even. Ha. Take that.

    –UPDATE– The report has been temporarily redacted until the “trademark police” approve it. The link will be live again “soon.”

  • Not getting those hours back, am I?

    The story of the day involves plumbing.

    About plumbing