Author: cdwan

There’s a core piece of advice that I give to developers on compute clusters … which is to “stage” data motion as much as possible. This requires that the code take the architecture of the cluster into account, but it frequently gives large improvements in both performance and stability.

Case in point

Carl Rove has resigned, effective “the end of August.”

“There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.”

Oh pleeeeeeease indite him … Oh PLEEEEEEEEEASE …

Party at my place. I’ve got the hooch.

Thought for the day:

When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” and “outer world,” but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think “I breathe,” the “I” is extra.

Went to Quincy yesterday to commence the apartment quest. Looked at two places:

Avalon at Faxon Park was really nice. They’ve got a two bedroom with loft, available on our move in date (Oct 1). It faces South, and has a big skylight that lets in the afternoon sun from the West. It reminds me a lot of the place that we lived in Minneapolis, prior to the house in St. Paul. One of the things that I really liked was that the entire up-front fee is a $500 security deposit. One price (rent), plus one deposit to hold and secure the place was the extent of the fees.

It even has garden plots that residents can sign up for.

Ten Faxon, on the other hand, irritated both of us. They were the very definition of a high-pressure sale. After leaving us sitting in the office anteroom for perhaps ten minutes, we sat through a set of requirements and definitions specifying exactly how cool we had to be to even be considered for residency there. Credit checks, employment checks, background reports, guarantors and the like. Then there were the rules … no move in on weekends. No this. No that. Great first impression.

Finally, there was the super-duper pressure: If we sign “at first sight,” we got two months rent for free.

All that to live in a high rise … which admittedly has nice hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances. Oh yeah, plus it’s $400 more than our goal price for rent.

The plan is to look at a couple of places in Newton (and surrounding areas) some day this week, and then go back and sign on the Quincy place that we liked.

Fortunately, we made quick arrangements for a fabulous dinner with friends, including sejabop. Awesome times.

And now … back to painting cabinets.

Thought for the day:

In the mind of the beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of the expert, there are few.

On the train to Boston. Looking at rain through a scratched up, Plexiglas window.

There is beeping.

I am in Hampton Roads, VA for an additional evening. Rather than the “too early” flight back at 5:55 this evening, I am taking the “what the hell were you thinking” 6:25am tomorrow. By my math, that has me waking up at 4am to leave the hotel by 4:30.

Wow, I must really love my job.

In other news redmed is off doing consultant-work, and seems to be enjoying it.

I had this amazing (to me) set of thoughts going, all in the same direction. They included:

* The fact that Shaker and early American Christian Utopian “intentional living” communities like the Shakers mirror Zen Buddhism in all but the most boring and minor of details.

* A clear and coherent set of policies that, taken together, represent a political philosophy that we could all live with … and those same shakers could have lived with them as well.

* Some very coherent and precise predictions for technology and its effect on society over the next 20 years.

I totally blew my own mind, talking to the steering wheel this evening. I was just about to write it all down. However, instead of writing that post, I went out and got sushi (here in Hampton Roads, VA) and had a beer. Now, being far too stupid to save the world, I’m going to bed.

Goodnight.

As a small number of folks know, I had a “mystery date” this weekend. Yes, it was with redmed. Duh. Basically, she had told me to pack an overnight bag and be ready to go at noon yesterday. There are only a few people who I would allow to totally surprise me. She drove, I chilled. We drove west, to the Berkshires. I was relatively sure that I had it dialed in … I was guessing an overnight with a couple of classes at Kripalu.

We drove up and checked into the Baird Tavern. This is a building that pre-dates the revolutionary war by a few years. The hostess was pretty cool. While chilling with iced tea and admiring her astonishing bird feeding program (titmice, goldfinches, nuthatches, cardinals, evening grosbeaks, hummingbirds, and more) she asked if we were going to go see Yo Yo Ma at Tanglewood that night.

Say what?

So yeah, that was it. Surprise blown, but only once we were within a 20 minute drive of the event. We had shed tickets to the greatest living instrumentalist of our time, performing an all Dvorak program with the BSO, including the New World symphony.

redmed had also arranged for a pick-up meal on the grounds, so we sat overlooking some stunning western MA mountains, getting a little tipsy on a bottle of wine, and then enjoyed the concert.

Today, on the way back, we stopped off at the Hancock Shaker Village. I have many thoughts on the Shakers and their early model intentional living, co-ed monastic practice, meditative, contemplative, co-housing innovations. That, I will save for another post.

Got back around 5 this evening, put in a couple of hours fixing the gutters and weeding the flowerbeds … and I’m willing to call it one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long, long, time.

There are at least three perfectly good reasons to study a martial art.

* To learn how to fight, or at least how to defend yourself from attack.
* To study an ancient, traditional art form
* To improve yourself mentally and physically and come closer to achieving your potential.

All three are valid, and it’s important to realize which ones drive you.