Chris Dwan

Tag: rock star

  • Good day

    Today was pretty good. We had an Apple engineer onsite, and everyone learned something.

    We rebuilt a 30TB SAN to make it faster, and we rebuilt a 40TB SAN to make it more reliable. We made a plan for the 50 and 60TB installs, when we can get a maintenance window on them. I specced out 4TB of insanely high availability storage with a disk to disk to tape backup scheme.

    After lunch, I stripped the canvas top off the Jeep Wrangler that Hertz rented to me for the week, and we semi-kinda bluffed our way onto the air force base to ogle the F-22s. One of them blasted off basically right over our (exposed) heads. Kids in a candy store, I tell you.

    Tomorrow, I go home.

  • Test

    I passed. Got the certificate and everything. The only mishap was my own dumb fault, when I got kicked in the fingers. If I had, for example, been making a fist like they tell you on day one, I wouldn’t have four kinda-sorta-jammed fingers now. All things considered, a small price to pay.

    Also lots of joy on the shins. Shin bruises are totally fair though, because whatever you’ve got, you know the other guy has too.

    Then, as I was settling into a well deserved dinner, around 5:30, Southwest Airlines called to tell me that my 7:30pm flight was delayed to 11:30. However, if I could make it to the 5:45 flight, that one was delayed until 6:30 and I had a space on it.

    I abandoned the dinner and hauled ass. I made it, and am now posting from the gate, watching the “A” group board.

    Who is the fastest? I am the fastest!

  • Test

    Today I test for a new belt at the karate school. I’ve eaten my high-carb dinner and breakfast, I have my bottles of water, and I’ve got the *material* pretty much down (though at this point there’s enough stuff that I’m sure I’ll blank on something). I’m in good enough shape that while several hours of exertion will tire me out … there’s pretty much no chance that I’ll keel in the middle of a form or anything. The other people on the test are similarly prepared, so there shouldn’t be any injuries through carelessness or incompetence. Accidents happen, especially when people get tired, but it’s a good group and I trust them.

    Now all that remains is to pass the test.

    After that, I get on a plane to Baltimore to see my brother’s guitar recital.

    After that, I drive with my dad as far as Richmond, where I pick up a rental car and head to Hampton VA to work for NASA for a week.

    Rock star?

  • Rock star

    Apparently, redmed has an unexpected opportunity to meet with one of our state legislators (the crotchety white men who make the laws) this morning, on the topic of her research on HIV. I know about this because she decided to wear scrubs to work (prior to hearing about said opportunity), and I got a phone call asking if I could pick out a nice outfit for her and drive it to the hospital.

    Who lives like this? Rock stars live like this.

  • Humanity

    Home again, home again. And tomorrow, on the train to Boston. Ungh. At least real rock stars get cocaine and groupies. Class went well. Tomorrow, I plan to verify that … oh who the hell cares? I’m going to be a geek again tomorrow. Any questions? No? Good. I’m going to bed.

  • Ironman

    Ouch.

    That said, I succeeded. Today I rode the Minnesota Ironman, and (so far) have lived to tell about it. It’s just a bike ride (not the other kind of ironman, which usually involves swimming and some other athletic activity). The “ironman” bit comes from the fact that the weather at this time of year in Minnesota is highly variable, and the stated cancellation policy is “never, never, never.” Today, we had rain in the morning and strong winds in the afternoon. A few years back, apparently, there was hail. In 1988, it snowed a metric buttload (to borrow from capital_l).

    There are three options for length of ride: 30, 62, or 100 miles. I decided to do the 62 because it’s about twice what I’ve ever ridden in a single sitting before. From time to time, I will take a weekend morning and ride from my house (in Saint Paul, by the Fairground) over to Uptown Minneapolis, around a lake or two, and back. That’s about 30. In preparation for today’s ride, I did that two weeks ago and was *not* emotionally prepared to turn around and do it again. In between, there has been little time for distance training. So why not? 62 miles. Here we go.

    Here’s the blow-by-blow: