Posts Tagged Rants and Stories

Posted on Travel

Dear Diary, we are friends.

Guys I am so full of three emotions right now. But enough of that. Here is an unrelated post. It also contains no useful, technical, or interesting information.

May 18, 2008 —

I don’t remember much of the flight. There are some vague memories of cloud fields pale and blue, and then I was getting off the plane. It was 8 am and both the people I’d met so far had been friendly and even helpful. Probably because it was so early. You know how people love mornings.

I explored Hobart. Everything was closed and there was no one to bee seen. I thought this strange. Where was everyone?

And there in the distance I saw a gathering; a mass of people so dense and deep I found myself backing cautiously away.

…

It was 8:32 am and I’d decided that Hobart was a pretty sweet city. But will it still be sweet when its presumed occupants magically appear?

…

I smoked my head coming out of the internet room. It was a doorway meant for midgets.

 

Posted on Uncategorised

A test of taste

It began weeks ago, with claims of fraud and charlatanism; a challenge posed and accepted. A convoluted scheme was hatched, matching cup to content, and a test begun.

Barely touched bottles lined a white wall: coke, coke zero and diet coke; pepsi; and three Safeway brand colas – to group as follows: {{coke}, {pepsi}, {coke zero, diet coke}, {safeway brand}}.

In turn I raised each cup, filling my mouth with fluids of subtly differing taste, until it came — aspartame flowed and coated, drowning any subsequent dissimilarities. Everything tasted of disgusting, in a manner most horribly metallic.

But in the end, I triumphed. My claim accurate.

Though, still I don’t believe those who claim they can taste no difference. At least I can’t respect them their disability.

 

Posted on Business

Resequencing the whiteboard

There is a whiteboard on my wall. I’m not sure why or how. I remember putting it there; nailing the tiny grasps to the wall. That can’t be the only answer.

There has to be more to it than that. Doesn’t there?

There is a whiteboard on my wall. On it is not a smaller wall, but a list of things and dates and a few amounts. It tells me what work has to be completed when, and what my next action will be. And it tells me what to work on in the times between.
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Posted on Uncategorised

Sometimes I forget to duck

I opened my eyes to Chris Evans. In time to witness the final fight scene, it wasn’t at all a sudden awakening. I wish I had slept right through.

I saw Push for the second time on Monday night. I was pretty tired, and I didn’t even like the movie the first time I saw it.

Don’t let that discourage you if you’re looking forward to seeing it. My taste probably differs from your own, though you should defer to mine.

But man, that out of place half an hour – it cured my tiredness for some time to come.
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Posted on Programming

Some stuff is fun

Karl will remember this one.

I don’t know how it started, though I suspect it was with Luke. Maybe he asked a question, or requested assistance from Karl or from me. However it began, it ended with the the three of us solving our way through the OSIX challenges. It actually worked out very well because at least one of us was well-suited for each level.

Level 12, the second last, was my favourite. It was called the Evil Professor, and if I recall it with any accuracy, we were provided with the specs for an instruction set and a binary file that, when executed on the fictional machine built for that instruction set, would print for you the key to complete the challenge.
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