And here I am, and it's raining
I have returned from my fun-filled Midwestern romp, and I am happy to be back in Toronto in a lot of ways, but I'm also feeling a sense of loss and loneliness that is only somewhat non-justifiable.
I had a great time in Erie hanging out with my very dear friends, but I feel as though somehow that visit was missing something, or not everything that should have been said was. Maybe I'm just PMSing, or letting annoyance/concern over a number of unrelated things overflow into my feelings about the trip right now. All I can say was that I have some of the best friends in the world, I miss them already, and I hope that they enjoyed seeing me as much as I enjoyed seeing them. I was a bit useless for most of the visit, but I think that was somewhat to be expected after the ridiculous boozefest in Cleveland.
There is some good news:
My doomsday device is now working. I would show you all a picture, but my life is pain and I have no functional camera worth mentioning. I didn't fry the LED driver chip like I was all worried that I had. I managed to put most of the circuit myself in Erie, and with one minor change and H's test code (cheating kind of, but hey) I have a crazy blinky light of doom :) The hap-hazard documentation that I made while trying to figure it all out is at http://heinous.org/wiki/Playing_with_an_8x8_Matrix_LED
It is fantastic to see H again. He makes me so happy. He took very good care of the cats for me while I was gone, and it is so nice to have someone who does such nice things for me. I'm pretty lucky on that front. Yep.
After a horrific nightmare, I have managed to confirm that Jo did not, indeed, have his life be ruined in some awful way. I sometimes let dreams concern me more than I should. Also, the fact that someone who looked suspiciously like the movie version of Lucius Malfoy was hanging out with Jo should have been a clue not to take the dream too seriously.
I found an awesome intro to electronics book at Radio Shack in Erie. Also, Mr. Evans is letting me borrow his fantastic book on engineering diagrams. I'm not sure how long this - try my hand at learning how to think like an engineer - phase is going to last, but it's good to be learning something, even if I'm pretty sure I'm not all that well suited to it.
Right now I'm sitting around with the cats trying to not be all gloomy. The video drivers on my laptop are breaking everything and I don't know how to fix it, which is one major source of annoyance. 96% of my CPU seems to belong to Xorg right now, and I am growing increasingly despondent, and quickly losing the will to live. I think it's the ATI driver being horrible, but I can't seem to get X to work at all without the driver. The original configuration that worked on install, just kills the entire display now, and I have to reboot to get video back. The same thing happens when I try just about anything else. Oh yeah, did I mention that this post would involve a thrilling rant about my laptop woes? I almost never do this, but I'm so annoyed, and so not in the mood to keep debugging this one. I just have to keep telling myself that, "All things has a cause, " and hope that my pass can provide me with some answers.
I can't believe that I'm starting a new job on Monday. I really hope things work out well. It seems like so many of the people I know who are working at this place are so frustrated with it, and I hope I haven't gotten myself into something ugly. Everyone assures me the department I am going into is fine and not filled with the same sorts of problems, but I'm not holding my breath.
I still wish I didn't have to do this.
Fortunately, I have Black Bush whiskey and two cats to console me tonight, if nothing else.
Originally published at Don\'t talk to me about life....
I had a great time in Erie hanging out with my very dear friends, but I feel as though somehow that visit was missing something, or not everything that should have been said was. Maybe I'm just PMSing, or letting annoyance/concern over a number of unrelated things overflow into my feelings about the trip right now. All I can say was that I have some of the best friends in the world, I miss them already, and I hope that they enjoyed seeing me as much as I enjoyed seeing them. I was a bit useless for most of the visit, but I think that was somewhat to be expected after the ridiculous boozefest in Cleveland.
There is some good news:
My doomsday device is now working. I would show you all a picture, but my life is pain and I have no functional camera worth mentioning. I didn't fry the LED driver chip like I was all worried that I had. I managed to put most of the circuit myself in Erie, and with one minor change and H's test code (cheating kind of, but hey) I have a crazy blinky light of doom :) The hap-hazard documentation that I made while trying to figure it all out is at http://heinous.org/wiki/Playing_with_an_8x8_Matrix_LED
It is fantastic to see H again. He makes me so happy. He took very good care of the cats for me while I was gone, and it is so nice to have someone who does such nice things for me. I'm pretty lucky on that front. Yep.
After a horrific nightmare, I have managed to confirm that Jo did not, indeed, have his life be ruined in some awful way. I sometimes let dreams concern me more than I should. Also, the fact that someone who looked suspiciously like the movie version of Lucius Malfoy was hanging out with Jo should have been a clue not to take the dream too seriously.
I found an awesome intro to electronics book at Radio Shack in Erie. Also, Mr. Evans is letting me borrow his fantastic book on engineering diagrams. I'm not sure how long this - try my hand at learning how to think like an engineer - phase is going to last, but it's good to be learning something, even if I'm pretty sure I'm not all that well suited to it.
Right now I'm sitting around with the cats trying to not be all gloomy. The video drivers on my laptop are breaking everything and I don't know how to fix it, which is one major source of annoyance. 96% of my CPU seems to belong to Xorg right now, and I am growing increasingly despondent, and quickly losing the will to live. I think it's the ATI driver being horrible, but I can't seem to get X to work at all without the driver. The original configuration that worked on install, just kills the entire display now, and I have to reboot to get video back. The same thing happens when I try just about anything else. Oh yeah, did I mention that this post would involve a thrilling rant about my laptop woes? I almost never do this, but I'm so annoyed, and so not in the mood to keep debugging this one. I just have to keep telling myself that, "All things has a cause, " and hope that my pass can provide me with some answers.
I can't believe that I'm starting a new job on Monday. I really hope things work out well. It seems like so many of the people I know who are working at this place are so frustrated with it, and I hope I haven't gotten myself into something ugly. Everyone assures me the department I am going into is fine and not filled with the same sorts of problems, but I'm not holding my breath.
I still wish I didn't have to do this.
Fortunately, I have Black Bush whiskey and two cats to console me tonight, if nothing else.
Originally published at Don\'t talk to me about life....