The tissue of the Tears of Zorro [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
tearsofzorro

[ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ]
[ archive | journal archive ]

(no subject) [Nov. 1st, 2009|08:31 pm]
Ugh, I haven't updated in a while.

Well, if you wanna know, I've been sick, a lot. Well, once, just after coming back from Scotland, and since about Wednesday this week. I thought it was ok, but it turned into a real coughing fit on Thursday, to the point that I went home, and stayed home Friday - well, I say stayed home, it implies some conscious choice. I was zonked out for the guts of 24 hours.

With folks being away in foreign places until yesterday, I didn't actually realise until Saturday afternoon (after missing Feile Draiochta because of stupid disease) that I have no fucking voice. Well, I kinda do, but it's scratchy and not something that I would like to have as a permanent feature of my life, let's say.

Of course, I am beginning to wonder if it's not quite sickness, but my body trying to tell me something. Seriously, if you meet someone who's lost all the hair on their body and who has just lost their voice, what would would those two symptoms be signifying?

I guess there might be a point to doing some emotional digging... although I know that if I do, there'll one special little gem that will have to be looked at, and I am in no way looking forward to that prospect. It's not something I talk about with friends, although some do know. It's not something I wear on my sleeve or tell a lot of people about because... well, because. And no, I'm not talking about it here, and I would appreciate it if those that don't know, don't ask. If I tell you, I'm pretty sure your first reaction isn't that you'll feel blessed or trusted enough that I dumped pretty much the bulk of my emotional baggage on you.

In fairness, I'm probably over-reacting, and all this is just a by-product of my current infection and will be over once I'm my vocal self again, but it is still enough to shake me and make me wonder if I need to be re-evaluating my life at the moment. (I'm like lisp, I'm a lazy evaluator)

In the meantime, apologies to everyone whose parties I couldn't get to.
linkpost comment

Oh man, quoting this for truth [Oct. 7th, 2009|12:21 pm]
So, I stumbled across what looks to be a very nice programming guide that pitches itself extremely well so far. I've only read the first 5 lessons and it seems to adopt a good tone - it's explanatory without being condescending, which is something that I've found even a lot of lecturers can't muster.

Anyway, in the fifth lesson I came across a lovely gem that I just have to share even with people who aren't looking to learn about programming, and that just makes me like the guy more:

If you listen to half the people commenting on this subject, you would think that deciding to be a programmer means signing your soul to the devil and living in hell until you retire. Every time I read such a horror story I ask myself the same question, "Why doesn't the guy just quit?"

If you are planning to take the first job that comes along, work for less than you are worth, and not be willing to leave if the situation changes - that may very well be the case.

Anyway, if you're interested in learning a bit about these machines, it looks like it might be a good place to start (I'm only at the fifth page at the moment) - it's as readable as the Simple Wikipedia.
linkpost comment

(no subject) [Oct. 5th, 2009|05:54 pm]
The following stems from a conversation I may have had with my parents on the way home from a restaurant at the weekend. I'll leave the context to your able imaginations.

Poll #1466847
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

What mental image does the phrase "Mincing hobos" bring to mind?

View Answers

Homeless people in a blender
6 (66.7%)

Vagrants with a really camp walk
4 (44.4%)

Other (Please explain)
0 (0.0%)

If you selected other, please explain here (or just comment in general)

link1 comment|post comment

(no subject) [Sep. 28th, 2009|02:09 pm]
[Tags|, ]

On Stenaline home from Edinburgh. Had an incredibly good time, but more on that later.

So, as I said, I'm on the ferry, and wifi seems to be free for all. Strangely, I only discovered that my B&B had wifi on my last day, which was unfortunate, as it would have eliminated the ultimately futile task of finding a decent net cafe (although, seeing as I don't use my netsoc account so much, it's not so bad, these days I just want keyboards that aren't sticky and have their keys the right way around rather than also looking for ssh access). I could have camped in Nom De Plume (which seems to be attached to the local LGBT centre, and would be what I'd love to see outhouse's cafe become, but I know it's not going to happen), and constantly ordered drinks and nibbles while I fed my internet addiction, but the thought of camping with my netbook seemed skeezy, and also not what the holiday was about... which was switching off for a while.

It seems Virgin Trains have hooked up with T-mobile to do wifi there, and both my trains from Edinburgh to Hollyhead were Virgin 'Super' trains (which also have power points for mobiles and laptops in standard class) Catch is, it's not free unless you're first class. The thing is, I didn't feel cheated. I mean, I was on a decent train that offered very nice clean services, and got me from A to B, they even had a place for me to charge my phone or netbook. That's sweet at the best of times, and is bundled into the standard fare. Of course, the standard fare is a bit higher (or rather, you wouldn't get a supersaver ticket that ran through that company - it's been so long since I paid attention to rail fare structures in the UK that I'm very fuzzy on details). For some reason, I started thinking of what it would be like of Michael O'Leary (of Ryanair shame fame) ran the same service. Even the amenities offered by the standard class would be something you'd be paying a lot for. Want to charge your phone? £5 an hour please. Oh, you have a seat? I'm afraid you haven't paid for it. It's third-class with bolt-ons. With ryanair, I feel afraid to breathe without being charged for it. With Virgin, it's a very good standard class, with bolt-ons.

I guess what I'm trying to say is:
Imagine you want a birthday cake. Standard class with bolt-ons is a decent chocolate cake, with no frills except that it's 2-layer and has a bit of that creamy icing between the layers. If you want a nice hand-piped birthday message, sprinkles, sparklers and ribbons. You pay extra. So, if you go all out, you have a nicely decorated cake.

Now, take the O'Leary model. Like Virgin, you pay for the birthday message, sprinkles and other paraphernalia, but the underlying piece of 'cake' is a dog turd. Yes, you can buy an optional bolt-on of "chocolate cake flavour", but even a bit of cocoa (and, no ,I do not speak from personal experience) will change the underlying experience of ingesting canine defecation.

Ah, um, slightly off topic. I think what I meant to say was "wooo, wifi on a boat", not even Samuel J himself could be sick of this motherfuggin internet on this motherfuggin boat!
link2 comments|post comment

Safe and sound [Sep. 24th, 2009|08:41 pm]
[Tags|]

So I've arrived here. I've been toying with releasing my location, but it's almost more fun to give hints and let people guess. If you get it, you win a lollipop, and a certain sense of smugness.

Anyway, yesterday was a hard enough slog. Up just befor 6am, then ferry to Wales and 6 hours of train journies I arrived. By the way, I nearly got run over in the train station. I really didn't expect roads to be running through it. Seriously. First thing, once I was through the barriers was look up towards shop names and signs to orient me. Then I noticed I nearly walked onto a road.

At any rate, I walked into a nice lastminute.com office that set me up with accommodation. Turns out I eneded up in a B&B within reacharound distance of the gay district (unfortunately, it's also directly opposite the HQ of the Rod Stewart fan club). Walk one way down the street I'm on, and I apparently hit a gay bar all on its lonesome, but if I walk into town (wow is it hilly - I'm kinda glad I didn't bring skates) I pass by a number of gay bars and cafes. I was in one cafe that was incredibly nice, and reasonably priced. I was slightly bouncy in that when I asked where the loos were, I was directed towards the ladies - either I was read as trans and they were cool with that (most likely) or I passed (less likely, but in which case, I remember someone pointing out that a foreign accent always helps in such matters) - not bad for a completly bald tranny.

Also, in terms of where I'm situated, as I walk into town, I pass by a

Sculpture of a Giant Foot!



Only thing is, this morning I wandered around half the city, and decided to head back to the B&B to recoup. I ended up sleeping for a good 4 hours before waking up again (which was silly as I slept from 10pm to 8am the night before), which was a waste of an afternoon. However, the luck of it was that it was a thursday, so shops stay open a bit later, so I didn't lose too much wandering time, except for daylight hours.

The only other downside is the B&B doesn't have wireless, but a lot of places do. I was going to pull out my laptop in the cafe I ate in, but it was filling up, so it seemed like bad form, so I opted for an internet cafe. So, I may try to locate other hotspots, but it's not a biggie. Although, I find it mildly disturbing that there's a *chipper* ("chippy" to you UK folks) with a hotspot. Really, a chipper! Have your deep friend mars bar and net connection, maybe so you can go to an emergency services website, to order yourself an ambulance for the impending heart attack. (That said, I've had them before and they're nom)

Anyway, all in all, it's good, it's picturesque (despite not having hit the tourist spots just yet) and I'm enjoying myself.
linkpost comment

(no subject) [Sep. 22nd, 2009|11:13 pm]
So, I'm skulking off to my mystery destination at 6am tomorrow morning. It should be interesting.

See you folks next week. I may ping/reveal where I am when I get there.
linkpost comment

(no subject) [Sep. 15th, 2009|05:18 pm]
[Tags|, ]

I got this link when googling "Serpinski Knitting" - Knitting for Fun: A Recursive Sweater (an academic paper meshing computer science and knitting) ((Note: you probably won't be able to read this paper unless you pay for it, or in a college or work for a company kind enough to pay for a subscription to this service))

Edit: Ok, I read a bit of it, and ugh. The opening chapter sums up a lot of what I hate about academic elitism and sexism within the scientific community (those who know me will know I don't identify as any major sort of feminist, but Egads, this is stupid).

Opening line: "Knitting is usually considered a female activity and females are usually not considered to be inclined to mathematics, or to science in general." ... (same paragraph) "Therefore, even illiterate women use mathematics while knitting, without knowing it."

( Cut while I get my rant on )
linkpost comment

Walking all over [Sep. 15th, 2009|12:23 pm]
[Tags|]

I was hunting around various sites, and came across the Telegraph's "The week in pictures".

For some reason this one particularly struck me - link. At first I thought it was a trick of the eye like this forced perspective photo... but no, it's just a model.

Still, I could imagine figuring out a way to make it like those photo walls, where people shove their face through a hole so they can have their picture taken with their face transplanted on top of a cartoon Adonis.
linkpost comment

Grrrrrrrr..... [Sep. 11th, 2009|10:34 am]
[Tags|, , ]

If you want a pre-transition tranny to feel uncomfortable, just post this on a chatroom in work:

( Cut because you probably don't want to see this )

Man, the fucking testosterone is almost tangible in work today. And Jesus Haych Christ, can't we just leave that woman to her goddamn career. Or at the very least not make stupid comments like that.
link6 comments|post comment

Topic of craftiness decided [Sep. 9th, 2009|10:58 pm]
Well, I've signed up for knitting classes in Marino college. I'd love to have found a basic sewing course, but a lot of them seem a little more-than-basic. The reason for that preference would be a family link. Actually, possibly one of the last ones I have. My grandmother used to be a seamstress (NOT the Terry Pratchett kind), and was one until she went blind. Given that I have no contact with that side of the family, it would be nice to see if I can continue the tradition, if only in a recreational context. This doesn't preclude me from learning some basic hand-sewing skills in the meantime.

Instead, I went for a close second, knitting. So, I'll head out and get some materials tomorrow, and try it out soon enough.

Despite broadcasting this to the internet, I haven't really advertised the fact in meatspace. I'm beginning to really feel the testosterone in work, and when it comes to parents, I can be quite secretive, although sometimes I just don't know why. Probably because there'll be that aspect of awkwardly trying to use it as a point of conversation, or my mum may just try to read too damn much into it. Both are strong possibilities, and not mutually exclusive.

At any rate, time to learn a new skill that will have me interacting with the outside world in a slightly more tangible way. And, with a bit of luck, I'll meet some other folks, if only for a few weeks. Which brings me to other activities. This week is the second week of toastmasters, and I won't be going (last week for a wedding, and this week for An Fainne), so I'm going to have to ask myself if I have time to make a commitment to them for another year. I'd like to, but at the same time, I could just as easily just take the time to relax, and maybe skate. Again, toastmasters is very cerebral, and while it's a rustable skill, it's also one that I can go back to. So, to borrow from Ericksonian hypnosis (or is it NLP?), to do something once is a once-off, two is setting it up, but 3 times is a habit. So, if I can't rouse myself for the third week, I'm probably making a habit of not going. It may not be a bad thing either, I'm running myself ragged through the week, so it might be a good idea to give it a miss for a while.

Anyway, Something Else, here I come.
link4 comments|post comment

#crafty urges [Sep. 8th, 2009|12:18 pm]
[Tags|]

I want to make something. Actually, no. I want to learn how to make things.

My job is one for head-dwellers, which I manage exceedingly well. However, my recreational activities also generally involve head-dwelling. I want to make something. I want to create something where the uninitiated look at it and say "Yes, but what does it do?". I want something tangible for my efforts, where I can show off something I made, and they can take it into their hands and touch it. I also don't want it to be head-dwelly.

I want to make something with my hands, but I don't want to write, draw or paint - yes, it's creative, but it involves doing too much in my head. As [info]chebe put it so succinctly last night, I want something crafty, not arty. (It's kinda funny, though, that she used that word, as it had a particularly loaded meaning for me during my teens - don't ask, I won't tell)

So now, at the time of enrollment for evening courses, I'm looking for potential courses to learn how to do these things. Ideally, I'd love to learn sewing, or knitting, or jewelery making (not beading though). If you're wondering why those, sewing because it's practical, knitting and jewelery because I love knotwork, and love the intricacies of that sort of thing (and it might hold to a certain degree with sewing).

Any good recommendations for any of the above would be very, very welcome.
link2 comments|post comment

Wanderings [Sep. 6th, 2009|04:25 pm]
[Tags|]

As the year marches on, I find myself wanting to wander more. I've been working long stretches, and I have a lot of leave. At the start of the year, I thought I'd burn through it more than I have. I've just taken it for occasionally bridge days, and other days off, and as a result, I'm left with a massive chunk that's looking for some attention before the end of the year.

The end result is the idea of a magical mystery tour. Last time I did that, I managed to burn most of my friends because I didn't tell most of them that I was going to travel until I was sailing out on the Ferry and essentially sent a text saying, "I'm going inter-railing. I'll see you all in a month or so." I still stand by my reasons for doing so, although I'm sure I could have handled it better as, looking back on it, it's a pretty ass-holey thing to do. Given that I'd like to hang onto my friends, consider this my notification of intent to bugger off.

Given that circumstances are different this time, it's only going to be a week of wandering, and I have to give my company notice that I might be taking off for a stroll of foreign climes, it's probably better to let everyone know.

I have an idea of where I'm going to be going, but I'm open to persuasion. Mainly, I'm looking at somewhere in the UK (I was initially thinking Ireland, but that's since fizzled in my head for some reason). I'm not looking for travel partners (I want to do this solo), or to couch-surf, or anyfink of that ilk, but just suggestions for a city in the UK (but just not London - I've been there a lot, and know I'd just end up vegging in Camden for the entirety of the week, which isn't what I want) that would probably occupy me for the guts of a week.

I'm probably looking at some time close to the end of September. I'll be making this a "Proper" journey by going by sail and rail (I have this thing where sitting down in a big box with other people for a number of hours, with nothing to see but white fluffy stuff out the windows, is not actually Travel, it's just sufficiently advanced magic), so I'd prefer somewhere with an actual train station - however, unlike Ireland, that doesn't really limit my choices.

However, be warned, once I decide on somewhere, I might not actually announce my destination until I return.
link2 comments|post comment

(no subject) [Aug. 31st, 2009|12:17 pm]
Oh man. I haven't been posting on this for ages as my short-attention quick-fire posts have since found a home in facebook.

But wow, am I overworked. That's probably a misnomer, but I have a lot of stuff to do. I suppose explaining how the workload is structured would make sense in explaining this.

We have what we test, and the programs we use to test it (call testsuites). When new versions of the testsuite come in, we might see new issues. Some of them are because the testsuite changed its behaviour when running tests, or there are new tests which fail. My job is to identify what's going wrong, and to update our list of known failures (called baselines). If a failure is known, we say "Ok, it's what we expect from our baseline, so we aren't concerned with this". So the next build of what we test doesn't show these up as problems. My job is also to get this done before the build closes. Also, whenever a problem comes up, we get a ticket, which basically says "It's your job to look after these failures", by which we mean analyse and report them, and baseline the fails.

What happened recently is, I got a new test version, and a whole load of new tests failed. So, now I have to figure out what tests failed and why. The problem is 3 builds came relatively quickly, and now I have about 60 tickets (we're only meant to have 10 open), and most of these are duplicates. Of course, I can lump tickets into 1, if they're the same problem, but first I have to make sure they're actually the same problem.

So yeah, lots of work. Oh, and I've to have the analysis done by today.

*Cries in a corner*
linkpost comment

Writer's Block: 5//7//5 [Jul. 15th, 2009|08:47 pm]
[Tags|]

Sum up your day in the form of a haiku.

Submitted By [info]cpnspuff


View 507 Answers



A tired worker
Wants to enjoy the Summer Sun
But leaves far too late
linkpost comment

(no subject) [Jul. 6th, 2009|12:06 pm]
[Tags|, ]

Despite a weekend of epic proportions, I actually feel pretty fantastic today. The sun was shining and I didn't feel tired or any such things. Just clean and ready for a good day.

If I have the energy after work, and if it hasn't rained, I may check out St Anne's park to see how it is for skating. Hell, even if it has rained, I may check out the park, but not skate.
link1 comment|post comment

Tea, Stags and [Jul. 5th, 2009|07:57 pm]
[Tags|, , , ]

Oh man. Good party. ( Stag party - rambling may ensue )
linkpost comment

(no subject) [Jun. 29th, 2009|02:36 am]
[Tags|, , ]
[music |Garbage - Cherry Lips]

I suppose this is nothing new to most people who might have even a cursory relationship with gender, but wannabe Gender Soldiers get my goat.
( Minor gender-rant - pretty safe to ignore )
link5 comments|post comment

Eleven Eight Fifty - Nifty [Jun. 28th, 2009|01:46 pm]
[Tags|, ]

Pride was fun. The march was a bit shorter, but probably just as well, given that by the end of O'Connell Street, my arms were already hurting from doing poi.

After food, and milling around bars, we went back to Jack's. Now, this is where I made my real discovery of the day. There's a directory enquiries service called 11850, which also offers a question answering service. Some odd questions may have been sent that night. Unfortunately, I only have the exact answers to the two questions that I sent, but perhaps others will contribute.

I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine why we said "That'd be something 11850 can answer".

Question: How many nipples does a cow have?

Answer: They have four. An udder is the mammary organ of female cattle and some other mammals, including goats and sheep. Thank you!

Question: Are you guys like a Magic 8-Ball?

Answer: Yes. It is used for fortune-telling or seeking advice. How about you?

Just as a point of history - 11850 used to advertise this service, but withdrew it after a few weeks - it's quite likely that questions like these would be a root cause. However, the service is still running and costs 50c per text.
linkpost comment

Yes! Yes! Yes! I understand the meaning of life! [Jun. 26th, 2009|01:17 pm]
[Tags|]

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
linkpost comment

Man! [Jun. 23rd, 2009|12:21 pm]
[Tags|]

So, I haven't taken time off work in an age. Ok, I went to London in March, but that's about it. As a result of that, and the fact that I bought 5 extra days annual leave, I have a whole mess of it knocking around.

Given that this weekend is Pride weekend, I'm thinking of taking the Friday and Monday. I was planning to ask my Team Lead about it today. Then, in our staff meeting, he mentioned that the timing of work is looking very tight this weekend, and that he'd almost recommend working the weekend.

Now, I'm on the point of a minor burnout: I was working full-on with a project for about 5 weeks, and putting other core work to the side. That meant that all of last week, and the quiet periods of this week, was allocated to tidying up the core work that I had to catch up on. So it might be understandable that I want a break now. It might be even more understandable that I want it off for Pride; in my mind, Pride is an immutable, almost religious, holiday. (Hell, my religious holidays tend to be one every 6 weeks, but I don't call those in when I'm working) The problem is, I'd like not to out myself too much to get this long weekend (or a weekend at all).

Anyway, we'll see how it goes when he's back after lunch.

Edit: All's good, I have my time off. Man I need it.
link1 comment|post comment

navigation
[ viewing | most recent entries ]
[ go | earlier ]