November 2008
23 posts
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Gratefulgiving
I wrote a really long post here detailing the last couple of days, covering Thanksgiving, Black Friday, eating too much, drinking way too much, and generally struggling to get to all systems working within operational parameters. However, I don’t really want this blog to just be a journal of events that I might look back on fondly in a few years, I want to write interesting things, so I...
Thanksgiving | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine →
This is one of the simplest descriptions of the spin-statistics theorem, one of the most important results from quantum mechanics, that I’ve read.
Everyone should read this to get a glimpse at how important quantum theories are to our everyday life.
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One week
The title of this post is misleading: The family has been in San Francisco for more than a week, and I’ve been at work at the new job for two weeks, but somehow it feels like this is the first week that I’ve actually been here.
I obviously can’t write much about what I’m up to at work, but I can write that I’m having a fun time on some relatively straight-forward...
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I can stop whenever I want
I bet you’d thought I’d forgotten all about you, and was going to continue with lame updates that were just reblogs of other peoples’ far more inspired efforts. Well I didn’t, but I have been incredibly busy.
Playing WoW.
Well not just that, though it was the focus of the weekend. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me begin just before the weekend…
diddley-doo...
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“Like the measles, love is most dangerous when it comes late in life.”
– Lord Byron (via kari-shma)
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WatchPlease. Someone wipe the drool from my chin.
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Fun with Windows CMD.exe
While I was in a semi-conscious state this morning, my body awaiting the arrival of sweet, sweet caffeine, and due to some issues I’m having with my work environment setup, I happened to check out what environment variables were set. I noticed one named ‘PROMPT’ that I immediately assumed worked similarly to the PS1 and PS2 environment variables under bash.
I briefly searched to...
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Finest worksong
Today was the first day of my new job. I’ve posted before about how I felt different about this change of job, as I already knew the people and what was going on at the company, however that really didn’t prepare me for actually being there.
I spent 45 minutes on a bus getting to work. Most people I’ve told this to think that this is an outrageous time to spend on a bus, but...
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Writing in the dark
I thought that I’d survived jetlag. I was clearly wrong.
After a very tiring day yesterday, during which I walked nearly 3km with an enormous bag of dog food thanks to getting lost and not finding a cab, I crashed early at 7.30pm. I like to think of the walk of doom as my own personal Biggest Loser challenge. Sleeping early would have been fine, except I woke up very confused in the dark....
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When shuffle just works
iPod: Morning Dom, how about we start with a little Maiden.
Dom: Ok, but make it something chilled.
iPod: Infinite Dreams?
Dom: Perfect.
iPod: Time to step it up a gear: Sell Out by the Levellers good?
Dom: Great. I need to wake up a bit.
iPod: Let's not get too perky, I fancy slowing it down with Radiohead and Bullet Proof... I Wish I Was.
Dom: Ooh, good choice for a nice chilled walk.
iPod: And now a little R.E.M. and Find The River?
Dom: Yes!
iPod: Hmm.. The streets are getting a little grungy. Fancy some Clash?
Dom: Rudie Can't Fail would be great about now.
iPod: Can do!
Stand and deliver
Image via Wikipedia
I have a bank account! But not just any account, oh no. I have a bank account with Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo that was formed in the mid-nineteenth century amid the gold rush in California. The one that is obsessed with stage coaches, pioneering and horses.
They are definitely staying true to their roots. Firstly, the options for their atm card images are stage coaches or...
“First you jump off the cliff and you build wings on the way down.”
– Ray Bradbury
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
– Douglas Adams
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Born free, as free as the wind blows
Apparently, according to Mirto, I write better when I’m tired. If so, this should post should be comedy gold!
I started writing that we’re one day in to our San Francisco life, but I think it might have been two. Between the waking at odd hours and the naps in between brief periods of wakefulness, I’ve already lost track of time.
I do know that last night myself, the wife and...
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Letter from America
The last time we left him, our hero was boarding a Singapore Air plane bound for San Francisco. Let’s see what happened next.
The Singapore Air experience was, as always, fantastic. Food every three hours, drinks every hour, and a really comfortable seat. We had a transit stop in Hong Kong that was vaguely ridiculous: We left the plane, travelled through half the airport, and then reboarded...
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Leaving on a jetplane
“Today” has been going on now for something like 35 hours, but I’m too numb in the brain to figure it out exactly. It started on Tuesday morning in Singapore with the chaps who were meant to pick up the last of our boxes not showing up, and the co-ordinator explaining that they’d get there some time after we’d left the country. Which was less than helpful. Some...
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Learning to fly
I started my novel today. It’s part of the NaNoWriMo project to write 50,000 words in a month that I have mentioned previously.
In the few hours since I began, I have managed to write 372 words. Given that I should be writing 1,667 a day, and that I’m aiming for 2,000 a day to give myself some room, it’s a poor showing. Here’s what happened:
I had a plan for the novel, or...