So, we're still recovering from the broken water pipe at work. There are big fans, and dehumidifiers (I think that's what they're called), and cut-out sections of wall, and a ton or two of misplaced furniture. Misplaced workers, too: we have a lot of people set up in impromptu work centers in the big meeting rooms. My computer was one of the casualties, so I'm working on a teeny little netbook - and let me tell you, man, that's no way to live.
Of course, I'm also moving tables and helping people relocate their PCs, so there's an element of physical activity that isn't usually present in my job. That part is actually kind of fun. And the place is basically dry now, though I'd be afraid to sit on the floor just yet. I'm told that we'll probably have everyone back in their offices sometime around Thursday, which isn't too bad. No word on when I might have a working computer again, though.
We're a bit inundated at home, too. The Beautiful Woman starts teaching at one college next week, and another the week after that. The boys have started back to school, a transition that shouldn't have kicked my butt but did anyway. Secondborn is very, very stuffy - which is making it hard for him to sleep. Then there are the usual cooking, cleaning, and sorting sorts of chores. Oh, and on top of that we have the Boy Scouts, which issue probably deserves a whole separate post of its own; suffice to say that Firstborn's desire to join has added a whole new layer of Holy-Poot-We-Did-Not-Need-This on top of everything else.
TL;DR: Blog posts may be erratic, and writing on other projects is nonexistent.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Battle Music!
I'm just going to toss this out here so I can find it again when I need some background music for writing battle scenes... Well, and also because I'm a huge geek.
When the pipe breaks, the water will fall...
So, um, yeah. Broken water pipe in the ceiling at my office. Went home Wednesday night and left the computer on; came back in yesterday morning to find the computer sitting in three inches of water - along with my desk. Fortunately, I don't keep much of anything else on the floor; a lot of people had stacks of paper, rolled up maps and blueprints, cameras, boxes full of files... yeah. It knocked out about a third of the building, and caused second-generation problems even up on the next floor.
Four feet further up the hallway, and it would have reached the server room. That would have been a disaster.
So we came in and found that the office was inaccessible. We promptly set up a work center across the hall, in one of the big meeting rooms, so we had some place where the really critical people (e.g., Payroll) could do their jobs. I'd given up on staying dry, so I kicked my shoes off in the server room, rolled up my pants, and waded around in my bare feet. One of the guys from another department looked at me funny - kind of disapproving, really - but I stand by the decision. It was probably some sort of unforgivable OSHA violation, but my feet dried almost instantly once I was out of the water - while the folks who kept their shoes on were still squishing around in wet socks well after lunch time.
I'm not at all sure just how much is going to have to be done to get the building back in shape.
So I'm working from home today, and on a completely different computer from the one I usually use. This is a little awkward, but not too bad. We'll see how it goes.
Four feet further up the hallway, and it would have reached the server room. That would have been a disaster.
So we came in and found that the office was inaccessible. We promptly set up a work center across the hall, in one of the big meeting rooms, so we had some place where the really critical people (e.g., Payroll) could do their jobs. I'd given up on staying dry, so I kicked my shoes off in the server room, rolled up my pants, and waded around in my bare feet. One of the guys from another department looked at me funny - kind of disapproving, really - but I stand by the decision. It was probably some sort of unforgivable OSHA violation, but my feet dried almost instantly once I was out of the water - while the folks who kept their shoes on were still squishing around in wet socks well after lunch time.
I'm not at all sure just how much is going to have to be done to get the building back in shape.
So I'm working from home today, and on a completely different computer from the one I usually use. This is a little awkward, but not too bad. We'll see how it goes.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Nameless 01
This is just a little snippet of something that came to me. Might be the start of a story; might not. Even if it could be, I doubt I have time to explore it. So I'm just going to put it here, for now. Maybe I'll come back to it later.
I used to tell stories. At least, I think I did. Don't know if I was good at it. Not the point. Point is, I used to tell stories. I used to put words together, make them into sentences, put sentences together, make them fill pages. I could feel the rhythm of the story, hear the melody of the words.
But that was when I still had a name. Don't have one anymore. No name, no stories. I think I still have words, but it's hard to tell. People won't speak to me without a name. Most won't even look at me. It's like I'm not there, but I am.
I'm my own ghost.
I used to tell stories. At least, I think I did. Don't know if I was good at it. Not the point. Point is, I used to tell stories. I used to put words together, make them into sentences, put sentences together, make them fill pages. I could feel the rhythm of the story, hear the melody of the words.
But that was when I still had a name. Don't have one anymore. No name, no stories. I think I still have words, but it's hard to tell. People won't speak to me without a name. Most won't even look at me. It's like I'm not there, but I am.
I'm my own ghost.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
RAID 5 versus Evil
Let me tell you about RAID 5. RAID 5 is basically a way of storing electronic data; it takes a set of five hard disks and ties them together. From the outside, a RAID array behaves as if it were a single disk. However, the data is distributed across all five disks - and so is the parity data, which is basically a record of what each disk has on it. So, each disk has part of the data, plus a record of what data the other disks have.
The reason for setting it up this way is that it helps prevent data from being lost. If one of the hard disks crashes, there's still enough data spread across the other four that the overall array can continue to function uninterrupted. Even better, if you pull out the dead hardware and replace it with a new drive, the data on the other four disks can be used to "fill in the blanks" for the new arrival. This takes a little time, but once it's done you're back to full RAID 5 redundancy... and in the meantime, your array continues to operate as a data storage device.
As you can probably imagine, an array like this this is a considerable improvement over a single hard disk by itself; if a single disk crashes, everything on it is probably gone. The only real problem with a RAID 5 array is that if you happen to have one disk crash, and you remove it and replace it, and then you have a second hard disk crash while the system is in the process of rebuilding the data on the first disk... well... "KABLOOEY!" as Calvin would say.
Go on. Ask me how my day is going.
The reason for setting it up this way is that it helps prevent data from being lost. If one of the hard disks crashes, there's still enough data spread across the other four that the overall array can continue to function uninterrupted. Even better, if you pull out the dead hardware and replace it with a new drive, the data on the other four disks can be used to "fill in the blanks" for the new arrival. This takes a little time, but once it's done you're back to full RAID 5 redundancy... and in the meantime, your array continues to operate as a data storage device.
As you can probably imagine, an array like this this is a considerable improvement over a single hard disk by itself; if a single disk crashes, everything on it is probably gone. The only real problem with a RAID 5 array is that if you happen to have one disk crash, and you remove it and replace it, and then you have a second hard disk crash while the system is in the process of rebuilding the data on the first disk... well... "KABLOOEY!" as Calvin would say.
Go on. Ask me how my day is going.
Not with a bang
It's starting again. The boys are back in school. (Well, the oldest one's in school; the youngest is back in his daycare program.) My wife is about to start her spring semester, and she's teaching at two different colleges this time around. And, of course, we've hit the end of the year (with its requisite site updates) and the first big blush of our busy season, all at the same time.
That doesn't seem to affect the Blog o' Doom here, much. At least, it hasn't in previous years, so it probably won't this time, either. It'll be just as random as always, with maybe a few more work- and stress-related rants. I expect my longer writing projects to grind to a halt again, but I guess that's fine; it's not like I was making any progress on them, anyway.
That doesn't seem to affect the Blog o' Doom here, much. At least, it hasn't in previous years, so it probably won't this time, either. It'll be just as random as always, with maybe a few more work- and stress-related rants. I expect my longer writing projects to grind to a halt again, but I guess that's fine; it's not like I was making any progress on them, anyway.
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