Coast is clear
Mar. 20th, 2005 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hirezA day that starts with the postman handing one a bag of lead can only remain strange, and so it did.
This last week, I've been avoiding mention of my headstate because...
... Mostly it's been hurting like fuck. I mean really. I'd got a reasonable handle on what was going on by Thursday (stupidity, by and large. No cause for concern) and it could be fixed by sleep, food and staying away from computers. So I stayed in bed all morning and created a mongo fry-up for lunch. Sorted.
Anyway, a long time ago I used to get paid to write C. I wrote pascal (within beer-lobbing distance of a bloke called Pascal, oddly enough) before that, but didn't get paid as such. I got sidetracked by unix adminning about ten years ago and have always slightly regretted that. I've always felt that there's something... Cleaner about writing code, rather than the firefighting and arsewiping that typifies admin work. Not that there's not a sense of achievement in bringing box back from the dead or migrating critical services or... I'd better stop before I start to sound like my own CV. I guess the correct answer is that I've been damn lucky to be able to slide between a series of different-ish jobs that have a range of skillsets that suit me. Though I can't be the only one who's done hardware, s/w and admin.
So I've not written any production code for a while and I'd had a hankering to try again, just to see if I can. Some will remember the well-intentioned but abortive Java attempt a while ago. That was a bit embarrassing. This time I've been hacking on some ugly C. It's now smaller and portable. I am rather pleased with myself, which I think is allowed. Especially since I've been trying to pick up the threads of skills last used in anger when the tories were in power, while battling day-long headaches and wooziness.
[Edit: Something that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
s0b said on the artist-torturing retreat struck a chord: 'You can't hold a whole novel in your head. It's a set of stories that knit together...' Now I've spent the last week re-wandering the dusty bits of my head concerned with coding, and... There are fresh footprints there. Those bits aren't disused because I've been using them to write reviews and stories. The techniques one used in coding are more or less the same as the ones used in writing a good story. You can't hold a non-trivial program in your head. It's a set of (head-sized) routines that knit together. ]
As a respite from all of that, and because the sun was shining and because I have no car... Well, I say 'no', there's the backup Saab stored at work, but that'll need money thrown at it to get it road-legal...
...Y'see I have a bit of a problem with personal mobility. If you can be arsed to read back through this LJ malarkey, you'll discover that a JH-R sans vehicle is a paranoid and stressed JH-R that hides under the duvet and whimpers lots. I don't have much of an idea why, but I do know that I don't like it and keeping two Saabs seemed like an obvious fix at the time. Of course the insurance companies didn't much care for the idea and it all got well futile. Meanwhile the one that is road-legal is going to need some money spending on it (rust, it transpires. Repairable, but...) if it's to take me to the Netherlands at the end of July. Another four years have passed and it's time again for a hacker camping-trip. Who else is coming along?
So. Biked it into town, waving the Lomo at anything interesting. It was all lovely. Days like that remind me what's worthwhile about living in Bristol. I wandered the avenues and alleyways, whistling the relevant tune, and discovered a good half-dozen interesting-looking boozers hiding down dead-end streets round the back of the university and hospital. Bagged some 'scope probes inCity Speed Joe Maplins, stopped for an expensive pint in the pub next door, failed to find either Repsycho or Travelling Man, but engaged in guerilla photography (curiously good fun) with a tribe of sp00kykids and spotted a real live Nathan. Complete with wee bike, crap hat and seventies sports-bag. I nearly fell off my own bike in surprise.
The Lomo-waving was a bit odd. I've got used to pulling the Nokia out and showing it strange things, and there's a certain amount of 'If I can be bothered' about it; the point would seem to be to live one's life, rather than record it. (So what's this all about then?) However, I'd find myself seeing an interesting thing and instead of logging it as something to come back to when I'd discharged my current responsibility, I'd think 'The light's right now. Best bag a shot while you can...' Which is an entirely new experience. The jury's still out, but I think it's a positive one.
This last week, I've been avoiding mention of my headstate because...
... Mostly it's been hurting like fuck. I mean really. I'd got a reasonable handle on what was going on by Thursday (stupidity, by and large. No cause for concern) and it could be fixed by sleep, food and staying away from computers. So I stayed in bed all morning and created a mongo fry-up for lunch. Sorted.
Anyway, a long time ago I used to get paid to write C. I wrote pascal (within beer-lobbing distance of a bloke called Pascal, oddly enough) before that, but didn't get paid as such. I got sidetracked by unix adminning about ten years ago and have always slightly regretted that. I've always felt that there's something... Cleaner about writing code, rather than the firefighting and arsewiping that typifies admin work. Not that there's not a sense of achievement in bringing box back from the dead or migrating critical services or... I'd better stop before I start to sound like my own CV. I guess the correct answer is that I've been damn lucky to be able to slide between a series of different-ish jobs that have a range of skillsets that suit me. Though I can't be the only one who's done hardware, s/w and admin.
So I've not written any production code for a while and I'd had a hankering to try again, just to see if I can. Some will remember the well-intentioned but abortive Java attempt a while ago. That was a bit embarrassing. This time I've been hacking on some ugly C. It's now smaller and portable. I am rather pleased with myself, which I think is allowed. Especially since I've been trying to pick up the threads of skills last used in anger when the tories were in power, while battling day-long headaches and wooziness.
[Edit: Something that
s0b said on the artist-torturing retreat struck a chord: 'You can't hold a whole novel in your head. It's a set of stories that knit together...' Now I've spent the last week re-wandering the dusty bits of my head concerned with coding, and... There are fresh footprints there. Those bits aren't disused because I've been using them to write reviews and stories. The techniques one used in coding are more or less the same as the ones used in writing a good story. You can't hold a non-trivial program in your head. It's a set of (head-sized) routines that knit together. ]As a respite from all of that, and because the sun was shining and because I have no car... Well, I say 'no', there's the backup Saab stored at work, but that'll need money thrown at it to get it road-legal...
...Y'see I have a bit of a problem with personal mobility. If you can be arsed to read back through this LJ malarkey, you'll discover that a JH-R sans vehicle is a paranoid and stressed JH-R that hides under the duvet and whimpers lots. I don't have much of an idea why, but I do know that I don't like it and keeping two Saabs seemed like an obvious fix at the time. Of course the insurance companies didn't much care for the idea and it all got well futile. Meanwhile the one that is road-legal is going to need some money spending on it (rust, it transpires. Repairable, but...) if it's to take me to the Netherlands at the end of July. Another four years have passed and it's time again for a hacker camping-trip. Who else is coming along?
So. Biked it into town, waving the Lomo at anything interesting. It was all lovely. Days like that remind me what's worthwhile about living in Bristol. I wandered the avenues and alleyways, whistling the relevant tune, and discovered a good half-dozen interesting-looking boozers hiding down dead-end streets round the back of the university and hospital. Bagged some 'scope probes in
The Lomo-waving was a bit odd. I've got used to pulling the Nokia out and showing it strange things, and there's a certain amount of 'If I can be bothered' about it; the point would seem to be to live one's life, rather than record it. (So what's this all about then?) However, I'd find myself seeing an interesting thing and instead of logging it as something to come back to when I'd discharged my current responsibility, I'd think 'The light's right now. Best bag a shot while you can...' Which is an entirely new experience. The jury's still out, but I think it's a positive one.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 12:44 am (UTC)I totally understand the car thing. Classic car insurance is your friend; my Supra costs a couple of hundred quid a year to insure, agreed value. It's group 16 beast, too. Anything older than 10 as long as it's not imported or a 4x4 from Firebond - and FWIW a Mini cost me the grand sum of £87 a couple of years ago!
I have er... three cars right now I think. I might have four, I can never remember.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 12:56 am (UTC)(What's an AX73 anyway?)
Yes. I bagged a Lomo action-sampler (Sounds like the Action Swingers) as dotcom swag a few years ago and have recently been experimenting with it. I lay no claim to 'photography' but rather like what it does to the things I see.
Classic car? Right. Both are older than ten and worth bog-all. That's got to be a better idea than what I'm paying now.
The thing is that the bloke who's now looking at the 900 restores the things for entertainment value. It's an idea, but... I don't believe anyone would buy the thing off me, neither do I particularly understand the 'showroom condition (including reproduction chalk-marks on the brake hoses)' mob. I think I should throw enough money at the thing to keep it going until the blower or the gearbox explodes. To do anything else would be a betrayal.
Mind, saying that, it'll get thieved or I'll bend it and then I'll have to cast about for a red or black K-plate with three-spokes, aircon and not Ecopower.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 02:05 am (UTC)AX73 - Akai analogue synthesizer, closely related to the Sequential Sixtrak. Prone to going out of tune - has a handy 'self tune' trick.
Only one can be on a classic policy. The trick is, you need one main car to be insured regularly - it's got your NCB and everything, right? So that's the cheapest group car you own. If you've a pair of Saab turbos, then it doesn't matter which, so use that for the one you use most/only want third-party on or whatever. The classic policy will offer you agreed value, limited mileage (Firebond haven't asked for proof of mileage for years, though) and no need for NCB - they basically give you full NCB for it and you earn none. So my Beetle, which is new, is on regular Direct Line, and the Supra is through Firebond.
C900s are classic cars and worth doing up, IMO. Though if the gearbox goes... argh. 900 Turbos are still capable of fetching £2K plus for a tidy one.
Don't think I'm aware of what an action sampler is; my own photographic passions are my tiny (and soon to be obsolete. *sigh*) Contax digitals and my beloved Fujica medium format rangefinders, which I haven't used for a while actually.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 07:55 am (UTC)No, though at a different level. I'm trying to get back to code, but I'm having a hard time motivating myself, I think partly because I'm looking at it as a career thing rather than an art thing.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 09:55 am (UTC)Traveling Man. Other side of centre past the road that runs onto College Green.
Who needs a car when...
Date: 2005-03-20 11:36 am (UTC)Innit.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 11:47 am (UTC)I haven't coded anything more complicated than a shell script with a condition in twelve years.
My real superpower is my Jobsian Reality Distortion Field. I have the power of Bullshit to such a degree that people are inspired to work to make it not bullshit. I need to find a cult of suitable moral integrity to start. One that pays a livable income. That's my current quest. Being able to work computers and tell them how to do things needs to be pressed into the service of that.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 11:49 am (UTC)Still, I can always go back.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 12:37 pm (UTC)Travelling Man is right at the bottom of Park St by the steps down to what used to be the Canon Frogmore St and opposite that pub that keeps changing name and getting more hideously pretentious every time. I need to go there myself now that First in their wisdom have made a return ticket into Broadmead from where we live nearly as expensive as an all-day ticket.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 01:58 pm (UTC)Re: Who needs a car when...
Date: 2005-03-20 02:00 pm (UTC)Perhaps I should bring the MD recorder.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-20 02:59 pm (UTC)