Month: November 2006

OK, you probably remember Seemant telling me I should take the weekend off. I had a nice day so far, didn’t do anything work or Gentoo related (which is a bit of a shame), had a small battle with my younger brother about him arguing with my father while having lunch, but afterwards I headed into town (Stralsund that is), did a bit of window shopping; spotted a nice watch (which is for sale for only ~300 €), even tried to get into a movie, but it seems CineStar (that’s a local chain of cinema’s) is trying to boycott me.

I wanted to watch the new movie with Uma Thurman “My Super Ex-Girlfriend“, where she is playing an outrageous ex girlfriend with superman like powers. But looks like they aren’t showing the movie yet, but they’re showing “Cars“, you remember that – its that odd animated film with the speaking cars (which is from September if I recall rightly).

Not even in Greifswald (that’s the town I work in, which is ~40km away), the next bigger city they are playing it, is Rostock. But that’s ~80km away one way, so what the fuck.

I’m watching some old movies from my DVD rack (“The Patriot” – with Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger, “S.W.A.T.” – with Colin Farrell and Samuel L. Jackson) currently, trying to relax a bit and give my head some time out. I hope tomorrow will get as exciting, comforting and relaxing as today. 🙂

I’m planning to get to the beach tomorrow, and maybe even take my bike with me (if the weather allows – and it ain’t as rainy as it was earlier today). Maybe I’ll take my digital camera with me and make some photo’s of the view you have at the north-east coast of Rügen (that’s Sellin – Baabe – Göhren)

Thanks again Uncle Seemant!

So Uncle Seemant just conceded his defeat (at least for yesterday’s battle) which gives me something I barely have. But for today’s battle I guess I have to concede, as he has some valid points.

#0: Why am I still awake ?
It’s a bit after 12pm around here (that’s in Germany) and I’m usually in bed at that time, but not today. Basically I waited all the time for my dear Uncle Seemant to gimme his response, so I might be enlightened by his never ending wisdom. And I have to admit it was worth it 😛 so kids, listen to your Uncle Seemant! The other part of it is, I just don’t want to go to bed, as I’m trying to avoid some nightmares with blood and killing people and stuff like that.

#1: Weekend road trip
Well I have to admit I thought about it, and it really sounds tempting, to leave the Notebook, even the damn cell phone at home, and just go some place no one can distract me. Not even those stupid thoughts …

#2: The reason for getting away
Problem is, anything that would tempt me to get a look at is about >300km away, so that might be a no-go for the weekend. Yeah, I know. It sounds crazy, but I actually might go to church on Sunday, maybe even do a confession. Clubbing also sounds interesting (hrm, has been a while .. 😛 and the last one had a bad ending) as does the Frisbee, but as you already noticed, it’s a bit too cold for that 😛 If I were in Spain or Italy right now, that might be an option but not up here.

#3: Hanging out with other people
Well I guess there lies the problem within 😛 I usually have a problem with people I don’t know, I actually fear them. I’m so terribly frightened they might eventually hurt me or my feelings (as it happened too often in the past), I don’t even want to know them.

#4: Going off and being unable to think about something other
You’re point is partly true, but when I’m off the hook, I can’t stop thinking about Gentoo, work and some people. Guess that’s a pretty hazardous combination …

A dear friend of mine phrased it this way today: “As long as you keep projecting all the stuff that happens around you onto yourself, you won’t get anything but sadness and depressions!“. And she even mentioned the letting go part !

OK, Seemant just started our little Bloggo-war he promised me yesterday (don’t even think about it, I just applied for protection of trademarks), I guess I need to address his questions.

#1: Holiday vs. Time-out
Holiday ain’t exactly what I refer to as time-out. Holiday is something for old and lazy people or those that got taken into holiday with their parents (hah, always wanted to say that 😛 haven’t had real holidays since, err, I was 10 or so). Time-out is something that I refer to when I need some time off my irssi/mail. Usually I hang out with the irssi session attached, watching my mails. Probably that’s also the reason, why I can’t take a real break along with my brain that seems to think about random stuff that happened in the last few months all day long.

#2: Comparing myself with Alec
That comparison with Alec’s hiatus sucks a bit. Basically Alec really had something like a time-out, as he was learning for a test(?), so he was at least two weeks not available. My time-out has become my most active time (at least regarding to recruiters related stuff) as everyone else decided to vanish/go offline for three weeks or so (they aren’t all, but iirc Simon is on some trip, christel was in the US at that time, Bryan was also iirc for some days).

#3: Real life vs. keyboard
I occasionally have the habit, to simply lay off for a single weekend, and just help my parents with some stuff (like mowing the lawn or fixing the attic). But as it’s pretty cold and rainy outside, no lawn-mowing for me. And the attic is fixed, so nothing else to do.

I also try to enjoy the landscape Rügen (that’s the largest island Germany possesses, and no it ain’t Sylt!) which also lifts my mood a bit (but also drowns it, because being alone sucks).

#4: Managing Stress (real life vs. Gentoo)
I have to admit, that I usually try to compensate real life stress with Gentoo work, as I really have fun with what I’m doing currently. All those devrel people (that’s kloeri, fmccor, christel, blubb, Kugelfang, …) are really cute, they welcomed me pretty warmth when I joined the recruiters.

Also Bene (that’s Hollow or Benedikt) who has been a real friend and colleague for the past year (heh, he was my mentor!). And also to mention here is christel, who has been so endearing, always making me smile because of her manner she talks, reading all that crap I used to write; that’s her “Christian update” (and of course all that hugging :P). Also Mr. Lud (solar, that’s you), who has been really understandable, always kind and adorable for his knowledge. Lately I have to mention Alexander Gabert (that’s pappy), who has really been a help (with hardened-sources-2.6.18 for example, but also with some other minor problems). Along with that all the people in #-dev trying to make a fun out of something (see my previous two #gentoo-dev fun posts). And last but not least, you Seemant have been a real friend, that makes Gentoo at least 20% more interesting.

#5: Deserving holiday vs. being able to afford those holidays
As I’m currently saving for my first own car (which should at least please me, both with the gas price and with its exterior), I really can’t afford any holiday that would relieve me from current thoughts and my current real life responsibilities.

Hrm, Seemant … were did I mention something about holidays / vacation ? *shrug* I remember that I told you (and also in my previous blog post); its even in my .away file feeding the devaway; that I’m taking a break due to increased real-time work load. 🙂

I never ever said something about going on vacation or being on holiday. That would actually be great (and I could use the break from everything, even the distance to some very people) but is currently virtually impossible. Basically it’s because of an HBFG (that’s something like “University building assistance law” translated – for the Germans it’s “Hochschulbauförderungsgesetz“) application that has been recommended for implementation. Now I’m stuck in the middle of an tendering procedure that has to be announced all over Germany.

Thus I’m currently working on the performance description for this application, that we decided to split into two seperate ones. One is for thin-clients and monitors, the other one is for all the redundancy crap.

I finished both today, will need to talk to my colleague about it in detail (since we need to be certain about what we want), so the tender may start within the next two weeks.

That means, that starting with December 01st, my Time-out / break will be finished (at least that’s what it looks like currently).

OK, as some of you may now (hah, you’re really a dear Mr. Gulleen); I’m currently practicing an extended time-out (sort of) from Gentoo.

I noticed devrel and all the other groups I have a responsibility for, that I’ll be more or less away till 30th November 2006. This is due some crazy stuff currently happening at work (like my desk being full of paperwork).

I also lately thought about retiring myself from Gentoo, but haven’t come to a conclusion yet. I really enjoy the work currently, but I can’t find as much motivation/time as I used to find earlier this year. True, work is currently eating myself up completely, with all that provisioning (which hopefully ends around 30th November this year – note to head: accounting at German universities sucks !).

What really annoys me lately on Gentoo is all the bitching / flaming on -core, in #gentoo-dev and on -dev. Boys can’t you act like adults and respect another persons opinion ? Whats the big deal to *act* like the person you are in your real life ? But I guess that’s only my personal opinion nobody is going to respect !