As might be noted in my short lifespan, I’ve traveled a little bit and I will once again be disappearing on the 12th to go to Seoul, South Korea. With traveling I’ve learned some of the tricks to traveling in comfort and style. However I have one ever so annoying issue currently.

I have the classic hip slinging laptop bag and its more annoyance then its worth. So when you travel what do you use to tote around your laptop, ipod, psp/nintendo ds, various cables including (fiber, ethernet, usb -> db9, serial) reading material (no its not porn, books actually). Some snacks and various other things like a spare toothbrush in case of luggage going missing?

Well, its a bit of a sad day today in Gentoo-land  as Stuart has retired from the project. Which made me realize that most of the people that I enjoyed interacting with on the project have left. There are a few left and a few of the newer people that I chat with fairly often, however it is definitely not the same.

That is probably in part what is showing up in my lack of motivation to really work on much Gentoo related stuff currently. I’ve finished my goal of a 1000 commits in a year and I’ve just sort of been taking it easy and working slowly on stuff, when it suits me. I’m around irc as always to field questions but I’m not in a rush to get things done.

Another part of that is that I’ve been amazingly busy at work for the past two weeks and I just want to relax and unwind when I’m home. Listening to All Things Considered on the way home starts that process but it seems to take a good while longer to unwind. I will also have a 13 hour plane flight upcoming that is going to be ohhh so much fun. Remind me to register for the frequent flier miles.

I’m going to be a bit of a hypocrite for a bit, as there’s something that I’ve noticed a few people do that I don’t personally approve of.

The part that comes in is the request for a scanner that works in linux on the adopt-a-dev site(which we need devs to ask for things again and users to look at what they could offer). I did struggle a good bit with asking for it, as I am of the personal opinion that I’m working on Gentoo because I want to; Knowing that there is nothing really to be made from becoming a part of the development of Gentoo. Although, that really isn’t entirely true as I know a few of us who’ve gotten jobs because of our involvement in the project. However, the shameless plugging of ones paypal or amazon wishlist steps over the line for me. Yes its always nice for your work to be appreciated verbally, and even more so financially, but I’ve lost respect in some ways for those who’ve asked for the money donations or items from their wishlist to be purchased to show that support.

I’m just curious why there have been people who have considered personal advancement so to speak over the community good. Maybe I’m too much of a idealist about people and their motives, not to mention a bit of a socialist in some respects…*shrugs*

Well, I’ll have a few updates with pictures tomorrow so look forward to that. One of which will make you laugh at how stupid and idiotic it is, and yes its Adamant once again.

Its a bit odd being home again after having been gone for a while. I just need to get back into the flow and rhythm of what the normal life is like. Which means that I will be going back to my somewhat depressed self as of late. One of my female friends recently mentioned that I need to get back into the saddle again as if its such a easy thing to find a person who you find interesting and that for whatever reason actually finds you interesting enough to let their guard down to get together for even a simple coffee.

Well that’s enough personal stuff, back to technical things. I’ve finally broken down and I’m going to be joining the portable mp3 market around Christmas. As the traveling sucks when I’m stuck on a plane for 8 to 12 hours with practically nothing to do the entire time. Yes I’m one of the few people you’ll probably know that has never owned one nearly a decade after the first one was released. I’m not that far behind the times am I?

Oh and added a countries I’ve been to tally as well, since I’ve been a bit of a world traveler. Yes in that way I’m a bit of a lucky bloke.

Well as is my nature, I wouldn’t want to disappoint and not write about the trip while I’m on it. So, I got to visit old town  via the subway today which was one of the area’s I was told I had to visit. Although I didn’t get to enjoy it like I wish I could of. Mostly due to the bitter cold and rain, which was called a mist. I think the Swedish are like the Irish in the regards to defining rain about 12 different ways. It was cold enough though that with the rain I had the classic teeth chattering going on.

It was however beautiful but didn’t get many photo’s as the battery died in the camera. My fault for not bothering to think it was low. Then in the afternoon equipment arrived at work so I had the chance to actually get the vast majority of what I needed to do for business done and out of the way. This is a big relief off my back even if there are a few pieces missing. Thank you fedex for screwing up yet again. Kind of makes it hard to get everything working as intended when some key parts are missing..mostly networking related stuff.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll again have some free time after eating some wonderful food in the afternoon to go explore some more. There’s just something about old world architecture that really appeals to me and makes me feel like I’m a part of history, instead of just a cog in the works, who’s removal would not affect anything at all.

This evening we had a celebration about the system getting up and running with a strong Czech beer and then went out to a English pub for a few more (which I was good and had only a soda pop). Chatted up with the bartender a bit, quite a cute blond who unfortunately wasn’t getting off til about 3am local time. We also talked about technology and how its changed in the film and video market. So I learned a lot and had a good time. I’ll be trying to sleep early tomorrow as I have quite a early flight home to make it to thanksgiving dinner about 4:30 in the evening. Wish me luck on avoiding jet lag that way as well.

Well I’ve managed to arrive in Stockholm safely. The city is beautiful of course, and I’m just smiling that everyone seems to need to apologize for the weather being dark and stormy. That I came at a bad time of the year and other such things. I however love the stormy weather and the chill in the air. Large area’s were covered in fog, which is another thing that I’ve missed being so far inland that it hardly ever happens.

I’m currently inside of a classic brick building with exposed brick internally, which I really love and would love to own a home where I could do that. To move around I move through spiral staircases and duck as I’ll hit my head on something. There’s window sills with molding all around and classic shutter windows that open to give a view of  the city. This is just in part why I really enjoy Europe as its quite different from the western United states. There is no brick construction anymore, nor buildings that have nooks and crannies. Its all cookie cutter.

Having talked with Christel for a while she’s laughingly said that I should approach some of the cute Swedish girls and “00:17 < @christel> tsunam: ask cute Swedish girls to take you for a nice sauna and a bit of ye olde twig spankage :)”. Which I of course hope I find some nice cute Swedish girls who find my accent charming and it helps strike up a conversation.

All in all we shall see what happens, as I’m here til Thursday so I have some time to explore during the evenings. Wish me luck with the above ^.^

Well, I get to go on a little business trip to Stockholm, Sweden for a week. I’ll be in the area from Friday this week til Thursday of next week. I’d like to see about hooking up with some developers this weekend as I should have some free time for the weekend actually and possibly monday. So if anyone feels like getting together let me know.

Also, someone give me the things I should do while I’m there. Minus the looking for the hot hot Scandinavian lass’s….If you need something gentoo related, please talk to Wolf and or Ticho in my place for x86 related stuff. Beryl will just wait til I’m back I suspect if there are any issues. If someone feels adventuresome while I’m gone and there’s a issue that needs to be handled…don’t fear that I’m going to rip your head off for taking the intuitive and doing it. Go for it.

Of being called at home for work related business. Which just fueled a mood that I’ve been in for a few days. One that I’ve not experienced in quite a while and in some ways I’m glad that it has returned.

In an odd sort of way its made me want to dress in a punkish style which is not normally something that I tend to do. Perhaps its time that I put a bit of color back into my hair. I miss it in some ways and its my little bits of individuality that I like to keep even when I’m conforming to whatever the status quo of the day is. As with all places of work, we all conform to keep the jobs get paid and afford to keep living.

Part of it I know stems from loneliness which is silly in some ways, as there’s quite a few people that I know online that i consider good friends. However, as we all know its not the same and even if the developers in Gentoo are in an extended way my family. Yes even you who is going what the hell is he talking about are included. Like any family we have quite a few dysfunctional members who make us laugh and give us 90% of the frustration that comes with it. Trading it however is not a option for any of us, well unless you quit, and we all know what our mothers have said about that. You’ll never win if you quit.

So I’m off to sit and think about where the path I’m on is taking me, what I see its future is and possibly look at the changes that I’m making and see if its actually going to do a bit of good to change that path. I’ve never been one for paths anyways, yet always find myself in the rut that is flowing along one. Not sure if I have a wedge to get myself out of this one though.

Early morning edit: apparently a wakeup call between 1 and 1:30 am til 3am when I can go back to bed…nice start of the day don’t you think?

Yes, I know 0.1.2 is out and yes I know some of you want it. The reason its not in the tree yet is because beryl-core has some kind of screwed up makefile right now. I’ll be taking a look at it to fix it and submit the patch upstream that will get a what the heck look no doubt.

Course I have at least one person that concerns me with how he wants to do things and I’m trying to show why things are done the way I do them..for good reason. Amd64 users can apparently just revision bump it and go as it actually checks and continues on for you. x86, well it checks error.h in /usr/include…which it’ll find and then bypass and error out.

So that’s why its taking so long, don’t pester me ^.^;;

Hacking Democracy, for those who don’t know is a documentary about the elections with electronic voting and the potential for tampering with it and affecting the results. Its a stunning piece of work that highlights with documentation and visual results that the electonic system can in fact be changed at the whim of one persons desire.

I don’t really have much to say about it other then its something that all people who vote should take a look at. As well visit the consumer protection group, who is exposing and working on this situation. http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ is of course this group of people. It shows counties tossing out votes that it should not have, as well discrepancies between tickets printed out later  from the results in the signed and notarized by the voting officials. These people we trust to ensure our votes are counted..rely on a machine that they don’t know really what its going to spit out and if its reliable. I think I’m going to be a absentee ballot this next coming election. At least then I’m sure my vote will get counted.

Please watch it if you care about the system. I don’t know about you, but knowing that my election is counted in a access database that can just be opened and modified without anyone noticing…scares the bejesus out of me.