Tag Archives: travel

Geeking Out

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Well, it only took a few days of being obtuse, but I’ve finally got a reasonably up to date mirror of my site, functioning with a MySQL backend (unlike my actual BerkeleyDB… something I plan to remedy soon), on my local machine. I just barely finished importing all the files necessary and making sure everything works, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll get an opportunity to actually start futzing with stuff a little.

I’m starting to feel drained from this trip. I haven’t been sleeping well, and have been constantly surrounded by people (even though they are my friends). This is quite the change from the hermit-like nature I’d been exhibiting in Seattle, and the change has been a bit more draining than I’d like. I also miss my wife (imagine that!), which is exacerbated because I feel like neither of us are communicating very well lately. Something to work on when I get back, I suppose — just keeping in touch when you’re 3000 miles and 3 time zones apart is tough enough, without trying to work through new stuff.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick post to announce that the “geek issue” that’s been absorbing my time and energy the past few days is finally done, so now I’m going to in theory try to post a bit more regularly. (No more excuse of getting absorbed into the localizing problem!)

Back in Vermont

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I’m back in Vermont for the first time since the beginning of August, and likely for the last time until April. It’s interesting to be back… the elation I felt as we touched down certainly reaffirms my firm belief that regardless of where I live or for how long, Vermont will always be Home.

During the days prior to leaving, I spent time with Mickey when I could (she’s been working) and for the rest of the time, I’ve been working on getting a local mirror of this site working on my computer. This took far more effort than I’d expected (or was really necessary), as I decided that it would also be an opportune time to update my versions of Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl on my local machine. After all said and done, I reverted Apache to what it was, MySQL got downgraded from 4 to the latest version of 3, and PHP and Perl actually managed to be updated (though not without trials and tribulations)

I’ve almost got it working, I just need to figure out why my author database isn’t working on the local machine, and how exactly I can fix that. I’m sure given a few hours to root around in the MovableType forums, I’ll find a solution. Once that’s done, I’ll be ready to really start gutting the site and making the more significant changes that I want to do. Of course, my reference books (O’Reilly’s Definitive Guides to MySQL, XHTML, CSS, and PHP, plus the PHP Cookbook) are all at home, so it may have to wait until November. We’ll see. (Well, I’ll see, since all changes will be on localhost until I have it running smoothly, at which point they’ll all get migrated to the website.)

I digress. Mickey’s father showed up the day before I left, travelling the countryside on a photo safari that I’m quite envious of. We all did some wandering, and swung by the local camera store (where Mickey thinks I should work, since I seem to be so good at evangelizing various types of equipment), and in general had a good time. Finally, Mickey dropped me off at the airport for my redeye on JetBlue to Vermont.
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The Long Haul

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Okay, so I’m finally getting around to posting about the trip across the country. The delay in posting about it is purely because I’m a lazy slacker who sleeps away the days in a lackadaisical fashion not dissimilar to a coma patient. That, or I’ve been busy unpacking and generally want to go to bed by the time I have a chance to sit and write a blog.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

I don’t have it in front of me right now (and don’t feel like trudging outside to the car to get it), but I kept a logbook of the starting mileage at the start of each day of the trip, plus departure time, date, and location. The starting times would probably be more useful if I also wrote down ending times, but c’est la vie (Emerson Lake and Palmer?). I’ll post it sometime later, for the truly curious (or truly bored… some days, there isn’t much difference). [Worth a passing note but not much more: I also keep a running logbook of date, mileage, gas, and location that I filled up at in my car. It’s not that hard a habit to get into, and being able to look back over the past 50,000 miles of your car is pretty damn cool.]
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On Seattle

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Okay, everyone else has finally left, so I’m going to write a quick entry before heading home myself.

I’m back in the Upper Valley after being in Seattle for a week. Seattle was great, full of interesting things, and the weather couldn’t have been better (this all ties into the “visitor curse:” When visiting Seattle, the weather is idyllic and beautiful. When you actually move there, it becomes cold and rainy all the time). As I’ve commented already, we were out apartment hunting, and have managed to find a pretty decent place out in Bellevue, right near access to both I-405 and 520, giving us two of the major arteries for the city. We are still in the screening process for the apartment, but we’re sure that it’ll be fine: despite my being a full time student and Mickey being a freelancer, we do have a pretty rock solid application. The real question will be whether we qualify for the two bedroom or the three bedroom (we’re hoping for the three, so we can have separate offices instead of sharing one).

I was pretty happy to be going home, but I don’t really feel “home” yet. I think it is partially because my mind is already starting to make the connection that we’re moving elsewhere, but it is still pretty strange. I mean, Vermont has ALWAYS been home. To a certain extent it always will be. It just feels a bit more foreign at the moment, while at the same time very familiar.
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Eating Cookies in Seattle

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Okay, so I’m currently in Seattle, eating some tasty chewy cookies, in our friend Arik’s house. He’s got this really amazing place (the image above is from his rooftop deck, looking out over downtown and the sound. [Larger Image]), but we can’t really afford a place like this… As much as it would be nice.

Maybe later.

The past few days have been delightful fun, wandering around Seattle and mysteriously innately understanding the general lay of the land (useful, since I’ve been playing the role of navigator). I think it comes down to the fact that I wandered around the area kind of willy-nilly when I was last here two years ago, and a lot of it stuck with me.
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Back from Hawaii

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I’m back from Hawaii now. Actually we got back last week, but I’ve spent the past week catching up with stuff that happened while I was gone. Sorry for the late update. Hawaii was a blast, sunny and around 80 every day, with a light sea breeze. In the beginning of the trip, Mickey and I wandered around with Eli and Megan, heading up to Hapuna Beach, and over to Green Sands Beach, both of which were a really fun time (Hapuna is this great beach, relatively popular, and remarkably pretty… Green Sands is down at south point, and requires a 2 mile hike to get to… but is well worth it if you like bodysurfing).
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Off to Hawaii!

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I’m off to Hawaii for 10 days, kind of a honeymoon before the actual wedding (hey, it’s when we have time!) It should be a great deal of fun, though I’m kind of nervous about making all the connections tomorrow (starting at 5:45am and we get there 16ish hours later… fun).

Not really much else to say here. I hope you all (or rather, whoever actually reads this site… ie, no one) have a wonderful New Years, and hopefully I’ll post pictures and such of the trip when I get back!

Pre-Trip Ramblings

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It is the week before Mickey and I fly to Hawaii. I’m really looking forward to it, both because I get to see her and because, well, it’s HAWAII! Love that place. Kicks my ass. Should be interesting to go there during the winter instead of June like I did last time (it will be Mickey’s first trip to Hawaii, I hope she digs it).
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Stuff, UBERCON, and Stuff

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It’s been a very exciting month. I’ve been working on my schoolwork, which is a course on 3d modelling and computer graphics. It’s slow going, and relatively difficult (especially since I’m learning it on my own), but a great deal of fun. I also spent two weeks with my fiance (as I already mentioned), which was a mixture of good (spending time with Mickey is ALWAYS good) and bad (no real net connection for me… made it hard to get some things accomplished that I needed/wanted to do). I wouldn’t trade the time for anything, though.

Also this month, a lot of things started coming to a head for UberCon.
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