2000-06-21 - 10:28

Playing in the lab

"Homer sleep now." Yesterday was a long day at work: 8:30 in the morning to 9:30 at night. Productive, but long . . . I still feel tired.

Bis and I decided that we should get the new network topology in place, so I changed my 6-node network into an 11-node beast. That change involved lots of monkeying around with hardware and cables. By now, that kind of thing is pretty easy; it was just a matter of tracking down all the equipment and configuring everything.

That kind of work is a good break from coding and running experiments. It's basically an exercise in organization, which is not a problem for me. It took a little time; but I got everything working before I left last night.

We also got in a game of soccer . . . sort of. Around 6:00, Uvaiz and I started rounding up players. After hearing "I didn't bring shoes" a couple of times, we only ended up with five people: Dr. J and I vs. Nabil and Bis, with Uvaiz playing nets.

I must confess, two-on-two requires just a shade more running around than I was hoping to put in. (Damn, I'm in pathetic shape.) It was still fun for a while, though, despite Jamal constantly yelling, "Pressure! What are you standing around for? I'll get the ball and you get open." Heheh. I'm sure that if we turn it into a regular, weekly game, we'll get more players.

After that, we ordered a pizza, which would have been better if people hadn't unexpectedly showed up after we placed the order, cutting my share down to two slices. Ah well. It was enough to keep me going for the last bit of work that I needed to do.

The only weird thing at work yesterday was when Uvaiz came by and showed me a schedule that stated that he and I were working on FEI improvements (and had been since Monday) and were expected to be done in three weeks. Okay: (a) we're both working on completely different tasks, (b) I have no idea what the FEI is, which might make it hard for me to improve it, and (c) I feel confident in saying that whoever made the schedule has no idea who I am. Bizarre. I have a lot of respect for the guys in my group; but I wonder about the way that the higher-ups are running things.

There isn't really much else to write about other than work. By the time I got home, I was zonked. I watched half of Enter the Dragon on TV and gave in and went to bed.

I guess that the one noteworthy event was that I heard from Kimmy . . . sort of. She put a message on the Tomes site saying hi to everyone in Ottawa, which obviously includes me. It's strange. We used to be so close and now she mentioned a new job and a new apartment and I didn't know anything about them. I still think very highly of Kim; but it doesn't look like we'll ever really be friends again.

J.