gyokutogirl:
Bunnies is finally up.
Sauce is finally up.
Illness still remains.

I go lie down now.

fdmts:
I would be remiss to fail to note:

* The immanent threat of terrorist attack on major, western hotels in both cities where I'm staying.
* My amazing bartender, who has me convinced that he actually likes me.
* The unbelievable food, even at the mall food court.
* The world of contrast and divide
* The driving. Oh God - the driving.

fdmts:
Long couple of days here. On the positive side, they did not fly me out here to have me waste time.

When I left off these chronicles, I was enamored of my huge shower. A piece that had not sunk in at that time is that this is not a shower for those with any body image issues at all. The sink / counter is a single piece of glass, moulded to sink shape. Said counter floats between two columns attached to the wall, and behind the counter is a floor to ceiling mirror.

When you bathe, you stand facing this full length mirror. You are illuminated from above. It is not the sort of scene that lends itself to romanticizing ones shape. Me? I'm in pretty good shape. However, after a couple of exploratory flexes I realized that I really didn't have the sort of body that I like staring at in the buff. Oh well. It was still opulent. I rested my coffee on one of the many marble ledges, and took sips as I showered. I'm totally not allowed to do that at home.

The gig is demanding. I'm working for a science institute of 400 people or so - about 125 scientists. This engagement is the capstone of a rather long and involved deployment. Apparently the word came from the very top of the organization that no mere vendor training would do. The local guys wouldn't cut it. The training had to be delivered by my company - by me in particular. I have no idea whether this was due to inflated imaginings of my capabilities or by some familiarity bred contempt for the local folks. Whichever, I find myself standing in my own shadow here.

For all that, I made incorrect assumptions about the class. I walked in with five presentations ready to go. My class is generally very light on "talk" and very heavy on "what do you want to do?" I'm good on my feet and I procrastinate. If I can really connect with even one student - help them solve their problems - then I can create an avatar in the organization. My whole and entire goal on these gigs, not to put too fine a point on it, is to create people who replace me.

So first off, we did the lecture portion in a formal lecture room with no network. All the parts where I usually ad-lib and *show* people how to use a system were filled with - well - description. This was my one request - that we do the lectures in a network connected environment, preferably with workstations or laptops for the students.

I was quite enthusiastic to get to the lab part. Little did I know.

The classes I had prepared start with things like "write a hello world script, however you prefer to do it." I generally then work with whatever language(s) people pick - so as not to get bogged down in "oh gosh, I don't know PERL." In this case, however, there was substantial confusion about concepts like establishing an ssh connection to a server. Edit a file? What now? "ls?"

So I had 20 people staring at me as I said what must have sounded like "mwah gar lubble stuh." The lab was filled with the sound of people staring at me as I tried to explain that you truly don't need to modify the defaults on ssh-keygen. Nobody had user accounts. Nobody knew how to run ssh. The class diverged ... I struggled. The day wore on. We had tea. And biscuits. Seriously. In the middle of this fiasco, we broke for tea and biscuits. It was actually civilized.

Fortunately they recorded the whole thing on video. Two man camera crew. As my class caught fire, I glanced at the camera guy and thought "diediediediedie," but it didn't work.

So, we called it an early day yesterday. Devolved to a small group of administrators and did a more normal class on systems administration. We probably wrapped up about 10 hours after we started. After that, last night I re-wrote my entire day two schpiel to include an introduction to the Unix command line, and to provide step by step instructions on every file I wanted them to write.

I rolled in this morning with shiny new, highly detailed slides, like "let's go to the lab and fix this thing," and the honcho is like "we will do a formal lecture in the conference room." I tried to convey that simply reading through my highly detailed and cut-and-pasteable slides to a room of 20 people would be ... um ... painful. She would hear none of it. First the formal lecture, then the lab time.

So we did it. I thought that the class really went pretty well, for all that. People appeared to learn. They were writing little scripts and running them by the time we reached the end. The cluster was seeing use. It was too good to last.

We wrapped up with the students around 6. Then the team turned on to me and started laying out customizations. The system has to power itself down if the temperature gets too high. They need linux virtualization, tied into the cluster. They need, they need. They asked if I would take a break before getting started.

Break? We've been here 11 hours already.

Yes, so you must need a break before getting started.

This was where I started getting a little snippy.

I think that what I actually said was something like "are these pieces that *we* will be working on, or that *I* will be working on. Because if this is a team thing, then I will join the team on the break. However, if this is one of those nights were six guys stand around and watch me code - I would prefer to get started now so that it can end sooner."

Tomorrow is the final day here. More simple rules will apply. I will work hard, at their direction. What they get to pick is the order of tasks I attack. I will check to be sure that am still working on the most important thing. I will stop at whatever I consider the last major milestone that I can deliver prior to 5pm. I will end on success, dammit.

I will also deliver at least an hour more of formal lecture, in that godforsaken, network free lecture room. On slides which my James Bond style martini will help me write.

And then I will leave this place. This beautiful place, that I have barely seen, to which terrorists apparently have snuck, seeking to blow up a big shiny western hotel with marble showers.

On a lighter note, when I ordered my martini, with olives, my wonderful bartender smiled a huge Indian smile and said "oh, James Bond style then?"

Yes, you're damnn right. James Bond style. Bring it on - Wed, You got nothing on today.

redmed:


Wooot!!

gyokutogirl:
Currently about 10% Audrey and 90% sentient disease.

Suffice to say, comic is not coming together well. Expect a late update. Sorry, again.

redmed:


For your dining amusement -- in the "Whoa, that's not a Rutabaga!" Category, we present:
The Watermelon Radish!!!

Please note the following:
1. THERE IS NO WIKIPEDIA ENTRY FOR THIS VEGETABLE! (Egad!)
2. There is information about this strange fruit here

Also:

There have not to this date been any kohlrabis identified as part of this share.

I think, in their stead, I have celeriacs--3 in number, all covered in dirt in the sink

There are also the world's sweetest carrots and turnips and more beets!!! (yum!)

I haven't even gotten to the potato bag yet....I know there's more squash.

 

redmed:

At least I have a good collection.

Today's festivities involved work at 7 - 10 (finished all my late GDMF charting!!), followed by the SoWA Holiday Market for about 1.5 hours. Only a little shopping required. Then, back to the house to try and reduce the scrambled mess of holiday gifts for various locations to something approximating a) wrapped, b) ready for shipping.

(Hence the Christmas music)

As an after thought, I decided to fast today. Like the way people fast during Ramadan -- nothing to eat or drink from sun up to sundown. While I will admit that I was at the computer at 4:07p and trying to figure out when sunset was, in general it was not as bad as I'd thought it'd be. As I understand it, the exercise is for you to start to appreciate being hungry and thirsty, like so many people are throughout the world. It's an interesting (thought) experiment. (Mostly because then all you do ALL DAY is think about FOOD!!)

Boiling some root vegetables for dinner. Yum

redmed:

Here's the scoop on my day:
- Dropped fdmts at airport 6:30a
- Waited outside Flat Black for them not to really open exactly at 7am--went to Shaw's and did grocery shopping instead, then went back to house, put groceries away and walked back to damn coffee shop for breakfast! :P
- Did some more Christmas internet shopping for my Dad and technolope. Yet another reason for the mailman to love me!!
- Went to massage. Solved people's problems with Martha for an hour. Back liked it. As always, could use more, but I'll take what I got.
- 10:15 - get message from fdmts that there are regular outlets in the seats and flip the hell out because he's actually on a plane to Dubai. Unclear why it's taken me so long to realize this... ;)
- Drive to Lexington to get veggies. On the way there, realize I'm going to be within blocks of Penzey's Spices, and that sounds like fun, so use interminable stoplight to input address from Google phone. (It was actually 3 blocks ahead of me--on the same street.)
- Call captial_l from Penzey's -- she wants mugwort. Like seriously? What the hell is that besides something from Harry Potter's potions class?! (She says she bought some in Salem, and it's good on chicken.) Lady in Penzey's says she's going to have to order it from Germany.
- Buy craploads of cinnamon sticks, some dried cilantro (which I think will come in handy), a couple of little gift boxes (for those people we forgot!), and some other random things.
- Get veggies and swap them out of wax boxes on site. We also got a 20# box of onions, since I know we'll use those. Also, three fresh cheeses -- mozzarella, fig burrata, and chive / onion burrata (I think the goodies are stuffed inside the mozzarella, from what I can see). Haven't really gone through the share in its entirety, so I'll have to do that later today. I know there's kale and a beautiful, if 5#, cabbage.
- Drive home with loot, do a couple random things, take nap -- only for an hour (know you're impressed). Get up, go to haircut downtown. Your stylist asked what you were up to.
- Get hair cut, moisturized and straightened. Like, REALLY straight. It feels weird.
- Come home, change to go out with technolope and capital_l to SPARK gala. Nice shindig. Blown sugar glass on tables as decor. Decent music / light show. Art was strange, as usual. Home by 11pm.
- Sleeping.

fdmts:
Let's get one thing straight, right off the bat. I like my new bathroom. The one in Boston. I like it a lot - but there are bathrooms out there in the world that put it to shame - and I just bathed in one. I'll spare the details of the act itself - but say:

* marble everywhere
* Niche for holding soaps and shampoos ... and the back of the niche is mirrored.
* 11 foot ceiling with one of the big ass rain shower heads up top
* Deep tub next to that
* Frosted glass divider between the room of bathing and the similarly huge and opulent bedroom

I've stayed "nice," and this place is outdoing itself. There's a Huuuuuge Indian wedding happening downstairs - which doesn't even ripple up to my windows.

Got screened for H1N1 by thermal imager again. This happens prior to immigration, presumably so they can quarantine you in no mans land. Nope, no cough, no fever, nothing. Thanks.

The cab ride here from the Kolkata airport was something of a piece of work. The pre-paid taxi desk was closed, so I was reduced to haggling with the dudes out by the curb. I'm not much of a haggler - my rules are simple. If I get even a whiff of bullshit - I walk. So, I walked past three dudes until the guy with the cell phone came over and said "they all work for me. You need a cab?" Got a rate from him, I picked the first driver who had approached me, and off we went.

Cars in this city communicate much like geese. The constant honking is to prevent collisions. There's no malice there, just honking. And pollution. Ungh. Plus, rampant poverty - desperation - etc. Still the memory of the poverty just outside the walls is fading as I sit in my air conditioned splendor.

And before that? The flying? The four hour puddle jumper Emirates air flight was not so luxurious as the 12 hour one. It was more like flying domestic coach. Still, I got my vegetarian meal - which is more than I would expect on any US domestic flight.

fdmts:
Since I'm trapped with nothing but a massive airport and the internet to amuse me, I think I'll post to LJ with something like a Facebook or even a Twitter frequency. This may cause you to feel like you've been transported back to 2006. Do not be alarmed.

I had a moment of clarity where I realized why nothing in the duty free stores ever appeals to me: The duty free stores are populated with consumables. Alcohol. Tobacco. Perfume. Candy. CONSUME. It is perhaps the very definition of the duty free good that it not have any lasting value.

Let us not mince words: I enjoy a sweet smelling drunk smoker as much as the next guy - but a whole store dedicated to things that will become grease spots, ash, and urine in short order - it makes me sad.

I have now walked the length of the international terminal here, and I can report that it is long. I walk at a brisk clip, and it took me nearly an hour to go end to end and back. Added to the hour of chillin' with my cheese sandwich and bottled water, and I only have an hour to go before the flight opens. Yay.

I'm now into the part where I could very easily just take an eensy little nap and (a) miss my flight or (b) assuming that I nap on the flight, wake up semi-rested and unable to sleep just as I'm supposed to go to sleep. Therefore, on I push.

I have a couple of small bills as a souvenir. The only kitsch that even mildly appeals to me are the highly ornamented arabic art - and I don't think I want to pick up something that fragile at the beginning of the trip.

fdmts:
The awesome jet is a Boeing 777-300 from Emirates Air, who are perhaps the awesomest airline ever (so far as I can tell). The awesomeness started when I saw a perfectly ordinary three prong power plug in the back of the seat in front of me. I've been plugged in and productive for the entire flight, which is soothing my mind to no end. I'm an inveterate Powerpoint tinkerer, and the ability to poke and prod my slides in flight is like lotion on chapped skin. I've finished up two more sets of slides, bringing my set of ready-to-go talks to three. Coupled with Dag's two day set of SGE slides, I think I'm pretty much set for the first three days.

The ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) system rocks - and keep in mind that I write this from coach class. There were four or five movies available that I actually wanted to see - out of a selection of dozens. I can pause, rewind, fast forward and so on. I can send text and email messages through a somewhat crufty system that costs $1 per communication - though I don't have in-flight wireless. Maybe I just haven't flown international in a while - but this is pretty darn sweet.

They also, being an airline from a Muslim flag country, occasionally indicate the direction to Mecca on the 'flight status' display. I get a kick out of this.

It's been incredible flying weather the entire day. The trip to New York was uneventful, and as I write, I can see the Western coast of Europe - Lisbon to be exact - glowing below us. I've seen Block Island, Portugal, the Northern coast of Africa, the island of Crete, The southern reaches of Iraq, a massive set of thunderheads over Kuwait. In addition, I kept seeing what must be either military or oil cities - incredibly bright squares and rectangles of perfect organization lighting up the otherwise black ground.

Transcribed a bunch more pages from my notes on the Dalai Lama teaching of the Lamrim texts

District 9 is a decent movie. Not tremendous, but a nice break from writing slides. Nothing else really lit me up. Watched the beginning of "Food Inc," and the high points of the most recent Harry Potter.

The food is terrific. I somehow got marked as "strict vegetarian," which is fine with me. It means I get my meals before the rest of the plane - and the incidence of mystery meat is kept to a minimum. It's also worth noting that the alcohol consumption on this flight is low low low. It's available, but they're not pushing the hooch to any degree - and people aren't sucking it down. It's somehow civilized.

And yes, I'll go ahead and mention that the stewardesses are cute. There, it's said.

Aaaaaaand, sunrise over the indian ocean. God that's pretty.

Of course, now that I'm sitting in the Dubai airport, at 8:30 on a Sunday morning, I find myself thinking "Um, the bars are open pretty early here." Dubai smells like Vegas, but with salt water in the air.

gyokutogirl:
Bunnies is late, but up.

I love that fucking crow.

The annoying part of me getting sick is that since it rarely happens these days, my immune system treats it like a category 5 hurricane when it does happen. Picture a sink faucet, all right? Now imagine turning it on, and instead of water, you get mucus. That's me.

Also, here's a little blast from the past, a reminder that for so many people, it really is the most wonderful time of the year.

redmed:

Pigeon Impossible - Short Film

arenson9:
George Harrison as a young asian boy, playing 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPtbG0vtkHY



All grown up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh8Q2XRRNrM

fdmts:
Hit the first tiny snag, in that I was encouraged to check my luggage rather than carrying on all the way through. No biggie - but luggage in the bin over my head is much more in my control than luggage placed - where now? Going to what city? After pushing back ever so gently ("I carried it on for the tiny flight here - isn't this a bigger plane") I gave up, shifted out a toothbrush and change of skivvies, and handed it over. Now I'm substantially lighter.

At the same time, I'm substantially heavier. Stopped off at the currency exchange place and obtained my walking-around Rupees. Very convenient - and accomodating. I was able to get lots of small bills. However, said small bills didn't fit smoothly into my wallet - and I was reduced to finding a semi-private corner to shuffle currency into a couple of envelopes.

Walking into the international terminal, past security, the two combined to activate what might be called my 'shields up' response. I detect no threat - but I detect unusual patterns. They may be totally normal for this place - but not for my day to day existence. Rupees in my pocket, passport in my hand. This next leg is the ass-buster. 11 hours and 50 minutes. I've got a window seat well back from the wing.

Speaking of views - I took some pictures of block island from the air. What a beautiful day for flying.

Catch you on the flip side.

fdmts:
At the airport, at the gate, settled in and online - all before 7am. The plan for the day is to get on a flight to JFK at 7:15. That, notionally gets me to NYC at 8:30. I'm all carry-on all the time, so I'm okay with leaving on an international flight only two hours after that at 10:40. In theory, I don't even need to go back through security - though I'm sure there's some extra complexity to be had.

At 10:40, I settle in on the Boeing 777-300ER. We suspect, after substantial online research, that there will be the "airline" style power adapters between the seats in coach. I purchased an adapter for my laptop that will work with a couple of the possible plugs. What I seem to be missing, electrical-wise is a coherent picture of what plugs I will need for India. There are three standards, and none of the standard adapter kits are willing to list "india" as one of the places they support.

Anyway, at 8:10 am tomorrow (AKA 7:10pm today, our time) I arrive in Dubai. I chill in one of the world's truly opulent airports for five hours, and then catch a puddle jumper to Kolkata. A mere four hours later, we land at my destination. That will make it 7:15pm their time, AKA 7:15am on Sunday, relative to my body.

My plan is to stay up as much as I can, in particular to not sleep once I hit the ground in Dubai. The keys to overcoming jet lag are well known: Eschew alcohol and caffeine as much as possible - adopt the local time schedule as much as possible - expose your skin to the sunlight - and finally: suck it up. Switching your body clock around sucks.

Totally looking forward to spending a week living in a culture that has been offering a serious vegetarian option for the past couple of thousand years.

Woot!

gyokutogirl:
Comic will be up noonish, probably.

See, this kind of thing is why I'm not cut out for dailies. :(

arenson9:
Orin Hatch (R-Utah) wrote an earnest (not too bad) Hanukkah song.

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

I suggest clicking through to the article. The singer of this Jewish song written by a Morman is an American born woman of Syrian descent from Terre Haute.

BOGGLES!

arenson9:
When my home HD crashed, I had a backup, but it was six months old. I was able to get access to the disk myself and saved virtually everything, except for four very important files. Through the generosity of a co-worker, industrial recovery software has been applied and I've gotten three of the four files back already. The fourth will probably be recovered as well, but I pause to write this because after more than a week of not having these files and just literally seconds after I recovered my charitable giving ledger, which I use to make phone calls from charities very, very easy, I got a phone call from a charity. Perfect timing.

This whole day has felt like I drank felix felicis.

odd_kitty:

I think the challenge for many people (especially in the GOP) this year is to genuinely have good will toward their fellow humans. I hear all this jibber jabber about Christmas, and I keep thinking-- what about the rest of the time?

How about just playing by the rules because it's the right thing to do? How about just being decent and polite to people you encounter because it's the right thing to do?

No tit for tat, no brownie points with whatever deity. Just be civil, be polite, be decent. Return phone calls and e-mails to people, and stop acting like you're the only person on the planet who is busy. Everyone is busy. Seems like rude became normal too. Not good! Pull up your pants, turn down the stereo, and for god's sake-- don't ever use the acronym “MILF”.

I know, it's a tall order these days, but I thought I'd bring it up as food for thought as we head into 2010 with all the garbage in the news. Newspapers keep disappearing, along with the news. Books are used as bookends, and “decor”-- and massive TV screens dominate the room formerly known as the “family” room.

*Sigh*

I'm ready to bring back hats and gloves, and civility. And a time when people shut the hell up in movie theaters, and watched the goddamn movie without texting.