Work has consumed me these last few weeks. I'm not entirely sure why or how. But I can't stop thinking about the projects I'm working on.

The scary bit is that I don't mind. It's like work has become some kind of escape (!). Even my birthday just kind of came and went.

Part of it is that I have made significant, measurable progress on said projects, which always brings a high. Like a drug addict, though, I keep going for that next high, postponing other commitments.

At least I got all my Christmas shopping done on time.

(defun clMatchPermutations (match_rules objects)
  (let ((match_args (car match_rules))
        (match_body (cdr match_rules))
        match_fun
        (match_results (tconc nil nil)))
    (setq match_fun (eval `(lambda ,match_args ,@match_body) (theEnvironment)))
    (mapcar (lambda (argset)
              (when (apply match_fun argset)
                (tconc match_results argset)))
            (cdar objects))
    (cdar match_results)))

One of those deep-thought days. As usual, I had interruptions every 15 minutes or so, but I managed to shrug them off. I managed to get hard-core pattern matching algorithms proven correct and implemented (though not quite debugged).

Usually when I write code I feel like I'm being lazy, as if writing code is not real work. I don't usually get the euphoric feeling that I do after grunging out a difficult line integral or somesuch. Today was a nice exception. I feel like I did bona fide intellectual work.

Name that list!

France	167
Netherlands	158
Denmark	152
Canada	150
Britain	149
United States	138
New Zealand	135
Spain	121

dac is ideal for high performance applications

dac is a suite of components and controls that are data aware by design rather than merely data bound
dac is designed as a secure environment
dac is not responsible for lost or damaged files
dac is a caring school
dac is housed
dac is my second home
dac is a scientific society of the ministry of information
dac is a dac is a dac
dac is placed after an adc
dac is part of DAC Group Ltd which also owns a security guarding company, an alarm company, and a CCTV company
dac is also continuing to feature the embedded systems showcase highlighting vendors of embedded systems
dac is similar to the whole abc
dac is back
dac is to set the asd threshold voltages
dac is updated and disappears
dac is very thin [don't I wish]
dac is shown
dac is used to convert a parallel digital input
dac is david andrew clayton
dac is enabled or disabled
dac is os/2
dac is then processed or conditioned to produce the required output signal characteristics
dac is in the range of 2%
dac is now complete
dac is patent pending technology that stands for dynamic adaptive compiler
dac is pleased to be a part of the give the gift of sight program
dac is good news for MUNI
dac is authorized under the agreement
dac is also the first fully designed integrated circuit
dac is stored into counting registers formed from parallel data entry up/down synchronous counters
dac is a critical part of the signal chain
dac is a new festival of audio and visual arts located in Cambridge, UK
dac is also available in horizontal mount versions with overall height of less than 0
dac is growing and taking on a larger caseload
dac is India's national initiative in high performance computing and has been engaged in research and development
dac is insulated with PE foam skin which exhibits only 45 pf/m
dac is too small
dac is the primary communications vehicle between the home medical equipment industry and Cigna Healthcare Medicare Administration
dac is shown mounted in the upper forward part of the right window
dac is implemented and can be used for offset corrections
dac is properly configured in $cyril_conf/serial
dac is a direct out
dac is an association specially for abyssinians and somalis
dac is seamless from top to bottom
dac is transferred and how is it calculated?
dac is available to assist us companies interested in developing export programs
dac is fully compatible with this process and will automatically detect if a cd disk is hdcd encoded and then perform the correct decoding
dac is proud to support
dac is built using a 0
dac is substantially more sophisticated and costs more to build
dac is driving a servo amp
dac is composed of seven members
dac is less flexible
dac is expensive because of complicated adjustments and support circuitry
dac is a dual high speed differential digital to analog converter specified to operate from a nominal +1
dac is binding
dac is to create a consolidated float data set usable by scientists for
dac is a non profit organization that is dedicated to providing the children of our neighborhood with quality sports programs
dac is immediately on your right
dac is the new crystal 4390 24/96k
dac is entirely minimalist in form and function

Somehow my deadlines have mysteriously morphed without anyone bothering to tell me.

I'm working on [insert secret project here], and was supposed to deliver a rough usage model by Friday and the first-cut at a spec by December 16th. Somehow, this has morphed into delivering an implementation tomorrow.

Um... huh?

What's worse is that my customers are not internal. Cadence is expecting this, well, now-ish.

Who's responsible for this fiasco? I'd like to choke the living daylights out of him.

Back!

Back from the honeymoon on PEI. Pictures forthcoming.

But I'll leave you with this note: if you're an innkeeper, do not let an engineer have the suite with the jacuzzi tub.

Hm. Building Mozilla for 64-bit Suns takes a long time. As in I started last Wednesday; built during the wedding; and it's still building today.

The builds are getting interrupted due to various bugs in Mozilla itself (so I have to edit the code and figure out why the compiler is rejecting it). But, still... this is on a farm of 40 Sun Blade 100s.

My Athlon box at home runs circles around a farm of 40 Blades.

That is just pathetic, Sun.

I'm married!

And I'm so happy! I've never been so happy in my life.

Despite last minute fiascoes, everything went off almost perfectly. It was kinda cold and wet on Saturday so we had the ceremony inside, in the backup room. Ah, well. We still got to take pictures outside and all of my friends and relatives got to see the fall colors in their fullest.

And, wow, do I have some terrific friends and relatives! Everyone was so helpful and cheerful. It sounds like everyone enjoyed the rehearsal dinner, reception, and post-wedding barbeque we had. About 95 people attended!

And, of course, I now have a wife whom I love and adore very much.

I don't want to work on this anymore.

This problem has no solution because it's subjective. So I'm writing a metasolution through which people can write their own quasisolutions. Or something like that. Yes, it's about as exciting as it sounds.

I see these electronic design kits for what they are: a lot of patchwork built upon patchwork with tiny pieces of string and small staples barely holding the whole thing together. Any time I try to build something on top of it, another part comes toppling down. After awhile, it gets very frustrating.

I want to scrap the entire thing and rearchitect it myself from scratch. Sadly, that's about as practical as the phone company ripping out all the wires at once and replacing them with fiber. Or the waterworks digging up all the streets in Pittsburgh at once, removing all the rusty old pipes, and laying down new pipe.

Rome wasn't built in a day. But this software sure looks like it was.

I get no respect.

scaryr: Oh, I know what to name your eventual children, by the way.
kangadac: Uhoh.
scaryr: You can have two girls and a boy or three girls.
scaryr: Ada, Pearl, and Pascal/Pascale.

The board of directors are here, and we had to hob-knob with them during lunch. Add that to a 110 minute meeting at 9 am this morning, and today should suck.

But it doesn't, because I got my Beauty and the Beast DVD from Amazon today! Woo hoo!

That's gotta hurt...

I had a 2:15 appointment to interview someone for a testing position. Oddly, I found John, the guy who was supposed to interview him before me, sitting at his desk.

Me: "John, did you trade with someone else?"
John: "No... X and Y both decided this morning that he was all talk."
Me: "Did we at least take him to lunch?"
John: "I dunno... they decided this around 10 am."
Michele (office manager): "Oh, we did. But then we took him to the airport five hours early."

Heh... how bad do you have to be that you don't even make it through half of the interview?

Also, I'm not sure what's happened, but the most recent updates to Google have caused it to start sucking ala Altavista. I'm getting a ton of irrelevant links and 404s on the first page, and frequently on the first link. Suddenly, clicking on "I'm feeling lucky" doesn't seem such a great idea...

I haven't updated in awhile out of fear that my entries would be too angsty.

That fear hasn't abated, but oh, well...

Less than three weeks to the wedding. I'm getting a tad weary of being asked if I'm excited. I'm not excited. I'm fretting. People say that no matter what happens, it'll turn out fine. Then they proceed to tell me the things they would've done differently. Gee, thanks.

Work is getting more stressful. My usual workload has tripled, mainly because there are a few others who are bored and have decided to get their noses into things that I've worked or am working on.

I can't find my cell phone for the life of me. The last time I used it was at my desk at home. It's neither there, nor in my backpack, nor at work.

My car needs its 30k mile overhaul. As if I have the time to do that now.

To access my 401(k) plan information, I need a PIN number. However, to access their customer service representatives to get a PIN number, I need a PIN number. Anyone see a problem with this?

To-do list, redeux

Ok, let's see...

• Get tuxedo measurements from groomsmen


• Try to contact the few people who didn't receive invites because they've fallen off the face of the planet


• Finalise caterer contract


• Make some prototypes of constraint templates


• Get noise canceling headphones


• Give Tam feedback on honeymoon plans


• Order rings


• Get marriage license

I am back.

And I'm exhausted.

My grandfather passed away at 1 pm on Saturday. I'm glad that I could be at his bedside.

The funeral was yesterday. I was one of the pallbearers; it was an honor.

I didn't touch a computer for a week, and didn't miss it one bit. Though now I have 450 emails to catch up on, and don't have a clue as to what's going on in the outside world. I also am now way behind on wedding planning. I need to get back into my routine.

I think that things are going ok with my family. They're figuring out what to do with my grandmother, who needs near-round-the-clock care.

Drove back from Chicago yesterday; got to Pittsburgh around 1:20 am.

Most of all, though, I miss my grandfather.

... well, to-do list will have to wait. I have to head out to Chicago... looks like my grandfather only has a couple days left. :-(

My to-do list

Things seem to be cropping onto this faster than I have been taking them off as of late. Not that I couldn't keep up; I'm just being lazy.

This is my attempt to break my laziness through public humiliation.

• Get tuxedos


• Get addresses for remaining invites that were either returned or never sent


• Call caterer (where's my menu?)


• Get prescription filled


• Water plants


• Make curry


• Implement MTM query functions for NeoCell


• Make some prototypes of constraint templates


• Get wedding program to Pastor Janet


• Meet with Tom regarding professional development


• Get noise canceling headphones to drown out loud damn annoying tech writer who sits in front of my office (just had to shut the door... grr...)


• Make honeymoon plans more firmish (plane tickets?)

I've just about had it with Linux.

It's not as great as the proponents claim. I can't believe an environment this buggy and architecturally flawed will ever be accepted into the mainstream. The NFS implementation is god awful... it's been losing my home directory every 10 minutes this morning. (No problems from our Sun or HP boxen.)

And the device drivers... eaugh.

I'm close to the snapping point and either installing FreeBSD or writing my own microkernel system from scratch.

Garrrgh!

It's Saturday... the band is playing... honey, could you ask for more?

Today's A Prairie Home Companion was a reply of a May 2000 show they did at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Just listening to Garrison Keillor describe Pasadena made me miss it. And Caltech, as well.

And I'm starting to enjoy Nickel Creek (one of the guest bands on the show).