Archive for November, 2008
Olin challenge: fail.
Well, not exactly. I was supposed to see them tonight, just in a different place. The Oliners who came out to the G1G1 launch party entered the T car I was about to exit from. So I rode with them to Alewife and then back again to Harvard. Greg came. He and David are amazing. I listen to them talk and think “my gosh, they think in a way that I do not know how to learn – I must learn how to learn to think that way.” I’m very glad they’re here, and plan on arranging my outside-of-work schedule so that I can just be around them, listening, as much as possible…
Only one hour over my bedtime tonight. I’m slowly trickling in the cutting-back; each time I read my RSS feeds, I unsubscribe from one, and when I can, I take myself off another mailing list. Wild tangled undergrowth, meet sharp machete. (But please don’t stop growing, brain. The rapid proliferation of all sorts of random things is what makes you so dang alive.)
I saw a house today and it was beautiful. I hope that I can own one soon… with space somewhere to make a workshop in.
Sunday, November 16th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | No Comments »
Writing is something I can actively do to change the way I think about things. Reading, too. I can put down the tracks I want my mind to be able to step upon.
I spent most of today in Cambridge getting very little work done. I guess I could call it a day of capacity-building; Elsa, Aaron, and Jeff came out to 1cc and volunteered to tote Diane’s loaner XOs out to her for this week’s workshop, then proceeded to (bless their patience) start working through support-gang resources. I owe them an email; I’ll send it now. Done.
Dogi and Bernie combined their magical powers to create (at last!) a gorgeous triple-monitor cockpit at my desk, with removable laptop for taking notes in meetings. (Dogi, Henry, and Bernie are wonderful sysadmins and better teachers than I deserve.) There is a tiny bit of setup left to be done tomorrow (syncing bookmarks, shortcuts, etc. across my various computers) but even now, the increased input is fantastic. And then I used my new setup to… watch a Charlie Chaplin film. And continue working on volunteer resources, but I think my brain had mostly shut down by that point.
In parallel to all this: SJ called out to me from across the Garden (the large open area in the middle of OLPC’s office, where most of the engineers work) and told me Nikki was downstairs. “What is she doing here?” I said, confused. I ended up joining their semi-random Sibb family outing (Sibbs = the thing wherein Student Life pairs incoming Olin frosh with older students) for dinner at Veggie planet and some much-needed time with Things That Were Not Work-Related. I hadn’t realized how knotted up I’d gotten. I also hadn’t realized that I’d forgotten about eating. Hungry.
Not so hungry now, though. After stuffing myself with the equivalent of 2 full dinners (and packing a third only because I couldn’t eat fast enough), I was at the office for another 5 hours or so and then returned home to find that Chris and Leslie had made these gloriously buttery croissants. The apartment smells like a French bakery. Remembering to eat breakfast tomorrow should not be difficult at all.
Also, tired. Really exhausted. Must scale back, pace myself… I want to wake up tomorrow, eat a wonderful, slow breakfast (preferably one involving a large cheese omelet, if we have eggs – and the aforementioned croissants) and then plot out my day, which will involve a minimum of work*, a maximum of getting a handle on my running processes and killing off extraneous daemons, rest, physical activity (possibly kicking stuff), rest, catching up on finances, rest, rest, rest, and rest.
*support-gang resources, website testing, and test community prep.
This is far earlier than I’ve eased off in the past. I once plea-bargained permission to give a class presentation with strep throat, a 102F fever, and no voice – I’d subtitled my slides to compensate. My professor said yes because it was the only way to convince me to go back to my dorm and sleep immediately afterwards. Looking back on this, I have mixed feelings – pride that I did that, and acknowledgement that it was really stupid. Also the knowledge that I’ll… probably repeatedly do things like it again. I know my limitations better; I continue to push them, but I’m also conscious of the cost of hitting them, and sometimes (sometimes) think about whether it’s worth paying that cost. I’m getting better at the sometimes.
It’s possible, I think, to love someting too much.
I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving week. (Vacation. Time with People. Good Things. Rest.)
I’m taking care of myself in the only way I know how (a way that’s constantly changing as I learn, and then change, and then learn I’ve changed). Fortunately, I seem to be durable enough so far to survive the kind of care I take.
Saturday, November 15th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | 1 Comment »
I’ve missed my 1AM bedtime nearly every night this week, usually by substantial (multi-hour) margins. Right now it’s past 4:45am, and I’m emailing drafts back and forth with coworkers, back and forth, all of us responding immediately to each others’ emails, all of us in the same timezone, nobody sleeping, multiple people planning on continuing this schedule through the weekend and the week that follows. This is roughly what is going through my brain.
- We’re nuts.
- G1G1 is going to rock.
- It’s wonderful to work with people like you.
- I am about to pitch forward and pass out at my desk.
Right now, I am acutely aware of how many shoulders this is riding on; how many shoulders I am leaning on – how much the things that happen rely on an invisible cast of tens, hundreds of thousands. Millions. Drops of water in a flood. And I – one tiny drop in billions – feel fortunate to be buoyed up by so many people, teachers, colleagues, friends, family members – able because of their support to pour myself into something I love and rush into that flood.
I want to make this possible for other people, the ability to be on fire.*
*…yes, as a drop of water; I know the metaphors are logically immiscible.
I’m declaring a moratorium on work for the remainder of the day, where “remainder of the day” is defined as how long I can stay asleep for. 5 hours, I hope. I’m going to stop this sleeping schedule tomorrow, come hell or high water. Hey, a couch! Znrrrkk…
Saturday, November 15th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | 1 Comment »
(Blogging: A good quick-break stress-relief valve that keeps me in “churn out G1G1 text!” mode.)
Hey, Christina took a picture of the whiteboard! Yay for Christina!
When I go to parties, I occasionally end up drawing fractals on whiteboards with random guys.
Now I have 15 minutes to clean my house and do a lot of laundry. Up up and awayyyyyyy!
Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | 2 Comments »
My coworkers! Here’s a picture of (almost) the entire OLPC office.
I’m missing from this picture because I was frantically running the community testing meeting on IRC, about 30 feet to the right of everybody gathered at the whiteboard.
Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | 2 Comments »
One of my uncles sent me this blog post. According to the okcupid test, I am a “pure nerd” (85% nerd, in any case; in the mid-thirties for Geek and Dork.) “A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.” Sounds about right.
Happiness is two artichokes dripping with melted butter, fresh cranberries blended with orange juice, and chardonnay cauliflower soup sweetened with carrots and spiked with garam masala. This was the lunch I cooked today, and it took 20 minutes (ok, 21 if you count melting the butter in the microwave). I would like to learn to blend my own garam masala – it would be gorgeous, when I have a bigger kitchen, to have a mortar and pestle, and whole spices, and fresh herbs. I love the aromatic oils of basil and mint leaves when you crush them (separately – actually, I have no idea how they go together; I don’t think they do.)
I’ve been jittery as of late, but able to calm myself down into focus – it is good to be more aware and in control of this now, instead of letting {hyper, hypo}focus just happen and surprise me later when I realize I’ve wasted N minutes (hours, days). I started doing a million things at once after lunch, and went past my “happily busy” point, and my mind started to splinter too much – but I caught it, and I sent myself to take a shower, and then I went to wash the dishes, and said “Mel, when you wash the dishes, wash the dishes,” and so I… washed the dishes. Just washed the dishes. Hot water, soap, a brush, a bowl.
Then I could do stuff.
I think that’s why I like small, powerful toolsets. They’re eigenvectors. I can keep them in my brain without getting all antsy from the clutter that results from when I feel like I have to keep looking for more; I know they span the basis, so I can relax and solve the problem.
Tomorrow before leaving for work, I need to do the following (far overdue):
- buy groceries (we have no cumin, eggs, or juice of any sort, are low on frozen veggies, and have neither soy nor coconut milk, etc.)
- deep-clean Yavin IV before our first guest for Sugarcamp arrives (hurrah, Dave Farning!)
- purvey a new comforter (my old one is past its useful life, and it is getting cold at night.)
Forced rest is exhausting. It’s more work to rest than it is to work – but it does let me refill (and therefore enable me to empty out) my various reservoirs, so I am going to continue. Preparing and enjoying good food (preferably with friends) also helps. Music helps. Walking helps. Running, I think, helps. (I have long legs! It’s like running with wings! I just can’t do it for very long. Yet.) Kicking things also helps.
Oh yes – kicking things! (Yep, I’m somewhere in there.)
Also, a friend of mine might go into audiology. They have been forewarned that if this happens, they shall be peppered with constant questions about everything.
Finally, I am almost happy with this poem. Happy enough to let it go and call it done at last. Edit: Poem now actually displays. Bloody HTML.
Orpheus
-------------
A needled snake, red sirens keening.
There she went. You found her,
and you let her gently down.
Drinking cheap sorrow
in the weeks that followed, you learned
that only grief-stricken songs still held your gaze.
Once before, you would obey their sound;
now your heart is as a bruised white flower,
folded within itself. Had she returned,
you would still wear her waking shroud.
Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | 1 Comment »
Working at OLPC (especially during G1G1 season) occasionally means that celebrities come in to film endorsements in the conference room 20 feet away from where you’re sitting, newspapers stand by your desk to snap pictures and interview famous people, and stuff of that nature.
Coworker: “You were oblivious to a tall, beautiful man floating through the office?”
Me: “…Yes? I mean, I looked him up on Wikipedia when you said that he was coming, but…”
Me: <enthusiastic burble about the shiny cameras, lights, and microphones following Tom Brady around the office>
Coworker: <sigh><something about this not being a surprise>
Also, nifty new toy: xclock. (Call it from a Linux command line. It’s probably installed by default on your distro.)
Edit: Tim Brady != Tom Brady. Right. I can type. Moving on, now…
Thursday, November 13th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | 1 Comment »
Thanks to Joshua Gay of cK-12 for his help in crafting this posting!
Help us spread the joy of education to children all over the world by becoming a Social Media Warrior. At OLPC, we have the tools, the educational materials, and learning resources to help transform the lives of millions all over the world. To do so, we need thousands of volunteers to understand what we have and what we are capable of doing for the lives of children everywhere – and we need three of you to help us get the word out to them using the social networking and media sharing sites that pervade our lives.
Video Ninja
- We’ll hand you the keys to our YouTube, dailymotion, flickr-video, and myspace-tv accounts; work with our marketing team and branch out to other video networks at your discretion.
- Promote videos from media.laptop.org, olpc.tv, and other sources, including training resources for volunteers and staff in third-world deployments.
- Track down celebrity speakers for original source material and permission to use it.
Facebook Rockstar and Myspace Maven
More details (including how to apply) can be found at the new OLPC blog.
Thursday, November 13th, 2008 | olpc | 1 Comment »
This list is a tiny subset out of necessity.
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | No Comments »
Two words:
The people.
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | Didn't fit anywhere else | No Comments »