Here at the agency, you see, we have a whole lot of Finux servers to handle different tasks. I took one of them down yesterday for a rebuild -- this is the server that provides fileservice to 55 or so users, mostly graphics people doing huge Photoshop jobs. I've got a sweet external 240Gb RAID disk array that connects to the server as if it were a single disk. After the backup and rebuild, I'm booting the machine off an internal 9Gb LVD disk, /dev/sda, just fine, but every time I connect the external array the machine freaks out and thinks that the external disk is sda, resulting in a VERY UNHAPPY SERVER
I've rebuilt that machine 14 times so far this weekend, in every conceivable permutation to no avail.
I've been calling around what few computer stores are open in Sydney on a Sunday fo try to find a couple of big LVD disks (say 75Gb IBMs) that I could simply connect to the internal bus, to at least get some of the critical data back on line. Typically, there isn't an LVD disk on any store's shelf. It's times like these that I curse Australia -- if I was in Silicon Valley I'd just drive to my favourite Fry's and pick up whatever tech stuff I needed...
Hopefully my high-priced consultant will sort this thing, otherwise I will have a very pissed off company tomorrow at 8am..
Dinner tonight with two local noders, alex.tan and lignocaine, at the BBQ King in Chinatown. We've been trying to get together for weeks now, and although I'm in pretty deep shit right now I'm going to make dinner, come Hell or high water.
Thanks to Rancid Pickle for keeping me company last night while I was in melt-down. E2 is better than Valium, baby.
Update mid-day, Sunday
The cavalry sorted the server out -- it seems that the bootloader was loading an image that included the RAID's SCSI adapter module before the on-board SCSI, which meant that the bootloader was loading either bogus bootstrapping or none at all. Duh.
I'm now restoring the data. Disaster averted.
Update 2pm Sunday
It seems that the woman who runs the backups here did not run a full backup on Friday like I specifically asked her to. I'm restoring maybe 10% of the data... Sheesh... Looks like I'm gonna have to run a multi-tape restore from the last incremental. This has been a horrible weekend.
Update 8:30pm Sunday
Still here, expect to be running recovery tapes until 4 or 5am. I really hate this. On a brighter note, just took a walk outside and had a funky Chinese meal with alex.tan and lignocaine, very lovely nodists both.
Update 9:30pm Monday
Just had to call a taxi to collect some offsite tapes from Jayne. Lucky she was home. Thank You Jesus! I have AIT and not DAT. Still, a robot would be cool..
Update 2:20am Monday
Still here, still swappin' tapes.... Tired eyes, E2 keeping me sane. Users arrive in 5 hours, I don't think the system will be all back for them. Oh goody, 50 users all moaning at me in a couple of hours time. I'm sure to deal with that really well...
FINAL Update 7:00am Monday
Finished the restore, recreated all the mount-points and checked permissions, tested OK, yeah! I went to init-1 to e2fsck -CV /dev/sdb and it was clean. Phew! Went back to init-3 and checked into the netatalk daemon via a Mac and HELLS BELLS THERE WAS NO DATA THERE BUT THERE SHOULD BE 230GB OF FRICKIN' DATA OH HANG ON A MINUTE I FORGOT TO REMOUNT /dev/sdb it's all okay now, man I have to get some sleep....... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......
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JeffMagnus node count: 4088 (1 new since February 10, 2001) JeffMagnus experience: 11973 (5 more since February 10, 2001) JeffMagnus experience to node ratio: 2.929 XP per node JeffMagnus nodeshare: 0.499% (Via alternate method: 0.902%)* JeffMagnus node of the day: The Everything Credibility Problem
Note: The Everything Snapshot daylog will return as soon as I work out one that is more pleasant for members of the Everything Whino sect.
Holy shit.
I haven't had that much fun in ages! Two people brought along their guitars.. and sooner or later the dining room was full of 20 or so people singing along to all the songs the guitar players knew to play. It was awesome.
Not only that... But I got flirted with ( ; and.. A cutie knew how to sing THE (only) song I know how to play on piano that isn't a standard.. Possession by Sarah McLachlan.
Wow. See, I *HAD* forgotten how to have fun. Now it's almost like I've had a little paradigm shift. Fuck all that whining, man. None of that matters.
/me sings:
Come sit next to me, pour yourself some tea Just like Grandma made, when we couldn't find sleep
Things were better than, once but never again We've all left again, let me tell ya 'bout it!
My sister, Rebekah, one of the few people I have always looked up to, adored, and trusted, finally got AOL Instant Messenger. Her last year of college, and finally I can talk with her every day, after missing her for almost 4 years. It does seem kind of strange, talking with an immediate family member using the same medium I use to communicate with total strangers, but I hope she enjoys chatting with me as much as I enjoy her conversation.
One of the first things she asked about was my info, which blatantly states my addiction to Everything2. Of course, my evangelistic tendencies kicked in immediately, and now she browses the site, reads my writeups, tells her friends about E2, and might one day take the big step herself. She's already miles ahead of me, I'm afraid. Tonight, she adapted an old bedtime lyric to fit E2:
Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite. And if they do, whop'em with a shoe, then write about it on E2.
Now you see why I miss her so much.
Because, what if some of us were meant to be apart from Him? I was raised Catholic. I was taught that Hell was not a place so much as a manner of existence; to be without God, that is Hell. I think of Lucifer, the angel of light, the Christian Prometheus. The Fallen Angel brings to man the fire of knowledge. The Fallen Angel shakes his fist at the all-powerful One, the very act smacks of pride and individuality. I meditate on this myth, and I realize -- this is me.
I cannot change who I am. It is not something I want to change. I cannot live with God.
And there is, too, this feeling of sad detachment; a contradictory recognition of God's existence while at the same time denying that I can ever live with that fact. And I think, maybe He thinks so too, looking over me sadly, knowing that no matter what, I need to be apart from Him, because there is no other way for me to live. I look at Christians and the way they live -- they seem to be at peace. But to have that peace, that divine peace, that would make me less of who I am, it would rob me of the essence of my character. It was not meant to be.
So the Lucifer myth haunts me. Maybe he is my kindred spirit, forced out of Heaven not for his rebellion or his fall, but because God realized Lucifer must make it alone.
And in our solitude we discover what it is to live without unconditional love. We learn the truth of the universe, because there is nothing to stop our independent, critical eyes, no faith, no dogma, no preconceived notions of what we should find. And we discover, too, the true value of God's Love, as inaccessible it is to us. It is something precious, something beautiful, as a planetary nebula we will never see but through the eyes of a telescope.
Earlier this month I got an email from Paytrust, the online bill paying service I use, saying that my phone bill from Verizon had arrived. I went to the site to view my bill, and was somewhat surprised to see that they wanted $95. My usual bill is around $40 (which is a major ripoff, since I only have local service and never call long distance). After perusing the bill for a moment, I realized that the balance of the previous month's bill had been carried over and Verizon was claiming it was "unpaid".
Odd, because I distinctly remember paying it.
Just for kicks, I got out my latest bank statement and, lo and behold, check number 7007 had not been cashed. So, I send Verizon the check, they forget to cash it, and then they blame me for the mistake and ask for more money? Just to make sure the check was actually sent (see, Paytrust sends it for me, I don't actually touch it), I called up Paytrust's tech support line. The woman on the other end was very helpful and, after checking her records, assured me that the check had been sent the day I authorized it and that, if I wanted, she would open a three-way call to Verizon so we could figure the problem out. I opted to just wait and see what happened. I paid Verizon the $95.
That was all two weeks ago. Today I got my latest bank statement in the mail and I was mildly surprised to find that, not only was check number 7007 cashed, it was cashed the day after Verizon sent me my bill saying that I hadn't paid them their money. Sneaky bastards.
So now Verizon has the $45 I owed them from last month, plus the $45 I owed them this month, plus ANOTHER $45 that they claimed I owed them but really didn't. And their bill support center isn't open until Monday.
I fucking hate Verizon.
The past week has been somewhat of a delicious blur, and all thanks to my dear friend Annie who moved to Lake Tahoe yesterday. About a week and a half ago, she introduced me to a really sweet boy who I've seen 5 days out of seven this week. He's handsome, charming, smart...I sure hope I'm not twitterpated.
The only thing that's kind of funny about the whole thing is that we have the same name. I mean, how many gay Brendans can there be in LA, and what is the likelyhood of two of them knowing Annie? Simply astouding.
Considering how a few months ago I was giving up on boys for good.....well....um....can I have one more go at it? Just for old time's sake???
*bounces over to the new boi's house*
Mostly because I feel like I'm talking at myself.
And what's wrong with me? Why am I always apologizing?
Someone who can build their own computer and take apart a car, somehow seems to not know the first thing about taking care of clothes.
That's fine, his multi-pocket jeans and long baggy t-shirts might not need proper care. But I am vain, anal and prissy, I hang up my clothes.
My best friend came over to talk to me last night, Jason took this opportunity to clean the room we have neglected for about a week.
Sweet, everyone loves a man that cleans. And seems to clean well, even my clothes were put away.
I get up this morning, look for my stuff. I find my wool, black, designer pea-coat crumpled up in the corner of the closet in a neat pile of socks, shirts, boxers...
My little, black Mossimo dress I wore the night before, neatly twisted into a ball under a pair of steel-toed boots. My black lace panties stuffed into my knee-high boots on which his huge furry cat decide to clear out it's behind.
OK, OK, so maybe it wasn't that bad, and the clothes were just neatly thrown clear of the blast of light-bulbs, computer parts and of course, tools. My black wool coat was still in a pile on the floor, covered in cat hair... Three cats and a younger brother is not favorable conditions for my prissy self this morning.
But what I really like to know, while sitting and typing this and Jason attempting to deny every word. (OK, so maybe I did exaggarate a bit), is
