For me then, it was time to just catch up with what your colleagues are up to. Updates of business requirements, some code reviews, announcements, some foods if somebody brought something for himself that ends up being shared with the whole team.

But now, meetings are just eating up precious time. Even at home! We even sometimes get meeting invites as late as 11pm and we have to dial-in into the office network to attend the virtual meeting.

Meetings used to be fun and energetic and alive. I sorta look forward to meetings in my previous work because it was a time to get away in front of the desktop and talk with colleagues. We hang around in the conference room for half the time the supposed meeting and just talk. But we still manage to get something out of it.

Have to wrap this up. Another round of meeting in half an hour.

I’ve been using FoxIt reader even before version9.0 went out. It’s a very decent alternate for mighty Adobe. Light and compact. It gets the job done and no useless crap installed within it.

I have lost the penchant to feel relief at the end of a work-week, AKA Friday. This is residue from being a postgrad research student. No scheduled classes, and a freedom to work at any time that suits you best. Long as you accomplish what needs to be done in a reasonable amount of time.

But I don’t always get to do my own research on the better parts of the day due to a lot of things… Office needs cleaning, computers need maintenance, I get sick for days coz of the frikkin cold weather… etc etc. The outcome is spilling over of work hours to late nights, weekends, early mornings to get work done. So, effectively, it’s a bit ridiculous to be going out on a Friday night just to get buggered. I need my energy for other things more important to me.

Maybe it’s just me being way past the age limit, but I would rather say TGIF to bedtime, or perhaps any form of quiettime.

But well, I get really cranky, like today. It was Friday just hours ago, but I haven’t really enjoyed it. I keep myself uppity as much as I could. But yknow, you can only do so much for yourself.

So there. I know I’ve been ranting a lot for some time now. What can I say, I would love to have something to NOT rant about.

If only.

I do fine without them, but I noticeably squint my eyes when I am reading or doing something that requires focus. So I was told to wear them [I have red frames this time] as much as I could so my eyes don’t get strained.

The general dislike for wearing the frames comes from the following…

(1) the extra chore of remember to wear them,
(2) thinking of whether to bring its protective case or not,
(3) its sliding off my no-bridged nose, (yes, pango ako, bow)
(4) getting smudges on it from touching it when it slides,
(5) fogging when you walk from a cold room to where it’s warm,
(6) fogging when i unknowingly aim my breath towards it (pag nagpapalumbaba),
(7) messing up the view transition between the lens frame and my peripherals, (this makes me lose my balance when walking, especially stairs!!)
(8) forgetting to bring them when i need them.
(9) [addendum] light refraction when you’re in a funny angle from bright light

Contact lenses? Unnecessary at this point. But I don’t like sticking things into my eye either.

I just had another episode of frustrating network problems with Vista today.

(1) The network was insisting it was Unidentified.
(2) There were multiple networks found.
(3) “Local Only” it says, and the internet just won’t connect.

I’ve tried every trick I know, and looked some up online.
(1) Disabled wireless so it knows I only want the Ethernet to be found.
(2) Windows firewall settings.
(3) Disable IPv6.
(4) Toggle between DHCP and Static IP. This takes a while to set-up depending on where I am.
(5) Restart.

I did a couple of restarts before the configurations I wanted actually applied to the system. What else can I say but… ARRRRRRGH!!!!

I’ve been finishing up a couple of projects for the longest time, and I don’t think it a good idea to be reformatting my work machine should I need something vital that I forget about, and accidentally chuck out!! I’ve configured the system to work “normally” for me. By that I mean that things work to some extent, albeit crashing once or twice a week. What I really dislike is how the RAM gets eaten up by some invisible process(es) that I have no control over. I’ve stripped everything to a bare minimum at one point, and realised it had improved but a little.

Yeah yeah, downgrade to XP, I know, I know. I’ve also been set on setting up Ubuntu 08.04. I’m afraid that if I can’t make things work as they should (they work now, just not efficiently as I want it to), then I really won’t get anything done. The ******* problem is there was no Vista CD provided if you wanted to reinstall it should you be in a situation like mine, or something similar. I have a product key, which should be sufficient right? I don’t even know the answer to that question. Does anyone?

And there are those days like today when I can’t set-up my network (coz I moved from workplace1 to home to workplace2, I need to reset routers, configure IPs etc etc), can’t get decent running speeds for Mathematica or get bogged down by compiling TeX documents. It’s hard to get real work done when 70% of my time gets polluted with troubleshooting and tweaking. What about my time for procrastination browsing the internet for crying out loud!?

Here are some tweaks I do with Vista:
(1) ReadyBoost. This works by attaching a USB flash disk or SD/MMC and telling Vista that you want to use it for “speeding up your system”. I’m not sure how it works, but it seems to use the space allocated as a page file. At first I thought plugging the 2GB memory was helping speed my system up. But I don’t notice the difference anymore.

(2) Disable sidebar. It’s fun to have the Windows sidebar, as it has widgets like the OSX. But I don’t really use it all the time, so I shut it off whenever doing something needing memory.

(3) Use the most basic theme (disable Glass/Aero) with the least effects possible. Too bad. When Microsoft really endeavored to make Vista pretty with all these flashy visuals.

(4) Uninstall Office. It’s this big chunk of nothing that I hardly use. Replacements are a-plently. To me, what I used in Microsoft before were Word, Powerpoint, Outlook and Excel. Now just OpenOffice for Word, LaTeX Beamer for Powerpoint, GoogleDocs for Excel (sheets online, stats in R-cran) and Mozilla Thunderbird for Outlook.

==================

Thought I’d list the other stuff that are necessary to get me up and working:
(1) Wolfram Mathematica/Mathworks Matlab/R – essentials for the maths student/academic
(2) cygwin – a windows ‘clone’ of bash
(3) MikTeX – windows package for LaTeX
(4) TeXmaker/WinEdt – for documents and presentations
(5) Ultramon – configures the use of multiple screens (hell yeah!). Once you go double or more, you won’t ever go back. Unless you’re mobile.

Loud phone conversations.
Loud complaints about petrol prices.
Loud traffic.
…. Generally, just loud things.

Folks who are…
Know-it-alls and show-offs.
Snobs who don’t know they’re snobs.
Insensitive.
Self-catering.

Folks who…
Walk like a snail.
Walk like a snail in the middle of a sidewalk.
Gross out over food.
Rant incessantly unnecessarily.
Fish for compliments.

Other things…
Heavy breathing in normal situations.
Sweating.
Stale coffee breath.
Or just bad smells in general.
Sarcastic laughing or giggling.
Strangers coming too close for comfort.

Should I be in the same situation, I just can’t be bothered doing that anymore.

Jorge Cham seems to be documenting my life.

“… This limitation applies whether the application is executed with the “Run” command, within a Command Prompt box (DOS box), or with the Start command…”

[http://www.trnicely.net/misc/vista.html]

Way to ruin it, Bill. Here’s hoping that Vista SP1 redeems.

I have here a bit of commentary on some Aussie shows I get to watch sometimes on the tellie [I wish I could just get used to the shortening of words, "bogan" as Ali calls it. I love hearing them talk that way hehe] I know I shouldn’t have any time to spare [believe me, I don't!], what with all the work that comes with a phd. But then, guilty pleasure is primetime mindless shows on the tellie. I didn’t do any ‘research’ so I could be talking about ‘franchised’ shows here. Anyhow… If my supervisor sees this list… I am soooo dead [I swear, I don't get to watch them all the time!]

Sunrise - this is a morning show on the Seven Network, much like the Pinoy “Magandang Umaga Bayan” or “Unang Hirit”. There are a couple of other morning shows in the other channels but I’ve seemed to become more familiar and at ease seeing the hosts in this program than others. I can’t seem to exit the flat without a glimpse of the local temperature flashing on their screen folio.

Thank God You’re Here – Channel Ten. a kind of reality bit that challenges comedians to do improv on scenes pre-arranged for them. The first line of every scene is always “Thank God you’re here!… (blah blah)” and the actor would have to figure out what’s going on and do punch lines on the spot. A very clever show.

Rove – Channel Ten. The show is much like Letterman without the band, but plus the host Rove McManus that can be endearing, creepy and addicting. The humor is poppy in a way but then is quite informative especially when I miss watching showbiz news. This is where I heard about the Britney dance and that youTube video with the guy bawling “Leave Britney alone!”

Temptation - Probably the only show worth watching in the Nine Network? I like watching it when I’m stuck alone with dinner, which happens rarely now. Anyhow, it’s one of those game shows that’s fun to answer to and kick in the air towards the contestant’s face when they couldn’t get the answer. The questions are tough though! And the prizes are astounding. Cars, jewelry, trips… Well at least to me they are

Australian Idol - Channel Ten. [shivers] Heavens to Betsy… I never imagined myself to ever be a reality junkie. Actually, I’m not. I only find myself watching a teeny bit of Amazing Race, Survivor and American Idol. But then, it’s about waiting for Mark Holden award a touchdown and Kyle Sandiland chatter like a man-beyatch [again, in an endearing, creepy manner]. And there’s talent too. One thing, and I think I can say the same for all other Idols, it kinda sucks to watch towards the end, coz most of the guys are already quite good singers/performers, and it’s hard to see them get eliminated. And in that sense, it’s too entertaining!

So You Think You Can Dance – Channel Ten. this is just starting out, but I’ve been seeing the American airing and it looks fun! I watched the season with Benji Schwimmer emerging as winner. By next year it’ll be Australians swinging onstage. It’s much like Dancing with the Stars, though they’re not celebrities, but they could be professional dancers I think. The premise is much like Idol, only dancing.

The Chaser’s War on Everything – ABC. A satire that I get more news updates from. When I first watched The War, I was astonished at how vulgar they can be with their politics-bashing. I like the show, but for some reason I just can’t stand Chas. Members of the show are being called to court now for the naughty stunt they pulled on APEC this September 2007. That stunt involved the following: a motorcade, Canada, fake ids and stickers, Osama bin laden.

Rock Wiz [did I spell that right?] – Channel Ten or ABC? I’ve seen this show but once but it was thrilling! Some rock personalities come aboard for a quiz show, and it can be funny and awesome! I love how they go back to the classics, and it’s so fun to relate to the songs of legend!

Of course there are the other tellie series: Prison Break [Seven], House [Ten], Heroes [Seven], Numb3rs [Ten]… and the Simpsons! [Ten]

I’m going to have to settle watching TV shows in little chunks now, especially having missed ALL the premiere episodes in the past several weeks! [AArrrgh!] If only I can let people imagine just how tired I had been each night!? I waited patiently for the premiere of House, only to fall asleep after 10minutes into the episode… on the lounge couch! Bugger…

—–

Oh let me just add that there is also a Pinoy news broadcast [ABS-CBN] that I try to catch each morning at 6.50am. Though often I miss it either coz I wake up at 7.25 am (the airing ends 7.20) or because I jump in the shower at 6.30 and just forget about it. There is also a Pinoy cooking show on Sunday afternoons, and a Pinoy Music show on Saturday afternoons. Both of these shows are community-based, so they’re not really fancy enough to be noticed easily. But it’s nice to tune in at times, to see some Pinoy skin on Aussie media.

where’d all my ram go?