By RYAN
I’ve got way too many tabs
It’s been a while since I’ve made a post, not that I (seemingly) give a damn about that. I keep collecting links, and it’s time for a dump. It’s doesn’t really feel like a hell of a lot has changed in the gap between the last post and this, but it probably has. I’m set to go back to school in January. Actually, I’m registered at two schools (which I’ll be attending concurrently), and depending on how the coursework goes, I may end up taking classes at one of the colleges around here as well to ram myself through as quickly as possible. I simply don’t see a point in delaying the inevitable, nor in taking an extraordinary amount of time to complete it, given that I’m doubting if it’ll pose a challenge. The only real problem (as always) is the financial aspect. I’m not keen on taking out thousands of dollars in student loans, but I make too much to get federal aid, seemingly. This particular aspect of life I don’t take issue with, as it’s something that I’m doing on my own terms and which amounts to a commitment of ~6 months (a semester) should I determine to do something different in the middle of it, which is doubtful.
I don’t intend to be the average college douchebag who treats it as an extended four years of drinking and vacation from real life, on somebody else’s dime (largely because I have little regard for college students), but then, I don’t think anybody would expect that from me anyway (and I already got something closely approximating that in Georgia, anyway). In other ways, though? Not nearly as comfortable with the way things are headed. Moving into a 30-year mortgage which locks me in my current geographic location (and for the moment, job) is just screaming “mistake,” and I can’t explain why. Admittedly, neither the Economist nor the Financial Times would indicate this as a good idea. If the market isn’t predicted to bottom out for a year (give or take), why buy now? There’s no sense of urgency for me in removing myself from my current living situation, and the only reason to do so that I can see is that FHA loans are going to have higher interest rates as of Jan 15th if your credit isn’t virtually perfect (mine is not).
Is a (maybe) 2% rise in interest rates going to counteract a (maybe) $20,000 drop in price? It’s about the same as near as I can tell, at least in the short run. Sure, in the long term, the interest rate hike would end up costing me a lot more, but refinancing is not an impossible objective, and the short run is the only goal for now. Presumably, when I’m done with going back to school, the person I’m with will actually have an income, and mine will increase. I don’t particularly care whether or not she has an income, but it is a factor. Qualifying for a $170,000 dollar house by yourself just isn’t much fun, and I have little interest in being mortgage poor. If my projected bills are $number, I’d like to have some leeway with extra money so I can take vacations, put money in an “oh-shit” fund in case of sudden job-loss, car-loss, or the like, et al. What I like least about it is being rushed. To find somewhere in the next two weeks or so, get approved for that home, and all the rest so it’ll clear before the 15th. To look for a while and find something you really like is one thing, but to be railroaded into it on a needlessly short timeline is something else entirely. Sure, I found something that would be acceptable, but who’s to say that the homes which are just out of my “I can afford this and still have a reasonable lifestyle” price range won’t drop precipitously in the next year? To note, I’m fine with compromising on some issues with a home, but I’d rather have more discretion.
Couple that with my extreme job dissatisfaction. It’s getting kind of boring (rollouts and deployments are done for now, and there’s not much for me to do other than the day-to-day stuff which takes about two hours out of my 12 hours here), my hours have been fucked up forever, and they’re rearranging the upper management so I’m now directly reporting to somebody who, frankly, has no idea what we do here (IT at the corporate office) and how our methodologies work. I want to take a position with a different company, but I’m not able to do that until said mystical approval is done. There’s a glut of interesting jobs here right now, and I have no idea if there will be in two months or whatever it takes. Maybe if I had somebody who actually understood what I do? I don’t exactly have forty-five minutes in a block to speak with a broker or call a credit card company for which I have no information and no authorization to get myself removed as an authorized user from the account of somebody whom I’ve not spoken with in a year. I actually have -gasp- work to do! Last Friday when the city cut all of our copper (fiber was thankfully intact, but we still lost 4 T1s and all of our phone lines), I had other things to do. Even on a regular day, the nature of the work is such that somebody could walk in at any moment and have a problem which needs to be solved immediately because it affects production.
While I’ve got a lot of leeway here, and a lot of freetime, I’m just not comfortable trying to make those phonecalls while I’m here, and that shouldn’t be hard to understand. All in all? I’m fine having a “joint” life, but I need to have some control over my aspect of it. If you had been talking about getting a different job for the last three months and you saw some things you were interested in pop up recently, I wouldn’t tell you that you “needed” to wait because $thing, unless that need (emphasis on that word because it has a meaning which is not “want”) was urgent. Well, what’s urgent? I don’t know. Pregnancy? Current roommate is selling the house and you have nowhere to live unless…? Moving your business and you need somebody who you can lean on (if necessary) financially for a little while? Medical bills? Needs to get a new car because your old one is somehow unusable, stolen, or whatever? Legal problems? I don’t know. Just, y’know, needs. On some level, I’m utterly convinced that this’ll be the end of things if I don’t acquiesce, which is galling, and a big part of the reason I’m hesitant about moving forward. Nothing says that things are stagnating merely because they’re not progressing at a breakneck pace. Still, something feels… wrong. Then again, I always feel that way around this time of year.
Enough about me, though. Onto the tab unload.
First off, Solaris kicks Linux’s ass:
-bash-3.00$ ./bonnie++ -d /tankWriting with putc()...done Writing intelligently...done Rewriting...done Reading with getc()...done Reading intelligently...done start 'em...done...done...done... Create files in sequential order...done. Stat files in sequential order...done. Delete files in sequential order...done. Create files in random order...done. Stat files in random order...done. Delete files in random order...done. ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random- -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP alucard 6648M 81021 74 134971 28 97563 23 87675 94 213019 21 805.2 3 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create-------- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 31624 99 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ 32376 97 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ -bash-3.00$ ./bonnie++ -b -d /tank Writing with putc()...done Writing intelligently...done Rewriting...done Reading with getc()...done Reading intelligently...done start 'em...done...done...done... Create files in sequential order...done. Stat files in sequential order...done. Delete files in sequential order...done. Create files in random order...done. Stat files in random order...done. Delete files in random order...done. ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random- -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP alucard 6648M 109277 99 129352 27 95762 23 88443 96 214448 21 632.2 2 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create-------- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 181 1 +++++ +++ 182 1 180 1 +++++ +++ 184 1 #zfs set compression=on tank -bash-3.00$ ./bonnie++ -d /tank Writing with putc()...done Writing intelligently...done Rewriting...done Reading with getc()...done Reading intelligently...done start 'em...done...done...done... Create files in sequential order...done. Stat files in sequential order...done. Delete files in sequential order...done. Create files in random order...done. Stat files in random order...done. Delete files in random order...done. ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random- -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP alucard 6648M 97067 92 195806 42 144370 33 84743 91 432407 43 10006 31 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create-------- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 17807 99 +++++ +++ 13575 99 31412 99 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ -bash-3.00$ ./bonnie++ -b -d /tank Writing with putc()...done Writing intelligently...done Rewriting...done Reading with getc()...done Reading intelligently...done start 'em...done...done...done... Create files in sequential order...done. Stat files in sequential order...done. Delete files in sequential order...done. Create files in random order...done. Stat files in random order...done. Delete files in random order...done. ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random- -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP alucard 6648M 108341 98 179270 41 141544 38 83036 90 428718 46 1756 7 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create-------- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 186 1 +++++ +++ 180 1 179 1 +++++ +++ 182 1
Take that, Linux software RAID (note that he’s got a few more drives in there than I do. I’m running 4 U320 drives and 2 SATA drives, and he’s got 7 ATA drives. The second option forces Bonnie++ to sync ever ywrite, so the cache on the controller isn’t netting me any extra performance there. 430MB/s? I can live with that. Given protocol overhead, that’ll cap the aggregated GigE card.
Secondly? This. It’s hard to imagine what kind of dick classifies himself as a “seduction artist,” but after seeing this on the front page of (of course) Digg, I think I have a pretty good idea how to become one.
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Be desperate for other people’s approval. So desperate, in fact, that you’re willing to make up anything at all in order to get comments from people who exist (or don’t) on your blog.
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Pretend every conversation with a member of the opposite sex is flirting, regardless of whether or not they’re involved with somebody else, a lesbian, much older/hotter than you, playing cockblocker at the bar, etc. In fact, that bartender who talks to you and spends time near you? I’m sure it’s not because you spend a shitload of money on drinks and she wants bigger tips. Nope. She wants to bed you. As a rule (and I’ve gotten bitched at for this enough times), people in the service industry are friendly because their income depends on you being pleased with them. Sociable does not mean interested.
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Give myself a dumbass nickname. It seems that “Mystery,” “Shark,” “Style,” and other similarly-awesome monikers are taken.
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Post sycophantic comments on other people’s blogs. Clearly the guys who claim “triple-digit lays” are worthy of emulation and rimming. No women would find that digusting. In fact, if I find it digusting (and I’m not exactly a pillar of morality), there’s something very wrong with it.
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Buy a shithole that doesn’t have a bathroom mirror and in such disrepair that the mailman will not come to my house. Proclaim it a “babe lair.” As a general rule, by the time you bring somebody back to your house from the bar (or wherever), it’s not going to matter much what the interior looks like unless it’s a total shithole (see: his house).
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Be a mysogynist. This step is key. If you’re going to treat women as objects or toys whose only purpose is your own amusement, having any respect for the opposite sex whatsoever would kill my chances of being a “seduction artist.” Maybe if I had a long history of rejection by women, I’d grow to loathe them enough to become a “seduction artist.” Especially if I happened to be a virgin in my late 20’s who went home to cry after a girl at a party went home with one of my friends.
So, instead, here are some rules:
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Don’t be a dick. This precludes anybody who would ever call themselves a ”seduction artist.”
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People are people. Some people are vulnerable, some people are vengeful, some people just want sex. There’s nothing complicated about it. Ugly people, attractive people, old people, young people, they’re just people. Talk to them as you’d talk to anybody else, and it builds rapport, or you have a two minute conversation or whatever. If you’re out for blood (or sex), it’s not that hard to tell from a glance. You’re better off having no expectations whatsoever.
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Maybe it’s willful ignorance, but I can’t recall ever being rejected. Ever. Why? See above. Also, I have interests and goals other than adding another notch to my bedpost, which may interest people.
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Stop giving a shit about sex. Why? See above.
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Stop being a piece of shit who desperately reads idiotic books and internet posts about how to pick up women from the comfort of your basement/bedroom/whatever in hopes of avoiding another tear-soaked pillow because your friend (who you should be happy for, I guess) got sex and you didn’t. Talk to people and see what happens. People are attracted to confident, not cocky. For that matter, people are attracted to those who don’t come off as fake.
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When people talk to you, they are being human. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re attracted to you. Babies can distinguish between good and bad socialization, much less adults.
It seems that this cottage industry (i.e. teaching people how to be more selfish and regard other less) is worth a fair amount of money. I’m going to publish a book.
Next: college students are worthless. Not much else to say about that, really. Maybe we should take away their right to vote. It’s not like they bothered in the last election.
And to conclude this (I’ll just end up writing another post with rants on economics anyway), here are a few Daily WTFs, including the one I think looks like code from U-haul. A gem I’ll probably use:
if (Jack.WorkQuantity == "All" && Jack.PlayQuantity == "No") { Jack.BoyType = BoyTypes.Dull; }
