Cache ≠ Can Throw Away Safely

As tempting as it is to remove /var/cache/ or to shift it to tmpfs, never do it because ``cache'' doesn't equate to ``can throw away safely''.

Case in point: hal balks when it cannot find /var/cache/hald/, and apt cries when it cannot find /var/cache/apt/archives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/, and dpkg might scream when it misses /var/cache/debconf/. All these lead to a non-working machine.

Someone

Man, this song had been stuck in my head for years, and I finally found what it was:

A Mild Explanation

Updates here are getting far and few, and by no means am I ever intending to ditch this blog. But I would be lying through my teeth if I said that I had updates to put up here these days---that's hardly true and for good reason. The sad thing about it all is that the work life is often not as fantastic nor exciting as that of the college life. While many might claim that college life is more hectic than the real world, in my situation, I find the exact opposite to be more correct. I believe that on many levels, I have significantly more stress from work than when I was studying, not because of my inability to deal with the new things, but that I actually do have a heavy work load.

I'm not really complaining much about work (I like working), but it is really hard to find humorous or interesting snippets of information from the workplace to share and think about as compared to the general liberal attitudes that are present within the university. Don't get me wrong---there're lots of things that are happening in and out of the workplace, but issues like non-disclosure agreements and general sense of tactical self-preservation makes any form of discourse involving these material a potential minefield of pain.

Actually, the truth is that I spend more time entering things into my diary than here. Technically, it is just a journal, since I do not enter daily entries in it, but calling it a `journal' sounds a little more serious than what it really is, so I've stuck with calling it a `diary' for simplicity's sake. Why a diary one might ask when I have more than one blog to write things in. The word here is privacy. With a written book, I can control its physical presence (or at least, have a stronger suspension of disbelief that control is impossible), and with that assurance that there is only one such copy around where I am the sole custodian, I can write more in it, putting in as much detail as I care to write, without having to worry if I end up making a faux pas by saying some things that might be a little taboo of the the Internet.

So with all that writing of diaries, which I must reiterate is a most enjoyable activity to do with a good writing instrument, I tend to have fewer things to gripe about in public over here.

Day of the Endless Run

Man... each time a week passes in real life, I feel as though I've aged by ten weeks. So much to do, and so little time to do them all---sometimes I wonder how on earth do I pull it off.

I've been sick on and off for the last four weeks. Yep, that's right, I've been having a cold/flu combination for almost a month. Never really went to see a doctor, because I wasn't unwell enough to warrant a visit to them to collect a day's medical leave; I'm already short on time and having days lost to medical leave will be among the last things on my mind.

Two days ago it was the worst---thick phlegm clogging up my nose completely, and the interior structures of my nose were so swollen they were also actively blocking my passage way completely. But some paracetamol and pseudophredine later, the swelling has subsided to acceptable levels, acceptable in the sense that I can breathe decently through them.

Man... I better catch up on that sleep this Sunday, otherwise it'll be the beginning of week five of being sick.

Architecture Updates

If you manage to find me here, that's great! Because I've modified the links to my blogs.

The_Laptop Writes... and The_Laptop Wrote... now point different places than the past instead. Use ``Save Links'' or whatever tool your browser has to update your bookmarks/feeds.

The old link has a blog that is parked there doing absolutely nothing. I might make it into a general dev blog eventually, or I can just leave it in its current mystifying state of requiring a password to enter.

Why the sudden change, you might wonder? I'm actually trying to right things in a sense as part of my whole scheme of renewal and rebranding. The domain names (or in this case, subdomain names) should actually reflect what they are talking about and not the chronological ordering in which they were created. It is not as though I have a high enough readership volume that the renaming would bring all sorts of hell, so I might as well right things when I can.

If for some reason you want to link to my blog, use this link instead. That way, you'll always get redirected to wherever my blog is currently being hosted, should I choose to move away from Blogger and stuff.

Ronin 2

Time to be Ronin once more. The path ahead is strange and rocky, and the infectious mirth of the successful is suffocating enough that it sickens me.

Everyone has moved on, while I remain. No point thinking about the past---crush the path behind me with stones and boulders and look only forwards.

I've done it once, I can do it again. And if situation demands it, I will not hesitate to do it yet another time.

The world is a massive machination, and all of us are just tiny gears that contribute only a little to the overall scheme of things. What's one less gear among a small congregation of gears?

Perhaps more drastic action is required than what I have done. Was it not one of the 45 that said to get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful? Complete justification---check.

Activate Operation Firestorm Bridge.