Dtrace
From Brendan Gregg: “seeksize.d prints the disk head seek distance by process. This can identify whether processes are accessing the disks in a “random” or “sequential” manner.”
:-O
Wiser
This past August passed the 3 year mark of a company I work for. The anniversary occurred while I was on a business trip to Europe, otherwise I would have gotten wasted with several coworkers (which seems to be a tradition among the people whom actually get things done there).
It’s hard to believe when I look back. The very rapid rise (though it seemed slow at the time) that I experienced can seem somewhat daunting. At 25 I’m already single handedly making more than the average household income in Canada. I rose from a measly monkey that called people when shit broke to a Jr. Systems Engineer in the span of 10 months and from there moved to a Senior role 6 months later. It took 8 months just to land a job at all after school. I went through dozens of interviews where people said “oh, we loved your enthusiasm and your knowledge, but we’re looking for somebody older and with more experience even though we thought you’d be wonderful for the job.” I then land a job and rapidly rise through the ranks. The laughable part is that it didn’t seem all that difficult to do. Maybe I’m just well suited to the logical (and spat of creativity) required to fulfill the role I’m in.
Malta and the Tribulations of Travelling.
I get to travel with my job. It is both a blessing and a curse that can take it’s toll on a man. The positives are obvious. I get a paid trip to wherever they send me. I can expense things like meals, cabs, etc. I usually squeeze time to take in some sights and wander around. Some of the places, like Curaçao, I’d never go to otherwise. This is really cool, as it’s something unique that I can talk to people about. However, the negatives also weigh in. It can get very lonely. After a few days, you start to feel down, wanting to spend time with people. Whenever I end up in London, there’s plenty of people who owe me beers and I have a grand social time. Most of the other sites I’m usually by myself in a data centre carrying out work on our systems. You get sick of eating out for every meal of every day. The schedules are killer. For days that I’m working, it’s usually 14+ hours. I miss my girlfriend. She misses me. I miss my cats, my friends, decent coffee, and on and on.
Stress
A few things:
-Work has been driving me mad the past few weeks. It seems I can’t catch a single break, even for lunch. If I leave, my cell phone rings off the hook. Everybody, just FUCK OFF.
-I’ll very soon get to learn the joys of a mortgage.
-I just found out that the “ist” group (gothamist, torontoist, etc) has a Parasist page. Why the fuck wasn’t I told about this sooner?
Curaçao
Well, I’m now working in Curaçao. The plane ride was pretty smooth, except having to run through the mess that is Miami International to make my connecting flight. I’d post pictures, but Microsoft sucks so much that it can’t get Windows to understand my camera’s RAW format and I wish I had my mac.
The hotel is a million times better than the last one I stayed at. Ocean view, awesome service, I arrive, somebody takes the car, offers me drinks while they get my room ready, take my bags behind my back and there they are in the room…
Bon Voyage
I’m heading to Curaçao…again! Work has been crazy, lately. There’s a big release coming up, which is why I’m heading away. The last time they swooped me out there I was stuck in a shitty ass hotel (I will never stay at another Howard Johnson again) that reeked, worked 16 hour days, and didn’t have any time to explore the island. The island is nice, but I wouldn’t want to live there. If it wasn’t so touristy, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, but ah well. This time I’m staying at a decent hotel, so I may get to go swimming in the ocean this time!