The geek returns.

[tenlittlebullets]

About time I updated, huh? We got back on Sunday and I've been farting around with various other things ever since.

The trip was nice. We took a power catamaran down the Erie Canal all the way from Buffalo to Troy. Things were occasionally tense and snappy given that there were three people and only so much space on the boat, but overall it was very relaxing to have a break from the interwebs. Wake up early, stop in a very hopefully-named town* for coffee, drive the boat for a while, try adventurously to cook breakfast in a tiny galley, go through a lock, veg out with a Patrick O'Brian book, go through another lock, drive the boat some more, reapply sunscreen, eat junk food all afternoon, go swimming, oh look more locks, take a nap, dock in another hopefully-named town, have dinner on shore, joke around with dad and brother over beer and/or rum-and-coke, go to bed at a reasonable hour. Lather rinse repeat for a week.

* We passed through, among others, Albion, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Lyons, Rome, Verona, and Medina. And I'm pretty sure we passed Athens on the drive home. Tour Europe and the Mediterranean without leaving upstate NY!

And what did I find awaiting me when I got home but my brand-new tiny computer. And omg is it ever tiny. About the size of a hardback book, only skinnier than most of the books I read. It's been running a little sluggish, but I still haven't installed the extra gig of RAM, so we'll see how that works out. As for the OS, it came with SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, which I'm ambivalent about so far. I'm kind of poised in the middle between power user and Generic End User, having forgotten most of my *nix skillz but wanting more than the dumbed-down user-friendly interface it comes with. So, the irony: I want more than it's given me so far, but I've forgotten how to configure it to give me what I want. I'm sure I'll learn with time, though, and user-friendliness is at least convenient because it came packaged with Firefox and the wireless pretty much configured, and it claims to auto-mount external storage so I hopefully won't have to kick it and swear at it to transfer files off my external hard drive.

So, big and little things I need to do to it at some point: transfer my files, install the extra memory, set up a crippled guest account that can't modify anything or read my files, muck with the equivalent of the start menu to make it display things I actually use, tweak GNOME to be less of a resource pig or switch to a more lightweight window manager, install various things (GIMP, lj client, a dictionary program that runs off internal libraries instead of the 'net, some sort of sound/music editor à la Audacity, the list goes on), modify the deadkeys on my US-intl keyboard layout so I don't keep typing 'ś' by mistake, start experimenting with scripts to mass-edit little changes to my website, and maybe start messing around with Python because that's the language they teach in Smith's programming-for-dummies course. Which I intend to skip, and might not be able to skip if I don't polish up my rusty coding skills.

Actually, what I need to do after I've done the major things like file transfer and RAM is go back through those O'Reilly books on Linux and refresh my memory. Because the GUI for SuSE Enterprise is slick and it makes most of the everyday tasks nice and easy, but it gives you exactly zilch on getting down into the guts of the machine.

Oh yes, and I got piles of paperwork from Smith in the mail. I'm torn between "this is a pain in the ass" and "...I'm going to Smith! :D"

Also there is a trip to Paris in the works for the first two weeks of August. At the moment it's going to be me and mmejavert, but let me know if you want to be on board with it. Or meet us there. I'm going to try to get a sublet apartment, which will be infinitely cooler than a hotel and probably less expensive. The ones I'm looking at are €250-500 a week, or €35-75 a night, and for that price in a hotel you'd be sleeping in a closet and walking down the hall to go to the bathroom. Much better to sleep in a real flat.

So yes, all is going well right now.

Comments

[prouvairesylvie.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, my family is taking a trip to France is late July/early August, and the final place we visit is Paris. So maybe we'll see you guys or something. :)

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

We could meet in the Luxembourg. :D Or another Mizzie tourist spot, although some of the major ones are iffy if parents are coming.

[prouvairesylvie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, maybe. I can't really go about setting up like actual meetings or anything...it would be awkward to explain to my parents who don't know about my internet activities outside of facebook and they probably won't want to go to the places I want to anyways. We'll see what happens, I guess.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

I could pass myself off as a girl you met at summer camp five years ago, who by complete coincidence happens to be obsessed with Les Mis and who just found you on facebook?

*devious*

[prouvairesylvie.livejournal.com]

...that could work with a few minor alterations. Do you want to try that? :D As for facebook, you're friends with mmejavert, right? Because I'll be the only Adele on her friends list.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Oh, we should. XD *is evil* And I'll add you as soon as I hop over to facebook.

[prouvairesylvie.livejournal.com]

Awesome! We can iron out the details via private messages on facebook then. *rubs hands together and schemes*

[misatheredpanda.livejournal.com]

Whoah. I'm going to Paris for the first two weeks of August, too. :o

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Obviously the Supreme Being wanted us to bump into each other. XD (Or, uh, maybe it's just that Paris is a popular summer destination. Nah, can't be.)

Wanna meet up?

[misatheredpanda.livejournal.com]

Sign that we are to overthrow the government?!

Sure, of course. :D

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Eeeexcellent. I suppose we'd better wait to work out the exact date and location until I have some solid plan for the trip though.

[ladybranwen.livejournal.com]

Mmm, Paris. I want to go.

Ok, really, I just want to go to some European country at the moment. Any will do. I just want out of the US.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Awwww. You could come and crash in our apartment! And, uh, disguise yourself as a FedEx box and stow away on an airplane to get there. It would totally work. >_____>

How about Canada? I wanna see the Québec Les Mis sometime in July, which means road trip, which means finding people crazy enough to drive 12 hours to see LM.

[ladybranwen.livejournal.com]

How much are tickets running for Paris this summer? I was looking at London tickets and they were about $1000. Was it about that for Paris? I really just want to get away.

Well, we can always see if we can stop by and spend the night at my grandmother's (which is half an hour away from the Canadian border - actually, it used to be my parent's house where she is living now). She keeps pestering me to visit her. And, aren't tickets pretty much sold out? Cause I know you bought yours ages ago.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Paris tickets are about $1000 too.

Well, I bought mine for closing night, which happens to be in the middle of Smith's mandatory orientation period. So I'm giving that one to Jenn if she can make it. (And the silly thing extended again, so that ticket is no longer for closing night.)

I looked for other tickets a couple weeks ago, and there were still plenty left. Weekdays are just about the only time you can get a good seat, but I don't think it's sold out yet.

[ladybranwen.livejournal.com]

You should tell me not to go and that you don't want me in Paris at the same time as you. Otherwise I might buy a ticket tonight.

[mmejavert.livejournal.com]

The more the merrier. :D (I am desperately trying to find any airfare under $1000, personally...)

...I am really going to bed now. Honest. >___>

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Air Canada has round-trip for like $920, and my dad says he'll pay for $500 of yours.

[mmejavert.livejournal.com]

...:D I've left a message with the place about making an appointment to apply for a passport. Wow, bureaucracy. Wow. "If you want to make an appointment, leave a message, we'll get back to you." :p To be fair I did call at lunchtime, but still.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I might be able to go, assuming the timing works out, and I can get a plane ticket. ^^;

My French is still really horrible, though.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Would you want to stay with us, or on your own? Because it affects the kind of flat I can get--most of the ones I'm looking at have one bed and a roll-out sofa.

It's horrible of me, but my French improves exponentially when I'm with people who don't speak it as well. Alone I get intimidated, and with someone more fluent I turn into a lazyarse and let them do the work.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Probably with you, if that's okay. ^^;

At least you'll benefit from the situation, then. >.>