Major Updates

Looks like it has been a while since I last posted. I've mostly disconnected from my usual routine, but think I have a very good excuse for once. Normally, in the same time frame (about a month and a half) I would have also probably rebuilt the toolchain on Icadyptes twice, hoping for fixes and improvements resulting in smaller and faster binaries (maybe a little compulsive on that front :-/ ). I would have woken up each day pondering what to fix or update or change next. Icadyptes would probably already be on Linux 2.6.29 and xorg-server 1.6.0, so you could have had some fun with Kernel Mode Setting on Intel graphics already (of course, there are more distributions than just Icadyptes that you could try). My friends on Freenode would be more up to date on my life and Icadyptes' progress, and you could have a couple more rants on this blog to read. My life before my recent excuse was dull and boring with occasional excitement (like getting the 486 on Digg). I lived mostly for Icadyptes more than anything else; Icadyptes came before my own life. I woke up thinking of what to change next, although school got in the way a bit. So what happened?

I met someone. Not just any someone, but the most amazing person ever. You may think I'm wrong, but I'm convinced in rationality, emotion, and experience. I'm convinced enough that my normally open mind doesn't consider it being possible that she isn't the most amazing person ever. This special someone just happens to not be bothered by my madness of thoughts, lair of computers, strange diet (I'm off of the raw foods diet by the way, but more on that later), often controversial beliefs, and my imperfect smile.

My "Requirements" post is so dated and convoluted now (as you can tell, I'm not even bothering to link to it from here). Yes, I think she fulfills the two things I wrote about, but I hardly contemplate them now. My every (almost always passive) venture to find "the one" was flawed. I didn't know that we would find each other, and that things would work perfectly without being artificially tested. I had no idea that something so perfect could be made out of two imperfect people (me being more imperfect than her), and that she could seem this perfect to me.

My thoughts in regards to who she might be were so far off. No, she actually didn't send me a PGP encrypted message through her own SMTP servers (whose DNS had v6 glue) on IPv6. We didn't meet in Freenode or at a hacker convention. Instead, she's even better. She doesn't know how many bits are in an IPv4 or IPv6 address. Instead, she has about average computing literacy and runs a Windows box. PGP encrypted and/or signed messages mean almost nothing to me now (I still haven't gotten one yet, by the way), and I don't care if I have to talk to her on IPv4 through a dozen NATs. As long as she can somehow read my textual thoughts, I'm okay. All in all, I'm now convinced that imagining the one who you're meant to be with is stupid. She is more amazing, more unique, more genuine, more fascinating, more charming, more adventurous, more teachable, more intriguing, and far beyond what my imagination could ever conjure up. By the way, I'm now convinced that being in person beats textual communication any day.

I guess at this point I should say that her name is Heather. Omitting a lot of details, we met on Facebook, after I tried adding her as a friend thinking she was someone else. Officially, as her boyfriend I've been the luckiest guy in the world for a week and am *very* happy. One day I'll write more about us and probably make it the content of several chapters in a book (how we met is actually quite interesting).

Since meeting her I lost my passion for working on Icadyptes and fixing computing. Learning assembler or talking to the most amazing person ever is a no-brainer. She broke me yet fixed me at the same time. I finally feel content for once, and am so happy and thankful to know her. So what does this mean for Icadyptes?

While my focus has shifted, computing is still a mess. Working on Icadyptes often feels like a lot of useless little things that don't ever make a difference. This world has hundreds of other things in need of fixing, but fixing the rest of them would be easier if computing was in some state of reasonability. I've talked to Heather about this and she wants me to go ahead with it (probably more than I do). My life would feel complete if I could stare into her eyes for an eternity, but somehow I know that my purpose is something else. I would rather not spend a moment without Heather, but the real world is larger than just us. Heather will be the primary focus in my life, but I'm going to give my best shot at doing as much as I can to fix computing. Icadyptes will be a hobby (and eventually hopefully a good source of income), not my life. But who knows, Heather is smart and adventurous enough that if I could teach her, we could work on Icadyptes together :-).

I wish I could do Heather justice in my description of her, but I've finally found someone that breaks the boundaries of words. "Amazing" is a reasonable word, but it's woefully inadequate. If you could see her smile and the depth of her eyes beyond a limit of pixels, you might see a fraction of how amazing she is. On a more practical note, she is an amazing artist and has some *very* nice drawings. I think our most common unique interest is duct tape. I've duct taped a laptop, made duct tape guitar straps, a duct tape and paper shield (don't ask), and a few other things. Heather makes some of the nicest (definitely most special) duct tape wallets ever and has quite the collection of colored duct tape. Heather is the only person or thing I know of that can actually blank my mind. My mind otherwise seems to never shut off from its insanity of (almost) madness related to random facts and computing, or pondering theories. My brain finally has an on/off switch, it's Heather.

On a note of lesser significance, the Celica isn't happy (still driving though), I turned 17, and finally wrapped up my origins research (more on that later).



^ I don't think I look that great in the picture, but the person to the left looks quite pretty :-).

PS: Expect some KMS fun in Icadyptes soon :-).