This post goes to Patronizers in October and becomes public in November. Not a Patronizer? You could be! $12 a year gets you my latest updates, occasional free tidbits, and the completely pointless MWL Footnote Fortune File, which will soon be updated for the new edition of Networking for System Administrators.
Speaking of which, the N4SA2e Kickstarter is rolling along just fine. No, it’s nowhere near the insane RYOMS Kickstarter, but it’s doing nicely. Comparison is the thief of joy, and of paying the mortgage.
I have a deep enough backlist that I can give books away as stretch goals. There’s a delicate balance between “dump everything on backers to make it a better deal” and “flood backers with stuff.” I want this to be a good enough deal while leaving space for people to go to my store and buy more, or buy print versions, or… or… just give me money, okay? Perhaps if I had paid more attention during EuroBSDCon I would have changed some of the stretch goal levels, but I staggered around all week in a state of near-hallucinatory jet lag.
Don’t get me wrong, EuroBSDCon was well-run and had great speakers. The worst problem I knew of was a bad HDMI cable, which means the con went great. Croatia is lovely. It is also the birthplace of the cravat, so each speaker got a tie. The silly thing is, two days before leaving for Croatia we cleaned out our cedar closet and I not only discarded all my ties, I established a life goal of never needing a tie again. I’m closing on 60, so this seems perfectly achievable.
I’m keeping this tie, though. Because it’s meaningful.
My last meeting at the con ended at 10:30PM Sunday. I had to leave for the airport at 3:30AM. Flying on ninety minutes sleep? That’s a whole REM cycle, I’m fine! Except the flight from Zagreb to Amsterdam was delayed by fog, so I missed my connection to Detroit. The airline automatically rebooked me on the next flight out, which would be fine except for the seat assignment in the middle of the back row. The last time I sat in that seat for an hour, my innards went into reverse and I had to be helped off the plane. Can’t imagine what nine hours of that would do. I had to find an airline agent and beg for help, despite being semiconscious. They rebooked me in the economy-plus “torture me less” class I originally paid for. I thanked her profusely and went to buy stroopwaffles before hallucinating my way to the gate.
Yes, airport stroopwaffle is sad. I submit to you, however, that Dutch airport stroopwaffle is inherently better than any commercially available American stroopwaffle.
Get on the plane. Aisle seat along the side. Two seats, side-by-side. There was a 20ish girl sitting in the window seat, dressed all in black and with a nose piercing. I feel kind of glad that the next generation is keeping up the Old Ways, but just say “hi” and settle into my seat.
Across the aisle, an older lady settles in place and looks around. Right before takeoff she leans across the aisle and says, “You know, I think it’s really nice that people like you take family vacations.”
I have had 90 minutes of sleep in the last 36 hours so I just say “Uh, thanks?”
It doesn’t hit me until we’re in the air that I’m wearing black pants, a dark shirt, and a black FLA hoodie. That lady thought that the girl sitting next to me was my child.
So, yeah. If you ever feel the urge to say people like you, you should probably just not.
Besides, the girl was clearly emo goth. I firmly believe that “if it’s not on the Industrial Records label it’s not industrial, it’s just sparkling noise.” You might argue I’m a primordial rivethead from before the fashion industry swiped the word. Anyway, totally different and I have no idea how she thought we were together.
Made it home. Stayed up until 9PM. Went to be. Slept like the dead for eight hours and woke up feeling like a lich.
Which is another reason I rarely travel overseas. It’s now my second day back. I feel like I spent nine hours being beaten with an Airbus. I want to keep these posts G-rated, or maybe PG, so we’re not going to discuss my sinuses.
Add to that: the copyedits for N4SA2e arrived yesterday. I want to get this book ready and a print proof ordered so I can fulfill the Kickstarter ASAP. I can’t open sponsorships on the OpenZFS book until that’s done–okay, technically I could but, you know, ethics. The way the meatsuit feels, I probably won’t feel halfway decent until next week. I spent a few days before EuroBSDCon preparing for the trip. One week in Europe costs three weeks of writing time. I imagine the cost for going to Asia would be similar.
The work I had done on the OpenZFS book has fallen out of my brain. Fortunately I was still in Chapter 0 so it won’t be that hard to load back into working memory.
This is all a long-winded way to say, there are reasons I don’t do EuroBSDCon or AsiaBSDCon every year. I’m always glad to meet readers, up until social exhaustion kicks in and I’m not happy to meet anyone. I left home for exactly that.
But if I routinely attended AsiaBSDCon and EuroBSDCon every year, that’s close to two months writing time lost.
Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time in Croatia! The people were grand, the food was delightful, the BSD crowd charming. But travel grows more difficult every year. I’d like to say something about the work I accomplished this month, but instead it’s a confessional that I haven’t done much actual work.
Despite aches and congestion, actual work begins this week. It’ll be slow, but it needs doing.
I’m going to close with a photo from Croatia: yours truly, at Zagreb’s Nikola Tesla statue.
No idea how someone could think I’m emo. Not with those purple-glitter-Crocs.
