jcm's blog

Photo: Jon Masters, as Captain America.

So I thought I’d take this opportunity, on the 4th July itself, to declare my intention for independence from the United Kingdom. For many years now, I’ve grown more and more unhappy with the direction in which the UK is heading, and I’ve reached a point where I want out. There are many places in Europe and elsewhere that I feel comfortable and could live, but the UK is not one of them – it’s a nice place to visit, but that’s as far as I want to go. I can’t entirely explain it, it’s a feeling, one that has taken many years to lead to such a decision. And not one I made lightly.

I love what the United States of America represents, and I love being there. Really. Sure, there are many issues with the current government, many I expect to be addressed following the 2008 elections, but I feel more free here than I ever did in the UK. The US doesn’t intrude on your every day life to the same extent as the UK (yes, I seriously believe that), there aren’t cameras on every street corner, and you don’t have to ask permission before wiping your ass, using some kind of British ID card.

It’s always a personal decision when you decide to adopt a new nation as your homeland, but for me, nothing feels more natural than to be in North America. I might not always be in the US, but I love it here.

Happy 4th July to everyone!

Jon.

Photo: The “Canada Girls”.

So I was in downtown Ottawa on Canada Day, wearing my oversized maple leaf hat and cape, and generally enjoying the celebration of independence from the British.

This year marks the 140th anniversary of the creation of what ultimately became the country of Canada (in 1946 it ceased to formally be refered to as a dominion, then the Canada Act of 1982 created the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – the Canadian Constitution – and finally removed the British cup-of-tea parliament from the day to day operation of the country. This year is also the 150th anniversay of the creation of the Rideau Canal, a strategic waterway prior to its use for recreational and winter touristic skating activity. I enjoyed being downtown for this celebration of independence from the British, and enjoyed the fireworks also.

Jon.

I’m up at OLS 2007, and have a temporary Ottawa NANPA Regional Cellphone Number that I can be reached at (my US phone isn’t roaming).

You can reach me at 613-884-RHAT.

Jon.

So, I’m starting a new series, which will have at least one installment. Here, I will document some of the differences between driving in the US, as opposed to other countries of the world (I’m including Canada, although I might need confirmation about some of the differences there – I will try to figure some of these out before driving up there!).

Some starting points:

* Turn right on red. In the US, in most States, you can turn right on a red signal. This, while extremely dangerous and somewhat insane, is actually quite useful to drivers – at the cost of people crossing the crosswalk (that’s what you call a pedestrian crossing, for UK readers).

* Signals. Are optional. Actually, in some states they’re not. But you won’t find people using them nearly as much – and if you make the mistake of suggesting that you might be changing lanes, then it’s an invitation to everyone else on the road to take immediate steps to cut you up as quickly as they possibly can. All and sundry will screw you.

* Hand brake. You won’t ever use the park brake, except when parking. Certainly not at lights, on a hill, or any other time you might have been told to in your driving lessons. I obviously do use mine when on an incline out of pendantry from my British driving lessons.

* In an automatic car, you need to depress the brake pedal to start the car. It’s a safety check to make sure the brain is connected to the terminal at the time of your use.

* In a manual car, you need to depress the *clutch* in order to start the car. Even in neutral. Yes, it’s pointless, and silly, but that’s how it is. So don’t go thinking your car is defective in some way and start trying to figure out how it’s broken when you can’t start it right after buying it.

Jon.

Photo: jcm’s Miata at the office.

So I picked up the Miata, and then drove to work. Tomorrow, I’m going to drive up to Canada in it. Oh, and, I’ve registered my vanity plate – which will take up to 12 weeks – “RED HAT”

Jon.

Photo: jcm’s 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata 6-speed Manual GT roadster.

So today I bought my first car. A Galaxy Gray Metallic 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata 6-speed Manual GT with 9,000 miles on the clock.

Spending rather a lot was fairly painless (isn’t that disturbing…), and I opted for the additional 6 year extended 100K warranty…not that it’ll take me 6 years to add another 90K miles to that odometer. I say that, because I will immediately add another 6,000 miles on a little road trip to California. It’s not a possibility now. I *must* do this road trip. Very soon. If you’re interested in going with me, and I know you, and you’re not crazy…well, drop me a line soon.

It’s got the Bose upgrade, it’s got everything. Except for the mods I’ve planned for my first Empeg Embedded Linux car stereo system (to go with the car), but that will be fixed very soon too (think remote Lojack GPS/GSM tracking, video recording and remote surveillance, WiFi hotspot tracking and syncing – there’s a reason I have a tmobile roaming account…continual coverage via Starbucks outlets, bluetooth mods…and a lot of other very customized jcm designed logic devices add to the design). I like this car. And I’m just waiting for the insurance to get worked out on Monday (thanks, Metlife, for not having group policy people on Saturdays…sure, I could get a personal policy, but MA rates are already over 3K, so I think I’ll take the discount).

Expect to see me driving to work a bit more often, and pretty much anywhere else that’s physically bolted on to the United Sates.

Jon.

So today I went a little nuts and played with extreme agendas as a means to self distraction. If I give myself enough to do for the next 3-6 months then I won’t physically have the time to pine very much. Besides, I would rather spend my time working, reading, and making myself a better person than on having my heart ripped out of my chest again (aka “dating”).

To start the day, I lined up a bunch more articles – on everything from Asterisk configuration to Internationalization and Localization, talked to a couple of publishers about forthcoming book projects (don’t worry, O’Reilly is where it’s at, at the moment – I need to get BELS finished) – and after I’d spent an hour on that stuff, lined up a few speaking engagements before having breakfast at Logan. After that, I spent the day on seriously hardcore shit (tracking down ABI breaks in earnest – don’t even bother wondering what that means). I did a lot more instead of sleeping last night, but I’ll talk about that another time. The point is, dreaming right now is evil and must be avoided.

Tonight, I’m planning a little sleep, then a random drive ahead of looking at cars tomorrow. I nearly booked a random trip to the middle of nowhere (instead, I just listened to a bunch of depressing music during my workout and then played a bunch more on the violin when I got home…now listening to Stainer’s Crucifixion too), but stopped myself in time and instead will get some things done. I need to get a couple of chapters finished this weekend before OLS. Also need to play around with overlay filesystems, and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo you probably don’t care enough about to read about it here.

On the craziness front, I have decided to do a trans-continental road trip from Boston to San Francisco. I am debating whether to do this in August, September, or next year (and factoring in available vacation). I’m going to go for the nutty option of driving solidly for days in a row and try to go there and back within 10 days. I’m seriously interested in hearing from anyone who wants to be a travel buddy on that one.

Jon.