I went for a bike ride today on my Koga Miyata Randonneur, the first time I’ve used it since having KLM ship it over here. How shameful!
pompeiisneaks had to turn back after the Golden Gate, due to breathing difficulties, but Matt and I continued on up the Marin Headlands.
Matt stopped to take some photos with his Nikon Coolpix 950 (the same model of camera I have), so I continued up the hill before eventually encountering Andrew G., a fellow Linuxcare employee. We biked to the summit together and chatted for a while in the sun, until eventually joined by Matt.
Then, the three of us enjoyed a great downhill experience, although weaving in an out of the cars is a real pain in the arse.
We continued down to Sausalito and enjoyed milkshakes and ice-cream in the June sun of San Francisco Bay. If this sounds like a simple pleasure, it is, and I am grateful for it. It reminds me of the joy I used to experience in feeding the newborn ducklings in the Sarphatipark, back in Amsterdam.
Biking always has a great purging effect on my mind. Everything suddenly comes into focus, you become acutely aware of your own wonderful insignificance, and return home with a refreshed view of your life.
Conclusion: Sarah is the only thing in my life that truly matters right now, and she matters more than anything else that has ever figured in my four-and-thirty years on this earth.
So, what else has been going on lately?
Well, I’ve been playing with iptables a lot, including multiple match extensions. Stateful firewalling has brought Linux to the stage that it really can rival a Cisco PIX for securing a company’s networks.
Last week, we got the new Linuxcare network up and running in San Francisco. I also bid a fond farewell to fellow sysadmin, Matt, with whom I have had so much pleasure working. Thanks for everything, Matt.
I’ll still see him on our biking trips, but it saddens me a lot to no longer be able to work alongside him. The same goes for Phil, Anne and Kelly.
The sadness of seeing my merry band of colleagues erode in this way has led me to conclude that my best time at Linuxcare lies behind me. I’ve therefore decided to call it a day and move on to a new chapter in my life.
Accordingly, I’ll be going to work for Google in a few weeks. There are some serious technical challenges to rise to down there in Mountain View, and I’m very excited about joining the team. If only the bloody H-1B transfer would hurry up and come through!
Since I don’t fancy the hellish commute along highway 101 south, Sarah and I will probably end up moving down into Silicon Valley somewhere at the end of the summer. Palo Alto has my vote, though that may be too far for comfort, considering Sarah’s commute into San Francisco.
Exciting times lie ahead, I’m sure.