shimweasel

I’m now at that magical state of ill health: sick enough that I can blow off work without a trace of guilt, but not so awful that I can’t tap out the occasional screed between naps and ascetic meals of bread and water. This is likely to be a bit of a mongrel of a post, as I couldn’t be bothered to separate tech from social from cultural - you’re just going to have to lump it.

As I mentioned, the code is done. The clever stuff I was hoping to do with automatic conversion of synchronous threads into asynchronous interrupt-driven code turned out to be more or less unnecessary: if we wanted to do a chase and a fade at the same time, or simultaneous chases on different channels, or if the timing needed to be more precise, it might be worth doing, but it seems that the straightforward one-thread-of-control model is going to be enough. Anyway, despite its simplicity, I’m rather proud of this system, both the Amida side and the Fat Controller, and all the things that I thought were just evidence of my obsessiveness turned out to be useful timesavers: one-click testing turns out to be very helpful for installing software on multiple Amidas as well as development. Thursday was consumed with learning how to solder, which was fascinating right up to the point that my iPod ran out of power. Still, I ought to be able to start fault-testing and repairing the Fat Controllers now, which should be interesting.

After an uncomfortable teething period (loose pedal, chain dropping off, etc), my bike seems to be behaving itself. It’s a one-speed mountain bike: I know how ridiculous that sounds, but in a country like Qatar, where you’re often coping with bad but flat roads, you don’t really need gears, and there’s enough dust and grit in the air that the thought of dealing with a cheap derailleur gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies. Invariably, I beat the bus in to work, and it’s amazing how much more independent you feel when you don’t always need to rely on other people for transport.

The shisha is also proving a hit. I’ve currently got lemon and coconut tobacco, although it seems to have gone walkabout… Matt Reason instructed me to find an affectation while I’m over here, and as growing a luxuriant beard and wearing a thobe seem to be out, the occasional indulgence in flavoured tobacco might be it.

Socially, things are looking up. I’ve been hanging out with the Georgetown uni people a lot more: I like the steelies a lot, but I can’t drink with them every night - they’d have to ship my liver home in Synrock. It’s also rather pleasant to be able to spend a night in, smoking the shisha, playing Password and listening to strange
people in monk’s costumes playing the recorder without feeling like a total nerd.

I have quite a few incredibly crappy pictures: I’m still relying on my cameraphone for the most part, which is grainier than muesli. Still, a few photos came out relatively unscathed:

Enough for today, or ‘halas’ as the Qatari say - it’s time for my warm milk and my rusk. Sala’am aleykum.