Archive for category metaniv

resolutions

Posted by niv in metaniv on August 21, 2009

chad and i had a formal discussion, and the decision was made that our bet/pact ends when he gets on an airplane tomorrow morning to go to costa rica.  so today is my last day in which i am financial incentivized by a friend to not eat red meat.

i had to choose my words carefully just now.

i wanted to say “i am incentivized to not eat red meat”, but there is plenty of incentive built-in, both in terms of keeping myself healthy and in terms of helping the environment.

i wanted to say “financially incentivized” but beef is pretty expensive, and steaks are really expensive, so choosing not to eat those things has probably helped the wallet overall.

i can’t even say “incentivized by a friend”, because jen doesn’t eat meat at all, and she has been a huge supporter of this project.

so as parker has pointed out in the comments earlier, i have a reservation with two friends at a very nice steakhouse tomorrow night.  and frankly, i do not know what i am going to do.  right now my plan is napoleon’s (by way of casey from sportsnight) – first show up, and then see what happens.  if i’m tempted by the steak,  i will have one.  if i’m not, then i’ll stick with fish.

as for beyond tomorrow night, i’m pretty sure there are no pepperoni pizzas or racks of ribs in my future.  though i might have to make an exception for in ‘n out.

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some new photos from me

Posted by niv in links, metaniv, photography on August 20, 2009

not to take away from the previous post, but a note about some new photos i’ve put up – the photoblog has been dormant recently, as has my flickr, but i just had a run of 3 straight days on threecoasts, so you can go over there to see my descent in to madness in black and white.

and yes, it was kind of fun to make all those links.

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futility!

Posted by niv in links, metaniv on August 5, 2009

let me pimp some sites of friends.  and yes, i realize the irony that the only people who read this are my friends.  or possibly no one.  but moving on.

  1. threecoasts – group photoblog by me, roy, and mike fischer (a friend of roy’s).  in theory, every day each of us posts one photo that was inspired in some way by the photo before it.  in practice, roy has been traveling and it hasn’t quite worked out so far, but i’m sure it’ll get better as we do this more.
  2. equalszee – zach is posting music.  self-recorded, free music.  why not go take a look?  i helped produce!
  3. mytheoryontimetravel – i have my own photoblog you know.  and it’s kind of active again!

i’m yelling aloud in a cavernous empty room.  and i won’t stop yelling until someone walks by and tells me to shut up.

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two separate but equal points

Posted by niv in metaniv, music, ravings on July 26, 2009

1a) the first two seasons of the west wing are latched into my brain.  i love the pacing, i love the writing, i love everything about it, but it always leaves me feeling that i should be doing more, or at least that i should be trying to do more.  which maybe is more than most.  but still not enough.  or something.

2b) i’m starting my music library over.  i would like suggestions on how to organize my music.  now that i’m starting over, i mean.  clean slate.

i mean it’s all very depressing.  this is what happens when i’m left alone for 3 months.

update: i went with letting itunes manage my music.  talk about depressing.

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another readynas update

Posted by niv in metaniv, nerd on July 20, 2009

friday was not my finest hour.

2 of the readynas drives were showing as failed.  i pulled one.  everything broke.  my nas then spent the next 3 days claiming that the entire volume was dead.

i have somehow tricked it into thinking that one of the previously ‘failed’ drives is not dead, and i’m copying files off of the nas as we speak to an external drive.  however i’m seeing a lot of read errors when i copy files (mostly around my DNGs and NEFs, the files straight off my camera), which leads me to believe i’ve lost a significant amount of data.

so, what have i learned from this ordeal, in which i thought alternately that everything was fine, that i lost everything, and now the reality that i’ve lost some things, especially the things that matter most to me:

1) don’t panic and stay calm.  instead of pulling drives willy-nilly, i should have started a copy to an external drive on friday and let it go until it was done.

2) back things up.  more.  meaning, before i even started this upgrade i should have backed up the entire NAS to SOMEWHERE, anywhere.

3) back things up, more.  meaning i should have been copying my irrecoverable files on a weekly basis to somewhere else.  photos, documents.  not music files or things that i can get again, but something like “original RAW files from trip to europe with jen” would count.

4) sometimes shit happens.  i was freaking out on friday.  but i watched some west wing, went to sleep, woke up, talked to jen, and spent saturday out of the apartment, away from all the devastation.  and after all this, i didn’t care as much about losing files.  as jen said, they are just things.  and as i was telling myself, it doesn’t mean i didn’t experience the things those photos captured.

on a more specific note about the readynas, i think after inserting a new drive, the right move is to reboot, let the entire RAID rebuild, and then replace the next drive.  this relates back to #1 – patience.  this shit takes time.  i wanted 4.5tb as fast as possible, and rushing through it kicked my ass.

update: final tally, 173gb of 698gb (24.79%) lost, most of which were photos.

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life, as one might see it

Posted by niv in metaniv on July 14, 2009

I watch Bruce Springsteen’s “Making of Born to Run” documentary. The engineer from the album describes a 24 year old Springsteen standing in front of a microphone working on a guitar solo. Every time he finishes a take he turns to the engineer and simply says “Again.” He does this for twelve hours straight. The recording of the song “Born to Run” takes six months. The drummer and the keyboardist quit and don’t record the rest of the album. Thirty years later they asked the drummer how he felt when he heard the song today. He said “I feel like running out into the middle of traffic.” He sort of laughs afterwards, says he was happy to be a part of the album, but you know the day he quit the E Street Band plays over and over in his head like a fever dream.

I want to believe I’m Springsteen but worry I’m the drummer.

- http://hucksblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/diary-of-mad-housejosh.html

there is not much more to say.  i’d teaser and say ‘big things coming’ but i might be that drummer.

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and it begins anew

Posted by niv in metaniv, welcome on May 27, 2009

a couple of headfakes.  desires withdrawn.  and finally, this.  a new home.  after 9+ years of elscorcho.org (my first domain name), i’ve finally gone international, creative, and above all, more self-centered.  and i’m on a real blogging platform now.  i used to reject that word, ‘blogging’ – nitin and i used to argue about it in high school.  and now, here i am, accepting if not embracing it, on software made by someone else for this express purpose, in iceland.

it’s an interesting time to start clean and professional-like.  my fiancee is in washington, d.c. working for senator chuck schumer and helping confirm a new supreme court justice.  i’m in california working for a start-up in silicon valley.  we are doing exactly what we want to do, but far away from each other and thus exactly what we don’t want to do.  a summer of introspection is sure to follow.

i hope to mix in the classic elscorcho-style stories with photography, baseball (though not too much, as to keep about90feet afloat), and programming chatter.  when i finally get back to updating it, i’ll have photos on mytheoryontimetravel and in the photo gallery, though photography has taken a backseat recently to work and baseball.  and occcasional video game chatter here too, i’m sure.

(i don’t write that last paragraph for you, but for me – elscorcho lost its way and became stale, and i don’t want that to happen here just yet.)

anyway, here we are, and here i am, and here it goes.

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