As mentioned earlier, I ordered a Tranquil BBS2, and I picked up a couple of 2TB drives.
I’ve been considering running OpenSolaris on the machine, and then pondered FreeBSD. After a while, I considered Nexenta Core, and then I settled on NexentaStor – an appliance OS built on top of OpenSolaris/Nexenta Core.
Being quite used to Linux and OS X, I figured I should be able to pretty much run the installer of a USB key.

If you’re thinking that should be easy.. think again.
When that seemed like an impossible task, I figured I could try installing in VMware and cloning the installed disk.
When that didn’t work out too well, I figured I’d try netbooting the installed media.

Now, I did bump into a pretty fucking annoying problem, in that the BBS2 has a VGA slot and I have precisely zero monitors at home.
Not counting the KDL-52W4500

Problem #567 was not finding a VGA cable.
Ten bucks later, problem #568 reared its ugly head.

The VGA port on the BBS2 is covered by a steel “service port hatch”.
And the screws were set tight enough that I stripped the screws.

Two days later, I plug in the VGA cable, try to boot from one of my earlier USB sticks to find out.. it boots!
Except the BIOS settings were fucked up, and so Grub tried booting a fixed disk instead of removable storage (Mass storage emulation; NOT boot order).

No problem – just plug in a USB keyboard and… the  DG945GCLF2 board refuses to power up my USB keyboard in time to let me enter BIOS.
Dig around for another keyboard that seemed a bit more responsive, try it out, get me into BIOS.

All of a sudden, the thing seems bootable!
Of course, I felt like doing a reinstall via CD (since I hacked the USB stick to pieces, pretty much ) ).
Luckily, I had gone out earlier to buy a USB DVD reader since I was determined to get this moth******er up and running before the weekend was over.

All in all, it’s been an interesting but oh-so-frustrating experience getting this machine up and running.
It’s amazing how much no output, lack of hardware and retarded design decisions can set you back.

Now I just have to transfer 6TB of data onto my new storage box, yay! (6’000’000 / 30 = just shy of two and a half day of constant copying).

So long, suckers!

More later.

January’s come and gone, and my exercise is actually paying off – whodathunkit?!

Over the past two weeks, I’ve dropped 4.6 kilos. I’ve had to shorten my belt by some ~8cm.
All in all, it would seem I’m hitting a calorie deficit of just over 2500 calories per day ( (4.6 * 7500 ) / 14 = 2653 ).
Note that I lost water weight from the beginning of the year, so these are actually real results!

Most doctors would recommend staying within 500 – 1000, but I figure as long as I don’t start feeling sick, I can do this a while longer.
Today or tomorrow is my last day at work before going on a two week vacation to Rio de Janeiro, a.k.a. the City of God.
It’s going to be LEGENDARY!

Lots and lots of cardio, as well as a fair share of core exercise (lower back, stomach). What’s really interesting is how much more energy I have. In fact, I find myself having problems sitting still. Yeah, it’s that bad

Remind me again why I’m going to the gym?

Oh yeah, a girl.
I’m such a sucker!

p.s., the song of the day is Muse – Feeling Good
p.p.s., 12 days ’til Brazil!

All in all, it felt great.

Until the day after. And the day after that… up until today.

Today is the first time in roughly seven months’ time that I’ve had to take a non-NSAID pain killer.

Yes, the pain killers are mild narcotics (Codeine), but they don’t help enough. My lower back hurts whenever I stand for too long, get out of the sofa, or in general picking things up from the floor.

Damnit!

I had hoped to be done with this saga, as I’m going to Brazil in just north of a month, and I reaaaally don’t want to be stuck in bed the whole time I’m there.

So here I am, on one of the first days of the new decennium, moaning about in pain from an injury sustained 18 months ago.

No access to my doctor until Monday.
Scratch that; no access to call my doctor and book an appointment until Monday, and I’m fairly sure they won’t do anything about the  pain.

Fuck my life.

It seems like only yesterday it was nice and warm outside. All summery like, if you know what I mean.
This past week we’ve had at least two days of snow. That shit is SO not kosher.

Lunch @ Åhléns today. Turns out they’ve started selling christmas decorations.

People, give it a fucking break! It’s still October! By my count, it’s the MIDDLE of October!
I can understand selling christmas stuff in mid-November, but that’s a long ways off.

To put things into perspective on how long ago that was.. we had some pretty lovely nice, warm, days roughly a month ago.
Like, all summery and stuff.

Yes, I hate winter.

Anyhoo, tomorrow’s my cousin’s fiancée’s (apostrophe’s…) thirtieth birthday.
Can’t wait for the party – it’s going to be.. awesome.

Anyhoo, it’s been a while, so here goes:

The song of the day is.. Cake - I Will Survive

I spent the last two or three weekends catching up with some old friends. Last Friday, I went out drinking with oe of my cousins and one of my old colleagues. Saturday was spent doing laundry. Twelve hours straight (I had noooo idea I had that much clothing!).

Saturday was definitely the highlight though.
Green Day were in town!

Thanks to a competition at MTV (via Nordea) I held in my grubby mitts not one, two or three, but.. FOUR tickets!

I sold two to a scalper and took an old friend to Globen.
Well there, we bumped into one of my old classmates and one of my colleagues.

A few beers later, the concert was starting up, and boy does Billy (vocalist) know how to throw a show.

Despite having actual seats, there was absolutely no sitting going on — something I got to regret afterwards after my oh-so-famous back started complaining.

This means that this week is already filled:
Visit my local back cracker, visit an old colleague for a drink or two, shop, clean, hook up with cousin #1 who’s about to come home after two months at sea.. and entertain people at his fiance’s 30th. Followed by a very hungover Sunday, most likely.

The next concert will be Muse on the 24th, and it’s gonna be epic.
That same week I’ll probably have to be somewhat cultural and go watch Walking with Dinosaurs.

Now, if only I could stop rambling and get back to my new virtualization playground..

Just booted up the ol’ laptop and was greeted by a lovely minimalist desktop.
Spotify in the background.

Now.. weekend’s over, and for once I feel conflicted.

On the one hand, it means I have to go to bed early in order to get a few precious hours of sleep.. and I have to “work” tomorrow.

On the other hand, it brings me that much closer to payday.
God knows I need it.

Song of the day: The Coral – Dreaming of you.
p.s., check out my get-up-in-the-morning playlist.

That’s the boring stuff though.

Yesterday I got home from a nice little weekend vacation tobthe French rivierra, more specifically to St. Tropez.

It was awesome. Luckily, my back thought the trip was great too, so it seems I’m almost ready to go back to work!

Pics later!