Date: 2009-04-19 18:25:29 Created: 2009-04-19 14:24:43
Yesterday was almost surreal in its feeling of calm and being on summer holiday. Linda dropped by for a quick visit on Friday night and was surprisingly still here in the morning. We got up pretty early and she went for a swim before breakfast. Then we walked off to Nova and some shopping in the sunshine. Having ice cream from McDonald's in a bicycle parking lot before walking home again was what really created that on-holiday-feeling for me, it just isn't something I tend to do very often otherwise. Back home we had a very light lunch, then laid down and dozed for an hour or so. Just like that. Then Linda was off all of a sudden, and I dealt with my separation angst by running. And not just any run, it was my fastest run ever on that round. That run and the one before that has felt like my best period in the autumn did; like I'm finding a new stable running speed which is one step faster than what I otherwise have. I hope this lasts the whole coming month, because then this year's Göteborgsvarv can really be something.
Indeed, pretty much all the rest of my waking time has been spent plowing through Compilers, one technical chapter after another. And I really am plowing, wading through information and seeing what pieces stick here and there. Taking a clue from wetware, I am playing a little bit with the information too. I write down the chapter summaries in Swedish, using my own words and most likely grossly incorrect terms for everything. It's fun, quickly done and also makes things stick a little bit more even on this fast first march through the content. I am looking forward to coming back to this book the next time I run into a somewhat applicable problem and getting a fresh look at the relevant parts. Without a problem in mind right now, I simply get vague associations drifting through my mind as I read (perhaps I should say browse).
In any case, I'm about halfway through now and I look forward to finishing the read within a week. Then I have two short and easy reads on the pile, and after that ... well, I have a few interesting ideas on what to put my time into. We shall see.