pages tagged travelYareev's schmonz.comhttps://schmonz.com/tag/travel/Yareev's schmonz.comikiwiki2024-03-27T16:21:31ZWhat I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2024/03/27/now/Amitai Schleier2024-03-27T16:21:31Z2024-03-27T15:06:09Z
<p>We’re getting over our third bout of strep in as many months.
Shabbats together haven’t been happening at all.
Two family get-togethers for grownups’ birthdays had to be delayed until a health window opened.
Kids’ birthday season is about to begin, and we might get to stick to the schedule if the weather changes soon too.</p>
<p>Our in-home weather has lately been cooler and calmer.
Whether the wind is blowing one way or the other, one can always attribute the trend to many possible causes.
As not-always, the current effect is more consistently pleasant time together.</p>
<p>I know better than to think the wind won’t change direction, but the new way things are going gives me a new (and decidedly sunnier) feeling about my chances of reestablishing myself professionally.
This is helpful in absolute terms, and also relative to my new job.
It’ll require a tiny bit of travel, but mostly I’ll work from the home office.
I’ll say more about it once I’ve started.</p>
<p>In the meantime, as time permits, I’ve been doing my usual Open Source work.
Somewhat unusual: I’ve been holding weekly-ish meetings for notqmail developers to rebuild momentum and ship our next release.
We’re quite close.</p>
<p>The last couple weeks of my available technical attention have been hijacked by dealing with intended and unintended changes in Apple’s latest developer tools.
I had promptly and semi-naively updated, only to find quite a lot of broken pkgsrc builds.
I say “semi-naively” because as I see it, whenever I have a dependency on anything, keeping my foot on the gas is part of the deal.
It doesn’t usually take a couple weeks to deal with the fallout.
I’ll write a post about what I found and how I worked around it.</p>
<p>Compensating for this unpleasant surprise, I also got a pleasant one: ikiwiki has gained some more maintainers and we’ve shipped a new release!
I had been hoping for some time that new energy for ikiwiki would appear, because my bandwidth for such things is being spent on notqmail.
Et voilĂ !</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2023/08/17/now/Amitai Schleier2023-08-17T22:19:04Z2023-08-17T22:13:41Z
<p>We’re back from summer vacation.
Being together, with lots of time in the water, did us nearly all the good we were hoping for.
Now we’re timezone-adjusted, our luggage has arrived, and we’re looking for swings of things to get back in.
Kids are getting health inspections, the big guy will attend a day camp next week, and I’m back at my desk systematizing the job of
<a href="https://schmonz.com/2023/08/05/who-needs-an-amitai/">finding my next job</a>.</p>
<p>This afternoon, between lunch and dinner appointments, my desk has been outside a Blue Bottle in TriBeCa.
It’s been a long time since I was in the city without any kids in tow.
While on vacation I was able to get together with friends I hadn’t seen in five years, and it threw into focus how little of that I’ve had room for and for how long.
Last night I was able to join my sister and my parents for dinner.
I can’t even think of the last time this happened; well over five years ago, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>I’ve been needing much more friend-time and family-time in my life.
For the moment, at least, there’s room.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2023/01/01/now/Amitai Schleier2023-01-01T14:55:12Z2023-01-01T13:51:30Z
<p>I try to write once a month about what I’m up to, but it’s been five months.
Well, let’s start the new year off right.</p>
<p>One change since August that accounts for much of the above and more: after nearly a year of parental leave, I’ve returned to the workforce.
I’d been looking around without much clarity about what I’d like to do and be able to do when a friend I’d worked with before invited me to join a small new software development team focused on legacy codebases, working remotely and with very flexible hours, in the form of regular employment with benefits, with no interview hoops to jump through.
A few months in, it’s exactly what I’ve been needing as I relearn how to have uninterrupted conversations with grownups and express shared understanding as running code.
My teammates are very strong in areas where I’m either still rusty (including my energy, attention, and focus) or have no previous level of fluency to regain (such as modern JavaScript).
That contributes to our effectiveness as a team, of course — but I’m also eager to be pulling my weight, and each week I’m getting a bit closer.</p>
<p>We’re wrapping up a month in Germany, Galila’s first visit.
Finias was born here under trying circumstances at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and every time we’ve driven past the hospital I’ve felt a mix of how frightening it was for us then and how lovely things are now.
For Taavi it must have felt like this every single place we’ve been.
By having become better able to process his version of those experiences, he has put us more at ease about whether our parenting actions under duress were okay enough.
We’ll never feel sure, but we can take a deep breath.</p>
<p>When work started, my Daily Piano Miniatures turned into Weekly.
I kind of miss the intensity and urgency of needing to get <em>something</em> shipped every day.
Once a week still fits my schedule, though.
One happy outcome from DPM is that if a day occasionally goes by without any pianoing, it’s a weird day.
Not everything about me is well in order, but one thing I did allllll the way right this year was giving myself the gift of nonstop music-making.
I bet, with a little more room, I can do more things right with me.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2022/04/20/now/Amitai Schleier2022-04-21T15:42:24Z2022-04-20T18:00:26Z
<p>We’ve been back in the States for 2+ months.
The Montessori preschool we’d lined up for Taavi has been tremendous for him, and therefore for us.
We chose it knowing, since it’s also a kindergarten, that we’d have the option to continue there for another year.
We’ll be exercising that option — not because we’re committed to choosing Montessori every chance we get, but because we have a chance <em>now</em> to defer pushing Taavi through yet another transition (he’s had more than his share over the last two years) and instead let him stay longer in a place that feels safe and fulfilling.
He needs that, at this juncture, more than just about anything else.
Finias has been through a lot, too, though it’s harder to say how he’s been affected.</p>
<p>Finias has more and more to say, in more and more tones of voice, including “I don’t know the pink one either”, by which he means some of what you or I would expect it to mean.
He continues to be a champion copyist.
With Taavi, everything he observed would show up in some later synthesis.
(Still does.)
With Finias, you can see how he’s watching carefully and then you’ll hear him say it back.
He’s a very good pronouncer.
The speech-copying and pronouncing process is being accelerated by a German-speaking babysitter who joined us a few weeks ago and has been helping out in the mornings.
Taavi has quickly regained the comfort to express himself freely and beautifully in German.
Finias’s newest words, in keeping with his longstanding interest in lights and doors and buttons, are “aufmachen” and “zumachen”.</p>
<p>If it sounds like my life is all about the kids, that’s because it has been, for almost half a year now.
I miss having time and space to work — there’s barely even been any progress on my usual open source side projects, and my meetups haven’t happened at all — but it feels very special, while it lasts, to be able to play such a full role in what’s happening for our family.
It’s what we’ve been needing as we’ve navigated the move back from Germany, getting to all the various appointments, following all the lines of inquiry, trying to hold ourselves a little more gently through our parenting challenges and opportunities, taking every chance we can to cuddle each other, and preparing for the next big transition we’ll be going through together.
Any day now.</p>
<p>We’re grateful to be back in the place we chose to be our home.
We’d already been sure it was the right place.
Being here, getting settled, we’re sure all over again.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2022/02/08/now/Amitai Schleier2022-02-08T11:38:50Z2022-02-08T11:29:35Z
<p>Our time in Germany is drawing to a close.
Taavi made a calendar so he can mark off the days.
I fogged my way through most of last week with a sinus infection, my first in quite some time.
Through the miracle of modern medicine, it’s better now.</p>
<p>Even when I’m healthy, household conditions haven’t been favorable for me to work.
To keep my head on straight, I pass the available non-kid time hacking on something or other open source: most often pkgsrc, but lately notqmail.
pkgsrc is my sysadmin bread and butter, always repaying a bit more investment, but it’s about other people’s code and (in an extremely ambitious fashion) continuously integrating it.
With notqmail, it’s <em>our</em> code, our software development process, our imagined future states, our working steps toward them.
A couple bits of code I wanted to propose for inclusion needed their authors to relicense, which one already has and the other intends to.
The next notqmail release with this code will suddenly offer lots of tools for mail administrators to filter the SMTP conversation.
This is really basic stuff that modern Mail Transport Agents provide — nothing to write home about, except that we’ll have taken another step toward “modern” while preserving and extending qmail’s design.
Another benefit of the aforementioned code is that it affords writing integrated tests.
I’ve written some already, presumptively.
This is legacy code and we need every available advantage.</p>
<p>Sometimes I live-stream my hacking sessions on Twitch (and then cache them on YouTube afterward).
I arranged a decent broadcast studio here, backed by a green screen.
I might get to do one more stream before we leave.
Then probably a few weeks before I can think about getting back to it.</p>
<p>After enough expert advice and enough headspace, we’ve been adjusting our parenting approach with Taavi back toward our original preferences.
It’s going better for him and for us.
And we’ve had some breakthroughs in the nose-clearing department: iPad time is now simultaneously steam-and-spray-and-blow time.
We hope this removes one of the remaining obstacles to sleep breakthroughs.</p>
<p>Finias has more and more words (phrases!) and opinions and speeds.
It’s wonderful to watch the two of them amuse each other and love each other up.
When they can do the same with their cousins, I expect to plotz further.</p>
<p>Taavi loves his “kindergarten” (preschool) here, and they love him right back.
As sad as we and they are to say goodbye, we’re sure our time in Germany is over.
We’ll visit often.
We’ll always remember what an unusual and challenging time this was for all of us.
Much to be sad about, but also much to be grateful for.
We had reasons for wanting to live here for two years, and we accomplished those goals.
It’s time now to put down our roots in New York.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2021/12/20/now/Amitai Schleier2021-12-20T09:13:12Z2021-12-20T08:54:34Z
<p>Taavi and I didn’t go to New York for my mom’s 80th.
Omicron made it too risky by several measures, including the possibility that we wouldn’t be able to get back to Germany on any particular timetable.
Our travel dates have come and gone without any borders closing.
But that’s the whole deal with exponential growth.
It easily could have gone the other way.
It was right for us to stay here; I had and have no doubts.
We celebrated my mom’s 80th anyway, in a variety of ways, and we’ll celebrate some more when we can be in person again.</p>
<p>Day after day, Finias has been gaining 20% more functionality.
Things he can say, things he can do, opinions he can have.
Here and there he stops to recharge with a hug or a hair touch (he continues to love touching people’s hair) before chugging off at high speed in whatever direction.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2021/11/22/now/Amitai Schleier2021-11-22T12:28:41Z2021-11-22T12:10:51Z
<p>Trying to figure out what else is holding back Taavi’s quality and quantity of sleep.
We’re working on the emotional aspects, as always, and refocusing on getting to the bottom of the physical ones.</p>
<p>Collecting a list of things to buy and do while Taavi and I are in New York for the first half of December.
Half of them involve the local pharmacy.</p>
<p>Listening to Finias talk and talk and talk.
“Cracker” remains his go-to word but there are lots of others.
“Bobi” and “Opa” are starting to happen.
I asked him to say “cup” and after careful consideration he, like his brother before him, said “bup”.
Later he tried again and got out with “buc”.
Taavi doesn’t have many (English) words left that aren’t clear and recognizable to others.
Offhand, “turble” (turtle) is my remaining favorite.</p>
<p>Reviving a
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook%5F%282006%E2%80%932012%29">2007 MacBook2,1</a>
(64-bit system with 32-bit EFI).
I found
<a href="https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2287767">instructions for installing Ubuntu from USB and fixing up the hard disk’s EFI partition afterward</a>
and voilĂ ,
<a href="https://lubuntu.me">Lubuntu</a>
21.10 is running as decently as can be expected, constrained as it is by 1GB RAM and an 80GB spinning disk.
Also found
<a href="https://unlockforus.com/linux-mint-17-2-rafaela-on-macbook-41-late-2007-isight-webcam/">instructions for the iSight webcam</a>
that did the trick.
<a href="https://zoom.us">Zoom</a> is installed and looks like it ought to work in a pinch.
Next I might figure out how to suspend on lid close.
Why bother?
Over the summer I had reacquainted myself with the joys of reviving a bunch of old machines with recent operating systems.
For the most usable of them all — my
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac%5FPro%231st%5Fgeneration%5F%28Tower%29">2006 MacPro1,1</a>
with lots of RAM and an SSD — I hadn’t quite worked out its best option.
With the tricks I’ve just learned, next summer I’ll be able to bring it up and put it to work.
Pretty cool for a 15-year-old machine.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2021/10/10/now/Amitai Schleier2021-10-10T05:59:18Z2021-10-10T05:55:29Z
<p>Our vacation in Mallorca is winding down.
We were all extremely ready to have this kind of time together, so of course the first week and a half we stumbled around being sick.
Finias even got a quick hospital visit out of it.
Between the gunk and the sleeping arrangements, nobody’s well rested.
It’s true that we’re looking forward to being in our own beds by the end of the week.
It’s also true that we’ve been having a swell time anyway.
Most mornings, after breakfast and Duolingo in Spanish (or “Dingolingo”, as he sleepily called it this morning) one of us takes Taavi on an “adventure”; for instance, this morning I was going to take him for a repeat visit to the go-kart track, but they weren’t open yet, so we found some new playgrounds instead.
(We’ve seen tons of playgrounds and he’d been hankering for one.) Most afternoons we’ve been going to one of the many nearby beaches we like.
This afternoon Taavi and Bekki walked the rocky path through the hills to the next town and Finias and I met them there with all our beach stuff.
When the weather’s been troublesome we’ve gone to the big city, or the mall, or a village up in the mountains.
It looks like we’ve probably had our last beach afternoon.
We never bother doing any exploring when we’re here in the summers, and we always feel a bit sheepish about it, so it’s already been a nice change of pace to get to do some exploring and it’ll be nice to get to do more of that with our remaining few days.</p>
<p>It seems like we were just in New York for the summer, but there was a solid month in Germany in between.
It was a really good month.
We got settled back in, tuned in to our own routines and our own schedule, and adjusted as needed for the well-being of our kids and ourselves.
Taavi got way more comfortable with German, started relearning to play by himself and to take a nap in his bed, and is growing in other ways all the time.
He met some German cousins and had such a wonderful time with them that we’re figuring out how we’ll go visit them in Bavaria.
We feel good about flying back to Germany in a few days, and more generally about our decision to spend a bunch more months there.
Soon enough we’ll be back in New York, Taavi will be in school, and our Germany visits will be much more limited.
It’s worth being near his family here while we can.
And it’s about time to switch our Dingolingo back to German.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2021/08/18/now/Amitai Schleier2021-08-19T02:58:50Z2021-08-19T02:54:58Z
<p>We’re in the air somewhere over maybe St. Pierre and Miquelon.
It’s 10:15pm back in New York, and through the miracle of modern melatonin Taavi has given up the fight for infinite awakeness.
Finias is asleep, too.
After a sweet summer in Nyack, we’re on our way back to Germany — this time, as a trip we’ve been expecting and planning.
It’s already going better than expected or planned, especially when I finish writing this and nod off a bit myself.</p>
<p>Yesterday we took a break from packing everything up to go the pond.
For a magical moment we were standing in a circle in the water all holding each other.
After that, Taavi floated around, swam some more, got involved in playing with some other kids, came out not too long after being told we’re getting ready to leave, and washed the sand off his own feet.
On the one hand, just kid stuff; on the other, just enormous symbols of how much good this summer did him (and all of us).
Other gains:</p>
<ul>
<li>More, better informed points of view about what’s been happening for us and for our kids</li>
<li>Welcoming my parents to their new home across the river and seeing them a couple times a week</li>
<li>Everyone getting to meet Finias</li>
<li>Everyone getting reacquainted with Taavi</li>
<li>Taavi getting reacquainted with more people who love him</li>
<li>Sleepovers with his cousins down the road</li>
<li>A wide variety of other positive experiences: two different summer camps, playing with friends, lots of time in the pool, walks and runs around town, a couple trips to Central Park, all sorts of playgrounds, etc.</li>
<li>A night out for just the grownups (probably 3 or 4 years since we last did that)</li>
<li>A few months in our own space with just ourselves</li>
</ul>
<p>A few things we’re bringing with us:</p>
<ul>
<li>Renewed appreciation for our choice of house and neighborhood in which to raise our children</li>
<li>Heightened awareness of what we can do to shape our environment while we’re away from that house and that neighborhood</li>
<li>Somewhat clearer risk calculations about COVID-19 and how it should and should not constrain us</li>
</ul>
<p>We’re reasonably worried about our second long stint in Germany, but reasonably hopeful that it will be more constructive and more fun than the first.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>
What I'm Doing Nowhttps://schmonz.com/2021/06/23/now/Amitai Schleier2021-06-24T01:17:06Z2021-06-24T01:11:34Z
<p>We arrived in Nyack three weeks ago.
(I know this because we got our first Pfizer doses the very next day, and tomorrow is my second.)
We got out of the car and momentously lowered a barefoot Finias to the ground for his first steps on American soil.
Taavi recognized the place immediately and has been recognizing more aspects of it ever since, including the Montessori school down the street where he had just started four days before everything started closing.
This week he started at summer camp there.
It’s been unquestionably terrific for him, and for us.</p>
<p>Upon arrival, the house was in good enough shape (thanks to two brothers-in-law) that we could safely land the kids’ bedtime.
A few days later we were mostly time-adjusted, Bekki had removed most of the remnants of long-term mouse habitation, and we were starting to get organized and settled.
I had a few client obligations at the end of the week and was able to meet them, if a bit groggily.</p>
<p>Returning to the house meant returning to visual reminders of the mental state we’d been in when we left it: nervous about nearly everything — including the health of the baby-to-be and our chances of being able to fly — and frantically collecting supporting documents and packing for what would surely be one of the last flights out for quite some time.
I’ve heard from more than one person that our story sounded like a movie script.
It might have felt more like one if we’d had any room left over for more feelings.</p>
<p>Driving Taavi around Rockland County for his first nap brought me back, too.
Near my sister’s house, where we would be seeing them outside for Shabbat the following day.
Near the place we got the fetal MRI.
Near the house where Taavi was a baby and where we said goodbye to Haskell.
Past a bunch of favorite places in Nyack.
Later, we walked past a bunch more on our way to the park.</p>
<p>For the first few days, Taavi sometimes said he wanted to fly by himself back to Germany.
As expected, that was quickly over with.
He says hello to strangers on the street, delighted that they speak English.
We went to the donut shop for the first time in 15 months (not counting the dozens of times we went there in Google Street View) and he ordered his donut himself.
It worked out in his favor.</p>
<p>Most of the worries we brought with us to Germany are gone now, replaced by new ones.
Finias joined us and he’s sweet and opinionated and picking up new skills by the day.
And my sister, the doctor at a huge teaching hospital in the Bronx, made it through.
She and her kids dropped by for ice cream this afternoon.
No big deal.
We’re here.
And yesterday our parents drove away from the house we grew up in.
Tomorrow, sometime after I get my second shot, they’ll arrive at their new home across the river from us.
The last time I hugged them was for their 50th anniversary in fall 2019.
The next time — and the first time they hug Finias — is close at hand.</p>
<p>A couple months from now we’ll be back in Germany for another year, this time more premeditated.
Meanwhile, no moments to take for granted, and lots to take care of while we’re here.
High on the list: regular piano workouts.</p>
<hr />
<h3>What’s this?</h3>
<p>It’s a
<a href="http://sivers.org/nowff"><code>/now</code> page</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://nownownow.com">nownownow.com</a>
is a directory of people with <code>/now</code> pages.
<a href="http://nownownow.com/p/JtD5">I’m listed there</a>.</p>