Calvinball 2019 Official Thread

[reji]

It’s still early, but I’ve already met some amazing people. I met Sonja who is really really friendly and really really smart. She knows everything about contracting. And she bakes lots of yummy goodies. She brought in 3 different kinds of cookies yesterday! I would have tried each one if I was here.
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Next I met Nancy who manages a bunch of people. Nancy is also really really friendly and really really smart. She oversees a bunch of big IT contracts, supports our CIO, manages the IT security and privacy, manages our IT budget, responds to GAO and more. Phew! I think she knows everything that’s going on and she knows everybody. But I feel really sorry for her because she has to manage reji too.
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Then I met Junaid and Luis at our IT help desk. I learned that our help desk is the BEST in the federal government and they help 100’s of thousands of people all across the world.
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Oh, gotta go… Reji says we have to get ready for some meetings! I don’t know what a meeting is but I’m excited to learn about them!

[reji]

I got to meet Ann, our FITARA queen. We won an award all because of Ann. She’s awesome, really really smart, and friendly too. She even let me use the FITARA telescope that Gerry Connolly gave us!
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Then I met Jorge who is also really really smart too! He makes sure all of our administrative systems run smoothly. He also makes sure that our enterprise data warehouse is awesome. (It’s my favorite so far!) And, he’s also managing all of our infrastructure. I was so excited to meet him, that I forgot to ask if I could go see our data center. I hope I see him again later today so that I can ask.
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And I got to meet our CIO, Dorothy. I was really nervous because CIOs are really really smart, but she was also friendly and taught me a lot about bots. I didn’t understand a lot of it though. Anju also explained lots of things about bots too. You know what, she’s really really smart too!
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Now I’m going to go meet some scientists in engineering! Wow, it’s only 10:00 and I’m tired already …. when is nap time???

[reji]

I got a private tour of NSF’s data center from Darren! Darren is really really smart and extra patient with me because I asked a lot of questions. The data center is so shiny and neat and it looks really powerful. We started in the monitoring room where data center operators keep a watchful eye to catch problems before they occur. Here I am watching one of those monitors. I was bored because nothing really happened, but Darren said that was good.
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Then we went inside the data center and it’s COLD in there! Thank goodness I had my sweater on to keep me warm. Here I am watching some science proposals get submitted to NSF. I think I’m smarter just seeing them come in!
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And here’s Darren and me in the data center. Darren explained that it’s not a very big data center because NSF uses the cloud a lot. I don’t know what that means but Darren said it like it’s a good thing and now I can’t wait to grow up so my neck will get long enough so that I can have my head in the clouds.
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[Emm]

@reji 187892 wrote:

I got a private tour of NSF’s data center from Darren!

eep, didn’t mean to dislike! I’m enjoying Giraffey’s NSF adventure! He needs his own NSF jersey…

[reji]

Phew, I’m tired! I went to lots of meetings this afternoon. I got to meet with Dorothy again. She’s really really nice and I like going to her office. This time, I got to meet Juan and he told us all about the research that NSF funds on data and analytics. I didn’t understand any of it, but Dorothy and reji seemed really interested so I tried to pay attention. After that, I went to 3 more meetings and I’ve decided that I don’t really like meetings. But I like going to Dorothy’s office because she’s really really nice and her office has a pretty view. Here’s she is explaining something but I just wanted to look out the window.
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But then finally reji took me to the observation deck. She had promised to do that when we got here this morning and that was a LONG TIME AGO. We finally got to go and, look at that traffic! Who is crazy enough to drive around here?
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I like this view much better because I got to see the Masonic Temple. Reji told me that Judd led a very nice ride that included that building. I was sad that I didn’t get to go but maybe I’ll go there one day.
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[reji]

Reji gave me a back rub and then I fell asleep.
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Reji told me she was going to drop me off somewhere on her way home; I hope someone really nice picks me up. I wonder where my next journey will take me …..

[Steve O]

@reji 187904 wrote:

I hope someone really nice picks me up.

Damn!

[sszibler]

@Emm 187894 wrote:

eep, didn’t mean to dislike! I’m enjoying Giraffey’s NSF adventure! He needs his own NSF jersey…

These buttons are too tiny on phones. Especially for giraffes.

[reji]

Giraffey is back out on 4MR trail across from the water treatment plant.
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[sszibler]

@reji 187911 wrote:

Giraffey is back out on 4MR trail across from the water treatment plant.
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Waaa. Not here!

[CBGanimal]

Did Reji get any work done today?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ChristoB50]

@sszibler 187913 wrote:

Waaa. Not here!

Happy to report Giraffey is warming up and getting cozy for his sleepover at my place.

He couldn’t remember if he’d ever been on an e-bike before, so he was super excited to hop up on the battery for a selfie!
He’s been telling me ALL about his day today, and asking what will he get to see and do tomorrow… After his day with @reji, I feel the pressure to show Giraffey a great “Take your Giraffe to Work Day”…

I’d only ever followed his adventures from a distance, occasionally… I’d never gone out looking for him, so ending up with him tonight was a total surprise, after a subtle nudge from @reji during our Quick Pick trash pick-up.

Giraffey stretching out after being cooped up
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{Edit: Whoever eventually consumes the Fireball Whisky… PLEASE recycle that damned bottle! (Pictured upside down here, out of my disdain for it — I’ve picked up at least 12 of those little bottles in my various 4 Mile Run trash cleanups!!}

King of the World!
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[sszibler]

@ChristoB50 187916 wrote:

Happy to report Giraffey is warming up and getting cozy for his sleepover at my place.

He couldn’t remember if he’d ever been on an e-bike before, so he was super excited to hop up on the battery for a selfie!
He’s been telling me ALL about his day today, and asking what will he get to see and do tomorrow… After his day with @reji, I feel the pressure to show Giraffey a great “Take your Giraffe to Work Day”…

I’d only ever followed his adventures from a distance, occasionally… I’d never gone out looking for him, so ending up with him tonight was a total surprise, after a subtle nudge from @reji during our Quick Pick trash pick-up.

Giraffey stretching out after being cooped up
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{Edit: Whoever eventually consumes the Fireball Whisky… PLEASE recycle that damned bottle! (Pictured upside down here, out of my disdain for it — I’ve picked up at least 12 of those little bottles in my various 4 Mile Run trash cleanups!!}

King of the World!
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Giraffey looks exceedingly happy!

What, no one’s taken the wheel from my broken massage thingy? It’s priceless! You can stick a pen or pencil in it and roll it around on those small painful areas like around knee bones! LOL! Drink that awful whiskey while you’re at it! It too is an analgesic!

[ChristoB50]

@sszibler 187918 wrote:

Giraffey looks exceedingly happy!
What, no one’s taken the wheel from my broken massage thingy? It’s priceless! You can stick a pen or pencil in it and roll it around on those small painful areas like around knee bones! LOL! Drink that awful whiskey while you’re at it! It too is an analgesic!

No telling what Giraffey will discover as souvenirs of our day tomorrow… but all the edibles he arrived with tonight are now (not so mysteriously) gone. And NOT washed down with that damned Fireball, however. Giraffey heard my tales of plastics trash woe… he said he’d throw it off my balcony while I slept, but I reminded him that would just turn it into more trash needing to be picked up… he reluctantly agreed, and promptly dozed off.

Tomorrow he will visit a fascinating place where people work to help create employment around the country for Americans who are blind… he’s excited to see the service dogs I told him we’ll meet on my floor…!

[ChristoB50]

I woke to find Giraffey is an early riser. He’d been exploring my place (I confirmed he did not throw the Fireball Whisky over the balcony!) and I found him in the guest bathroom staring at the wall. He was intrigued by the fancy building in all the photos.
I explained it was the Washington National Cathedral, where I was a tour guide on weekends, and that the 2 big pictures were photographs I had made there. I told him if he played his cards just right, he might get to visit the cathedral himself with another cyclist buddy on March 9, if his buddy was joining the BAFS National Cathedral group ride & tour that day…
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?14227-BAFS-National-Cathedral-group-ride-private-tour&p=187795#post187795

He was really excited about that prospect! But then started fretting, what if he didn’t have a new cycling buddy on that day? So I took this picture for him as a reminder, in case he doesn’t make it to the cathedral.
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We bundled up for the chilly ride to work. He reminded me in that very innocent, child-like way, that he didn’t require jackets or gloves, cuz he had fur and was quite used to the cold. So I let him ride up front, buckled in. Along the way we spotted some birds, including big herons with long necks when they stood up; Giraffey demanded that we stop so he could watch a bit. He told me his neck would get really long one day, too. Two of the herons took off immediately, but the other one, way out in the middle of the water, stayed put. He clamored for me to take pictures, so I did, but I told him my phone camera makes things farther away too small to really see; the heron is above his head, out on a little clump in the water. He didn’t care!
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Arriving at work, Giraffey asked “is this whole room just for YOUR bike?” in disbelief. I told him that my company just built this new headquarters building, and the bike locker was to encourage folks to bike to work — we’d only been here since November, but so far, I was the only person biking in; so yes! The entire room is all mine! For now…
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