I’m totally geeked out. Just realized I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast early this morning. I’ve spent the whole afternoon playing with Hercules, an open source IBM mainframe emulator. What my real goal is is to find out what differences there are running Linux/390, but that’s still downloading, so I installed MVS just to play with it.

It’s pretty cool, and I’m remembering some of the OS and JES2 commands I haven’t used since 1985. TSO is tougher to remember. What’s really funny (to a nerd like me) is that I’m currently running on my desktop:

-> Mac OS X (operating system), running:
—> VMware Fusion (x86 hardware emulator), running:
—–> Ubuntu Linux (operating system), running:
——-> Hercules (mainframe hardware emulator), running:
———> MVS (operating system)

and even with all those layers, the MVS console response time is WAY faster than it was back in 1985 on the JCC’s IBM 3081 mainframe.

I can’t believe my 2TB NAS is already 96% full already. 87GB free space left. I just bought the thing this summer. I guess that can happen since I ripped about 1/2 of my CDs and DVDs AND use it to keep regular backups of both my computers local disks.

So, I’m looking for a new NAS, a much bigger one this time. Turns out the 8TB Western Digital Sharespace NAS is only about twice the cost of the WD 2TB NAS I bought, and runs the exact same software. I’m thinking I probably should have gone with this monster in the first place. Ah well, live and learn.

At least I know I would get use out of this if I purchased it. I was drooling over an iPad yesterday, and while I crave it’s juicy goodness, I really can’t figure out what I’d use it for, other than browseing the web while sitting in my living room comfy chair.

Rocky is turning into a sweet playful little cat. In the mornings, while I sit at the computer, she likes to walk around my chair, meowing for me to pet her. And she doesn’t sit still when being petted. She walks back and forth, making me scritch her whole back. If I ignore her for too long, she starts rubbing her face on my bare toes, which I suppose feels good to her, but it tickles me.

She’s also very playful. She likes to be chased, even by me. I can tell she likes it, by the way she teases me, and the way she turns her head when she leaps. Sometimes she’ll be lying on her back on the bed, and grab my hand with her front paws so she can nibble and lick my finger tips. Just the tips mind you, and she’s never serious about biting. She just barely touches my skin with her teeth before she breaks out the tongue.

And she’s getting large too. Large for a female, that is. I think she’s 12 pounds already. Closing in on Orange Julius weight! She makes Lucky look really tiny.

It’s over 80 degrees for the fifth day in a row. I got lots of bike riding in this week, and the cats are loving having the windows open. The neighborhood kids are outside playing, and the bugs are buzzing by, making the bedroom window into a virtual cat TV. One or more of them is glued to the cat perch all day long. Some even nap there. It’s a great time of year.

I just finished watching Wall-E, the movie we saw as a group at our family reunion. It’s just as much fun this time around, except I don’t have all the folks to share it with this time.

But Julius loves it when I watch movies at the computer, because he gets lots of attention as he thumps his tail on the table top. Usually that means he’s pissed off about something (like touching his belly), and is getting ready to bite me. I just think he’s a little peeved that I’m typing instead of scritching him. Every time I reach over and rub his head, his tail stops.

Happy Birthday Max! And Happy St Patrick’s Day to everyone else!