Today is:

New style (Gregorian): 8 August 2000
Old style (Julian): 26 July 2000 C.E.
Fixed:
730340 R.D.
Astronomical (at noon):
2451765 j.d.
ISO:
Tuesday, Week 32, Year 2000
Coptic:
2 Misra 1716 A.M.
Ethiopic:
2 Nahase 1992 E.E.
Islamic (until sunset):
7 Jumada I 1421 A.H.
Persian:
18 Mordad 1379 A.P.
Baha'i (until sunset):
Kam'al Kam'al, B'ab of V'ahid 9, Kull-i-Shay 1 B.E.
Hebrew (until sunset):
7 Av 5760 A.M.
Chinese:
cycle 78, year Geng-chen, month 7, day 9
Hindu Lunar (from sunrise):
9 Sravana 2057 V.E.
Hindu Solar (from sunrise):
23 Karka 1922 S.E.
French:
Decade III, Primidi de Thermidor de l'Annee 208 de la Revolution
Mayan (long count):
12.19.7.8.2

Everything Day Logs
Yesterday | Tomorrow

Everything Snapshot

Time: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 00:03:00 GMT
Everything server: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) Debian/GNU mod_perl/1.21_03-dev
Number of nodes: 642859 (1327 new since August 7, 2000)
Number of users: 17620 (44 new since August 7, 2000)
Number of links: 2825604 (20183 new since August 7, 2000)

Node to user ratio: 36.485 nodes per user
Link to node ratio: 4.395 links per node
Link to user ratio: 160.363 links per user

New Nodes: [good music to have sex to] [Dream Log: August 7, 2000] [solaris] [Good Morning Mail] [August 7, 2000] [Dream Log: August 7, 2000] [inf file] [The Bluebird of Happiness] [Widdershins] [Node Duel] [pikachu] [hubwards] [The Bluebird of Happiness] [Prettybelle] [The History of American Diners]

Users Online (48): [sensei] [yossarian] [Lord Brawl] [knarph] [coffy] [binarydreams] [Halcyon&on] [hamstergirl] [Ereneta] [Fruan] [gnarl] [baffo] [achan] [Electric Mollusk] [pealco] [Tabs] [junkpile] [briiiiian] [ekim yar] [moa] [MarilynM] [chinoodle] [bonnet] [mcc] [Citizen Aim] [Katyana] [Psk] [Eos] [urbanmisfit] [Michalak] [Eloquence] [jeremy f] [ferrouslepidoptera] [godling] [klash] [Jim71] [{hojita}] [ninar] [sneakums] [Valhalla] [DaveF] [Zanth] [Johnny5D] [Stejar] [heckley] [nc] [winmute] [trippdick]

JeffMagnus node count: 4019 (1 new since August 7, 2000)
JeffMagnus experience: 9277 (7 more since August 7, 2000)
JeffMagnus experience to node ratio: 2.308 XP per node
JeffMagnus nodeshare: 0.626%
JeffMagnus node of the day: Lithium

A civic holiday in Canada,(Simcoe Day in Ontario), for many of our fine provinces, also the end of the long weekend that included Caribbana festival downtown Toronto. I missed it again this year, living so deep into suburbia i often can't tell if culture ever stood for anything beyond tv and manicured lawns.

My old friend Sean came up from downtown, he just got a new leopard-skin rug molded to his motorbike. It does look pretty cool, for a machine that can easily cause instant death. The air outside is really beautiful, makes me wish i had a car and camping gear, i'd go away for a week or 2 and just meditate on mosquitos and beer.

It's too damn easy to slip into fights with some people here on e2, especially immature editors who seem to enjoy the trip of power/status. I may have an opinion in regards to certain policy, and perhaps some insight that cannot be implemented even if agreed to. I'm deleting a /msg from Sylvar, and i'm going to forget about this nonsense tonight.

I have a different problem also. I am admitting that i eat way too much, not that i am over-weight, i'm not.. but while my friends can only eat 3-4 slices of pizza, i'm still hungry after my own whole one. The thing is, i feel legitimately hungry, even when it can appear to others as gluttony. I run 8 km a day, but my consumption causes problems when you have to split a shared meal. What seems normal portions to me, is abnormal to the rest of the world. I have amazingly enough gone through lean times also, but it just bothers me i was still hungry after having a large pizza, plate of chicken wings, and spicey pasta shells.

I worked on a new song today using some samples I gathered a month ago. All the sounds I sampled from a short tv news piece from europe about Bjork attacking a reporter. Some very nice sounds and vocal inflections, the big problem i have is it is hard to hear the nuances of inter-twining rhythms when people complain about the noise level. I can't afford my own studio yet, so I'm pretty much limited until i purchase some headphones. Headphones scare me however, my hearing is bad enough from using a walkman on the bus to drown out the useless conversations of those around me.

I had a conversation about home mortgaging today, although i doubt i'll bother until i can put a reasonable downpayment together, and I still don't know what part of the planet i want to live on for any extended period of time. I also started reading some very academic articles about future database systems and the use of sensory transducers which influence alternate information processing and knowledge development. I find this stuff very interesting, but i don't think i can see myself spending my life looking for grants to write academic papers.

So, now that the long weekend is over I guess i should be looking for work, even though i am completely uninspired, and wondering if i want to even bother continuing after the jobs i was supposed to get with my MCSE. The only jobs i've found in Canada are Computer technician positions or that Y2k Deployment i did which was challenging, but limited in scope of overall network engineering. I know at least now that i don't want to become an IT Manager, I find WAN stuff cool, but what it really comes down.. I want to write music and draw, spin records and work with cutting edge media technology.

Had a chat with my friend's sister today after my run. She's getting ready to go off to university in Ottawa. Same town as i did, but she's going to Ottawa U (Tom Green had his first radio show there), whereas i went to Carleton. I can remember being just as excited for a new start to life somewhere else, it just hasn't left me.. i still want to find that one place that everything will fit who i am. I just get tired of being in 1 place so fast, that unless i am able to focus on the things that are important to me, i just want to jet. The difference between me and many other people is that i will do it, I'll go to Europe, or San Francisco, or Japan.

Right now, i'm just going to sleep.
Another cord snaps.

The supports creak and I can feel the road beneath me vibrate. The wind and the rain are assaulting the bridge with a vengeance, testing its strength. But the bridge is weak. It has always been. Lightning rends the sky, casting my long shadow upon the ground. Heart beats, I see my reflection in a puddle.

This bridge just might be falling down.

Yesterday | Dizzy->Day_Logs() | Tomorrow


8:00 BST

I finally manage to get into work on time, but only because I went to bed early and didn't hang around this morning. I wonder whether you could plot a job satisfaction against morning start time graph?

My Project Leader has helpfully given me a list of things to do this week; I wouldn't mind this if he wasn't such an obnoxious git. I know he's a rising star within the company; I just wish he would hurry up and rise somewhere else.

I'm a complete sucker for Horoscopes and mysticism; every day I check out the Everything I-Ching. Today, both my hexagrams were: Lu, treading (conduct)

12:50 BST

Wheelie Chair + formica lab floor = happiness

Yup, played a little chair hockey this morning. The good thing about our lab is the absence of managers; probably something to do with the proximity to real work ;-)

I have a toolkit. It seems that the best kept secret in our lab is that our goods inwards guy has a bunch of toolkits in a locked cupboard. I signed one out and received my little box of happiness complete with screwdrivers, socket tools and even a "rack mounting square thingy removal tool". I feel like an initiate to a strange new monastery; "The order of the Rackmount" or something...

Got the latest Mozilla daily build; Mmm, nice browser. I'm posting this with Moz, it is nice and quick and only crashes as much as Netscape now.

Hmm, possible noding material...

2:49 am EST

Just finished writing about Pat Buchanan and John Hagelin. Man, I have a problem with deadlines.

There was a big cat fight at work on Friday and I missed it! I was in my office the whole time so I missed the carnage. Apparently, the office manager, the front desk secretary, and another woman (I forget her title) got into a huge spat over who was responsible for doing what at the front desk. We are understaffed and deluged with calls, but the Powers That Be cut the front desk advisor, and even removed the second phone up there. Insane. My job responsibilities don’t involve the front desk at all, but I help out up there whenever I can, and hide in my office when I am feeling cranky and unhelpful.

Most of the morning we spent looking for the laptop we need for the PowerPoint presentation. Apparently, the computer guy has been taking it home with him to work on another project, but didn’t bother telling any of us. Thanks, asshole. So we’re running around looking for the thing all morning until he shows up to work with it finally. And then in the afternoon I come back from lunch to find that the laptop is missing again and everyone expects me to find it! I found it buried in his office, thankfully.

Classes begin in two weeks, and most of them are full. I don’t know what the hell the students coming in now are going to take, and they and their parents are all pissed off because no one told them most of the classes would be full at this late date, but we muddle through the best we can. Marriott put a hold on everyone who didn’t pay for their meal plan, now mandatory for all freshmen living in the residence halls, but didn’t bother telling the students about the deadline! What the fuck are the food people doing putting holds on student registration? They got slapped down hard today by one of the deans, who told them they would be on the hook for a year’s worth of dorm fees for each student who bailed because of their fuck up, but we still had to deal with the problem today. Once again we are left to clean up after everybody’s mess.

Last night I got an invitation to the bachelor party of an old friend. I was stunned because it made me realize how much has changed, and how much hasn’t, in my life since I was last in touch with so many of my friends. I had expected to be living in Canada by now and planned to fly down to his wedding, and now that the day is here and I’m still in Florida, it just reminds me of the road not taken.

And I have exactly one month and two days to find a date to bring to the wedding. Like I said, I am terrible with deadlines…
coming home from the poetry slam benefit with my brand new $30 "I AM GOD'S GIFT" lunchbox (acquired at the slam auction) at 1 am I am distressed to find that my monitor is not functioning in the slightest. This is hardly a surprise - it was the first colour monitor I ever had and has logged probably well over seven years of faithful service - but it is still a darned inconvenience when it's unexpected. Doubtless sometime very soon I will investigate finangling the financing of a new monitor and I can explore the worlds beyond 640 x 480, but works get gummed up.

Right now I'm on the amber firewall dumb terminal and either e2 has grown more problematic for lynx use (unlikely) or windows use has made me lazy and impatient (quite likely), which means that there will be no significant nodage by myself until the acquisition of a new monitor, putting a temporary crimp in the sharing of details and artifacts from the Pacific Northwest Tabnet / Everything pit-of-doom-sacrifice and Retinal Scarring (tm) which just wrapped up yesterday evening, to say nothing of other noding projects pushed further back in the wings and all the mass quantities of e-mail I had hoped to clear up tonight; I shall be stealing idle moments on my roommates' computers in the days to come.

Interacting with nice and articulate young women (and men, for that matter) at the poetry slam and reflecting on my state since and of the past month I conclude that perhaps I have learned as much as I am going to from the level of solitude I have adhered to; further years in the "alone in a crowd" scenario will merely be quantitavely (?) different, not qualitatively. Being alone definitely has more for me, but that would require a more physical isolation on top of the social one I've maintained.

I only feel interesting when someone expresses interest in me; unwilling to be the unmoved mover this results in self-fulfilling prophecy of disinterest beyond the most superficial (that man is wearing quite a lot of buttons on his hat!) level. The seeds are always in me, but the blight that killed off the plants three years ago was followed by an interminable drought. A month ago someone watered me, and soft shoots are both delighting me and making me delightful.

Well, I can always hope. (That's the thing, though, is that I couldn't. Next thing you know I'll have well-formed wants and desires and I may become unstoppable!)

Lock up your toys.

in our last episode... | p_i-logs | and then, all of a sudden...

13:00 EET

Note to self: Do not buy two paninis and think you could eat both of them in a row.

I think I'm going to barf.
Those things are so damn filling.

Nausea aside, the day has gone pretty well. I got my printed Arabuusimiehet-posters, and they look quite pretty. But I am thinking about getting real posters made out of it, big and on a shiny paper. That would qualify as cool if you ask me.

Once again, I had to just sit around while the bosses held some presentation using my workstation. It sucks to have the best monitor in the office. Well, actually it's nearly the only monitor, since many of us use laptops nowadays. I prefer a real PC with a 19" screen, thank you.
Some of my fellow workers say they are coming down with a fever. Since I've only been seriously sick once in the last five years, it's doubtful they can spread the virus on me. A couple days of solid sack time couldn't really hurt though. I didn't have a vacation this summer, saving my holidays for december.

I *really* feel nauseous. Maybe some good old noding will take my mind off the Italian delicacies trying to burst out of my stomach.


15:55 EET

Phew! Just like yesterday, I have somehow managed to do important work stuff and a lot of noding. A lot for a slow noder like myself, that is. And unlike some of you might think, none of my synthesizer entries are "cut'n'paste writeups". The information is gathered from 4-5 sources and written in my own words. Hopefully this is appreciated by at least some of you.

I'm somewhat happy to see this crap I'm typing hasn't received much votes today, at least yet. Getting lots of XP for such mindless sludge makes me feel all guilty, since other noders (like Prole today) present a helluva lot more interesting and meaningful thoughts than myself, but get roughly the same amount of upvotes. And I for one don't write day logs for the XP. Naturally, I prefer the current situation to all the entries being downvoted. Still, there is guilt from getting XP way too easy.
*sigh*.. what the hell am I whining about again? I should try my best to come up with interesting and meaningful stuff, instead of wasting time and space complaining about something so silly.

Time to leave the office. I'm supposed to shave and get a haircut today. No more Chewbacca-look for a while!


22:54 EET

After losing my beard and most of my hair, I almost look like a human being! I should probably take a new picture of myself now, before the removed accessories grow back. Not that the picture currently on my home node would be too outdated, it was taken some 11 months ago.

Dunno why, but I feel *good*. There isn't anything particular to feel happy about, but nothing that negative either. Maybe it's the comfortable weather? The good music I'm listening to? Who cares? I'll enjoy the feeling as long as it will last.


Today's Writeups:
Dream Log: August 8, 2000 | Dream On | Korg DSM-1 | Korg DSS-1 | Korg DW-6000 | Korg DW-8000 | Korg EX-8000 | TVTV! | TVTV! Chat

10:00 CET

This is the second day of the Campus Party 2000, a gathering of 2.000 computer aficionados. They travel with their PC or Mac (in fact, I am writing this from a G4 in the Mac Zone) and spend a week playing, learning and socializing in a gigantic hall (100 m long and 50 m wide).

Some people have spent all night awake, some are still in the camp area, and some are still in the place where they crashed last night: sleeping over the keyboard, under the table, etc.

I am not a participant, I am here as a journo, so it's OK for me to go around asking people: where are you from?, why you play Quake 3 Arena without textures? (I knew this, I am the father Quake), is this the Debian Potato distribution?, why do you think that they are so few girls?, etc

It is a joy to be around so many people with so many things in common.

Drove to work. Realised I had to top up the Rain-X on my windscreen (/ windshield). Got to work. Noded Rain-X. Noded water off a duck's back too. Fancy no-one having written about that yet. Honestly people!

Bored now, so although it's still early, it's Lunchtime I think.

Wow. Yesterday my wife got home form University and admitted that she'd made a user on E2. I've clearly been talking about Everything way too much at home recently :-)
This morning I had a really good, vivid dream, which I can't put in the dream log because I've forgotten it. Hrmmm.

More later ?

Falling asleep last night (this morning in that uncertain hour when even clubbers are starting to yawn) after the wide-eyed stare of insomnia, I had a moment of panic. Sleeping alone, trying to fill a bed that felt too big by sprawling sideways in a tangle of pushed away duvet and mangled pillows, my feet dangled over the edge. It was hot, sticky, humid night, and it was the only way I could stay cool. (Why is it that you are so much hotter with your feet covered?) Sleep was starting to enfold me, when I heard wicked cacklings between the cardboard boxes and shadows under the bed.

There were monsters under the bed. I paused, not knowing if it was wiser to sneak my feet back to safety in smooth and secret movements, or yell, and curl up quick. I could hear them drooling. I had a series of Calvin and Hobbes strips flash before my eyes.

I listened, holding my breath, trying not to think of the fear of the ten year old I was, rushing up the stairs with her eyes closed, to get the attic stairs lights on before the monsters, witches and ghouls bit her hand.

I rolled up into a ball, and told the monsters I did not believe in them. Nope. Not me. And I thanked my lucky stars there were no cupboards in the room to hide the closet monsters (who are, of course, far more pernicious than any under the bed beasts).

Zot, the black and white cat, curled tight like a squirrel on a hardback book at my side was unconcerned. I poked her, told her there were monsters, and she yawned cat-crunchy breath at me, and retucked herself into sleep.

I hate it when snarl works nights.
At 3am this morning I gave up trying to sleep and connected to #everything. I asked for a lullaby but all I got was stuff that freaked me out. Sigh.

I can't believe that factgirl has erased her Wayward souls of the horseshoe bench writeup. Facty don't do it!.

Today is a bright new day. I realised that I hardly listen to my CDs any more. Mostly because my stereo is too far from my PC and the CD player in my PC doesn't have error correction worth shit. Listening to skipping CD's is not restful. Anyhow, I've decided to listen to each of my CD's, at least one everyday, working through the alphabet. Today, it's Bauhaus (and maybe later some Beethoven).

Terror couple killed colonel in his West German home
For obvious reasons though I plan to omit J's Penguin Cafe Orchestra CDs. Shudder.

I'm reading The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthieson. What a great book! It's about a trip taken by the author and a biologist to study the wild blue sheep of the Himalaya and to look for the snow leopard. The writing is wonderful and I'm learning a lot about the people of the region and I'm looking forward to reading some more about Buddhism.


Yesterday, Next day log

This is noded late, so I'll play a little ketchup.

I only had one day off, so I went to a couple bookstores (Eliot Bay Bookstore is huge, rambling and incredibly cool) and a toy store. I bought books for me, toys for the kiddies and wife. I found a really interesting book--"A book of ones own" by Thomas Mallon--excerpts of all sorts of diaries, just very good writing and interesting. Maybe I'll start daylogging again regularly. After spending everything but a single quarter, I lit up a cigar and wandered around the town, exploring downtown Seattle, watching people and just absorbing the place. I like the city--it's got a great vibe, caffeine charged and hallucinogenic, with a serious sense of historic place and value. Weighty, with java aftertones. Or something like that. I walked for about four hours, smoked two cigars and by the time I was done I wasn't sure if I could actually speak anymore or not, but that didn't really matter.

I would like to visit one of these places by myself some time and meet someone interesting and have conversations etc etc, but I think I'm too much of a loner, too much of an *observer* to interact that much. Weird, huh?

So anyway, that was actually all done on the 4th.

On the 5th I had duty, had to stay on the ship while P_I and the rest of the Northwestern/Canuck E2'ers met and had great fun and all that. I sat here on board and noded a little and read the Nerve.com site.

6th, Light off, general boredom, little watch, blah blah.

Ok, now we're caught up, sort of. Underway, leaving the bright lights of Seattle, and wishing I was home. Got email from my wife with very little of interst in it.I know she's busy, but a little more than just a --What day exactly will you be home? would be nice. But I'm just whining--too much bullshit and exile. I did read a great website today http://www.openletters.net. They publish a personal essay in the form of a letter every day, and send out a weekly compilation in a pdf file that you can print out and tote around, like a real magazine, which I like. I love printing things off the web and reading them later--the puder is not always the best thing for reading long things. How many really long nodes--noded etexts, chapters etc have you actually read all the way through? I have the attention span of a two year old on line. I can barely manage to pay attention to my own ramblings.

So, that's enough.

But oh, Avoid contact with the eyes.

tuesday morning

so, i finally got a call from the doc, all blood tests are inconclusive. she says she can do nothing more for me and that i must see a gastroenterologist and the surgeon who performed the removal of my gallbladder. her assumption is that there is a stone or scar tissue in the common bile duct. i have decided that i will only pursue the matter further if i have another attack.

today i feel good. today i am not wearing a bra. my boobs are hung low and i just don't give a great-big-god-damn.

today i will remember to get the borland stuff i need. if it stays sunny, today i will ride my bike.

for now, i drink coffee with real cream, look at all the flowers in my office, read the news, check my e-mail, and just generally take it easy.

more later...

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Last night, saw Scent of a Woman for the first time; a fantastic film. I am even able to overlook the cheesy sub-plot of Charlie at school, and the overly-mushy standing ovation scene at the end that we all expected.

I woke up at 6am to the alarm clock and the voice of Al Pacino running through my head: "Are you just going to lie there all day?"

what?

It's not every day that you get woken up by a celebrity.

I'm exploring water as an alternative to caffeine today; despite being dead tired, I am pounding the dihydrogen oxide rather than drinking coffee. It just feels... cleaner.

Less than a week until she leaves.... I'm trying not to think about it.

And leave it to me to get lost driving 4 blocks from where I live.

I will be glad once I say bye to my dad's car (as he takes it back this afternoon). I've nearly sideswiped a semi, and several other cars with it. Not that I'm a bad driver (I have 4 accidents to prove that wrong, but the last one occured over 3 years ago), it's just that I'm so unaccustomed to Philly traffic. It's a hell of alot easier being a pedestrian around here, even if it is slower. And more dangerous. And hotter. And smellier.

Either I've forgotten how to drive, or everyone else is insane.


12:44 PM EST - Last day I'll be able to drive. Shame too, I really liked waking up at 6:30. Nice change of pace from the time I previously left the dorm -- at an hour where only drunken frat boys were walking around campus. Ah, what nice mornings those were! But alas.

I once joked around with a friend of mine who used to work here that one day I'd finally go into one of the network closets (8 across the building, only me and one other person has the key), and take a nap. Well, today looks like it may be that day! But nah, of course I won't. People will notice my absence.

I will NEVER VOLUNTARILY DO PHONE TECH SUPPORT AGAIN IN MY LIFE

After taking 45 minutes with a person trying to set up his Exchange server mail account (only to find out that his network connection didn't even work!), I felt drained. And ya know what? This guy has OUR PHONE NUMBER. We were not hired to do phone support, and yet, here we are. This is because they ABUSED all the previous tech support people at their facility. Nobody will help them now. Except the lowly interns.

Oh why won't it rain today?

That's what I could use right about now. A big old thunderstorm, cutting off the power to the building. No power? No computers, no telephones. Watch the office slow to a crawl.

And then I can finally take that nap.

I had a wisdom tooth removed yesterday. My appointment was delayed thiry minutes because one of the surgeon's loyal patients had a toothache - and her (42-year old) son just died. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer five weeks ago, and after they removed most of his stomach they tried to connect his esophagus to his large intestine (I think), but the cancer had spread too much. I saw her at the front desk, too: a yellow pantsuit, white hair. She had returned for her sunglasses. I was standing next to her, wondering why I hadn't been called yet. She seemed frazzled. I caught her eye and smiled a little, sympathetically (because she looked a bit overwhelmed - I didn't know it was her yet). She sort of smiled back, sadly, with a look that makes more sense now that I know her son just died.

They gave me presciption-strength ibuprofen, a little yellow Valium, and two antibiotic pills...then started me on $63 dollars worth of nitrous oxide. After a few minutes, I was really high on it and the surgeon is talking about hiking. She asks me if I've ever hiked this particular mountain. I say no. She asks if I hike. I say no. She asks me what I like to do, and I draw a blank. I just couldn't think of anything. And I'm on nitrous. I say "I would like to apologize in advance for any nitrous-effects. No, I don't get outside much." She says she gets the idea that I work a lot, that she used to work six days a week, and eventually realized the importance of balance. She just went waterskiiing, on one ski. "Can you believe that? A fifty-year old doing things like that?" Fifty is young, I say.

First she did a comprehensive exam, which means that she told her assistant which teeth have old fillings in them. I don't know how many local shots she gave me but I couldn't feel the bottom half of my head. The extraction didn't take long. After it was over I couldn't stop shivering for a while, though I wasn't cold.

The left side of my mouth is really swollen. It hurts, kind of. I finally took a Tylenol/codeine this morning and had a cool dream about being in an airplane flying over Dallas.

My first daylog ever. I tend to find these irritating, but since I think I might have something to say...

Today I came into work for the 60-ought time. I rolled out of bed early, since I had to drive my father to the Portland, ME jetport. That's right, not airport, but jetport. Decades ago when it was first built they probably thought that sounded more "Vista Cruiser"-ish, in a Jetsonian way. Keep in mind, this 'port, located in the largest city of the State of Maine shuts it's tower down at 12 midnight, sharp, unless there is a prescheduled flight coming in. Anyhow, Dad is off to Las Vegas, or there abouts, to visit a friend, and then off to Wisconsin to visit my sister, who is at grad school. Needless to say, this threw my entire schedule off for the morning, but I can live with it since the house is now mine for 8 days.

Now, there wasn't anything special about this morning, really. I came into work and proceeded to read my 100+ emails in my inbox. Two cups of joe later and I'm into E2, wasting my employer's time. Here comes the strange part. I hear my Boss and his Boss in the corner office babbling on about how great the new project addition is... My addition. An email module and XML generator that will automagically send an XML file of the programs state information (along with all objects at the time) to tech support if an exception occurs. Now, it may sound somewhat fancy-shmancy, but it's less then 1000 lines of code, truthfully. So my Boss, and his Boss are on the speakerphone with the big Boss and he is practically bubbling over with excitement. They think this little package is quite grand. "I haven't been more excited since grandma slipped in the fudge and we got to eat her out" the big guy says (No... really). We can sell this for $1,000 per customer when we add in the alerts system!

So... $1,000 worth? Really? It just doesn't seem worth it. I'm no geek, believe me. This isn't hard stuff. A little java.net code, and it's up and running. Why do I feel like I'm cheating everyone? It just doesn't feel like I did a whole lot. But, I just gotta learn to understand the way things work...

I guess if they're happy

One more friend down.


Well, here I go with yet another tale of my sordid state of life.

Fellow noder anm and I went to help my parents move some excercise equipment from my grandparents old house, to my parents house. Now, if you've been following this story for the last couple of weeks, then you know that my girlfriend just dumped me. This will come into play later. anm helped my folks move their stuff, no problem, now since I have nowhere else to go at the moment I'm still living with my ex, this means I was in no hurry to get back to my home. We stay and visit with my parents for a long time, and then we depart for our prospective homes. It's 10:30pm and I'd been at work from 8:00am to 7:30pm, I'm exhausted. I walk in and I hear a sound. No big deal, the cat must be running around.
Seconds later, a very tired and out of breath Paul, a fellow I used to consider a friend, comes out of my ex's room. I'm not a stupid man, I know what's up. Trying my best to act like I don't care, he comes out and tries to be all buddy-buddy with me. I tell him I'm tired and I want to go to bed, so I do.

Never before in my life, have I been angry enough where I actually thought I could kill someone. This asshole is really the main reason why my girlfriend and I broke up. He always wanted her to come hang out with him, and I wanted her to stay with me. Well, he won. He has been sleeping with her IN MY HOUSE for the past 4 nights, we've only been broken up 2 nights. That says something don't you think?

Tonight I have the uncomfortable duty of telling a 7 year friend that he is no longer welcome in my home, or in the home of my parents.

I've never been a spiritual man, but if there is a god...
Please, Help!

Factgirl's fact of the day:

Firefighters are more likely to injure themselves sliding down the firehouse pole than fighting a fire. The city of Chicago (where the slidey-pole was originated in the 1870s) is replacing all of it's two-story firehouses with single floor buildings. 

Bonus fact: At a firehouse in Livermore, CA, there is a lightbulb that has been working since 1901.  If a clumsy firefighter should happen to break it, he or she would be fired on the spot.

-it's a fact

sources: Reuters & Guinness Book of World Records Millenium Edition
Ah. It's summer, and the wonderful smell of Marie Callender's is in the air. My brother and I are alone again, my parents are off communing with nature in NYC, and I am free to sleep, read, and obsess about my Muse. In the meantime, however, I've taken to torturing myself by attempting to learn how to play a guitar. As any of us out there who have mastered this wonderful instrument can probably guess, my fingers hurt like a bastard and I've had several urges to make myself some very expensive toothpicks. My "practice" college essays are due next week, and my next lit paper is due the week after that. Fortunately, I've a wider range of material to choose from, and all that's required this time is mere prevarication. I've managed to develop several of my earlier ideas for freeform RPGs, and should be able to finish construction on the first by the end of the week.

Why, after all this time without one, am I constructing my first day log, you might ask? The answer for that is actually rather simple. My cousin, and my cousin's girlfriend, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to turn me into their "project" for the month. This Saturday, I journey off into the abyss of cute haircuts, trendy outfits, and more makeup than you can shake a stick at. I wanted to node something to remind me of my true nature, simply as a precaution. The Pink, Brainless, and Fuzzy are not strong, but they are many. If, in fact, I become enveloped in this tide of Evil, I ask that someone please shoot me.

Help.

A sort-of Good Day

This is the first node I've written from home in a while.

I had my job interview today at the company my dad works for. It was scheduled for 10am, so I asked to come in late and figured I'd be at work by 11:30 or noon at the latest. No dice. I had an official application to fill out, a test of my basic technical knowledge, a personality quiz, and an essay question about what I liked the most about my old jobs. Then, three interviews. Yes, THREE.

First, the human resources manager with general questions. Mostly general questions. The basics, such as what kind of experience do you have, how did you help an irrational customer, etc etc. Then, the manager of the support department and one of his assistants. Mostly tech stuff and some NT questions. By this time, it was 12:45. I called into work and said I wouldn't be in today. They didn't get too mad. Then, I interviewed with the director of the entire IT department. Mostly boring "why do you want to work here?" questions.

I think I did OK. I hope I did OK.

After all the interviews, I went out to lunch with my dad and talked about how it went. I think it went pretty well, but I guess time will tell. I expect to get a phone call in the next couple of days.

I came home and went to the laundromat to do laundry. It was hell today. All the stupid people were there with their equally stupid children. I narrowly avoided being knocked over by rolling laundry carts 5 times. I was about *this* close to yelling at them to shut up and sit down. I didn't. I show amazing self restraint sometimes.

Then I went off my diet and went to McDonalds. It is amazing how good french fries taste when they are forbidden. I watched some TV, and now I sit here trying not to stress and trying not to be depressed about the french fries I consumed. Ugh. I sound like an anorexic or something, which I am most definitely not.

It was nice to not be at work today. I know that it will be hell tomorrow since I'll have just that many more customers wanting me to call them. Fuck em all. I am still keeping my backup plan in my head in case I need it. I have to get O-U-T soon or else I will go high school. Snap crackle pop.

I have my appointment with the shrink in a couple of days. That should be interesting. He was giggling maniacally on the phone when I made the appointment. He also has a thick accent. I wonder what he'll prescribe me, and then I wonder if I'll actually take it or just wait until I'm at a new job to find another shrink.

Nodes That I Wrote Today:
none

CD’s I’ve Listened To Today:
Fiona Apple - Tidal

Today’s Horoscope on my Calendar - Don't know - didn't go to work today.

No wierd dreams this morning, how unusual. Almost late to work as usual. Seems that every day I can't get up any earlier than 7:40 and only traffic determines whether I'm late or not. Unfortunately, there's usually a lot of traffic.

My co-workers rambled on and on again about their granddaughters, their children, their husbands, etcetera. Sometimes I don't even realize they say the same things over and over again after they run out of things to say. Oh well, only 8 more days until the internship from hell is over. One comment someone made to me which gave me a chuckle was "Wow, you have beautiful eyelashes!". I think that one goes in the book of pickup lines not to use. Another notable event at work was that I actually fell asleep. They shoved me in the back room to rummage through microfilm, and thinking I was trustworthy enough, left me alone! That'll teach them!

The rest of my work day was uneventful. I came home and dressed for the dreaded cross country practice. I didn't do so bad considering how much time it's been since I stopped getting sick and when I started running again. Then I came home and wasted 6 hours on this newfangled computer gizmo. Oh well, tomorrow's just another day.

Well,this was the day I went from Level 3 to Level 4,thus ending a long string of writeups to have my required number of writeups catch-up with my number of XP.I feel happy now,because now I can take a break from noding before sprinting through Level 5 onward to Level 6.As an aside,I finnaly got the hooks I need to hang up my poster The View from the Top of Mt. Everest.

Writeup of the Day from the archives of --OutpostMir--: Windows 98 manuals do not make good weapons

A treat: Dairy Queen. Ever since I read The Stand a decade ago I cannot think of DQ without the phrase "ersatz ice cream" swimming through my focus of consciousness. Cables arrive to complete my KVM switch setup. The PS/2 ports for the keyboard and mouse seem to be crossed on one block, and a serial mouse doesn't translate to PS/2-mouse-cabled clients, but otherwise it all seems to work swimmingly. No more unplugging the monitor every time I want to switch computers! With this minor victory under my belt, I am inspired to finally coax Win98 internet connection sharing into functioning properly. IE5 on NT is bitchy, but eventually complies with the grand scheme. HOORAY
Dinner: leftover stir-fried vegemables and some potato salad. Entertainment: part 1 of Meet Joe Black, and a chapter of Conrad's Quest for Rubber. Maintenance: Haircut.
fatting the calf

The day started in an atypical way for me and far more usual for most. I woke at a decent hour and had breakfast - eggs and toast. I had asked for them last night in lieu of a blindfold and cigarette. I was in a decent mood if somewhat sleepy. Having eaten, we took off for the dermatologist's office.

expository

Maybe a little explanation is in order. A bit back, I had noticed an unusual freckle on my chest. It didn't look malignant or anything, just slightly larger and irregular in size. Considering my whiteboy heritage (Didn't get the Cherokee skin, only the cheekbones - and was-blond hair/blue eyes cries out "Damage my skin, Oh harsh orange globe!") and the family history of cancer, I had it checked out, which lead to a fun biopsy with a dermal punch. It soon scarred over, but the biopsy came back "pre-cancerous" so I made an appointment, and my day had come. It probably wouldn't have turned cancerous in years, and it could still be benign in thirty years, but I don't gamble on those odds and stakes. Once malignant melanomas get over a certain size (15mm if I remember correctly), it basically means you're dead, no matter how many rounds of hack, burn and poison you go through.

excision

The doctor came in and gave a few reassuring words and a shot of xylocaine. I always think it's funny how medical workers try to reassure "This won't hurt much." I've got a 4mm hole in my ear, you think they'd realize I can probably deal with the pain. After giving it a little time (stuff works fast!), she gave me a shot of epinephrine. I could feel the solution pressing into the flesh, so I imagine it'd hurt a bit without the painkiller. I approve of vasoconstrictors, bleeding isn't fun and the dermatologist hates the sight of blood. She left to give it time - the longer the wait, the less bleeding. I just waited there for a while and chatted with the assistant when she came in. Her daughter was going off to college, so we discussed that for a while. She was also going up to Portland for a vacation, and asked me for interesting sights. Dr. Wada came in at that point and started to get ready. I laid down, head straight up, and started to get anxious about the painkillers. She offered to shave my chest so I wouldn't have to deal with the most painful part of the procedure, the bandage, but I passed. I think people who shave one part of their body while leaving others hairy look strange, and my arms would certainly offset the chest. Not to say that discrete trimming isn't sometimes a good thing. She then put a sterile cloth with a small hole in it over my chest with a request to keep my grubby germy hands off of it. I tried to relax and tell the assistant about the flower gardens in Portland as she started to cut. Beats thinking about England. My voice gradually became less and less tense as my body was reassured it wouldn't hurt - my head knew that, but it's hard to convince the old fight-flight reflexes sometimes. I could hear the noise of the instruments clacking and feel the pull of the stitches, but the relief at getting it over with drowned out any squeamishness. At that point, I started to get curious, so I craned my head up and looked into my body. She had cut a pointed oval into my chest and I could see yellow fat at the bottom of the cut. Thanks to the epinephrine the reddish flesh wasn't oozing blood. I watched her start to sew it up and had to lie down again when my neck started to get tired. Very surreal.

post

After she was done with both the internal stitches (the delicate translucent strings gradually dissolve) and the external stitches (those ugly black strings get taken out three weeks later) I got off the table. I left after picking up aftercare instructions that I'd never pay attention to. I am not going to put 70% rubbing alcohol on wounds, nor am I going to put Neosporin on it for months. Where the hell did they come up with this? Alcohol dries out wounds and kills fresh cells. I almost feel like telling them how wrong this is, but my knowledge is mostly from body modification and a smattering of medical readings - don't want to be one of those obnoxious dilettantes that tell professionals off when they don't know anything. Of course, that doesn't mean I'll take their instructions. Dr. Wada also told me to avoid exercise. Too much movement risks traumatizing the chest wound and causing keloids or other hypertrophic scar growth. At that point, I just wanted to get home fast. My mother asked if I felt so poorly that she had to stay home. I appreciated the concern, but the day I need someone to baby-sit me in my weakness is the day someone needs to take me to the hospital. I'm definitely a Stoic] in the Sufferer/Stoic comparisons of dealing with illness. After I got home I called Jane and had a short talk. She perked me up a bit, tho she didn't have anything profound to say. I headed upstairs and started to play F Zero X by myself. I have to take back my earlier (August 6, 2000) slam on the game. I was just frustrated by being whipped by my brothers, though I still find the turning and the cartoony design objectionable. But it's got its good points as well, and the hyperkinetic feel of the game is definitely fun.

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