That which was done

Well I got to work and discovered that the external CD-ROM unit that was supposed to be picked up for repair last Tuesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and Monday, and Tuesday, was still sitting on BluePrintVert's desk. A is not happy about this as he is having to use an old bulky laptop without all his software on it. I phoned up I am not going to protect their name any longer action.com and was rude to them. They have promised faithfully that it will be picked up tomorrow before 10am, even setting up the collection manually instead of relaying on their computers... I'll believe it when I see it.

K's Windows 2000 test server suffered a setback, the motherboard is &*$%^%&ed, at least that is what the bleep code is reporting. We are sending it back... to action.com. This time they are not even trying to pretend it will be sorted out soon, they have to get it on back order which means a wait of up to two weeks. K is overjoyed as I'm sure you can imagine.

K also managed to retrieve most of the data from the ancient DAT tapes from our Crewe office and asked me to dump them on to a CD. "How much space to they need?" I ask, "Only a few megabytes." he replies. I was about to suggest using floppy disks whn WinOnCD finally finished getting the file sizes off the Novel server. It only just fit on a CD, 648Mb!

By the time they finished transfering to the disk (its only a 4 speed IDE model CD Writer) we thought that our courier (i.e. employee from Crewe who was down with us for the day) had gone, but we were lucky and I managed to track him down.

WH Smith hammered a hole in my bank balance, by knocking 2/3s off their Doctor Who videos. That forced me (I really had no choice!) to purchase no less then five tapes.

Since getting him I have spent the entire evening watching TV and working on Mick The Mystic Monkey and Friends. It is now up to version 1.6 and he actually has a friend now. You can find out about Mick, and his friends, and ask them questions, at http://dorward.netfirms.com/

PC Plus came today, and hapily had another O'R book on the CD. This time on CGI programming which I am sure I am going to find very useful. I can't wait until September when I replace my computer (and get a DVD Rom drive) becuase PC Plus puts loads of great stuff on the DVD edition of the mag.

That which was planned

• Get hair cut; No I did that on May 23, 2000 must be force of habit making me type it
• Really sort out database, especially disciplines section;Umm, no. And time is running out. I'll forego finishing the project on time in favour of finishing the write up in time. Guess I'll have to make the ending up.
• Start writing up report of NEBSM course. Due next Wednesday!!!; Arghhh Most unconstructive day.
• Sort out sayings for the monkey on http://dorward.netfirms.com and create biography of the monkey.;This I managed. I also started the penguin, although he only has about 10 things to say right now.

i have the answer. ha ha! yes, I HAVE THE ANSWER. i'll have to remain cryptic, apologies all around. it's a simple solution, really, and i'm not sure why i hadn't thought about it before. all the pieces are fitting together. i love it. i LOVE it.

---

love tra la la. all is well. i have been tasked with finding outdoor excitement for the weekend. if it looks nice, i'll suggest jeremy's run. i haven't been there in a while. it's lovely. the water is freezing and the rocks are all worn smooth and have what looks like bright red paint splashed all over them. there is a spot where you can dam the water with your bum, then slide down a natural water slide into a deep pool.

for those interested, jeremy's run is off mile 24 of skyline drive in virginia. it's about a four and a half hour fairly vigorous hike from the road.

---

i am in the zone. hapmudo practice was awesome. i am learning new combinations. i am better every day. i was fighting better than i ever had. unfortunately, though, during practice we briefly lost power, i took a side kick to the chin (now my neck is quite stiff). then i noticed the amazingly loud sound of rain outside. oops. it was so nice when i got there... of course i left the car open. it was easily one of the heaviest rainfalls i've ever seen.

as i headed home, i drove through the rain, and by the time i got back to germantown, the roads were dry and it appeared to have not rained at all. i could look southeast down 270 and see the storm over rockville. the clouds were huge, but completely invisible in the dark until lighting flashed. the lightning inside the clouds was like chest x-ray. the lightning was so frequent and in such a grand scale in the sky that i could just watch a general area and see an amazing lightshow. this was easily one of the coolest things i've ever seen.

i am relaxed. i have a strong sense of will. i have goals in mind and i am working towards them with a new fervor.

---

unsolicited advice of the day: begin healthy habits YOUNG and maintain them as you age.

<< week | May 23, 2000 | May 24, 2000 | May 25, 2000 | week >>

Everything's Best Users Snapshot

Users                  XP wa7 inc   l_XP l_wa7
Pseudo_Intellectual 12000 171  69  11931 188
dem bones           10848  86  35  10813  94
jessicapierce       10688  77  37  10651  84
pukesick             8362 116 203   8159 101
DMan                 8299 146  56   8243 161
Saige                7656 111  44   7612 122
  ...
EBU #50              2503  58  11   2492  66 


Server time: 
21:21 Tue May 23 2000 TZ -0900
06:21 Wed May 24 2000 TZ UTC (or +0000

l_ = last (previous) value; inc = increase in stats value
wa7 = ((stats + (6 * l_wa7))/7) = weighted average with denominator 7

Everything Time Warp on May 23, 2000

Unfortunately E2 is still stuck in TZ -0900 and not set to the usual TZ UTC (or +0000). It seems strange to create May 24, 2000 day logs when the server time is still May 23, 2000 at 21:23 -0900. Anyway, it didn't seems to bother the 4 odd noders above me. ;-}

See more reports on May 23, 2000 by presto, Saige, Pseudo_Intellectual and others. See also: Everything Time Warp, E2 Downtime and votes - May 23, 2000, Power outage on May 23, 2000.

Random Nodes

DMan zooms past pukesick who sportingly give way.
Then, pukesick ate his Mars bar and gained some energy to overtake Dman, who seems to be suffering jet lag in Shanghai.

I didn't do any noding yesterday on a translation of the Quran due to the E2 probs. Will have to catch up tonight.

Nodes to node

• E2 Done --> Writeup points Todo --> what happen if you filter out "ideas" from E2 database?
• Malaysia Done --> Todo --> ISP? Time? Mimos?
• Others Done --> Todo -->

16:47 EET

Wo-hoo!
The first Neon Genesis Evangelion DVD I have been waiting since december finally arrived!
This is simply uber cool. I just hope they get the rest released before the year 2015, four episodes is far too little.

The workday pretty much sucked. I only had one decent design idea today, and my boss hated it. So I spent the day peeling the burnt skin off my face. (see May 21, 2000)

I visited the mall on my way home. The supermarket has hired one female cashier who is simply too damn beautiful. I bet this is a clever scam to get all male/lesbian customers (especially hopeless geeks like me) to come back to their store just to stare at her, even when they don't really need to buy anything.
Thankfully I realize I haven't got the snowball's chance in hell with her, or I would probably develop a big crush or something.
..which is NOT the case at the moment. Honestly! :)

Now that the 6 month wait for the NGE-disk is finally over, I'd better go and watch it.
Later on I have to return to node.. I have been way too inactive in E2 lately.

Lots of work, lots of meetings.
Lots of disturbing thoughts as I let my mind slip away for a second. I wonder if I should get a tattoo? A small geometric shape, randomly placed? I can't stop thinking about the damn tattoo. Does this mean I want one?

Today's Soundtrack: No music today.

So, not everything I anticipated in yesterday's day log came to pass...

No DiSCORDER (or Dance Dance Revolting) since I was waiting around all day to help move thext's stuff into a car, where it was to be transported to the post office to be mailed to Toronto where he is.

Mostly instead I sat around the house playing my accordion. I am now reasonably competent at the theme music from Pulp Fiction and I Don't Want to Live on the Moon, and am labouring hard at hammering out the Bubble Bobble theme song (always my first attempt on any instrument within reach.) I also managed a rousing one-handed rendition of "Louie Louie", but as any elephant in a Far Side strip will tell you, that isn't tough.

After the mail-escorting I was approaching 24 hours of awakeness, which gave all of the following proceedings a somewhat surreal glow. Hailing to the axiom "If you can't make a fool of yourself in public through spasmodic motions coordinated to a video display, consume lots of Lebanese food," I met up with yam and headed down to Habibi's, our local mecca of discofever-derision and application of the goat cheese rule. En route I was accused by a drunken fellow of statutory rape; mostly asleep and quite puzzled I wasn't quite sure how to respond, which resulted in a valiant "Why don't you mind your own fucken business, buddy?" bystander getting slapped in the face by the indignant lush.

HELP US; ALL WE TALKED ABOUT AT DINNER WAS EVERYTHING! Gossip about noders we did and did not like, questions on whether we'd been node-stalking each other. Discussion of voting technique (and particularly, negvoting technique.) Shamefully (more shamefully than the extra-Everything Everythinging, that is), I was unable to finish the meal, most probably on account of the rich garlic soup yam didn't like the taste of but acknowledged as high-quality.

Much goodness emerged at the Living Closet meeting, next to none of which had anything to do with the Living Closet. There was a spine-manipulator on hand (with supadope ponyskin shooz) whose services everyone but me availed themselves of, and right at the end of the meeting we got into a big ideological hissy fit about whether or not it would be appropriate for the MC of the event to do a gag between performers culminating in the tossing of Testamints into the crowd (I am not joking about this one). The verdict was that it would be okay for an artist performing at the event to do so, but not for a representative of the event itself; unfortunately this particular fellow views MC-ing as a performance, so this will be an ongoing doctrinal debate. Got home at 25 hours of awakeness, slept neatly until 7 am.

Holy shit, I'm awake during the day! What's more, I'm awakening during the morning! I can't remember the last time that happened. Can you tell me how to get to Shell Beach?

On the agenda for today: mail, data recovery, polish film. Woo doggy.

Everything observations: under 1000 XP to go to the next (and final) level advance. Over 1000 XP from my closest rival, the boney one. I get to take this nice and easy. I'm gonna make sweet sweet love to the database and in return she's gonna give me godhead.

What comes after that? Can I be the All-Father? (Only if you poke out your eye and become Pseudo_Ntellectual...)

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

Thank goodness for air conditioning. That's been one of the nicer benefits to house sitting lately. It's 93 degrees F in Melbourne, FL, an hour north of here where we actually live. Our central a/c at home is ancient and crapped out again a few weeks ago. If we were home today our little metal-sided mobile home would have undoubtedly been about 120 degrees. No thank you!

Mom-in-law's house just went off the market yesterday, but the realtor has yet to take the friggin' sign and lock box off the property. I swear, those FOR SALE signs are freak magnets! The other day a very menacing looking guy who spoke very little English was skulking around the front yard. I kept my eye on him through the window and stayed calm until he began snooping around my mom-in-law's minivan. I grabbed the key fob with the remote alarm and hit the button. After all, her vehicle sure wasn't part of the home sale. The man, presumably of African descent, turned about 5 shades of caucasian and executed a jump that would have rivaled the most celebrated NBA allstar.

I proceeded to confront this man, so I went to the front door and turned off the alarm.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
"The house is for sale," he replied.
"Yes, it is. The agent's number is clearly printed on that sign. Call it for an appointment."
"I call that number. Man say to come look at house outside... Call back if good."
"Well, sir, that's all fine and good, but unless you have a licensed real estate agent with you right now I consider you to be trespassing."
"But the man say come and look-" he was becoming nervous.
"You've seen all you're going to see without an agent." I was now getting angry. "Without an agent you are trespassing and I will call the police. Leave now!"

Well, he did leave without incident. I'm glad about that. But really, where do some people get off? For all I know the poor guy was telling the truth, or he could have been casing the joint. Either way, we haven't heard from him again.

Whew!

Well I found a spot for myself today. I noded about 25 Principia Discordia nodes. I had found the node a few days ago, and being a fervent discordian enjoyed mousing around a bit. Then it turned out that most of them hadn't been noded. Just my luck! So I started in on them. Got me to third level (Woo Hoo!) Which of course makes me very happy. I wonder what suprises await me at later levels. Heck like I'm gonna make a find like that again.

On the other hand I feel kinda dirty for just copy pasting the info in. I know they are valid nodes, and I know that there are a lot of fellow Discordians here, but it still feels weird. I worked really hard on the early ones, and this huge set just falls in my lap. Is that the trick to getting a large number of write ups? If so it is kinda scary to me.

In any case, off to celebrate third!

Jack Black, KSC -><-

It's humid. It's so damn humid that if you ran around outside with your mouth open it is conceivable that you could drown. This is no exaggeration folks, it's bad out there.

I'm starting to realize that Heineken just isn't as good as it used to be. I've been drinking a lot of home and microbrewed beers lately and they've refined my palate.

Things I wish I wouldn't have done today:

• Work 11 hours with no break (not even lunch)
• Stepped in gum
• Gone to work
• Gotten out of bed
• Work 11 hours with no break

Unbelievable. I never thought I'd be able to go to work again and not come out a raving lunatic, chewing out everyone in my way. Lo and behold, I was not jammed in the bottle return. Instead, I was allowed to [blissfully habitate the cardboard shredder. Sure, it's more boring, but at least I don't have to deal with customers.

Besides that, my "Learning Perl" book came yesterday. Unfortunately, that's also the day Perfect Dark came in for the N64. One will distract me from the other, and I'm afraid the more useful of the two will be set aside for a time...

Ahahaha...had a little nervous breakdown today. Not really, but I sort of freaked out on the phone with Kai about whether or not going to Stanford is a good decision or a really bad one. I mean, I'll have negative cash flow and completely wipe out my savings, if I don't get a real teaching assistantship by second quarter. And I expect the odds on that aren't too good. But, it's a once in a lifetime chance, right? I can't turn it down.

T-one week to moving day. Wow. I packed all my clothes. I hate my clothes. I should learn to sew, I guess. They just don't make many styles I like...well, maybe that won't be true in the Bay Area, eh? I'll have to learn to hit the thrift shops and all. IF I get a job. Anyone need a Chinese-speaking HTMLer/artist? ... Oh well, it was worth a try.

I had the mother of all migraines, but the Maxalt put it away. Yay for absurdly powerful medications.

Ahem. I will now confront you with the insignificant details of my day.

shower: Paul Mitchell Awapuhi shampoo, Biolage conditioning balm, Lever 2000 soap.

food: California roll

words: Sainte-Beuve. Dean Koontz (Dean Koontz!?).

Argued with Y in regard to Wilde and Kant's ideas on aesthetics. Spent a few hours going over subnetting (thanks, foobutt!). It made considerably more sense, and I'm going to work on it more this morning and ever day after that. What spurred it was Y saying "You're spending your time noding sea creatures when you should be working on your certification." What? No, I don't have a problem. I'm an idle motherfucker, and it's starting to piss me off. Damn you Everything! You're so high maintenance, but it's my own fault. I make you that way....

I can't get that fucking Britney Spears song out of my head.
Confession: when I was in Rome, stuck in bed sick one day, I watched an hour long Britney Spears bio-thing on Mtv.

If you write your daylog in notepad first, remember to close it before you leave your desk...

I forgot this vital little tidbit, and when I got back to my desk, I had the following sitting on my screen when I returned:

Well, work has certainly calmed down since yesterday.
 And thank goodness, because we have been some busy mofo's
 lately. My boss, that I was supposed to relieve, has
 returned, and still will not leave. After I ran the show
 for two weeks underway, he comes back, ready to work,
 because he's been screwing off for two weeks instead of
 standing watch and working 18 hours a day. EKIM- FUCK
 YOU!!!!- GENE

My boss' name is of course, Gene. Whoops. I don't know if he or one of the merry pranskters here at work actually wrote it--no one mentioned anything. So I'll just stay quiet and see what happens, since he is on his way out anyway.

My wife has been quiet and a little mean lately

I don't know if she is dissatisfied with her life or just tired of me being gone all the time, but either way she sure doesn't seem very happy.

I still haven't resumed my MBA work

I'll blame Everything for that, too.

The boy woke up last night, and not happy

He didn't feel good, and was coughing and snorting. We gave him dimetapp, aka the purple medicine, and then we all read Richard Scarry's Busy World together until he got tired enough to sleep. He loves boats and trains, and knows Huckle and Mr. Frumble by sight. The others he just identifies by animal species.
"Who's that?", I ask.
"A gog", he answers in his stuffed-up-nose little boy voice.

My daughters are now officially girls.

It has been happening for a while now, but today, with little painted toe nails they scampered through the house creating those little folded paper fortune teller things, and kept harassing wife and I with them.
"What color?"
"Ummmmm, turquoise."
"There is no turquoise! Red, blue, purple, or pink!"
"Ummmm, cyan."
"Daaaddddyyy! Do it right!"

But it was fun to watch them read the book and fold the paper and then cram their big first grade penmanship into the little spaces on the fortune teller. They're pretty cool, when they put aside all the whining and just do their thing.

It was cool to see a nodeshell of mine turned into a C!

I wrote love someone elses wife a while back, and it had a phrase I particularly liked the smell of sunblock and surf and seaweed. So I bracketed it, nodeshelled it, and bookmarked it for later noding. Much to my surprise and joy I saw it on the welcome page a couple of days ago. How cool! I love quality nodeshells--even the rescued ones. That is what E2 is al about, in my opinion. The flashes of brilliance created between people who have never met except through electronic nodeshell droplets. Everything is cool.