So here I am in the Auckland airport again, noding on one of those strange little internet kiosks. We had a huge tailwind comning from LA which means we arrived here an hour early. Which in turn means an extra hour hanging around on this concourse waiting for my connection. hoofuckingray. I have been to Auckland 5 times now and I have never left the airport. I could go and enter the guess how many blocks in the lego gorilla competition but Im saving that for when I get really bored.

LA wasnt too bad - I caught up with a friend who lives there and, just for a change we went drinking. I ended up passing out on his couch at about 4am so in the end I didnt make much use of that room at the Sheraton.... except to hold a phone interview with an HR person from the LA based tech consulting firm that have been sniffing around. We arranged that their construction manager would call me in Australia to talk further.

They havent made an offer or anything, but they seem very interested an I think maybe they will. This leaves me with an interesting problem....what the hell do I do now? I have already accepted an offer from a similar Melbourne-based firm and I have a meeting to discuss this with my current employer first thing tomorrow.

Sometimes I think i just want to take the offer in Melbourne. I love that city - I am not finished with it yet. I have friends there. Do I really want to run away again. To start all over again in a new city where I know noone? It isnt easy, I know Ive done it before. Besides Im not sure I really want to live in LA. Parts of it are funky - very funky indeed but most of it seems to be quite dull and dirty

on the other hand - What am I thinking? Here is the opportunity to go and work in the US in cutting edge technology. I want to travel. Am I really going to turn this down because I am scared of being lonely when I am lonely already? After all the last time I ran away it turned out to be the best move I ever made in the long run

Once again I have some decisions to make.

kung's USA daylogs prev
Today is:

New style (Gregorian): 2 October 2000
Old style (Julian): 19 September 2000 C.E.
Fixed:
730395 R.D.
Astronomical (at noon):
2451820 j.d.
ISO:
Monday, Week 40, Year 2000
Coptic:
22 Tut 1717 A.M.
Ethiopic:
22 Maskaram 1993 E.E.
Islamic (until sunset):
3 Rajab 1421 A.H.
Persian:
11 Merh 1379 A.P.
Baha'i (until sunset):
Rahmat Mash'iyyat, B'ab of V'ahid 9, Kull-i-Shay 1 B.E.
Hebrew (until sunset):
3 Tishri 5761 A.M.
Chinese:
cycle 78, year Geng-chen, month 9, day 5
Hindu Lunar (from sunrise):
5 Asvina 2057 V.E.
Hindu Solar (from sunrise):
16 Kanya 1922 S.E.
French:
Decade II, Primidi de Vendemiaire de l'Annee 209 de la Revolution
Mayan (long count):
12.19.7.10.17
Discordian: Setting Orange, Bureaucracy 56, Year of Our Lady of Discord 3166

Read a chunk of The House of the Spirits, which I was supposed to have read. The two people that were to meet me and discuss this book at the library never showed up, so I ended up checking out some books: Bookchin: Anarchism, Marxism and the Future of the Left; An Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Poetry; Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited; and Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body by a feminist by the name of Susan Bordo. I couldn't find a book that I was looking for called Ethical Slut, I might just order it, oh well. I debated checking out Lesbian Gothic, but I figured that I have enough reading, along with A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Memoirs of a Beatnik for a while.

Things are looking kind of different than yesterday. I met the other object of my desire and things are looking different, no matter about my self-imposed shut in. My girlfriend has e-mailed me and apologized for breaking down yesterday, which is totally unnecessary. Her feelings are her feelings, and I'm not one to yell about that. Still, I can't help but feel some sort of concern. The other girl has told me how she goe into the situation with her current S.O., which is a very sad tale. I can't deny I'm having chivelrous impulses, but I don't think that's the only reason. I am falling in love again with another woman, I'm so sure of it. Me and the other girl have so much in common. We discussed sex, a little. The idea is no doubtably appealing to the both of us. I have to resolve this sexual tension, which is a good tension, but it's still giving me a mindfuck.

I may sell my orange iBook to a friend, if he'll buy it. I like the thing, but I need the money, badly. See yesterday for what I'm trying to do to alleviate my finances.

My arms and shoulders are beginning to stiffen up. Yesterdays circuit class achieved several things:
Exercise (the whole point, really)
Extracting me from the house on a Sunday afternoon
The more modern equivalent of a cold shower and a run around the block.

For a whole hour, I pumped weights, ran on treadmills, cursed the instructor and not once did I think about the beautiful boy that now sleeps less than 10 metres from me. I know the rules of share house living. I know most of this attraction is due to his resemblence to my ex. And I know that it's probably exceptionally obsessive and unhealthy. But... it's fun. It'll wear off soon enough and in the meantime I'm revelling in my ability to have a simple, straightforward crush on a virtual stranger. I don't have to think, I don't have to make any effort, I don't have to put time into it, I don't have to worry about emotional baggage. I just get to look at him and grin like an idiot.

Today's other major achievement involved a sugar snap pea and a caterpillar. While not nearly as fun, it did provide amusement for several friends. Caterpillars may be viable protien, but they're not tasty.

I find myself continually thinking about the olympics. Before they started, I was highly sceptical. I just wanted them to be gone, to be over, to get rid of this foolish rush of commercialism and cashing in on tacky symbols of national pride. But the opening ceremony.. East Timor's triumphant entry and the spontaneous standing ovation from the crowd.. and the torch... that one moment where a female aboriginal athlete was chosen to light the flame, that image of her standing surrounded by water and fire... it took my breath away. It was one of the greatest advertisment for reconciliation I've ever seen, and it was done without rhetoric, without politics, just one, simple beautiful image saying this is our future. The games themselves were fun. Australia is damn good at sport, and I found myself being sucked into the whole winners atmosphere. I WAS proud to be Australian. I love it here, I think we have the best standard of living in the world, and one of the best societies. Yes, we have a shit government, we have injustice, intolerance and poverty, but there also seems to be a sense of hope... a belief that this can be changed.

And finally.. the closing ceremony. One part of me grinned hugely at the prime minister's discomfort when so many of the acts sent out massive pro-reconciliation messages. And their impact was all the stronger for their simplicity. I admit... I loved it all. It was tacky, it was foolish, it was loud and gritty and sparkly... Jimmy Barnes to Drag Queens... it was totally, totally Oz.

prev daylog next daylog

The holiday (Rosh Hashana) is finally over. I ate over at my dad's house on Friday, then drove to my mum's, to get to the lunch she had for "all the children", as she calls us. We are her children and her husband's children. It had to be w/out my brother, as he's on guard duty in the army. It was a nice BBQ, though. But it was thenre that I noticed that many of my puns seem to be ignored, or just not got. And I don't care. I don't stop to explain them. They are thus lost forever. (For example, my mom asked me if I want some spare ribs, and I told her only if she really didn't need them. It fell on deaf ears.) Amir, the oldest of the children, just got married recently. His wife is so pathetic. Her existence seems to be totally futile. She's not funny. She's not interesting. And she says "Oh my God" when she sees my nipple ring. Oh well...

My photo album is finally done (from my trip to the dolomites. I showed it to a friend, who's a photography buff and he was rather impressed, which of course pleased me to no end. We then went out dancing (Saturday night). We went to a place that had 80's hits, and, unbelievably, I danced to songs like "Touch Me" and "Major Tom" (I think that's what it's called. There was a free sushi bar there, and we had just been sending over the "Wassabi" wassup advert, so we spent about 15 minutes saying "Wassabi", much to the annoyance of the sushi maker, who did not co-operatingly shout "Wassabi!"


  1. I will be adding some more info as the day progresses.
  2. I noticed there is a bit of vote dumping on daylogs (up or down). I wanted to write "Please don't vote on this if you haven't read it", but that would be a bit pointless, wouldn't it.

10:42

Nothing highly alarming has happened so far. I had some dreams, but damn me if I can remember anything...

Well, the weekend was funnier than what it seemed like. Surprising. =)

11:55

This writeup is at -2? OK, maybe I'll add some emphasis to this, just to make the point:

(To be continued...)

=)

Patience, folks, do you really think I can node that much when it's daytime?

12:40

I made a RGRNCA strike when a d00d came to ask for "hacking help" in rec.games.roguelike.nethack. We don't want that kind of crap there, as you may guess. Dammit, I haven't made a decent RGRNCA strike since... August something? Can't even remember.

s0 d00dZ, H3r3s SuM InF0rMaShUn On HoW T0 FiNd 31337 HaX0r SiT3z!

/bin/echo -ne 'GET /search?q=elite+hax0r+sites HTTP/1.0\n\n' | \
    nc www.google.com 80 | \
    perl -ne 'if(m%<a href="?(http://[^">]+)"?>%i) { print $1,"\n"; }'

...neat script, dedicated for all script kiddies in the existence =)

(-3? Yeah, yeah, whining isn't fun to listen to, but still, it isn't a nice thing to do...)

15:04

Kuro5hin.org had a story comment that said a naughty word about E2, so I just had to tell that a) E2 has been helpful, and b) damn, people have lost the faith on The Better Tomorrow. Be positive, folks.

16:15

Usenet done, mail done, did a lot of K5 posting in general. Hmmmm... what next? Go to the Town?

17:32

Bashed through Velar. Some great works of art. =) Mortar-bombed the clown who clowned around in the r.g.r.n.

I actually tried the script above and found out about a security site with certain sort of attitude: http://www.antioffline.com/ ... =)

23:26

Just casual bullshitting in #gimp...

I beefed up Mozilla a bit by Making Better Settings. It's now working, decently. Not perfectly, but definitely good enough for casual use.

And sometimes Way Cooler than Netscape. The font size menu options actually work. One site I visit doesn't work at all in Netscape, but works in Mozilla.

Funny bit: I originally wrote "I'm seriously starting to like Mozilla" to this message box, and guess what happened? Mozilla crashed... Such a modest program, blushes completely when I say good things about it.

Maybe I should make a "Red Army Kompass" icon for Mozilla.

Oh, and thanks to people who upvoted me from that -3 swamp. I was just the first time I've seen such low scores. Maybe this node actually has some meaning right now.

Wolf Out. No much actual noding left for today.


Other day logs o' mine...

Noded today by y.t.: Boo!
Updated: milfurs

Listen up newbie noder

If I comment on your nodes, suggesting improvement, I don't hate you. I am not voting your nodes down. I am not organising a pack of level 5 and above noders to XP rape you into oblivion. I suggest to make E2 a better place, not to swell my own ego. So don't /msg whinging complaints when someone has voted down a node I commented on. Don't assume it was me. Take it on the chin. Improve your nodes. Don't simply cut and paste. Learn to link. Learn to format. Don't make claims you can't back up. Attribute that stuff you took from the web. Summarise. Don't bullshit me, I've spent the last 10 years of my life dealing with geek bullshit. It doesn't work. Get over your ego.

I will vote up factual nodes, as they're overlooked. At the end of the day, if I have votes left, I will vote down getting to know you nodes. I C! stuff I like, be it weird nonsense, or nodes like laser with nifty ASCII art. I C! Dizzy now and again, because his mind is suitably sick.

GROW UP PEOPLE.

Voting may be a popularity contest, but I am not going to compare dick size with you.

And posting insulting nodes as everyone is not big, and it's not clever. Hey I feel like an editor now, just without the power.


And now, back to the daylog. Damn it's cold outside. Time to air out my sweaters. Time to stand outside, freezing to have a smoke. Today is a day of meetings with the boss to rant about the lack of work and the stupid office games I have having to play with sales people. I will win. I always win.

KID A - New Radiohead CD, just bought, now playing. Quiet office. Bliss.

Damn, Compaq messed up my credit card information, there is more than enough space on the card, yet it got denied. My bank can't understand it. I have to send a cheque now. I have no idea where my cheque book is.


jessicapierce saw my belly button last night, and promised to show hers. She welched! :)

Sydney. I saw Juan Antonio Samaranch today.

I was walking around Circular Quay; and about 4.40 p.m. decided to head back to the city center, going by the Regent Hotel (IOC HQ). Other times I'd always passed only the front entrance on George Street; today on impulse decided also to take a walk by the back.

Turned down Harrington Street, which was quiet and almost deserted, and headed towards the back of the Regent. Opposite the Hotel was a convenience store; its proprietor stood on the sidewalk along with a young Asian couple and a small boy. They were all looking at the Regent. I joined them, and saw that what they were watching was a group of people outside the Hotel's entrance: volunteers in their distinctive multicolored uniforms and hats, a couple of coppers, men in suits. One of these was Michael Knight, the New South Wales Minister for the Olympics. A car with tinted windows was waiting.

This was obviously some high-powered bunch of IOC/Sydney Olympics officials, and while photographing them I congratulated myself on having detoured this way. Then, out of the Regent emerged Samaranch himself. My eyes were popping. He spoke briefly to Knight and the others, shook some hands, stepped towards the waiting car. Then he glanced across the street and saw the five of us standing there watching, and he lifted a hand in greeting--he was looking right at me. My own hand lifted in response. I was grinning like an idiot.

It seemed to have lasted minutes, but it was but a moment--and he got into the car. Impossible to see him through the darkened windows. "Goodbye and keep well, Mr Samaranch!" called the store proprietor. The young Asian woman next to me waved at the car as it pulled away from the kerb and moved down the street. The proprietor went back into his store. The couple and their child continued on their way. And so did I, feeling as if (I'm an atheist for Chrissake) I'd been touched by the hand of God.

September 9, 2000
September 12, 2000
September 14, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 18, 2000
September 24, 2000
September 29, 2000
September 30, 2000
October 1, 2000

I woke up this morning at 6am wondering whether I should go to work. Decided the flu was worth an MC, so went to the clinic and the good doctor gave me 2 days off.

But it is not fun typing on the notebook with a runny nose and heavy head. Though did manage a new writeup for Prince of Persia.

back | days | front

*Sigh* blowdart you'd better stop mentioning me in your daylogs, people will start to talk :-)

However, newbie noders take note. Please read through the everything university. Don't rant off at people because they correct you; they care for you in a strange way because they want to see the things you write properly accepted by the funny community here on E2.

But enough of such wibblings. I am so beholden to everything that Dana says, I slept with my door open and the phone as close to my bedroom as possible so that if she rang I could get there as soon as was humanly possible. This feeling of love is new to me, I want to hold her and protect her forever. I want to hear her voice and stroke her hair forever. I want her.

*Dizzy shakes his head

But all you noders don't want to hear that. It just sucks soo much that my head is filled with painkiller fuzz right now. I feel that I want to write so many things, poetry and stories for you all, but especially for Dana.

Oh yeah, thank you melissa for reading my daylog to Dana yesterday. Even without the net or a phone, she can reach me...

17:10 BST

Hiya! I have accomplished things today: I wrote my first LaTeX document, in preparation for some serious writing in the future. I managed to get some laundry done, even though I was encumbered by crutches and painkillers. I've helped someone at work, even though I swore I would ignore such calls. I finished part 3 of my story to Dana. (yay!)

Wow, I should get into hospital more often. I haven't been this productive since I mistook the caffeine pills for mints...

And, and my Mother is making me dinner and bringing it over to me, yet again!. I tell ya, when I get really rich, I will hire so many servants...

Lucky me, I matriculated today. Unfortunatley, the engineering students with surnames between A and L had to be in the right place at 9.15am. This required actually getting up, something I'm not quite used to at all.

Dad drove me down to the underground station, but due to traffic this saved me just a couple of minutes. I went via town, and the train was sardine-like. I guess this is the norm for so early in the morning.

I turned up at Bute Hall on time-ish, and things seemed to be going swimmingly until the guy from the registry pointed out that the only course I'd been entered for was the Certificate of Basic IT Competency. D'oh. I had to go and track down my adviser of studies, and I don't think he was particularly amused at being disturbed for such a task at this point on a Monday morning. ("what a fucking mess", quoth he.) After a couple of calls, and a visit from his assistant, he worked out that he (or perhaps the registry had omitted to put down the rest of my course codes. In a split-second decision, I picked a business course over languages (I think). And then it was back through the labrynth that is the James Watt building, and back to matriculate. Easy. My photo id isn't too cheesy, just a little squashed.

And I now know four people on my course.. Geoff and Euan from my school, Rhona from the Engineering Education Scheme thingie I took part in, and the girl who I met on the way out of the building. I didn't catch her first name, but I do know that her surname is Dunn and she's from Lenzie. Doubtless I'll see her on induction day, on Wednesday along with the others. But at least I'm not a stranger yet. We walked down to the underground station, and i chatted to her there and on the train too. I managed to make myself a friend at uni, yay.. :)

But I have a cold. This sucks. I'm told it's a 24 hour thing. But I think I'll stay home tonight, and perhaps stop into work tomorrow - they now have ADSL.

so,whoopie, I'm now officially a student at the University of Glasgow

By this time tomorrow,(it's 11:22 AM), I should just be about out of North Carolina. Taking I-4, then hopping right up 95. I will make beer night. Looking for hedgehogs, don't know why I didn't think of them as a gift before...don't know if I'll have enough time....and what exactly does one do with a hedgehog once one owns one. Wait. Don't answer that. I don't REALLY want to know.

Amazing weekend. Got to spend time with the taurus. Got to spend a whole Saturday cracked out on sleep-dep with him actually. WOW. He's crazier than my guy up north and my angel put together. But so interesting. Amazing pianist. Well-spoken, creativity coming through his pores. Techie. Of course. I put off calling him all week because, well, I made the first move. He had lost my number and called my friend 8! times. So I finally called him late Friday night. We met at the Ybor Diner. 4:00 in the mornin'. HE's so handsome.....I've never seen cheekbones that sharp on a real live person before, as opposed to say anime. Apparently he used to do the old BBS schtuff.....but computing bores him????? Anyway, he's a good guy, and something to think about, but not now. I'm meeting up with the guy who will always have my heart tomorrow. Wish me luck, this one's highly volatile and extremely difficult to read. I think this trip will be the deciding factor of whether or not we can work things out in this lifetime. Wish me luck, I don't want to wait through my next reincarnation for us to finally fit together. So, I have faith of some sort.

Two tests today before I leave. Can't find my cat, he's supposed to be going with me....that's perturbing. I'm so excited about the trip, I can't think straight. But I'll have over 15 hours to do that tomorrow. I just have to keep telling myself I like making that drive by myself! Okay, fingers crossed everyone. I got cats to pack.

This is my last day at Zeta Digital, a large web portal that is the digital spin off of a larger media group (Grupo Zeta).

I am returning to home, to work as a freelancer. Corporations suck (see Advice for a geek in a pool full of sharks for a better understanding of my experience here), and I don’t feel like waiting here for my voice to be heard. Of course I have a lot of things to do, so money won’t be the problem, although now I have to go out for it, instead of just waiting for the check to come at the end of the month.

Anyway, the future is bright, I am going to work in projects that need some amount of my preferred activities: writing, teaching and R&D, and among those projects, there are a website (antipasta, inspired in adbusters), the Spanish Everything Project, and perhaps (or instead of), the Catalan Everything Project (Kurtz has the last word about this).

I’m glad this site is responsible for some of the decisions and directions my life is about to follow, because it has expanded my hopes of what we can do with the net.

So I am happy and I just wanted to share this moment with Everything/everyone.

...Day I was absent...Day I might be absent...

Hey, did I forget to daylog yesterday? No worries, nothing happened.

1:30 PM EST -- HOSEY FOAMY GREEN STUFF!

Ah, the sights and sounds, nay, even the smells of Oakland University. Today, as a part of OU's continuing efforts to make the place look better, they had the trucks filled with HOSEY FOAMY GREEN STUFF! That's right, the magic material which makes grass grow in the strangest of places where erosion has taken it's toll... OR HAS IT?

Walked over to the Dodge Hall computer labs to type this daylog out, and wouldn't you know it, THE DAMN LABS ARE INFESTED WITH WINDOWS 2000! Ugly! UGLY! At least I can ssh back home to my Linux box, away from all this madness. And fortunately, I'm heading off to the library after this to do physics homework. Help.

NEW NODES TODAY: The Ballad Of Freddy Pharkas, Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist, Coarsegold

Software testing, quality assurance, whatever you want to call it, I assure you it's boring. We've got a big project coming to a close, and we're now doing "usability" tests on the central database for that project.

Basically it involves running a Visual Test script in the background, while surfing e2 and /. to pass the time. This is the kind of hellish grunt work that makes me dislike working at a small shop. At a larger company I wouldn't have to do this, but I hate large companies. That's why I work for a small one. I wear many hats.


I hate my brother:

Not really, I'm just insanely jealous of him and his way with the opposite sex. He's been out of prison for exactly 30 days, and he's gotten laid more times than I have in the last year and half. Yes he is slut bait. Yes he probably shouldn't sleep around so much, but damnit, well... I'm horny. Straight but not very good at it even. I got laid so much more before I gave my life over to geekiness. Maybe I should do something about that.


Oh great the test script is done on Windows 98SE. Time to try Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. The joy... the unending, unendurable, joy.

During French class, we went over the proper way to say things like "Each for his own," "It will be mine," and "I want this one, not the former." The prof was not very good at speaking over the sound lawnmowers make while cutting the grass outside our classroom. I missed the entire lecture. I think the entire class did. So it's all good.

I turned in my college apps this afternoon. I am nervous already, and they haven't even been mailed. There's only one school I want to get into, and I don't know what I'll do if they don't accept me. Probably get on with my life, eventually. But right now it seems like a huge deal. I want to go to the University of Michigan, and I've heard some pretty impressive rumors that pretty much kill all my chances of getting in. I'm not stupid, but I'm not the valedictorian either. From what people are saying, most of the kids who apply there have 4.0s and want to be president. This does nothing for my already questionable self-confidence.

I had to have heard the dumbest complaint of my life today in first hour. A little goth kiddie took time to stop talking about pot in order to bitch about how girls wear bras to school. She, she said, never did. She said "well, you don't sleep while wearing one." Okay. Well, most people aren't sleeping at school. She then went on to say she wanted to make a self portrait completely out of marijuana, because that's what she enjoyed most in life. I said, "As long as you're free," and left it at that. No one can tell me not to wear underwear.

"Oh my God, they fired Jenny! YOU BASTARDS!"
Woke at 5AM, an hour before the alarm would bid me to return to work from a week's vacation. Brewed some coffee, and would have had some breakfast if I wasn't still full of lobster and crab from last night's birthday dinner. I arrived at the factory to learn that there were numerous layoffs while I was gone, and more to come. Everyone was demoralized and nervous. – Well, not everyone; getting laid off might actually be a positive move for me, as blasé as I feel about my job. Around 10:00 my boss confided that our own department was being reduced by half. Two QC techs, a research chemist, and (most important to me) my assistant didn’t make the cut. By 2:00 she was on her way home. Historically, she tended to cry (a lot) over a change of position, but I guess today she was emotionally prepared. I felt like crying, myself; she was the best damn assistant I ever had, and I’ll miss her as a friend over and above workload considerations.
After losing power and going around with no concept of time for a week, yesterday, Sunday, I decided to set all of my clocks, and I did so accordingly. However, I set them an hour slow. Not only did I not show up at work until 9:00 (an hour late) but I really screwed the pooch when I didn't make it in time to host the teleconfrencing meeting at our central administration building.

I'm screwed, I keep waiting for the MIS department head to come in sat something to the effect of, "Well Tex, we appreciated all the work you've done for us, but, don't call us, we'll call you."

To make matters worse I went out with some friends of mine last night, we had a really good time. However, when we came back to my house, an aerosol type can of silver polish had exploded in my laundry room. This act destroyed the paint in the room, and alot of my clothes. I have to clean the laundry room tonight, and reset all the clocks, and have dinner with my folks, and finally get all of the computers going... This is gonna be a bad day.

I bought an egg crate to sleep on last nite. Oh, the marvels of egg crates! Ashley and I were too comfortable even for sex. I had to exert mad force of will to go to class this morning. So far, the day has been pretty swell. Schroeder declined to take up the paper that was due today, a fortunate turn of events, since I'd declined to write it. I read some Tarzan. I got my Playstation to work again (finally). I'm looking forward to settling down tonite and studying some major central nervous system layouts. Maybe I'll order pizza.

So, I've been more or less offered the job at the Oakland Museum of California. It's half the pay of my current job at Festival of Asia, but it's much closer and much more interesting. I sent in my letter of resignation yesterday, and today my boss here is trying to convince me to stay on. He wants 24 hours in which to try to think up something. What if he does? How do I tell him I don't want to work here anymore? I can't stand this situation.

The Oakland Museum is closed on Mondays, so I was in there with a security pass and all. The doors to the upcoming Forbidden City exhibit were open and I could see them working on the installation. The exhibit opens in about 12 days, and they haven't tested the new computer system yet! *cringe* That notwithstanding, though, there was just something amazing about walking around in a closed museum...

I guess I'll be adding to some of the holes in the Museum Metanode myself if I start this job, eh? It's got plenty of other lacunae, though! Patch it up!
I'm writing this node as I impatiently wait for my email to trickle in. I suppose I should bite the bullet and get DSL already... I work for a provider even. I could get a discount and I live a block from the CO. It'd be faster and I wouldn't have to write bitchy nodes like this.

Today, I worked and during my ten hours under the fluorescents, I endured the regular day-to-day operations of a department we like to call "Sub Legal". My boss forgot to ask me last week to get him a boardroom up on the twelfth floor for when the dudes from Nortel show up at 8 tomorrow morning, so I took care of that.

Otherwise, I have a paper cut and a new hangnail.

I was given a project by someone out west and now I have to dissect my job and help train three others, as well as the 700 contracts on my desk before Christmas. I think my new year's resolution will be to disappear from the cubicle farm for two weeks come January 1, 2001.

Until then, I will have to cope. I will, although this is not going to be easy.

Another Monday. By my calculation I have been alive for 9965 days. Phew. 35 more days and I'm into 5 digits. That seems ever so odd to me. Of course, it's also rather odd to be calculating that sort of thing.

Anyway, I'm still down in Sacramento. It's hot. Still. Spent the day writing more documentation and evaluating the client's business process. Happy happy fun computer science stuff. I also spent a good part of the day checking out this site my roommate emailed me about:

http://www.truemeaningoflife.com/

What a great site that is. I just about laughed myself to death. I also contemplated the possibilities of moving here (again) and being able to ride my motorbike every day of the year. Seems like an impossible dream. Plus I'm not sure I'd ever want to permanantly leave Calgary. OrCanada for that matter. Even for a few months.

I think I'll go home now and sit around my hotel room watching TV. Joy.

So, this actually starts at around 12:30am this morning. I finish reading a bit of A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessan Boyle, turn off the light above my bed and get into sleepy-time ready position.

Uh oh.

A slight stomach ache.

The last two times I got food poisoning (the last was probably from bad mayonnaise just a few days before January 1, 2000) I had the same sort of dull ache in my stomach to start things off. As soon as I recall the vomiting and diarrhea I endured for that unfortunate lunch choice I feel a slight twing of fever.

I hope its just hypochondria getting the best of me but it isn't going away. So I get up and put a fan in my open window and turn it on low. It's not a warm night by any measure. Phew. That's better...the ache is still there though.

6:30am. Bzzzz goes the alarm. I jump out of bed and I remembered that I felt a little sick before I fell asleep. I do a system diagnostic and burp. Yep. My stomach wasn't happy with something I ate yesterday (macaroni and cheese perhaps?) but there's no serious fever, no impending liquidy bowel movement, and most thankfully, no nausea.

I continue to burp as the morning unfolds. My stomach isn't crying out for breakfast in its usual vigor but I do have an appetite. I wonder about the wisdom of eating a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in my current somewhat out of sorts condition but I decide to go ahead. It tastes pretty good actually, but the orange juice is what really hits the spot. Mmmmm...Vitamin C...mmmmm.

And so in the end I think my body managed to fight off a slight case of food poisoning. Still, I wonder what it might have touched this mini-sickness off. May have to toss the margarine...though I don't know if you can get sick from that like you can with butter. Thank you, white blood cells! Hope I'm not jinxing you.

Watched pretty much my entire domicile get packed into boxen (ok, so I like how it sounds like that) today. Movers came by with much cardboard and sheaves of paper to crumple and pack around all my worldly belongings (save this trusty noding iron, of course), which now lie stacked about me like a snowdrift of cellulose. Wow. Guess we're really going. Gonna be even more of a madhouse Wednesday, when this stuff actually makes the spatial shift.

Woulda been easier on a full stomach, some exasperating accident of history has contrived to put a fast day today, the day after Rosh Hashanah (and when Jews fast, we don't fool around. None of this "no meat" stuff: it's no eating, no drinking, zip.) Ah well. Still, got a lot done.

But the cable TV people shut the service off a few days too early. :(

This writeup will cover the past four days, because things didn't feel resolved until today. On Friday, I talked with the undergraduate coordinator, Dr. Hrechak. My graduation application was stalled because I was missing a requirement for graduation. I was rather shocked, since my advisor from last semester told me I was set. We had a discussion about this, but since my former advisor was not in his office then, it couldn't be verified until Monday. In the meantime, he suggested I look for a suitable course, and it might be possible to still register for it. The biggest barriers would be the registrar and the professor teaching the course, since it was already 4 weeks into the semester (essentially over 1/4 of the way through).

The most annoying thing was the course I was missing. It was a general elective in math or science, any level. I couldn't believe I could be delayed by 6 months for a single 100-level elective course. I left the office extremely annoyed, mostly at my advisor. Although there was a chance it could get cleared up on Monday, the strong possiblity of getting delayed was not making me happy.

A family friend called when I got home, and we went through the usual small talk. She asked about school, and I said it was going great. She knew from my mother that I was set to graduate this winter, and she asked about that. That got me a little upset, but I just lied and said everything was fine.

On Saturday, I reluctantly went through the course catalog to check for suitable courses. I thought it was extremely lame. I looked at a lot of 100-level courses but they were just not interesting. I settled on a few 300- and 400-level courses. Then I got a phone call. A former client of mine wanted to discuss a job offer for me upon graduation. Knowing my future was uncertain, I just proceeded like it wasn't.

Turns out I didn't have too much to fear. Dr. Hrechak talked with my former advisor and concluded that my former advisor did make a mistake. They decided to let me go ahead and graduate. I can only assume they feared I would sue them or blow up the school. Things aren't the same post-Columbine. I walked out of the office, wanting to break into a skip. The day was sunnier than it was before.

Now all I have to do is pass my classes.

Well, I guess I'm late for writing yesterday's daylog, but I will, anyway...

Not much to do in the morning (well, until assignments start flying about), went to class at 5pm for two hours of absolutely boring Computer Architecture. Damn! I hate hardware; I've never cared much for it, as long as it gets its job done. I know it's important and interesting, but I just don't like it.

Spend most of the class watching a very pretty classmate. A cute girl with black hair and glasses. She used to greet me when crossing the halls, but she doesn't anymore :( (well, that might just be that I stopped greeting her back sometime ago -thought I looked like a fool smiling when she smiled at me). Anyway, a very sweet girl.

After class, we did our usual hanging out in the bar 'till we get thrown out. A cute puppy face managed a lift home from Mireia, which I love because she's a great chat, and I don't have to go home on the train alone.

Back at home, not much to do; my brother had to make some huge downloads, so that meant no noding for me. Watched La Cosa Nostra and went to sleep...

Today i spent the day with my brother, who was probably my first best friend and still knows me better than most people. Here he is, with his tech job and wife and house and best friend, living out in California. Here i am, with my two pieces of luggage and a carryon, homeless and unemployed, sleeping in his living room in California. I've thrown myself into this headlong and now, now that the plane tickets are all used and my concrete plan has run out, now i'm - what? condemned to freedom? We stroll through Laguna randomly, repeating patterns, going into galleries and shops that he hasn't been to before, commenting on the divergent forces that make up the town: tourism, art. Wealth. Well, not so divergent. Just alien in some ways. I am mostly fascinated by the unfamiliar plants and the juxtaposition of art and kitsch. It doesn't appear to be ironic.

Irony: a mainstay of my personality. Huh. Its counterpart in my brother's personality, and in most of his friends, is a lovely (intelligent) earnestness. Even their irony is heartfelt, there is nothing ever malignant or bitter about it. The aftertaste is like banana, sweet and substantial. They're like exotic plants to me. It is a good thing to see. I feel like i should handle them gently and i'm glad they like the food i make. But i really ought to move on.

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