September 20, 2000

running New Zealand Standard Time, GMT +12, so i get my days before the rest of you slackers…

was dragged out of bed by the withdrawal symptoms from my caffeine addiction. had several cups of hot brown caffeinated liquid to satisfy the cravings and waited for the headache to go.

caught up with the honours student i'm nursing through the last weeks of her project after she was all but abandoned by her supervisor (that's advisor to you americans) and was reminded why he'd lost interest in her. Reminded myself that I should catch up with her three times a day rather than twice.

currently working on some java natural language processing code.

several hours pass …

went dancing, salsa and ceroc (an hour of each), now back to e2.

What all of you people are asking is 'Did Chaos get the Computer?'

Well, the quote finially came today. It's 665Mhz and it has a 32 MB TnT2 Riva 3d game card! Woo hoo!

But I have to wait even more for them to order it. But soon. I think within a week I'll have it.

For those of you who are thinking 'What the hell is this guy talking about', check my log at September 18, 2000.

The Latter Day Saints have built themselves a new temple in the Boston area, and are currently giving tours to the general public.

I went for a tour this evening with some friends, and was sort of disappointed by the interior. The exterior of the building is a fairly striking example of the Cecil B. de Mille school of Faux Egyptian, but the inside looks at lot like your average Marriott conference center. There were lots of lobbies and small rooms with tables and chairs arranged in conversational groupings, and an abundance of artificial flower arrangements and trees.

The coolest thing was the baptismal font supported by twelve life-sized cattle. The uncoolest thing was the "Celestial Room," which was decorated to give the faithful a foretaste the Mormon concept of heaven and looked like an unsophisticated poor person's notion of a rich person's living room.

It was rather touching to have the tour guides assure us that only the finest materials and workmanship were used to build this sacred space.

I think that The Sopranos is the coolest show in the world. They just started airing it up here in Canada, and it kicks a lot of ass.

On another note, I love when the sales department of your company sells a product to four companies promising delivery in a week after the development team (led by myself) specifically stated that it would take three months.

Not much else exciting to report, so I'm gonna sign off.

prev daylog next daylog

I think I'm developing an infection in my wrist. It started off on Saturday, when I had a jazz gig. It was really good, BTW; I played with a drummer and a guitarist I really enjoyed playing with. But we played for about 2 and a half hours, which is far too long, and in the end I could feel my wrist playing up on me. And now it hurts, and I can't find the doctor's phone.

I saw Cube yesterday. I've heard reviews both ways, but all I can say is that it's absolutely awesome. It's the kind of scary that gets under your skin. Not too gruesome, just a bit, but very cool indeed. People either say it's really good or really bad. I know that every intelligent person I spoke to told me it's great, and every person of average intelligence or less said it sucked. I wonder if that really reflects on it? It's not that sophisticated, and so I wonder. One reviewer gave it the lowest rating possible. I don't think that's legitimate for a reviewer, regardless of his own opinions, seeing as the film won 3 awards in respectable film festivals. Oh well...

Back to my wrist problem, I have two practices today, one tomorrow, and a show on Friday. I know I should take it easy, but I won't, so that's probably going to suck ass for my wrist. I'm such an idiot.

back | days | front

lately I've been slipping down
thinking I'm the only one
drifting in an out of blue
destiny is a state of a mind
and today I'm doing fine

Listening to Heather Nova while the clouds turn the sunlight deep yellow and the sky competes by changing to the deepest daylight blue possible. This is me as I walk in, sleepy and smiling cos you tucked me in last night.

Someone snuck into my room last night and swapped my brain for some cotton wool. Time will tell whether or not this is a good thing.

No dreams. That sucks. But I did wake up thinking about holding your hand and touching your skin.

*dizzy drifts off, leaving work on the ground and floats in the clouds. The rain just passes through him.

Work stuff: Learning more about vim, trying to think about webservers, reading badly written specifications. Project leader continues to be nasty; in some ways I'm looking forward to my convalescence. In fact, if I am away from the office for an extended period of time it may stimulate some more... "free software type" development practises in our project. People may be forced to use email, irc, patches, web access, ftp and other such nice chunky nutritious things :)

10:40 BST

Oh... My... God... I just sent an email to our department entitled "cum stomer support website". People have already started laughing. Save me!

13:55 BST

Just got back from town. dizzy "the cotton wool head" managed to miss the work bus back, so I had to catch a proper bus :( I bought these books:

• The little book of dreams. I love superstitious nonsense :)
• Mr Mean's guide to management. Mmm, Mr Men.
• Selected Poems by John Keats.
• The Nation's favourite love poems. (a BBC compilation, with named sections!)
• The right to write. by Julia Cameron. Hopefully it will improve my noding...

16:40 BST

Hah!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_932000/932265.stm tells how the protestors who destroyed genetically modified crops have been acquitted of criminal damage. Yay! I shall probably get ripped to shreds for this opinion, but I think that unnatural modification of the genetic material of an organism is wrong. Putting said organisms outside of strictly controlled conditions is even worse.

---

More later, my fondant filled fancies...

Today I woke up an hour early. For some reason last few days I wake up long before my alarm goes off. So I lay there in my bed, bored. About fifteen minutes before my alarm should go off, I decided to get out of bed, get dressed and have breakfast. The newspaper hasn't arrived yet, so once again I'm bored because I haven't got anything to read during my breakfast.

After breakfast, I go to work. It's about an hour by car, so I enjoy some music while driving. Finally I wasn't so bored. Then I arrive at work, about 10 minutes earlier then usual, and I realise that I don't really have anything to do here. So, once again I'm bored. I've been surfing the web all morning, checking E2 a lot, but basically, I'm still bored.

After work I'll have to go to a meeting, which is also about an hour by car from where I work, but it's exactly the opposite way from where I live, so after the meeting it'll be a two hour drive. That meeting will probably be boring too, but I have to be there for some stupid reason.

I'll come home late in the evening, probably haven't talked to the girl I love at all, so if I look back tomorrow, it will probably be another wasted day.

I am having a party on October 7th. I told my friends I would so I must go through with it. Last night, Paco left a message on my voicemail, "we are going to bring the MTX's, we will only invite like 30 people..we'll camp out in the back yard." The MTX's? That's 1500 watts! Do we really need that much sound for 30 people?

I think Paco is trying to pull a fast one on me. I am going to need to lay down some rules and look like bitch...but I've got to. To Paco, the more sound, the better. He's the only DJ I know who actually gets kicked out of his own gigs at clubs for "pushing" the system to hard. "We gotta bang it," he says. He's blown speakers in half a dozen major clubs from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami. He's even blown the MTX's a number of times. He can't understand that more sound sometimes deteriorates its quality.

---

I was just sitting outside on some steps at my university smoking a cigarette when a black woman sat down next to me.

"Are you Greek?" she asked.
"Partially"
"I am going to a greek restaurant tomorrow night and was wondering if you could recommend some dishes."

I proceeded to tell her some of my favorites and she thanked me and walked off. It delights me to be thought of as Greek instead of Italian which is what everyone ususally thinks, but what a strange question to start a conversation off with...

Hmmm, 4 people in my house, only 1 shower, and everyone gets up at about the same time in the morning... so I node while I wait.
To be done today:
More class, if you care which one, check out my daylog from September 18, 2000.
Hopefully meet with my study abroad dean to finally finish up this application to study in London next semester.
Maybe, if I'm lucky, UPS will have found my bike from wherever they lost it while they were shipping it cross country and finally deliver it.
I'm not holding my breath.


Whoop, shower just opened up... more later.
---------------------------------------
16:27 EST
Back from campus for the afternoon. Classes were eh, but I don't really feel as if I can start skipping them. Especially so early in the semester. I try to last at least a month before I start skipping classes.
Yesterday would have been my year anniversary with my ex-girlfriend if we had't broken up two weeks ago. As one might imagine, she was less than kind to me yesterday, but she seemed better today. We ate lunch together. I know how much control she's exhibiting by being civil to me (because she made it clear last night when we talked) and I do appreciate her effort, we have many friends in common.
My turbulent love life is not the only thing to worry about. I still have to finish my study abroad application and get started on my databases homework due next week.


I never realized how repetative my life is until I started keeping daylogs.
P.S. - No sign of my bike.

The only exciting thing that happened so far is that I was stretching today in my workout class, and regained the ability to touch my toes and put my legs over my head.

I rule!

I am happy and limber now.

However I have lots more classes left and I think I should eat something, but food needs to be walked to, so I think I am going o sit here hungry and node till my Jewish History class.

Oh, and I have to read the bible as one of my sources for that class. I never realized it was so perverse...

Yesterday... not much. =( Did some noding, though...

18:11

Not much stuff going on. I woke up today after 12:15... God.

Last night was loooong... I just had to make e2-fake-linker.pl better than the (snort) inferior Python version... My first (ab)use of $& variable in Perl.

Well, I made a few modifications to my photos for the digital media class. I don't have a decent sound editor for Linux, so I can't make the other stuff yet (involved ripping music from CD, recording it, or getting it from other sources and piecing it togheter in a creative manner... =)

Kuro5hin rocks. =) You see, I have grown E2-addicted over the summer, and I found myself confused when I didn't find the +/-/o and Vote! button from Slashdot =) Kuro5hin has a five-point rating scale for each reply.

K5 also had some interesting stuff, I'll write more after I've find out more...

18:43

Slashnet changing name to Ircnetwork? Dumb, ircnet already exists...

22:08

OK... my home machine's ipchains are probably Completely Misconfigured... I can't connect to the "official" Napster servers, and no one can get to the web server running on my machine. Apparently identd fails to make itself visible, too (not that I care). Well well...

22:40

007 in TV... This time on Her Majesty's Secret Service. Yesterday they showed You Only Live Twice, which still had a couple of cheesy things (I could see the strings that kept the rocket in air!). The first Bonds had a lot cheesy things, but in the more recent movies, cheesiness has just became subtler and subtler =)

I have nothing against the series in general, though. Decent movies, but not greatest ever made. =)

00:15

Level 6! Woohoo! =) Why it took so long? Nuked some old crap, and that apparently still needs to be excercised later...

I noded my shortish reviews and points about Jack T. Chick Tracts - and will do in future, at least about the most interesting of them... =)

(To be continued)

---

Other day logs o' mine...

Noded today by y.t.: Exult Sotka Jack T. Chick Tracts Angels? Big Daddy? That Crazy Guy! Kent Hovind
Yesterday's belated news: Spede Pasanen Small helpful scripts for noders Slithering Perl Horrors

This morning I entered my office nad discovered that my beloved Albino Dwarf Siberian Hamster, D'Artagnon, was dead. Today I am sad. He hasn't been well of late. Aside from being inbred three ways from last Sunday, one of his eyes had gone all milky. He had also developed the nervous habit of chewing all his fur off. The vet said it wasn't a medical problem, but rather he was agitated from lack of a mate. I wasn't falling for that though. The last time he got some action I ended up with 20 little hamsters. Still I loved him, and he's gone. So I'm sad.

...Rememberance...Telepathy...

1:30-ish PM EST

I don't care if my mom's gonna chew me out for this. I felt sick, as I have been for the past couple days. I thought it would get better over time... Oh, how wrong I was. Despite feeling crappy, with a runny nose, sore throat, and general dizziness, I headed off to class. Physics. It took me about an hour (The length of the class) to realize that everything the professor said went straight through me and shot off to the next county. I couldn't focus on ANYTHING. Thus, I decided against going to my German class and headed home. Now, my mom's definately gonna chew me out for this, but I don't care.

I was sick.
Not like that's gonna matter to her.

I now sit at home, idle, still swimming in a sea of my own thoughts, or some such nonsense. Maybe not that such nonsense. Whatever such nonsense that means I'm feeling quite dizzy and loopy. I'll try contacting Speakeasy.net to get DSL in here later today. If I'm feeling better.

11:24 PM EST

I suddenly decided that timestamping my daylogs is a GOOD thing. Thankee to all noders who did this before for inspiring me. Byzantine, WWWWolf, I mean you. It's your fault!

Hrm. Looks like DMan's pushed bones too far. Open the eulogy floodgates, I say. Oh, wait, I made one of my own... silly me. Time for a good downvoting, I guess. Maybe some /msging is in demand for gross inaccuracies I missed?

NEW NODES TODAY: realworld IP, Chocky the Chipmunk, Chocky the Chipmunk's Chocky Num-Nums, Rest in Peace DMan

FUN FACT DISCOVERED TODAY: The daylog upvoting crew goes home after 10:00PM EST. Guess I'll have to get my daylogs in earlier.

Today I read in the paper that the ratings for NBC's Olympic coverage are the lowest ever (see my rant yesterday on this). Ha! The bad news is that they mostly made their money already on this one: they paid $705M for the broadcast rights but have sold $900M of advertising. The good news (of sorts) is that they also bought the rights to I think the next three as well, but will have to sell ads at a much lower rate because the response to Sydney has been so abysmal. As much as I take pleasure in their misfortune, though, it doesn't fix the problem of how we U.S. types can ever expect to get decent Olympic coverage without a satellite dish. Sigh.

This morning: I emerge on the street to find the sidewalk and many of the cars coated in a thin dusting of white stuff. It's not snow, or a very proactive salting of the roads. It's...well, it feels like shredded Styrofoam. All along the block. As if somebody emptied the Styrofoam peanuts from a big package into the Cuisinart and then unceremoniously dumped it from the roofdeck. And just on our block. It's terribly odd, and it's not going to go away anytime soon, either: that stuff sticks to everything. Standing in front of my apartment building this morning blinking away in the sunlight in disbelief I felt like Mulder:

What the hell happened here last night Scully?

Coffee bar dog sightings: 3. One nervous skinny black dog, vibrating at about 2, maybe 3 Hz, sniffing the butt of a cute little white terrier with those adorable little chops on either side of its mouth. Over to the side, one enormous black dog (ride-able by small children) who appeared to be contemplating which of the smaller dogs to eat for breakfast.

The new store in the neighborhood is a Marc Jacobs. They're open for business now, after that ostentatious grand opening party. It's basically a big glass air-conditioned box with a couple of post-soviet-trendy looking guys who have chiseled looks on their faces and attitudes like anemic (yet expensively dressed) security guards. Plus there's the tinted glass, which adds to the effect, which is: please don't come in here. That's the vibe you get. We are armed under these sporty but minimalist blazer-vest combinations. It gives me the creeps.

6:00: OK, I have an announcement. This will not come as a surprise to people who have used it, but all you allergy sufferers out there: Claritin is a miracle drug. My co-worker (who does not partake) has been suffering from allergies for the past week (the pollen count always spikes up in early fall for some reason). I, who usually have similar problems this time of year am now on the drug, and it's as if I don't have allergies at all. Believe the hype that Schering-Plough keeps pushing. It rocks. And their patent expires in the U.S. in (I think) two years, so it will be cheap on top of all this. (In the U.K. you can get it at Boots over-the-counter as "Clarityn". 5 Quid for a weeks supply. Same stuff -- loratadine.) All you people staring at this through sniffles and red eyes: use it. It works wonders.

Dammit. I forgot to check the don't add to new writeups box. OK, note to self. Suggestion for E2: Add a I-take-it-back-it's-not-supposed-to-go-to-new-writeups button. I'm getting that sumbit sinking feeling...

Unbelievably confused.

These are my key words for the week. My email service is not working, my computer is still getting worked on, I'm thinking of dropping a few classes and we had a freakin' 'hurricane' to deal with this last weekend. I started off on one side of the state, ran to the other side to avoid it, and then got stranded with flooding on the other. Irony and Paranoia date, I swear. My 'man' called me up last night and I got to talk to many of his technology savee friends. Glad to hear you are all doing well. The phone sex job pissed me off, I was proud of my work, but that in itself bothers me. Met a girl from Columbus, my brother brought her home, let's just say she would never have been interested in him. She and I will be in touch, I am worried about her breaking up with her girlfriend. Not because of me, mind you, because she really did think it was about time. I don't know as I could ever really be faithful to a girl, no matter how much she intrigues me, enchants me, delights me. I don't think I could ever be faithful to anyone other than my nemesis. "How's my most favorite and most hated person in my life?" Naw, I don't hate him, but when it comes down to it, I still don't want to end up with anyone but him. Anyone. And believe me, we have both tried. Huh, need to go get new job, no more "oh baby, oh baby, oh!". I will be going up north in 2 weeks. Wish me luck, I'm really afraid to see what has already changed.

I spent a long time last night laying on the balcony outside the second floor of Rudder tower, staring at the stars with K. All we did was lay there and talk, it was wonderful.

I've been thinking about writing an E2 plugin for the mozilla sidebar search box, something like the E2 netscape search button. It's all done in XML, so it should be fully cross-platform and fully buzzword compliant =)
Anyone who has a bright idea about how to do it, pop me an ICQ message (I'm in the everything ICQ repository). It may be a while before this is done, the search box is severely broken in the last few daily builds, and I don't want to downgrade to M17.

Questions for today:
- Why are girls so much fun to be around?
- When will the mozilla crew fix the search box?
- Speaking of bug fixes, when are we getting that new release of Window Maker?
- What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Things I've been meaning to node: creepy places on campus - there are a few spots around here that just scare the piss out of me at night, and I'm not sure why.

Well well well. I hesitate to mention DMan. I will give my bit about that tomorrow. Need sleep now.

Today I was almost knocked to the floor by a declaration by my co-workers. I am currently the only person on the roster for my company's next project, and, this is knocking-me-down-worthy because it's the absolute biggest project my company has ever seen, we are doing it in Perl, it's an absolutely huge financial portal, and it's in German and English.

Wait--German? I don't know German. Hey, come to think of it, I'm not too down with portals or finance either. Oh shit. I barely know any Perl. Well, good thing I'm the only developer signed up. heh. sigh. This will be a painful learning experience, and I will come out a god. I'm slightly worried, and eerily confident. More to come on that, I'm sure.

Sam made spaghetti. Retard used pepperoni spaghetti sauce. I tried to eat it. It was too pepperoni-y. No meat for me. Sam and Derek are still playing that damned Legends of Dragoon game. I think they will have it beaten in less than a week.

Speaking of games, adoxograph and me played us some Magic online tonite via Apprentice. I was a bit distracted by the DMan crisis though. I made two crappy decks way too fast with way good cards and won from pure luck. It was ok. She didn't have fun. I felt a little bad.

My firewall pisses me off. It makes dial-up connection sharing absolute hell. Sam's computer tries to do some weird shit like constantly, so I always end up just turning the firewall off. Then it fucks up my PAP for some reason. I don't know.

Today I listened to a whole lot of Delta 9. In fact, other than a Filter song, it was Delta 9 day. Woo.

Now, I partake in sleep. I think about DMan and ponder what horrid things will come from my fingers when it becomes time to approach the world with my thoughts of the situation. I also need to remember to finish the Killer Instinct shit...dammit.

Oh yeah, and today at work I made a script that asks for confirmation when you hit the reset button, so that you don't lose a huge page of information on accident. And I made a bunch of new menu images that actually completely changed the look and feel of the site. It was cool. Good day.