Minor annoyances… brother bugged me twice last night to use my phone… once when I was on the phone with Dan, and the second time when I was just falling asleep. Just plain rude. I was jarred awake a few times this morning by who knows what. I’m officially up now. Bah… I was hoping for a good night’s rest. I guess there’s tonight.

Web pages that change the size of my browser without asking first lick goat-dung.

I just played damage control for Dan’s Wife… she spread the jdbgmgr.exe file hoax… Luckily, I think I’m the only programmer-type in their address book. It is so important to fact-check on the net. She knows better now.

I need to call an Wish Aunt Val a happy birthday!

For reference down the line-

U.S. Gas Prices
Lowest Price: $1.13 Carrolton, GA
Highest Price: $2.29 Mill Valley, CA
Nat’l Average $1.63

via mskaren911 – Vote for the Florida Quarter

There are a couple of good designs. I’m torn between “The Everglades” and “Gateway to Discovery”.

2/12/03 9:12 am

Sending off the last element of Vallies day today… I hope she likes what I’m sending. I think it will please her.

Some kind of stink in the air this morning woke me up. At first I thought that Newt had gotten sick, but after a thorough search and catching a whiff of the outside, I’ve come to the conclusion that someone either spread some fertilizer on the grass or it is some kind of pesticide. Either way, it reeks a bit like poo.

Trash truck with a giant mechanical arm whooshed by, picking up cans and emptying them without coming to more than a rolling stop. Amazing how quickly and efficiently they work. They get extra points for returning the can in an upright position afterwards.

Arriving at work early to make phone calls and prep for a meeting up the street.

10:45
Nordis seems to be a sure thing.. Long haul out to Coral Springs, but there is a very nice increase in pay and benefits. Mostly programming, database stuff, more employee management and coordination. The CIO over there wanted me to start today if I could. I’m going to give the place an eyeball on Friday, and if all goes well, I’ll be there in a week. A pretty professional company, so it looks like sandals are out, but I can get away with a polo shirt and no tie.

I’m going to keep my options open, though. There’s a data librarian / admin position that’s opening up in a month. The person at Direct mentioned that he’d keep me appraised.

8am, and I’m rocking and rollin’ and ready for the day. No time, no time for an extended entry… will write more on the road, dear journal.

Subaru says that its new Baja is the World’s First Multiple Choice Vehicle, but it sure looks an awful lot like an old Dodge Rampage to me.

I should know: I walked by one every day on my way to school.

In the Eighties.

I mean, doesn’t the Dodge Rampage* fit the “Part Car. Part Truck. All Choice.” moniker?

If I ever find out who is responsible for civilization returning to the late seventies / early eighties, I’ll remind them what happened next.

Fluorescent yellow and green outfits.

* see also the Chevrolet El Camino and Ford Ranchero (the oldest of the bunch, apparently).

No Island Boy at work today, Sappho took off early for the chiro. Wearisome day, hopefully a productive day. Tomorrow is going to be 2nd verse, same as the first.

Things I’m glad to have; not an all-inclusive list, but a good one.

• Love
• Hope
• Smarts
• Chutzpah
• Health

G’night, dear journal.

Interview gear:

Black Birkenstock shoes
Black socks
Black slacks
Khaki polo shirt
Maroon hair tie

I think that I look pretty nice. Everything fits well and looks sharp. Goatee is neatly trimmed. I’m a little worried that the bus is late. If I don’t see one soon, I’ll get a cab to the station.

10:31 am supplemental
I ended up taking a cab the whole route, and made it with 15 minutes to spare. It went reasonably well… The company is much smaller than I’d expected. Lots of fresh faces and stress seems minimal. John said that my odds look good. It’s still early yet, and better prospects lie ahead. Following up on four other gigs tomorrow. One phone review, one morning meeting, two callbacks.

The interview lasted about an hour and fifteen, so from there I hoofed it to the Barnie’s to get an iced chai, and listen to Dean Martin sing Italian love songs for a while before going in to work.

Slow morning for them. Only three other customers since I’ve been here. I have not been here since maybe ’00. I’ve taken a couple of dates here… Rachel, April, Pam Potter. Nice, because the proximity to the movie theater. Best post movies- Dark City, Final Destination, The Mask.

Three more folks have come in… All in professional gear. Even for work, some women wear such high heels!

Time for me to head out…back later.

Bus contemplation –

plan- get to work early, call Nordis 10.30, then go to discover, return to work, change, call doc, call v-pak, call business as usual.
Feelings today:

• trepidation
• calm
• love struck
• soothed
• need to use the facilities
• peeved
• curious
• weary
• refreshed
• hair tie too tight
• crowded
• smart
• diplomatic
• full
• in need of a toothbrush
• anxious
• sober
• amused
• in need of a magical mute button
• disconnected
• sane
• surrounded
• large
• creator of purrs

Hot shower! Super power! Sissies cower most dour and glower sour. At this late hour I’ve got an urge to lounge in a bower’s tower with my Moonflower.

Scalded away the day’s trials and tribulations… making way for the nights dreams, alarums and excursions. (Not that I’ve contributed anything to that apazine in over a decade…hmm, closer to 15 years now.) I should rejoin it, just to see what’s going.

Looking forward to early sleeps and sweet dreams of my beloved tonight. Nighters, dear journal.

2/10/03 8:08 pm

Poor Sappho was out with back trouble today… hopefully she’ll be better tomorrow. I can sympathize with her distress. Island Boy spent most of his day in engineering trying to get XP stuck into Kev’s machine, (He and Sappho both have been making said attempt all week) but the foul device will have none of it. Kev’s settling for the superior, but less appearing win2k. Strange that the installation was so abortive, since it was on for nearly a year before his HD took a dump. Side note, the machine was put together by Astley, the Cayman CPU Killer, the same clown responsible for my old PC troubles.

I spoke with John about the position this afternoon and he seems interested. 9am meeting with him tomorrow morning. About a half mile south from where I currently work. Not sure how I’ll deal with a 9-5 schedule after so long a span on the night shift. My last schedule was 4-midnight. I think the last regular for me was ’98.

Interview shoes tomorrow. First shoe-covered toes in many months, possibly longer. Ponytail, no necktie. Unsure about clothing yet. Lucky Newt-whisker and love-note (envelope) corner as material representations of support. (I carry ’em always, anyway.)

Hoping for better pay and benefits. Quite likely. Still would dig something for the government… Lots of resumes launched. Bound to be victorious soon.

Somehow, I knew it. sealab2021 test results

Well, laundry’s done. I spent a little extra time there, because some lovable little 13 year old urchin decided to press all the dryers with “tumble, no heat” as they left the ‘mat. a few cranky customers after that discovery was made. What’s the real annoyance is that someone saw what was going on, and didn’t bother to tell anyone until after the fact.

Ah well, no real skin off of my back.

While I was there, I took a few pictures and generally goofed around.

some non-newt pics, and a pair of new icons

Dreams of kissing her in her sleep…she gives me valentiney feelings all year long.

If you don’t use the tittle, bigfoot becomes a bigfool.

I like the look of water on grass after a storm.

I wonder sometimes how life would be if I was blind, or mute, or mildly retarded. Not for long. Playing “what if” is only good as a brief entertainment. Too long, and it gets upsetting and difficult to quit.

Monsieur Gustave… Ah, the blossoming of love, and delicious cheese pies.

Stereotypes… much fun!

The Panda running game…I have similar urges, to wander through the bamboo.

A recent BBC documentary mentioned that about once a week somewhere in the world an ocean-going ship is claimed (or nearly so) by a wall of water… Complete program summary on web site, and there is a complete transcript too. Freak Wave – blurb

The little wireline modem for my palm works like a charm. I need a trillian for it, now! (I notice msn messenger isn’t the best on the palmtop, preferring pocket pc’s… though icq, aol and yahoo are all available. for the palmtop free and easy to install. I’ve tested aim, and it works well.) Unfortunately, yahoo mail isn’t POP, so I’ll have to resort to picking it up via the blazer browser (came free with the modem!) and plinkit! is very nifty. Nice if I want to do some light surfing, check Lj, or just don’t want to carry my laptop around.

Some other teeny-tiny portals for the palm – (viewable on regular browsers, too)

• Yahoo!
• MSN Mobile
• Yellow Pages
• White Pages
• Mapquest – (A personal fave)
• The Onion
• Amazon
• Ebay
• Google

My only real concern is that the modem requires an additional two AAA batteries in the back… and there’s no power meter. I’m going to have to gauge how long the rechargeables last in there.

I should recommend this for Sappho & Riker, for the “ventures outside of cell phone use areas” parts of their trips.

Nothing much changes. Here, from Google’s archives, are the top searches of 1895:

• “dashed pretty young fillies”
• “moustache wax”
• “corsetry”
• “claret”
• “ankle”
• “hottentot ladies”
• “Madame X”
• “pomade”

Jasmine tea and a good book this morning after playing with the Newtster. This would go good with a muffin. A pity there are no muffins nearby.

I wrote my dreams down right as I woke up, but it’s very choppy. Sweetheart and I have to go to some school basketball game at 5:30 am…My brother can’t go because he did something to the student council. It’s very cold outside, so we’re bundled in sweaters and wrapped in a shared blanket, happily dozing. There’s a vendor serving hot applesauce in ice-cream cones. Our team won, but some of the opposing players were physically hurt as a result… lots of fouls committed.

Regarding the history of war between Muslims and Christians. The coming war may not be specifically to beat back invasion, but it is kin to the battles that Vlad the impaler commanded, thus making our current plans something that Dracula might approve of. (At the time of this writing, it is unknown where the werewolves stand. I won’t presume that mummies are sympathetic to Saddam)

I didn’t realize that all seven astronauts on Columbia were of different faiths; this BeliefNet reportage does a lovely job with that.

Way cool gizmos… and a scary one and a neat start for invisibility

Random Scotto Factoid: Jackson Pollock does nothing for me. Even his early works don’t strike a chord, at all.

Random Weather Factoid – Oooh! Where’d all that sweet-smelling rain come from?

I crave falafel… falafel for two, with my sweetheart.

Getting crazy-man responses to my feelers and faxes on my voice mail, now that I’m home.. That’s a good, good thing. I have a few calls to make tomorrow regarding some prospects that might be quite nearby.

Saw my brother tonight for the first time in a couple of days… He had some trouble, but is back on track again.

Pictures –
From last Sunday, when I was out to breakfast:

This morning at the bus stop:

Whee! Live controllable Monkey Cam! Fun thing is that it’s in Japan… daylight there, while nighttime here.

Micrographia iterum examines objects of assorted sizes under a 30x microscope, then records them with the latest in Pencam technology. The result is a nifty photo, made even moreso by his discussion underneath. It’s as if he was shrunken to the size of a bumblebee and went on to make insightful commentary about everything he saw. Another reason to dig the Internet.

I want to see chain shot used in a pirate movie. Ever since I was a kid playing Wooden Ships and Iron Men… um, on researching… *they made a computer version*!! Holy Guacamole! A free BSD version for multiplayer internet…Just as well, as the other version was published in ’95/96… I imagine the game play suffered.

The Snapple web site has a collection of what they call “facts”, though “factoids” sometimes seems more accurate. #96 states that the average American will eat 35,000 cookies during his/her lifetime. Hmm… Assuming that the average American lives to be 80…that’s 437.5 cookies a year… or 1.20 (give or take a little) per day. If you include tiny little Girl Scout cookies into that equation, I’m not sure if I’m ahead of or behind the curve. I certainly try to catch up when girl scouts are selling thin mints.

Mini-spoiler for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie