This just in: Mercury is still retrograde.

Had a voice lesson last night, which went okay. Had to put gas in the car afterwards, and the damn pump wouldn't shut off. I spewed gasoline all over the side of the car and the pavement of the gas station. Ended up pushing the car a few feet forward so I could get in without stepping in a puddle of gasoline, since I really don't want the floor mats to smell like gas. That seemed mostly successful, and I can also say now that if I ever have to push my car anywhere, it moves pretty easily.

I was then rather distracted for the whole drive from Gaithersburg back to the District, and kept forgetting what the speed limit is on 270. I was getting passed all over the place, and couldn't remember if it was supposed to be 65 there or if people were just breakin' the law (breakin' the law).

Today some moron was in the smart tag lane on the toll road when he realized he shouldn't be, so he came to a stop, then changed lanes into the *other* smart tag lane, then tried to change back into the one he was in originally (where I was rapidly approaching). Then he tried to cut across in front of me to get into the cash lane. Argh. I decided last night that instead of writing people tickets for blocking intersections and causing gridlock, they should just have a fleet of bulldozers that drive around town and if you block an intersection, they just shove your car out of the way and let you repair it at your own expense. Idiots who don't read the signs (posted a mile in advance, and several times as you approach the gates) at toll booths should be subject to the same penalties. Argh. Those people are gonna get me killed.

Tried the "coffee" in the office this morning. I'll be heading to Target over lunch to buy coffee preparation paraphernalia. Ew.

Car's clean (but now has been visited by area birds), taxes still undone, house still unclean (but I carried out some trash last night). I realized last night that I have to get the house clean by Sunday since I won't have a chance to do it next week and Emily gets here Friday night. Eek.

To do:

• Clean house
• Pay bills
• Do taxes
• Get groceries
• Practice
• Practice
• Practice
• Get the wireless gateway working

Oh yeah, I finally caved and decided to order DSL for real. Submitted the order last night. Going through Concentric, since Covad's "order now!" page suggested ScrewUNet, Qwest and CAIS don't have good plans yet, and the options from Northpoint were limited at best. Wonder how long it'll take to get the circuit, and how many hoops I'll have to jump through.

link (2000-02-29)

Bought stuff to make coffee with over lunch (water filter, cordless kettle, french press, a couple canisters for coffee and sugar). Went to Sutton Place to get some ground beans, and was about to check out when my pager started buzzing. I'd forgotten a meeting. D'oh. Mercury is still retrograde. I have two more weeks of this. Urk.

Remembered this evening that the new Steely Dan was out today. Went by Barnes & Noble. Out of stock. They'd received all of seven and were sold out by noon. Went next door to Worst Buy and gave them the first money I'd spent there since August of 1998 when it took me three hours to buy the MagicTV receiver. Didn't have cash, either, so there's a credit card transaction there. Oh well.

Then stopped at Tysons to try to find a spoon for work coffee purposes (done for two bucks at Crate and Barrel) and some sealing pouring thing to keep milk in at work, since if I put cartons in the fridge people will assume they can just use some of that in their coffee and I won't have any left. People are bastards that way. There was the one person at an old job who mysteriously used my whole milk if it was in the fridge, but who only replaced it with skim milk, thus missing the point entirely. Didn't buy any such vessel, but determined if I buy snooty milk at Fresh Fields it'll come in bottles which should serve the same purpose - people will recognize it as belonging to a person and not the floor and will leave it alone. I hope.

There is something wrong with this. I spent nigh 100 bucks on shit for coffee - a drink that makes me burp incessantly, gives me heartburn, and messes with my nerves if I drink too much of it. And I'm already high-strung enough without caffeine jitters to go on top. Ahh, such is the life of a coffee-obsessed geek. Filter water. Boil water. Put coffee grains in french press. Pour water. Wait. Push plunger. Pour coffee. Be slightly less cranky.

I guess that's it. I spend almost a hundred bucks so I can be slightly less cranky. Oh, and it'll give me a good 15 or 20 minutes worth of futzing around in the office, which is always useful.

link (2000-02-29)

It's 3:30pm. So far today, I've:

• Slept in
• Gotten up, watched a little TV
• Gone back to bed
• Taken a shower
• Read some of the Post online
• Called Nicole
• Made coffee
• Made and eaten some french toast
• Watched more TV

I have not:

• Left the house
• Gone to buy a paper
• Done any laundry
• Washed the car
• Done anything else productive

Did go to REI yesterday. Used the dividend, the 10% discount for using it before 20 March, and the car tax refund money from VA for last year to buy a tent, which after all of the above cost me about 10 bucks. Okay, so I could have used that VA refund money elsewhere, but it never went into Quicken as income, so it wasn't budgeted and I can spend it however I want.

Didn't do anything else last night. Rob wanted to see a movie or go see the Reverend at the 9:30 Club, but I was on the verge of a headache all night and I wasn't up for anything. So I fell asleep watching "Acme Hour" on Cartoon Network and slept fitfully most of the night still wearing yesterday's clothes and my contacts. Finally rectified that about 6am, then slept another 4 or 5 hours.

If I do anything productive today, it'll either be to wash the car, do my taxes, or maybe I'll go all out and do them both. Sundays rock.

link (2000-02-27)

So Nicole and I were going to head for the hills today, considering all the gorgeous weather we've been having the past couple days. Two days ago the forecasts for that part of VA/WV were for partially cloudy and mid-upper 60s. Yesterday they said cloudy in the morning, then clearing, highs upper 60s. Then I got up this morning to find they're saying scattered patches of drizzle, highs mid 40s. If you poke around other areas, there seems to be some line hovering right over where we were talking about camping - one side is cold and wet, the other has the upper 60s and dry, sunny weather. Bleah. Tomorrow's forecast is clear with highs around 70. Too bad we're not getting that today instead.

So this probably means that we're not camping today, which is just as well because I have to go readjust the dish for the MagicTV, since it has already gotten out of whack (I think one of the cables must have slipped and the weight is now pulling on the dish). I can also make another stab at cleaning the house since I've been more or less failing at that every other weekend I've tried.

I can also go to REI and spend my dividend. I need stuff sacks, and I'm still considering a tent although borrowing one from Nicole looks like it's an option any time I'm actually likely to need one. Or I can practice more. Or I can see if it clears up enough today to bother washing the car, but I can do that tomorrow too.

Or I can bug Nicole and we'll go do something else entirely. She seems like she's looking for distractions as much as I am this week.

link (2000-02-26)

Oh dear, is Netscape WebMail's interface one of the worst designed systems on the planet? I'm there, of course, because I needed yet another free email address so I can try to keep the UCE out of my actual box (it's not that I'm paranoid about people finding out my True Identity, I just don't like spam). So I signed up for AIM and started using Netscape WebMail in the process (fdwrd on AIM, or fdwrd@netscape.net, as the "mail" button below will also tell you). Yeeesh. Here's the way it "works:"

I open up Navigator, which starts with a blank page. I hit the "WebMail" button. It loads a page. It refreshes to another page. It refreshes to a third page. It refreshes to a fourth page and asks me for a password. When I click the "enter" button (and I can't tab to it and hit "enter" on my keyboard) it goes to a page ... and then reloads another page. Yes kiddies, when I check my Netscape WebMail, it takes six page views before I can see if I have any mail. We'll see how long that lasts.

Anyway, the MagicTV is working again and shouldn't flake out anytime soon. Knock on wood. I put a piece of 2x4 between the mounting bracket and the chimney and secured it to that, so I'm thinking the sagging that occurred before should be a thing of the past. I now need lunch and I think I'm running out to REI. Also got a paycheck from the new employer today, which I have to deposit. Direct deposit is supposed to start for the next pay cycle. Yay.

Nicole was actually doing work when I talked to her earlier. I think we're seeing a movie tonight, or something.

link (2000-02-26)

So I was driving too fast down the GW Parkway tonight, top off the car, the new James CD (Millionaires, the one you can't buy in the states because their record label dropped them after their best of album went platinum - and record labels wonder why people like mp3 - which I had to buy as an import but I'm glad I did) blaring, and Tim Booth sang this (as I sang along):

I opened up into this mystery
Every key can lock you up
Or set you free
I believe that there is magic in this mystery
I have seen
I have seen
I have seen

And it occurred to me that when Tim Booth sings he believes something, I believe him. Another song on the same album (that one was "Afro Lover," the other one is "Just Like Fred Astaire") has this bit:

I believe in happiness
I believe in Love
I believe she fell to earth
From somewhere high above
I believe in Hollywood
Don't believe that Love must bring despair
Cos when I hold her in my arms
I'm just like Fred Astaire

And then on the Booth and the Bad Angel CD, the opening track is titled "I Believe," and goes as follows (sorry, but I'm pasting the whole lyric here):

Hold my tongue there's nothing I can say to you
You tie me up with words
You tie me up with words
I'm so lost you say that you'd pray for me
You'd smother me with words
You'd smother me with words

They turned your story all around
They had you free when you were bound
They raised you up when you were down
They raised you high

I believe someone's watching over me
I believe in the dreams that set you free

You're so strong it really is a mystery
You give your power away
You give your power away
Why be a song when you can be a symphony
Don't give your power away
Don't give your power away

I believe
I believe we are free to be chained
To be slaves, to be chained or to be free

I believe someone's watching over me
I believe in the dreams that set you free
I believe

... and then if we go all the way back to "Strip Mine," "Are You Ready" gives us these words:

All of my beliefs
They come back to me
I think life is tough
So my life is tough
She says, "find a way
To develop love
To receive my love,
Believe you are good enough"

And the thing is, not only do I believe him when he sings these words, I believe them too. And it makes me happy.

It also makes me drive too fast. After taking the Roosevelt bridge into the District, I zipped through the interchanges to get onto Rock Creek Parkway, went too fast onto Beach Drive, and passed a Park Police car hiding back there to catch somebody doing just what I did since the speed limit drops where Beach starts. I exited at the Zoo exit like I always do, and I watched in the mirror as the Park Police car continued past the exit going north on Beach. He didn't see me.

I got away with one there. :-)

link (2000-02-24)

I am now oriented.

Notes:

Employer doesn't list all of its competitors on the page referring to them in the orientation packet. One wonders if this is because they are clueless enough not to realize other competitors are out there, or if this was a decision on somebody's part not to list certain competitors for some unseen reason.

Employer says they offer leaves of absence, but then says they're only for family medical emergencies. What.ever.

It's hard to take orientation seriously when you've been hearing about the place for months from people who work there. It's also hard to keep from snickering when they talk about how serious they are about employee retention. And I didn't bring up how the company name should just be "And" at this point after they've sold off so much of the old core business.

At least I'll have my own badge tomorrow and won't be going past security with somebody else's badge. Somebody's old badge. Somebody who looks nothing like me, mind you. That's some security we have downstairs.

link (2000-02-22)

Note to self:

Commute at off hours: 35 minutes.

Commute during rush hour on an effective Monday after Mercury just went retrograde: 65 minutes.

Lesson learned: don't leave work at 6pm.

Now why was it you said you wouldn't move out of your current place unless you moved out of the metro area entirely? And what would it take to get you to reconsider? Is this on the list?

If you move, what's to stop you from quitting that job and getting another one back in the District, thus getting an even worse commute in the bargain?

Oh wait, maybe that's why you said you wouldn't move unless you moved out of the area entirely. You understood this implicitly.

Good on you, mate. Of course, it was better on you when you could ride your bike to work and were starting to lose your love handles.

Further note to self:

Don't randomly quote the dysfunctional family circus when people who might not catch the reference might be reading.

Further further note to self:

Talking to yourself in second person is weird. You should have yourself checked.

link (2000-02-22)

Day off today (British company observes US holidays as well as the British ones. Woo!). Slept in (no surprise there), need to shower and probably shave since I didn't do so Saturday or Sunday. The shaving, that is, not the showering. I'm not that much of a bachelor. Of course, I'll have to shave tomorrow unless I want to look stubbly on my Official Corporate ID Badge, which I'll be getting after my Official Corporate New Employee Orientation. I hear this involves watching a sexual harassment video. Big fun.

Today's agenda includes crawling around on the roof again to finish the setup of my old minidish. You can get the local channels in DC now. This rocks.

I'm also looking forward to having 70 channels of nothing on instead of the mere 12 I have now.

Today's also Dad's birthday. He's 65. I'll be calling him once I figure out if he's taking the day off or he's gone into the office. He's his own boss, so it's hard to tell. He's a slave-driver. He makes himself go in on days he probably ought to just stay home, or go fishing. He's better about that now than he used to be. Maybe he'll get even better than that now.

link (2000-02-21)

There. I moved the furniture around a bit. Threw some paint up on the wall. If I ever get around to having a real home page again, maybe I'll go for some sort of consistent design. Or something.

I've been saying I'm going to have a real home page Real Soon Now for, oh, two years now? Hmm. Maybe it's just time I admitted that I'm never going to have a home page anyway and just leave it at the diary stuff. We'll see.

One more contribution towards the complete lack of content on the web, I guess.

link (2000-02-21)