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You are viewing the most recent 25 entries.
28th August 2003
11:29pm: INSERT_EIEIO(void);
Work is turning out to be pretty cool after all. I still haven't done anything directly productive for the company, but my manager/mentor/older engineer/guy has praised how quickly I'm picking up the system, all the jargon, the ins, the outs, separating the bells from the whistles from the train. I went to a meeting yesterday, about some new, hotly contested features for the new version of their flagship product (given by a manager with a prestigiously low badge number) and was able to follow along, even though three conversations were being shouted at once in two languages. I didn't follow the FORTRAN, unfortunately. I kept quiet as a mouse. The commute is getting standard, so I need to burn more mp3 CDs. Furthermore, I need to find another fucking car. You're shocked, you say? Yeah, me too. I fully expected the $200 chevrolet to grow power windows and locks and leather seats, but that just didn't happen. In fact, it overheated and shed about 5 lbs of engine metal into the coolant yesterday. It still turns on, but I have no idea if it can make it back to Boston or not (it's about 20 miles away), and absolute certainty it's never to be trusted on the freeway again. As luck would have it, I was on my way to pick up my mom, who was in town after dropping off my sister at the U. of Rochester for her freshman year (psychotic roommate, should be a fun one). There ensued a heated discussion about the exact definition of "reliable" when it comes to cars, and exactly how much a "good" car can be purchased for. I said $500, she puts the figure a significant digit higher. I might end up buying Cecile's 92 Saturn, which gets about 600 miles to the fluid ounce of gasoline, but that would be strange as the last car I bought from her boyfriend. Is that incest? My circadian rhythm is beginning to shift to something manageable. This pleases me. In World News, Bjork is waaay hot. That's it for now.. I should get to sleep. Maybe someday I'll update on the continuing struggle to reevaluate life goals, finish all my projects, figure out why I have so many projects, find a satisfying relationship, define myself as a person, figure out a plan, get in shape, not need coffee, advance at work, learn to play the piano again, and not ever die.
22nd August 2003
7:50pm: Well now!
It's been a long time since my last post, and I apologize to my two readers for the delay. I started work at my new job this past Monday. I've been slowly preparing myself for the transition from freelancing to 40-hour weeks, from Ramen to 401k, from sleeping until noon to living like a normal American, all that. I've spent the last month ramping down my other projects, making sure everything was ready, that I had clothes to wear, a car to drive... I had plans, plans plans. I got most of it done, but I'm still exhausted. I didn't even know my title on the first day. I knew it was something vaguely Q/A with some kind of database hardware. I knew it would mean writing C/C++ diagnostics to test said hardware. The training session was poor. I drove to a different facility in a different city, and about 20 new hires (from forklift operators, janitors, to managers, and engineers) saw the same presentation on what the company does, and the "path to empowerment" (those weren't the exact buzzwords, but it doesn't matter). The speaker wasn't interesting, and at the end of the two hours, she said "Well... I guess... you can all go to work now." Deadpan. So I left and drove to the building I thought I was supposed to be working in, found the group I remembered from the interviews, and asked around until I ran into someone who happened to be my new mentor. He's a nice guy, an engineer to the core, grew up in Boston, but has a tendency to ramble, and very consistent, if not very repetitive, social graces. He's been teaching me all week about the technology, the company, coding practices, his personal political gripes about the design, the system as a whole... it's too much to absorb all at once. The culture is much more corporate than I had imagined. I think the layoffs and downsizing of the last few years (they laid off 4,000, or 20% of their workforce, in 2002) have tossed everyone around sufficiently, and left the ranks so diminished, that there wasn't enough time to decorate cubicles, or develop fun office culture, or do anything other than work work work so the company wouldn't go under. The cubicles are spacious, but largely spare. The engineers are stereotypically so -- quiet, meek, hard working, and poorly dressed -- so it's easy to see why certain people have become managers and why some have not. Of course, I checked out FuckedCompany.com about my new place of work, and there wasn't much material. That which there was warned of a political environment, and "200% more pay for 400% more stress and work." We'll see. Most of the week I listened to impromptu lectures, read technical docs, looked over code, set up various e-mail accounts, called IT about a dozen times, went to lunch with everyone, and was at work roughly between 9 and 5. This morning i woke up at 9:40, got there at 10:30, but noone noticed. For the future: It takes about 40 minutes to drive there. I figure it will take about 2 hours to bike there. I will attempt to do this as much as possible. Saves money in gas, money at the tolls, and will hopefully keep me healthy as I spend even more of my day in front of a screen. The coffee is bad. The secretary is nice, and operates with the ruthless efficiency of German lovemaking. My manager is a Volvo SUV posterboy. I have already figured out who will try to gun us down, if someone in the group snaps and tries to gun everyone down. I ate out all week. I want to make meals to save money and time. I want to wean myself off of coffee, to save money and time. That's it for now. I'm going to party like a rockstar tonight. And then I'm going to get up at 9 tomorrow to go running, because that's what empowered highly effective people do.
22nd July 2003
1:32am: Is our apartment cold... or HOT HOT HOT?
Car trouble: * Someone keyed "Fukk" into the side of my aunt's volvo today. I'll leave it there until I return the car, in case the miscreants weren't finished with a phrase or sentence. * I have located the coolant leak on the Chevrolet: On one of the two main pipes carrying piping hot engine goo to the radiator, the outer rubber has a keen hole in it. Hopefully nothing internally has ruptured, because that would mean water has been mixing with the other liquids: Bad. * I was unable to reproduce the engine block coolant leak. Thank god. I'll pretend it's gone away. * The volvo has plenty of power steering fluid, meaning I still don't know where the grinding noise is coming from. On the upside, I fixed the left speaker so now I don't hear the noise if I have the stereo on. I now consider the grinding to be fixed. * The spare tire well of the volvo is indeed rusted through: I will apply sheet metal and Bondo fiberglass compound liberally and with vigor. The AC in the warehouse is still broken. There are two coils in the compressor, and we killed the second one yesterday. Greddy (hereafter: motherfucker) didn't call the landlord to get it fixed before he left on a week and a half vacation. Today I didn't really get all that much paid work done... none of it is pressing, as per usual. The EMC offer is confirmed as in-the-mail, and should arrive by Wednesday. I've decided that no matter what the number, I'll ask for (unspecified) more. If it doesn't work, then whoop-t-do. If it does, it'll be the easiest (unspecified) * number of years I work there that I ever make. I have a pretty good idea of what the offer will be, and I honestly think that after a year or two of industry experience, I'm worth (unspecified) more per year than the average entry level coder. So there. In terms of the grand scheme of things, I'd say 'things' are going very well. Good job, good other jobs I'll keep to save money in case economy continues to tank and good job disappears, cool place to live, running cars, freedom to live how I want, decent long term plan... sounds old? Feels old.
20th July 2003
3:14am:
I was terribly excited today when... scratch that. I was excited today when... ditto Among the times today when I was excited to the point of being beyond one standard deviation away from my standard emotional state, was a time when I thought I stumbled across the web logs of some people in a Raelieanesque cult of some kind. The people writing the journals clearly thought they were on a spaceship, or were about to be on a spaceship, or were learning how to be on a spaceship. I was astonished and intrigued... I followed link after link, trying to piece together exactly where they were, how long they had been there, and who was responsible. Along the way I noticed they had all made exactly three posts, one on July 17th, one on the 18th, and one on the 19th. Turns out that there's some weird b-TV show about some people on a spaceship, and the producers decided it would be a good idea to create weblogs for the characters. Maybe it's not even TV. In any event, it was complete and total fiction, and I was crestfallen that the world had been suddenly deprived of another batch of crazy people. It's a good thing I didn't send out an e-mail "look what I found!" because then I would have looked like a shaved jackass. No, no... think about it. A jackass isn't an elegant looking animal, but just imagine a shaved one. I've been in stasis, seemingly, for maybe the last week. Wake up, lunch, few hours of work, dinner, few hours of errands, some hours of fun, sleep. I'm waiting for the offer from EMC to come through officially (7 business days from two Wednesdays ago puts it at either yesterday or Monday... I'm willing to give them a little extra time, but I'm going to start breathing down HR's neck come Tuesday. I went to a party at Matt & Jeremy's fabulous Malden home. They're very close with the Boston gay community, so it was essentially that with a handful of fraternity affiliates thrown in (Matt's an Alphadelt). It was a great party... they rented a Nathan's hot dog cart from NY (sparing no expense), and Jeremy has a 6 FOOT screen on which Halo can be played. Then they ran out of beer... but by that time most everyone was prepping to leave for the train (stops at midnight). I'm reading scientology literature online. No matter how repetitive, it's always fascinating.
14th July 2003
10:53pm:
I just noticed the caption on this window, where you make a journal entry is "Event." In fact, they chose "Subject" and "Event" for the two main descriptors. I'm sort of nonplussed by Event... as if I should only write in here when something tangible and magnanimous [warning: term misused, see footnote... what I meant was "magnitudeinous" or "of magnitude" but that sounds dumb. I'll settle on "cathartic" or "substantial"] mg-nn-ms! Anyway, just harping on something insignificant instead of talking about things which should properly go in a journal. Today was average. Woke up around eleven, managed to get the metal ramp out from underneath my 3,500 lb Chevrolet (two jacks required), did an hour of programming, watched HomestarRunner... the phrase "midget afterbirth" just floated in through the wall. Sounded like Mark. Not sure if I should investigate. I have nothing to say today. mag·nan·i·mous ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mg-nn-ms) adj. Courageously noble in mind and heart. Generous in forgiving; eschewing resentment or revenge; unselfish.
13th July 2003
3:53pm: SCUL III
I went out with SCUL again last night, first time in a month, third time this year, third time ever. It was a great night, beautiful weather, a giant lemon moon, plenty of drug people out and about to give us high fives. A friend was along (editor of college magazine I wrote for, once wrote article about SCUL, and they remembered her), and we went to a fantastic Sushi place in Porter. At least, I'm told it's fantastic sushi, but I got soup instead. So, I can really only speak for the soup. Not the sushi. The soup was good. But the soup probably didn't need an ambassador. Someone to speak for it, I mean. This tangent is intentionally long and inane. This is intentional. Please skip to the next paragraph for more content. The soup had big 'wheat' noodles in them. I think that means the noodles were made with flour, as are all noodles. I had water. I would have ordered pearl tea, but they didn't have any. Anyhow, it was the least positive of my 3 SCUL experiences, mostly because two of the women who have dated / are dating Skunk had a total catfight, bicycles were thrown, there was yelling, and that sort of pops the hippie bubble. One of the messengers (I think they can be quite aloof and cliquey) got really drunk and started riding into people at full speed. His full speed wasn't that fearsome because 1) he was on a tiny custom titanium frame not designed for speed, and 2) he couldn't bike in a straight line, meaning the net vector into his target wasn't as large as it could have been. We went for ice cream at Tosci's, and then went to derby (ride around and try to make each other crash) at a school parking lot. It was kind of cool, but the people responsible for organizing and pacing the event were kind of drunk, so people didn't know if we should go, or stay, or commit to having fun, or get ready to go, and so not as much fun occurred as could have. I successfully hopped a curb on a very unwieldy bicycle though, so that was cool. Today has been very lazy. I woke up at noon, it's now almost 4, and I've done basically nothing. I moved my rug around, cleaned, ate lunch, poked around online, wrote a list of tasks... I mean, this was 1/175,000th of my life. What was I thinking?
11th July 2003
12:53am: I think I got a real job today.
And now, less than twelve hours after the news, I feel somewhat less than 100% thrilled. Certainly, the pay will be excellent, the benefits superb, the ability to build a career without actually worrying about the details of building a career (paperwork, finding clients, developing letterhead, maintaining connections, all that), interesting work, a relaxed environment, intelligent people, free computers.... On the downside, for the next year at least, starting some time in early August, I will get up near dawn, eat breakfast, get in a car, drive to work, work, have lunch, work, drive home, eat dinner, do something stupid for an hour or two, and then go to sleep. This is what I will do every week day. It will adjust my circadian rhythm so I can no longer swing a serious night life (not that I had one anyway). The concerns of the software group will become my concerns, my interest in side projects will wane out of frustration, and I will become substantially less interesting to those outside the field of hardware level diagnostic software. In summation of course, it will be a mixture of good and bad, and the lasting impact will largely be determined by how I apply the mixture. This laptop will be very useful in Wintertime for heating up my lap. Mark was listening to BC's radio station today, and I asked him if it was still music or if their antenna was off (by today I mean around midnight, a reasonable time for a college station to be off the air in the summer). He had to think for a minute, but eventually decided that they were still playing music. I can hear bells and glockenspeil through my wall. I presume the night DJ is still chugging along. His drugs must be good. Sleepytime.
9th July 2003
12:06am: Huttah
I don't know. Very busy, a second round interview tomorrow, laptop came, it's very nice, went to Boston Public Library but their WiFi sucked balls. I got better connection to the hotel across the street SSID(Lenox_Lobby) than the BPL. Discussing expanding the warehouse. Risks are great, benefits are more people, more space, lower rent. Cons are getting kicked out when it's all too obvious that we're living here... looking into getting parking stickers for current residents so we can hire a tow company to fuck people who park in our spots while eating at Diangelos. Alex has changed the dynamic of the place in interesting ways. He's very aggressive, but charismatic and polite, meaning he can get away with saying things that would be offensive coming from someone else, or too outlandish to consider under a different tone of voice. He seems to be able to get shit done, as his room is coming along very quickly. I sense he'll help put the final push on to get this place clean, or he could turn out to be an asshole. Going to home depot tomorrow. Light of my life, fire of my loins.
30th June 2003
12:36am:
I played a game of American Football against a bunch of Irish guys today. They're living for the summer in the fraternity I used to live in, and wanted to give the sport a try. I think their being superior atheletes granted them a false sense of expertise, but I could just be bitter because we lost. Predictably, kickoffs quickly turned into a sort of Rugby play, where the Irish would shuttle the ball back and forth, expecting us to attack with intelligence and with the tactics they were used to. No, in fact, we'd all go for the guy with the ball, and they'd lateral and blow right by us. You don't see the tactic in higher levels of play because a fumble after fielding a punt is so incredibly costly. They didn't perceive that risk, and didn't care. Also learned a new term: "Muffled," describing what happens when a running back charges up the middle and doesn't find a hole. They didn't really know how to do pass coverage, which was nice. The glee I experienced after fooling the same corner three times in a row with the 'out and up' (coincidentally the only route I can run with anything resembling skill) was pure schadenfreude. There, I used the word schadenfreude. I've been dying to all day. Alex returned from the Sea today. He's tan and friendly. Also (according to Scott) he has the ability to control Greddy's urge to spread his belongings all over the place. That will be a boon. There's a boat building contest going on this week to culminate in the 4th of July. Scott plans to build the "ComfortCruiser (tm)"... styrofoam pontoons with a couch strapped on. I'll be around to help build, but probably not to enjoy the voyage. Hopefully we don't get kicked off the river for being unseaworthy.
28th June 2003
8:41pm: Time to Kill
I think I may finally be on top of things again. This is a false sense, brought on only by finishing a number of small tasks of infinitesmally small net vector. My room is clean, my laptop is due to arrive on Monday, my credit rating improves, I'm tan, my bike is clean, and I'm eating healthier. Soon to be a millionaire! Yes! I think someone should design a tool, perhaps called "WorthwhileOrNot," sort of a wrapper for web logs. People could read a few of your posts, and then rate your journal on how much they got out of it. Some people aren't trying to entertain, I realize, and just want a way to record their daily goings on and thoughts and such. Perhaps users would sign up for the service, if they thought they really had something to share with the world. There is something exhibitionist about it... after all, why not just write things down in a .txt doc on your desktop? I'm finding it less and less entertaining to look at random weblogs, perhaps because I keep stumbling across the ones in cyrillic. Very tempted to break my rule about topics I said I wouldn't discuss on LJ... ho hum. Preoccupied with that, for now.
24th June 2003
5:51pm: Jet-setting vegabond magnate-ship
No idea when I last posted really. If there was anything in that period that you needed my input on, I assume you will follow up with my staff. I took the train to NY Sunday, somewhat on a lark. As part of my duties for nTAG, I'm in charge of some "logistical" matters, meaning non-technical items such as printing, inventory, procurement, and the like. I printed about 125 labels for George & Cynthia's wedding (he's the business manager of nTAG, she a curator at the International Center of Photography). I even photoshopped them myself. I'd show you, but my webserver has settled into a neglected myasma, owing to the imminent arrival of a laptop. More on this later. Anyway, it took about 20 times as long to print 400 labels for the nTAG event this Monday. I won't go into the details, but at several times I screamed at my computer. Turns out 3 GB printing files slow down the I/O pipe a bit. Also turns out the printer has no onboard cache. Also turns out it ran out of ink during an over-night print run. Also turns out the label software needs to think for about 30 seconds before agreeing to respond to an onClick type event. I guess I went into details. I really did scream. Because of this, the Fedex deadline flew past without so much as a wave, and I went to NY both to hand-deliver the labels (a courier over Sunday night costs $382.50), and also to help out the woefully behind crew already in place. The event was a disaster, but thankfully due to nothing I had a part of. I saw Jake, ate some of his cookies, slept on his couch, and attempted to break into his computation machine when he foolishly left me alone in his apartment. I ate piss-poor Italian food. I watched two programmers collapse into their meals after a 3 day marathon. I sampled the Acela, and lo, it was not as fast as I thought it would be. The guy in the seat across from me shot up mid-trip, though. Probably not with heroin, as he was with a Church group. Have I mentioned that it's hot enough to endrench the concave parts of one's body with sweat? (two concave parts and one saddle point, to be more precise). Oh, about the computer. I've backed up my essential files and am letting all the routine-maintenance go completely to pot. All work and productivity will be moved onto the laptop, when it arrives, and the desktop will be used to store files such as mp3s and my collection of high-res pictures of Australian country fair livestock winners of the marsupial variety. Also to serve the files to me. And also to continue heating up my room. A laundry project, not unlike the hydroelectric project nearing completion in Central China in scope and grandeur, has begun. I mourn for Buridan's loss of live journal. I hope this thing renders HTML inline... I've forgotten. Oh, the little grey text underneath this textarea says it's ok. I'm trusting. Suggestions:nTAG nT AG, nT-AG, nag, tag, stag, Nat, tang, Nagy, Nata, Nita, mtg, NATO, NT, Nate nTAG nT AG, nT-AG, nag, tag, stag, Nat, tang, Nagy, Nata, Nita, mtg, NATO, NT, Nate photoshopped photo shopped, photo-shopped, photos hopped, photos-hopped, photocopied, fellowshipped, footpad webserver web server, web-server, observer, Webster, observe, whensoever, website, whosoever myasma miasma, Myanmar, Mazama, Mayas, Maya's, mayos nTAG nT AG, nT-AG, nag, tag, stag, Nat, tang, Nagy, Nata, Nita, mtg, NATO, NT, Nate onboard inboard, on board, on-board, inboards, outboard, aboard, onward, unbid, snowboard, inborn, inroad, inward, unbars, unbar, overboard onClick on Click, on-Click, O'Clock, o'clock, uncloak, oncology, unlock, angelic, unclog, incline, unblock Acela Ascella, Ace la, Ace-la, Adela, Osceola, Azalea, Axel, Celia, Sela, Aces, Ala, Ace, Marcela, Areal, Ancell, ASL, Adella, Amelia, Ariela, Avila, Ace's, Aila, Alla, Cele, Acer, Cell, ACLU, Abel, Adel, Arel, UCLA, Aced, Easel, ESL, Ales, Axle, Seal, Aral, Awls, Adele, Ashla, Ayala, Selia, Sella, Cellar, Eal, Aisle, Ale, Alas, Elsa, Els, Icily, Alar, Alia, Ceil, Ciel, Elia, Ella, Eula, Zarla, Awl, Axial, Amalea, Marcelia, Marcella, Anneal, Appeal, Aural endrench entrench, en drench, en-drench, entrenched, entrenches, endurance, enduring, entrance, Andreana, entrenching ve vie, voe, V, v, veg, vet, Be, Ce, be, E, e, VA, VI, Va, Vi, vi, we, VD, VF, VG, VJ, VP, VT, Vt, vb, vs, DE, De, Fe, GE, Ge, He, IE, Le, ME, Me, NE, Ne, OE, PE, Re, SE, Se, Te, Xe, he, me, re, ye, VAR, var, veer, vier, view, vow ve vie, voe, V, v, veg, vet, Be, Ce, be, E, e, VA, VI, Va, Vi, vi, we, VD, VF, VG, VJ, VP, VT, Vt, vb, vs, DE, De, Fe, GE, Ge, He, IE, Le, ME, Me, NE, Ne, OE, PE, Re, SE, Se, Te, Xe, he, me, re, ye, VAR, var, veer, vier, view, vow textarea text area, text-area, texture, textures, textured, texture's, extra, textural, Textron, textile What is it thinking?
19th June 2003
2:42pm:
I finally got the laptop order through. Overdrew my checking account by an unknown amount, and spent about twice what I set out to spend, but all these concerns will be assuaged when I take it out of the box and it boots up and begins to ruthlessley carry out my orders. One'a them Centrino processors means 6+ hour battery life (probably means it'll last that long in sleep mode, based on previous experience with manufacturer claims). Side note: The route to enlightenment for the human race is not a path that passes through the use of binary data formats. The last time the space saved by using binary instead of text formats really mattered was shortly after the unix started counting up from New Years, 1970 (which is also when the world in general started to get alot less cool). I may be bitter, having spent the last two hours writing a program to take text and make a LabelPro name database out of it, or I may just have the mumps. It is softball time. The very very best music for brushing your teeth to is Rock Steady. Be careful, you might just brush them straight down to the nubs!
16th June 2003
9:45pm:
Salu. It's been a while. I worked like a meth-addled Starbucks barrister finishing up a few projects before I left on my first semi-official vacation from work since I graduated from school. Not counting the first 3 months when I didn't have a job, of course. Sean flew into town last Saturday morning and... oh, that's right. The car. The Thursday before that, on the very last day I needed a running car to conduct my tutoring runs across the metro Boston area, my car spontaneously lost both power steering and cooling system integrity. I noticed the steering while piloting my 3,500 lb beastheamoth around one of Massachusetts' many rotaries. If you aren't familiar with that type of intersection, just take a New Jersey jughandle, up the speed to 50, and require a black-belt in Zen. Lots of subconscious blind-spot yielding. Since then I have surmised the following: * Steering power correlates with RPM, with a complete loss of function at just over idle speed. * Limited steering still available through about a 10 degree sweep. * You only need to steer more than 10 degrees while parking, when naturally, your car is at just under idle speed, and it's impossible to move the wheels. And then I noticed that the radiator was empty. I refilled it, waited a while for leaking, and found none. I ran it up to speed, and at some point during that time, "Thar bulwarks gave, and so ranne a mighty tide of fluide onto the Grounde." I lost a tube, and for some reason, coolant was bubbling out of the engine block. That's a mystery still. Ok, so back to Sean. I show up to pick him up on Saturday, after filling my radiator with 3 gallons of water, and bringing along 2.5 gallons to fill up at the airport. I spared the State Police the stress of having me steam all over the loading and unloading zone with the hood up, blowing $2 on parking. We filled up the (again empty after 10 minute drive) radiator, drove home. There was some kind of plan to start biking to Maine that morning, but we both slept until noon. Sean pulled an all-nighter on Thursday improving his skills as an evil business magnate. The rest of the story is pretty boring for a reader, so I'll just give hte good bits. It rained like hell the first day, we made it to Salisbury, MA, stayed in a Hotel run by Pakistanis who told us all the illegal things the other hotel owners were doing. The second day we took the coastal route through NH and into Maine, through resort towns and Kittebunkport, where the President goes to commune with nature. Lucky him not having a summer home near an oil deposit. Sean's friend Wilson lives in Portland, having been released a year early from Teach for America. Strange political machinations within the school and teacher's lounge, not really sure. Supercool guy, though. He chills out, it's what he does. We tried our hands at rock climbing (I made it up a purported 5.9, after popping both ankles when Wilson's friend Kat landed on me from above. Sean wasn't paying attention to the belay, I shouldn't have been that high on the slope, and she somehow fell off level ground. Whatever. My climbing shoes grabbed onto the rock, and wouldn't let me pivot. The joints are still sore), Kayaking, hiking... beautiful weather, supplemented by the most amazing mosquito erradicating device I have ever seen. Propane powered, cleared out an acre of Maine woodlands of biting insects, and nothing else. Then I went home, and my sister graduated from High School. Theme: "Ready to Fly" I'm tired of writing. Not in the mood for it. I'll give you a bullited list of other important stuff: * I considered moving home to Milwaukee, to weather the current job blight in Boston. * I sent my first invoice as a freelance programmer today, via e-mail, to California { 0001 to www.agoodseedproduction.com, and 0002 went to www.brnr.com } * The dead mouse smell in my room is mostly gone. * I woke up at 9 today, and started working. * I went for a run. * I ate my vitamins. * www.panache.com will be my freelance company's webpage. * I thought of a nifty tool for helping said company get off the ground. * I bought a laptop! It should be here in a week. IBM G40 w/ goodies. * Fuck it, I'm going out.
3rd June 2003
2:57am: a nonstandard week
The Tale of Almost Getting Evicted We live in a warehouse. It is not zoned for living, yet for 3 years the building management has basically turned a blind eye. The maintenance guy makes loud blatant jokes about how 'nice' our 'apartment' is every time he tours the space. The building manager has brought potential renters for the joint-space through (we occupy a little less than one half of a 7,000 square foot space) many times, yet has avoided figuring it out, or admitting to figuring it out. Plausible deniability is an important part of his skill set. We pay our rent on time, we maintain the space well, and neither of them has a single complaint. The building owner, however, stands to lose the most if we accidentally incinerated ourselves in some kind of chemical fire. We have 3 million dollars of liability coverage, but it's null and void with code violations, and slept-in beds definitely constitute code violations for commercial buildings. Anyway, I had just finished my shower on [ break in mid-sentence denotes mixing of white russian, discovery that no milk exists within reasonable reach, decision to drink it anyway ] Wednesday, when I heard the doorbell [a train whistle] rang. I decided to sit tight, as it might be the building management, and rule number one of pretending to be an employee and not a resident is not to be naked around building management. I heard them bang, and ring, and bang, and yell, and finally they opened the door with their master key, and announced that "building management [was] coming in!" They've never opened it up without our say-so or permission before, so I had the distinct sense that we were about to get fucked. I clutched the handle on the inside of the shower-room door (which is blissfully opaque) and clutched the towel with my other hand. I heard them walk around for about 10 minutes, mumbling (during this time they went into Greddy's room, where he was sleeping, and shook the loft he was in... a terrifying experience, no doubt). On their way out, unfortunately, they decided to take a peek in the shower-room (for chemical safety, of course). I pulled hard on the door, but they pulled harder. Eventually, their four hands won over my one, and the door opened enough for the jig to be up. "Whoah, excuse me." "Hey guys. I was, um... wet. So I was in here. Yes." "Sorry to interrupt." "Oh, not a problem." "So you pretty much live here, huh." "Yeah, it does appear that way." "What else do you use the space for." " [ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<lame [...] work,>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] The Tale of Almost Getting Evicted
We live in a warehouse. It is not zoned for living, yet for 3 years the building management has basically turned a blind eye. The maintenance guy makes loud blatant jokes about how 'nice' our 'apartment' is every time he tours the space. The building manager has brought potential renters for the joint-space through (we occupy a little less than one half of a 7,000 square foot space) many times, yet has avoided figuring it out, or admitting to figuring it out. Plausible deniability is an important part of his skill set. We pay our rent on time, we maintain the space well, and neither of them has a single complaint. The building owner, however, stands to lose the most if we accidentally incinerated ourselves in some kind of chemical fire. We have 3 million dollars of liability coverage, but it's null and void with code violations, and slept-in beds definitely constitute code violations for commercial buildings.
Anyway, I had just finished my shower on [
break in mid-sentence denotes mixing of white russian, discovery that no milk exists within reasonable reach, decision to drink it anyway ]
Wednesday, when I heard the doorbell [a train whistle] rang. I decided to sit tight, as it might be the building management, and rule number one of pretending to be an employee and not a resident is not to be naked around building management. I heard them bang, and ring, and bang, and yell, and finally they opened the door with their master key, and announced that "building management [was] coming in!" They've never opened it up without our say-so or permission before, so I had the distinct sense that we were about to get fucked. I clutched the handle on the inside of the shower-room door (which is blissfully opaque) and clutched the towel with my other hand. I heard them walk around for about 10 minutes, mumbling (during this time they went into Greddy's room, where he was sleeping, and shook the loft he was in... a terrifying experience, no doubt). On their way out, unfortunately, they decided to take a peek in the shower-room (for chemical safety, of course). I pulled hard on the door, but they pulled harder. Eventually, their four hands won over my one, and the door opened enough for the jig to be up.
"Whoah, excuse me."
"Hey guys. I was, um... wet. So I was in here. Yes."
"Sorry to interrupt."
"Oh, not a problem."
"So you pretty much live here, huh."
"Yeah, it does appear that way."
"What else do you use the space for."
"<lame mumbling about prototyping, research, work, etc>"
"That's all I needed to know."
"Glad I could be of service."
Tom (building manager) gave us a phone call, saying that no level of sleeping there was to be tolerated, but everything else (cooking, eating, laundry, etc) was fine as long as we didn't actually stay there overnight and sleep. We received a letter to that effect a few days later:
May 28, 2003
RE: Unauthorized Use of the Premises
Dear Sirs,
It has come to our attention that you and others are living in the
space. This in direct violation of your lease, and, therefore must
cease, immediately. Paragraph 8 of your lease specifies that "The
Lessee shall use the leased premises only for the purpose of research,
design and prototyping. It will have both computer/office space and
lab/shop space."
Upon receipt of this letter, please confirm in writing that you are,
in fact, no longer living in the premises, and that you are using this
space only for the above referenced purposes. We will conduct
inspections to ensure that you are in compliance with the terms of your
lease.
If you have questions, please contact me.
BROOKLINE AVENUES ASSOCIATE LLC
Riverside Properties, Inc, Agent
(signed)
By: Thomas Monaco, Agent
Note the misspelling / mispluralization of Avenue(s) Associate(s)
So we spent the weekend trying to make the place look as if we moved out. It was surprisingly easy. I still think all they want is plausible deniability, as when Tom stopped by today he didn't really mind seeing that half of our "hell-bent to live here" evidence was still lying around.
On top of that, I crashed my bike last Wednesday (handlebars became entangled in some rope fencing while dodging around some German tourists), and had some strange stomach ailment all last week. All add up to no good.
The digikey catalog is porn to me.
I ended the internship last week, with a serious talk with my supervisor about sub-standard performance. I never really thought that I was out to impress everyone, my work was shoddy, but it was about 5th on a priority queue, and so it never had my complete attention. I'm responsible, but I'm not particularly affected by the negative review. If only I could use it for a reference, though...
What else... the car is purring like a (mongoloid) kitten, and I've begun designing a the new cabin / accessory wiring system. My hunch is it will be easier to build anew than attempt to fix or augment what's already there. I would like to produce something where voltage provided and direction of turn are independent. Eventually I plan on replacing all the dashboard sensors with some cool-looking display... so if I look at my spedometer it's like I'm checking the status of MAIN LASER BANK on a BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA SHIP. I will also require an ammeter and tachometer, because they both look awesome when you turn the car on.
And rockets.
McBean, the guy I bought the car from, used the beefiest SPDT switches available for the switchboard he installed in the dash. Good thing, because they have dual switch-action (one side for an LED indicator, the other side for power), and won't possibly break, ever. The rest of the wiring was suspect, to say the least, but I applaud the robustness of the electromechanical elements.
I'm coming closer to figuring out what I want to do with the rest of my life. Sort of how I would be closer to alpha centauri if I moved a foot to the left.
THINKING MONKEY IS TIRED
27th May 2003
2:20pm: We will now discuss matters of finance.
I want to buy a new laptop. I could buy an old one, but it wouldn't be useful for as long, wouldn't have a warranty, wouldn't have as many available compatible parts, and wouldn't be as awesome. New ones are more expensive, but tolerably so. The added utility of new laptop, for me, is greater than money saved. I also want to buy a cruise ship, but for right now, a laptop is right at the cusp of affordability, while a cruise ship is not. Likewise for a trip to the moon, a private bikini team, and 1,000 lbs of Heroin. Not that I'd want the last one, I'm just saying. My monthly spending is a value like M. M includes rent, health insurance, food, entertainment, coffee, car insurance, cell phone bill, all that. Right now I have roughly 2.75M in my savings account. The laptop would reduce that number to just under 2M. My goal was to save 6M by Jan 1, 2004, and also have paid back my mom for the amount Q I borrowed to live on while I was sucking it up as a post-grad. I still have work, meaning by the end of two months, the amount of money I have could still be 2.75M, meaning that I would be in the same state, except I would have a cool laptop. The other thing on my mind is the somewhat common and slightly risky strategy of spending beyond your means. Money can beget money, in the sense that if I have, say, a tool that can allow me to work faster and more freely, perhaps I can do a better job with my programming contracts, thereby winning more of them? Or will it just allow me to go sit in a coffee shop, surf over the WiFi, and eye the barristress. All of the human comedy in this tiny little dilemma. I told my mom that I would only get it if I won one of the two large contracts that I'm vying for, starting early this summer. With either one, I can easily afford it. In less glib news, I pissed off one of my bosses today. The one for the web internship I got in January when I *really* needed money. Monday was a holiday, meaning the normal M/W schedule was screwed up, so I suggested Tuesday and Wednesday. Saturday night I realized I couldn't make the Tuesday, and so sent an e-mail asking if the change was kosher. I guess not. I thought maybe she'd check her e-mail and call me if it was a problem, but she decided to wait until noon to get all pissed off. It's completely my responsibility, I am at fault, but she's a cow. It's a stupid job. It was ending next week anyway. Does anybody else remember being fascinated by the cover of the Borax box? It had a picture of a huge wagon train tear-assing across the west somewhere, ostensibly carrying laundry detergent. I remember thinking at the time (I was perhaps 7?) that laundry detergent must be terribly important stuff, if the Indians were willing to scalp for it. Good day.
24th May 2003
4:38pm: Why should I talk to you? What have you done for me, livejournal?
My oatmeal script works. Oh, nonsequiteur? I have the honor of doing some PHP scripting for the Play With Me Sesame site (flash based games for kids). One of the games involves making an oatmeal picture on a plate using flash and a simple palatte of source images. I make said flash representation into a .jpg. Anyway, I can bask in the glow of that for another 20 or 30 minutes until it's back to the normal rainy Saturday funk. Should I have one of these if I have to remind myself to do it? Is it worth it? Tonight I'm going out with SCUL again... not sure what the destination is, but I'm willing to bet it will be a short voyage, owing to the rain and coldness. I'm so awesome I paid bills today. Need substance! Need money. I want a new monitor and a laptop. That's the equivalent of 3 months rent or so. Am I sure I need the items? What if shit goes wrong and I don't keep my jobs. The laptop will only provide heat in the form of a plastic fire for a night at the most. I guess the boxes could be used to help make a new home.
19th May 2003
12:17am: Mr. Oizo
I seem to be in the flotsam of another wave, as the topic of web log ettiquite was recently the subject of a New York Times color piece. Sure, I've only been posting a month, but my ICQ number was really really low. So suck an egg. Anyway, two topics of obvious note are the discussion of work and love for all the world to see. If you call your boss a lamprey-shucking fussy little trollope online, and he finds it, you'll get fired (unless your boss is really cool). If you wax philosophic about the stranger physical ideosynchrasies of a significant other (corns, unlanced boils, eyeball hair, subdermal putrefaction, etc), well, they just might get offended too. I had the unfortunate experience of being in a short blogged relationship a year or two ago. Sure, you say you want to know what your partner is thinking... but sometimes you really don't. If you want to find something out, it's much safer to do in the natural present-tense face-to-face which has served us ape people for so many generations. Reading temporally disjunct and context-free musings about your entanglement just feels weird, and occasionally precludes nausea. I've talked about work on here, and as long as I don't divulge trade secrets or lampoon anyone with check-writing abilities, it's no problem. Besides, if I really have that much vitriol for a supervisor, why am I still working for/with him/her? But Rabbits, as they are known among the knowing, are forthwith banned from these pages. Unless, I mean, I can benefit financially. Haha... just a little joke. That's all for tonight. I was up till 6:30 a.m. today winning bread, and had lots of sun and exercise. An early slumber for me. But only after a little Sim City 4.... E
15th May 2003
1:50am:
Grand Theft Auto is available for PC. Sweet zombie jesus. E
1:27am: (optional, for use on longer entries)
Hola mi amigos. I started today by sleeping in through my alarm for 40 minutes, climbing down from my loft 20 minutes before needing to be at work only because I really needed to pee, only to go BACK TO BED in short order and wake up exactly when I was supposed to show up at work, only to show up 23 minutes late after a shower. I suppose this cavalier attitude arises from the titular nature of the work (webslutting internship for one more month), plus I felt a little under the weather with a sore throat. I deserve no sympathy for any of my actions prior to 11:23 a.m. this morning. If I end up getting all the work that looks like is coming my way, it will be a very busy June indeed. I just watched part of the first Matrix for the first time in several years. My favorite part is *still* when Neo flexes right at the end and the walls bend. I wish I had that power. Even if it came with no other telekenesis, I could still end any argument by flexing and bending the walls. "But you're totally ignoring the economic effects of that policy, I mean.."
"Oh. Well then... I'll just be going."
Can livejournals be subpoenaed later down the road? I suppose they're public domain.
The rest of today was spent tutoring a high school kid in the ways of the SAT, fucking up for www.ntag.com, one of my jobs, doing laundry, and being more tired than usual.
Tomorrow there will be meeting with boss from nTAG (unrelated to my fucking up), lunch with Brenna, who in arguments is right much more often than I am or not! [ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<flex!>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] Hola mi amigos.
I started today by sleeping in through my alarm for 40 minutes, climbing down from my loft 20 minutes before needing to be at work only because I really needed to pee, only to go BACK TO BED in short order and wake up exactly when I was supposed to show up at work, only to show up 23 minutes late after a shower.
I suppose this cavalier attitude arises from the titular nature of the work (webslutting internship for one more month), plus I felt a little under the weather with a sore throat. I deserve no sympathy for any of my actions prior to 11:23 a.m. this morning.
If I end up getting all the work that looks like is coming my way, it will be a very busy June indeed.
I just watched part of the first Matrix for the first time in several years. My favorite part is *still* when Neo flexes right at the end and the walls bend. I wish I had that power. Even if it came with no other telekenesis, I could still end any argument by flexing and bending the walls.
"But you're totally ignoring the economic effects of that policy, I mean.."
<FLEX>
"Oh. Well then... I'll just be going."
Can livejournals be subpoenaed later down the road? I suppose they're public domain.
The rest of today was spent tutoring a high school kid in the ways of the SAT, fucking up for www.ntag.com, one of my jobs, doing laundry, and being more tired than usual.
Tomorrow there will be meeting with boss from nTAG (unrelated to my fucking up), lunch with Brenna, who in arguments is right much more often than I am or not! <FLEX!> booya... then not tutoring girl at Milton academy in SAT II math because she's sick, then some shopping, then a haircut. Shizam.
No depth tonight.
E
14th May 2003
1:18am: Lakers... what's a "Laker"?
I have no net vector...but I have more work to do. Is it, or is it not correct to begin a sentence with "But" or "And." I have seen it done in journalism, academia, and fiction. Highly reputable sources. Discuss. E
12th May 2003
5:11pm: MIRASCUL
I joined a bicycle gang Saturday night. I'm currently a Petty Officer Third Class (I think), and I didn't even have to kill any rival gang members. They're a group called Scul that operate out of Fort Congress in the Sommerville System (and ride a fine line between the dorkier tendency of over-jargoning and over-pretending, and just having a laid back time... ). Basically, it's 3 or 4 bicycle mechanics who live in an apartment, and have a bike shop in teh basement. They've built about 100 crazy hacked-up cycles over the last 8 years or so, from low-riders, to minibikes, to double-tall-10speeds. Each one is different, difficult to handle, and way way cool. www.scul.orgAfter I went through the initiation ritual (paying $5) we watched this goofy little film called "Gizmos." It consisted primarily of old footage of whack inventions from the time before common sense. Some very hilarious short films, some scary ones. In one scene, a man appears to blow himself up, and you see his dog running frantically into the plume of smoke looking for him (he is fine). I think they were testing football equiptment. No joke. Being in a bicycle gang such as this means that you ride around the city in a huge group of insanity, blasting P-Funk over a homecooked motorcycle-battery driven stereosystem (with an FM transciever hookup between the lead and trailing bike, for synchronized music), frightening pedestrians, running over beer cans (asteroids), and the like. I'm pretty sure almost everyone there was stoned. I can't possibly describe the experience fully. Oh, my Scul name is "Hazard." Word. OH! Also of note, I have discovered the Michigan Ice Racing Association (MIRA.org). A similar level of adult escapism, MIRA provides mostly males the opportunity to race their minivans and Dodge Neons around a frozen lake in the middle of winter for paltry prize money. I'm so excited about this, you have no idea. MIRAScott and I are planning on going. We need to add a rollcage to The Turkish Palace (my car), and also some crash bars, nitro, and a red light on the roof. I'm pretty sure I'll also want a good sturdy helmet. I'm heading to NY tonight to see the pops. He's in town for my step brother's graduation. Yay $20 round trip on the Chinatown bus. I'm pretty sure LiveJournal's server is running an HTTP daemon called timeOut50PercentOfTheTime(). Lame. Maybe that goes away if you pay money.
9th May 2003
6:57pm: dehydration makes my eyesockets hurt
I slept through my car appointment by 5 hours today... not really a problem, they still let me pay them money to fix it, plus the thing was done in less than two hours. In that meantime, I rode my bike to Newton to arrange to get paid for SAT tutoring. Dinner was a burrito. That's about all you need to know about today. I had the thought last night that people seem more boring as they get older because they make fewer mistakes. Once you've arrived at your average state of emotion, have a regular methodology for decision making, in short order you will gravitate into a stable routine, call it a rut, in which you find the fewest problems and perturbations. But while you're living so comfortably, you generate far fewer interesting stories, and have far fewer fun things to think about. Then you get old. Some people remedy this calm by making a poor marriage decision. I'm going cycling with a bicycle gang on Saturday night. They're called the Scul, and I have to pick a cool badass name. They make all their own bikes, which tend to be highly unstable and difficult to operate. It's going to be terriffic. For just $8, a can of neon-orange spray paint can be yours. It's quite easy to have more than $8 of fun with a can or orange spray paint.
7th May 2003
5:08pm:
Fixed the gas leak... heh heh... turns out I left a wrench in the engine... heh heh. All is well now, except for a decent kink in the fuel line. Oh, and major, major props to The Man for allowing me to join this elite community of communicants.
2:10pm:
Good afternoon, interweb. I almost blew myself up yesterday. It was great! I was trying to replace the fuel filter in my auto-mobile. After locating the fuel input port of the carburator, and noting the rustedness and apparent jammededness of it, I went after the thing with two monkey wrenches but succeeded only in loosening the gasket and twisting the metal fuel line about halfway around. Bad. Luckily, before departing for cross town to meet the womanfriend, I started it with the hood up to see if there were any leaks. BOY HOWDY! A geyser of gasoline tells me that I'm going to need to fix that with elbow grease and possibly intelligence before driving out to Winchester tonight. www.demian5.org www.mnftiu.cc If I put my head next to the window, I can imagine that I'm outside, possibly on a ship. Buridan keeps putting deep thoughts in his. I must keep up with the Joneses. The deep thought for today is that I find myself, at the age of 22, capable of performing a wide number of tasks, keeping my days full, balancing leisure and work, and being more or less content with all of it. This is the first time I have achieved a content state without a clearly defineable increase in my causes for happiness, meaning that I am now faced with the choice of continuing on with my life until overcome by the pimples and abscesses-internal in more or less the same state, or become more intelligent about the ways in which I shape my time, so that I can direct my activities into a more coherent and goal-directed whole. Like, say, getting a real job and starting a career and investing so my money 'works for me' and such and such. As far as the blissful poetic meaning of life that is sought inwardly the world over, I'll just have to keep looking for a source of it. If Bush got on the radio today and said "The dems be playa-hataz" he wouldn't be far off the mark. MUST MAKE MORE TEXT I predict that indenting for paragraphs will become obsolete within the next 15 years. YOu heard it here first. All because indenting is a pain in the butt with HTML.
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