October 2000

1 October

There were some problems with the upgrade that I had been working on. As a result I was up from 1am to 4am this morning, and then I had to cancel going to the baseball with Jenny. No matter, she came over and we watched it on my TV until I got word from Shane that I could complete my work on the servers.

John and Lauren came over for Sunday TV, and Stacy and Dill called in for ten minutes. John, Lauren and I played Scrabble and I kicked their butts. [L: 144, D: 217, J:159]

2 October

Work started at 5:30am this morning. I eventually made it to the office for a couple of hours before jumping on a plane to Nashville. And here I am now.

I will tidy up much of the above and elaborate a little more when I get back to Atlanta.

3 October

Let's call this the getting sick day. I didn't feel well most of the day.

4 October

Let's call this the I'm sick day. I was dropped back at the hotel around 11:30am.

I read my new Hellblazer comic. I also started my new book on the Sandman comics.

5 October

And let's call today the I'm getting better day. I slept in and got up around midday and was in at the plant around 1ish. After work I finished my book on The Sandman and had some IM conversations with Myra and with Clair. Myra is going to the Rose and Crown on Saturday to watch the England-Germany qualifying game. Kick off is at 10am, but since it's Stacy's party on Friday night, I may have some difficulty getting there.

Hey, I haven't had any alcohol since Sunday. Astounding, isn't it?

Today is also Stacy's birthday. Happy Birthday, Miss Thirty.

6 October

I didn't sleep well last night. My legs felt funny and uncomfortable. Add to that some rather harsh coughing every so often. The funny thing is that I don't feel as tired as I think I ought to. Weird.

Got back to Atlanta at 7pm and prepared for an awesome night of fun, laughter, and alcohol. I started at the Local with a barbeque sandwich and a pint of Newcastle. Daniel misunderstood an order and ended making two Jack and cokes. He gave me the extra one - rock on. I then had a Kettel One lemon drop and settled my tab. I headed over to Greens to pick up supplies (bottle of Rumple Mintz, bottle of Absolut, bottle of Makers Mark). John called and asked me to grab some plastic cups, so I stopped by Kroger to get those and a bottle each of Coke and Sprite.

I arrived at John's to find Stacy, Dill, Jenny, Linda, Vanessa and Tim already there. I started the night with a Kettle One Citron and Sprite, which was an excellent start. Over the course of the evening, many cool people turned up. John and I had a talk about Myra - apparently she had raised the issue of a friend of hers having a crush on her and what she should do about it. Heheh. I wonder who that might be?

Anyway, more people arrived and the party really took off. I took a lot of pictures, mostly when I was drunk, so I have no idea who I took them of. I shall see when the film is developed I guess.

Rae Ann and me,Lauren and Jill (with John and Will),Heather,Stacy,Scott and Brad,me with Kalina and Scott,Lauren and Andie,me and Stephanie,Stephanie and Tim

At about 3:30 or so, Stacy, Dill, Jenny and I went up to the Majestic for a feed. This took a while, and Dill passed out. Well, he was in a pretty trashed state for most of the night. After eating, Jenny dropped Stacy and Dill back at Stacy's place and then she slept on the couch at my place.

7 October

Woke up. Had some Aleve. Very necessary.

Around midday Jenny and I went down to John's to wake him up. Linda, Lauren and Clair were also still there. After some chitchat, Linda left and the rest of us bundled into my car and we went off to Waffle House for food. Jenny and John were both looking a little pale - alcohol or Waffle House breakfast: you make the call. Once the fast was broken we shot up to Wolf Camera so I could pick up the photos from the films I dropped in a week or so ago. Fun fun fun.

Today I signed up with AM Hosting for them to host my new website. Very soon, these pages will move to www.boywithoutasoul.com. Why the change? Well, Mindspring has a 10MB limit on data and I have reached that. I could buy an additional 5MB for $4.95 a month, but why do that when I can pay $9.95 a month and get a domain name at 50MB of web space. Makes sense to me...

I also recieved my newest Power Puff Girl merchandise. My god, I'm a sad individual.

In the evening, Stacy and Dill picked me up and we went over to John's. John and I went over to Walt's birthday/wedding party and had a few drinks there. Then most of that party moved to the Local, so we went, too. John bailed from there, and I caught a cab up to the Vault. When we finally got kicked out, Lauren, Roy, Shane, another person, and I went to the Majestic for food. I guess I got home about 5ish. Sheesh.

8 October

Yet another recovery day.

In the evening, Bria came over for a catchup. John and Vanessa also came over with the remains of the keg from Friday night. We watched Stigmata, during which Stacy and Dill made an appearance. They disappeared when the movie finished (as did Bria) and John, Vanessa and I watched The Man Show, The Simpsons and South Park. Then everyone went home and I went to bed.

9 October

Arrived at work at 8am for an 8:30 meeting that didn't happen until 2:30. Damn. And I didn't get out until 7:30. Double damn. But I had dinner at John's (chicken and brocolli and spaghetti) before being rudely paged while watching a rerun of last week's pilot episode of Dark Angel. It was entertaining enough, but I don't know that it will draw the viewers away from Buffy or Angel.

Another note about today is that it was bloody cold. The temperature was pretty much in single digits celsius all day. This I find greatly offensive. It also contributes (along with the whole being on call thing) to my not going up to the Local tonight.

Cool news - New Zealand beat Zimbabwe to advance to face Pakistan in the semi-finals of the ICC KnockOut series in Kenya. I expect Pakistan will be too strong for them, but excellent work, chaps.

10 October

I worked and then I slept.

11 October

I worked. This included after hours work as a result of being on call.

After work was Trivia at the Local. Myra and her dad, Bill, were the first to turn up. I ended up talking to Myra's mum on the phone as well. Yay, the whole family.

We lost. We were close. We had a tie-breaker for third and fourth. But we fucked up. Oh well.

Then everyone went to their own respective homes for sleep.

12 October

Okay, so I drove to Nashville. Then I did work type things (including lunch with Kate, Dave and Tony), and then I drove home. When I got home I went to the pub to see Lauren, Jesse, and Andie. I had three drinks and then went home to bed.

13 October

Full Moon

Okay, so this is asking for trouble. Friday the thirteenth in October. I was up from 1:30am until some other hour more suitable to waking up rather than going back to bed. But I also left work early much earlier than usual.

After work I went home and slept for a couple of hours. After this, I went over to Lauren's and then we went down to Eric's workplace. This place rocks. Eric is a graphics designer, doing special effects and movie trailers and other fun things. And his office space is simply the fucking most rocking office space I have visited.

From there, we waited for some other folk (including the skydiving people I went to Tenessee with a while back) and then went to a Cuban restaurant on 5th Street. The food was pretty damn good. I'd go there again.

After the food, Lauren and I went back to her place, where I waited for Clair while Lauren went to pick up Andie. And then we all got way the hell fucked up. But it was so good to do this that nobody cared. Least of all us.

14 October

Eventually I woke up and left, as John and I were looking for a new place to live. We went to six or seven appointments. Two people failed to show up. Most of the rest sucked. We caught one tht was pretty goof - a three bedroom house. But the top bedroom is open to the living room, which could be awkward for whoever takes the top room.

Sarah is checking the place out later this week, and if she likes it (and wants the top room) we may just take it...

This evening, Lauren, Clair and I went to the birthday party of one of Lauren's workamtes (Nicole - who rocks by the way). From there we went to Cyberia at the Vault, where Raoy played a fucking amazing set and then we were kicked out at 3 o'clock. There were several gay guys flirting with Lauren, which was kind of wierd.

15 October

Tonight was food and TV and Srcabble per normal. The people were John, Jenny and Clair. John won (the bastard). [JA: 62, DA: 151, JB:167, CH:117]

16 October

Redheads have always disturbed me.

Miss RedheadwhosenameIcannottremember was pretty cute. She could sing, she had a cute body and her name was...Was...Was....Damn! I can't remember her name, but she was cute and about my age. Rock on. Hopefully I will see her next week and get things sorted.

Yes, I suck.

17 October

I think her name was Heather. But I could be wrong. Where is the Aleve?

Yes, I checked with Matt tonight and her name was Heather. And she is a call girl. So I'm not sure that I will follow that up. But you never know.

So, yes I did go to the Local and had a drink with Tim and Charlie. Then they went and so I finished my food and drink. RaeAnne and John Turned up just as I was about to leave, so I stayed and it turned into in a much bigger night than planned.

The highlight was doing an ABC of why girls make life difficult for guys...

18 Octoberp

And then I drove to Nashville this morning. I listened to VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berserk and Battery on my way up. We had a good day when I got there as far as work is concerned - and we didn't go to Cracker Barrel. Heheh. By the way, VNV rocks.

For dinner we went to Cozy Mels.

19 October

A very successful day in Nashville (and this time we did go to Cracker Barrel), and then I drove home. At Stacy's request I cam to the pub and met with her and John. A bunch of Dill's friends turned up and it was all very fun and games. Everybody pretty much left eventually except for me and Clair, who closed the bar out after bitching about the things we hate about our respective jobs.

Just for the record, I don't hate my job, I just hate that my scope keep changing and I'm not getting the pay that someone else with my responsibility would normally get. It's not a big deal, but sometimes it gets frustrating.

20 October

I was a little late to work today (partly due to last night), and most of today was spent doing those little jobs that don't get done and those little things that get pushed aside.

I also leanred today that Grace was having a party on Saturday, so I decided to cancel my camping trip to go to that instead. Yes, I like Grace. So she has a boyfriend; I'm not going to interfere with that relationship. I'm going to be there for her if ever she needs a friend. She's (a) cute and (b) a really cool person.

So anyway, we (Lauren, John, Brad and I) were supposed to watch Titus at my place and then go to the Vault. Well, everybody fucked out on that plan so I got an early night (after playing much Civ II and watching some TV with John).

21 October

Woohoo!! I slept for eight hours and then woke up. I would have preferred nine hours, but eight is more than I'm used to.

I drove over to John's, picked him up and then we went to check out an apartment on 5th St. Sarah met us there and we checked it out. John and Sarah had already seen it and liked it. I fell in love with the place very quickly. So we decided to sign up for it. The end result: we're moving in to a new apartment next month. Rock on! And my room-mates (or flatmates for the non-Americans, heheh) are going to be great people.

After signing up for the apartment, John, Sarah and I went to Alice's for breakfast - pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon. Damn good food, Sarah, I hope Alice is going to stay over a lot once we're in the new place...

In the afternoon I went to the Decatur Beer Festival with Sarah and Alice. I met a bunch of new people who really rocked, as well as drinking a fuck load of beer (Sam Adams, Hard Core, Velteen, Grolsh, Grolsh Amber Ale, Labbatt, Warstein, Pete's Wicked Ale (and varieties thereof), Dead Guy's Ale (Stout, Porter, Ale), various Cider, Pilsner Urquell, more), . We eventually went back to somebody's house and drank more as well as ordering pizza. Names I remember: Ian, Mike, um, yeah, sorry everyone, I blame the alcohol.

And now I'm waiting for Lauren to come pick me up so we can go to Grace's. Grace is having a party. Grace rocks.

So, Lauren picked me up and we went to Grace's. This was fun. I left a bottle of vodka there. This is okay. I also carved a pumpkin.

From Grace's place, Lauren and I went back to her apartment and called a cab to take us up to the Vault for Cyberia, where we continued to have a riuotously good time. Eventually we were asked to vacate the premises and so Brad, Lauren and I went up to the Buckhead Diner for some food.

We decided that it was still too early for bed, so we came back to my apartment and we played drinking Uno. We also tried the "twig" vodka that I brought back from Poland. Unfortunately, this caused me to empty my recently filled stomach. Oh well, such is life. We all got drinks, played uno and eventually crashed out.

22 October

My alarm went off and Lauren got up to go pick up her mother from the airport. Before leaving, though, she fed me some Aleve. Yay for Lauren!

I went back to sleep. I feel like shit. I had way too much to drink yesterday. Christ. I tried getting up and playing Civ, but this wasn't working out for me so I had a shower. Again I tried to play Civ, but decided that this really wasn't working, so I went back to bed again.

Jenny called by to pick up her bucket and to regale me with stories of the camping trip. Apparently John has a new nickname: Johnny Jackalot. Heheh, rock on.

And Nicole called me! Woohoo! I haven't spoken to her for ages, and had called her the other night. Today was Labour Day in New Zealand.

Sunday night TV was cancelled due to everyone being tired and the baseball was being shown on Fox.

23 October

Today I was still feeling a little under the weather from Saturday's excesses. Oh well, such is life. After work, Lauren and I went to clean out her now written off car. How sad. Then we went to Waffle House for food and a game of Let's Pretend. That was fun as always.

Then we went and fed and played with Jesse's kitten (he is in Germany at MachineFest) and then Lauren dropped me home. John stopped by so I could give him the deposit for the new apartment, sign the lease and allow him to do some laundry. Speaking of which, since Sarah has nice new washer and drier, I won't be needing the ones I have - any takers?

24 October

Well, there I was, happily plodding away at work when the phone rang. Who should it be, but Nick Westgate, former flatmate and all round cool person. It turns out he's in the US, is coming to Atlanta, and is keen to catch up this weekend. Well not a problem there, my good friend. Much fun shall be had.

When I got home I tried to get a hit counter running on my web page, but with little joy. So I went up to the Local and caught up with Charlie, Daniel, Tim and Walt, Eric and Trey, Lauren, Billy, Christian and Genevieve, Stacy and Dill, Vanessa, Steve. Quite a pleasant evening.

But there is some sadness. The staff at the Local is changing. Walt is leaving to pursue other interests; Daphne and Tim are no longer there. Matt and Rebecca have quit. All very sad. We shall see how things pan out, but at this stage I have no intention to stop going to the Local.

25 October

Work was work was work. I had soup and a bagel (with roast beef and lettuce and cheese and tomato) for lunch. I also put money in my bank account - my expense claim for Poland just got paid. Woohoo.

After work I got a phone call from Nick and I went to pick up he and his colleague (Rudolf), and we went out for dinner. I can't remember the name of the establishment, but it was a little Italian place just down the road from Nomenclature, Their caesar salad was very nice, and their ravioli di funghi was also quite splendid. For desert I treated myself to the kahlua creme brulee. To die for...

From the restaurant we went up to Nomenclature and we had a splendid evening there. Nick and Rudolf got to meet some of my Atlanta friends, listen to some great music, and watch some interesting videos. Also over the course of the evening I was able to catch up on the goings on of the peeps back home. It just drives home the fact that even though there's email, it is still hard to keep up with friends when home is ten thousand miles away...

At about half past twelve we took off; Lauren leaving at arounf the same time as we have an opera to go to on Thursday night.

26 October

Getting out of bed was a chore this morning. Eh. Work was pretty good, though. I managed to get a number of things done, which was good, and then Matt, Simon, Bryan and I went over to the Three Dollar Cafe for lunch. Today is Simon's last day in the US, which is a pity, because he was a great help. We shall see how Bryan shapes up, but so far he's doing the right things.

After work I bundled home and got dressed up for tonight's entertainment, Puccini's Turandot. I am now just waiting for Lauren and we shall be away. Point to note - I think that the walk to the Fox Theatre from my new apartment will be shorter and with less inclines. Woohoo!!

While I was waiting, I started to catch up some email. Check out this site and let me know who you are...


Just got back from Turandot. Wow. It was great. Excellent choreography, excellent set design, excellent lighting. The orchestra were outstanding. And the players were great, too. I was particularly impressed by Calaf (Eduardo Villa), Lił (Kelley Nassief) and the three ministers/magicians: Ping, Pang and Pong, who were just plain old entertaining.

I'm a little peckish, but I can't be bothered going out to get any food, so I'll skip it and eat tomorrow.

27 October

Eh. My back and neck hurt. And my shoulder. I guess I must have slept irregularly. In any case, I really don't want to get up, but work must be done.

Especially since I am leaving the office early today. I need to do a bunch of stuff, and Nick will require picking up after he finishes his work today. Then he will be staying here until Sunday, when he returns to Houston.

Today I booked some travel to Boston for work. Hotels are very expensive there. I wanted to get a place downtown, so I could explore some of the city Monday night (granted I could just watch Ally McBeal, but I'll actually be in Boston!), but the only available hotels were $300+ per night. So much for that idea.

I left the office at a little after 1pm and spent the rest of the day tidying, throwing things out and packing boxes. I have thus far packed five boxes of books. I'm probably going to need another eight boxes for books. Sheesh. I have altogether too many books. No, I take that back; you can never have too many books.

I picked Nick up at about 4:30 and brought him back to my apartment. After getting sorted, Nick having a nap and catching up on email, we headed on up to the Local, where I introduced Nick to Southern barbeque. There were a bunch of people up there, a new menu, and much merriement. There was a guy up there who turned out to be a bit of a bonehead, and then we left.

We went over to Keri's party for a while. John was wearing a very revealing body suit painted up kind of like Harlequin. I know my Commedia dell'Arte, and I was a little critical of the costume, but hey, Stacy got to check out John's "package". Heheh. (I later learned that he was the Batman foe, not the Commedia character upon which it was based.) Sarah was The Joker, and Barry and his girl were Garth Brooks and someone else. I also met a really cute girl there, but seeing as most of the girls there were lesbians, I figure she was one, too. Damn. Oh well.

From the party we went to MJQ to check out their drum'n'bass night, only to discover that they had bands playing. Damn. So quick change of plans and we rocket up to the Vault, where Lauren was getting saucy with a couple of young men, one of whom's cute girlfriend was out of town. Naughty naughty naughty. (I was later assured that no naughtiness occurred.)

When we got kicked out of the Vault (two drinks after we arrived - well, we didn't get there until after 3am), Nick and I headed for the Waffle House for food, and then home to Aleve and bed. Truly an action-packed Friday night.

28 October

Okay, so I fell out of bed around noon and really wasn't feeling too bad apart from dehydration and a sore neck. Such is life. I took Nick to Apres Diem for brunch, and the food was spectacular. We both had the Atlantic Benedict - salon on croissant and eggs and hollandaise. Yummy. It was a beautiful day for sitting outside in the sun, eating good food and just relaxing.

From Apres Diem, we went to World of Coke and wandered around that for an hour or so, and then it was back to the apartment for Nick to have a nap and to prepare for the evening's festivities. Being the weekend before Halloween (Tuesday), there are a lot of themed parties going on tonight, and of course there is also Cyberia at the Vault - with guest DJs from New York. This should be fun, even though several people are out of town (mostly in New Orleans).

Clair has a webcam. He also has migrated his web site. Today, Clair is watching a movie about Wyatt Earp on TV. I think he mentioned Kevin Costner being in it. He also mentioned that he doesn't like the Vault. Maybe I should get a webcam. Christian has indicated in the past that I should.

First stop tonight was to pick up some beers and some pizza. Once fed, Nick and I headed over to Denver's party. This was a fun little excursion; an 80's theme with most party-goers in costume (yeah, I'm a slacker).

From the party we headed up to the Vault for Cyberia, where there was a costume competition, guest DJs from New York, and a hell of a lot of people. It was great. A guy dressed as Edward Scissorhands won the competition, with Christian and Genevieve coming second as Beetlejuice and whatever Winona's character's name was. They were pretty impressive. Third were Christian and Ann as Mozart and Saucy Mozart. They were awesome, too. ADDENDUM TO LAST NIGHT: I was incorrect about certain parties being out of town.

Nick and I left a little before closing and went back to Denver's for a while before heading over to Lauren's where Brad and Lauren had just arrived home. We proceeded to continue the entertainment for many hours. At around six there was a knock at the door and one of her neighbours was asking if he could come in as he had locked himself out of his apartment. This was Chris. His friend Jezz (or Jazz or something like that) turned up a little later on.

Lauren latched onto Chris fairly quickly (it happens) and we just all continued partying. Later, Chris left to see if his sister could give him a key to his apartment (she lives in the same building, with Stephanie from the Local). They had a bit of an altercation and Chris wound up back at Lauren's. All very Melrose Place. Nick and I got some sleep and then headed back to my apartment for better sleep around 8ish.

29 October

A very slow, lazy day. I read my latest copy of Issues in Science and Technology while Nick explored SlashDot and google.com. Jenny stopped round to borrow my vacuum cleaner (she moved into her new apartment yesterday). Later, John and Sarah came by so we could discuss stuff about the new apartment. I'm really looking forward to moving.

Then it was time to take Nick back to the airport. It was really great seeing him and catching up with stories from home. Which reminds me, I have to send a nastygram to Mr Geraghty for not telling me about his upcoming relocation. Words will be had.

I got back and Sarah and John were still hanging out. We watch a bunch of TV and then Sarah had to go pick Alice up from the airport. John stopped by later to do laundry, and while the second load was going we headed up to the Local to have a birthday drink with Steve. This proved entertaining even though I limited myself to two beers. Stephanie asked if we were keen to go to the Highlander after she finished work. I was interested in the idea until she said she knocked off at midnight. I knew I was going to be alseep by then, one way or another. Next time...

We got back to my place in time to catch the end of The Simpsons and then South Park. John bailed, vowing to return to finish his laundry on Monday.

30 October

I awoke, tired, to the sound of my pager. Once again, it was a customer who has been told not to contact me directly. Damn. Damn. Damn. So I paged Bryan and got him to deal with them. He is on call, so I did not feel any remorse in doing this.

Sleep was not very forthcoming after this, but I stayed in bed until I really had to get up. I got to work about 9ish, so I wasn't late or anything, but I did not feel at my best.

However, the day was reasonably successful. At lunch time I bought an optical mouse. Nick had one with him over the weekend, and it was so nice and light that I decided that I needed one, too. Heheh. But I feel it was a good purchase.

After work (which I left at around 6:30pm) I went home and did very little.

Heheh, I just corrected a person who claimed that the correct past tense for "to hang" when talking about the form of death was "hung." The correct word is "hanged." How do I know this (beyond checking it in the dictionary)? I lost marks in a fifth form short story for using the wrong word. See, I did learn something in school.

31 October

Halloween!!

Not so much happened at work today, beyond getting some work done :-). Lauren sent me a link to emode.com, a site full of quizzes and tests, where you can compare yourself against your friends. For the record, the email address I used was pierrot@boywithoutasoul.com.

Tonight there is a special Secret Room at the Vault. I fully intend to go, although no more dressed up than wearing some of my gothy clothes. I know, I'm a slacker.

I packed a few more boxes with boxes and software tonight. I'm up to nine boxes packed. I'm travelling all next week, so whatever I can get done this week will aid things on moving day.

The Vault was also going off. There were plenty of people there, including Bria and her new girlfriend, Jenna. Woohoo!! I spent a bit of time talking with Amber, Michelle and Mary, Scott, Rosalie (who I just met tonight), Jason (JSin), Drew, Ryan, Lauren, Shaun and Josh, Rebecca and John Butler, Roy. Lea and Brad, and many other people. I also introduced myself to a girl named Michele, who I had seen around the last few times I had been to the Vault and thought was cute. She turned out to be pretty articulate and generally very nice.

A little before the Vault closed, Amber, Michelle (the one I already knew), Mary, Brad and I (and some other guy) went up to a cemetary in Roswell/Sandy Springs and hung out for a while. I guess I got home around 5ish.