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January 2002
Happy New Year.
Today I felt like absolute death. John, Charlotte, Amy and I eventually arose from bed and wandered down Halsted to meet Lauren and Matt at IHOP. We ate and talked and I felt like shit. We actually had to wait outside in the cold for a considerable amount of time. Icky.
After breakfast we wandered back to our accomodations, rested and packed for the return to Atlanta. Amy caught the train with us back to O'Hare. It was frustrating, as usual, to get to the airport and have to say goodbye after so short a period of time together. On the good side, she will be down on Friday for Lauren's and Clair's housewarming extravaganza. But after that weekend, I don't know when I will see her next. I have so many things I have to accomplish this year, financially, that making regular trips to Chicago is going to be difficult. But if I keep an eye out for cheap fares, well, I should be able to keep my Skymiles up...
At the airport we found Lauren, checked in and said goodbye to Amy. There's nowhere for people to hang out outsdie of the gate area at O'Hare, so Amy went on home. We went through security, and Charlotte was selected for the full-on search. Then we went to the Crown Room and we got Lauren put onto the standby list for our flight (she was booked on the one after ours). Then we hung out, read the paper, and drank lemonade for an hour and a half. Finally, it was time to board our plane and away we went, back to Atlanta.
We had to wait for Lauren's bag to arrive on the later flight so we went to the bar in the atrium to get a bite to eat and watch the Illinois State vs LSU football game. Which wasn't being shown because the TV didn't get the right channel. WTF? We still ate some food there and consumed more non-alcoholic beverages.
We got in about 11ish. I checked my email and John watched the end of the football game. Then bedtime for all.
Sleeping in is good. Well, it would be better if the sleep was unbroken, but so it goes.
Eventually got up and checked email and read LiveJournals, and then got to work on updating my own journal. A new year is hard work...
And then, Lauren said, "it's snowing." So I looked out the window and it was. Oh my god. So I ran outside, and it was snowing. My car has snow on it. As at about 3pm there is about half an inch of snow out there, maybe more. Amy didn't go in to work today, so I gave her a call and told her about the snow. It was colder in Chicago but still the snow is here in Atlanta. Ah well. Time to do laundry.
I awoke at 7:30am to the radio saying it was 22F (-6C). Noooooo!!! Too cold!!!!
After work I pottered around, playing Civ III and then I headed off to the airport to pick up Amy.
We had dinner at Gordon Biersch, then met up with the rest of the crew (Lauren, Matt, Shawn, John, Charlotte, Rob), down at the Local. Also there was Jen. The gothsters went on to Rarity, but John, Charlotte, Amy and I just hung out and then went home.
Lauren and Clair have a party!. (Pictures courtesy of Sherrod)
Bria sent me this link to a picture of me, Bria and Lauren. That's not hair growing out of the back of my head - that's Heather standing behind me! And also this one of Me and Amy looking oh so cute.
I also took pictures, of Christian, Brad and Jen, and once again Christian, Brad and Jen, Lauren's loft, Butch, Anna, Patty, Christian and Genevieve, Karen and Clair, Stacie and Shawn, Stacie and Sarah.
Got up late. Amy and I went to Flying Biscuit for brunch, where we were joined by Lauren and Matt.
I picked up Lauren and Matt and we all (with Amy) went to the airport. Lauren and I said our goodbyes and Matt and Amy departed.
Sunday night TV was with John and Charlotte and pizza.
I just got my long distance bill for December today (Sprint). It totaled $331.21. Of that total, $283.55 were the itemized long distance calls (most of the remainder is tax). Of that $283.55, $265.60 comes from three calls, totaling 64 minutes. Did you know that on Sprint Nickel Nights, a call to New Zealand is $4.15 per minute? I do now. This is gong to effect my recreational plans for the next month...
I had dinner with Lauren at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Then I came home and scanned some photos that Amy took on my birthday and on New Year's Eve. I also started work on a new mix CD. Britpop again, although I do need to make up a NZ music disc, too.
Dave Thomas, of Wendy's fame died today.
I left work a little later than normal. After the majority of people had left, the only sound was the white noise of the air conditioners. This was nice. I was able to focus on the code I was writing. I was accomplishing stuff. This is the reason I hate cube-farms: I can't concentrate with all those noisy distractions. I need to listen to music, but the sound out of my computer sucks through headphones. Well, that assumes the processor can keep up with the music player. Hrm. I may have to start bringing my MD player to work...
At home, I did some work on documenting a product element that we are working with a major telecoms equipment manufacturer on. It's an interesting application. Then I went off to read more of Tom Robbins' Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates. This is a really cool book. I also booked a trip to Chicago for the weekend of the 18th-20th. What a jetsetter
Today at work we discussed a bit about our upcoming trip to the trade show in Las Vegas. Things shall be very different from last year in that our PR and planning team are no longer with us since Marconi Commerce Systems has been sold off. Kathy and Don were cool people to work with. Oh well, it'll mean we have to spend longer in Vegas, so I won't complain too loudly. Although, that assumes I don't lose my arse at the tables...
I had a pretty much backwards, unsuccessful, sucky day aside from that. My hard drive upgrade failed and I had to revert to my old drive an hour into loading new software. None of my coding was making any progress. Then, much the same as yesterday, once everybody left I found I was able to concentrate and work through things a little better. I rewrote large portions of the code and found that this was a better way to write things. Of course, the problems I'm having is all with the Windows UI, rather than the actual body of the code, which I can't test until the UI works. Ugh.
I picked up the developed photos today. They should make their way up onto the site over the next few days.
I'm not going to Trivia tonight. Need to save a bit of cash. Stay home and do copmutery stuff instead. Like burning a new Britpop mix CD and preparing a NZ mix CD.
Do you need the services of Coincidence Design?
I had lunch with Rosalie today. That was really cool. She's moving up to North Carolina this weekend, so I won't see her for a fair while. During lunch my tooth came out again. No matter, as I'm off to the periodontist in the morning.
After work I came home and started ripping my kiwi music CDs and playing with pictures for uploading (check out my birthday and on New Year's Eve). My computer was complaining about the workout I was putting it through. I really do think it is time to upgrade...
Ben sent me a link to other drunken Santas. Methinks the lad has a mission in mind for next year...
On the way home from work today, there was a story on NPR about a guy in Washington who is suing the Judo Association for violation of human rights by requiring competitors to bow to the mats. He claims that it is forcing Shin-to religious practices upon people and hence is discriminatory against those who are not of that belief system and don't want to do the bowing. What a fucking tosser.
Let's hear it for Liverpool, top of the world!
Lauren and I considered going to see Lord of the Rings again tonight, but when I got home I lost interest, so instead we're going to Waffle House instead. Afterwards, I think I'd like a quiet evening. We shall see what happens...
I spent $1300 today. It should arrive in the latter half of next week, which will mean I won't get to play with it until the following week. I was just getting so frustrated that it had to happen when the email from Steve at work came, indicating that we could get a reasonable discount on the purchase.
Poo. I've installed new video drivers on my laptop so I can output through the composite video output (ie to the TV). I used the drivers recommended by Dell, based upon the service tag code on my laptop. The drivers cause my laptop to blue screen and reset whenever I try to enter the Display properties, and my laptop display has been reduced to 640 x 480. Ugh! I don't want to have to deal with this shit.
Oh, I called Sprint and they changed my account to have international long distance for and extra $2 and calls to NZ will be $0.15 per minute. That's more like it. Of course, they don't tell you about any of the international long distance until they slam you good and proper. Very dubious business ethics. ANyway, I'm supposed to get a call in the next week to confirm they are reducing my bill. If not, I shall call back and demand a reduction.
Slept, woke up, read more of Fierce Invalids..., dropped off clothes to the drycleaners, looked at some new computer furniture (found a desk I really like for $150+tax), bought a new hard drive (Western Digital, 80GB) and a Logitech web cam. Yes, you can expect to see pictures of me up on a semiregular basis. I'll try to remember to wear clothes when I use the computer in future...
It's kind of cold here at the moment. Not surprising, considering it's winter, but when I left this morning, the central heating was roasting the place. Very screwy...
I went to the Local for dinner. First time I've been there in over a week. I only had one drink and then shot up to Blockbuster to pick up some movies. I selected Evolution and Scary Movie 2. When I got to Lauren's, we found the first Scary Movie was on, so we watched that. I was sure the I had watched this previously with Lauren, although she denies this, claiming she had never seen it. Let me just check my journal and see...yes, June 18, 2001. Check it out, Lauren... ;-)
Anyways, Clair joined us, as he wanted to see Evolution. This turned out to be really entertaining, with subtle (and not so subtle) references to The X-Files, although these were later justified into the context of the movie. Amusing. It was about midnight when we finished watching the deleted scenes and so forth, at which point, Clair retired and Lauren and I watched Moulin Rouge. At 2am, I headed home and called Amy.
I awoke to a bright and beautiful day. It was about 9ish, but I knew John's alarm would go off at 10am, so I knew sleep wasn't really on the cards. I napped until about 9:45 and then read some more of my book. John's alarm went off on schedule, so I got up, turned it off and started to some chores around the place, starting with the dishes. I hate doing dishes, but they need to be done. I then moved on to take out trash and so forth. I got on line to check my email and saw that Clair was online. He had offerred last night to help me set up my webcam so I asked him if that offer was still open. He said, "yes," and we made plans for him to head over around 1pm.
That left an hour and a half, so I showered, wandered down to the convenience store for bread, water and coke, and then made breakfast - eggs on toast, hmmm.... Then to finish the laundry. Next chore on the list was to deal with my accumulated mail and bills. Icky. But that was sorted out fairly quickly. Before I knew it, Clair was at my door and we set to downloading and installing ChillCam, Clair's cam utility of choice. We pulled over some java to run the client-side refresh and everything fell together quite nicely. Rock on.
After setting up the cam and emailing a bunch of people about it, I spent much of the afternoon and evening playing Civ III. Sunday night TV was splatted by some silly game show, so I ended up going to the Local for dinner with Lauren and Clair. Sarah and Drew and a couple of other people (Lindsay + ??) were also down there, and Grance and Paula also turned up (although they sat separately). After eating I came home and found John and Charlotte had just arrived.
John told stories of his escapades in Park City and then we watched some TV and then it was bedtime.
Up earlier than normal (although my alarm didn't go off, because I forgot to turn it on) to head to the periodontist to get my temporary tooth re-attached. Got that sorted and then off to work, which was really rather successful today. I did find out that my car is returned on Monday next week, and that I will be driving a (probably compact) rental from then on. Icky. On the positive work news side, I did get a new hard drive for my laptop.
Got home and checked that the laptop could output to my TV. It does, but it's not really watchable/readable. Ah well. I may just need to play with settings and things.
John came home and after The Daily Show, we headed out to drop the keg back (finally), collect John's photos from the drug store, and to pick up some dinner from Harry's in a Hurry. After dinner, I soldered up some broken wires on the speedometer on John's bike, but managed to end up burning my finer in the process. It's starting to leak goop now. Such fun.
My new computer arrived today. I wasn't expecting that!
After failing miserably in the first and second half, we got the final question correct and came third. Amazing. Charlotte was really drunk. She was sick when we got home.
Low key night. John and I evaluated the need to move out.
After work I went to Chicago
Went to L&L and caught up with John and Dan. Drunk Lithuanian. Free drink from the bartender.
Breakfast at Clark's. People met at Amy's and then we went to Evanston to see Lord of the Rings. Then went to Nevin's Pub to drink beer, eat food (sausage roll!! chips with gravy!!) and play Phase Ten - a card game. Amy and I came second. Woohoo.
Then went to party at Amy's workmate's apartment. Very interesting. Got dancing lessons (salsa?) from a French lady. Lots of fun.
Phone was missing. Called it and a girl picked it up. She had found it at Dublins. Weird. We went to pick it up, then had brunch at french restaurant next door. Eggs benedict. Good.
Wandered around Barnes and Noble for a bit then went home again. Hung out for a few hours then went to the train to the airport.
It appears I lost my Bone Machine hat somewhere at the airport.
John and I determined that we would not move out. Everybody is happy.
I played a lot of CivIII and did laundry.
Dropped Tom at his hotel after work because Dave had forgotten about him when he went home.
Did mail, bills, web page photos (to be linked into journal entries). Amy coming to visit in a couple of weeks.
Lauren and Clair want me to meet them at Local. It's 10:45, but I'll go for half an hour.
I will return and update this soon...
After work celebration of a recent milestone. Big night, although only two locations involved - Fado and Pink Pony.
Felt like arse, but not as bad as Peter. He ended up in hospital. Doctors found something in his brain, cyst or tumor is yet to be determined.
Stayed home after work. Didn't even eat dinner - just popcorn. Crazy.
Got my iPaq application working, but ran into problems when I started to clean up my code for turnover to the software group. So it goes.
Off to Dallas this morning to work with a partner company on a new technology innovation. Unfortunately, this failed miserably.
I met a couple of friends from Coke (Joel and Woody) for dinner.
A continuation of yesterday's lack of overall success. Bother.
Had an Italian dinner. Rather tasty. Paid for by other copmany.