September 2002

1 September

2 September

Came home from DragonCon in the morning. Played some Scrabble but lost. Twice. Damn. Watched Lord of the Rings and some of the added material. Got to bed about 12:30.

I also uploaded the pictures from my camera onto my computer. These I will edit and upload to my web site in due course. I also played a little Civ III. Yay me.

3 September

A busy day at work. Lots of things were addressed and considered. Still no official word on the state of the company, but the unofficial word sounds like it's a done deal. One of the few things to be worked out - what happens to the US office. We shall see.

Links of the day: MarketingProfs,

4 September

Another busy day at work. Much of the work is a little frustrating, because it may all be for naught but we can't tell the people that. Hell, I really shouldn't even be mentioning it here...

I had to leave work early to pick up a letter from the Post Office that required me to sign for it. Inside the envelope (when I collected it) were two pages - identical copies of a single document - INS Form I-512L - Authorization for Parole of an Alien into the United States. If I understand this thing correctly (and I will call the attorney tomorrow), this piece of paper allows me to leave and re-enter the US as I please while waiting for my residency application to complete. It doesn't necessarily allow me to work (my H1-B is still important for that at the moment), but I can be here!

5 September

Traffic today, going to and from work, was insane. People cutting other cars off, blocking intersections at red lights, over taking where they shouldn't. Ugly ugly ugly.

I sent an email to my immigration attorney regarding the pieces of paper I received yesterday and my upcoming trip to the UK. She indicated that I should receive my Employment Authorization card within two weeks, and if I don't I should get some paperwork from her and go down to the Atlanta office of the INS and get one made. Then, when I come back from the UK, I enter the US using these two documents rather than my H-1B and I will be safer in the instance that my employment position changes.

When I got home I played a little bit of Civ III, edited and uploaded DragonCon pictures, and played some Scrabble with Amy. I won! Woohoo!! After the game we shot over to Market One to get some food and after eating, I continued the uploading process. I am yet to make links on my web page, but I shall do that soon (tomorrow maybe).

Links of the day: Xindice, MIT Open Courseware, Web Standards, Good Documents, UDDI, random link, random link, Web Consortium.

6 September

Work sucked. It was too busy and dealing with fires that may explode once the "transaction" is complete, anyway. There is too much being fucked up by the "transaction" and nobody can give us any good information. Bah.

Had dinner at Hand In Hand. Yummy mushroom swiss burger. Barrak was our waitress - she has just started working there. Then we went to the Local and drank and played darts. Caught up briefly with Craig Appel. The other kids wanted to go dancing, but I was more interested in sleep. They (John, Amy, Zelda, Steve) ended up just going to the Clermont for a while and I went home.

Links of the day: Noam Chomsky on Foreign Policy, Sustainable Computing Consortium

7 September

Got a bit more sleep than normal, which was nice. Got up and played some Civ III and worked on the web site. Alaska pictures are now up. DragonCon pictures are also up, but have not been labelled yet. Maybe later today. [Later: Done!]

Um, how bizarre. The New Zealand Tall Blacks are in the final of the International Basketball Competition, against Yugoslavia. The US reached 5th position. Bizarre.

Let's see, went to Apres Diem for breakfast, then went to K-Mart so Amy could buy some stuff for her new home. Her dad and cousin should be arriving this afternoon/evening with a shipment of Amy's stuff.

So Amy's dad has arrived (with Amy's cousin, Amanda) and we unloaded a bunch of stuff into Amy's apartment. We'll probably head down to Mellow Mushroom for dinner.

8 September

Whisky Tasting!

Today's people were: myself, John, Tim, Steve, George, Vladimir, Patrick.

Today's whiskys were: 10 year old cask strength Laphroaig

Today's food was: Pate, anchovies and peanuts, crab and lettuce rolls, seafood stew, various cheeses. All much yumminess.

The mistake of the day was going to the Local after the whicky tasting. Bad move. Real drunk. Tomorrow will suck....

9 September

10 September

Deann Robinson's birthday.

11 September

Josh Thomas' birthday

Busy day at work. Not much more to say about that really.

Sort more shit on my realignment of my home setup - Outlook 2000 rather than Outlook Express is to be my mail client, but I'm still pissed off that I can't use it as a Usenet reader. Damnit.

Did Trivia. Didn't win. Did okay for a while. GOt some good questions. Oh well. Came home. Did some more work, checked work email (one from Paul made me crack up), and then played a little Civ.

Link of the day: Parasite Software

12 September

After work went to Eric's to watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on his huge projection screen. Rock!

13 September

Friday the 13th - spooky wooooooooo

Was able to stay in bed a little later than normal as I had a dentist appointment this morning. It was actually nice to be able to get some work done from home.

The visit to the dentist went well. The situation is much better than I expected, and my dentist was really friendly. She prescribed a rinse to help the healing process on a part of my gum which is kinda funky and we scheduled a time for a full clean. At this place is very convenient to home. Woohoo!

At work I learned more of the transaction's final status, and I'm not sure that I'm all that confident in the prospects for me. We shall see

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After work, I came home and played a little bit of CivIII. Sarah called and came over with a six pack of Shiner Bock and we hung out, chatting, until John got home. Sarah also brought me a present - a Mojo Jojo t-shirt and a Power Puff Girls travel clock. Very cool.

When John got home we decided to all head up to the Righteous Room so John and Sarah could eat. When we got there we found that there was no place to sit, so instead we popped round the corner to Manuels. This provided the much needed beverages and sustenance, as well as lively conversation. Amy and her new friend from Delaware, Rich, joined us and the conversation picked up. Before leaving to head to the Local, we played a game of Playboy pinball. Woo!!

At the Local we caught up with the usuals, and I actually spent most of my time in conversation with Lauren, who I hadn't seen in several days. Lauren and Clair left at about 1:30 to head to the Chamber; Amy and I caught a cab home about 30 minutes later.

14 September

Sarah called soon after I had gotten up, wondering what we were doing for breakfast and then offerred to pick up some bagels. This sounded like a good idea so we heartily agreed that this should be the plan and so she made her way over via Einstein's. While she was en route, Lauren called, asked if I was interested in going to the Farmer's Market. After a moment's consideration I answered affirmatively and told her when I would be ready. MY day has been well planned!

So Sarah arrived with bagels, which yummy with the salmon spread we had left over from the last bagel breakfast. Then I showered and Lauren picked me up and we headed out to Decatur. The Farmer's Market was busy (per normal) but much fun was had acquiring fresh vegetables and meat. I decided that I would make dinner that night; I just wasn't sure what I was going to be making, so I just bought food that looked fun and tasty.

While at the Market, the power went out, pitching the place into total darkness. Spooky. But cool.

After completing our shopping experience, I dropped off some prescriptions at Walgreen's drive-through window and went home to work out what dinner was going to be. I determined that I was going to make a rice pilaf, some sort of mixed vegetable dish and a dish with sliced steak. Just how it was all going to come together, I still wasn't quite sure.

Dinner consisted of the aforementioned rice pilaf (very tasty), a stir-fry of onion, garlic, mushrooms, celery and pinenuts, and separetly pan-fried steak in onion, garlic (lots of) and spices. It came off very well, at least in my opinion. I was very happy.

A game of Scrabble was played, and Jenny and George arrived to go play pool with John. Amy and I stayed in, watched a VH1 Legends show on Pink Floyd, and then watched Mulholland Drive.

I want to go buy some Pink Floyd CDs...

15 September

Woke up after yet another poor night's sleep and read some of the latest Economist magazine. Then I hit the computer for a little Civ III and updating of the journal...

Breakfast was (rye) toast and eggs (yay for going shopping yesterday). Laundry was attempted.

I made dinner again - steak and leeks in mushroom sauce, and left over rice and vegetables from the night before. Did the trick for me, although the leeks could have done with a bit longer in the steamer.

Went to the Local for one drink and then I came home, leaving John to drop Amy home. I was tired and needed sleep.

16 September

Awoke tired and grumpy, and got to work later than I had desired, but nevertheless I made it and got some work done. I left work a little after 1pm to head downtown to the INS building to see about my Employment Authorization Card. It was a beautiful day, so I had my sunroof open and my CD player loud. Glorious glorious.

I got to the INS and lined up for about 20 minutes behind the three people in front of me. I told the (freakish looking) agent that I was here on my attorney's advice as it had been in excess of ninety days since the submitting of the paperwork for my Employment Authorization Card. He told me:

  1. They only process 10 walk-in requests for EADs per day
  2. They do not process any after midday
  3. The office opens at 7:30am
  4. The 10 requests are usually identified by 8am
  5. To have even a remote chance, he advised arriving between 6 and 6:30am

So I left, somewhat frustrated with the bureaucracy, but with the full understanding that it was probably going to be an early start for me in the morning. I stopped at the Post Office on my way home, to send a couple of credit card payments to NZ and to pick up some stamps. That, at least, was successful...

When I got home I checked the mail and found (among the bills and stuff), a white envelope from Mesquite, Texas. I got inside and that was the first envelope I opened. It's contents: an Employment Authorization Card for Damon Auger. Rock the frock on! I now have all the necessary documentation (with the recently received Advanced Parole letter) to travel to and from the US and still be able to work, without using my H-1B visa. This is so good, so relieving.

I still had work to do, so I spent the afternoon telecommuting and teleconferencing.

Later, Sarah came over, and, after waiting for John, the three of us and Amy picked up a pizza from Fellini's and headed east, to Sarah and Alice's new house. It's pretty nice, and big. The colour schemes are, uh, well, due for a change, but I think Sarah and Alice are looking forward to that.

Link of the day: Triumph.

17 September

The news from work is still not exactly great, but indicates that there should be some finality (of some kind) by the end of the month.

I installed Trillian on my computer at home so I would have a single interface for all of my messenging clients. This free version (0.74) seems nice enough; if I like it still in few weeks I'll probably upgrade to the commercial version ($25).

I made dinner again - third time in four nights - this time an omelette with leeks, spring onions, garlic, mushrooms, ham, and two types of cheese. Very tasty.

Zelda came over to see John and the three of us played Scrabble. I managed to barely get the vistory over John. It was an interesting game.

18 September

Work is very disheartening.

Came home and did some journal updates prior to going to the Local.

Hey, I changed my colour scheme. Tell me what you think (good, bad, other, suggestions). I'll probably put up a different scheme later this week.

Links of the day: Open SSH, Web Sites That Suck.

19 September

The Marriage of Figaro at the Fox.

Sigur Ros - November 6 - Variety Playhouse - ROCK!!!

Work is really pissing me off. The bullshit that's currently going on regarding "that which cannot be discussed" is really getting my back up. I'm pretty much at the stage where I want to move away from the company completely.

Links of the day: "Like", colour map

20 September

Happy 28th birthday, Celise! You're getting old... ;-)

21 September

Ack. My throat is sore and I sound all croaky. I hate that. It's 8:55am, and I'm going in to work soon. Ugh, this is not the Saturday I had hoped for,

I was at work until 2:30, and that whole process was not overly successful anyway. Ugh. Feeling more ill.

Stayed home, picked up food from Eats for dinner, watched TV, played some Scrabble.

22 September

Did not sleep well. Hell, hardly slept at all. Got some sleep after Amy went home. Spent the day feeling like crap, playing some Civ III and then reading and watching football. I finished reading one book on product management, and finished a couple of chapeters from my book on user interface design. I also started a book on high tech product management (that concentrates on how to get a product from early adopter phase through to mass market), and also JD Salinger's Catcher In The Rye.

I popped a Tylenol PM at about 9pm, won a game of Scrabble while under the influence and then went to bed around 10pm.

23 September

I got a lot more sleep last night than I have in days. I slept solidly from 10:15ish until 3:30, and my sleep thereafter, while broken, was still sufficient to refresh me for getting up for work. I'm stilling under the weather, with a harsh cough and a runny nose, but my throat is no longer sore.

I went to work for the morning, and got the necessary bits and pieces done. The conclusion that was hoped for on Friday did not eventuate, and it looks like there is another two to three week wait to be had. What a ficking mess.

I came home, ordered some new checks for my "home" account, and read more from the GUI Bloopers book. I dozed a little - I still need to catch up on plenty of sleep. Hopefully I can accomplish that tonight. I've let people know that I'll probably work from home tomorrow.

I decided to reinstall Windows 2000 on my "spare" PC - the one that John and Amy use, which also doubles as my file and print server.

I popped a Tylenol PM before bed and crashed out around 10pm.

Link of the day: LavaSoft.

24 September

I decided to stay home today, to complete my recuperation. I used this time to sleep in (yay for sleep recovery) and read more from Crossing the Chasm - the book about getting high tech products into the mass market. This is proving to be a very interesting read, as I can see many errors that Harvest/Marconi Online has made, and can understand better why it is in the position that it is in (well, aside from the obvious).

After reading a couple of chapters I got up to check my mail and check in with work. There is a conference call today for the interactive cigarette vending machine project. I called George and we decided that there isn't much point me being on it. I'm still determining the contents of the SLA (Service Level Agreement) that we need to offer to the client.

The time is nearing noon and I have realised that I haven't eaten anything (aside from some popcorn and some crackers) since lunch time yesterday. That is a good indication that I am, or have been, unwell. I am starting to get hungry now, so I'll probably pop out in a little bit to get some food. I thnk I'll also pick up some water while I'm out.

My research on SLAs has not gone well. I think I'm not feeling sufficiently focussed - it's a dry subject just at the moment, and I can't find some documentation that I was going to use as a basis. Ugh ugh ugh. But my web cam is up and running right now, so someone should find that entertaining....,

After updating the HTML in my journal entries from 2000, I played a game of Scrabble with Amy. And I beat her (again). I noticed that in the last several games I have played, I have used up all my letters at least once (hence garnering me an additional 50 points - right on). This has contributed nicely to my run of victories.

I did some more playing with page layout and colour schemes on the website (Comments please). I had a long conversation with Bria (she was feeling down, and I managed to restore her happiness levels somewhat) and did a load of laundry. I should get to bed soon...

25 September

26 September

27 September

Blah work blah. Some of the work around this cigarette vending machine has been interesting, but for the most part apathy seems to be the rule of the day.

I left work early to go to a benefit to raise money for an upcoming breast cancer fundraiser walk. Laura had sent me an EVite and it seemed like a fun thing to do. I came home from work, changed clothes, stopped by Amy's, and walked over to Halo. This place took a bit of finding - it's not signposted. The place itself is rather cool, with a large bar and then lounge areas behind it. I hung out with Laura and met her sister and some of her friends, and also got to hang out with Eric and Denver for a while. Tres cool. I was drinking vodka. With rocks. I was feeling really good.

I headed home to get changed again and kill some time before going to see Chris Connelly at the Riviera. My activities in the intervening period are somewhat hazy to me now. But around 10ish, John and I walked up to the club. Slowearth were playing when we got there. We hung out and drank more (not that I needed it), and I bought a CD. We were pleasantly surprised when Vladimir (from the last whisky tasting) turned up and we chatted to him for a while. When Chris came on to play, we wandered down to the stage and sat on the floor. What little I remember of the show was good. Unfortunately, it is only a very little that I can remember. Damn that vodka.

28 September

Two words: hung over.

John, Amy, me, Sarah and Alice had brunch at Radial. Ah.....good food....Then John dropped me home and the others went out to Sarah and Alice's new home to paint. I essentially spent the day on the couch, suffering the effects of dehydration. Blarg. I watched Remember the Titans, and some documentaries and some (American) football, and lots of music videos. Later, when John and Amy got home, I watched other things, including Almost Famous and Eyes Wide Shut. I hardly moved from the couch all day.

Things I didn't do today: go to Juliana Hatfield concert, go to party at Patrick's, go to Emily and Axel's wedding, shower, eat dinner, drink enough water.

29 September

Didn't get much sleep, and was awake and ready to get up at 9:30am. Seeing as I had done essentially nothing yesterday, I was now in the mood to get something done today. So I started with shaving my head - always a good start to a weekend day. Next task was to update the last few days entries in my journal. Such a slacker. Other things I want to do today: read.

30 September

I awoke, tired and grumpy, but got up anyway and had myself a shower (my first since Friday - woohoo) and trondled off to work, Today was a day of some successes, as Ben and I identified, understood, and resolved a couple of problems in the cigarette vending machines. All but one of the machines called in cleanly over the weekend, which game me some good data to work with, and I was able to identify the source of another problem, and sent off some questions for other people to sort out. Successful. We also heard rumours of another party at the table. Geez. When will it end?

I came home with the intention of getting some web-related systems installed on my computers so I could update my skillset a bit, and add some new functionality to my website. The first target was PHP - a scripting language that my hosting provider (amhosting.com) provides. I successfully installed this onto my Win2K box with only a minimum of troubles. I want to try a couple of scripts and then move on to my next goal - mySQL. My final goal is to have PHP, mySQL, and Apache running on my XP box (I am using IIS on the 2K box).

So I got PHP installed on mky 2K box, and wrote the script to do nice things and got that working on the 2K box, and then I uplaoded it to my hosting provider and it didn't work. Not a problem: they are probably using an older implementation of PHP; let's check the online manual and see what it says about what I'm trying to do. I find that there is a different way of doing things under earlier versions, make the change, upload the new script and everything works. I'm so happy. Check out what happens when you select a link from my pictures page now. Neat, eh? I think I shall read up some more on PHP (maybe even buy a book) and see what other cool stuff I can do. Then I shall move on to mySQL and start serving truly dynamic content.

In between making things work on my 2K box and making things work on the server, I popped down to the Local for a bite to eat (food is essential). I had a beer and a chicken philly wrap and took off just as karaoke was getting under way. Still not really willing to pay whats required to get drunk enough to deal with karaoke. Anyways, on my way out I did make my hellos to Grant, Ben, Bill, Read and Steve, and my farewells to the bar staff.

Hrm. For the second time tonight I've had to adjust my system clock. I don't know why it keeps losing time. Something else for me to look into. Speaking of looking into things, I had my webcam running this evening. I hope someone enjoyed it :-)

Links of the day: PHP, MySQL.com.