June 08, 2006 13:38

You know, I almost wish I had taken this week off work. Of course, I couldn't because we were still trying to get the last bits and pieces accomplished in preparation for going live on the pilot. Unfortunately, for me that mostly entailed getting in touch with my client's customer and pushing them along to fix the problems in their contribution to the deal. The main people who I normally deal with were unavailable all week, so there was no work to do there. So I only managed to rack up a few hours a day, which seems almost pointless. Almost, but not totally, as we did finally reach the point we needed to get to, only a day later than desired, which pushed the next stage of things back more than a day. Ultimately, this means that I'll probably have a slow first part of the week next week. But I'll be on the road in the latter part, and on Monday of the following week.

But in spite of the lack of work activity, I've had a pretty busy week. On Monday night I went to the Twilight Singers show at Smith's Olde Bar. That was a pretty freaking good show (as were the other times I saw them there). Ashe went with me, and I also ran into Poppie. On Tuesday night I had dinner with Liza and Wayne at Nickiemoto; yummy sushi. On Wednesday night I went to see Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails at HiFi Buys Ampitheatre. My ticket said 8pm, and there was an opening band, so I targetted getting there around 8:30. Well, when we (Ashe, Sandi, ?ustin) got there around 8:45, we ran into some friends who said that the show actually started at 7pm, and Bauhaus had gone on at 8 and had just finished. I was more than a little pissed. What made me even more annoyed was that the only beer options appeared to be Coors and Coors Light. I did find the one stand that was selling other flavours, and I ended up getting a Sweetwater 420. Then I went to my seat. Nine Inch Nails were very good. I did enjoy that. They played a lot off Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, which was good 'cos I really don't now the later albums very well (even though I own them, too). Oh yeah, and they played Wish and Get Down Make Love.

Today I went to the funeral for a friend's mom. I only went to the service, which was quite tasteful. Others went on to the burial and luncheon.

I was berated on Monday evening (after the show) for not updating my journal often enough. So, Danya, this entry is dedicated to you.

In less than 24 hours the World Cup will be under way. I am very excited about this. I still haven't really picked a team to follow, although I am picking Brazil to go to the finals. England is looking good, even without the Manc bastard. USA will probably have a tough time of it, but may be able to scrape past Italy into the second round. The loss of Cisse may have an impact on the French's confidence. I like the Czech Republic. The Netherlands vs Argentina should be a high-scoring game (and, as Tim points out, a high diving game). Some of my friends are looking to Iran to cause a bit of an upset, and we've all been bombarded with the story of Côte d'Ivoire.

I've gotten a bit of reading done recently. I started on Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, and Pi: A Biography ofthe World's Most Mysterious Number arrived so I started in on that, too. So far, I must say that I'm enjoying the former more than the latter. The pi book is also not as historically interesting as the zero or i book and its math is very rudimentary, not exploring (thus far) the more interesting results that pi is involved in. That may improve. I also have a new book on the history of math, book of Richard Dawkins essays, and The Highly Selective Thesaurus and Dictionary for the Extraordinary Literate. The egotist in me couldn't let that one pass by.