At any rate, I think that everyone should take a moment every day to notice or do something a little bit out of their ordinary. I don't always succeed, but I try. Enjoy.
If you're living in my past, feel free to try the 2003 entries, 2002 entries, 2001 entries, 2000 entries, 1999 entries, or 1998 entries.
12/31/04
Class prep or skiing? *sigh*... class prep. At least I managed to
make it to midnight of the new year, for a change.
12/29/04
The cats positively colonized my desk this morning when I sat down to
do some work. Wow. Also, I sprained my love handle again. Worse this
time, though -- usually it goes away in a few seconds, but this time,
I was actually considering seeing a doctor.
12/24/04
Great, I inserted a bug into MovieLens that took four months to find
out about but that was probably driving away some relatively large
fraction of potential new users the entire time? Christ.
12/23/04
Me walking in to work today: "Damn it, I should enjoy life and
have nice things." Me six minutes later: "Damn it, the first
time I wear my new GroupLens shirt I spill some electric-stain-orange
sauce on it." But I should still enjoy life and have nice things.
Just not electric-stain-orange sauce.
12/21/04
Oh, yeah, seeing a giant 18-wheeler with the "New England
Casket Company" logo on the drive yesterday was a nice touch.
And, if you suck on a Japanese rice cracker until the flavor
goes away, it tastes just like a nasty rice cake. Bleah.
12/20/04
Calling squash "early afternoon action" just doesn't sound right.
At least I made it back safe through the snow, having my closest
call being pulling into the parking lot here at the U. The trip
was totally worthwhile, though. Lots of friends, lots of fun,
lots of homebrew, and lots of happiness for Lindsay. Stay happy
and savor the moment.
12/19/04
Levels of critique apropos a sports bar probably aren't quite as
useful sitting around, being social and watching the game with friends at home.
12/18/04
I really wish I hadn't even tried to take a picture as Lindsay
walked across the stage and had just savored the moment instead.
It was a long time coming, well-deserved and earned.
Congratuations, babe.
12/17/04
Never let me get that drunk, ever. Thanks. Other than that, a
really good time.
12/16/04
Had an extremely painful bout of thesis angst today, mostly about how
I was going to have to give up time with friends and family and be a
bit (more) of a selfish bastard about claiming time for the thesis.
Nevertheless -- and this is the important part -- I still got a ton done.
12/15/04
Eating spaghetti with a knife is easier than you'd think.
We should still probably buy some silverware-type items for
the lab, though.
12/14/04
Hm, I guess almost everyone I know decided to celebrate the good
news by having a shitty day. Sorry, everyone.
12/13/04
A watched pot never boils, but I know that if the email is sent, it's
going to show up in the inbox. Just hurry up and reject the damn paper
already. Update! Holy crap, they accepted it! Based on the
first round of reviews, I had no expectations. And, even the extra
review they did at the paper choosing ritual meeting was lukewarm.
So, this may have been the last paper accepted into the conference.
However, you know what they call the lowest-scoring graduate in med
school? "Doctor". Kick-ass.
12/12/04
Huh, an extremely cordial and nice social occasion hosted by the Joneses.
Very nice and comfy. Too bad we had to leave for the Steelers game. :)
12/09/04
I think I really, really need to start a log of daily research
progress and time tracking. I also need to stop dropping socks
in the toilet.
12/07/04
Somehow I caught my fish on fire in the broiler. More amusingly,
from a research paper at
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/papers/adaptiveradio.pdf:
To create America's "most wanted" song, a group of artists used a web-based poll to determine the attributes of a desirable song, such as tempo, length, and instrumentation. They tallied the results of over 500 responses to create a song that most people should like: a curiously bland five-minute R&B love ballad. The artists also recorded the song that most people should dislike: a painful thirty-minute track of an opera singer rapping to tuba and accordion accompaniment with a gratuitous bagpipe solo and shrill children's chorus added to repel as many listeners as possible. Neither song is particularly pleasant to hear.
12/06/04
Progress comes, sometimes, when you make yourself do things you're
really not in the mood to do. Although I've managed to put off hacking
at the thesis outline for about an hour, I am now sitting down to
finish off this draft of the outline. It feels bad... but good.
Getting the thesis done is making this decision 500 times over the
next year and a half, and making it the right way almost all the time.
Not unlike dieting, I think. Now, enough journal, time for thesis.
12/05/04
That was one of the most exciting football games ever. Go Steelers!
Plus, I was watching it on our nice new 27 inch TV. Merry Christmas to us.
12/04/04
Great day of disc golf, almost holed a couple of long shots, and dropped
two tee shots within 2 feet of the hole. Great stuff. Riding to the
course on my home-cobbled singlespeed bike, also excellent.
12/03/04
Oh, I hate the eye dilation thing they do for eye exams. Argh!
A first taste of what bifocals are going to be like... not
so good.
12/02/04
Lots of good research progress the last couple of days.
So why am I kinda sad?
12/01/04
Went into Wal Mart the other day and they had an inventory control
tag (you know, the thing that makes their door sensors go off)
attached to the pen for signing credit card receipts. Hard to
believe they're quite _that_ valuable.
11/29/04
Hm, a dual-monitor setup mostly seems to hurt my eyes. And
I'm extremely unmotivated today. Grr.
11/28/04
That is a rough day, my friend.
11/27/04
All I did today was read books. It's been a while.
11/26/04
Also thanks to Lindsay for showing me today just how easy
it is to brew beer if you get things set up the right way.
Except for the danger of rough hands mixed with delicate
glass thermometers. Sorry about that.
11/25/04
Happy Thanksgiving, Lindsay's folks. Thanks tons for letting
me be part of it. It was good times.
11/24/04
It's not every day you get heckled about being gay for doing
a Stevie Wonder song during karaoke. Would have been better if
it hadn't been every 30 seconds for the entire song, but still,
very amusing on some level. Grabbing his ass during a break
in the song was a bonus.
11/22/04
Wow, that was an extremely unsatisfying hour of spending time on the
phone attempting to resolve issues with credit card companies
(Wachovia) and airlines (AirTran).
11/21/04
Two days of eating to wretched excess. Gotta practice for the
holidays, I guess.
11/20/04
Six weeks ago, I was wondering what was taking the trees along the
Mississippi so long to change. This week, I'm wondering where the
heck they all went. Poor naked trees.
11/17/04
Of course if you choose an education secretary, you want someone
named "Spellings".
11/16/04
Two hours wasted on a very special case of the "you're not
recompiling the running objects" problem. Crapola. On the
bright side, Dad has escaped from the hospital.
11/13/04
Okay: dad's heart attack and surgery, visit to Jacksonville,
illness, teaching for Loren, stats midterm, CHI paper rebuttal,
waiting for Chad = lack of thesis progress for the last
three weeks. Damn, I hope I can get the momentum back.
Oh, yeah, jury duty notice too. Argh.
11/12/04
I've played a _lot_ of disc golf down here. Too bad I finally
threw my first disc ever into the middle of the pond,
unrecoverable. Sigh. Also, some complications -- no release.
Double sigh.
11/11/04
First I was going home, then not going home. At least I'll
hopefully be around for dad being released tomorrow.
11/10/04
Bike riding to the ocean was pretty sweet. Maybe someday I'll
do that at the end of a transcontinental ride. That'd be fun.
Seeing Dad totally screwed up on Xanax and Percocet, not as
much fun. Totally unable to hold a conversation, and he knew
he was pretty messed up and not able to do anything about it.
11/08/04
Having your bike break down 10 miles from the car, 45 minutes
before you're supposed to pick up your mom to see your dad
for the first time after open heart surgery, sucks. I was able
to coax it back for 6 miles, then killed the valve stem with
an ill-advised kick and had to jog/walk the last 4 miles.
Couldn't get people to give me a ride back to the car, even
for $20. The "helpful southerner" archetype... not so much.
Very disappointing, although I understand people being afraid
of strangers and/or not wanting to get taken advantage of.
Still, it sucked. I've helped a lot of strangers
in my day, and I could have used a little payback today.
I did get back to the parents' in time, barely, to make it
to the hospital for the 5pm visiting slot.
11/06/04
I guess the flight thing is kind of irrelevant now that dad decided
to have the heart attack. Guess I won't be going to CSCW after all.
11/05/04
Of course it costs $125 to _not_ use the first leg of your flight
and only use the second leg. Anyone seen a big white rabbit?
11/04/04
If you want clam chowder, ham chowder doesn't quite do it.
11/03/04
*sigh* President Bush still has a scary ring to it. On a lighter note,
overheard from the next cubicle: "Fuck this, I have enough money to
just buy a Swaziland citizenship. And then I won't have to worry
about elections, because we have a king!"
11/02/04
Air America is pretty pathetic. In an hour of election "coverage":
an interview with a local school board member. Ok, fine. A four
minute national segment where the lead in was "America: where voters
are giving a pretext for a Supreme Court decision", then four
minutes of bashing Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state. Lots of
commercials, a 10-minute interview with a union guy spouting union
rhetoric. More commercials, an interview with someone running a
hotline for election complaints. Over 100000, they say breathlessly.
No inklings of validity. But lots of them are in Ohio! (And
California, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and other places where
lots of people are.) "Who knows how many shenanigans add up to
3 million votes -- a little here, a little there?" Of course, all
shenanigans are Republican scare tactics. Oh, and some talking head
who was watching some station do projections and breathlessly
read one that had Kerry leading as though it were the current count.
Duh. Sorry, I know this is a partisan network, but it's crap.
10/31/04
Driving through downtown, stopped at a red light. A squirrel comes
running across the road and climbs on top of the tire of an SUV in
the other lane. I see the cross light turn yellow... uh-oh... red...
squirrel doom... but fortunately for it, our direction got the left
turn arrow, which gave it enough time to clamber off of the wheel
and go do other squirrel things.
10/30/04
It's nice being back in the weightlifting groove, although I'm quite
a bit weaker than I was four months ago. The bum shoulder does
like the lifting, though. In other news, what do you do with the
goalposts after you tear them down?
10/29/04
Fridays just aren't supposed to be this nice.
10/25/04
Another fine bike ride in today. An older guy at a bus stop tried
to hitch a ride. And, on campus, I saw some kid nearly run over
two people trying to go between them. Bad, bad idea... especially
because I almost decided to do the same thing coming the other way.
But: if you're in a pedestrian space, go at a pedestrian pace.
In other news, my back is just killing from yesterday's blading
adventure. The sad part is, I'll probably try to do a marathon
before it gets too cold. What a dumbass.
10/24/04
It turns out that if you blade every couple of weeks, that saying
"I'm going to go skate 20 miles today" is a Bad Idea. Ow, ow, ow.
The trail itself was pretty nice, although maybe a week past peak
on color -- everything was brown. Yellow-brown, orange-brown,
red-brown, even brown-brown. And, there was a cheeky squirrel.
But then, are there squirrels that aren't cheeky?
10/22/04
Noticed a church steeple on the bus ride in today that I had never seen
before. Very nice... and four seconds later, obliterated from my field
of view by the new Cub Foods on Broadway. This must symbolize something,
but I'm not sure what.
10/21/04
Very animated bus driver on the way in today, gave a running commentary
about the people, places, and things he saw as he was driving. Stopped
to ask a cameraman what was going on (filming a store where there was
a robbery a couple of days ago, it turned out), because "you need to
know what's happening in your neighborhood".
10/20/04
Interesting bike home today, first time in a couple weeks I've ridden
(boo -- but the express bus is soooo convenient). On the bike path,
a trail of crushed aluminum cans. On Plymouth Road, a bunch of signs
that just said "A" nailed to phone poles for a couple of blocks. A
car driver who was practically ecstatic that at the intersection I
faded to the left side of the lane so that right turning traffic (him)
could go through. And finally, when I pull the Zefal water bottle
out of the holder, it rings like pulling a sword out of its
sheath. Very nice.
10/18/04
On the bus ride home today I noticed, for the first time, a really
nice waiting-looking place, maybe a bus stop -- hard to say. But the
most notable feature was the giant clock face. With no hands.
Kinda sad, a clock with no hands, like a blacksmith with no anvil,
or nachos without cheese.
10/17/04
The trees here are beautiful, but -- not for long.
10/16/04
For some reason I've been really in the mood for cheap coffee,
perhaps because it's all about the caffeine right now.
10/14/04
I never remember just how much fluid Coco Wheats absorb.
10/12/04
The music stand incident is a new low in self-injury.
10/11/04
The big punch line in the stats book for chapter 7:
"Scallops, Sampling, and the Law". Sounds dangerous.
10/09/04
I never think to just hang out with people the way Lindsay
and Greg do. Just a whole different way of thinking.
10/08/04
The drive was, in fact, fabulous, although I was really tired
(probably from the vampires at Memorial Blood Centers).
10/07/04
So, it's been a slow week for diary entries. The main thing I've
noticed is that the trees along the Mississippi on the daily commute
are finally starting to take on a distinctive yellow glow.
Hopefully this makes for a pretty drive tomorrow.
09/30/04
Headline: "New location increases participation, interest: Activities
at the center range from knitting workshops to five-day backpacking
trips at the Grand Canyon." My thought: how the hell did they move
the Grand Canyon?
09/28/04
It's nice to be able to walk to the store. It's even nicer at sunset,
especially when the birds flying overhead take on the sunset colors in
addition to their own.
09/26/04
Yep, skated a half-marathon today. Not much for the dedicated skater but
a fair trip for me. It was a lot of fun.
09/25/04
That football coach may have the biggest tits I've ever seen. Note to self: orange + tight polo shirt + overweight = a really bad scene on TV. Nice 30 mile bike ride today, too. Wish I could have better-helped the guy with the flat; and watching the SUV driver and the jogger she barely missed argue was amusing. Great water views, too.
09/24/04
When the announcement that a show will be presented with limited commercial
interruptions is interrupted by a commercial in the middle of the word
"limited", that's irony.
09/23/04
Seen today on the way back from the rec center: a total solar eclipse
souvenir t-shirt. Amazing. "I came, I didn't see, I bought this
dumb t-shirt." Year: 1991. Meaning... this guy's had the shirt
for 13 years!
09/22/04
A couple of months ago I happened to be grunging through web server logs
and decided to write a mini-script to find out what search strings
people were using to find pages on my site. Here they are. A lot of "penis" (and other entries based on people looking for bad e-mail humor, which I used to do a long time ago).
09/21/04
Between Sue's surgery and my tooth thing, today was a Bad
Medical Day in the family. Ugh.
09/18/04
It turns out that, no matter how good the company, watching bike
racing isn't nearly as exciting as _doing_ bike racing.
09/17/04
City boys never get to see stars like that.
09/16/04
Great. Now I get to ride on "the bus formerly known as 52K". It says
so, right in the windshield. Shades of Prince, although instead of
giving it an unpronounceable symbol they just renamed it the 712.
09/15/04
Holy crap! The FCC User Fee has decreased from $0.06 to $0.05
per month. Thank God for Comcast and the FCC! Drinks are on
me, kids!
09/14/04
Ha, someone does read this thing. And unlike most former students,
who mail out of the blue asking for reference letters and such,
loyal reader Jason Hines actually had a gift. Sweet!
09/13/04
It's disconcerting to pull a white kleenex out of the box and
have the next one be brown. Apparently, someone was doing some
stuffing at work recently.
09/12/04
Wow, windsurfing. It was nice to mostly surf instead of mostly
watching this time, and I must have done something right because
I am not nearly as tired as I was last time.
09/11/04
"Uncheck this box if you DO NOT wish to receive our free newsletter."
Huh? What? Check... uncheck... double negatives... very confusing.
The perps: "allaboutpets.org.uk".
09/09/04
Like a textbook case of "how not to start the first day of class".
Sheesh.
09/08/04
I took my shirt off walking to the car today because I was still
hot from squash. The sun was casting my shadow long in front of
me, and I got to see the shadow of my love handles jiggling. Sweet.
09/07/04
Someone posted a moderately gleeful body count in Iraq update that
over 1,000 Americans are now dead. People who that could cause
glee in are just plain sick fucks, no matter what your political views.
09/06/04
Tip for going on a 22-hour bus ride: don't get sick.
09/05/04
Hm, time for our annual deep dicking at DCA. Curious how scores for
contending East Coast corps went up from prelims to finals, while scores
for corps from Minnesota, California, and Japan went down. Quite
a coincidence. Not as bad as Kilties got screwed, but still.
09/04/04
It was pretty cool watching fireworks during warmups for DCA prelims.
The sky was hazy, and you could see a ride in the middle distance.
Turns out there was another, invisible ridge farther off, because
some fireworks went off and you could only see the top half. Very cool.
08/30/04
Firefox has a little Google search box as one of its default interface
elements. Very cool, and it remembers things you've typed before --
also nice. So, I look up and see "Ask Mr. Prototype". Well, not really;
it says "Ask MSR prototype", a query hoping to find this search engine
Microsoft Research is working on. But the wrong reading is a lot funnier.
08/29/04
Yep, I'm definitely too old for this drum corps shit. *gimps around*
08/26/04
Proton has officially become a flight risk.
08/25/04
When you put your headphones on and feel like Adebisi, you know
you've been watching way too much Oz. In other news, I went to the
dentist today because of a toothache, and I'm afraid they worked on the
wrong tooth. I guess we'll find out when the novocain wears off.
08/24/04
I didn't want to be at last night's humid, warm, no-warning-marching-practice,
wet-grass, band craziness show last night either, but at least I kept my
mouth shut. An awful case of the bitchies was going on, a case that I hope
is completely cured by tomorrow night's rehearsal.
08/23/04
Part of this testimonial, it turns out, reads a bit like a Viagra ad:
I've been pleased with the PowerLung over the past two months. I use it for a couple of sets of ten in the morning, which takes about five minutes while I surf the web--very low overhead and easy to integrate into the routine. As a contrabass bugle player for Minnesota Brass, Inc., my ability to sustain notes and play loud is key. I've seen noticeable improvements in both volume and length since I started using the PowerLung. The improvement isn't huge, but after running around for an 11-minute show, I'll take any edge I can get.
08/22/04
Long-distance blading (well, for me, 9 miles) on a long trail is
almost hypnotic--but not as much fun as biking.
08/19/04
Sad that they have police tape around the nice part of the fifth
floor student lounge where the windows are. I'm sure it's something
benign like painting but, having watched a lot of Oz recently,
it just seems ominous.
08/17/04
I realized today that I've spent over $3000 on the car in the last
two years. That's a lot of money, way too much in fact.
08/16/04
Argh, Netflix charged us for the month and doesn't do partial-month
pricing. Guess we'll be watching a lot of movies this month.
08/13/04
Gave blood today for the first time. It was surprisingly easy and
low-pain. Something I could imagine doing on a regular basis, I think.
08/12/04
Lindsay pointed out that yesterday's stomach troubles could also
be Black Squirrel's Revenge.
08/11/04
When your co-worker says "I had a fall this weekend and I thought
of you since you have so many bad crashes," you've got the wrong
kind of reputation.
In other news, I had green poo this morning. Why might that be?
08/10/04
I wish I could have pulled the trigger on one of those Bianchis,
but I just couldn't. Other than that, a great ending to a great
mini-vacation. Goodbyes are always tough but time with friends
is totally worth it.
08/09/04
Another fantastic day:
08/08/04
The bike ride was great -- 36 bridge crossings. Sitting in the park with
Lindsay watching the colors over the rivers was fantastic, even with the crazy island
woman coming over and talking with us. Kinda cool watching the barge
do the lock-and-dam thing in Trempelau, too.
08/06/04
Rode in for the first time since the accident. Fear and crying, but
successful arrival. I guess that's good. Now I just need to get home...
08/05/04
Proton snored his way through Kill Bill tonight, apparently he's not
big on the whole fountains-of-blood thing. It was an okay movie,
not great.
08/04/04
Crashes make me sleepy.
08/03/04
Well, I had my first bike-car crash today. I lost. Not serious, but
totally avoidable. Must... be... more...patient...more...zen.
In other news, I've never been able to tell if someone was an innie
or an outie through a t-shirt, until today. I'd rather never have known.
Update! I have this exact tshirt comment from the diary on 11-15-02.
I guess I have been able to see it before. Still queasymaking.
08/01/04
Who knew that the Jolly Green Giant has his own historical marker?
07/31/04
Our new improved opening set: the Awesome Blossom. (Thanks, Blooming
Prairie!)
07/28/04
I was biking in today along the river and there was a long line of
geese stretched down the middle. For some reason, it made me think
of a peloton in the mountains.
07/27/04
Creating a directory called "thesis" is, I suppose, one small step on
the way.
07/25/04
There's a lot to say about corps, but I'm not up to the task right now.
It's good stuff but I am going to have to be less involved next year.
07/23/04
I have no idea how people do business trips on a regular basis. The
travel, the sleep, the pressure all must cook a stew I wouldn't care for.
Although -- it's been good to get a more positive reaction out of the
crowd during this retreat. People seemed a lot more comfortable
in working together this time.
07/21/04
Stupid Batman. Otherwise a nice trip to Great America.
Hooray for risk-taking, something I do about never.
07/20/04
How do you get lost in Sun Prairie?
07/18/04
A combination of disc golf, cycling, and running was just the
ticket this evening. Feelin' fine, despite throwing a disc into
the water twice. Once I was able to use a stick to get a bigger
stick to get a bigger stick to get the disc; the other, a little
wading action and all was well. Very peaceful.
07/13/04
I can't wait until the internet returns to the house. Spending time
every day at work reading news, etc., is just weird.
07/11/04
It was a nice drive back from DeKalb but a sad note -- we stopped at
a scenic overlook and found a kitten that had been abandoned there
(probably). It was about 8 weeks old, meowed a lot, and was afraid of
people. I hope it does okay but its odds are not so good.
07/10/04
Lindsay, you're a difficult girl to track down, even in a small
town like DeKalb. On the other hand, MBI kicked ass and took names,
and that's a good thing.
07/09/04
What can I say, we've been moving.
07/08/04
We got basic cable at the house today. Interestingly enough, we also
have reasonably clear reception for ESPN (yay!) and OLN (which is carrying
the Tour de France right now, double-yay!)
07/03/04
Nothing like moving on 4th of July weekend, with the rain rolling in.
Fortunately Jim, Lindsay, Danielle and Maverick came over to help with
the move so it wasn't so bad. Crusty old U-Haul truck, too, with
a CB jack on the dashboard. Handy, that. If only it had had an
8 track player too.
07/01/04
I love this. "How would you describe your intelligence? High,
Above Average, or Average?"
06/29/04
If your computer says "ing-pay", it's talking pig-ICMP.
06/28/04
I just realized that "I'm available", the default status message
on Yahoo IM, has weird little connotations. Also, I really hate
it when a window pops up on your screen when you're frantically
typing and starts eating all your keystrokes. Bad computer!
06/27/04
Getting a flat tire at midnight on the way home from the show was
kind of a fitting end to the weekend. Hard to believe I couldn't
even figure out the weird thing attached to the jack was the
tire iron. At least the AAA guy didn't laugh right in my face.
06/23/04
What's the first thing you always think of doing when you buy a new
shirt? If you say "spill coffee on it", you're a winner!
06/22/04
Hm, credit card late fee. This despite sending a check two days
after I received the bill. I call to get it reversed, and they
claim "Mail time is 7 to 10 business days". Here's a hint, then,
U.S. Bank: don't send bills so that people receive them less
than 10 business days before the bill is due. You buttmunches.
06/21/04
What did Arnold Schwarzenegger tell his parents when they
sent him to an elite German music school? "I'll be Bach".
06/19/04
My luck continues with a ticky-tack speeding ticket from the
fine law enforcement agencies of Scott County.
06/18/04
Oh, good, nothing like being told to cough up $900 for a 2001
property tax audit.
06/15/04
Heh, it's scary when the guy at the rec center scans your card and
tells you happy birthday. Especially when it happens twice.
06/14/04
The initial part of the move went about as well as one could hope.
Now, three weeks until the Big Part Of The Move. *crosses fingers*
06/12/04
I almost wimped out on the 2.5 hour drive to the Root River trail
but I'm glad I didn't -- it was an amazing ride. Nice and quiet,
lots of wildlife, suicide squirrels and chipmunks, baby rabbits
eating dandelions (like spaghetti), baby cows head-butting mom's
udder, baby deer jumping across the path and then just watching,
and let's not forget the deer that was hiding out in a puddle
off the edge of the trail and jumped out of it right as I passed,
scaring the crap out of me. I also totally lucked out with the rain...
went 15 miles, turned around, and the sky behind me was _black_.
Started back, right as I got to Lanesboro the rain started, but I
was able to hide out for 15 minutes until it calmed down, and
rode back in a little trickle. Very nice ride indeed.
06/09/04
You wouldn't normally expect to get mail with the subject "HOLY S***!",
and have it be good.
06/08/04
Wow, the combination of hot and power outages has made trying to get
work done this week a bit of a disaster. On the other hand, the salad I
brought in last Friday actually started turning to compost by Thursday.
Very cool, like an icky science project. Too bad Sara wasn't in, she's
amused by that sort of thing.
06/06/04
I haven't been described as "crispy" in a while, but then, the sun hasn't
been hanging out for our camps very often.
06/04/04
I haven't ridden Kara's old bike (the "Crest", so named for its lovely
toothpaste color) for a long time. It's really small and I have
no idea how I used to commute on it all the time. Still fun, but I
felt like I was riding a clown bike almost. On the other hand, it was
nice to have the index shifting back.
06/03/04
Went out to make a phone call today and was terrorized by an Oriental
frisbee gang. Well, not really. But they set up shop right by the bench.
One leg of their triangle passed perilously close to a tree and a light
post, both of which got hit the same way I normally hit trees when I'm
disc golfing. Plus, a woman walking by with a whole bunch of empty boxes
wound up having an errant frisbee land right in one of said boxes.
Pretty amusing.
06/02/04
Working along today, and get the following from pine (the mail program):
[New mail to you! From Sue Cosley respecting ground beef]Strange message. In other news, $40 million gets you a DMV building that processes forms about as fast as the old DMV building.
05/30/04
The coffeemaker was an amazingly thoughtful gift. Thanks, Lindsay,
thanks, Greg. Great weekend all around.
05/28/04
I scored a goal with my bicycle today. Unfortunately, the field was
muddy beyond belief and I, the bike, and especially my shoes got
extra-nasty.
05/27/04
Saw a boy horse hanging out on the drive over to Green Bay. Very
impressive. Also, a satanic badger sticking out of the ground south
of Antigo in the "Kilroy was here" position.
05/26/04
Futures are not changed by people who sit around and play solitare.
Even the highly addictive spider solitare, on which I won 3 games in
a row on the difficult level last night.
05/24/04
There's a reason I usually don't like biking during rush hour --
people are just plain cranky. It still doesn't excuse the yelling
and the flipping the bird (even if I were in their way),
but at least it makes it easier to understand. Losers. But
thanks to the 99+% of people who are capable of passing a bicyclist
without screaming or getting mad.
Turns out the ride home was pretty interesting as well. Took a new route, first half very scenic, second half a bit creepy. But, overall interesting. Plus, I got to see a goose family crossing the road in front of a semi. The geese won, although the semi was apparently working on the theory that if geese honk at him, he can honk at the geese.
05/23/04
Went out and saw Shrek 2 this morning at 9am. Movie was good, but
seeing a movie in a theatre that early seemed wrong, somehow.
05/22/04
It's ironic that, given the giant surplus of CSCW2004 bookmarks that
has flooded the life of everyone in GroupLens, I was unable to find
one just now when I really, really wanted it.
05/20/04
Argh, my bike, it's misbehaving. Tempting to just go buy a Nice New
Bike and be happy. Too bad buying things doesn't equal happiness for me.
05/18/04
Correction: "FicusFury2004". And what a beautiful day for a bike ride.
The music from last night was good, too.
05/17/04
A loyal diary reader referred to the incident last week as "FicusFest2004".
Very clever. In other news, I'll be playing as a substitute tuba for a
brass ensemble of some flavor tonight. Hope it's fun -- been a while
since I've done any playing.
05/16/04
It's finally gotten to the point where I pretty much enjoy corps pretty
much most of the time. Took long enough.
05/15/04
When reading Slashdot, eventually you
learn not to bother clicking on the high-bandwidth links.
05/14/04
No, kitty! Do not eat my workouts.
05/13/04
05/12/04
Dying dreams are bad, but dying dreams where you know you've also
doomed the world are worse, it turns out. Bad for the old mood,
especially on top of my musings about kitty mortality, inspired
by a trip to the outlet mall's bookstore and its blank "My Cat"
photo album book.
05/11/04
I wore the "Lift Heavy Things" t-shirt today... a surprising number
of people walking by on the street took time to read it. Pretty amusing.
05/10/04
I hope other Brass people are taking the time to review and re-learn
drill this week. Six collisions last week was pretty bad, especially
the Big Painful Fall one, and I don't want a repeat. Maybe I'll
wear pads and a helmet to the marching part of rehearsal this week.
05/07/04
"Tough" != "Shitty". It was a tough ride in today, but not shitty.
Just character-building. This concept probably has more general
applications than just to bike rides.
05/05/04
All I hear coming in to the lab today is typing. Suddenly, I'm seized
with the urge to sing, as loud as possible, "The Lab is Aliiiiive...
With The Sound of Tyyyyyyy-Piiiiing!" Probably just as well I didn't.
05/04/04
I was biking in today -- fast ride with the wind -- and noticed
they had put up stop signs at St. Anthony Parkway and Marshall. Not
a bad idea -- there's not _so_ much traffic there. On the ride home,
I realize they did it because someone slammed into one of the
ground-mounted traffic signals. It was lying there, wires exposed,
but still blinking. Very Terminator-esque.
05/02/04
With corps, it's all about the attitude.
04/30/04
Frantic, busy day of trying to get the experiment launched, and failing
(although I got it set up the next morning).
04/29/04
I was riding the express bus in today. On the highway, we get passed
by another bus and for some reason I picture a giant bus drag race.
Amusing (at least to me) but unlikely.
04/25/04
The Ubbelohdes are a very gracious family.
04/24/04
I can't believe I just whipped it out in front of Lindsay.
The cell phone, that is. I've always been annoyed by the
people who check calls and make calls in front of the other
people they're around, busy redefining their reality to a place
far away. And yet, I much the same. Insidious technology, that.
04/23/04
Visitor reaction to the Science Museum's mummy: "I hope my dead
body is on display in your museum someday." Priceless.
04/22/04
Why would Google show a mutant fish as part of their
Earth Day logo?
04/21/04
I had a very Good Samaritan moment this morning, opportunistically
helping push some guy whose car stalled at the intersection of
Washington and Church around the corner. The coolest part was that
the entire interaction was nonverbal. I saw he was having trouble
going, looked back at the person driving the giant SUV behind
him (who was also, shall we say, using nonverbal communication,
and who almost caused an accident in her profound hurry to get around),
looked into the car, the guy shrugged, I made the push motion, he
nodded, I got behind the car, some students stopped crossing long
enough to let us get through, he gives the thumbs up, and I go on
my way without ever having said a word.
My reward: a four hour faculty meeting.
04/19/04
Playing the Minne Corps gig was kind of fun. Too bad when Brent
sent the acknowledgement out to the corps list he left my name
off, but, these things happen.
04/16/04
At 730 lines, I believe my review is longer than the journal article.
I hope it helps them do a better job, it sure took a long time.
Plus, the coffee grounds from Starbucks leaked into the plastic
bag they were in, along with my wallet, which is now soaked. I have
about a hundred bucks of rich, Colombian-scented cash now. *sigh*
04/15/04
Interesting how a bug can just sneak up and bite you on the ass.
"Sort of random" isn't good enough in the ExperimentManager,
it turns out.
04/12/04
Found on the Saint Paul campus, the "Meat Science Building". I
can just picture people reminiscing,
04/11/04
Ack, I stole Lindsay's softball equipment and her Kilties shirt.
What the hell am I going to do with a Kilties shirt? Wear it
to Brass? I think not.
04/10/04
Reminder: green before blue, blue before black. Else, black and blue.
I've never had quite so much simultaneous fun and self-abuse.
04/08/04
It's a little sad that I feel like I have to stay home to get
some work done, but at least I got some work done.
04/07/04
Corps is right on the cusp of not-worth-the-time. *sigh*
Research continues to stall.
04/06/04
I was riding home on my normal commute last night just after sunset.
This is normally a pretty low-key commute through a fairly industrial
area with only the occasional hassle from motorists, etc.
This time, though, I got a low-grade attempt to steal my bike. Up ahead I saw a small group of guys near the railroad tracks and one started crossing the street in front of me. It looked like he'd be across well before I got there, but he slowed down mid- street and turned around to talk to the other guys. My radar said "drunks -- trouble" and so I wasn't terribly surprised when, as I approached, he took a step back in the opposite direction to be right in my path and said "give me your bike".
Using the tracks was clever because a lot of people would probably slow way down, but I normally cross at speed, coasting; and my trouble radar went off, so I was able to just ride around the guy with a friendly expletive. Clearly they didn't try hard to take the bike -- they could have spread out across the street and attempted to knock me off the bike -- but it was still pretty scary.
I called the police when I got back to let them know (in case other, less prepared cyclists encountered the same people) and they said they'd send someone to check it out. Probably I did the right thing (rather than being confrontational, etc.), but it left an unsatisfying taste in my mouth.
04/03/04
Gainesville is a cute little city, at least the parts I saw. And
the bike trail was surprisingly nice. Plus I went there during
an organized ride, so I saw 300 or so riders on the roads and the
trail just passing by. Pretty cool. I wish a few more people would
ride more often. In other news, Lake City turns into a giant garage sale on
Saturdays, apaprently.
04/01/04
I love going to the ocean, even if only for a little bit.
03/31/04
I just spent several hours better spent sleeping and resting in order
to shovel out some data. If this turns into one of those situations
where it sits on someone's desk for weeks after they make an urgent-
flavored demand for it, I'll be sad.
03/28/04
Turned over the garden today, and found some anti-rabbit hair
clippings from last year. I didn't know hair went white once
it was cut off...
03/27/04
eBay: America's chop shop.
03/25/04
Lifting, biking, squash = nonproductivity.
03/24/04
Heh, the geese down on St. Anthony Main, some of them have little
black collars with numbers now. Cute, very fashionable.
03/22/04
Pot roast is meaty crack.
03/20/04
The Gay Men's Chorus can sing, but I wish the $25/ticket would
have allowed for a commercial-free performance. As Sue said,
"It's a little bit like NPR."
03/19/04
Well, the lit review did in fact turn into a CSCW Note submission
and make progress toward being a thesis proposal. That's an
excellent outcome
03/18/04
Dan lifts weights. See Dan sit. See Dan press. Press, Dan, press!
Tired yet, Dan? No, not tired. See Dan press. Press, Dan, press!
Tired yet, Dan? Yes, quite tired. Good job, Dan. Now you're done.
See Dan stand. Watch out, Dan! Other bar's high! Dan hits head.
See Dan fall. Fall, Dan, fall. Silly, silly Dan.
03/17/04
Try burning a tea light on top of a CD you don't need.
Pretty light patterns. Disclaimer: not responsible
for data loss or plastic fires.
03/16/04
Loren hit himself with the racquet during squash...
in the balls. Pretty amusing. Not for him, though.
03/15/04
Sometimes a pig is just a pig, and sometimes data is just data.
Still doesn't keep me from feeling like shit for not finding
anything, though.
03/14/04
Look, Rainbow Clerk Dude, I know I went in the checkout
line with 20 items (15 if you count duplicates, like those old
women with their 48 cans of Friskies) and it was a 10 items or less
express lane. Thanks for pointing it out three times. In return,
I'll point out that the two lines of non-express were both backed
up with five full-cart orders each, and you had no one else
waiting. I clearly broke the rules -- something I very, very
rarely do -- and telling me once would have been plenty.
03/11/04
Here's the pine mail program, when I hit a key intended for
Windows: "Invalid key pressed." Fuck you, pine.
03/09/04
Good: warm enough to bike to school. Bad: the teenage SUV drivers
who yell. I had a very philosophical feeling about biking this
morning, sitting at a light, and hearing the little traffic control box
click and the light turned green. It made me think of how much of
our lives are spent fitting into other rhythms -- traffic and people,
in particular, because those were the two things closest at hand.
And how people who aren't sensitive to the rhythms of life and of
other people really throw a sour note into the symphony. Like
those kids.
03/08/04
Whoa, it's Lit Review Hell. That mostly explains the lack of
entries the last few days.
03/06/04
Hey, the dartboard reappeared on the wall. Excellent for quick
diversions and a little practice.
03/02/04
I found my "talk to the cow" sticky note today that I was using to try
to enforce a little personal privacy. It doesn't make as much sense
now that the cow is gone, but at least I know it's moved on to a better
place.
03/01/04
First bike ride of the year -- kick ass. Back in the commuting saddle
(so to speak). Too bad it's partly precipitated by the possibility of
the buses going on strike in the Twin Cities. That won't be cool if it
happens. Also not cool, is thinking that your big assignment is due
next Friday, but it really being due next Monday. I am so screwed.
02/28/04
In other news, I finally
did a little volunteering, helping out with a high school weightlifting
meet over in Wisconsin. That was fun. Running around the
sculpture garden and hitting the big red cherry with a snowball --
also fun. Eating Peruvian food on a whim -- fun. Playing
booze taxi -- not so fun. Darts -- fun. Getting my ass kicked at
HockeyDome -- fun. Overall, it's like I had a nice vacation without
ever leaving the cities. Very nice. Plus, now I know my way around
downtown a little better.
02/27/04
An entire week's worth of bad mood melted away in about four minutes.
Thanks, Lindsay. The rest of the journalism crew seem like okay people,
but damn they drink a lot.
02/24/04
It's bad when you don't even spell your own store's name right on your
rotating ad. "Walgree's phone cards!" Whopps. Also, had an odd experience
walking downtown past one of our glass buildings, and seeing the
flourescent lights that must have been on the ceilings of offices, but
nothing else inside the building. Creepy.
02/23/04
Is it geeky to use the unix "date" command to look at the time when there's
a clock right down in your menubar and another one right behind your head?
02/21/04
At Subway, a family in the next booth is talking about snow shoveling.
"I did it last" "Well, I did it X", etc. Finally, the four-year-old
chimes in: "It'll go a lot faster if you work together."
Priceless. Sue points out that the 4yo probably had heard this before,
rather than figuring it out in her head, but still very amusing.
02/20/04
I'm not sure I've ever seen ass crack on a woman in putatively normal
clothes before. Plumber, yes. Girl, no. Too bad, she was kinda cute.
02/19/04
Walking to school, there's a squirrel on top of a trash can in the
near distance. When I get to the can, squirrel's gone, but I hear a
sort of rustling sound. Yes, it was in the can, tearing a paper
bag to shreds. Bold squirrel didn't even realize I was standing over
it, watching, for about 15 seconds. Then we had a faceoff, and he
took off.
02/15/04
Wow, this was not a good weekend. Feeling like crap in all
dimensions. The nice thing is that it's almost over.
02/13/04
Message on one of those crappy Valentine's Day hearts: "IM Me".
Yikes, candy goes high-tech.
02/11/04
Great, now I'm a kumquat addict. Thanks, Joe.
02/10/04
Dropped my lunch bananas on the floor of the kitchen today. No obvious
damage, so I throw them into my bag and run for the bus. Get off the
bus... what's that smell? Ah, crap. The bananas had split on impact,
and the bag jostling had deposited banana guts all over my textbooks.
Yi.
02/08/04
"OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- A prison inmate who escaped by brandishing a fake
gun made of toilet paper, tape and black ink was captured four days later
after a gunfight with police on a busy Omaha street."
You just hope the police didn't sustain any injuries, given the inmate's firepower.
02/04/04
Run, run, run for the bus. Made it! Get on, sit down, realize
three blocks later that my cell phone most likely bounced out of my
pocket on the run, and it's lost forever. Not such a bad thing,
really, since it was such a big bulky phone, and pre-paid. Pain
in the butt. Excuse to buy a nicer, newer, sexier cell phone.
In other news, Loren's choice phrase of the day: "That's Doctor Selfish Prick to you." Pretty amusing.
02/03/04
I never take the 52R bus; it goes up to the middle of nowhere at
rush hour. But I took it yesterday, and it just so happened there
was a lady riding it who was frantically trying to give away
fresh chocolate chip cookies. Who was I to say no?
In other news, happy birthday, Mom.
02/02/04
With respect to class today, it's better to cover few things in
depth than many things on the surface.
02/01/04
Holy crap, I think I just ate two whole days' worth of food at
one super bowl party.
01/29/04
When printers aren't printing, are they meditating?
01/28/04
I am afraid to even look at the thermometer.
01/27/04
Hey, this is the second day in a row that messed-up bus timing
has resulted in lengthening my commute home by over a half hour.
Sorry, Metro Transit, you're going to have to do better than this.
01/26/04
What's worse than seeing Michael Jackson? Seeing him with a
little mini-moustache. Oh, my, god.
01/25/04
Went skiing for the first time, alone, today. Managed to not
blow up or destroy anything, and it was pretty fun. The
unscheduled detour through the trees was great; a falling hockey
stop throws snow in your face, which was not great. It wasn't
as much fun as skiing with someone else, but -- still fun.
01/23/04
Time to do the preliminary taxes. Beer, please.
01/22/04
For some reason I haven't been inspired to write much recently in
the diary. I hope it's not time to retire it; it seems like a
useful thing to keep doing. It's neat to read back years and
remember moments.
01/20/04
I have a sudden, unhealthy desire to ski -- but no opportunities yet.
Waiting, impatiently.
01/18/04
Watching Lindsay tooling around on the shaped skis was nifty.
Sunburst, not so great, but you gotta try different things.
01/15/04
I have a blood blister the size of an Eisenhower dollar on the bottom
of my right foot. Yesterday when I was walking around in the locker
room after ill-advised squash, I could feel blood sloshing around in
it. Ewww, gross.
01/14/04
Things you don't expect to see: a squirrel, which had ovbiously just
salvaged some food out of a nearby dumpster, standing on top of a
bike tire to eat it. Granted, it was only a Magna mountain bike but
it still looked like a rebel.
01/13/04
I went over to the student union to pick up my Spring U-Pass today. On
the way out, I noticed these giant aerial photos of the St. Paul and
Minneapolis campuses. Suddenly, I had this odd, nostalgic feeling.
But you're not supposed to feel nostalgic for something you're currently
living, are you?
01/12/04
Today's fortune cookie: "You can prosper in the field of high technology."
Let's hope so. This was from Village Wok, which despite the scary
reputation around GroupLens is a fine restaurant. A Noodles and Company
(also good) opened practically next door, so VW is fighting back with a
set of noodle bowls. They'll make you excellent Singapore noodles for
$4.87, and throw in the hot tea for free. Kick-ass.
01/10/04
Oh, shit, I just got a notice for jury duty. Scareful.
01/08/04
So, I go to the dentist and ask if I can schedule an appointment
to get a crown. The dental appointment maker person asks "Do you
need a crown?" Suddenly, I'm thinking of the scene in Little
Shop of Horrors, where the sadistic dentist turns away from a patient
in disgust once he realizes the patient likes it. I'm not sure
anyone gets a crown who doesn't need one, especially when you're
paying for it out of pocket.
In other news, I saw someone wheeling a university mail cart through the medical building. At first, I didn't realize it was a mail cart; it looked a bit like a cooler in which one might stash some blood or an organ for rapid medical transport. Then I wondered if anyone would try sending, say, a kidney through the campus mail. Probably not -- it's pretty darn slow.
01/06/04
It turns out that when it's really cold, striking your rear
view mirror with an ice scraper, even very gently, is a
terrible idea. Fortunately, a dose of rear view mirror
adhesive is cheep. Unfortunately, the directions say that
it should be applied when the temperature is between 50
and 75. I guess I'll have to wait for a sunny 30-degree
day and fake it.
01/04/04
Jersey update -- a strong bleaching kicked the chili cheese
burrito's ass. I feel better now.
01/03/04
Sorry about defiling the jersey
already... it's just how I work, I guess, ruining nice things.
At least it was a great present.
01/02/04
Of course, it rained horribly, but skiing still kicked ass.
Lindsay, patient as always, and fun to ski with.
01/01/04
Welcome to the new year, diary. We start out the new year planning
a sudden spontaneous, skiing trip. Hope it works, weather's supposed
to be good.
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