11/18/2003:
The new incarnation of my work webserver is now up. The fact that I've updated this page is proof that all the XML and database crud is installed. Yes.
Today's weather: Crappy. Well, it could certainly be worse, as it's 63F out, but it's raining to beat the band. Walking in this morning (no way am I riding the bike) I managed to get soaked through from about mid-thigh down. My pants eventually dried most of the way out, but I couldn't take having wet feet any longer, so I bought a pair of Block I socks at the bookstore over lunch.
At least I didn't have to buy any Chief socks. Actually, I don't think they make socks with the Chief anymore. Just another sign that the Chief's days are numbered, despite any delays by the Board of Trustees. Hopefully we won't have to hear any more "honoring history" and "teaching people about the native tradition" nonsense, anyway. If they wanna say hey, he's our caricature, and he's from our wonderful Boy Scout tradition, that's one thing. But guys, you know, when the costume is wrong, AND the dance is fake, it's pretty much the equivalent of propping up some guy in lederhosen, claiming he's French, and talking about how it's teaching little kids all about the great French traditions, which of course we all know about because we eat French Fries at the State Fair, don't we? It just makes us all look stupid. It might make us all look racist, too, but it definitely makes us look stupid.
11/19/2003:
Today's weather: Wonderfully sunny and cooler. It's still weirdly warm, with the high at 55F, but the sky is really bright blue. I'm still stuck in the windowless cube farm, alas, and the sun sets at 4:30 now. But! I've found out that I will be moving to a window cube farm in Spring 2005! My new cube will be on the second floor of DCL overlooking Uni High School and full of sun, sun, sun.
I have twisted my back painfully somehow so that it hurts to walk today. I don't know what I did, but wow, it hurts. It hurts right in the small of my back, sort of where my butt joins my back, and more on the right side. Ow ow.
In other good news, my amazon arrived. I also got the first of three packages I sent from Japan, full of stationery products and socks. The stationery stuff is largely from Kawashima, in Yokosuka - yep, it's still there, and it still rocks. Most of the good stuff is up on the second floor now though, they changed the bottom floor to sell mostly craft cruft and calendars. Anyways, I got 8 good sewn-in notebooks, the plain grey covered ones with the black tape down the spine, which should last me a year or so until I go back. Those are the best notebooks - I carry one with me everywhere, and they last and last. The box was also full of air, wonderful nostalgic smelling air. I packed up a shirt I wasn't using any more as padding, and that shirt smells absolutely great now. I remember one time at SD Japanese School someone's grandmother opened up an old suitcase packed full of old clothes and I just about fell over, along with half the room... That smell is in new books I order, too, just a bit - just open them up really wide and sniff sniff sniff deep in them. Mmmm.
11/21/2003:
The insane heat is on in the cube farm again. This morning broke the old record (113F) - it was 117F in my cube this morning when Cordelia came in. It's cooled off somewhat now, with all the doors to the hall open and fans all over, but it's still 89F in here, and there is a very annoying loud buzzing sound coming from the server that DS uses to distribute DHCP connections in the building. What sucks about that is, that's not our server, so we can't turn it off.
I'm scheduled to move my new server into the DCL machine room soon, and I'm thinking it better be VERY soon. We have so many disk failures as it is, between these heat episodes and then all the dust that was in here when the classroom behind us got remodeled two summers ago. At that time, the dust was so thick on the carpet that we were leaving footprints as if in light snow, and yet, when we complained, the third-level-down contracted out on the cheap people would just laugh and do nothing. Well, they had a sad-ass plastic bag taped across one of the halls but it wasn't exactly effective.
Yesterday Cordelia and I rearranged The Party Cube. She now has more desk space (she added another foraged table to her previous hacked together desk) and a more reasonable bookshelf. We still have the microwave/fridge/coffeemaker, and luckily I didn't need to move my own furniture around (which would mean disassembling all the furniture and my computers, because the furniture has no legs and is supported by the cube walls only). I did take the opportunity to clean out my space and arrange my books, and now things are all swanky in here.
My back is feeling somewhat better, too. The entire thing aches a bit as if I've overexerted myself, but I'm no longer in crazy pain just standing up.
11/26/2003:
I am off to Mike L's parents' farm in Indiana for 2 days. It is sunny, and so the drive should be that great tan harvested stuff, bright yellow street signs, and blue sky... The road there is all two lane state highways and so it's just really nice and brightly open. I will also have a chance to stock back up on homemade soap. I'm bringing a cheesecake. Friday there's a party at Rosemary's (where I will bring the other cheesecake), and then Saturday there's a PeeveFest with JZ. ParTAY.
The 117F record of high temperature cubage fell. Saturday my cube set a new record of 123F. No, that is not a typo. I got paged while I was at Kopi, and told Jerry how to shut various things off over the phone.
All of my packages from Japan have now arrived. That, plus Amazon and some VCDs I ordered from Singapore (Japanese drama TV shows with Chinese subtitles). The VCDs play great, the hack works. Now that all the stuff is here, and I've acquired more books, I'm hoping to spend some time rearranging stuff on my shelves and in my desk.
