October 2, 2000

kung's USA daylogs prev

New style (Gregorian): 2 October 2000
Old style (Julian): 19 September 2000 C.E.
Fixed: 730395 R.D.
Astronomical (at noon): 2451820 j.d.
ISO: Monday, Week 40, Year 2000
Coptic: 22 Tut 1717 A.M.
Ethiopic: 22 Maskaram 1993 E.E.
Islamic (until sunset): 3 Rajab 1421 A.H.
Persian:11 Merh 1379 A.P.
Baha'i (until sunset): Rahmat Mash'iyyat, B'ab of V'ahid 9, Kull-i-Shay 1 B.E.
Hebrew (until sunset): 3 Tishri 5761 A.M.
Chinese: cycle 78, year Geng-chen, month 9, day 5
Hindu Lunar (from sunrise): 5 Asvina 2057 V.E.
Hindu Solar (from sunrise): 16 Kanya 1922 S.E.
French: Decade II, Primidi de Vendemiaire de l'Annee 209 de la Revolution
Mayan (long count): 12.19.7.10.17
Discordian: Setting Orange, Bureaucracy 56, Year of Our Lady of Discord 3166

Things are looking kind of different than yesterday. I met the other object of my desire and things are looking different, no matter about my self-imposed shut in. My girlfriend has e-mailed me and apologized for breaking down yesterday, which is totally unnecessary. Her feelings are her feelings, and I'm not one to yell about that. Still, I can't help but feel some sort of concern. The other girl has told me how she goe into the situation with her current S.O., which is a very sad tale. I can't deny I'm having chivelrous impulses, but I don't think that's the only reason. I am falling in love again with another woman, I'm so sure of it. Me and the other girl have so much in common. We discussed sex, a little. The idea is no doubtably appealing to the both of us. I have to resolve this sexual tension, which is a good tension, but it's still giving me a mindfuck.

I may sell my orange iBook to a friend, if he'll buy it. I like the thing, but I need the money, badly. See yesterday for what I'm trying to do to alleviate my finances.

For a whole hour, I pumped weights, ran on treadmills, cursed the instructor and not once did I think about the beautiful boy that now sleeps less than 10 metres from me. I know the rules of share house living. I know most of this attraction is due to his resemblence to my ex. And I know that it's probably exceptionally obsessive and unhealthy. But... it's fun. It'll wear off soon enough and in the meantime I'm revelling in my ability to have a simple, straightforward crush on a virtual stranger. I don't have to think, I don't have to make any effort, I don't have to put time into it, I don't have to worry about emotional baggage. I just get to look at him and grin like an idiot.

Today's other major achievement involved a sugar snap pea and a caterpillar. While not nearly as fun, it did provide amusement for several friends. Caterpillars may be viable protien, but they're not tasty.

I find myself continually thinking about the olympics. Before they started, I was highly sceptical. I just wanted them to be gone, to be over, to get rid of this foolish rush of commercialism and cashing in on tacky symbols of national pride. But the opening ceremony.. East Timor's triumphant entry and the spontaneous standing ovation from the crowd.. and the torch... that one moment where a female aboriginal athlete was chosen to light the flame, that image of her standing surrounded by water and fire... it took my breath away. It was one of the greatest advertisment for reconciliation I've ever seen, and it was done without rhetoric, without politics, just one, simple beautiful image saying this is our future. The games themselves were fun. Australia is damn good at sport, and I found myself being sucked into the whole winners atmosphere. I WAS proud to be Australian. I love it here, I think we have the best standard of living in the world, and one of the best societies. Yes, we have a shit government, we have injustice, intolerance and poverty, but there also seems to be a sense of hope... a belief that this can be changed.

And finally.. the closing ceremony. One part of me grinned hugely at the prime minister's discomfort when so many of the acts sent out massive pro-reconciliation messages. And their impact was all the stronger for their simplicity. I admit... I loved it all. It was tacky, it was foolish, it was loud and gritty and sparkly... Jimmy Barnes to Drag Queens... it was totally, totally Oz.

The holiday (Rosh Hashana) is finally over. I ate over at my dad's house on Friday, then drove to my mum's, to get to the lunch she had for "all the children", as she calls us. We are her children and her husband's children. It had to be w/out my brother, as he's on guard duty in the army. It was a nice BBQ, though. But it was thenre that I noticed that many of my puns seem to be ignored, or just not got. And I don't care. I don't stop to explain them. They are thus lost forever. (For example, my mom asked me if I want some spare ribs, and I told her only if she really didn't need them. It fell on deaf ears.) Amir, the oldest of the children, just got married recently. His wife is so pathetic. Her existence seems to be totally futile. She's not funny. She's not interesting. And she says "Oh my God" when she sees my nipple ring. Oh well...

My photo album is finally done (from my trip to the dolomites. I showed it to a friend, who's a photography buff and he was rather impressed, which of course pleased me to no end. We then went out dancing (Saturday night). We went to a place that had 80's hits, and, unbelievably, I danced to songs like "Touch Me" and "Major Tom" (I think that's what it's called. There was a free sushi bar there, and we had just been sending over the "Wassabi" wassup advert, so we spent about 15 minutes saying "Wassabi", much to the annoyance of the sushi maker, who did not co-operatingly shout "Wassabi!"

1. I will be adding some more info as the day progresses.
2. I noticed there is a bit of vote dumping on daylogs (up or down). I wanted to write "Please don't vote on this if you haven't read it", but that would be a bit pointless, wouldn't it.

10:42

Nothing highly alarming has happened so far. I had some dreams, but damn me if I can remember anything...

Well, the weekend was funnier than what it seemed like. Surprising. =)

11:55

This writeup is at -2? OK, maybe I'll add some emphasis to this, just to make the point:

(To be continued...)

=)

Patience, folks, do you really think I can node that much when it's daytime?

12:40

I made a RGRNCA strike when a d00d came to ask for "hacking help" in rec.games.roguelike.nethack. We don't want that kind of crap there, as you may guess. Dammit, I haven't made a decent RGRNCA strike since... August something? Can't even remember.

s0 d00dZ, H3r3s SuM InF0rMaShUn On HoW T0 FiNd 31337 HaX0r SiT3z!

/bin/echo -ne 'GET /search?q=elite+hax0r+sites HTTP/1.0\n\n' | \
    nc www.google.com 80 | \
    perl -ne 'if(m%<a href="?(http://[^">]+)"?>%i) { print $1,"\n"; }'

...neat script, dedicated for all script kiddies in the existence =)

(-3? Yeah, yeah, whining isn't fun to listen to, but still, it isn't a nice thing to do...)

15:04

Kuro5hin.org had a story comment that said a naughty word about E2, so I just had to tell that a) E2 has been helpful, and b) damn, people have lost the faith on The Better Tomorrow. Be positive, folks.

16:15

Usenet done, mail done, did a lot of K5 posting in general. Hmmmm... what next? Go to the Town?

17:32

Bashed through Velar. Some great works of art. =) Mortar-bombed the clown who clowned around in the r.g.r.n.

I actually tried the script above and found out about a security site with certain sort of attitude: http://www.antioffline.com/ ... =)

23:26

Just casual bullshitting in #gimp...

I beefed up Mozilla a bit by Making Better Settings. It's now working, decently. Not perfectly, but definitely good enough for casual use.

And sometimes Way Cooler than Netscape. The font size menu options actually work. One site I visit doesn't work at all in Netscape, but works in Mozilla.

Funny bit: I originally wrote "I'm seriously starting to like Mozilla" to this message box, and guess what happened? Mozilla crashed... Such a modest program, blushes completely when I say good things about it.

Maybe I should make a "Red Army Kompass" icon for Mozilla.

Oh, and thanks to people who upvoted me from that -3 swamp. I was just the first time I've seen such low scores. Maybe this node actually has some meaning right now.

Wolf Out. No much actual noding left for today.

Other day logs o' mine...

Noded today by y.t.: Boo!
Updated: milfurs

Listen up newbie noder

If I comment on your nodes, suggesting improvement, I don't hate you. I am not voting your nodes down. I am not organising a pack of level 5 and above noders to XP rape you into oblivion. I suggest to make E2 a better place, not to swell my own ego. So don't /msg whinging complaints when someone has voted down a node I commented on. Don't assume it was me. Take it on the chin. Improve your nodes. Don't simply cut and paste. Learn to link. Learn to format. Don't make claims you can't back up. Attribute that stuff you took from the web. Summarise. Don't bullshit me, I've spent the last 10 years of my life dealing with geek bullshit. It doesn't work. Get over your ego.

I will vote up factual nodes, as they're overlooked. At the end of the day, if I have votes left, I will vote down getting to know you nodes. I C! stuff I like, be it weird nonsense, or nodes like laser with nifty ASCII art. I C! Dizzy now and again, because his mind is suitably sick.

GROW UP PEOPLE.

Voting may be a popularity contest, but I am not going to compare dick size with you.

And posting insulting nodes as everyone is not big, and it's not clever. Hey I feel like an editor now, just without the power.

And now, back to the daylog. Damn it's cold outside. Time to air out my sweaters. Time to stand outside, freezing to have a smoke. Today is a day of meetings with the boss to rant about the lack of work and the stupid office games I have having to play with sales people. I will win. I always win.

KID A - New Radiohead CD, just bought, now playing. Quiet office. Bliss.

Damn, Compaq messed up my credit card information, there is more than enough space on the card, yet it got denied. My bank can't understand it. I have to send a cheque now. I have no idea where my cheque book is.

jessicapierce saw my belly button last night, and promised to show hers. She welched! :)

I was walking around Circular Quay; and about 4.40 p.m. decided to head back to the city center, going by the Regent Hotel (IOC HQ). Other times I'd always passed only the front entrance on George Street; today on impulse decided also to take a walk by the back.

Turned down Harrington Street, which was quiet and almost deserted, and headed towards the back of the Regent. Opposite the Hotel was a convenience store; its proprietor stood on the sidewalk along with a young Asian couple and a small boy. They were all looking at the Regent. I joined them, and saw that what they were watching was a group of people outside the Hotel's entrance: volunteers in their distinctive multicolored uniforms and hats, a couple of coppers, men in suits. One of these was Michael Knight, the New South Wales Minister for the Olympics. A car with tinted windows was waiting.

This was obviously some high-powered bunch of IOC/Sydney Olympics officials, and while photographing them I congratulated myself on having detoured this way. Then, out of the Regent emerged Samaranch himself. My eyes were popping. He spoke briefly to Knight and the others, shook some hands, stepped towards the waiting car. Then he glanced across the street and saw the five of us standing there watching, and he lifted a hand in greeting--he was looking right at me. My own hand lifted in response. I was grinning like an idiot.

It seemed to have lasted minutes, but it was but a moment--and he got into the car. Impossible to see him through the darkened windows. "Goodbye and keep well, Mr Samaranch!" called the store proprietor. The young Asian woman next to me waved at the car as it pulled away from the kerb and moved down the street. The proprietor went back into his store. The couple and their child continued on their way. And so did I, feeling as if (I'm an atheist for Chrissake) I'd been touched by the hand of God.

September 9, 2000
September 12, 2000
September 14, 2000
September 15, 2000
September 18, 2000
September 24, 2000
September 29, 2000
September 30, 2000
October 1, 2000

But it is not fun typing on the notebook with a runny nose and heavy head. Though did manage a new writeup for Prince of Persia.

back | days | front

*Sigh* blowdart you'd better stop mentioning me in your daylogs, people will start to talk :-)

However, newbie noders take note. Please read through the everything university. Don't rant off at people because they correct you; they care for you in a strange way because they want to see the things you write properly accepted by the funny community here on E2.

But enough of such wibblings. I am so beholden to everything that Dana says, I slept with my door open and the phone as close to my bedroom as possible so that if she rang I could get there as soon as was humanly possible. This feeling of love is new to me, I want to hold her and protect her forever. I want to hear her voice and stroke her hair forever. I want her.

*Dizzy shakes his head

But all you noders don't want to hear that. It just sucks soo much that my head is filled with painkiller fuzz right now. I feel that I want to write so many things, poetry and stories for you all, but especially for Dana.

Oh yeah, thank you melissa for reading my daylog to Dana yesterday. Even without the net or a phone, she can reach me...

17:10 BST

Hiya! I have accomplished things today: I wrote my first LaTeX document, in preparation for some serious writing in the future. I managed to get some laundry done, even though I was encumbered by crutches and painkillers. I've helped someone at work, even though I swore I would ignore such calls. I finished part 3 of my story to Dana. (yay!)

Wow, I should get into hospital more often. I haven't been this productive since I mistook the caffeine pills for mints...

And, and my Mother is making me dinner and bringing it over to me, yet again!. I tell ya, when I get really rich, I will hire so many servants...

Dad drove me down to the underground station, but due to traffic this saved me just a couple of minutes. I went via town, and the train was sardine-like. I guess this is the norm for so early in the morning.

I turned up at Bute Hall on time-ish, and things seemed to be going swimmingly until the guy from the registry pointed out that the only course I'd been entered for was the Certificate of Basic IT Competency. D'oh. I had to go and track down my adviser of studies, and I don't think he was particularly amused at being disturbed for such a task at this point on a Monday morning. ("what a fucking mess", quoth he.) After a couple of calls, and a visit from his assistant, he worked out that he (or perhaps the registry had omitted to put down the rest of my course codes. In a split-second decision, I picked a business course over languages (I think). And then it was back through the labrynth that is the James Watt building, and back to matriculate. Easy. My photo id isn't too cheesy, just a little squashed.

And I now know four people on my course.. Geoff and Euan from my school, Rhona from the Engineering Education Scheme thingie I took part in, and the girl who I met on the way out of the building. I didn't catch her first name, but I do know that her surname is Dunn and she's from Lenzie. Doubtless I'll see her on induction day, on Wednesday along with the others. But at least I'm not a stranger yet. We walked down to the underground station, and i chatted to her there and on the train too. I managed to make myself a friend at uni, yay.. :)

But I have a cold. This sucks. I'm told it's a 24 hour thing. But I think I'll stay home tonight, and perhaps stop into work tomorrow - they now have ADSL.

so,whoopie, I'm now officially a student at the University of Glasgow

Amazing weekend. Got to spend time with the taurus. Got to spend a whole Saturday cracked out on sleep-dep with him actually. WOW. He's crazier than my guy up north and my angel put together. But so interesting. Amazing pianist. Well-spoken, creativity coming through his pores. Techie. Of course. I put off calling him all week because, well, I made the first move. He had lost my number and called my friend 8! times. So I finally called him late Friday night. We met at the Ybor Diner. 4:00 in the mornin'. HE's so handsome.....I've never seen cheekbones that sharp on a real live person before, as opposed to say anime. Apparently he used to do the old BBS schtuff.....but computing bores him????? Anyway, he's a good guy, and something to think about, but not now. I'm meeting up with the guy who will always have my heart tomorrow. Wish me luck, this one's highly volatile and extremely difficult to read. I think this trip will be the deciding factor of whether or not we can work things out in this lifetime. Wish me luck, I don't want to wait through my next reincarnation for us to finally fit together. So, I have faith of some sort.

Two tests today before I leave. Can't find my cat, he's supposed to be going with me....that's perturbing. I'm so excited about the trip, I can't think straight. But I'll have over 15 hours to do that tomorrow. I just have to keep telling myself I like making that drive by myself! Okay, fingers crossed everyone. I got cats to pack.

I am returning to home, to work as a freelancer. Corporations suck (see Advice for a geek in a pool full of sharks for a better understanding of my experience here), and I don't feel like waiting here for my voice to be heard. Of course I have a lot of things to do, so money won't be the problem, although now I have to go out for it, instead of just waiting for the check to come at the end of the month.

Anyway, the future is bright, I am going to work in projects that need some amount of my preferred activities: writing, teaching and R&D, and among those projects, there are a website (antipasta, inspired in adbusters), the Spanish Everything Project, and perhaps (or instead of), the Catalan Everything Project (Kurtz has the last word about this).

I'm glad this site is responsible for some of the decisions and directions my life is about to follow, because it has expanded my hopes of what we can do with the net.

So I am happy and I just wanted to share this moment with Everything/everyone.

Hey, did I forget to daylog yesterday? No worries, nothing happened.

1:30 PM EST -- HOSEY FOAMY GREEN STUFF!

Ah, the sights and sounds, nay, even the smells of Oakland University. Today, as a part of OU's continuing efforts to make the place look better, they had the trucks filled with HOSEY FOAMY GREEN STUFF! That's right, the magic material which makes grass grow in the strangest of places where erosion has taken it's toll... OR HAS IT?

Walked over to the Dodge Hall computer labs to type this daylog out, and wouldn't you know it, THE DAMN LABS ARE INFESTED WITH WINDOWS 2000! Ugly! UGLY! At least I can ssh back home to my Linux box, away from all this madness. And fortunately, I'm heading off to the library after this to do physics homework. Help.

NEW NODES TODAY: The Ballad Of Freddy Pharkas, Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist, Coarsegold

Basically it involves running a Visual Test script in the background, while surfing e2 and /. to pass the time. This is the kind of hellish grunt work that makes me dislike working at a small shop. At a larger company I wouldn't have to do this, but I hate large companies. That's why I work for a small one. I wear many hats.

Not really, I'm just insanely jealous of him and his way with the opposite sex. He's been out of prison for exactly 30 days, and he's gotten laid more times than I have in the last year and half. Yes he is slut bait. Yes he probably shouldn't sleep around so much, but damnit, well... I'm horny. Straight but not very good at it even. I got laid so much more before I gave my life over to geekiness. Maybe I should do something about that.

I got an English essay I wrote back today from the dragon lady. This is the first essay I've ever handed in to her. I'm not great at writing (as I'm sure you can see), but I normal do alright on essay's, somewhere between a high 60 and a low 80. I got 10 out of 20, 50%. My mom is going to kill me! I had a math is easy, and computers is always fun, and physics is interesting. But I am beginning to dread English. I have a great class, all my friends are in it. But this teacher, this dragon lady, is real starting to bother me. I don't want to switch out to another class because all my friends are in this one. But am I willing to sacrifice my mark to be with my friends? Should I stick it out and hope that she gets better? This is my second last year of high school, can I afford a bad English mark?

I turned in my college apps this afternoon. I am nervous already, and they haven't even been mailed. There's only one school I want to get into, and I don't know what I'll do if they don't accept me. Probably get on with my life, eventually. But right now it seems like a huge deal. I want to go to the University of Michigan, and I've heard some pretty impressive rumors that pretty much kill all my chances of getting in. I'm not stupid, but I'm not the valedictorian either. From what people are saying, most of the kids who apply there have 4.0s and want to be president. This does nothing for my already questionable self-confidence.

I had to have heard the dumbest complaint of my life today in first hour. A little goth kiddie took time to stop talking about pot in order to bitch about how girls wear bras to school. She, she said, never did. She said "well, you don't sleep while wearing one." Okay. Well, most people aren't sleeping at school. She then went on to say she wanted to make a self portrait completely out of marijuana, because that's what she enjoyed most in life. I said, "As long as you're free," and left it at that. No one can tell me not to wear underwear.

I'm screwed, I keep waiting for the MIS department head to come in sat something to the effect of, "Well Tex, we appreciated all the work you've done for us, but, don't call us, we'll call you."

To make matters worse I went out with some friends of mine last night, we had a really good time. However, when we came back to my house, an aerosol type can of silver polish had exploded in my laundry room. This act destroyed the paint in the room, and alot of my clothes. I have to clean the laundry room tonight, and reset all the clocks, and have dinner with my folks, and finally get all of the computers going... This is gonna be a bad day.

I bought an egg crate to sleep on last nite. Oh, the marvels of egg crates! Ashley and I were too comfortable even for sex. I had to exert mad force of will to go to class this morning. So far, the day has been pretty swell. Schroeder declined to take up the paper that was due today, a fortunate turn of events, since I'd declined to write it. I read some Tarzan. I got my Playstation to work again (finally). I'm looking forward to settling down tonite and studying some major central nervous system layouts. Maybe I'll order pizza.

Anyway, I'm still down in Sacramento. It's hot. Still. Spent the day writing more documentation and evaluating the client's business process. Happy happy fun computer science stuff. I also spent a good part of the day checking out this site my roommate emailed me about:

http://www.truemeaningoflife.com/

What a great site that is. I just about laughed myself to death. I also contemplated the possibilities of moving here (again) and being able to ride my motorbike every day of the year. Seems like an impossible dream. Plus I'm not sure I'd ever want to permanantly leave Calgary. OrCanada for that matter. Even for a few months.

I think I'll go home now and sit around my hotel room watching TV. Joy.

So, this actually starts at around 12:30am this morning. I finish reading a bit of A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessan Boyle, turn off the light above my bed and get into sleepy-time ready position.

Uh oh.

A slight stomach ache.

The last two times I got food poisoning (the last was probably from bad mayonnaise just a few days before January 1, 2000) I had the same sort of dull ache in my stomach to start things off. As soon as I recall the vomiting and diarrhea I endured for that unfortunate lunch choice I feel a slight twing of fever.

I hope its just hypochondria getting the best of me but it isn't going away. So I get up and put a fan in my open window and turn it on low. It's not a warm night by any measure. Phew. That's better...the ache is still there though.

6:30am. Bzzzz goes the