Looks like AF is out of the game for a while

Yes, folks, due to a nasty spill off a bike exceeding sane velocity parameters, I'm a bit banged up. As the broken hand and sprained fingers make typing (and thus noding) a tedious process, I'll probably be pretty quiet around here for a bit. Also reducing my noding powers is the fact that the machine i use at home - an early vaio 505 model - turfed last week. Ah well - I haven't been exactly prolific of late anyway.

In addition to breaking bones and lacerating most parts of my body this weekend, i left a good chunk of my face on the pavement. I knew it was bad when everyone in the ER - including the veteran attending doc - winced upon looking under the dressing and said I'd really messed myself up. That reminds me - I'll hafta node about how awesome the ER people are when i'm back up to speed.

Facial scars are roguish and sexy right? Right???

Everything Day Logs
Yesterday | Tomorrow

Everything Snapshot

Time: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 01:06:12 GMT
Everything server: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) mod_perl/1.21
Number of nodes: 571698 (1434 new since June 18, 2000)
Number of users: 15824 (31 new since June 18, 2000)
Number of links: 2051836 (14262 new since June 18, 2000)

Node to user ratio: 36.129 nodes per user
Link to node ratio: 3.589 links per node
Link to user ratio: 129.666 links per user

New Nodes: Users Online (32): [dannye] [sensei] [General Wesc] [Tem42] [Uberfetus] [hamster bong] [themusic] [ophie] [kenata] [MasterYoshi] [Starrynight] [Electricsound] [Shanoyu] [heropsychodreamer] [jkfghldagv] [Enzondio] [hamstergirl] [Katyana] [Gorgonzola] [Sudderth] [ithron] [GargoyleMT] [matsmats] [jkeak] [Void_Ptr] [fluffy] [joelja] [saono] [yaounde] [lakeid] [mleko] [everyone]

JeffMagnus node count: 3751 (1 new since June 18, 2000)
JeffMagnus experience: 6522 (13 more since June 18, 2000)
JeffMagnus experience to node ratio: 1.739 XP per node
JeffMagnus nodeshare: 0.657%
JeffMagnus node of the day: Everything 2 Civil War

Overslept big time. Got to work at 1030. Not that it mattered much, no scheduled meetings today and I spent part of yesterday at work, so I attributed the late arrival to flexing.

Scandinavian Airlines has been trying to reach me. Checking their website, my booking seems to be alright - but hey, this is the Internet Age, which means that You Never Really Know. Hopefully it's just the fact that they won't be able to deliver the tickets to my home address before tomorrow and want me to pick them up at the airport instead. But You Never Really Know. I'll probably book some kind of backup later today, just in case.

Things to do:
  1. Check with the boys in the Linköping office if there is some smooth way to transfer data and metadata from DB/2 to Oracle.
  2. Check which version of the codebase the pilot project will run on.
  3. Call J and make some plans regarding movies later this week.
Update 1539: Cancelled my booking. I'm going home by train instead. The net cost of the trip will be about the same, but I won't have the chance to Meet The Dormies - some of whom Yours Truly will move in with Real Soon Now, if everything goes according to plan (Yeah, right).
The deltas on the trip:
Travel time: +30 h. Effective vacation time: -1.5 days.

Today's Soundtrack: Geneva - If you have to go
15:53 EET

While at lunch reading a newspaper, I came across an article hyping functional food items. It seems to be the trendy thing at the moment. But for me it seems to be yet another overhyped buzzword not really meaning much. I mean, isn't all food functional? What, removing hunger doesn't qualify as a function anymore? :)

The midsummer eve is coming up, and it looks like I'll be going to hang out at ReXX' apartment in Helsinki. Some friends are organizing a huge party at Virrat, but they'll be busy working there and I don't have any people to go with. I was promised VIP entry and that I could sleep at a hotel reserved for the organizers & DJ:s. But that isn't 100% certain, and travelling all the way there to find out I'd have to sleep 3 nights in a tent would suck. So I'll pass.
Most of Finland will naturally spend the nightless night by guzzling hard liquor 'til they drop. The drowning rate of Finnish men is incredible around midsummer, since some of the drunken bastards make it into a boat while they're still conscious. With no life jackets or anything, it's the recipe for wet death.
Haven't you ever heard that song by Loverboy? "Booze and boats just don't mix" :)

I didn't do much in E2 last weekend, but that was only because I was having a great time on IRC. An inside channel with just the right people as regulars can be a wonderful (and crazy) thing sometimes. Don't worry, working hours are still exclusively for noding.

Track of the day:  Seremoniamestari feat. Peter Nygård - Turha Jätkä
I don't usually like rap at all.. But Seremoniamestari is the exception. Mostly because of the humor and self-irony.


Note to the people downvoting our day log writeups and creating childish offensive soft links to the nodes:
No matter what you do, you can't stop me from noding.

Who gives the proverbial Rattus Norvegicus' posterior about a few XP units anyway?
Everything is a diary. Accept it.

monday morning

wake up, lean over the kitty to smooch the gorgeous man sleeping next to me. get dressed, walk the dog and make sure the man is awake and aware of his surroundings. smoke a cigarette and go to work.

i have to resume the no-fat liquid diet today in preparation for more testing on my gallbladder this afternoon and tomorrow morning. given the pain i feel when not on heavy painkillers (which i haven't taken today due to the goofy-at-work factor), i hope they just rip that durned organ right out of my tum-tum.

the boss pops in and tells me to look at our stock. we're up. we put out a press release this morning about a partnership with a big company. good news.

i've got to get down to work and finish the conversion from visual source safe to cvs SOON. i think i will lay down the plans for that today and get to it tomorrow after my morning appointment or wednesday.

more later...

afternoon

no practice today. or until the gallbladder thing is worked out one way or another. i feel too weak to go anyway. fruit smoothies don't make for good fuel. i am having a difficult time finding a non-fat liquid diet that satisfies the nutritional requirements.

so instead of martial arts practice, i'll go home and clean a bit. maybe try to finish the painting i've been working on for months.

evening

came home from work, walked the dog, cleaned, made smoothie, played scrabble with my sister. i am now watching ally mcbeal. will read some heinlein, then go to bed early.

<< week | June 18, 2000 | June 19, 2000 | June 20, 2000 | week >>

Everything's Best Users Snapshot


   #   Users                   XP   wa7   inc Level   l_XP l_wa7
    
   1   Pseudo_Intellectual  15144   150   224    11  14920   138
   2   DMan                 12754   179   214     9  12540   173
   3   dem bones            12016    67   126    10  11890    57
   4   Segnbora-t            9857   110    98    10   9759   112
   5   Saige                 9651    83     8    10   9643    95
   6   pukesick              9139    26     2    10   9137    30
   7   jessicapierce         7661  -153    -4    10   7665  -178
   8   Deborah909            7386    39     7     9   7379    44
   9   N-Wing                7263    77    12     9   7251    88
  10   tregoweth             6630    35    13     9   6617    39
  11 * dannye                6550   119   113     8   6437   120
  12 - JeffMagnus            6542    29    32     9   6510    28
  13 - pingouin              6485    24    17     9   6468    25
  14 * sensei                6485   101   127     7   6358    97
  15   Lometa                6445    87    75     9   6370    89
  16 - yossarian             6388    27    11     9   6377    30
  17   Jet-Poop              6368    80    29     9   6339    89
  18   knifegirl             6317    19    28     9   6289    18
  19   ModernAngel           6224    12    11     9   6213    12
  20   ideath                6183    74    14     7   6169    84
    
  21 * Tem42                 6039    73   102     8   5937    68
  22 - General Wesc          5981    48    27     9   5954    51
  23 * /dev/joe              5741    71    69     8   5672    71
  24 - hoopy_frood           5734    24    13     8   5721    26
  25   moJoe                 5656    52    58     9   5598    51
  26   novalis               5488    17    15     9   5473    17
  27   bozon                 5463    14    -2     9   5465    17
  28 * nine9                 4711    23    90     9   4621    12
  29 - yam                   4682    43    28     7   4654    46
  30   alex.tan              4598    49     8     7   4590    56
  31   juliet                4499    61    86     9   4413    57
  32   RockLobster           4481    97    94     9   4387    97
  33   Sarcasmo              4278     3     5     8   4273     3
  34 * Uberfetus             4154    49    46     6   4108    49
  35 - Sylvar                4139    34     3     7   4136    39
  36   ariels                4096    11     6     8   4090    12
  37   Templeton             4019    55    56     5   3963    55
  38   kessenich             3852    32    52     8   3800    29
  39   sabre23t              3826    57    62     6   3764    56
  40   bitter_engineer       3671    26    22     7   3649    27
  41   knarph                3651    13     3     8   3648    15
  42   CaptainSpam           3648    28    79     8   3569    19
  43 * Quizro                3522    19    14     8   3508    20
  44 - Woundweavr            3519    15     6     8   3513    17
  45   ailie                 3495    27    16     7   3479    29
  46 * hamster bong          3418    82   111     5   3307    77
  47   Orange Julius         3372    62    41     7   3331    65
  48 - discofever            3361     3     1     7   3360     3
  49 - Lord Brawl            3317    24    -1     8   3318    28
  50 * wharfinger            3287    37   108     5   3179    25
  51 - hatless               3268    28    13     8   3255    31
   *   EBU #51               3268    43    89     *   3179    35
 

Server time: 04:10 Mon Jun 19 2000 TZ +0100 not UTC since May 26, 2000

* = users rising up in the EBU; - = users falling down in the EBU
l_ = last (previous) value; inc = increase in stats value
wa7 = ((stats + (6 * l_wa7))/7) = weighted average with denominator 7

sabre23t: Random Nodes

The EBU Snapshot is a bit late today. Had too many meetings. Though I managed to save a copy of the EBU earlier, I didn't have the time to spreadsheet process it and node it. A bit hectic this past few days, looking into greener pastures.

sabre23t: Nodes to node

I'm still feeling quite "under the weather", though my throat is not quite as aggrivated as it was, thankfully. I no longer need to sip water incessantly to soothe a swollen throat.. everything is evening out again, at least as far as the cold goes.

I'm alone again today, and though I don't mind it does make a gloomy day seem just a bit colder, just a bit less welcoming when there is no one around to share it with. I find my mind drifts to the past whenever a day is like this, probably because it holds not much as far as thought'y content is concerned.

The white noise I'm listen to today is somewhat depressing, though it has a tinge of a compassion I so desperately need, and there is something comforting about it, perhaps it lies in the familiarity. This past weekend was a bit much for me, I'm still feeling distant, withdrawn, something is amiss, though it's not too entirely terrible, just a little off. I don't like being sick, it tends to destroy my thought process, and the haze'y feeling the pressure in my sinuses creates leaves me a bit less than conversational.

There are a few things I need to accomplish this week, mainly because I've been putting them off for far too long.. I'm not too entirely sure why, I just haven't bothered yet: About a half an hour ago, I had the urge to sketch.. I've always been partial to pencil sketching, I just haven't really bothered with it in a while. I was sorely disappointed by the fact that we don't have a decent pencil in this house, and secondly that by the time I found a pencil, my inspiration had left and I ended up putting the paper back and coming to write this day log.

I'm going to try and node a bit more factual content in the next little while, as soon as I find little pieces of knowledge that might be worthy of sharing, explaining, and whatnot.

Sometimes I wonder if perhaps I'm just here to watch the world, rather than be an active participant. There seems to be an awful lot going on in the universe that I'm not involved with.. leaving me pondering whether or not I'm actually involved with anything significant at all. And then it hit me..

"WHACK!!! You've just been whacked by a pillow! Forward this to everyone to start Pillow Fight 2000!!"

A mass icq url forward.. I've just been pulled unwillingly into some strange cyber ritual, frightening to say the least. Why do people forward ICQ url things, with no URL? Ah well, I'm not entirely sure who that person was.. but I responded with the following:

"Was that pillow fight url forward a metaphor, a euphemism? Are you insinuating we should overthrow the government and set all of the criminals crowding our prisons free? Think of the implications, man! It's not sane! Please, reconsider.. such actions could have serious ramifications! Instead, why not just sip from the great cup of life, embrace the light, you know? I'll see you on the flip side."

Time to venture forth into the cold of the day, perhaps do something useful with my time. Actually, I need to clean up the house..

Ch-ching. End of daylog, please insert a quarter into floppy drive to go on living after this text has left your monitor. In the event that a floppy drive is not available, a cdrom will suffice.
I can't tell if she's in middle school or high school: she's a nice looking kid with a sweet smile. We pass each other, she on the way to the bus stop (i think), and i on my way to work, and we've taken to saying hello, or nodding. Today she was barefoot, with a tinkling chain around one brown ankle, carrying her shoes. I prefer to think of her walking barefoot than hobbled in those stylish shoes.

My uncle, president of the company, turns 50 on Wednesday, but they had cake for him today. It seems so contrived - all the silly Over the Hill lines, gag gifts, black wrapping paper and mylar balloons. As if people did not care enough. People don't care enough. It's another gesture, and the given script is good enough. Accept the proffered scripts. They're good enough. Whomever wrote your role must know something you don't to have that power. Right? Anyway, it's just a job, they're only shoes.

Except the world is made up of just these small parts. Just that. Little sensations and decisions and ad libs.

Tell me a story about being really alive. I could really use it.

Have you ever become so immersed in a book that when you finally try to usher yourself back into the real world you feel as if its doors have been locked?

Like groping in the dark for a lightswitch, spaceless. I don't know which way is up right now.

Perhaps if I focus on something small. My hands. Fingers like brown wires, longer than usual, tighter. They look old. I wonder if age starts there and creeps it's way over your entire body, like cold if you are buried in the snow and freezing to death.

There is something in me right now that isn't loneliness--it is displacement. No one looks human to me.

I wonder if they were all body-snatched in my absence. Perhaps I was as well. Have I mentioned that I'm paranoid? It has been a long time since anything lived.

Funny how the feeling breaks as you write it down.

I think I need green space.

No apartment luck today. I'm so full of I wants. I want some non-fast food and a place to live is GROWING into I want some good pasta and miso soup and pastry and Chinese dumplings, and I want to wear the clothes I like--I think I have a rather interesting fashion sense, I've just never had the money or opportunity to indulge it. And I've seen a dozen apartments I like and would enjoy living in, but they're $200-400 over my top limit.

I guess it comes down to: Money can't make you happy, but it can sure make you a lot more comfortable. Maybe I should have stuck with computer science after all, but then I probably would have flunked out, and I don't think these exceedingly well-paid computer people are actually getting the chance to enjoy their salaries anyway.. I don't know what I should do. Find out how to make a decent amount of money and have a life as an Asian Studies M. A., I guess. Ha.

Today, I am going to a Thai dinner organized by Kevin’s (Kevingpo)groupies.  Although am not too thrilled about it coz I know it’s going to cost me a fortune but am going coz Kevin said he would pay for my meal which I wouldn’t bet on with my breads life but decided to go anyway.  I received an unexpected phone call from Leynos  (David is his real name) who I thought was Kevin at first (Don’t know why).  We discussed the arrangements for tonight, told me where the joint was.  ‘It’s on Rose Street, called “Ere wan Express (Spelling may not be right) ’ he told me.  I felt a bit overwhelmed by this over data load as I haven’t in hell know where ‘Rose Street’ is until Leynos, cleverly told me that it’s behind Princess street near ‘Charlotte Square, West of Princess Street’, sounds a bit dodgy I thought, scribbled it down in what seems like English.  Anyway, I told him I’ll find my way, before we hung up, I urgently asked him what time I should meet him there which I thought was a huge blunder on his part for not telling me the time.  As the time was basically the starting fire for this event, without it, there is no point in me leaving the flat.  We both hung-up, I then proceeded to eat my sandwich, one with grilled bacon, the other with tuna and sweet corn.  7:42PM, I got dressed.  The dilemma am facing now is whether to wear the Levis White Jeans or the Lee Brownish Jeans.  7:45PM, decided to go for the Lee Brownish Jeans coz it matches my Dolce & Cabaña single columned black grayish cotton shirt, which I got from House Of Fraser  (Edinburgh) last month.  Popped my wallet in my back pocket, my mobile phone on the side pocket of my fleast (My right side), keys and spare coins for the bus on my shirt pocket.  Left my flat locked the door and noticed a ‘Freeman’s’ catalogue lying outside my door.  Was addressed to some dude upstairs but I decided to pinch it and left it on the telephone bench after opening the door into my flat and closing, locking it again!  At the bus stop on Gorgie road, I turned the ring volume on my phone right down as am pretty sure the odds of Kevin phoning me on the bus are pretty high and switch on vibrator mode as I find it annoying and embarrassing if it went off with the buzzing ringing sound while I was in the bus with all those people.  One of those ‘First’ buses came along (C55 I think) and I decided to hop on.  Near Haymarket, I felt a tingling sensation, only to notice it’s the phone.  Took it out and see Kevin’s name slapped on the LCD screen.  Kevin asked me where I was, I told him “on the Bus”.  He then suggested that he or us is going to stand outside the restaurant and wait for me.  I said “Okay”.  I stopped off at Burger King on Princess Street and walked towards the building society near Boots (West Princess Street) to get some dosh out of the ATM machine only to feel the phone vibrate again.  It’s Kevin again, he told me he is no longer standing outside the restaurant waiting, he mentioned something about “losing our marbles” I thought it was a bit strange but quickly ended our conversation because I needed to cross Castle Street pretty quickly, the green pedestrian light was full of life and didn’t want to run across the road carrying the phone in one hand (Accident Prone).  I approach what seems like Charlotte Square and made my way into the small narrow street of Rose Street with a huff of ‘So this is Rose Street’.   I walked easterly, looking at each shop on each side for the name ‘Ear Wok?’ ‘Era Wann?’ ‘Ear Express?’ or simply a Thai restaurant, phone vibrated again, this time it was Leynos, asking me where I was.  I simply told him I am at ‘West Princess Street, approaching Rose Street’, even though am at Rose Street as I needed to concentrate on looking at the signs.  Four-Five minutes into this exploration, I heard someone shout my name from behind, only to be greeted by ‘Michael Eng’ when I turned round who I have never met before; I ask him how he knew it was me, only to be told that I walked past the restaurant and Leynos spotted me through the window.  He guided us to the restaurant, I felt like a right **** for walking past it but looking at the sign above the door, I forgave my self-coz the fonts for the name of the restaurant was practically un-readable, for me anyway.  The moment I walked in, the heat of the place was the first thing I noticed, it was so god damn hot that I needed to sit down and take off my fleast quickly and order something cold, preferably Lemonade with a dice of lemon or lime.  The restaurant itself was fairly small, perhaps a seating capacity of twenty to thirty, tables were placed along the walls of the restaurant and our table was located on the left side, connected by a number of smaller tables I guessed by the number of people sitting on it.  I greeted Leynos and Kevin, sitting on the inside, one space up opposite from where I’ll be sitting but I didn’t notice them replying the greeting.  I proceeded to pull my chair to the right side after noticing the location of the fork (Positioned Left) and spoon (Positioned Right), hmm…. Strange.  Fork and spoon?  I sat down, fleast hung behind my chair nicely so that when I pull out the chair in the future for the toilet or should I say the Gentleman’s room as it is pronounced these days it wouldn’t drag on the wooden floor and create dust marks.  To Be Continued……  

The day was manic to say the least.
I left work a little early, sneaking off the ship around two o'clock. Wife and I took the kids out shopping. I don't really remember what we were looking for, now. We went to Target, ran around there forever. Wife gets ideas, you see. She will envision something in here head and drag us around store after store until the vision is a reality. I'm not sure about the exact mechanics of the transformation of thought to matter, but I do know that involves large amounts of cash.
So we had been at Target all damn day

and when we got home, the girlies were cranky and we had to fight with them to brush their teeth and get in bed, but finally around ten o'clock at night, all the chilluns were asleep and we had a moment to ourselves. I could hear my wife move about in the kitchen, rustling bags and putting things away, while I picked up the remains of my children's day in the living room. The phone rang and shattered our brief moment of domestic tranquility. Checking caller id, I didn't recognize the number, but bill collectors don't call that late, so I answered it.
It was my dad

He told me that my grandma had died in a car accident on Ortega Highway that day. He broke down a moment later, and handed the phone to my mom. I kept saying "wow", "damn" and "Jeez" as my mom relayed the story of her day. My wife, watching me react, stage whispered "What happened?...What happened??" Finally I cupped the phone with my hand and said, "Granny died today, in a car accident on Ortega Highway."
Actually speaking the words brought the idea of it all into a new focus.

Wow. Damn. Jeez. Shock is the only way to describe the feelings I was having. I gave the phone to my wife, and she talked with my mom for a while. My grandmother and I were never that close--she always spent more time with my cousins in Utah when I was growing up, and after I went back east to college I'm not sure she knew what to make of me anymore. Then, the Navy sent me away all the time and I hadn't really seen her or talked to her for months. But she was always nice to my kids, and the tadpole liked her, and damn it she was my grandma, and I could remember when they'd visit and sleep in the living room of our tiny house. I'd get up for school, and grandpa would already be up, drinking coffee, reading the newspaper, while grandma slept soundly in a trundle bed. She'd snore, loud enough to hear through our closed bedroom door. When she was telling a funny story, she laughed loud and true. She hit your arm to get your attention--repeatdly. And she would say, "Kid! I tell you..." after she was done laughing at her joke or what one of us had done. When she was young, she was beautiful, country beautiful, like all those stupid farmer's daughter stories.

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