journal for 2002-12-05

four

Shawn was irked at himself for having only five entries in his journal in November. I had four, so maybe he’ll feel better about himself if I let him know.

I guess I was making up for having so many in October. This month, I’ll try to get more than four, and maybe I’ll get back upto a nice equilibrium by January.

slump

Work has been slow but busy. I’m struggling to get work done on the training system, and it’s coming along, but only very slowly. I’m just so uninspired! I don’t know why, because I think the project is fairly interesting. I really want someone with whom to collaborate. I also wouldn’t mind having a better platform for development. Working on IIS and MSSQL gets a little sickening after a while.

I wouldn’t say that I’m depressed about work, but I’m in a slump. I wish I could approach every day with enthusiasm, but I just can’t. The people I work with aren’t like me, in a way that’s hard to explain. I don’t have enough friends of the right type, around here. I want to be able to talk shop with people, and not just always IRC it. Also, getting back in “the theology game” would be OK. This local folksy/open-mic-y place, Godfrey Daniels, has a weird “Philosophy Night” now and then, but I’m wary of going. I’m just terrified that I’ll get there and find myself surrounded by back-patting relativists.

thanksgiving

On a much lighter note, Thanksgiving was great. Gloria and I made Thanksgiving dinner together, and it was lots of fun. We made the turkey, which Gloria brined and which was awesome. We made a tasty dressing, really awesome aromatic green beans, nice and slightly lumpy garlic mashed potatoes, a cranberry chutney, and probably other awesome things I can’t remember. I was eating leftovers until Sunday, which made me a very happy guy. Leftover roast turkey might be my favorite thing about fall.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we went to my Aunt Chippie’s place for the ressurection of an old family tradition: the Cousins’ Party. It’s basically a party at which all of the extended family comes together and hangs out and eats. We haven’t had one in at least ten years, when my grandmother (who held them) died. It went very well, and Chippie has said there’ll be another next year.

One of the big events of a Cousins’ Party is plate-making. My grandmother would always have these weird rounds of thin paper, and we would use special markers to draw on them. The paper would get turned into a plate—possibly the design was transferred, but I think the paper was basically embedded in plastic. Gloria made a plate for us (I helped by drawing a pathetic little squirrel), and I’m eager to see it come back. I should also grab my old ones from my parents’ place. I think they’re probably all kind of scary and awful, since I was seven or eight when I made them, but whatever!

snow

It snowed today. We got somewhere between four and six inches, so it wasn’t too terrible. It wasn’t nothing, but I think that at some point in the last ten years, people’s tolerance for snow around herereally went down. All the schools closed. We got out of work early. This was sort of good (because I got to leave work early) and sort of bad (because I had work to do). I hope I can get the work done tomorrow and this weekend, although I’m going to try not to spend my days off doing just work. Ugh.

metroid

I’m nearly done with Metroid, I think. I fought Ridley today, but lost. It shouldn’t take more than one or two more tries to beat him, I think. It’s a pretty great game. I really hope I get my GBA back before I’m all done, though, so I can move on to Fusion.

I put together a timeline of my dealings with the place that’s doing the install, but I’ll hold onto it until I have my GBA—or until it’s clear that it’s been stolen. The fact that I think I might not get it back should be indication enough that this has been a crappy experience.

vim

I spent a lot of time, yesterday, futzing with my vimrc. Vim is just an awesome program. Despite its annoying bits and its quirks and all the weird stuff, it is by far the most useful utility program I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. Maybe someday I’ll even learn more than ten percent of its features.

Written on December 5, 2002