Mr Echo, 3213

Thursday: Woke at 9. Scanning the state of the world from my cellphone in bed. Shower. Down basement, drums etc. Fed Oscar, ate a banana, loaded the car, and headed out.
To the chiropractor. The dude again. Stopped in Boston to pick something up. Then, in to work. Got an egg sandwich and a coffee.
Some reconnoitering with Al and B. Fixed a long standing bug involving an info panel not getting the proper data because a certain numeric granularity was not being applied. Dv rewrote some code I just wrote, for no good reason that I could tell. Got some pizza and a coffee. Worked on a bug where it was being assumed that there would be a entire sub-region in all imported files.
Left at 7:15.
Picked up Shawn at the bridge, then over to Arlington. An Electric session, looping for the first hour, some talk about gigs, then running through our material for the second. Dropped him in Porter.
Back home, unloaded, put away laundry, email, ate a bowl of cereal, then down basement for neck stretching, Lost on the treadmill, and now to complete the day.

picking the nits of the nit pickers

Wednesday: Slept in after a late night. Kept waking up. Mom called around 11, but I just let the phone ring. Called her back a little later, and had a nice talk. Shower. Down basement, drums etc. Breakfast, but the soy sausage put me off my appetite a little. Fed Oscar. Laundry. Headed out. Saw Neighbor Bill walking down the street.

Stopped at the bank to get a check. Saw Neighbor Bill walking past the bank. Waved my hand at him and said "Stop following me around!" In at the office, lots of goodies up front. RPT stopped me and we got into a protracted conversation about a tweak I'd made the day before. Some issues are like friggen bees nests. I ended the conversation by saying "I don't fucking care. You guys figure it out." Found out I did have a misunderstanding about the way the program is supposed to work (lulled into this by the ui design). Backed out my changes and entered a suggestion at a more appropriate fix in the database. Worked on re-working a feature I had implemented based on tester feedback. Quite a bit larger project than one would think. Burrito. The woman making my burrito first put beans on the wrong type of shell. Realizing her mistake she scooped the beans back into the vat, and threw out the shell. Then, she dropped tofu on the floor. Mmmm. Just when I thought I was done, I realized I had missed a subtlety in the nit picking, so more code. Headed home around 10:30. Snowing.

Fed Oscar again (he's been realizing he can get fed twice a day, if he makes some noise). Took out the recycling and the trash. Laundry. Watched a little video. Laundry. Guitar.

Down basement, neck stretching, treadmill. Now to complete the day.

Hvs 2.75

Tuesday: Woke around 9, listening to the BBC. Shower. Made some diagrams for a couple from the workshop, and email them off. Down basement and morning practices + drums. Fed the Oscar beast. Headed out, with a breakfast at the donut shop. An old man, with the look of a continental Indian, in a SUV parked next to me, god's-eye hanging from the rear-view, threw garbage out his window, then slumped against the glass of the driver's side window, occasionally glancing over at me with a pained look on his face. Over to the chiropractor's. Another new guy, a young bulky jokester, who got excited and did an "end zone dance" every time he produced a loud pop from my spine.

Stopped in Boston to run an errand. Also managed to transfer $17.50 from a "Charlie Ticket" to my "Charlie Card" (mass transit payment schemes). My parking tab was $18. It all balances out, I guess.

In at work, fixed a variety of small bugs, trying to thin out the list a-bit. I need a new category of bug: "nit-pick." Not that they shouldn't be addressed... but they can crowed out the burning issues. Stayed until 10pm.

Heading home, couldn't turn onto my street out of Union due to some construction. Fueled up. Back home, leftover Chinese. Emailed MB copies of schedule C from the 06 returns. Down basement, neck stretching, and treadmill (lost). Now to complete the day.

Dentist, one hour off

Monday: Up around 9. Shower. Down basement. Fed Oscar, and had a quick breakfast. Off to the dentist. Arriving there, they said my appointment was for 10, not 11. Don't know how that happened. Thankfully, they were able to fit me in. Happy mouth.

In to work, and swatting a few low hanging bugs. Found a feature had been broken for a couple years, and no one noticed. Got into fixing it. Took a walk out, deposited a check, bought vitamins, picked up some lunch. Stayed at work until about 8.

Did some grocery shopping on the way home, picking up cat food, and a few other things. At the ranch: Put away the goodies. Email. Watching a couple of short vids. Down basement for neck stretching and treadmill. More email. Now for evening practices.

Day-long

Sunday: Slept in. We got up around noon. Down basement while Ann showered. Breakfast, with some yummy zucchini that Ann made. Hanging out. Bb showed up, but he was the only one, so some chatting, and then he took off. Drove Ann to the bus. Stopped at the video store. Picked up some donuts. Back home for videos and donuts. Took a walk up the hill before the sun set.


Saturday: Up at 6:30. Morning practices. Breakfast with Ann. Packed the car, and we headed out a little after 8. Over to Woburn, where I taught a day-long workshop. A lot of people had canceled last minute due to illness and weather, but it was a good experience for me, and I trust for those that attended. Things wrapped up a bit after 5. Ann and I had dinner at Wang's, the over to Whole Foods to pick up a few things. Back home, and watching "30 Rock" (which she had on DVD) Evening practices, and to bed.

Friday: Up around 9:30, a little more course prep. Down basement and such. Ate at the donut shop on my way to the Chiropractor: snow falling. My chiropractor hurt himself skiing, so there was some young guy there as a replacement today. He felt a bit rougher than my usual doctor, and I'm not sure I liked the experience. In to work, and wrapped up a batch of changes (doing a lot of testing) on the import/export feature. Back home, a frozen pizza, and more course planning. Picked up Ann at the train station at 11 (delay due to the snow). Some hanging out then evening practices. To bed by around 2.

Thursday: Up and usual morning stuff. Had a big breakfast. Off to work. Not there long, and dreadfully began feeling dreadful. Half of my big breakfast down the john at work, back home and then other half. My stomach is still a bit fragile after my illness of last month. Spent the afternoon sacked out on the couch watching "Jackass" on my laptop. Feeling better in the evening, and a little work planning the weekend course.

Possible possibilities

Wednesday: Woke around 10. Some emails from people signing up for this weekend's course, and a bright sun, put a spring in my step before I got out of bed. Shower. Downstairs and email. Fed Oscar. Down basement, morning practices, drums. Had a nice breakfast. Vacuumed out my car. Neighbor Bill said hello, and asked if Oscar was Gus. I told him the old sad news about my two old cats.
Headed off to work. Funnily, the guy that had asked for the feature I'm currently working on, put an entry in the db saying he no longer wanted the feature. Well, he's getting it anyway. Throughout the course of the day, did most of the implementation. Took a walk out and got some pizza at a new place in the hallway next to Au Bon Pain. A guy sitting next to me was practicing a foreign language with a partner on Skype. Dv asked me some questions about a bit of code from 1989, that was doing a binary search, rather than implementing a reverse mapping function. Stayed until about 8:30. Headed home, stopping to drop off vids on the way.
Gave my mom a call, and talked about possible future possibilities. Email.
Down basement and, neck stretching, and treadmill. Now to complete the day.

The alarm technician arrives

Tuesday: After a late night, and not much sleep, woke at 9, and for some reason decided to get up and eat a bowl of cereal. Fed Oscar. The alarm company repairman showed up, and then I realized why I'd gotten up. Sat watching the end of "Before Sunrise" while he worked in the basement, replacing the analog backup system. He wrapped up around 11. Down basement to put things back in order, morning practices, and drums. Took a shower, did some cleaning up in the basement, putting away the spare guitar, and headed out. On the way listened to a bit of a show on NPR with a scholar who rejected Christianity because of its inability to explain the horrific suffering of innocents present in the world.
Picked up some lunch, and got to work on the export side of the n-in-one issue. Looking fairly complicated. Later got a coffee and a slice of lemon loaf. Discussing the relative merits of floating windows. Got a call from my Chiropractor's office: The doctor was injured in a skiing accident. Feeling not-well-rested, and finding it hard to concentrate, I decided to call it a day around 7.
Back home, and a 20 minute nap. Watched some of a movie, and decided it was dull, fast forwarding through most of it. Ate some leftover lasagna, watching a speech by Barack Obama streaming on the web. Down basement, neck bracing, and Lost on the treadmill. Now to complete the day.

Dayo de Prez

Monday: Slept in, enjoying the fact that there was no official need for me to go into work. Shower. Fed Oscar. Down basement for morning practices and drums, feeling a bit drained. Emailing about upcoming course. Tidying. Headed out.
Stopped for an egg sandwich, then into work. Got the stuff for import of n-way files working. Started in on the export side of things. Took a walk out, depositing a check, going to the CD store (not seeing anything that was calling to me), and getting a cup of coffee. The lady at the Starbucks asked if anyone made fun of my duck umbrella. I said no one made fun of the duck, because it was an attack duck, and if they did they'd get pecked. This seemed to set her back a pace. Very quiet day at the office, most of the lights being off. L was in, getting an installer together before his vacation.
Back home around 9, stopping on the way for some groceries. The last of the leftover Indian food while watching some vids. Doing some course design work. An enjoyable evening at home. Now to complete the day.

GCNE at the Y

Sunday: A lazy morning, shower, morning practices, then out for breakfast with Ann at Sound Bites. Dropped her at the bus station. A donut. To the video store, then back home for a lazy afternoon, watching some vids, cleaning out some old food in the kitchen, eating leftover Indian food, then down basement for exercise, and to complete the day.

Saturday: Slept in and a lazy morning. Morning practices, drums. Breakfast of eggs toast and such. A bit of guitar practice, then Ann and I headed over to the Y in Central Square. Most of the rest of the GCNE was already there getting the PA set up. Introducing Ann to the guys. Victor arrived a bit later. Sound check. Quite a nice space. The guys from the headlining band showed up and ate sandwiches while we got the sound happening. They did their sound-check as people arrived. Some hanging out with Ann in the back, and then circled up at 7:30. We went on around 7:40, ChrisP leading out. Not our best show, but not our worst either. I think our sound was quite good, and a couple of pieces had some real life to them. Until Victor and I seriously do some right-hand work, I don't think Driving Force should be trotted out again. The audience was very appreciative, and expressed this in part by taking lots of photos. This mucked me up a bit in Chrysanthemum, but I really shouldn't have let it. After our set, Ann and I took a stroll out and got some Mexican food. Back to the venue where "Your Move" was playing a selection of Art Rock Chestnuts, many of which I'd never expected to hear performed live, including Firth of Fifth, and the complete album (both sides) of Close to the Edge. Quite an effort. Mutual appreciation expressed on behalf of both bands. Headed home, and some hanging out before bed.

Friday: Up after sleeping in a bit, shower, fed Oscar, down basement, then out on the road. Stopped at the donut shop for an egg sandwich, and then to the Chiropractor. He was wearing an American flag tie today.

In at work, getting most of the code running for n-way import. Al was looking into an assert. Got some mac and cheese to go. Headed home around 8. Ann text messaged me saying her bus had hit a lot of traffic. Down basement, exercise and evening practices. Picked up Ann around 11. Some practicing guitar while she took a shower, then to bed.

Valentine's and the day before

Thursday: Slept in a bit, and lazing, feeling connected. Shower, down basement for morning practices and drums. Packed away some old memorabilia. Sometimes, these things are radioactive. Also deleted some files off my computer. Mom called as I was making breakfast. Fed that Oscar beast. Off.

Stopped at the auto parts store and got a new brake light. In at work, continued with the import/export work. Finding a few I can punt. Ann sent me a nice package via FedEx. A short day, I left at 7:10 to go meet Shawn. Picked him up in Porter Sq. He gave me an account of his ordeal with the tonsillectomy. Hellacious. An OK rehearsal, but we were both feeling a bit out of practice on the Church material. Talked about doing some gigs in RI. Dropped him off, then across town to drop a video at the store. Back home, ordered Indian, then did my neck stretching while it was being prepared. Picked up the food, and dinner, listening to the radio. Down basement and Lost on the treadmill. Now to complete the day.

Wednesday: Shower, brief sitting upstairs, laundry. Fed the Oscar beast. In to work, continuing to fix bugs in the import/export sub-system. KJ gave me some good information: we were ignoring an offset in a file, which was making it look byte-reversed. Brake light out on the car. Tried to debug it in the parking lot. Drove home carefully. Down basement and Lost on the treadmill, evening practices. Had a late dinner of lasagna watching a little of an old movie.

Work day in two parts

Tuesday: Had a good sleep in, though I dreamt that two people were talking about world food supply, and wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. Waking up I realized that it was the radio again. Shower. Down basement and drums. Breakfast. Fed Oscar. Email.

Off to work, across town. Nice email from a contact at Apple, that raised more questions than it answered. Had been working for a couple hours when my stomach began to feel upset. Decided to gingerly drive home. Had some down-time, watching the last two episodes of season 4 of the Wire. Decided I was feeling good enough to go back. Drove back in the long way around. Picked up some take out macaroni and cheese. Put in a couple more hours, working on the import/export code.

Stopped on the way back home (snowing lightly) to drop off videos. Pizza. Watched the Mr an Mrs Smith staring Brad and Angelina. OK if you like light hearted movies that use people getting killed and things blowing up, as a metaphor for marriage. New strings on the guitar. Now to complete the day.

Mta needs a jump

Monday: Woke around 9:30, but dozed until 10, the BBC infiltrating my dreams. Shower, morning practices (upstairs), fed Oscar, and headed out. Stopped at the donut shop for an egg sandwich. Chiropractor: He wanted to talk politics, which I stepped around gingerly, sensing a certain rightward leaning in his presence (and the fact that the National Review was featured in the magazines in his waiting area). Headed off towards work, filling up the gas tank along the way. Fixed several bugs involving import and export today. Feeling a bit off, hoping I wasn't coming down with something again. Walked out for a burrito and some other lunch foods at the convenience store. Quite cold today, and clear. Got stuck on one bug where a file we were handed seemed to be in the wrong byte ordering. Stayed until almost 10. Headed back home.
Just about to go down basement, when Mta called, saying she had left her headlights on and that she needed a jump. She was close by, so I agreed. Back from that, down basement. An hour on the treadmill, watching a movie. Evening practices. Some food back upstairs watching the rest of the movie. Now some guitar, and to bed.

Ann visits, and a long GCNE rehearsal

Sunday: Slept in a bit, then up with Ann. Breakfast of eggs with baked bread with garlic oil. Cleaning up. Took her to the bus around 3. To the rehearsal space (the first to arrive, thanks to some incorrect info in the group email). Victor showed up around 3:45. A long rehearsal. Ordering out for Middle-Eastern food. Back home now, and with luck an early bed.

Saturday: A mellow day with Ann. Some shopping at the Whole Foods at Fresh Pond. Re-heated lasagna and broccoli-rabe.

Friday: Up around 9:30, shower. Down basement. Moved a mirror to an opposite wall. Some cereal. Off to the chiropractor. The receptionist called me "Gene." In to work. Discovered that some summery data had always been being read incorrectly from file, but another overlapping bug had always hidden the fact. Took a walk out, exchanging some rolled coins for bills. Got a grilled veggie sub. Wrapped up my changes of the last few days, and checked in. Stopped at the pharmacy on the way home. A guy at the cash register said his brother had just been sent to Fallujah, and that Iran was next. Stopped at F&M's dropping off M's old diploma (that I'd found in the basement) and wishing F a happy 40th b-day. Over to the video store, returning a couple of disks. Back home, for some early evening practices, then to the train station to pick up Ann.

So long Romney

Thursday: Slept in a bit, somewhat fitfully. Up, shower, down basement, brief drums. Oscar. Eggs in a whole wheat burrito wrapper for breakfast. Some time evaporated in front of the computer screen. A frosting of ice granules had fallen in the night. Romney quit the presidential race today... Too bad, I was having such fun watching him suck. True to form, his "so long" speech was completely inauthentic. He said something about "doing what was best for the country in this time of war." Right. What he meant was "I've calculated its unlikely for me to win, and I don't want to waste any more of my own money on a losing bid."

Off to work. Talking to Al about how to fix the bug I'd discovered the day before. Of course, his ideas about how to fix it were a bit incomplete. Took another tack. Found another bug where a header portion of a file was being clobbered by a temporary indicator. This is all a bit half-baked. Stayed until a bit before 10.

Back home, straightening up the upstairs desk. Made a tray of lasagna. Cleaning up. Practiced guitar for an hour or so. Fingers feeling pretty good. Amazing what some consistent practice will do. Now to complete the day.

Money pit

Wednesday: Slept in a bit after a late night. Lying in bed emailing on the phone. Shower, listening to music on the iMac. Down basement, drums, fed Oscar, breakfast: egg burrito and coffee. Headed out, walking up to the PO. Put some stuff in the mail. Caught the bus to Sullivan and then to H Sq. Mostly investigating things today. Peeling back layers of bugs. Around 4:15, took a bus back to Union and dumped money into the pit... I mean I picked up my car from the garage. Later on got a tofu burrito and chips. Found that we were blithely overwriting the headers of files if they were not exactly of the format we were expecting. Stayed until 10ish, then drove home the long way. Raining out today. Put out the garbage. Watched the rest of "The Machinist" while treading on the treadmill. Now evening practices, guitar, and to complete the day.

National primary

Tuesday: Slept in after a late night. Up, shower. Sitting in the basement and drums. Fed Oscar. Made an egg burrito for breakfast. Coffee. Composting.

Drove out and voted. Dropped my car off at the shop. Took a bus in to work. Spent most of the day tracking down, what turned out to be, a bug in basic_string.h (part of the standard C++ library). Added a work-around for the problem and logged the bug with Apple. Started looking into some other stuff. Left around 8.

Took the bus back home, changing at Sullivan. The T pass that I have didn't work in the bus readers. Deposited a check. Picked up a pizza. Back home, ate while watching the returns, and also watching a bit of a movie. Paid bills. Worked on a flyer, and did some emailing to promote an upcoming course.

A long line of people

Monday: Woke around 9:30. Shower, sitting upstairs, fed Oscar. Headed off, dropping a heavy package off at FedEx and then getting an egg sandwich at the donut shop. Over to the Chiropractor. In to work. Put in a longish day, wrapping up changes and checking in (low level stuff involving mod-dates and file extensions). Ate a tofu burrito and a yogurt. Headed out around 8.

Drove past the place in South Boston where Barack Obama was holding a rally. The line of people waiting to get in stretched for many blocks. I decided I wasn't needed there, and drove home. Working on the home-project photos for Ann's friend. Watching a movie on the treadmill. Practices in the basement. Guitar practice. It was a late night.

Rowe, partial relapse

Sunday: Feeling quite better. It seems the key for now is to avoid sweets, so as not to give easy food to the bacteria. Morning stuff, shower, packed up and headed to the center by 8. A gentle breakfast. Last session with DM. Lunch. And headed out.

Drove Ann and Lucy to Greenfield, and saw them off on a bus. As they were getting on, a tall man of African descent let them go first, saying "Chivalry is not dead, there are still some good guys out there."

Drove back to Somerville. Unpacking. Feeling significantly better. Drove out and dropped off/picked up DVDs. Got a sub, which I ate while watching a few minutes of the Super Bowl. Over to Guitar Circle. It was the 5 musketeers tonight (no Martian). Pretty good. Eye of the Needle was perhaps the best we've played it. Back home.

Saturday: Up around 6, morning stuff, and over to the center by 8. Lovely, cold and quiet here in the country, snow and ice covering all. Breakfast in the big dining hall. Session one of the day with Dorothy Mclean. Lunch. Session two. My stomach started to complain a bit. By dinner I was feeling like a overblown balloon. Decided to skip the meal and head back to the B&B to rest. Feeling pretty sick. Ann made her own way to the B&B, and said it was a lovely walk. We watched the AristoCats streaming off her iPod into my laptop. An early bed, worrying that I was going to have a full blown relapse in the night.

Friday: Up at 9, feeling pretty good. Sitting upstairs. Packing. Shower. Fed Oscar and had some quick French Toast for breakfast. Found I had a little time to play guitar before heading out. To the Chiropractor's office. I got a brief lesson in the economics of building a pro football team while he cracked my back.

In to the office, and a brief day. More or less wrapped up my changes (date stamps, lazy bt-list writing), but still testing to do. Talked to Al.

Drove to Springfield in the rain. Couldn't get the tape-deck iPod adapter to work. Arrived early. A slice of pizza. Bone chilling. Met Ann and her friend Lucy. A slushy drive up to Rowe MA, arriving just before 7pm. Dinner, then the first session, where we more or less just all said hello.

The proprietors of the B&B where we were staying had a family emergency, so we had to let ourselves in. Evening practices and to bed.

Thats a wine for laying down and avoiding

Thursday: On the mend day. Slept in, listening to NPR in the late morning. Heard a spot on a new translation of Herodotus. This was a funny coincidence, because its also mentioned in The English Patient. I ordered a copy later in the day, along with Metamorphosis by Ovid, which Ann had been talking about. Made some rice water (boil a handful of rice until almost soft, strain out the rice, cool the water, mix with a little honey and either powdered ginger or cinnamon), ate toast and apple sauce. In the early afternoon headed off to work. Stopped at the convenience store and returned a can of whipped cream that was past the due-date. Bought bananas. Didn't stay too long at the office. Asked Mk about some code that I thought was his, but turned out to be mine (he could tell by the placement of parens)... well it was 10 years ago. Back home, watched the Democratic debate on web-cast. Made some soup and ate while I continued to watch. Put away clothes. Practiced guitar for about 45 minutes. Fingers were beginning to feel warmed up by the end.

Wednesday: Somewhat sick day. Canceled the chiropractor appointment. Made some mac-and-cheese, toast and tea, all of which I managed to keep down. A major achievement. Decided about mid-day that going in to work wasn't going to happen. Began the cleaning up process. Mopping. Lots of laundry. MB, who was in town, gave a call and we had a chat. She sounds like she's doing well. In the early evening, made my way to the video store to return a DVD and pick up a couple new ones. Picked up various fluids to continue the re-hydration process. Also got some pizza. A kid of African decent was standing at the counter, and I asked him if he had already ordered. He said yes, and I could tell that he liked being treated like a human. There's still a bit of racism around here, but most of its not out in the open. He said "You burned my pizza!" when he saw the nice crispy brown edges of the pie they pulled from the oven. I said "What are you talking about, it's perfect!?" And he grinned broadly. He was just giving the guy shit. You know, this is what people do to pass the time. Drank my fluids and ate some pizza while watching the extended version of The Abyss. Later in bed watched Saw. Sleep.

Tuesday: Sick day. Night before, skipped guitar and went to bed early, feeling shivery. Around 3am woke up and spent the next 24 hours or so making little trips back and forth to the bathroom. I'll spare the reader the details. Managed to rent and watch a movie from the iTunes video store "The English Patient"... perfect laconic feeling for watching while ill. Also watched "Hollywood Shuffle" which Ann had loaned me.