No takers

Friday: Up with Ann on the early side. Shower, basement, drums. Ann made some eggs with broccoli and fried potatoes for breakfast.

Off to work, the long way around. Quite nice out. A day of bug fixing, yea ha. Took a walk out, and tried unsuccessfully to unload a CD I'd bought recently. The classical guitarist of H Sq played "A Whiter Shade of Pale." Coffee. Talked to mom about the weekend. Stayed until around 8pm.

Back home, Ann was in the shower. Down basement, and exercise. Now, dinner, and the end of the day.

Donald hit me up

Thursday: Up with Ann, shower, basement, drums. Ann had made breakfast when I came up. Fed Oscar and made coffee. A bit overcast, but feeling upbeat, headed across town. Stopped for coffee. Donald hit me up for $20. I'd been dodging him for weeks.

More bug thwacking. Fixed the strange loop issue, by forcing the order of some "on idle" operations. Found I had some logic backwards in another place... and so on. Set up a system for categorizing the PDFs that I'd created from all my old AppleWorks documents. Stayed until 8:30.

Back home, and Ann had baked potatoes and made garlic-broccoli. I fried some gluten-free veggie burgers (what's in them? sunflower seeds). Yummy dinner. She's made more good progress on the unpacking, and still lots to go. Some hanging out, then I headed down basement for neck stretching, and "Dark Shadows" on the treadmill.

Wind chimes

Wednesday: Woke, realizing I had chiropractor. Ann got up and cut up a papaya. Shower. Down basement and sitting. Hung out a wind-chime. Quick breakfast with Ann, then headed out. Beautiful drive to Orient Point.

Possibly last visit with the chiropractor for awhile. We haven't had the results he was expecting, and my insurance doesn't want to pay anymore, so, he gave me some exercises to try, and I'll check back with him in a month or so.

Talked to mom, and gave her an update. Also made plans for this weekend. She sounds like she's doing well. Through the tunnel to the office. More bug thwacking. The last one of the day was a really peculiar strange loop with A causing B, B causing C, C causing D and D causing A, over and over again. The problem with things like this is, at each point in the loop, it seems to make sense, so, where to you cut it, and under what conditions?

Back home around 8pm, and hanging out with Ann. The stuff integration is going well... Some leftovers for dinner. Taking out the recycling, and garbage. Soon bed.

Ann moves in

Tuesday: A relaxed morning, shower, down basement. Then brunch with Ann. Headed off to work, leaving her to begin the job of unpacking. This is going to take some doing. A sunny day, drove the long way to H Sq. Bug squashing. Headed home around 7:30. The dishwasher was having a minor problem, but I got it sorted out. We talked about the process of integrating her stuff into the house as it currently stands. Took a drive to Whole Foods, did some shopping and had dinner from their salad-bar. Back home, and some hanging out. Now, heading down basement for evening practices, Ann upstairs asleep.

Monday: Up at 6:45. Sitting. Shower. A quick breakfast of eggs and salad with Ann. We headed out, retrieving my car, and driving down to the storage space by 8:45. The movers didn't show up until about 8:30. Lots of stuff, taken from the space to the large truck. Next, up to Ann's apartment. It took the truck awhile to arrive. I decided I needed a little more sleep if I was to drive back to Boston, so nap in the car. The mover's finished up with the apartment by around 2pm. Ann put a few last things right in the apartment, and said goodbye to her flat-mate. Drove down to Ky's and she pulled some stuff from the fridge while I waited in the car, fending off parking police. Then to the storage place again to drop off the card key. Finally, on the road to Boston. A lovely drive. Got back to Somerville just after 7pm. It took them a little over 2 hours to unload. The moon was full at exactly at 9:11pm. Both Ann and I were exhausted. Some frozen pizza (non gluten, quite good). Got to bed by around midnight.

Sunday: Up early, meditation in my room, and then, a sitting with Tony down in the dining room. Some eggs and conversation for breakfast. Gave him a ride over to Tuft's for his cousin's graduation. Back home, packing, practices, and so on. Nap. A bit of lunch. Headed out around 3. Arrived about 3:40 at the Circle recording session. Victor was there, and gave him a hand setting up. All the guys (sans David) arrived soon after. After getting sounds, we recorded a number of pieces. David showed up and played on a couple. The family who were generously lending us their space came over (mom dad and two kids). We played Growing Circle and EotN for them. The evening ended with Victor and I taking some shots at Chrysanthemum. Breaking things down. Repacking the car. Headed off at 10. Hit traffic on the way home, so, detoured through Dorchester. Dropped the gear off, then drove to New York, arriving at Ky's little before 3am.

A visit from TG

Saturday: Had a nice sleep-in. Shower. Down basement + drums. Breakfast. Hello Oscar. Changed the strings on my guitar while watching an episode of "Dexter." (OK, but no six feet under.) Email. Decided to get out of the house for a bit. Did a little pruning and weeding in the front, said hello to neighbor Cln. Took a bike ride, up over Ten Hills and then along the Mystic River and around through the phragmites grove. Victor called saying the audio interfaced I'd loaned him wasn't powering up, and we came up with a plan-b. Back home, and some more hanging out. Tony called with an update. Made a (non-gluten) spaghetti dinner, veggies, salad and garlic bread. Yum. Cleaned up and headed out. Picked up Tony at the Tibetan restaurant in Davis Sq, also meeting his cousin (who is about to graduate from Tufts). Gave her a ride home, then back to the ranch with Tony. Got him settled in, then hanging out, listening to Tower of Power, and some music that he had a hand in. Pleasant conversation. Goodnight to Tony, setting sitting at 7am. Down basement, neck stretching, and now, to complete the day.

Dark Shadows

Friday: Restless sleep, yes. So, slept in a bit, and felt pretty OK when arising. Shower, down basement + drums. Walked out and picked up some eggs. Breakfast. Oscar. Email, headed out, across town. A bit cloudy, but nice today. Stopped for coffee.

Found that I had made a few bugs in my last round of bug fixing. So, began the work day feeling a bit shamed. The first two were easy to fix. The last one was puzzling... it turned out there were actually two bugs that were compounding each other, which made the diagnosis difficult, because when I fixed the first one, the problem didn't go away. I guess doctors run into stuff like this. Mk brought up a package from downstairs. A package from Amazon: Two sets of Dark Shadows DVDs. I watched this Gothic soap-opera as a teen. It will be fun to dip into it again. Looking at all the bugs. Letting B know I won't be in on Monday. Left around 9:30.

Stopped at the store (raining) and picked up some groceries. Back home, putting away laundry. Had some salad and a veggie burger (first one since the gluten free diet began. Found a brand that's OK.) Some vid. More work on the document conversion project. Down basement, neck stretching, DS on the treadmill, and now to complete the day.

Keeping the same size when switching modes

Thursday: Up around 10, after not enough sleep. Shower. Down basement. Victor called to say he was running late, so we rescheduled for noon. Morning practices, drums (reverting back to my own kit. Shawn's weren't feeling right to me.) Laundry , Oscar, Breakfast. Victor showed up, and we worked on Chrysanthemum. The lack of sleep really didn't help matters. Ann called with an update on her plans. He headed off, brief email, then off to work myself. Quite a nice day out. Stopped for coffee.

At work, decided to dig into a lingering problem. After looking at the behavior of the competing software, we came up with a decent scheme that would probably address most of the unfortunate side-effects of our current methodology. Got a wrapperless burrito. Implemented the new scheme (doing extra work to make it so that add-ons wouldn't need to do much new), and checked in around midnight.

Long way home. Some vid, with snacks. Laundry continued. Evening practices, now, soon bed.

Another example of morphologic entanglement

9-year-old girl's twin is found inside her stomach

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A 9-year-old girl who went to hospital in central Greece suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said Thursday.

Doctors at Larissa General Hospital examined the girl and surgically removed a growth they later discovered was an embryo more than two inches long.

"They could see on the right side that her belly was swollen, but they couldn't suspect that this tumor would hide an embryo," hospital director Iakovos Brouskelis said. The girl has made a full recovery, he said.

Andreas Markou, head of the hospital's pediatric department, said the embryo was a formed fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord. Markou said cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one of 500,000 live births.

The girl's family did not want to be identified, hospital officials said.

© 2008 The Associated Press.

Helpful advice

Wednesday: Slightly less fitful sleep, but still, not well rested in the AM. Computer, shower, email. Mom called, and we chatted about gluten-free breakfast options, and the plans for Ann to come to Boston.

A series of helpful suggestions put me in a sour mood today. Its a bit like, your house just burnt down, and then, people are offering advice on what color the walls in the dining room should be. "If you were interested in helping with my house, a bucket of water a few nights back would have been useful. Seeing as you weren't up to the task then: piss off."

Down basement, morning practices, and drums. Oscar, breakfast. Watered the plants. Headed out across town.

At the office, spent all day fixing a bug I made in adding a very small feature several days back. The testers and tech support people sometimes wonder why I resist adding small features near a release. This is why. Voiced my strong dislike of a new behavior in the program. A lot of times, I need to freak out to be heard. It sucks.

Met Shawn at 7:45 at the Starbucks. The house hadn't been cleaned. A brief, somewhat perfunctory rehearsal. I was definitely not playing my best. Odd little rhythmic hiccups, and brain-farts. Did some good work on EotN and Growing Circle though. Gave Shawn a ride home, telling him about Chimeras.

Put out the garbage out. Watched some vid. Down basement, neck stretching, and then a downloaded episode of Lost on the treadmill. Now, to complete the day.

Mowing the grass

Tuesday: Another fitful night, and late morning. Shower, down basement (drums), breakfast. Fed Oscar and left him inside while I mowed the lawn. Drove the long way around to work, a lovely day out. More bug hunting. One that I'd fixed yesterday had caused a couple more serious ones. Stayed until around 10. Stopped at the grocery on the way home, and picked up cat food. Heated up some rice noodles and vegetables for dinner. More on the conversion process of the documents from work. Vid. Now to complete the day.

The logic trap

Monday: Woke several times, then back to sleep. (Congrats to the Kuznicks on the arrival of Isabel.) Up, feeling a bit distant. Shower. Down basement and morning sitting, drums. Picked up some garbage in the street and driveway. Oscar, quickish breakfast. Wrote a long email, that I knew was probably a waste of time. Headed off, across town.
More bug wrangling today. Brief meeting, and the possibility of working on a high profile feature in response to a VIP request. Stayed until around 9. Drove to Fresh Pond and picked up some groceries. Saw Iron Man again, just 'cause why not. Dropped a video off. Back home, had a sandwich on some better gluten-free bread. Watched some more of the original Dutch "Kingdom." Now, to complete the day.

I've heard many people who are unhappy with their lives talk about their situation. There's always some aspect of it that goes like this:

"I can't be happy until I achieve X. But to achieve X, first I need to put Y in place. But before I can put Y in place, I need to build up Z. Unfortunately, in order to build up Z, I need to achieve X. So, the situation is hopeless." (There are also variations like "But Z is impossible" etc).

The way they state this is always with a certain confidence that the listener will have to agree that there is nothing to be done, and that despair is the only option. In fact, there's perhaps even a sense of triumph. Their ongoing failure is a proof of the superiority of their analysis.

There truly is nothing to be done for these people, because, at bottom, they don't want help.

The answer is usually very simple. It goes something like. "Be happy without X." or "Forget about putting Y in place, and just do X." or "Here's a completely different way to build up Z." There is a way to break the logic trap at each link in the chain. The person arguing for despair will have well-honed defenses for each of these avenues of attack. They have thought of it all before.

Its like someone who has gotten stuck in the "Chinese Handcuffs" (the little bamboo sleeve that you stuck your fingers in). Gently suggesting that they stop struggling, and push their fingers together, in order to get them out, only meets with more hysteria.

Ultimately, despair is a state of mind. Gravity works. We live for a time, and then die. There is only this moment. Everything else is a mental construct.

Perhaps last trip to NYC for awhile

Sunday: Up and out of the Apt by 11 or so. Down to Whole Food for brunch, then to the bus depot. Got the 2pm for Boston. Uneventful trip, watching "The Darjeeling Limited" on the phone. Talked to mom. To HSq, picked up the car, then to circle meeting. No David or Dev. Last session in the series with Elan. Ran through some material without amplification. Back home, gluten-free noodles and steamed veggies, watching the original "Kingdom." So much better than the American re-make. Now day-completion.

Saturday: Out and about in the early afternoon. Over to Fairway for breakfast. Scrambled eggs with yummy things. I gave the toast they put on my plate to Ann, and avoided the crumbs. Down to Columbus Circle, and Whole Foods (mad-house). Back to the Apt for a nap. In the evening, connected with two of Ann's sibs JClay and Ter, Ter's two daughters Isa and Char and JC's friend Cth and son Eli (quite a crew), for dinner at Ozu. Walked JClay down to subway stop.

Friday: Brief day at work, then off to catch the bus to NYC. Arrived a little before 9pm. Dinner with Ann at Penang. I got a vegetable curry dish and brown rice. Then, over to Ky's.

Lilac and Clover(field)

Thursday: Woke, lay in bed for a spell, and then found it two hours later than I had thought. Good thing too. Shower, down basement and some drums. Fed Oscar, and began making breakfast as I made some phone calls. Ate, packed the car, then headed out, across town. Lovely day, the smell of lilacs following me.

Approaching the office, a truck was having trouble making a turn, and blocked my progress. Parked on the street, and walked the rest of the way. Worked for an hour, then walked back out and attempted to park again. This time, two trucks were blocking my way, and I had to wait several minutes before finally gaining access to the parking garage. Emails, and bugs, yea ha. Worked until 7:15, then headed out. Met Shawn-o at the Starbucks in Somerville, then to Arlington for rehearsal. Ran through all our material. I wasn't playing particularly well tonight, but it felt good, and was fun. A new approach to Chrysanthemum, a better middle section for Eye of the Needle, and working out Growing Circle. So, quite productive. Shawn lent me some drum gear, and I headed home around 10.

Heard quite an interesting public radio show on genetics. Stopped at the video store, and picked up "Cloverfield." Back at the ranch, some leftover rice-noodles, gluten-free bread and baba-ganoush, cheese, salad, watching the vid. Down basement, neck stretching, and then watched the rest of the movie on the treadmill. Thumbs up, but I'm glad I saw this on the small screen. Now, to complete the day.

Bonus post 1

Wednesday: Reluctantly got up, after not much sleep. Shower. Mom called, and I told her I'd call her back. Down basement, no drums. Called mom as I made breakfast, and we talked about the whole gluten situation. The chiropractor's office called and said they wanted me their early. I said I couldn't make it, but that I'd be on time. Ate breakfast quickly, and left without washing the dishes. Another very lovely day out. They took another x-ray of me today... we'll see how my neck is doing. Then, through the tunnel, and into HSq. Found a parking spot (quite fortuitous), and went back into the barber shop. They'd left a bit too long. The owner said "who cut your hair" and I said "your son!" "What else is new..." he said, and cleaned me up. Went to the CD store, but didn't see anything I wanted to buy. Coffee. Downloaded a couple of Nine Inch Nails collections form the web. Bug fix a-rama. Got a Pad-Thai. Stayed until about 9:30. Dropped the 3rd Life key off. Doubt I'll ever set foot in there again. Back home, cleaning up, taking out the garbage, email, made some progress on converting old documents from work, then down basement, neck stretching, treadmill, and now, to complete the day.

Completion

Because I've taken to writing multi-day entries, and because I skipped some weeks entirely here and there, I can't quite put a finger on exactly when this round of diary commitment ended. If I had written one entry per day, it would have ended around January 9th of this year. By now, even with the time off, surely I have written my 1001. So, let's call this complete. I have yet to decide what I'm doing moving forward. Until then, consider these "bonus entries."

A letter to mom

Tuesday: Didn't really feel like getting out of bed today, but did eventually. Shower, down basement. Had some breakfast with a slice of gluten-free toast. I wouldn't say it was delicious, but it was nice to have something to chase the eggs around with. Oscar. Put away the snow shovels and salt. Tended to email, and updated the kkc website. Off to work, the long way around, on a very lovely spring day. Found a parking spot, in front of a couple of young women who had just gotten a parking ticket. Got my hair-cut, choosing the guy that had given me a decent one last time. Talked about the flames shooting out of manholes in HSq a few days back. Picked up stuff at the pharmacy. I've been dealing with acid-reflux for several years, which is what these pills I pick up are for. It turns out that this may be caused by the gluten sensitivity... So, hoping that I'll be able to give up these monthly pilgrimages. In to work, and accomplished one thing today: fixing the informational context for tasks running in non-real-time mode. Headed home around 9. Wrote my mom a carefully worded email. It struck me that she may have a problem with gluten also... it would explain some things she's been dealing with, and this condition has a hereditary component. Made a wheat-free pasta, vegetables, tofu and cheese concoction, and ate watching the end of Alexander. Neck stretching, and lost on the treadmill. Almost done with season 3, and season 4 isn't out yet. I'll need to find a new show, I guess.

Power Outage/No Refund/Iron Man/No Wheat

Monday: Another lazy morning, reluctantly getting up. Shower & morning practices. Got breakfast going while Ann was beautifying. Fed the birds and Oscar. We ate, then she packed while I cleaned up. Gave her a ride to the train station. Sad goodbyes. Off to work. Spent all day tracking down one bug. Turned out to be a subtle issue in the high level generation code. Rbt invited me into his office. We talked about the blowing winds. Since he has no way to incent me, he offered the suggestion that I might like to think about working more hours until we ship. Duly noted. Ann texted me saying there wouldn't be any more negotiations with her work. Stayed until 10:20. Stopped at the grocery on the way home, buying gluten free bread, pasta and cereal. Home, some down-time. Down basement, neck stretching, lost on the treadmill, and now to complete the day.

Sunday: Ann and I caught up on sleep, not getting out of bed until 5:20pm. Just enough time for a shower, 'morning' practices, and some breakfast (sans toast), before heading off to guitar circle. More very good work on phrasing with Elan. Martin asked if I thought he had shit on his guitar neck. I commented that on Flying Home, we sounded like we were chopping wood. It was cold in the space. Back home, a late night snack with Ann, then evening practices and to bed.

Saturday: Up at a decent time, lazy morning, and breakfast with Ann. Morning practices. Got a letter from the doctor saying I probably have a gluten sensitivity. While this is annoying in some respects, if avoiding wheat clears up some of the stomach ailments I've been having, I'm all for it. Drove with Ann into Boston, and saw Iron Man. Lots of fun, though if you've watched all the trailers, as I had, you've seen most of the movie. We took a walk around through the Commons and Botanical Gardens. Headed back home.

Friday: Day the L1 would have begun. Up, typical morning, and off to work, on a gray day. In the office, the power had gone out. Rebooting. Looking into bugs, when the power went out again. SR wrote to say that she would not be giving me any credit for the money I'd paid on the space. Texting with Ann, who was traveling towards Boston on a bus. She arrived around 8, and I met her at the station. Dinner at The Grasshopper. Lots of take-home. Stopped at Whole Foods, and just made it in before it closed. Picked up a few essentials.

A day like any other day

Thursday: A better sleep last night, though still well shy of 7 hours. Fairly standard morning. Oscar's buddy was a little less scared of me today. Heading out, across town to work. Drove past Dnld, not wanting to stop. Spent some time working through bugs with B. Of course, I was able to reproduce a bug he could not, but then, we lost the stack trace. In some ways, XCode is really a POS. Walked out and deposited pay. Burrito. Gave B a tour of some code I'd written a while back. Stayed until about 7:30.
Picked Shawn up along the train tracks on Somerville Ave. A good, if short, rehearsal at my place. Did a little work on Growing Circle, which might be a nice, and easy, addition to our set. Dropped him back at the Porter shopping plaza. Back home, a little down-time, neck stretching, treadmill, now to complete the day.

Things to hit with a stick

Wednesday: Fairly decent amount of sleep last night, meaning more than 4 hours. Up, shower, fed Oscar, down basement. Packed up some old stuff that should be out of the house. Attached some sleigh bells to the toms on my drum kit. Drums are fun for many reasons, but one of the best ones is you get to keep messing with the configuration. I guess guitarists sort of have that buzz with pedal effects... but I learned to hate those things in my teens. These days when it comes to guitar, I want it simple... but drums, there's always something new to smack with a stick! Breakfast, email. Headed out, stopping at the PO.

In at the office, talked to B about some low level bugs. Made a dev kit and sent it out. Didn't get a whole hell of a lot done today, looking at a bug that's perhaps out of my control to fix. Burrito. Stayed until around 10:30. Hit some traffic driving home.

Watched a little more "Alexander." Damn, the accents they decided to use in this movie are ridiculous! Cleaned out the 'fridge, and put out the garbage. Down basement, neck stretching, and lost on the treadmill. Now to complete the day.