Coffee with Sisyphus

My poor coffee pot.

"*gurgle gurgle gurgle* Yaaaaay! I'm almost full! *gurgle gurgle gurgle*"

*whizzzzzz*

"*gurgle* Oh...oh no! No! Where is the coffee going?"

*whizzzzz*

"No! The coffee! *gurgle gurgle* I can't brew it fast enough to replenish this loss! *gurgle gurgle* Why must my life be so empty and futile!"

*siiip*

Fridays, Mk II

Well, I've been here just over a month.

You know you're bored and lonely when the monthly Java Tech Tips newsletter is the highlight of your Friday evening.

Sigh.

Got to talk to my folks a bit, which was nice, but all in all it looks like another thrilling Friday night at home doing compiler design. I tried a couple social avenues at work today, but wound up getting semi-snubbed. (Semi- because a lot of the folks here are socially stunted, so I must be careful not to read into their actions.)

On the non-mopey front, work is going well. I got paid (yay!) and am doing taxes (boo!). clee came out today and toured the facilities; I'm trying to get him an interview, but he's got some other, faster prospects.

I sent a post on my tech blog about object-oriented language design to a local mailing list, and kicked off a minor flamewar. It provoked some good discussion in the end, though none of them seemed to want to comment on the actual blog entry. I'm going to have to write a demo to prove my point, I know it.

It's cold outside. I'm going to throw on a jacket and go find some food.

Music and such

So about six months ago, I picked up an album by Jim White, the lengthily-named "Drill a hole in this substrate and tell me what you see."

It's excellent. The music is good, and the guy's a very sharp lyricist. The mood is vaguely Tom-Waits-ish, albeit less weird. Check it out.


As quoted in numerous articles today, Verizon wants to end "Google's free lunch" by charging Google and others to send data. I dunno about you, but I thought I already paid for my data when I paid for my internet access.

Of course, some of my friends have taken it literally, and have been asking if Verizon is trying to take out the Google Café on campus. I suggested we mail them some takeout and see if they'll shut up. :-)


More California weirdness: nearly everything has a warning label here, of the form

This [product/establishment/chicken] may contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause [cancer / birth defects / sleepiness / warts / social inadequacy ].

Needless to say, I want a shirt. "Warning: this shirt may contain chemicals..."

Still alive!

Yes, I haven't updated in a while. Sorry 'bout that. :-)

Not much is new here. I'm all moved into my new apartment, and starting to decorate and such.

There's been a bit of a payroll fuckup at Google, and I haven't been paid yet. Grr. At least they're trying to pay me, so it's not a repeat of a few years ago. :-)

Bought a video camera — a Panasonic PV-GS65, to be exact. I'd been debating buying one for some time, wondering if I'd actually use it. Fry's in Sunnyvale had this one at a pretty steep discount — to the point that it was probably a pricing error — so I impulse-bought it. So far I'm quite pleased with it, though I don't have much of anything to film. Perhaps I'll sucker some people into working on the video projects I've been throwing around for years.

Jeannette was out this weekend, and came to my semi-housewarming party. I say "semi" because it was five people. I keep assuring myself I'll find more friends here soon, but it's a far cry from the 20-50-strong parties we used to have at the house.

She also taught me some rudimentary ASL, which I've been wanting to learn for some time. Neat language.

That's about it for now.