Saturday, May 19, 2001

Well, I met with “Dave” this morning (remember, the guy I met at B&N?). That was an experience.

He’s involved in a sort of MLM business, but based online and using discounts at online stores. The idea is that I sign on and get discounts at various stores. If I sign on anyone else, then when they buy stuff, I would get a small percentage kickback, as sort of a referral bonus. If I sign on a lot of people and they buy a lot of things, I get a lot of money.

He claims that this is legitimate, and I believe it. I still don’t try the whole enterprise, though. I think I was put off by the lack of material about the business; they don’t have an informational website; Dave said he prefers to “guide people through” their network. Why are they so closed off?

Unfortunately, I feel highly uncomfortable with brushing people off during face-to-face conversations, and I did need time to think about this (I need time alone to make decisions). So, when he invited me to a presentation at his house this Tuesday, I said I’d call him tomorrow (Sunday) with a decision. After I drove away and called home to tell my parents about it, I realized that I just plain wasn’t interested. So, I’ll call him tomorrow and tell him so.

Overall, I’m glad I met with him. It’s turning out to be useless, but I’m glad I took the chance on him. It could’ve been something worthwhile, and as such, it was worth checking out.

I then did a few errands. I opened up a safe deposit box at my local bank, and placed a tape backup of my websites inside. I hope to do that every week.

I also went to the library and returned the audio recording of Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls that I had borrowed. It’s well-written and pretty well-plotted, but it’s often crude. And there’s just nothing really to grab my attention in the book; none of the characters are particularly gripping, nor is the plot particularly intriguing.

Fortunately, after studying the library’s book-on-tape selection, I turned around and came face-to-dustjacket with a shelf of children’s books-on-tape. And there was a recording of Brian Jacques’ Martin the Warrior (part of the Redwall series).

It’s no ordinary recording, though; it’s an unabridged ensemble recording, narrated by the author, but with a full cast speaking the different parts. And, heck, they even sing the songs. It’s fantastic.

I then came home and mucked about with AtheOS programming. I finally got my test app to compile and run properly, but now I’m having trouble figuring out how to draw images. Looks like I need to install a whole bunch of libraries. I need to draw images, as my first full-scale application will be a utility to handle desktop wallpaper. :sigh: Frustrating.

Then, I was off to a wedding (Caleb and Erin’s), which was fantastic. Everything went smoothly (as far as I could tell). Caleb did something I want to do at my own wedding: When he was told to kiss the bride, he looked out at the guests and winked.