Monday, May 31, 2004
I’ve been reading a lot of good books lately. One of the latest is Dan Simmon’s Hyperion. While I was discussing it with Brennen called the universe of Hyperion one of the best space opera universes he’s ever come across (or words to that effect). I actually disagree at this point, as what I’ve read of Hyperion isn’t much of a space opera according to the standards that I know of. Hyperion is big and epic, […]
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
I’m experimenting with a new work schedule. I’m getting in to work around noon and leaving between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m., then doing a few hours’ worth of work at home. I’m trying this because, for the past couple of months, my body has been refusing to awaken at 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. And I’m a big believer in reality, so I decided to fact reality and arrange my work schedule around my body’s actual sleep patterns. I tell […]
Monday, May 24, 2004
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. No, seriously. Had a good weekend, all things considered — Saturday was spent mostly powering through a daunting list of chores in time to entertain my parents and grandmother at my place. We had a straightforward dinner but it ended with a fabulous dessert: Chocolate Cranachan, a parfait of whipped cream and whisky combined with layers of a mixture of chocolate, oats, and hazelnuts. Worked really well; […]
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday; I had the worst day EVAR. Briefly: Tuesday evening, I was supposed to take care of my parents’ dog, but forgot about it. So I drove there late at night to discover the dog had left a large present on the foyer carpet. Joy. I got to clean that up. I got home and decided to take a sleeping pill, hoping to get a reasonable night’s sleep. Oh boy did I get sleep. […]
May 18, 2004
A retrospective on BookFinder.com’s first five years in business. I seem to be recovering from my long “blah” period. And I now actually have some time to write a decent journal entry! Yay! Much of my frustration and mild depression lately has come from a basic question about my quality of life. Do I love my life? Obviously, just living where I am, I’m tremendously blessed from a global perspective. I can eat whenever I want, I sleep […]
Monday, May 17, 2004
Oh! Um. Yes. Must update. Briefly: Spent most of the good, if somewhat tiring weekend shopping. Ended up with some more anime (Angelic Layer and Kaze no Yojimbo), a new CD rack, some kitchen utensils, and some cookbooks. I could write a few paragraphs about each of the above, but frustratingly, I have to leave work in a few minutes to pick up my parents at the airport. I was able to finish reading […]
Friday, May 14, 2004
ExtremeTech has posted a slideshow of Windows Longhorn. I’m not impressed. A few issues, off the top of my head: I’m disturbed that buttons and menus now have no visual cues to tell you that they’re buttons or menus. This is a good example; what’s clickable, and what’s just a static text label? The new ALT-TAB feature is an improvement on the current little popup window in Windows, but it’s nowhere near […]
May 13, 2004
And now, more VR story, as promised: Mother blew out a breath, then looked around at the others. Everyone else was quiet, but obviously intrigued. “Right, right,” she said. “Who wants to get together to help these two?” Most of the people there raised their hands; after a moment, even Panic raised an armored fist. Mother regarded Thomas and Doodlehopper silently for a moment, as if weighing them in her mind, […]
May 11, 2004
Incidentally: I’ll be at an Edward Tufte course all day tomorrow, so no VR story snippet until Thursday. 3:49 p.m. A friend suggests I might feel better if I ranted here. Ironically, everything I need to rant about has been improving a bit over the past couple of days. But, I don’t need to let that stop me. Sleep. Sleep’s been a big weight on my mind lately. I’ve been […]
Friday, May 7, 2004
Whatever this illness is, it feels like some sort of alien parasite from a bad Star Trek episode. Normally, I get these things and I suffer through them and then I’m okay in a couple of days. This is day number six and counting. I’m not nearly as bad as I was on Sunday or Monday, but I’m still coughing and wrestling with an upset stomach. Blaaarrggh. Anyvay. I’ve spent much of my time […]