March, 2001:

I will be traveling to and from New York between April 6th and April 22nd. Since there is no one at work to take my place and fix things that might break while I am away, the stipulation is that I agree to be on-call the entire time I am away. On the good side… if I am contacted on any of my vacation days, then that day does not count as vacation.

Aside from that fact, I am excited about the trip. There is something fascinating about driving from one place to another. Stopping in all the small cities to refuel, talking to the local people who are so different from myself. Pulling over at 5:30am, just as the sun is coming up over the mountains, getting a warm cup of coffee. Then leaning against the truck, sipping my coffee and smoking a cigarette as the sun washes over everything in sight; all these invisible pieces of life suddenly jumping forward as the sun hits them.

My brother is coming with me. This is a good thing. Someone to help drive, someone to keep me company, and someone to share it all with.

At times, I wonder what it would be like to do nothing but travel, working here and there or on the road to make enough money to get to the next unknown destination.

Fuck you for thinking you can ignore me for months, not returning my phone calls, not calling me, not even wondering how I am or what I am doing. Fuck you for thinking you can treat me like this and then call me out of the blue and ask for a favor. And not even a favor for you, a favor for your new boyfriend.

And Fuck me for not telling you off on the phone the second you called, before you even had a chance to ask me your favor. And Fuck me for being excited when I saw your name on my Caller ID. And Fuck me for even thinking about you over the past two months, while you lived your life without me and without a second thought. And Fuck me for not yelling at you after you asked me to help him. And Fuck me for actually writing his number down and telling you I would call him. And Fuck me for not knowing what to do now.

Sometimes technology advances too quickly. Coming from a techno-weenie, this is saying a lot. The other day, the elevator I was in at work decided it wasn’t going to quite make it to the top. About half way up the 11 story climb to my floor, the elevator slipped and tumbled it’s way down to the lobby. Then it stopped, and the elevator stated that it was having “Technical Difficulties”. A few seconds later, it lowered itself to be aligned with the lobby floor, and let us off. I was so scared I took the stairs up to the 11th floor.

The next day, when coming back from lunch, the elevator doors opened and it was the “bad elevator”. I informed the people I was with not to ride in it, but they laughed at me. The I laughed at myself and got in the elevator. I was joking around by holding on tightly to the rail inside the elevator when it slipped again. This time, it fell harder, but we were higher up when it happened. The elevator again announced it’s “technical difficulties”, waited a few seconds, then aligned itself with the 11th floor, and let us off.

After talking with some people on my floor, I found that this same elevator has dropped several people in our office. I made a sign that read:

Do not ride this elevator. It kills people. Stay away!

I taped it on the the arch-way around the entrance to the elevator. Someone removed it within the hour.

My new machine, kilgore, is up and running. Here are the specs, for those who care:

• AMD K7 1GHz
  
• ASUS A7V133 Mainboard w/RAID and ATA100
  
• 512MB PC133 RAM
  
• 2 Quantam ATA100 7200RPM 40GB
  
• GeForce2 32MB VGA Display Adapter
  
• 21″ HP Ultra VGA 1600 Monitor
  
• 3Dfx (BT878 chipset) TV Card [from old machine]
  
• Netgear 10/100 NIC [from old machine]
  
• Ensoniq ES1371 Soundcard [from old machine]
  
• Logitech TrackMan Wheel Mouse (USB)
  
• Keyboard from a Digital Alpha 433au workstation [from old machine]
  
• 32x8x8 CD-RW
  
• 3.5″ Floppy drive [from old machine]
  

The machine is currently running Debian Unstable with a 2.4.2 kernel. I couldn’t get ATA100 support to work without the Kernel dumping core, so I am running with ATA66 until a new kernel version comes out…. then I’ll try again.

lm_sensors does not accurately read the temperatures for the A7V board… so if any of you have experience with it, please let me know. The BIOS reports my processor at about 130°F, which is a little hot, so I am going to have to work on some alternate cooling mechanisms. Maybe a peltier, or a water cooling system. Not sure yet.

We are having a Barbecue tonight at my apartment. I was actually called and invited, which I thought was pretty funny, since I live there and all. The really sad thing is, I was the last to be invited. heh. According to jaclyn, “hamburglets for me and honey tonight. oh, it’s on like a bucket-a-neckbones, baby”.

I have to get out of here, so I can be home in time to meet a friend to loan her some money. Even though I am loaning her even more money, and would be more than happy to give her a ride home when she was finished, I doubt she will be willing to invest the time to stay and have a beer, a burger, and some conversation.

“You are a life saver, Daniel. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

As good as it makes me feel to hear that, I cannot help but wonder: if my life needed saving, would you be the one to step in?

I shaved my mustache off this morning. Still not sure why. I don’t look like me without it, I don’t think. If I could find the cable to my digital camera (I guess it got lost in the move) I’d show you all.

For those of you drooling for the answers to the poll I asked a few days ago, here you are. My favorite color is Brown, I drive a 1999 Toyota Tacoma 4WD, and my favorite TV show is the Simpsons. At first glance, it appears that only one person got all the answers correct: jaclyn. Of course she also has a somewhat unfair advantage.

So I bought new shoes the other day. Two pair, actually. I needed to spend the gift certificates my mom got me at JCPenney, and I needed new shoes, so I finally broke down and killed two birds with one stone. They are not that exciting, really. The shoes I mean. They are just, sorta, well, plain. But, I don’t really like flashy shoes with fourteen different colors speckled across the back, wheels mounted in the soles, and a big fat racing stripe blazed across the top.

Last night Brad, and Jaclyn and I went out to steal some spools. By spools, I mean the GREAT BIG spools that telecommunications companies use to hold all of the cable before they lay it down. You know, BIG spools. Jaclyn was very afriad that we would get caught, so we had to appease her by telling her if we got caught we would claim she had no prior knowledge. When we finally got to the place, I was a little disappointed. Brad had given me the impression that it was a BIG spool; it turned out being only medium sized (about 5 to 7 feet in diameter). In addition, he had led me to believe there were many of these spools; alas there was only one. However, we still had a great time.

Brad and I bought office chairs and the cool pokie plastic mats today at Sam’s Club. I also bought a new coffee maker. My old one was three years old and made horrible tasting coffee because I don’t know how to clean it. I do now.

Watched Coyote Ugly tonight. Though I cannot say I was incredibly impressed with the movie, I am contemplating removing the “dream girl” placard from above Julia Stiles’ head and mount it right above Piper Perabo.

Good night.