August 2nd, 2001:

Yesterday, I sent an email to a group of developers explaining, for the 14,000,000th time^[1], that I cannot sign off on their application^[2] until they get some bugs fixed^[3]. I then explained the error I was seeing.

An email discussion started regarding the creation of an IR^[4] between the project lead on OUR side and a lady who is one of the Project Leads from the application. Eventually, their project lead sent an email that said:

I do not want to enter an IR until it is determined that it is broke! He may just be doing it wrong!

Our project lead replied with:

Daniel? “doing it wrong”? If he doesn’t know how to do it, who does???

That makes me happy.

[1] They keep signing me off (saying I am ready) without my consent, approval, or even bothering to contact me. Many times, when this is questioned, they state something like, “Well… I have a conference call with Daniel yesterday, and we just figured he would be ready to go by the end of the week so we signed him off.”

[4] An IR is an official bug report in their system, as opposed to just something someone is looking at.

Last night I was talking to jaclyn> about ‘s performance, and right amid conversation she said, “You look up to Farris, don’t you?”

I don’t think that I look up to him. I think, instead, that I have a great deal of respect for him. Musically, the man is more versatile than a swiss army knife (Exhibit A, B and C). He is kind and caring, and yet doesn’t take any more bullshit from anyone than he has to. When Jaclyn and I were moving her in here, he was the ONLY one who actually called me for no other reason than to offer to help us move. He’s very intelligent and has a very open mind (about anything other than the definition of “good music”). When I was having a hard time with a very difficult subject in my life, he listened to me attentively and offered advice and small stories from his own life without prying or being insulting to my situation. He has a great sense of humor, and seems to take life as it comes. He’s a great cook and an excellent host. He has many friends. He has an incredible sense of honesty and loyalty.

So, Farris, here’s to you.

I had a horrible dream last night. I don’t remember much of it at all. Actually, I only remember one thing. My dad was dead. jaclyn said she heard me talking in my sleep, and the one thing that she remembers me saying was “Boys… gather the flags… gather as many flags as you can.” She thought that was funny, and out of context, I guess it is funny. But when she told me what I had said, somehow, though I couldn’t pin-point it at all, those words were familiar. And though I couldn’t remember what was going on at that point in my dream I could, very vividly, remember what I was feeling: the saddest, loneliest feeling I have ever felt.