Journal entries in 'Dear Diary' for September, 2004

While digging through old books of sheet music, I came across a printed copy of the fantasy/sci-fi story I was writing about four years ago. Reading through my old writing was amusing; while there's awkwardly worded parts that I'd definitely phrase differently now, I was surprised to find that I actually didn't find it horrible :) So I figured I'd type it up and post it here to abet my ridicule.

I am also chagrinned and proud to note that the story managed to conform to the stereotypical characteristics of both fantasy and sci-fi. Beat that.

[Entry Continues...]

Today I went by Plaza to pick up some things I needed, and as I passed one of the CD stores, I noticed a small crowd and a few cops. Curious, I peered into the store to identify the source of the commotion, and realized it was a line for an autograph signing. I remembered that my old friend and ex-bandmember Dave McCloskey's band, Tavu was doing an in-store appearance at Plaza sometime soon, and figured this was them. As I stood on tiptoes to see if I could spot the closely-shaved, alarmingly round head I remember so well, I was shocked to instead see a poofy, blonde tuft of hair peeking out above the crowd. Scanning the store windows in confusion, I discovered that it was not Tavu, but rather Dokken and Quiet Riot, who were doing an in-store appearance before their upcoming concert.

A few months ago, I came across The Online Etymology Dictionary and found it incredibly interesting. However, it was a bit difficult to use, because it was stored in flat HTML files with no easy way to search them. I wrote a quick script to parse them and insert them in a MySQL database, and another script to allow me to browse and search the database, and that worked great. After a few months, my friends asked for access to it as well, so I linked to it from my website.

[Entry Continues...]

Well, I wasn't planning on getting the lock fixed, since it's on the passenger side and the lock still works, though with some difficulty. Besides, I have keyless entry, so I barely ever use the actual door locks anyway. However, the company who owns the building Xapiens is located in said they would pay for the damages, so I guess I will. Now the question is what do I do about the damage from when I was hit before? It's unrelated, so I don't want to make the company pay for it, but if the car is going into the body shop for work to be done on the very panel where the damage is, it seems the perfect time to take care of it as well. I don't know if repairing the scratch will require repainting the whole door or not. I haven't had very good experiences with touch-up paint, but maybe body shops have better equipment or techniques. But if they will be repainting the whole door anyway, it seems obvious that the dent should be fixed first. I wonder if I can arrange to have them charge me for that, and charge the company for the rest. But that sounds like it would be way too complicated, trying to explain to them the convoluted mathematics I want them to apply to the bill. Maybe I should just avoid complicating things and let them include the whole door in the estimate. Dunno. Thoughts?

After my coworker Luis's car was broken into in the parking lot here at work a few months ago, the building installed a security camera and infrared motion detector for us so that we can keep an eye on our cars while working the night shift.

It came in useful today, as we caught someone trying to break into Luis's car again. Fortunately, this time we were able to scare him off before he got into the car, though they did manage to damage his lock and scratch up his door. Apparently the guy was so focused on jimmying the lock that he didn't notice Luis turn on the building lights, and Luis had to tell him "The police are on the way, you know" before the guy noticed him and ran off. Man I would have loved to get a picture of him while he was working.

I feel sort of miffed, though. Why did he go after Luis's car, a '92 3000GT SL, with my newer, nicer car sitting right next to it? The jerk.

UPDATE (9/9/2004 2:52 am): Nevermind, I am chastened. It turns out he tried to break into both cars. Awesome. Perhaps I should start bringing a baseball bat to work.

Bryan and Cat's recent wedding has had me ruminating on the subject of marriage a lot lately. Well, not just lately... It's a subject that has been on my mind for quite a while (you'll need to be logged in to see that one).

[Entry Continues...]