and GRAY isn’t any darker, just more intense. Like if you cut it apart, it would collapse back together quickly; pressurized fog.
A few days ago I wrote about a generically crappy day, weather-wise. Today was more of a catastrophically crappy weather-day. It’s wierd though, I like storms. I’ve heard myself complain my first year here in Boston about the dearth of good thunderstorms. I also like it when the weather matches my mood, the way I like it in people when their internal and external states match….which seldom seems to be the case. People are infuriatingly hard to read, and kind of all bullshit on their skin…forever smiling a less-than-genuine smile, and when it’s good, you can never see what (lies) beneath.
Ernedpleeasts
I woke up to see trees swaying violently in the wind. Actually, I think it was that wind that woke me up. It wasn’t my alarm clock that time, because when that woke me up, it was playing that one song. I mean, that one song that they play on the radio, because it seems like what they do is just have one song and loop it, or at least pretty close, and count on you not listening to the radio enough to catch ’em in the act. Done and done. This morning it was “Endless repeat…that’s what they love to play! (meow) (drum hits) (meow) Music on endless repeat…” It might have been that new Weezer song. Anyway…
Fallin
g
I got outside, riding to work and the rain was falling sideways. I heard some talk yesterday of something called a Nor’easter…didn’t really register as anything (at least no more than in the sense that everything non-useful I casually observe or overhear is written into memory somewhere, because that’s just how I work) to my Mi’westerner ears…this must be what they were talking about. Anyway, get into work drenched to the bone (relax, I’m waterproof), and get a bit of mild ribbing for being nuts enough to bike to work in that stuff, and realize half the building is without power. Fallen tree took out at least one of the circuits into the building. It was awesome. A few overhead lights were on the circuit with power, tempering the would-be near-darkness of the dark morning sky and feeble glow of emergency exit lighting. Most of the wall outlets though, with computers plugged into UPSes plugged into them, were dead, and all that could be heard up and down the hall was the sparse, but oddly symphonic tweeting of the UPS’ power loss warnings, all at their own distinct frequencies and intervals. (The actual frequency these things beep at is not at all important, as long as they beep, so manufacturers will use cheap, high-drift parts with wide tolerances there; no two are alike.) I felt like I was in an Autechre album.
The entire computer structure was down and much of the lab was without power, so Je* and I spent some quality time cleaning out the EE lab, throwing away the carcasses of dead projects and reclaiming space for actual work. Shortly after, the other circuit went, plunging the lab into darkness. We went upstairs. By this point it was clear no actual work would get done by anyone. (“Especially these guys…ELECTRICAL engineers.” – MP) So there was a brief flashlight war in the front hallway, and some button-pounding on the alarm panel until it shut up (when they’re running from limited battery power, they judiciously use that power to make continuous loud noise), and we all went out for early lunch at Bertucci’s.
Scare
Power was back by the time we got back, so I had to start doing actual work and stuff. Had fun with Je* in the lab. The one nice thing about being kind of spooky and wierd and everyone knowing it, is that people tend to take you seriously.
“Know what I’d really like to do right now? I’d really like to go home and crawl back into my bed.” -JR (Je*)
(complete deadpan) “…I’d like to crawl into some nice dark place and die…” -me
“Whoooooahhhh…” -JR
I think he eventually figured out I was fucking with him (…or WAS I?…), because he told me I couldn’t go and die until the new code for the IPFv1r2 boards was finished.
Went out for some ethiopian with J.R. (everybody else ditched), and watched the last of the Firefly series.
QOTD (yesterday, researching some trademark stuff when J.R.’s domain expired and was returning a portal-potty…we thought at the time some spam site bought it out) :
Trademark law frowns upon “naked licensing.” Fortunately for trademark owners, “naked licensing” is not as fun as it sounds. -Gregory H. Guillot
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