It stopped raining yesterday and today was bright and sunny with temperatures in the 70s. I was up at 4:20 but didn't make it into the gym today. While I slept better last night, it was still not great. I'd planned to go to the gym after work, but when our first softball practice was canceled (due to a muddy field), I gave up. In fact, I made matters much worse when I got home by ordering a pizza and then eating nearly three-quarters of the thing by myself.

On the train home this afternoon, I noted the Potomac was muddy and flooded. In fact, at high tide (which it must have been since the moon was overhead), water on the north bank had flooded over onto the sidewalk, the first time in 6 years that I can remember seeing that happen. (FYI, just in case, I just checked and high tide was at 3:56 PM today; I crossed the river about 10 minutes after 4.)

I managed to watch Randy Pausch's lecture on time management today, which was excellent.

I had about 10 pieces of mail when I got home, and every single one of them was junk. I think that might be a record for a single day. There was no one piece of live mail in the bunch.

The workday was made up mostly of meetings, three or four hours of them. I think I have a similar schedule tomorrow. But tomorrow morning, at least, I hope to get to the gym beforehand.

he11o_sunshine and stubiebrother should be on their way to Paris about now, for a week in and around that famous city. Bon voyage!

I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. I was very comfortable and wanted to sleep in some. I guess I did sleep in a little bit. I think I finally got up around 8:30 AM. Kelly and I had breakfast and finished up some laundry, and then we headed out to do some grocery shopping, stopping at Target and the grocery store.

Kelly headed home early today in order to avoid being caught out on the roads when the rain started, and to have time to go to the gym. I spent my entire afternoon in the productive activity of watching episode after episode from season 6 of The West Wing. I could have spent that time cleaning up the place, which has gotten to be a bit of mess. But why bother, right? There's always tomorrow.

I spoke to he11o_sunshine on the phone this afternoon. I also called Mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. (Did you know that today is the 100th anniversary of the Mother's Day holiday?) And I called vickyandnorm to congratulate Norm on his graduating from UConn yesterday and obtaining his Ph.D. Now I'm packing my lunch and heading off to bed. I'm back to the gym in the morning, and this week, I'm back to strength training in addition to cardio.

Got to sleep in a little this morning because I was at Kelly's last night, and she lives so close to work that we can leave much later. That's always nice. I actually slept really well last night. It was warm, but not hot, and with the storms coming in, there was a nice breeze in the air.

Busy day at work with meetings and two interviews that I did today. During the second interview, I was training someone on how to do these screening interviews and that proved to be pretty useful, I think. But it made for a long day in the office. I didn't leave until after 5 PM and didn't get home until about 6 PM. I decided to be lazy this evening and avoided doing anything remotely productive.

Had a check in the mail from my landlord for the electrical work I had done earlier in the week. I paid the bill and he reimbursed me for it. I have the best landlord ever invented.

Still doing good with no carbs for dinner. (I'm back to that now that I'm back to the gym.) I cheated just a little tonight, when I had a few cookies, but I'm improving. It's much easier to phase it in than to do it cold turkey. (What, I wonder, is the etymology of that expression?)

Did some reading today--I'm more than 300 pages through In Joy Still Felt.

It rained just about all day, at times pretty hard, and I think more is expected overnight and into tomorrow. Lots of phone calls today. Spoke to Mom, Dad, Doug, and he11o_sunshine. Mom and Dad are out of town this weekend for my Uncle Bob's funeral in Utah. That means Mom will be away on Mother's Day and so I had flowers sent to her today. She called when she got home to tell me she'd gotten them.

I failed to follow up on my blood donation yesterday. It all went well. I managed to donate an entire pint in about 6 minutes. I felt a little light-headed but not nearly as much as the first time. It's not a pleasant experience. I don't mind the sight of blood in the least, but I don't like the feeling of your life being slowing sucked away. It's one of those things that is--for all it's discomfort--not worth doing; except that it is worth doing. And if you understand that, then you know exactly what cognitive dissonance is all about. In fact, I hate the feeling, but I force myself to do it anyway. I get through by cracking bad jokes. The Red Cross people were great and they have the efficiency of their process down to a science. I was, however, amused by one inefficiency that I noted. In the screening process, I was asked for a picture ID. I gave my driver's license. The nurse placed the license before her and keyed in some information. She asked me a few questions and then asked, "What's your date of birth?" I thought that was odd, since my DOB is right there in red on the license. But I answered. A few minutes later, she asked again. I answered but I was mildly annoyed. Lesson: if you have the information in front of you, save everyone time and don't ask! I'd been warned not to exert myself too much. Running for a train after work, I discovered why. I was completely out of breath, my heart was pounding. I felt unmanned. Of course, I feel back to normal today.

Def Leppard has a new studio album out, their first one to make the top ten since 1992. I downloaded it to my iPhone this morning, but haven't listened to it yet. strausmouse is skeptical.

Gym tomorrow morning. Another busy day.

Days that I work from home always seem longer than days that I'm in the office. I think it's the lack of a commute. I get started early, don't have to commute in, don't have to commute home, and I usually work later. And to top it off, I had 4 hours of phone meetings that stretched my poor phone battery to it's limits.

The bathroom fan has been replaced. The electrician came out today. They were scheduled to come out between 8 and 10 AM. At around 9:30, I got a call from the guy telling me he was stuck on a job and would be closer to noon. He was very polite and apologized. And because he had the courtesy to call and explain, I didn't mind in the least. He ended up getting here around 11 AM, and made quick work, pulling out the old fan, replacing it, and adding a new cover too. Twenty minutes.

I've been doing some work on my modeling software--that's the software that I first developed about 10 or 11 years ago that I use to manage my finances. I've been fixing some bugs with it. I've been considering doing a new version of it, but I'm trying instead to adapt the current version to my needs. I'd rather spend the time getting back to writing.

Been keeping an eye on the Indiana primary, now that Obama won North Carolina. News is currently saying that Clinton has the lead, but it's still too early to call it. I'm hoping Obama can pull off a victory there and that Clinton will get out of the race. We'll see.

Going to pack my lunch for tomorrow and then head off to bed. As busy as I was today, I don't feel very accomplished, for some reason.

Work went by quickly today, and I was kept fairly busy throughout the day. In fact, I didn't get out of the office until almost 5 PM. I had a 6 PM meeting so once I left, I couldn't dawdle. While waiting to change trains at Mt. Vernon Square, a man came up to me and asked, in a thick Russian accent, "Do you speak Russian?" I said no, but I wonder why he asked me, of all people.

I was back home just before 6 PM, in time for my meeting, which fortunately only lasted 30 minutes.

Got the July issue of ASIMOV'S in the mail today and the JULY/AUGUST issue of ANALOG. Also my American Express bill.

I packed my lunch today, and I also managed to eat second breakfast after the gym. It was a good day health-wise. In fact, I capped it with a low-carb dinner of hummus and carrots and tuna fish (no bread, just the tuna). It was good!

Yesterday, I started reading Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture. This morning, I finished it. It was a great book. I really enjoyed it. Once I was finished, I couldn't let it go at that. I went to the website and I watched all 76 minutes of the actual lecture. It was incredible. On the train home, I resumed In Joy Still Felt. I'm nearly 300 pages through at this point.

Spoke with he11o_sunshine this evening. Also talked to Doug for a while.

I'm working from home tomorrow (which is why it's 10 PM and I'm still awake). I have an electrician coming by to do some work.

I took the telescope out briefly this evening. I still need to align it properly but I was able to look at a few stars. I spent about 30 minutes at it. Not only was it fun, but it was relaxing, too.

Quoted here, from my diary, without comment:

Saturday, May 1, 1998 -- I think that I decided that I want to be an astronaut today. I know that sounds odd, especially since I'm already 26 years old and "grown up". But I was browsing some of NASA's web today and found their astronaut candidate program pages. I know I don't have a chance in hell to qualify. And I'm not kidding myself. It was only a daydream... but... I certainly may not make it. But think of what I can do for myself by trying. I can put myself into outstanding mental and physical condition. I can try to learn new things with a real heroic goal in mind. And as long as I remain realistic from the start (my chances are extraordinarily slim) I can't lose. I'll come out a far better person than I went in no matter what.

Kelly and I got back to Washington early this morning, around 1 AM. It was raining when I left or L.A. and it was raining when I returned. I stayed at Kelly's last night and got home this morning. I worked from home today because (a) I got in so late last night and (b) I have to work tonight beginning at midnight. In between various work task, I managed to catch up with a few things that I couldn't do when I was gone last week. First, I canceled my cable, finally. Well sort of. Turns out it costs the same to keep Internet service and local channels as it does for just internet, so I did that. It cuts my bill by more than half. The cable guy is coming Saturday evening between 5-8 PM to cap the line.

I also called the vet to order more wet and dry food for Zeke. I headed over to pick it up early this afternoon. I also made an appointment for Zeke on Saturday at 4 PM. I called an electrician about some work I need done and have been playing phone tag this afternoon, but hope to get him out Saturday as well. And I even managed to squeeze in a haircut.

And speaking of haircut, with all of the rain we've gotten my yard is overrun by long grass. But I have to wait for it to dry out before I can cut it.

I have to return the cable boxes at some point, and then we're transferring my Tivo unit and service to Kelly's house. Probably do that next week.

A lot of junk mail over the course of the week, but some good "live" mail too The latest issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN as well as the June issue of F&SF. I got my HHonors Silver card for 2008/09 in the mail today. The bill from my accountant was there too, along with my AOPA Pilot magazine.

I'm off to bed now (yes, it's not even 6 PM) because I have to be up at midnight to do a server upgrade.

(I realize that I have not yet caught up on Saturday or Sunday yet, to say nothing of comment on the nebula award winners, but I will as soon as I have a chance to breathe.)

I had mentioned the incoherent entries in my diary for 9/11/01 earlier today. Now that I am home and have the books in front of me, here are some examples (even the handwriting is worse than usual):

September 11 -- The world changed today when four commercial airliners were hijacked--2 crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center in NY, ultimately collapsing them. One crashed int the Pentagon, and one crashed in a cornfield in Penn. Thousands of people are feared dead in this terrorist attack... I was in the office at 6 AM when I got a call from Beth about what happened. I am still in shock. [Company redacted] closed the building around 10 AM. I came home and have been glued to the TV ever since. In my mind, this is worse than Pearl Harbor--it is an act of war. I'm furious, angry and saddened. The NY skyline has been changed. I simply can't believe this...

September 12 -- No sleep. TV all night. Into work early after picking up all the papers I could find to pour over them. Bush and many of his cabinet members finally called this an act of war today. It's looking more and more like its related to Osama bin Ladin, the terrorist hiding in Afghanistan...

September 14 -- ...I can't find a f---ing flag anywhere. Every place is sold old. I don't know why but I feel like I just have to have a flag. There's everywhere but no place has them in stock... also talked about the possibilities of enlisting. Spoke with Brad at work about the Marines, but probably the Army or Air Force would be the way to go. With my pilot's license and [...]

September 18 -- News is reporting a possible link between the NY terrorists and Iraq. I can't believe an entire week has gone by...

September 19 - 23 -- Blank entries for the first time since 1996

September 24 -- I've been having trouble keeping this book up-to-date lately and that's pretty frustrating... Still having weird, terrorist-related dreams most nights although now I don't recall them as much...

So there you have it.

I was thinking that this is my first trip to Europe and that I can remember, when I was younger, wondering when I would end up getting there. So I decided to look back through my diaries and see what I was doing 10 years ago today, July 2, 1997. I don't think Europe was on my mind at all back then:

Today was another day that I felt somewhat overwhelmed. I have a lot to do today but couldn't really focus on any one things.

Doug called me at work today and he is doing pretty well. He is the first person in the history of the Debois County Dragons to be ejected from a game--for arguing a call^*. But he was in good humor and it was good to hear from him.

I made my lunch again tonight which means a full week (though this is a short week) of packing my lunch. That's not bad, and it helps save money.

---

^*You'll have to ask Doug to tell the story sometime, as it is a funny one, and typical of Doug. Better yet, maybe Doug will reply and post a comment telling the story here.

Today is my 527th consecutive day of blogging without having missed a single day (although I have occasionally had to go back and fill in the entries for a particular day because I was too busy to write them on that day).

After skimming my 1996 diary subsequent to the previous entry:

April 29, 2006 -- ...I also started working on an image of a new Toshiba laptop: the T410CS. It's a Pentium 90 MHz, 16 MB RAM, 800x600x256 display, multimedia CDROM. It's pretty cool!

Time have changed!

Isaac Asimov died on April 6, 1992, which was fifteen years ago today. Fifteen years! It seems like an impossibly long time, especially when I am deep into his autobiography (he is only 13 years old at this point) which reads as if he is talking to me.

The anniversary of Isaac Asimov's death is also the anniversary of my diary, which is 11 years old today. I've been keeping a diary now for just about one-third of my life, and at this time next year, it will be exactly one-third of my life. Of course, for the last 16 months, my diary has been entirely online, this blog, and what you see is what you get. My paper diaries were not much different, if only somewhat more boring than what appears online.

Of course, it being an anniversary day has got me thinking about various milestones and events and I would expect to see some posts relating to these things throughout the day. For instance, it occurred to me as I waited for the train this morning (while it was snowing!) that a few days ago, April 3, was the 7th anniversary of the day on which I got my pilot's license. So proud was I of that feat that I have carried that license with me every day since, even though the last time I flew an airplane was back in 2001. Today will be the last day. It's falling apart and I've decided that, pride not withstanding, there is no practical reason for me to carry it around anymore.

Nostalgic mood that I've been in all day, I just went through my diaries to see what it was I was doing on March 3 in years past. You can read some of the results below for yourself. The stuff in brackets is context I am providing so that you can understand what I am talking about in the diary entry.

( Read about this day in my history )

Last year on this day, I was in Las Vegas! I wonder what I will be doing one year from today?

Today was a lazy day for me. For one thing, I did not end up going to the gym today. For another, I slept a lot. I didn't get up until 9 AM, which is late for me. After breakfast, I lazed around, watching TV until just after noon, when I decided to read. That lasted all of a few minutes. I dozed off on the couch for almost 2 hours, during which time I had those kinds of dreams where you dream you are asleep on the couch but can't quite wake up.

In the late afternoon, instead of going to the gym, I headed over to the Outback Steakhouse, where I ordered the Aussie Cheese Fries (sans bacon) and watched two episodes of The Office on my iPod.

Incidentally, my video iPod has become the second biggest conversation-started, second only to my New York Yankees jacket. I tend to watch stuff on my video iPod when I'm at restaurants by myself. Lately, I've had a number of people (often the restaurant employees) come by and ask me what it is I'm watching, and telling me that they didn't know you could watch TV shows and movies on an iPod. And if they don't ask about the iPod, then some Red Sox fan will comment on my Yankees jacket.

I finally got a bit more productive later in the day. I completed by second recap of SF AGE. I completed the first draft of my story, "4005 B.C." I made good progress reading through issue 3 of SF AGE. I spoke to Dad and Jen and Doug on the phone. I sent out some reminder email that I needed to send. I booked my flight into NYC the weekend of March 10-11 (I am taking a bunch of friends to the Rainbow Room Grill at the top of Rockefeller Center for my birthday, just as I did last year.)

I watched the latest episodes of 24 and Scrubs. And I downloaded the pilot episode of Babylon 5, after mabfan gave it a strong recommendation.

When all is said and done, it sounds like a busy day, but I still feel like I was pretty lazy today.

And eerily, I'm having a jkashlock moment: already I'm thinking about and looking forward to breakfast tomorrow morning.

My diary reminded me that today would have been my Grandma's 85th birthday. It's been nearly ten years since she died. I'm not the only one who forgets from time-to-time. It happened to Grandpa too. Probably more than once. But the last time on record was January 17, 1997:

I called Grandma to wish her a happy birthday. Grandpa answered the phone and said, "Oh she's not home for another half our or so." Then he paused and said, "Oh boy! Is today the 17th? I've got to go and--uh oh--get her something!" Needless to say, I spoke to Grandma later and wished her a happy birthday.

(In that same diary entry, I mentioned the fact that Doug came over along with his new 1997 green Nissan truck. He also had his tongue pierced only a month earlier. Just wait until Ruby and Carson are old enough to read that.)

This post represents 365 consecutive days of my posting at least one entry to my LiveJournal and that, of course, means I have completed a year's worth of entries. I'd say I've done a pretty good job at recording the ins-and-outs of my life over the last year. In some ways, there is more detail here than there ever was in my paper diaries because I tended to write more and include photos and things like that (something I never did in my paper diaries). I'll have a little more to say on this in my end-of-year wrap up which I'll be posting later today.

Now I'm going to treat myself to a nice breakfast.

Every now and then I find myself overcome by a wave of nostalgia. This evening it was triggered by my romping through my 1996 diary, confirming a special anniversary tomorrow (about which I will write tomorrow). When I got to one of my diaries for a specific piece of information, I can't help browsing entries once I've found what I was looking for. The entries from 10 years ago make me feel particularly nostalgic for those seemingly halcyon days in Studio City, California, when for lunch or dinner, I could run up the street for In 'n' Out or Carl's, Jr. Or I come across an entry about work and it seems like those days in the office were much simpler, much less political and much less corporate than they are today. Why is that, I wonder? Is it because we see the past through rose-tinted glasses? Or is it because experience teaches us that we are rarely as satisfied with the present as we are the past?

One interesting thing I noted in my diary entries from a decade ago: I often seemed to mark time by school quarters (10 weeks, or 11 weeks, if you count finals week). Even though I'd been out of school for over a year and a half at the time, I was still used to my year being divided up into 11 week segments. Nowadays, everything just blurs together, there are no clear dividing lines, except for the change in season. That's one reason I like being on the East coast: without those change in season, I might lose all track of time.

Part of these more somber moods stems from the fact that weekend days like today can be very, very quiet--in the literal sense. There is no one else in the house, except for Zeke, and he doesn't say much. On days like today, when I ignore my chores and laze around reading, I don't have to talk at all. I'm not one to talk to myself very much, and with the exception of singing in the shower this morning, I'm not sure I've said two words outloud today. I don't even notice it until I force myself to think about it. Compare this to last weekend, when, while visiting Dan and Megan, I couldn't shutup, and probably drove them crazy.

At any rate, I have a letter to write, and that should help to snap me out of this mood. And if that doesn't work, there's always a few episodes of Scrubs, or more reading, or web browsing, or...

What's the point of keeping a diary for 10 years if you don't go back and look at it every now and then. Here, then, are some excerpts from April 22 over the last 10 years.

( Read the excerpts from April 22, 1996-2005 )

So what does my diary entry for April 22, 2006 look like?

( Read today's complete diary entry )

BTW, today marks 100 consecutive days that I've been posting to LiveJournal, since transferring my diary into this format. Given the total number of entries I've made, that's about 3.7 posts per day on average.

April 6 is the first day of my New Year. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, it is close to the beginning of spring, and until relatively recently in human history, the new year was celebrated with the coming of spring at the end of March. Second, it is the day that my favorite author, Isaac Asimov, died, now some 14 years ago. But there is a reason above all others that April 6 is my New Year.

April 6, 1996 was the very first day I started keeping a diary. When I started doing this, it was my intention to be as disciplined as possible about it, but you never really know how that will turn out. When I was younger, I'd tried keeping a diary in one form or another and it never seemed to last more than a few weeks. Today, however, is April 6, 2006 and I have now been keeping my diary for ten years--a full decade.

( Read more about my diary )