"It's one of the co-ops," I tell Rob Levy, "but it's bigger. It has upstairs, downstairs..."

From an e-mail I'm writing: 'To answer your last question, I have no idea if Jesus would be for or against this country's decisions. I simply don't have enough information about the guy.'

Gina's handing me veggies and I'm sticking them in the fridge.

Walking out of our woods with Kory, Gina, and Booda. "But in that case it's much nicer to have it off than still have it there," I say.
"Yup," says Kory.

I approach Charles Gatebe and Scott Janz in the hallway. I wave hello to Charles and ask, "You get your stuff back?"
"Yeah, I got it back."
"Oh, good. You know when you're coming in?"

Gina and I stand embraced, kissing in the kitchen.

Playing backgammon on my PDA while sitting on the toilet. My nose is running and my head feels stuffy.

Dozing, with a little dream about running out of gas and not having enough
money to get more.

I'm having a phone conversation with Kory. He says, "Yeah and that's a system
wide -- I mean, global thing, whereas what you're talking about is a system
thing and that's easier to see."

I'm drawing a 'G' for a subcomic title, while listening to a techno-song called Fluffy Clouds. A young woman's voice says, "Uh, the sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire and the clouds would catch the colors everywhere."
[note: the young woman is said to be Ricky Lee Jones.]

'Amanita caesarea. This mushroom is edible and highly prized. John Tankard found this beauty in 1977, I think, on a BMC walk in New Hampshire, at the Strattons'.'
- from <http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mushrooms.html>

Gina shifts her rug with a foot so it's closer. I'm belaying, she's tied in preparing to climb.

"Or they go just in case," I say to Jenny. "Pascal's Wager y'know, you've heard of that?"

I'm cleaning cauliflower mushrooms while listening to CSPAN radio's tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's phone calls. Johnson sounds agitated: "Now you tell me who you what me to call, what you want me to do, and I'll do it!"

It's very hot, I'm in the large sphere room, fully suited and wearing UV glasses. I'm playing Backgammon against my PDA while waiting for the spectrometer's phase angle to settle.  The PDA says, 'White win by simple victory.' I'm thinking, (Yeah but it was worth 4 games.)

Putting on my left cleanroom boot, making sure to keep my foot from touching the floor.

I'm reviewing my short reply to a family email:
'At 9:12 AM -0400 8/27/01, Christopher D. 'Kit' Cooper, P.E. wrote:
>HAPPY BIRTRHDAY ERIC.
and happy birtrhdays to Amy Wallis and Mary Strother too! (pass it on)'

Sort of watching the passenger safety video; not really paying attention. I think the announcer is talking about wearing seat belts while we're seated.

I let out a high pitched yawn that descends in tone: "Ah ha ha ha." Gina and I are sitting in a car behind a van in a traffic jam. One of the windows on the van has letter stickers that read 'DADA', and a bumper sticker says 'SPANK ME!'

I'm in the front passenger seat of the Bullocks' car. "He was working the deli line at the Brick," says Gina, from the back. "And he was so sick. He was standing there like this." I can't see her, but I imagine her making a nauseated face.

Leaning over a concrete wall above a fish ladder, watching a large catamaran fishing boat move toward a lock.

On Bus 56 headed into downtown Seattle, looking through front window as a forklift crosses in front of us.

Jon Kruger says, "Yeah, the body can do some amazing stuff. People just really oversimplify it, the way they think about things."

"Finally when it was light out we went outside," says Gina, "and we were like, 'Wow! It's really beautiful out here.'"

Gina's tying her shoe. The airplane's engines raise in pitch as it taxis into a turn. I'm thinking that we should wait till most of the people leave since we're in the back and not in a hurry.

Listening to a medley from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Nicole Kidman sings, "There's no way, 'cause you can't pay."

Playing Terrace with Grant. It's my turn and I'm trying to work out an endgame strategy. I think I have a chance to win by protecting my special small piece so it can reach its goal space.

I'm talking to Kory on the phone. I say, "Ok I'll give it to you now, the number, and then I'll send everything."

I move the sensor plug up to check power supply number 4. The DVM reads 65.098 millivolts (that's ok for now).

John Marketon says, "But the problem with that is that your parity is all on one drive."

Perusing a Google list. The entry I'm reading says,'... ink caps; parasols; chanterelles; blewits; fairy ring champignons;oyster mushrooms; cauliflower- and beefsteak fungus. Porcini & Chanterelles Daniel ...'

I'm in a company's website surfing for RAID hardware. I click a tab marked 'Accelerators'.

Playing Traffic on PDA while waiting for my monochromator to finish its scan.

"I'd like to go there someday," I say, looking over to Gina. I add, "We will."
She nods.

Playing Battle Line with Kory, looking at an area that promises three in a row (maybe).

Holding a can of white gas and looking at some boards in the shed.

Jim Butler says, "What a strange man he is."

John Marketon says, "You could try Dzus fasteners."
"Zues?" I ask.
"Dzus. Spelled D - Z - U - S."

Jim Butler says, "Taylor: T - A - Y - L - O - R, and Kuyatt: K - U - Y - A - T - T."

Fidgeting (I really have to pee) while reading a message from Bob Galloway posted to the Icehouse listserver: 'My girlfriend and I play often, using the end condition as you describe it,'

"Probably a board that's the same width as this, just as an extension," I say, pointing to the left side of our front doorway, "and then over here we'll put one of those thin boards."
Gina uses her hands as vicarious boards, putting them up against the door frame. She says, "What, is it going to have a..." She stops, as if listening to something.

I drive the car while Gina eats raw almonds. I turn onto Rudyard, thinking that one of the last streets was Fleming, which makes me think of the authors Rudyard Kipling and Ian Fleming. I think it's strange that one of the streets uses an author's first name and another uses an author's last name, which means the streets probably aren't named after authors.

I'm pulling pages out of the GHI members' handbook. In the other room a Judy Tenuta CD is playing; she's crank calling someone, who says, "He admitted it?"

Watching the screen animation as files copy across from my floppy to hard drive, and thinking about running the radiance calculations without the calibration log files (which I forgot to transfer from the computer in the cleanroom).

I'm playing a game of go on my PDA while waiting in a barber shop. A 70's song by Three Degrees plays in the background: "Are we in love or just friends? When will I see you again?"

"This is a good solution, because it should appear on your desktop as a hard drive," says John Marketon.

I tap my PDA on the entry for my sister, 'Cecily Palace', while wondering if she took Eric back to her house by now.

My brother Bill says, "He got up and was holding his arm -- and he had a compound fracture of both of the bones in his wrist."

As I reach up high for my chaps, a bicycle helmet brim falls off the shelf into stuff on the next shelf down. I say, "Wha!" and try to stop it from falling.

Gina's kneading a small lump of clay. I say, "OK, I'll just go home and say hi to Booda."

Dogs bark outside. Booda gets up, growling, and heads out of the house.

"That would be point five," I mutter to myself, as I type '.5' into a constant box in a LabVIEW window.

I wonder how many children Kent McCullough has, as his light blue station wagon pulls slowly away from my car. On the radio some senator says, "The idea that it depends leads to the problem that we confront now."

I look away from my computer screen to Georgi Georgiev as he enters my office, carrying a small glass pot of water. He speaks with a heavy Bulgarian accent: "How did you spend your weekend?"

I'm sitting beside Brick in a crowded stadium, immersed in our conversation while a baseball game goes on in the background. He laughs and says, "So Dave said, 'This is something we used to do,' and the other players said, 'Oh yeah! That's a really good idea!'"

"She said her favorite movie is The Razors Edge," says Kory, "and I was like what the hell, I was just talking about that!"

Leo says, "No Escort is going to make it to two-oh-nine, I can tell you that right now."

"Hey, I think I lost the keys," I say, as we're coming out of the last barrel roll on the Anaconda. "That's the scary part of the ride."

I'm in Jim Butler's office. He sits at his desk, motioning with his hands and saying, "It was big time smoke, down there by the break room..."

"It's got the best birth control method so far known," says Anonymous.
Jim Butler says, "Does it really?"

I open the door to the large cleanroom area as Scott Janz says, "Yeah, we'll have it on one of those big dollies."

I'm didjing with some drummers outside of the New Deal Cafe.

"I'm still not liking it as much as this other color stuff, but I'm not sure why yet," says Kory, as we walk down an old gravel road with Booda.

I pause, reading a line from an email I'm about to send: 'They become squandered defenders.'

I'm walking down the hallway. Someone behind me says, "Four oh nine."

"On top of a flaming rocket," says John Marketon.
Gil chuckles and says, "Yeah, that's headed for someplace in space."

'I believe that this is referring to the "Secret Masters of Icehouse" which I just found mentioned in last years Origins report under the IceHouse tournament write up.'  - Dan Isaac, via the Icehouse list server

I'm looking at some old notes I wrote --
'Turn options:
1. Place a piece flat or standing.
2. Stand up an iced flat enemy piece.
3. Pass'

Renee's driving and chatting: "And we were talking about the whole rainbow triangle thlng that he was wearing and that toK was wearing..."

(Note on pronunciation: The word "toK" rhymes with "OK".)

Michelle says, "It's kinda long and it might suck and I don't want to play something if it's long and sucks, so..." 
We laugh and I say, "Yeah, well, that's the risk you take."

Michelle Lepovic says, "you had mentioned there's a market nearby, where is it." It's a question that sounds like a sentence.

Playing a game in a large demo hall. One of the players, Nick Sauer, says, "make it worth my while to go somewhere, dudes."

I'm sitting in the back seat of Renee's car. I say, "yeah, take a good look in there and hit those
people."

"That's our big guy," I say, pointing to Hardy, our lab's six-foot diameter sphere. Then Sandy and I turn to exit the cleanroom.

Walking away from my building on a short path of wood chips under some trees. Behind me, I hear the sound of an idling bus.

'Earlier, scuffles began when troops attempted to move into a garden, the UK Press Association said.' - news on my PDA

"They're willing to ruin their lives, so uh, so that one part of their life doesn't change," I tell Gina, then I turn on the faucet to the bathroom sink.

I enter 'alt f s', then alt-tab out of the notepad back to my control program. It's prompting, 'Enter lab temperature ( 24 c)'.

John Marketon and I are looking at the Laurel hemisphere's power rack.
"You think that'll get enough air?" I ask.
"Oh, yeah," says John. "We're gonna need two or three extension cords though."

I'm in a full cleanroom bunny suit, sitting in a chair and leaning over, using a screwdriver to pry white tape from the dark gray floor.

"Because if it was set exactly for water," I say, "if you put a steak in, the very outside would be seared but the inside would remain uncooked."

"So what's wrong with this?" says Anonymous, as we're looking at a large HDTV screen. An animated viewpoint spins us around a cloud. There are bright columns above it, of various heights and colors (blue, yellow, red). 
I say, "it's because this is computer generated I guess."
At the same time, Jim Butler says, "look," and mimes hitting the side of the HDTV. "You can hit it here!" He smiles.

Watching Gina, she's about 15 feet above me on a cliff at Carderock. I'm standing on the ground belaying her (holding the rope in case she falls) and wondering how she might use the large crack in the overhang that is above her, just out of reach.

At the 'Account Summary' web page for my visa card, I press a button at the bottom of the page labeled 'Display Recent Transactions'.

Lying in my bed. I squirt some water into my mouth, put the plastic bottle back on my night stand, and swallow.

Staring at my monitor at a picture of a button I'm making for a program. It is labeled, 'Set Center Position' and says, 'OFF' on the button.

I'm looking at a form on the FirstFriday administration web page, at a box labeled, "List Administrative Password:" and a nearby button that says, "let me in..."

Gerhard opens the door and we exit the anteroom into the hallway. I say, "all right, wanna get your stuff?"

"Is it exactly one meter?" asks Gerhard Meister, as he gestures toward the Hardy sphere aperture. 
"Yeah. That's what I measured," I nod.

Playing my didjeridu outside the New Deal Cafe.

Watching Kory turning a Carcasonne tile in his hand, while he searches for a good spot for it. I'm wondering how much my sister in law Lori pays each month for her new car.

I motion toward a large dirty white plastic shipping crate and say, "Now I gotta move this." Jim Butler continues with his gruff-voiced Louis Armstrong impression: "Where dat goin'?"

I'm driving on Beaver Dam Road, listening to some guy from MIT on the radio: "...reducing greenhouse emissions by 2008 and 2012; seven percent for the US, eight percent for Europe, and six percent for Japan."

'As well, hashish (called Khaneh) was being widely produced and used by Sufis and other Islamic holy men and women for religious experiences and communion with God. Hashish production is still high in many Islamic countries.' 
- from Strange Drugs, at beastbay.com

Entering the hallway from the stairwell, I see a tight group of three people pass by. I recognize two of them, wave hello to Jim Butler, but he doesn't see me. He's pointing down the hallway and talking excitedly to Merritt Pharo as they're walking: "...right back there by the lab doors." 
"You're not supposed to do that," says Merritt. 
"Why, was there something hissing?" asks Jim.

I'm staring at a graph, focusing on an overlap of two curves. I hear Gil Smith on the other side of the office, talking on his phone: "You may arrive at the time they're leaving or something."

I'm talking to Grant on the phone and looking at a picture at a website of a round wooden table with wood chairs. The chairs have cloth quilted cushions. 
"It looks like a good set..." 
"Yeah?" Grant says. 
"...from the picture of the tables and chairs."

Eating in a Chinese restaurant. Leah says, "Could it stop and start again?" 
"It could," says Dale, "but it probably doesn't."

I watch a projected picture of a spiral galaxy disappear as Michael Perryman continues to speak rapidly, "...are actually used to measure the distance of globular clusters..."

'(5 June 2000, Texas) A 26-year-old man in Parker County drowned when he was swept away by high water as he walked across a spillway, trying to convince his wife it was safe to drive across.' 
- 2000 Darwin Awards nominee, at DarwinAwards.com

Writing an email, I start to insert a sentence (beginning with '4') after the semicolon in, 'Don't worry about a "low" turnout; I think that the fewer people the better.' I delete the '4', thinking maybe I'll just leave it the way it is.

I look down from my spreadsheet to the computer clock, which reads, '4:13'. I have a momentary little panic, and glance at my watch, just as its alarm goes off.

Playing PDA Spades. I lead the trick with an ace of hearts, and win.

As I walk around to the driver side of the car, Gina opens the passenger door and says, "We're going to 32F," while she's getting in.

I'm sitting at a big cluttered office conference table with Nick Waring and Andrew Albemonte. Nick says, "So you, you're married now..."
I say, "Yeah."

I open the door of my office and exit into the hallway.

I'm scrolling through my travel expense voucher, wondering if I should break my car rental into a daily charge.

Filling out a travel expense voucher on my computer. In the 'Purpose of Trip/Explanation:' section I'm adding the phrase 'at Ames Research Center' to the end of 'Calibration of radiometric field source'

Driving, with Gina and Kory in the car. I say, "I won't play it." 
Kory says, "I can't, I can't, I can't play that game."

I'm in an airplane, playing Spades on my PDA. I play out a 10 of Hearts. I hear the steward talking to someone behind me: "Want some coffee, juice, or water?"

Sitting at a table outside with Eric Zuckerman. I say, "So I just add that into my ratings system, whether it's just good entertainment, or it's a really well made film."

I'm in a hotel room, looking for my dirty socks. Eric Zuckerman is on his cell phone. He says, "Bob's here."

I wonder whether the workers in this restaurant speak Korean or Chinese. I crack my fortune cookie in two pieces and as I pull the shells apart the fortune displays itself: 'You'll accomplish more if you start now.'

I'm driving back from lunch. John Bush says, "He was trying to get the hair off his tongue." He chuckles. "That's what it was." I have a vivid memory of a rattlesnake swallowing a chipmunk - the tail was hanging out of the snake's mouth.

Turning onto Moffett Boulevard, listening to the lead singer of Garbage singing #1 Crush: "I will twist the knife and bleed my aching heart..."

I walk quickly back into the darkroom lab and place a copy of a shipping document on my folder, which is lying on a black sphere port table. I'm thinking about a phone conversation I had a few seconds ago, where the guy on the other end was telling me that Pilot Shipping is usually very reliable.

I finish the very last chews of an eggplant sandwich. I'm contemplating eating the decorative lettuce leaf and orange slice as I watch a nearby young woman (long baggy shorts, dark blue T-shirt, cute horn rimmed glasses, straight reddish brown hair tied back). She's bending over and rummaging through a large wicker basket of newspapers.

The shuttle comes to a stop. I'm sitting in the very back. A recorded woman's voice says, "The next stop will be for Terminal A, Terminal B, Northwest Airlines, American Airlines, and Southwest Airlines."

Leo says, "So I read the news, it turns out they killed 26 people this week." I nod as he continues, "That's a lot!"

Brian Kimmelman is talking to me on the phone: "Yeah, it's going to be a lot of trouble, but in the long run we're hoping it'll be worth it."

The cursor is prompting me to fill in a box called, 'Std lamp scan file letters.' I look over to my calibration notes, thinking that it's probably just an 'A'.

"Whatever's happening, it's definitely confused," says Gil as I kneel on the floor looking at his monitor, wondering how to get the Zip disk unstuck. "It's not there."

John Marketon's office - he says, "So I'm sitting here trying to figure out... how big it is, how much space I need, yada yada yada."

I'm fiddling with my PDA's calendar application, changing the start and end times for an entry ('film - Set Me Free') to 21:00 - 23:00.

Sitting in the grand hall of the Renwick Art Museum, surrounded by old American paintings of landscapes and Indian portraits, and statues of white stone. Andrea Gill is at the podium, answering a question. "I'm not interested in installation, but I teach it -- with a vengeance."

The gas pump display says, 'Select Debit or Credit.' I push the credit button.

Looking at slides of aerial images of the Troy excavation. The lecturer is saying, "... Around 430 BC, Alexander the Great visits the site..."

'At that point, the student has two choices: "unask the question", or "clarify" the guess, perhaps radically. On the other hand, am I required (as master) to point out an invalid guess?'
- Buddha Buck, from the Icehouse listserver

'You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?
(For some reason, the convoluted reasoning people use in Werewolf always reminds me of Vezzini from _The Princess Bride_.)'
- Chris Byler from the Icehouse listserver

'2010 completely abandoned many of the themes put forth in 2001, and it suffered from glaring technical inconsistencies that Stanley Kubrick had taken pains to avoid in the first film.' 
- Modemac's Essay of 2010

Reading a table posted by Jacob Davenport in the Icehouse listserver:
' 2      2    good        Now all the players are evil.
  2      2    evil        You and the other good get to
                            hunt down the last evil.
  1      3    evil    You've got a lot of work to do.'

I'm in Jennifer Sager's back yard. Theresa Auth is sitting on a picnic table leafing through a huge book.
David Nitchman says, "Are you done yet?"
"I'm thinking!" says Theresa.
Atticus inquires, "Fatal attractions?"

Lounging on the bed with Gina; I say, "Well I have a feeling that other tickets will be available..."

Sitting in the aisle at a crowded scientific colloquium, dozing off. The lecturer is saying, "...because those pictures begin to look pretty boring."

Browsing a list of items in the realgoods.com catalog:
'Desktop Ionizer
 Organic Cotton Terry Body Wrap
 Pure Soap'

I slowly say, "It's a false front."

I quickly switch out of the notepad section titled 'Secret Data', remembering that time months ago when I crashed my PDA by using the scroll bar after I put it in 'hide' mode.

Anonymous says, "OK, the file you sent me, is that what Jim wants?"
"I think so," I respond. "Yeah, yeah, that's one of them."

A large fat black dog, tail wagging, is barking at us from behind his fence. Jennifer Sager approaches him saying, "Well, hello." He barks again.

Route 270 heading North, with Gina and Booda in the car; I glance into my rear view mirror to see a Jeep Cherokee come swerving into my lane and two cars in my lane switch to the left lane to get out of its way. I say, "Whoa."

I mutter, "OK, brain full," pound the table lightly, and get up to leave the office, continuing with, "go empty it."

My left hand holds a small open styrofoam box, empty now save for two chopsticks and some grains of rice. With my right hand I maneuver my mouse to close a folder named Hardy.

I hold a cup of tea in one hand (and a strong taste of tea in my mouth), and close the door to Izolda and Terry's office with the other as I back out, saying, "Yeah, I had just come over, ah, to find out, uh, if I had heard that right."

Reading an email from Kevin Maroney to the Icehouse listserver: 'In the illustration at <http://www.crossover.com/kevin/icing.gif>, under the current rules of _Icehouse_ the green piece is squandered and Red can't take the blue piece prisoner.'

I'm at an engineering colloquium. Mitty Plummer is answering a question: "And that's one of my concerns is that if you have this thing in a garage, that you don't want anyone to get asphyxiated."

Driving away from my house; the window's down and there's a nice breeze coming through. Chris Welsh has the radio on seek mode, surfing one station after another, but I'm not really listening.

I'm holding a hand of cards, waiting for my turn, and absently looking out of the New Deal Cafe's picture window at a short red haired woman with strong white legs. She straightens a very short, navy blue skirt, then adjusts her bright green shirt, and walks out of view.

In bed, reading a poem by Jean Larkin:
'sore and crying Stop, she laughing,
shouting I couldn't love her--
it wasn't true. I loved the rising'

I'm playing Lost Cities with Chris in the New Deal Cafe. While figuring out my next move I attempt to continue a previous conversation, saying "Still..." and pause, thinking two separate sentences from the word "still" - about how the game design is so simple that I'm surprised something very much like it hadn't existed long before; about how Knitzia is very thorough with his designs, so there must have been a reason he allows the inside cards to be face up.

I'm in the New Deal Cafe, feeling self conscious about my laryngitis. "I Don't always talk like this."
Terri nods and smiles brightly. "That's what I was guessing."

Chris Welsh is sitting on a curb going through a box containing his mail, papers, and an electric razor, while I walk to the back of his car and unlock his trunk.

Reading email from Jacob: 'All in all, sword-cup seems my favorite of these for the Hierophant.  Or, simply expand the power of the Hierophant to allow you to convert a piece to *any* other color...'

I'm at the top of Carder Rock, demonstrating to Paul Shapiro one way to carry a large coil of climbing rope: "You can put the ends over your shoulders, around here, tie it around your waist, and now it's just like a backpack."

We're on the stage at the community center. Jenny's watching Kory as he crawls across a very large multi-color quilt, checking knots. She says, "That was in the disputed land." "Yep, that's what happens,  that's what happens," he says, while Jenny continues: "The border zone."

Sleeping in bed.

I'm on the phone with Leo. I say, "Sorry, if he had said something bad about Alice I might have told you he said something bad about Alice, but he didn't."

010411 wed

I point at two of my pieces on a backgammon bar, and say, "Look, he's got me on the bar," to Gina.
John Marketon moves his pieces, saying, "Ah... five, four."

010410 tue

Reading The Daily Grist: 'Now, researchers have shown that the eggs are experiencing more exposure because they are being deposited in shallower water that lets more light through...'

010409 mon

Frantically pulling the latex glove up from my bunnysuit's sleeve, wondering if I missed 4:11 while I was in the air shower.

010408 sun

I'm sitting in the Looneys' front game room asking Andy for a box. He says, "To put what in?"
"These," I say, nodding toward some loaded Icehouse boxes.
"Finished sets?"
"Yeah."

010407 sat

I look back at Gina as we're walking away from the Superman ride. I say, "You wanna go to Roar?"
"OK, let's go to Roar," she says.

010406 fri

I wander around the cleanroom anteroom, holding my rolled up bunnysuit as I say to nobody in particular, "I can't find my bag. Where *is* my bag?"
"What color is it?" asks Ed Zeleski.
I wonder why he asked that, since as far as I know all the bags are clear.

010405 thu

Holding a metal straightedge across a sphere aperture, trying to see where a bright red laser spot is hitting it, and muttering "ten point one and a half" to myself to keep the centerpoint in mind.

010404 wed

I take a sip of tea, and contemplate a cryptic crossword clue: 'precise person has to make a list.' It begins with an 'F'. I wonder if it starts with 'fine'.

010403 tue

I ask Jim Butler, "When was he supposed to get here?"
He responds, "Well he's actually supposed to be here for a good part of the day because Julietta is going to teach him how to do the calibrations."

010402 mon

An anonymous scientist says, "Normally the results that John gets are pretty smooth, so I doubt it's because of the spline interpolation."

010401 sun

Playing Dragon's Gold. Kory shows a card and says, "I have a card that lets me pick five treasures."

010331 sat

Playing Martian Chrononauts -- Kory says, "It's the end of my turn right?" At the same time, Zarf says, "Plus one for me."

010330 fri

John Marketon is showing Jim Butler some graphs on his computer. Jim says, "Oh, can you blow it up?" Pavel Hajek enters the room, carrying his coat and a laptop computer.

010329 thu

John Marketon has the cleanroom door to the hallway propped open. He's inside suited up, I'm outside listening to him explain, "That's another thing about the FRMS, the sample time is slow enough that it takes a long time."

010328 wed

Pushing chewed peanut butter cookie bits off of my teeth with my tongue, and reading The Daily Grist (via email):
'India's Supreme Court this week stuck by its 1998 decision to force buses in Delhi to convert from diesel to natural gas, but extended the deadline for the switchover by six months, until the end of September.'

010327 tue

I'm changing the directory in a setup page for an analysis program to 'C:\CALLAB\746DATA\0103'. I hear someone passing by in the hallway say, "Oh, goody!"

010326 mon

John Marketon says, "too much around, not good."

010325 sun

Playing my dij in a cafe, with about 10 other drummers. I'm on the stage, pulling a tune and watching Gina, who's in front of me, sitting on the edge of the stage and idly shaking two red maracas. 

010324 sat

I'm in Graymayle's kitchen, listening to Carol Reske: "And then the other cats came and - 'Oh god it's Quentin,' and they left him alone."

010323 fri

I'm in the lobby of Building 33, pulling a thick blue rubber band around my twenty dollar bills (which are folded over credit and ID cards). There is a general flurry of people coming and going through the lobby. In the background I catch a little of Jim Butler's conversation with Locke Stuart: "...so, Tuesday I'll talk to King..."

010322 thu

I'm replying to Kory via email:
'Um, OK, if you'll drive; I have to help Margit with her scanning project before we go.'

010321 wed

Jim Butler is standing in my office, holding his glasses in one hand and reading a copy of a fake tax form (1040.com, for laid off dotcom employees). He smiles and lets out a short "heh" kind of laugh. He looks tired.

010320 tue

I awkwardly open my office door and enter, holding a pecan shortbread cookie in my right hand, a small bag containing another cookie in my left hand, and in my mouth a third cookie, which I am chewing. 

010319 mon

I'm sitting in John Marketon's office. He says, "I think the biggest thing I realized, with my dad going through all this stuff..."

010318 sun

I play out the 7 of clubs on my PDA, and glance up at the readout on the computer screen: it's at 1400 nanometers; I have a little more time before I need to change the optical grating.

010317 sat

I say, "Oh, yeah..." as I lift a hunk of good looking cooked cabbage from a large, steaming pot.

010316 fri

I watch a red LED on the monochromator's controller rapidly count down. I'm keeping in mind that I must quickly switch the gain setting back to auto after the 350nm scan.

010315 thu

I'm clicking from one graph into another, entering gobbledegook (like 'kjlhkj') into the X-axis title space, then highlighting the junk and pasting 'Time hh:mm:ss' in its place.

010314 wed

I mutter "Sixteen" as I copy the number 16 to another cell in a spreadsheet. Still musing about leaving both the old and new answering machines on at home, and how two of my voices (and one of Gina's) answered the phone when I called, and then two machines recorded my voice - two copies of the same message.

010313 tue

Editing a webpage, wondering what link to place in the following script:
'<td>2001 02 26</td><td>16</td><td>412 nm</td>
<td><a href="Hardy/20010110142100Hardy.gif">'

010312 mon

In the kitchen with Gina and John Marketon -- Gina says, "I think we have to wait until we have the upstairs."
I enthusiastically agree: "I think that's what we should do - wait until we have the upstairs."

010311 sun

I reload a web page I'm working on (Gina's Pottery page); the image at the bottom is stretched vertically, so I hit the right mouse button and select 'Image Properties' from the drop-down menu.

010310 sat

Gina and I are in bed eating hard pretzels and listening to Stacy. She's sitting nearby with a coke in her hand, nodding her head slowly, saying, "He sat at one end of the long table, and I sat at the other and I glared at him hatefully. I was pissed."

010309 fri

I'm reading an e-mail by Mark Fitzsimmons:
'Although TV certainly gives this impression, and there are plenty of flakes, it doesn't mean there aren't some of us here trying to make things better. I personally have planted some 10,000+ trees in the LA area and don't miss a chance to encourage or praise similar thoughtful action.' 

010308 thu

John Marketon says, "You have to supply it the SSF data type, and the data -"
"Including the dimension lengths," I interject.
"- and, you also have to know which output to use."

010307 wed

I'm deep inside a Labview diagram, glancing at an old comment - 'Found Token: extract data' - wondering if I've missed anything while updating the program.

010306 tue

Jim Butler props the door open as he's leaving the room, and turns around to answer John Marketon: "I'm coming back in! You wanna come in tonight? Nine o'clock, we're gonna have fun here!"

010305 mon

Pacing in the cleanroom, waiting for John Marketon to come through the air shower.

010304 sun

I load the last box of Gina's pottery in the back seat of the car and say, "It's so peculiar because a lot of what They Might Be Giants does is jazz."

010303 sat

Playing Gnostica. It's Kristin's turn. Jake says, "Uh, John has six, you have five." 

010302 fri

I'm staring at my monitor, at a surface graph of the six-foot sphere aperture. The title of the graph says, 'Hardy 16 lamps 412nm'. The large disk of fuchsia in the center of the graph contains two irregular patches of bright yellow, making me think of false color images of planets. Someone behind me says, "Strange pattern."

010301 thu

I'm hanging up my bunny suit.

010228 wed

I'm reading a 'beer fact' on my '365 Bottles of Beer for the Year' calendar:
'Burton-on-Trent, where Marston's is brewed, has been a center of brewing prowess ever since the 13th century, when medieval monks discovered the taste-enhancing qualities of the gypsum-rich water drawn from the region's natural springs and wells.'

010227 tue

The radiometric mapper's arm finishes its slow downward motion and starts moving left. I glance to the Status box on the computer screen; it reads 'MOVING X'.

010226 mon

I'm in a dark cleanroom, fiddling with a program on a laptop. I enter 'GSFC' in a text box marked 'Source'.

010225 sun

I'm in a dark theater, watching a preview. Jack Nicholson enters a room, looking distraught and disheveled.

010224 sat

Lying on my bed listening to Kory on the phone. He says, "What I'm saying is that we can't conclude anything from Andy asking those questions, because we had played so many variations and it's confusing."

010223 fri

I'm standing next to my desk, preparing to put on my jacket. I feel like I'm about to burp.

010222 thu

I surf into a blog called Zoo Station. There's a side view of some anime character at the top right. I'm thinking that anime sure is popular in blogs.

010221 wed

I'm picking '0011: Straight Time' from a drop-down menu for my online timecard. I mutter, "Straight time," (lengthening the "I" sound in "time") as I click the selection.

010220 tue

Reading some email from Kory:
'Sure, you are always guaranteed to get *all* of a players cards, so you don't have to burn down to a specified number, but I am almost always holding stuff I'm not particularly excited to give up, so I almost always need to burn down to like 2 cards.'

010219 mon

I'm updating the heap side of our GinohnNews page: 
'[cryptic crossword]'.

010218 sun

Carrying a five gallon jug of water into the kitchen. Booda, who is turned sideways and blocking my way, sniffs some groceries. He jumps out of the way as Gina says "Move! Good boy!"

010217 sat

I'm highlighting the word 'Symbiosis' in an HTML document:
'Symbiosis
Started by Gina, continued by Kory and John.'

010216 fri

I walk out the main doors from my building into cold rain, keys and a bottle of flowers in my hands. I'm making tick tock music noises with my tongue.

010215 thu

I'm in John Marketon's office. He's leaning back in his chair, looking tired. He says, "So, what're you doing this weekend?"
I shrug. "Coming in here on Saturday, or Sunday, whichever is worse for weather."

010214 wed

In my peripheral hearing, two of my coworkers are discussing the term "speckle". I'm at my desk, eating a peanut butter cup, and reading an email from Dale:
'On Wed, 14 Feb 2001, John Cooper wrote:
> LPIATAYAG
OK--I give up--can you translate?'

010213 tue

Sitting at Gil Smith's desk, John Marketon is leaning across, taking control of the mouse. I say, "Three hundred? I'd do it at less."
John says, "No, three hundred's about the minimum, but, um..." as he starts the scanner program.

010212 mon

In the cleanroom lab with Chuck Pavloski [it's too noisy to hear my alarm].

010211 sun

Playing a board game with Kory in my kitchen; it's my turn and I'm looking at the Devil and Heirophant, wondering which one to attack.

010210 sat

Gina, Jenny, and Booda are sitting on the sofa; I'm at the computer looking at www.findhorn.org. 
Gina says, "What are you talking about?" and I say, "Findhorn!"

010209 fri

Stop & go traffic on the beltway - I'm in the back playing Spades on my PDA. Gina's in the front, idly pulling off her split ends. John Marketon, driving, looks out his open window and says, "Eh. Wow."

010208 thu

I say "Hm" to myself as I look at some data for a standard irradiance lamp source, thinking about simple strategies to convert the file into a format my analysis program will understand.

010207 wed

I have my bunny suit on but not zipped. I blow my nose in a handkerchief and say, "Ah, man!" 
I put the handkerchief back in my pocket, while wondering how early T'wan might come to work tomorrow.

010206 tue

Driving through our neighborhood, I wave to a lady who's walking two small black dogs, and then realize that I don't really recognize her. I'm guessing she didn't see me anyway. On the radio, a woman is saying, "Now, President Bush has proposed a one point six trillion dollar tax cut."

010205 mon

'Another way carbonates are formed on Earth is by marine organisms that produce carbonates for shells or other hard parts.'

- science.nasa.gov

010204 sun

Walking through farmland woods on a gravel road with Gina. Booda is far away, running through a field. I say, "Yeah, probably not more than a very short phrase at the bottom, 'cause I don't want the cards to have a lot of text on them".

010203 sat

Holding a glass of juice and looking over Gina's shoulder at a picture on the computer - a bomb squad tech, covered in thick, gray protective hood and suit, up to his waist in a pit. Behind his back another technician, also suited up, is about to pop a paper bag. I wonder if their hands are really left bare, without gloves or anything. Gina clicks to another email and the picture disappears.

010202 fri

I'm on the computer, hunting down a file to test, while Anon looks over my shoulder and says, "Well the markets are down quite a lot, about a hundred twenty on both."
"Oh? Oh," I reply, as I click into another folder.

010201 thu

In Anon's office. He says, "Real weird."
I'm looking at a printout of a crossword puzzle, the clue reads 'Great fruit bat taking a brush-up, say? (6-3)'
"I'm beginning to think it's not an anagram," I say.

010131 wed

Reading the Beagle 2 website, 'The solution chosen is to use an outer shell that provides energy absorption and also thermal insulation within a casing that must spread the impact loads...' when I'm interrupted by the flashing email icon in the upper right corner of my screen.

010130 tue

Reading a department email: 'Due to State Dept. travel warning, NASA headquarters, Office of External Relations and Program Offices has recommended that all travel to Israel be denied until further notice.'

010129 mon

In my office, on the phone with Leo . While John Marketon (across the room) laughs, I attempt to quickly explain why: "I just burped and it smelled so I was waving my hand and John Marketon was saying, 'what'd you do, you just fart or something?'"

010128 sun

I walk into the kitchen while talking to Gina, who is at the computer in the living room. "I don't know if it converts filters too, but that would be cool." While saying this I wonder if it's too late for coffee, glance at my watch (it is) and turn back toward the living room.

010127 sat

"One two three," I say, as I draw three tarot cards.
Kory says, "Star stays off," and removes the Star from the discard pile.
"Yeah," I look at my hand, "and, I'll discard..."

010126 fri

Talking with Leo on the phone: "It's run by the City, pretty much -"
Leo interjects, "Yeah, but that's not what I was gonna say -"
"- they direct what is said."

010125 thu

I'm saving my program and a new window pops up, with a documentation list:
'rev. 3 Thu, Jan 25, 2001 9:43:02 AM John Cooper 
converted inside case function to simulate DAC488 response.'

010124 wed

Looking at the Help window for a LabVIEW string function:
'Index and Strip
Compares the beginning of string with each string in string array.'

010123 tue

Gina is on the phone with me, saying, "I mean 'cause it really stretched out when he pushed on it." I'm trying to picture Booda fitting under Atticus's gate, and the imagery is compounded with humorous thoughts of Gina hiding in the bedroom, spying on Booda through the window as he attempts his escape.

010122 mon

Smiling, I click the Back button away from a photo of Asahi Brand 'Porky Pork' at http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/kstavish/leo.jpg

010121 sun

I'm sitting on a couch at Meg and Joe's place, staring at a baby toy at my feet - it's a plastic purple and yellow cube, about six inches on each side. I've just pushed a large button on top marked 'flute' (also with a picture of a flute), and an electronic flute melody now plays loudly.

010120 sat

Kory, Booda, and I are returning from a cold wet walk. We're on the front porch, I'm reaching for my keys, and Kory is saying, "The thing is, Rambots - and I don't know how you're gonna approach Gnostica - but with Rambots, uh..."

010119 fri

I'm clicking the drop-down menu on the GinohnNews page while speaking to Leo on the phone: "Wait, what's this site called?"
He says, "Wunderland dot com."
"OK, I'm going there now."

010118 thu

Quickly scanning synonyms of the word 'rule' at thesaurus.com:
'Severity 
Excerpt: "... martial law; iron heel, iron rule, iron hand, iron sway; tight..."
[View Entry]

Frequency 
Excerpt: "...; routine (custom) ; formula; rule (form, regulation) ; keynote..."
[View Entry]'

010117 wed

Falling asleep at a lecture - Dr. John Reif says, "So we built these words really out of two words that already existed."

010116 tue

I'm in the cleanroom playing Spades on my PDA while waiting for the monochromator to finish its scan. The computer players have played out a 6, Queen, and Ace of Spades, and are waiting for me to take my turn.

010115 mon

The Metro train that we're on is slowing down. I look up from an art book Gina is reading - the page seems to be about art in psychology experiments - just in time to see a sign saying 'Greenbelt' pass by outside the window.

010114 sun

At a family party at Dad's place, I say, "Oh yeah, I want one of those! It could set off Dad's alarm." 
Leo says, "Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up..."

010113 sat

Snoozing in bed with Gina and Booda. I'm on my back, one arm over my face, my other hand on the soft warm fur of Booda's back.

010112 fri

Watching Miss Congeniality. Sandra Bullock (as Gracie Hart) interrupts someone else, saying, "In a performance from a little number called 'Arma Get It On'." She makes quotation mark gestures with her fingers.

010111 thu

I'm at an office party. Someone says, "Who's the boy scout?" 
I reach into my pocket for my pocketknife. Bruce Guenther says, "John Cooper's a boy scout." 
"I was a boy scout, I quit." 

010110 wed

Peering through a camera viewfinder at Rob Levy, who, dressed in a white cleanroom bunny suit, is posing beside Slick, my lab's one meter diameter sphere radiance source.

010109 tue

I'm in the cleanroom. It's dark, I'm thirsty. I glance up from the green glow of my PDA to the monochromator's computer display. It's streaming samples at 2340 nanometers - the last scan of the day is about to end.

010108 mon 

I'm eating Bar-B-Q flavored corn chips and looking at my email inbox, thinking about how Barbarella really wasn't such a great movie, really.

010107 sun 

I walk on the brown lawn in front of building 33 toward my car, and let out a deep belch.

010106 sat 

Alone at the kitchen table with two ghost players. I have six tarot cards in my left hand and I'm gnawing some skin off my right little finger, and thinking about what should determine which card to place at the center of the incantation.

010105 fri 

'If you give $10 or more, we'll send you a pack of four-inch Blogger [B] stickers, as demoed by Ev. They're good for, um...sticking on things.' 

- http://www.blogger.com/server_fund.pyra 

010104 thu 

Driving through the woods on Beaver Dam Road toward work, listening to Carlos Gutierrez, CEO of Kellogg's, talking on NPR: "So it's been a very difficult industry, it's been a tough industry, to work in, at the time."

010103 wed

I'm reading a forwarded email from Mi Ae Kim: 'Right now, it's 46% no votes, to 55% yes votes. Forward this on freely to your friends that would be interested in this.'

010102 tue

John Marketon and myself, analyzing a program and talking at the same time:
"Frame zero, you're sending -"
"- sending that command -"
"to the instrument -"
"to that GPIB address." 

010101 mon

Washing my hands quickly in the kitchen sink. There's a heavy aroma from sautéed onions, garlic, mushrooms and potatoes.