I had sort of an argument with the neighbor downstairs today. He was playing music quite loud, so I called on the phone and said “Hi, this is Greg from upstairs. Do you think you could turn the music down a bit?” He didn’t respond at first so I went on to explain that my wife was sleeping, and could he turn it down a little? His response was something like “Hey, it’s three in the afternoon, I should be able to play my music if I want!” I said something like “I just wanted to let you know that I can hear it, and if you can turn it down a little, that would be cool.” He said something non-responsive like “Whatever” and hung up. ...

Didn’t do much today. Worked on the Altaia character sheet, late last night and again today. The new character sheet is in Excel and the lines don’t line up quite the same, but it will be ok. I created a formula that fills in the seven boxes under where you type 4 with ranges 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, etc. This involves a formula that can tell how far it is from the target cell (difference in row numbers). Sure, I could have put *1 in the first, *2 in the second, etc, but I wanted the same formula in every box. The numbers disappear if you don’t enter a number in the first box, so it can be used as a worksheet or a blank write-in form. I’m smug. ...

The Green Mile I watched this movie on a premium channel. It is about a prisoner on death row (during Depression era) who is wrongly convicted, and earns the respect of the guards there. It’s an excellent movie, and I recommend it. The end is quite sad, but the whole thing is good. Quite long too.

Wednesday: did laundry, and got into a bit of a fight with M about how I feel like I do just about everything around the house and I don’t feel appreciated for it. M can’t carry laundry up and down the stairs because of her knees and her back, which is understandable, so we typically go together and do it. I don’t like this much because it takes the same amount of time and we end up getting in each other’s way a lot, and I’m usually the one to go down again to put them in the dryer, and again to bring them back up. So, this time I said no, it’s OK if you want to just stay here, but perhaps you could do something else while I’m busy with the laundry, such as make dinner? ...

So far I had a leftover taco for breakfast, and leftover ham and bean casserole for lunch. Leftovers are neat, if I can convince myself to leave some of the food over. Had some decaf coffee this morning and cherry lemonade for lunch. Spent a few more hours on wanking with Veritas, giving myself a crash course in freeing up tapes and all. Looks like backups are working again, and a second crisis has been averted. ...

Thursday: I went to work, things were slow but there were still some loose ends to tie up. I brought home food from By Th’ Bucket, a nice Italian place near my house. Not sure what else I did this day. Friday: Work again, even slower. I left early so I could go by the Humane Society (see separate entry). I didn’t really want to get restaurant food again, so I made green bean casserole (french-cut green beans, cream of chicken soup, French’s fried onions, milk and pepper) and served this with honey ham (which is already cooked, so I whacked off some slices and nuked them).

Got up and went for a walk, about an hour long, went to Walgreens and picked up a snack. I enjoy a nice walk, especially with headphones and CD player, though the headphones are nicer if I’m walking on back streets with fewer fast/noisy cars. D called to ask if we want to go to a movie. I said no - M wasn’t up yet and I didn’t want to go by myself. I still want to see LOTR, so hopefully I can do so soon. ...

Pyramids! by Terry Pratchett (This is the 7th in the series. This means I have read books 3, 8, 1, 2, and 7. 4, 5, and 6 are on the way to me.) The Assassins’ Guild and its associated Academy (in Ahnk-Morpork) are the setting for the first part of this story. It looks like the Assassins’ Guild is the most fun and stylish of the Guilds, and its Academy is a bit like boot camp. So, into this environment we throw Teppic, a spoiled young adult from a royal family from a far-off River Kingdom with lots of pyramids and not much else but sand. You have a nice coming-of-age story mixed with a nice view of the “colorful night life” of our familiar but smelly city. ...

This year, Michelle and I decided to give to charity this year, instead of our normal gift-giving of the season. We selected the Humane Society of Santa Clara as our preferred charity this year. Today I went there to give them a check. It’s probably better if I don’t say how much, here on the Internet, but let’s just say the guy at the Humane Society said “Wow” and had to shake my hand twice. ...

I haven’t done a lot of reading since the convention trip, but here are some reviews for the stuff that I did read during the trip: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett is an extremely witty writer, and his work is a pleasure to read. The Discworld is about a magical world quite different from our own – it is in fact pizza-shaped and floats through space on the back of a giant tortoise. Despite the “unlikely” nature of the world, it is in fact quite well-imagined and it has its own set of natural laws. Sort of like “Xanth for grown-ups”. ...