This evening, my landlady was showing my apartment to a prospective tenant, so I decided to make myself scarce by hanging out at work instead. I started out reasonably enough, checking my personal email and such, but in the end somehow wound up spending well over an hour reading through my own livejournal's archives. Which was entertaining enough in its way, although I kind of can't believe how many entries I've dedicated to bemoaning my own lack of focus and work ethic over the years. (Given how much anguish that particular personality flaw seems to have caused me over the years, you'd think I'd have gotten around to fixing it by now.) At any rate, embarrassing as some of those old entries can be, I find I really do like knowing that I've got some sort of record of the last 6+ years, no matter how patchy and indifferently written.

That's not the only nostalgia kick I've been on lately, though. Playing the Miles Edgeworth DS game demo has done a fantastic job of reigniting my irrational fascination with the Phoenix Wright series of games. Which has actually been kind of frustrating since I happen to have no access to said games at the moment, and there's surprisingly little interesting fan work available online, at least that I can locate. (Although the fan video set to 'Schadenfreude' is pretty good if you know the characters.)

I've also found myself doodling MAIOS, my D&D character from earlier this year, despite the fact that I haven't played it since the group decided to shake things up by starting a d20 modern campaign several months ago. While the shaking up was (and continues to be) good, I do kind of hope that we manage to get back to that original campaign at some point. I might not actually be all that good at playing MAIOS, but I've rarely had so much fun inventing a backstory, psychological profile, and physical appearance for a D&D character.

In less pathetically geeky news, the relationship thing is going well. The dude, let's call him MB, is incredibly sweet and earnest and makes my hormones go 'ping!'. I worry sometimes that it's not going to last, and that the longer the relationship goes on the more painful it will be for both of us when it eventually runs aground on some rocky shoal or other, but for the moment at least I'm enjoying it all too much to care.

I just recently finished reading a very depressing book, "A Short History of Progress", which is essentially an account of the many, many historical examples of human civilisations which degraded and over-exploited their environments to the point where they could no longer support their populations. Chilling stuff, especially in light of the current global warming crisis. All in all, I'd definitely recommend the book; it's an excellent reminder that civilisation has always been a rather precarious business and that Malthus hasn't necessarily been proved wrong yet.

Things that have happened lately:

• I cut my hair to less than half its former length.


• I confirmed that I will indeed be moving into that apartment I wanted.


• I got assigned to be primary contact for yet another development team, bringing the total to three.


• I got asked out on a date by someone I might actually have some chemistry with.


• I (very unrealistically) signed up for another round of NaNoWriMo.


• I decided that my life, at the moment, is pretty darned great.

I think I have an apartment! And it's pretty great. It's on a major bus route and a major bike trail. It's across the street from some quite tasty restaurants, a pharmacy, and miscellaneous shops. It's large (2 bedrooms!), and kind of eccentric, with interesting detailing and hardwood floors. It even costs less than my current apartment.

The only major downsides that I'm aware of are that it's on the 4th floor of a building with no elevator and that it doesn't have its own washer and dryer. Other than that. Which are not small things, but are not dealbreakers either, under the circumstances. What can I say? I'm stoked. I am really, truly stoked.

And now Paul Krugman is making semi-self-depreciating Cato referances. How can I not adore that man?

Update: Oh, HTML fail. Can you tell I'm drunk? And trying to write HTML into the BlackBerry browser?

My dreams have now started having their own internal dream sequences. This cannot end well.

In other news, I am going to see Metric tonight. Huzzah! Also, I people are meeting up at my place before the show. Which is a little scary, since I really haven't got enough chairs for everybody and the apartment is still a bit of a mess and also I've got very little in the way of snack food or drinks. But, eh. At my core I'm still feeling pretty mellow about the whole thing, somehow. My apartment is only going to be a pit stop on the way to Metric, after all. So. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.

*worries*

Boy do I ever not enjoy interviewing job applicants. It's a useful skill, so I'm opting not to try to weasel out of the interviews, but it's also a skill I'd rather not have to develop ever. Judging people is not fun. (Although it is, at least, somewhat more fun than being judged.)

You know, I think I can sort of understand how people can become workaholics. There's a kind of euphoric feeling that comes from working really hard and getting a bunch of stuff done. These last couple of nights, riding the bus home after working stupidly long hours, I've been finding myself thinking about how much I absolutely love my job and how it's the best job for me ever. Maybe it's a Stockholm syndrome thing, I don't know. But it is strangely compelling. And also not at all worth giving up all my free time for. Really.

Another late night, but I managed to finish up another Feature Spec. Someone asked me why I was staying so late -- what doc could be so important? -- and I didn't give a very good answer. Really, though, it is kind of complex. I guess the main reasons are these:

• I said I'd get these specs done by Friday. So I'm going to get them done by Friday.


• I've been a bit distracted at work lately, and I'm hoping to make up for my less than stellar focus by working some extra hours.


• I'm also hoping that maybe if I force myself to stay and work for as long as it takes to finish my projects, I can somehow teach myself to be more focused during regular working hours.


• I kind of enjoy the thrill of pushing myself to work longer, harder, better. It's like being in school again, except that this time around the coffee is free!

There are other reasons too, I'm sure, swimming in the murky waters of my subconscious and semi-conscious. (But honestly, I don't think I can bear to peck out any more HTML on this itty bitty keyboard. Not that that's a good reason to stop here. But, really, it's all the reason I need.)

It is 8:23 and I am just leaving work. This has not very much to do with me being a dedicated employee, and a whole lot to do with me being really outrageously bad at estimating how long it will take me to complete projects. Sigh. Tomorrow night will likely be more of the same. If I can just get these blasted feature specs done, though, it will all be worth it.

It is also worth noting that I was not the last regular employee to leave the building. Not nearly. Clearly, I am surrounded by workaholics.

Normally, my social life is pretty slow. But not today. Today I have more social options than I know what to do with. Do I go drinking with friends at a new pub in Kitchener? Do I go see a movie with other friends? Do I catch up with folks from Seneca at the local STC grammar seminar? I can't decide, and in fact I think what I might really like to do is go home and sleep. And what I really SHOULD do is stick around work and finish up this feature spec I said I'd get done. Oh, choices! You'll destroy me yet.

It turns out the immensely frustrating DVD burning problems I was having were due to the crappy DVDs I bought, not to my computer. Which is, needless to say, a relief. Ladythana, there will be some shiny, shiny discs of video delight heading your way as soon as I can make it to an operating post office.

However, while things may be looking up on the computer and disc front, on the housing front they remain stalled. I spent a big chunk of today looking at/for apartments, and none of them were at all the sort of place I wanted. Ah well, at least I've got plenty of leads left to follow.

Somehow Beth's got me watching economic lectures on the computer. How did this happen? I don't even like economics!

Perhaps this is proof that the surest way to gain an interest in a subject is to spend a little time studying it. Or perhaps it's only proof that I'm a total pushover.

I'm on the bus right now and the graffiti on the seat in front of me says "GREAT JOB!". The one beside it says "KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!". I am finding this oddly uplifting.

Obviously, I've been not so good about updating this thing lately. That's partly because I've been busy (really, I have!) and partly because the TV show Farscape has taken over my brain like some kind of wonderful, terrifying television brain fever. It's not that it's a particularly good show, as such, but it might as well have been designed specifically to jack into my every dormant fannish impulse. It's a sprawling space opera with a stong ensemble cast, more crazy ideas than it knows what to do with, lots of interesting gaps and hanging plot threads to be rationalized, and not one but three distinct evil empires. I tell you, I didn't stood a chance.

It's fortunate for me, I think, that Farscape fandom has been so depleted by time. Otherwise, I would be very tempted to engage with it, and I really am too busy with other things for that to be a good idea.

(Still... if I could find some more current something to obsess over, that could be fun. Dangerous, but fun. However, most of the current crop of shows seem to be, ironically, too tightly put together to spark that kind of interest. Good TV is definitely not always good cult TV.)

Today I pack up my things, check out of the hotel, go to work, fly back to Toronto, attend a U2 concert (thanks to free tickets provided by RIM), bus home, and then, presumably, collapse. I think it'll be fun.

Speaking of collapse, that's the name of the book I bought yesterday to read while travelling. The book's by Jared Diamond, of "Guns, Germs and Steel" fame, and it's one I've been meaning to read pretty much since it came out. The book's got a subtitle pretty much designed to stir controversy ("How societies choose to fail or succeed") but so far the book itself seems as level-headed and well-researched as anything in Guns, Germs, and Steel.

I'm not sure how far I'll get in it today, though. I've also been itching to write some really silly fiction based on playing cards and their nick names. We shall see. If the trip back to Waterloo turns out to be anything like last week's trip from Waterloo (e.g., ten hours), I should have plenty of time to do both.

It was a busy sort of weekend, in a lazy sort of way. I spent most of Saturday just wandering the streets of Boston, looking at things and sometimes taking pictures when it wasn't raining too hard. Sunday I spent in the Museum of Fine Arts. I intended to make the museum only stop one on a lengthy itinerary, but accidentally ended up staying until the museum closed and the guards kicked me out. My only regret is that my failure to make it to the Harvard Coop in time left me sadly bookless. I tried to rectify the situation by picking up a copy of the graphic novel Fray from Newbury Comics, but ended up finishing it on the train ride home. So I am bookless once again. Woe.

I was going to try to get some work done this evening, but my computer seems to have decided it is no longer capable of running Windows. This is problematic, obviously, though exactly how problematic remains to be seen. If I'm just prevented from working tonight, that's annoying but not critical. If I've lost all the data on that hard drive... that could be a somewhat bigger problem.

Man, tipping makes me crazy. I mean, you're not normally supposed to tip for a breakfast buffet, right? But they did pour me orange juice and water and were very friendly in pointing a rather lost, befuddled me to a table. I guess I probably should have. Ah, well. Ah, well. There will be other breakfasts, I suppose. And given the rather outrageous price I paid for a bagel, a couple slices each of melon and pineapple, a glass of orange juice, and half a muffin, I the employees here had better be getting paid well.

Second thing. I think I may have to stop making lame half-jokes to the staff here. They always laugh, but the laugh always sounds forced and dutiful. It's kind of creeping me out.

Finally finally finally reached the hotel. Now must sleep so can get up early to review documents tomorrow morning and maybe even eat.

So I am currently riding in the shuttlebus from KW to Toronto International Airport, and still I don't think it's really sunk in yet that as of 7:33 PM today I will really, actually, truly be in Boston. I still have so much work to do! I need to review a whole whack of feature specs and review the relevant bits of the device architecture and start memorizing people's names and GAH! Truly, I am overwhelmed.

However, overwhelmed as I may be, I've also got more energy than I've had in quite a long time. Adrenaline is a beautiful thing, I guess. Adrenaline and a break from routine, and actually I suspect the latter is more to the point.

Anyhow, I'll try to keep posting throughout the week, with pictures if possible. I just got my hands on a new device with a super-sweet keyboard, and I'm pretty much looking for any excuse I can find to use the thing. So. Watch this space, I guess.