October 2001

I cannot believe how low the Evolution 1.0 bug count has gotten.

We went to Cafe Algiers yesterday.

Listening to Meg Lee Chin this morning. One of her songs, “My Generation,” always reminds me of writing the custom POA code for transient Bonobo property objects (since dropped from the BonoboPropertyBag implementation). Funny, these associations.

Joe hacking in the lounge.

I bet if he tried, Joe could get a bit of an Aphex Twin look going on.

Another long, deadening set of meetings today. The kind of meetings that pool the blood in your legs and make your skin feel like it’s made of chalk.

Joe and I were up late last night listening to surf spacepunk and hacking IM support into Evolution. It was fun, particularly because I haven’t had the chance to do a lot of hacking in the last couple years.

Things have been so beautiful lately.

I’ve really enjoyed David F. Gallagher’s photos of Milan lately.

I organized my CDs today.

That’s the kind of day it was.

My uncle is in this remake of Bonanza that shows on PAX every Sunday at 9pm. He plays a French cowboy they call “Frenchy.” Yeah.

So anyway, tonight I was sitting in the living room watching Frenchy argue about the Cholera epidemic that was sweeping the Ponderosa, and talking to my littlest sister on IM. And suddenly, my other sister called and said, “Hey Nat, I’m standing at the T stop outside your apartment. Look out the window.”

And so I stand up and can see her waving up through the window, from across the train tracks. And there’s my uncle on TV. And my other sister on IM.

Joe Shaw: “We are truly living in The Age of Aquarius.”

I think they were trying to say something.

Lain: “The other side is overcrowded. The dead will have nowhere to go.”

In the antiseptic space elevator.

Today, in an effort to take it easy and recover from the last two weeks of sleepless hell, I said to myself: “Self, this is a good time to catch up on your personal email.” So I’ve spent most of the afternoon replying to my unread mail from 1997.

Here’s a nice example:

 From: Mike Dakin <mdakin@mit.edu> To: Nat Friedman <ndf@ALEPH1.MIT.EDU> Subject: Re: Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 11:37:26 EST Hey Nat, Did you find my sock!? I returned/went to sleep at about 4, hence I did not see this until now. I found you, but you were alseep. I should be back later today, or early this evening. I will attempt to find you again. -Mike 

. . .

 From: Nat Friedman <nat@nat.org> To: Mike Dakin <mdakin@mit.edu> Subject: Re: Date: 25 Oct 2001 14:46:58 -0400 Hey Mike, Sorry that it took me so long to reply to this mail. No luck finding the sock so far; perhaps you can supply a description? Regards, Nat 

If you mailed me anytime since 1997, please be patient: I haven’t forgotten you.

Another summer gone.

This is cool.