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Well, it's getting on midnight and I'm pretty sleepy, so things seem rather on-track so far.

An interesting day. The ICCB project is looking pretty good, if still a little too slow and bulky (though nothing like it was a week ago, so I think that this too shall pass). It's finally starting to ponder real-world data and not fake data from the land of rainbows and unicorns. Will try showing it off tomorrow to Dara, its anxious will-be betatester.

Finished Zodiac, which I enjoyed a great deal. A Neal Stephenson book that ends! instead of spinning off-track and into the stands and exploding as with every novel he's written since. Also, it's fun to read a story set in one's hometown. (I hope it's not too presumptuous of me to say this of Boston, which is still a stranger to me in many ways... but I was born here. Yes, Bangor is my hometown just as much, probably...)

Started Declare, which Cthulhia lent to me. It's neat.

Went to a Damian Conway talk with Jeremy@ICCB, eray, and jjohn. He covered Life, the Universe, and Everything... specifically Conway (no relation)'s game of life, the Klingon language, and Maxwell's antientropic demon, and his various Perl implementations and experiments with all three (separately, and all at once). (Yes, he has written a Klingon Perl module, but, mrf, can't find obvious link to it.)

Finished day at the Diesel... there were some free tables so I got a mug of decaf (yes, yes) and solved an annoying ICCB project bug in the time it took me to drink it. Nice.

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I feel that I fail to note Cthulhia's recent beaconosity in my life recently. She played the main Rabbit- and Looney-herding role throughout Arisia, and on either side of this event she took me out to a birthday concert (else I probably would have forgotten that it was my birthday) and then gave me moral support for my first-ever parallel parking maneuver (in Harvard Square, of all places) before letting me drag her to a dopey noir film at the Brattle. Yay.

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Hmm, it appears I didn't note that concert here. Well, it was a homeless benefit thingy at Johnny D's, a pleasantly mostly-smokless value, and featured the always-wonderful Jim's Big Ego, the voluminously bearded Coots, and The Charms, whose appearance surprised and pleased me... the band's lead vocalist and guitarrist are both former ORA-orkers of mine. I enjoyed pointing at Ellie and saying "See her? The singer? She made the monkey cover!!" at people. It was fun yakking with her and Joe about life back on Sherman Street, after their set. I don't think I've ever been on an easy first-name basis with published musicians before. I'm a rock star now! Also, Jim & his ego traded tables with C and I and Mr J. Bait (who dropped by randomly) so we could sit up front. Neat.