July 16, 2000 — An excess of digressions

I was supposed to work today, but I never actually managed to drag myself out of the house. I have very solid excuses (my sister had to work so I couldn't have the car for long enough; I needed to get a program for work anyways; I was tired -- okay, maybe that last one isn't very solid, but I tried), but I'll still have to stay late tomorrow to get caught up. And yet life goes on.

I haven't finished setting up the automatic anti-greg slogan submission system yet, unfortunately. I might continue work on it tonight, if I've any time. I've only had seven votes so far on the anti-greg entry poll since late last night; kind of disappointing. But then, I don't get that many visitors on Sundays (I monitor these things), so maybe the count will pick up during the week. I think the "punch Greg in the throat" option has its second wind coming.

But I digress. So not having gone to work, I set about trying to get the program I would need at work next week (Visual Basic). Luckily, Alex had a copy which I could borrow from him, saving me a few hundred dollars. (Really, work should be paying for it, but as I've learned, it's not worth the effort and it takes too long.) Not counting my business lunches (heh.) with Will, hanging out at Al's house while getting Visual Basic was the first time I'd actually done anything that could be mistaken for social interaction this summer. Dave and Al were making an Earth Crisis CD, and I learned how those CD Stomper thingies work. I'm apparently going to be going to Jess Gilmore's birthday thingy later this week (if it's supposed to be a surprise and she reads anti-greg -- both of which are unlikely, but nonetheless -- I'll feel like quite an ass), so the summer's turning into a social extravaganza.

Speaking of which (or not), my parents were making fun of me for never having had a girlfriend today. Admittedly, I sort of started it: they were saying that they didn't want to give me an allowance while I was at university, despite the fact that I wouldn't be working and that all my money from the summer will be in mutual funds to pay tuition, and I joked that I wouldn't be able to metamorphose into a social butterfly if I didn't have any money to go out. This lead to a comment about this also meaning that I wouldn't be able to go out with any girls, which my dad followed up with the comment, "Now that I'd pay to see." Further anti-greg-ish banter continued as I left the room. Hmm.

Tomorrow I have to remember to try and find some origami paper while I'm downtown. I suspect that I might have to go to a place like White Rose, none of which are downtown, in order to find some, but a guy can hope.

I had to write my grandmother a thank-you card for her having sent me a cheque celebrating my graduation; this lead to me thinking about all the years I'd wasted in high school and ruined my mood for the rest of the day.

I'm going to finish off the roll of film currently in my camera and then buy a new one for a quick anti-greg feature. The premise, if you could call it that, is to use a full roll of film over the course of a single day, just taking pictures of my office cubicle and stupid crap like that and to try to think of vaguely interesting captions for the pictures. I don't want to do many more features like this though, since it feels so self-absorbed. I want more commentary on the outside world instead of crap about me that no one could care less about.