June 4, 2001 — The things that bring us together

As I write this, my FTP program is slowly (and I do mean slowly) uploading (for the third time) the Quicktime version of the new Bran Van 3000 video to the Web site. It is over 10 megabytes in size, and I have a 56k modem. And my FTP server is very slow.

I am uploading it for the third time because the upload spontaneously canceled the first time I uploaded it a couple of weeks ago. Then, when I tried again before launching the video along with the new site this weekend, I uploaded it in ASCII mode by mistake. Uploading a 10 megabyte binary file in ASCII mode is bad for business.

Now approaching the two hour mark, the upload still isn't finished, and I want to check that it's working before I go to sleep. I don't think there has ever been a better time to write a journal. Besides, I tossed and turned in bed until 1:00 am last night, so what difference does it make if I get into bed at 11:00 pm or 12:30 am? Such is my theory, anyway...

Last night was interesting enough. I opened ICQ to find messages from Tiphanie of antigirl.com asking me to stop spamming her guestlog, and then apologizing, stating that it wasn't me after all. I'm not sure why I hadn't spoken to her before now -- I do own antiboy.com, after all, and the antigreg logo is startlingly similar to the antigirl logo -- but I hadn't.

We ended up talking for awhile about where the names had come from and that sort of thing. I hadn't known that antigirl.com existed until sometime in the fall when Amy told me about it. Tiphanie's site existed well before mine did, though, so if anyone's to be accused of a lack of creativity, it will probably be me. I took a small amount of solace in the fact that I'd made my logo before she had made hers (not that she could have possible seen mine -- I don't think anyone outside the Ottawa-Carleton region knew about my site at that point).

All in all, it's nice to know that there are no bad feelings to worry about. I can be antigreg, she can be antigirl, neither of us stole ideas from the other, and everyone will get along just fine. And for some reason the nerd in me can't help but think of convergent evolution...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

During hour one of the upload from hell, I decided that I would get my act together and prepare to start inline skating along the Rideau Canal during my lunch breaks at work. I pulled out my skates, mostly unused since last summer, and went for a quick trip around Richmond. It's interesting rediscover so many muscles that I'd forgotten I had... With the increased pain in my arms that my summer job in front of a computer brings, I'm certainly rediscovering the continued (and often inconvenient) existence of my body.

Today at work, an all-staff meeting started at 2:30 pm, so I was left alone on my floor for the rest of the afternoon. This being the case, I left early and picked up the book I had ordered a couple of weeks ago, The Art and Science of Web Design by Jeffery Veen. I owe much of my existence (if you could call it that) in the field of Web design to Mr. Veen and his first book, Hotwired Style. I wonder what he would think if he saw any of my sites. I'd be embarrassed if he found them -- I've still so much work to do.

After picking up my book, I wandered over to the Rideau Centre and promptly set off the alarm in MusicWorld. Apparently my copy of Air's new album wasn't properly demagnetized when I bought it. The manager asked me what I thought of it, and said that it hadn't been selling as well as they'd hoped. I changed the topic to Bran Van 3000 -- she said they had sold out on the first day, ordered a considerable number of further copies, and watched as it sold steadily throughout the weekend, almost exhausting supplies again. This made me smile.

Unfortunately for MusicWorld, I'm still all for supporting Record Runner as far as CD-buying is concerned, so I walked there and reserved one of the limited-edition versions of Amnesiac to pick up tomorrow. I wish I could say that I'm even one-tenth as excited for tomorrow as I am for two weeks from tomorrow when Neil Gaiman's new book is released. I'm seriously considering taking the day off on June 20th to read it through.

Meanwhile, my upload still has fifteen minutes left, and you'd be surprised by how many more things you don't care about that I can bring up in fifteen minutes time.

Anyway. While waiting for my bus, I spotted Melanie Murdock. She was waiting for the same bus, and I got caught up on a lot of SMHS gossip over the course of the trip. Except for brief phone conversations, I hadn't talked to anyone my own age in over a week, so small talk felt quite healthy.

Hmm. As it turns out, I'm starting to feel too tired to write all that much more. So I'll leave you with this, and with a promise that I'll try to avoid turning my next journal into a list of what I bought that day with some other details thrown in as an afterthought.