I went to an office Christmas party today. I am not one of their regular employees, but they invite me to it every year because I service their computers. As usual, I started out feeling uncomfortable and remained quiet. Two people asked me if anything was new. This is a question nearly as difficult for me as "how are you?", but this one can have a planned answer. I failed to anticipate this common question and said nothing was new. I wasn't sure if I should tell them about blog-stalk, or my new internet show, or any other project that I am working on. The first person who asked noticed the awkwardness and escaped by getting a drink. The second person asked before I finished assessing a good answer. This person was a stranger and I wasn't really interested in answering anyway.

I had expected the awkwardness to continue throughout my time there, but it did not. After about an hour, I started feeling more comfortable. I think it was because two groups formed in different rooms. It became possible for me to linger unseen between them. I had a moment to relax and focus. I assessed the situation and decided to join the easier group. They were watching a video. No conversation was necessary. After that was over, I talked to two different people about what we saw. The video gave me a topic to discuss that wasn't one of the standard difficult questions. I talked to a third person later who had not seen the video. After the party, I went shopping and had a brief conversation with the cashier.

Earlier today, I was shopping and the total was $15.05. I paid $20.05, because I did not want to receive coins as change. The cashier gave me $4.95. Realizing that my mind doesn't work well on Mondays, I didn't immediately say anything. I just stood still holding the change with a confused look on my face as I analyzed the situation. The cashier asked if something was wrong and I explained it to him. He recalled accepting a nickel along with the $20 bill and had the problem corrected.

A few minutes ago, the reverse situation happened. I bought some things with a total price of $12.81. I paid exactly that amount, but the cashier misrecorded it as $12.84 and gave me 5 cents change, a double error on his part.

My neighbor's boyfriend now has keys to the apartment. He came by around 10AM today. I didn't see him, but I recognized his voice when he answered a call to his cell phone. I heard the microwave and utensils. He left 15 minutes later. I did not hear any water. He came by just to eat breakfast and didn't wash the dishes.

Over the past few weeks, I have been getting recurrent visions of a show that I feel compelled to create. My recording equipment is inadequate and the topics that I am thinking about covering are not likely to be interesting to most people. This looks like something that I should not pursue, but the compulsion is very strong. I got a special offer from my webhosting company that gives me a whole year of hosting plus domain name registration for only $9.95. The offer was too good to refuse. Now I have a place to host this project. I have to do this.

I had planned to spend the day with family, but I got a call in the morning from a coffee manufacturer/distributor. Their database server died. I attempted to assess the situation by phone and it was clear that not much could be done without an on-site visit. I usually reschedule or cancel things for this type of emergency, but it was not possible in this situation. I was required to attend a traditional celebration of my niece's first month of life. I informed the manager of my situation and she was understanding. All orders were being taken on paper and would be entered into the computer system later. How much later was uncertain. I did not know how long the ceremonies would last, nor what types of activities would be involved.

I loaded my backpack with many more tools than I needed, because I was uncertain of what was wrong with the server. There were error messages about the fan, but the usual procedures for bypassing that type of error did not work. The CD drive was also malfunctioning, but it was uncertain if this was related. I had around 40 pounds of equipment.

The designated meeting place for my group was my mother's home. I did not know how many people were going to be attending and I did not realize that there would be separate groups. We headed for the restaurant shortly after my arrival. I was expecting to go to the restaurant that we usually go to for celebrations, but we went to a different one. We went to the one that we visited after my father's funeral. I wonder if all future events will be at this restaurant. We have never returned to that other one since his death. I'm not sure if he ever worked there or if his death is the reason that we don't go there anymore. My mother does not discuss such matters.

We sat at the table for 20 minutes waiting for the rest of the participants to arrive. My mother ordered from the "Extra Fancy" menu. These are some of the dishes:


Shredded scallops with mushrooms


Conch with deep fried tofu and peas


Soy sauce marinated chicken with shrimp chips


Lobster with black bean sauce


Nobody ate this one. I am not sure why. My mother usually eats everything. She believes it's wasteful to spend money on food that is not eaten. I'm guessing it's very bad. My brother is culinarily adventurous and he did not sample this one.

There were several other dishes that I may post later.

At the end, we received fortune cookies. I decided to amuse myself by extracting the fortune without opening the wrapper and without imparting any damage to the cookie beyond splitting it in half.


That is my sister's hand holding it.

At the conclusion of the meal, I wanted to leave. I needed to go to work and I don't like spending a lot of time with family, but I could not leave yet. The whole group went to my mother's home. There were no additional ceremonies beyond the meal. They just sat around talking.


This is something I never expected to see. My brother and sister did not talk to each other for over 30 years. Also, my brother did not get married until he was 44.

I left at 4:45. Everyone else stayed several hours longer. I arrived in the office at 5:29pm. The server had one dead hard drive. It's a RAID5 array that should survive with a dead drive, but the array seemed to have become corrupt. The manager asked me some questions about the RAID configuration utility, revealing that she had explored it in depth. I think that she tried to rebuild the array with the wrong settings, causing all data to be erased. I restored data from backup onto a temporary server and modified the network settings on all workstations. I left the office at 9:30 feeling exceptionally tired.