Friday
Before I forget (yet again), “Happy Birthday” to:

I think that not going to the gym last night was a mixed bag: While it would have been nice, I was apparently more tired that I had originally thought. I woke up a few times this morning, but I didn’t get out of bed until a little after 10:00.

I watched the last portions of the funeral for Ronald Reagan. It was a nice ceremony. I was also struck by the thought: It’s amazing that you can have all of these world leaders sitting side-by-side and no one is worried about who’s out to get whom. If only they could be so amenable at other times… I wasn’t born when President Kennedy died, and I was too young to remember the last State Funerals held for former Presidents Johnson. When Mrs. Reagan turned to wave to the crowd, before boarding the plane for the trip to California, it again struck me how poised and composed she has remained throughout the past week… but she also looked a little older and a little more “relieved.” I wish her well.

I went to work and wrangled some HTML and a Word document. I fought with some software for a bit, but after taking a few minutes to punch large holes in the wall step back and think about what I was trying to do, I found a viable solution to my “problem.” And life was good again.

Tonight’s coffee was good. We had one of the largest groups – if not the largest – that we’ve had in a long time. Maddox even put in an appearance. I should invite him to 2-D Physics tomorrow… Coles Whalen was performing in the cafe when we got there; her music was pleasant and she did a few decent-sounding covers. Spacing ourselves out wasn’t too bad at first, we only took up three tables; that quickly grew to seven tables. (I wasn’t kidding when I said that we had a lot of people show up.)

Something that I found odd, to say the least: Near the end of her first set, a friend of hers – her boyfriend, perhaps – came to our table and asked us to applaud for her at the end of her set. O_o Umm… okay. He looked as though he was trying to be… I don’t know… “intense.” That was something that I wasn’t really in the mood to deal with, so I just stared at him for a few seconds. *shrug* I had been applauding anyway, but what the Hell if it would make him happy.

Since we had such a large group, there were at least three conversations going on concurrently. But everyone seemed to have a good time. And that’s what it’s all about.

Jess and I headed to Cheers for a bite to eat and to pick up some boxes for the move. Melody, Kate and Allison stopped by our table to chat with us during the lulls in the crowd. Kate has been at V.I. for a couple of years; Allison has been there for about six months. Tonight was the first time that I thought of them as “Kate and Allie,” which immediately made me think of the 80s sitcom.

NPR and Other News Stories
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday: The Sleeping Brain
All Things Considered: ‘The Five Obstructions’: Making Films with Limits
All Things Considered: Web Site Lets Students Rate Their Teachers

Stray Toasters

Quote of the Day
I sent the URL of the Flash animation to and received this response:

[03:23] : funny, before now I thought this was an aerosmith song… turns out they only covered it
[03:23] : *jawdrop*

That’s almost enough to make a person feel “old.” Almost.

And with that, good night.

Namaste.