Today I picked up my diploma from Portland State University for my Master of Science in Computer Science.

It looks like the diploma sizes have changed. Previously, the diplomas at Portland State University were smaller:

I don’t know if the sizes make a difference, but my MIT diploma was significantly larger and cost a lot more.

My high school diploma was the smallest of the bunch.

The geek in me wants a table:

All that and no life, making blog tables on a Friday night.

My mother let me know that my grandmother hasn’t asked about her once, even after my mother visited her in Japan. But she did request a large ebi sushi.

She still enjoys eating though she mainly sleeps, and worries about her bowel movements. I’m glad at 98 and ailing she still has something that makes her happy.

I’ve been waiting two weeks for my doctor’s appointment. It was a “new patient” visit since my old doctor had left. (She left the practice about a year ago to spend more time with her kids.) So I had to figure out what to tell my doctor about my medical condition in the past year and I made a list.

I just feel like I’m falling apart lately, but these are the big points I wanted to ask him about:

• my left ear sounds squishy when I chew
• I have an odd rash on my left arm that made my arm scaly
• I have odd sharp pains when I’m running
• My floaters in my left eye are getting worse

Well, the floaters are really something I need to talk to an ophthalmologist about and the sharp pains are chronic and transient and seemed to annoy the doctor. In fact, he asked me, “What are you doing here?” And the squishy ear and rash? Basically he said if I wait the problems will resolve themselves.

Actually, he spent a lot of the time telling me that he couldn’t believe someone with an Electrical Engineering degree from MIT couldn’t get into Medical School.

Well, pal, you’re looking at him.

What a letdown.

The rumor is that the Portland Public Schools extorted tens of thousands of dollars from Portland Audubon for the chimney “upgrade” to Chapman Elementary school.

Tens of thousands of Vaux Swifts rest in the chimney on their migration south. From the end of August to sometime in September, the swifts circle the chimney and swirl in a vortex before they enter the chimney. And thousands of bird lovers congregate on the hillside to watch the birds.

Audubon paid to have a natural gas furnace and the small exhaust chimney installed so the large chimney could be left for “the birds.”

Now for the rumor:

The school district blackmailed Portland Audubon into coughing up more money. Portland Audubon was told that the chimney was going to be completely demolished unless $60,000 was paid for seismic upgrades. In the end, $20,000 was paid to leave the chimney up and to have the “S&M collar” installed.

It’s probably the ugliest reinforcement method I’ve ever seen.

I got into a bit of an argument with a “gentleman” who was driving down the street. As I was crossing the street, he must have been asleep, because I saw him a block away and instead of slowing down he decided to hit his horn. When he slowed to yell at me, I got upset. This led him to pull over and we had a little discussion.

Among his complaints, he said:

• I came out of nowhere
• in the middle of the block
• wearing dark clothes at night.

Which doesn’t seem quite accurate, since:

• I saw him coming from a ways off,
• was crossing the street at an intersection, and
• was wearing a bright red polar fleece coat.

OK, so the coat is something my friend got for me in China, and is probably imitation polar fleece. The shell said “North Face Goretex” and leaked like a sieve, so I’m guessing that this liner isn’t really what it says, either.

Nevertheless, I don’t think “bright red” is a “dark” color.

None of this is probably a matter for the police, though I did try to call when I thought the driver was menacing me. 911 put me on hold, so I just hung up.

Installing AxKit is a big pain in the you-know-where. I think it’s one of those “we build it on leenoox, you should too” projects. Feh. I don’t have any leenoox boxes in the house. So, here’s the problems I’ve found THIS WEEK:

• AxKit requires Apache::Request.
• The Apache::Request perl module requires mod_perl < 1.99.
• mod_perl < 1.99 requires Apache1 (not Apache2).
• Apache1 requires libtool 1.5.
• Getting libtool 1.5 requires CVS.
• Building the cvs version of libtool 1.5 requires automake, and autoconf.

And I’m still in the middle of all of that.

I just looked at myself in the mirror as I was brushing my teeth and I look like doodie. I guess I have time to be tired now that my ma is back home. My sister told me I looked even worse earlier in the day.

A friend at Portland State told me he got his car broken into. But, as he mentioned, it’s not the worst thing that could happen. Then I was thinking about all the time I spent waiting in the doctor’s office today, and in the x-ray lab, and how that didn’t bother me either. What did bother me was that my mom’s chronic cough had gotten worse, and she saw some blood in her sputum. Well, the doctor had a calming demeanor, and thought things were probably fine. Knock on wood.

I thought I was missing some of my CDs, so I finally asked my ex-girlfriend if she had them. She told me she had my Journey and New Order CDs, but denied having Rick Astley and Robbie Nevil. Let’s see, it’s now 2003, and we broke up in 2001, so she’s had them for at least two years. The worst part is, she denies having Rick Astley and Robbie Nevil!

I figured out I was missing CDs because I ripped all my CDs a second time. My hard drive was close to full and AAC files took less space. I ripped all my CDs because I’m still imagining the day I get an iPod. Ah, my fantasy world where I have a job or a rich girlfriend buys me an iPod. In the real world, I only have an ex-girlfriend who has stolen my Rick Astley and Robbie Nevil CDs.

My ma is visiting Japan and she’s bringing back presents. My sister, the favored one, is going to get a fancy digital camera, and I’m getting — wait for it — a pen. I bet I’m going to get a $5 “Hello, Kitty” pen. And from what I hear, the camera was hard to find and had to be purchased at full retail. For a Sony camera, that has to be expensive.

Why do I need a pen when I have the ultimate pen already?