I don't honestly know how dan moniz does it, he's been functionally transient for longer than I've lived in the Bay Area. Not that he lives in a cardboard box or anything although maybe he would feel better off that way. At least it'd be his own cardboard box.

I'm both excited and kind of sad. This will be my 7th move in 5 years. It was fun for the first 2 years but then I quickly became tired of the dehumanizing effect that packing everything you own into a few boxes has. Now those few boxes have turned into nearly 20, most of them books or computers, the rest of it just clothes. I'm ready to live somewhere more than 8 months. But I don't know if this place I'm moving into will last me more than the year lease I signed up for. It really depends on if I can squeeze a writing desk into the bedroom, if I can get a new fridge in there, and if I can rig some easy-access steps to the adjacent roof. It's those small things that make up for the deficiencies of the place, which I won't enumerate for social and political reasons. There's also the issue that when Stacy and I decide to live together, it can't be in a one-bedroom. there's just not enough room.

When I said that the rest of my stuff is clothes, I think I should point out that I'm not a fancy dresser. US Bombs or OpenBSD t-shirt and work pants make up my Sunday best. One of my friends used to call it my uniform. It just makes everything easier. That black, green, or blue shirt will always go with those blue, green, or black pants.

At least I think I've finally gotten pretty good at packing. Last year I was still packing even while the moving guys hauled crap out of my apartment. This time things will be a lot smoother. Despite it all, I'm more excited than sad. Maybe it's my own sort of micro-wanderlust. Or maybe I've just given myself over to a functional mini-transience until I own a house or my own paraffin-covered box on Market Street.

Darius! Thanks for your excellent critiques of my E paper, I will respond to you before I start incorporating.

I taught myself a good deal about Ruby while eating a sandwich. It only took about 15 minutes to figure out most everything I needed to know. Well, everything I need to know before actually _writing_ anything in Ruby. My first impression? It reads like Perl with an unfucked object model. I can't tell if that's good or bad yet. It all depends on how impressed I am with their class methods, available libraries, and runtime behaviour.

Speaking of the bombs, here's just one little reason out of a million that I have a kick ass girlfriend: Last year for my birthday she gave me an early present of their new album. And for christmas, she found me a copy of Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book, something I had never been able to find.