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looks like this place has been discovered
Sunday, March 14 1999
In the morning, Kim and I had breakfast at the quaint little Mexican place down on New Port. We almost had to beat off the waitress who speaks no English, so eager was she to refill our cups of coffee. A middle-aged guy and his wife showed up, looked inside, and, upon seeing the place completely filled with customers, announced with a mix of dismay and pleasant surprise, "It looks like this place has been discovered!"
Kim had only brought $10, perhaps confident that I'd brought my wallet. But I hadn't, so I had to run back to the house to get the necessary dinero.
After setting up the Microsoft Personal Web Server on my home computer, I was able to do lots of good work on one of my workplace ASP projects. And I didn't even need to be hooked up to the internet. Now that I have the ability to execute scripts with the power to manipulate text files in my computer's file system, I can theoretically automate a lot of the clunky procedures I use to update my website.
Just when I thought there was absolutely no way I'd ever get all my work done, Kim had to go out and buy a TV/VCR. Sometimes I think about abandoning all my responsibilities and hitting the road. Strangely, though, despite my lack of free time, I'm about as happy as I've ever been. I feel like, beneath a few superficial layers, I'm as free as I ever was, perhaps even more so. I could run away and the suffering I'd leave in my wake would heal relatively rapidly.
In the evening, Kim and I watched Contact, the recent movie about what would happen if we ever received a broadcast from an alien civilization. It was chock full of clips of Bill Clinton talking about the momentous discovery, though these were clearly excerpts from his public comments about the purported fossils on a rock allegedly from Mars.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I found the movie to be convincing and thought-provoking. But those weren't immediately-apparent attributes. The beginning third or so had more of the feel of a made-for-teevee women's interest movie, the kind housewives watch on Monday Night in the kitchen while their husbands are watching the big game in the living room. On the other hand, the space scenes, if that's what they were, were positively psychedelic.
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