In case any of you were concerned for my anonymity safety (and I know you were), we have to log into these computers before we can use them, and have to log out when we leave, so nothing is stored in the document history or the Netscape drop-down URL list or anything. I suppose one or two of the tech-heads in our tech department could find evidence of this somewhere, but I'm sure they could uncover a lot more juicy net activity than this.

Our computer labs are brand-spanking-new, and as a matter of fact, I helped build them. Well, kind of. Last summer (of 1998, before you knew me), I worked at school for the librarian I part-time for now. And for the first two weeks of the summer, all of us student assistants spent the day ripping out the basement floor of the library. We took all the dank dusty books off the shelves and put them in boxes and moved the boxes to an empty classroom. Then we took hammers and screwdrivers and took apart about 60 metal rolling shelves. Then we got a truck and some dollies and moved everything to a warehouse outside town.

It was absolutely no fun. We were told when we were first hired that this is what we would be spending two weeks doing, but it sucked just the same. We packed nearly 1400 boxes. There's a great picture out there of all of us sitting on the boxes in the classroom, about six feet off the ground.

Ah, those were the days. They sucked. Badly.

There's someone in here annoying the shit out of me. We're taped each week in our Advocacy sections, and part of our weekly assignment is to watch ourselves on our brand-spanking-new digital video system and write a self-evaluation. The technology is such that we can only do this in the computer lab, so you have to just bring in headphones and sit where no one can see your screen (that is, if you have issues with yourself on camera, like myself.)

Anyway, this guy in our class is watching his video, and evidently he's finding it rather funny. Now, I occasionally will let a giggle escape when something humorous crosses my computer screen, but this guy is laughing out loud, over and over again, as though there weren't half a dozen other people in here trying to get work done (or entries written).

I just looked at him. He said sorry.

It isn't stopping him.

I will say one good thing about people in general, though. I worked in the lab last night until 6:00, and on my way out, I spotted a quarter next to the desk in the front where the lab assistant is supposed to sit. (We don't have one, but there's a desk there if we ever do.) Well, there were some sunglasses and keys on the desk that I figured belonged to someone in the lab, and thought maybe the quarter was his, too, so I picked it up and set it on the desk.

Well, it's a whole 19 hours later, and the quarter is still there. Just sitting there. I like thinking about all the people who passed it by and decided to leave it, just in case someone else needed it more.

The low-carb thing is going pretty well, thank you for asking. I've lost ten pounds as of this morning, which is three weeks on the program, and I cheated all the livelong day on Saturday.

Marissa visited our brand-spanking-new (sorry, that's just the phrase of the day) Whole Foods-type store in town and bought some Atkins-related "breakfast bars," which she said were kind of gross. I guess there's really no way to get a decent bread product without carbs.

It's okay though. I just eat them all at dinner. I think I'm having Chalupas again tonight. I can't get enough of those things.

I've been diligently practicing my Messiah. I had my parents bring me the good old family electronic keyboard last week, and I have a CD of all the choruses (chori?), which actually doesn't help me much because for some reason they're all a half-step lower in key. Plus it's all men (well, boys for the sopranos, of course) so the altos are all in this horrid falsetto. Marissa decided not to do it (although I'm still trying to get her to change her mind) so she gave me her copy of the vocal score, and I've been running through the choruses we practiced last week.

I'm really kind of excited. I used to be involved in all kinds things that took rehearsals, and it's a great dynamic. I like feeling like I'm a part of something.

Speaking of which, I finally updated my webring info (well, most of it). I really did it more as a courtesty to the people around me in the ring... there's nothing worse than 404's on your next or back links, because then no one is getting to you from them.

Okay, that's all I have today. I hope "The West Wing" is good tonight because I'm trying to get my parents to watch it. They weren't really impressed with the pilot, but I think it's gotten a lot better since then.

And by the way, not that I'm not happy for everyone else, but Diarist.net, Schmiarist.net. You like me, right? That's all I care about, and I'm serious.