Whoa. This is a big story.

Stephen Jay Gould, Biologist and Theorist on Evolution, Dies at 60. Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary theorist at Harvard University who helped to reinvigorate the field of paleontology, died today. He was 60 years old. By Carol Kaesuk Yoon. [New York Times: Science]

I’ll need to think about this.
5:24:59 PM  #  comment []

Mother: Toronto is lovely. How long will you be there?

Me: A day.

Mother: A day?!?
4:21:24 PM  #  comment []

Allan: I'll book the 219 at the Marriott Airport Toronto.

[Editor’s aside: this was the cheapest room available at this particular hotel which Rational recommended. I think the highest was 345 or so. Mark is the office and process manager, booked the flight, and would be booking the hotel if there were more time. An onerous part of this process (mandated from on high) are dailies, daily reports on our progress.]

Allan: Boy these Rational guys have expensive tastes.
m747p: lucky you
Allan: The problem with these full service hotels is they usually charge up the wazoo for even local phone calls.
Allan: And don't get me started on how expensive the room service is!
m747p: don't make any then
Allan: ;) m747p: use your cell
Allan: I can't plug my laptop into my cell phone... yet.
Allan: I was, as any dutiful RTTS person ought, thinking of writing dailies.
Allan: :)
m747p: ;)
Allan: If the agent asks about emergency info in case the flight changes, give them my cell phone.
m747p: She didn't ask
Allan: I got the Marriott.
4:19:49 PM  #  comment []

By the way, if you are ever down Edison way, say, visiting the Edison tower or the Menlo Park Mall or the Little India markets or the Dismal Swamp or the Price Club/CostCo, visit Menlo Pizza and Sub, across from Menlo Park Mall, right on Route One. Great pizza, nice people. 732 548 0660.
2:36:51 PM  #  comment []

Did you know...

...that agents of the FBI do not have badge numbers? So if you keep asking them for badge numbers, they will say, we don’t have badges, sir. And if you shout for their badges, they will shout back, we don’t have badges, sir!

I thought that was an interesting tidbit to keep in mind.
1:16:48 PM  #  comment []

Apparently it is a Canadian holiday today, so no one up there can be contacted. Which means I may not be going. With only one business day’s notice, how can we be held responsible for a communication screwup?

Whoops, looks like it’s on again.
12:45:30 PM  #  comment []

Allan: Should I start making arrangements to go to Canada?
m747p: Jon will call you
Allan: You would not believe what happened to us here! The FBI came and quizzed us about some guy we don't know. He came over at the same time we had houseguests from the Philippines, so we think he may have lifted our address from our uncle's traveling box.
Allan: er, my uncle.
m747p: They didn't fing you suspicious?
Allan: Have you ever talked to me? Of *course* they found me suspicious. Especially as I had not had my morning cup o joe yet.
m747p: I did, that's why I asked
12:10:26 PM  #  comment []

Jon just called; apparently I am supposed to go to Canada for a TestStudio proof of concept. Wait for it... tonight! How’s that for short notice?

Apparently they sent an e-mail on Friday. Pfft. As if I check my work e-mail when I’m at home! They ought to have known better and called me straight off. To top it off, the e-mail server was down due to a virus. I think I know which one; it’s not as if there weren’t tons of warnings on this in the last couple of weeks.

Am I even considered billable for this? Do I get brownie points with Bill and Ron? with Rational?

My stomach is grumbling now. Coffee.
11:20:50 AM  #  comment []

FBI agent Bob Lombardo just visited. Apparently some Josemari Okol gave our address as a place to stay at about the same time Tito Boy, Tita Baby, and Din came to visit. Sounds to me like he lifted our address from their balikbayan box. I find that rather annoying.

At first I thought that it might be Tito Okuy, but the man they were looking for would have been half his age, and was coming into the country.

He took our drivers’ license, which Dad thought rather cheeky and a possible scam. Dad and I checked his ID. We then called the Somerset office number that he gave to confirm, after he left. Yes, now it sounds stupid; what if he had a confederate? So I found the Newark office of the FBI over the net, called them, and asked for the Somerset number. A match! Was I paranoid?

Now I suppose he was doing his job and all, but Lombardo’ words or tone of voice kept implying that we did know where this dude was, and that he was, perhaps, in the house. “Now he’s not in any trouble, so he shouldn’t feel the need to hide.” This Josemari (Jose Maria?) character had better be in trouble if he came into the country with false information!

Though I expect that the guy just wanted to jump ship to find work here. In the lower classes of the Philippines the word America has an almost talismanic influence, or so I am told by people who know almost nothing about the Philippines.
11:13:36 AM  #  comment []

As I was going through the commonplaces file I found a journal entry by James Clyman on a member of the Donner party who was fortunate enough to end up in the ground. I don’t quite remember the provenance of this little quote; it seems to me that I found it browsing through the public stacks of the Newark Public Library while I was at Rutgers. Maybe it was in the writer section, perhaps in a book about people’s journals. That may be right. Anyway, the language is not orthographic (heterographic?) but quite pretty. Not knowing much about him, I searched for him through Google, and found a transcription of one of his journals, a piece by the niece of a grandson, and information on Andrew Sublette.
1:24:01 AM  #  comment []

categories: Commonplaces

Found Lois McMaster Bujold’s Diplomatic Immunity is out! I saw it at the Barnes & Noble earlier tonight. I didn’t expect it until June or so. Now it sits beside me. Also picked up David Weber’s March Upcountry and C. J. Cherryh’s first Fortress book.

I saw The Life of Pi by some person whose name I do not recall. It looks interesting.
1:14:42 AM  #  comment []