The Twilight Report

What was 2004? It was a year of stolen and disputed elections in Georgia and the Ukraine, the rise and fall of Howard Dean and John Kerry, the first private space flight and the end of the "X-Prize," disaster in Darfur, prisoner abuse in Iraq, expansion of the European Union, the death of Ronald Regan and a month of flags at half mast, the return of Greek Olympics and a very smug presidential victory. In less political but tragic terms, the worst natural disaster in my memory has occurred in Asia as Tsunami death tolls top 135,000 according to CNN.com.

For me, the year started out as a bleak one in the coldest New York winter I have ever experienced. My mother came to visit me for her birthday. We stayed in Manhattan and it was bitterly cold.

Lowel and Johanna

I took a lighting class at Dutchess which was a blast. Some of my friends from Black and White II were taking the class and I met some other cool people. It was so much fun working with those people, including the teacher, Lowel Handler.

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In Short, 2004 was A Great Year and I have high hopes that 2005 will be even better.

First of all, I have been crazy busy lately, so if you have written me recently and haven't gotten a reply, please bare with me because things are going to settle down soon!

What happened today?

I have been working on Parallel Abstraction for most of 2004 now, with little to show for it. Well, that isn't entirely true. I have actually accomplished a lot, it just doesn't feel that way sometimes, you know? Anyway, I have been extremely stressed about this because the thing is supposed to be working by mid December, and I have my doubts about it.

I realized it really doesn't matter if I don't finish Parallel Abstraction, because it doesn't matter anymore if I get a bad performance appraisal for 2004. I was completely relieved and stress free for the first time in recent memory. I'm not going to stop working hard to make sure that Parallel Abstraction is working in time, but I realized in this case, failure really is an option. I didn't write the code originally, after all, so I don't feel I ought to be held accountable for it.

My partner came over to my office and we looked at a section of the offending code for about a half an hour, and we found the memory error that has been dogging me for the entire time that I have been working on Parallel Abstraction. I kid you not. It was like as soon as I decided to let go everything fell into place. Parallel Abstraction isn't done yet... but this is big. Melly told me that this would happen.

The major downer of the day was when Art came by to wish me luck. I told him that I was sorry to see him go, which is honest. I think he is a decent, hard working man and The Company needs more people like him, not less.

After work, I drove up to school to get one of my slides from Sarah. I really wanted to tell her about the things which are going on in my life, and ask about how things were going for her. She seemed real excited for me, and I think she's is also doing well.

On the way home, I stopped at Hanaford to pick up a Turkey for next week. I flirted with the pretty check out girl, enough so that I forgot to press "YES" on the touch pad which takes the credit card. It was a pleasant experience.

My mom and step father Don are flying in next week for Thanksgiving. They haven't been up since I moved, so this will afford them the opportunity to see my new place.

I called E as I drove home and told her what was going on. She was real happy for me too.

Yes, my friends. Life is good. It's like that Sheryl Crow song "It's not having what you want / It's wanting what you have." It's only going to get better.