my throat is still bothering me, but its mainly a faint tickle. it bothers me most at night. last night i went out drinking with some hippies from work; its been a while since i’ve done that (and it will probably be a while before i do it again ;) time is really flying by as i’m really busy with work and i haven’t even started school yet!

alex just told me he is taking a dump. i wanted to record this so that thousands of years from now, when aliens recover this bits, they will know that we poop.

Eriko sent me an email tonight and asked when it would be convient for me to get married (i’m paraphrasing, not quoting). she and i are so similar in that we are both goal-oriented, determined, hard-asses. her soft spot is for boys, mine is for girls. which is why i’ll never expect her to discipline our boys and i’ll make her aware that i cannot be expected to discpline our girls. ;P she suggested we be married sometime after spring 2005. i told her that was fine with me, i could take the fall semester off at UW and maybe get permission from work to take a month or two off. we could be married in Nagoya. if this date hits, it will actually be ahead of my expectations. i had thought that i would finish at UW and then move to Japan and convince her to come back with me. i hav a very big day ahead of me tomorrow. two new employees start.

i borrowed some of kaya’s books on ipc mechanisms because last night i realized i am a complete coding newb. there are so many things i don’t know and so many things i want to know. i was telling alex this morning that i have to step this up a notch otherwise i’m not going to get bored of developing in the unix environment and i need to, otherwise i will not want to move onto getting a phd in mathematics. i was checking out the homepage of richard stephens, the author of some fabulous books, and he got a PhD while working full-time. so now i’m wondering if it is indeed possible…

i had to fire my first employee yesterday. it wasn’t an easy decision, nor an easy process. as terminations go, however, he made it easy. his unwilligness to put any effort towards addressing my concerns made the decision much easier and informing me that he was interviewing made the process much easier (no regrets). i’m rearranging my team and our working area in preparation for the new hires on Monday. i’m nervous, but in a good way. orientation at UW starts in two weeks and i’ll see Eriko in less than two months. i had a nice time with Kellie, Alex, and Reyna last night. Reyna reminds me a lot of Katrislept a little better last night by cranking up the heat to 75 or 80 (my bed on the floor never gets that warm, especially since the heater is only in one small corner of the apartment). Bailey was very patient with me as I didn’t open the window at all. i think i’ll put in a little extra time at work this weekend, mainly so i’m prepared for my new hippies.