Today my laptop went into an interesting failure mode in which the screen blanked and it stopped responding to all inputs, and that includes the power switch. (Even holding the power switch for a few seconds, a "hard-off" (hoho) on some motherboards.) Wondering how I was going to reset it, I talked to my coworkers about it, and was advised to take out the batteries. I forgot that you could even remove the batteries from a laptop, I undid the retaining screw and popped the battery, put the laptop in its dock, and poof, it rebooted and .. er... everything was fucked. Well, I copied everything onto desk computer 1 and am sending it back to work for good. Stupid laptop. bargh. They will replace it with this teeny purple magnesium thing by sony.

Probably my favorite part of every day is when I need to walk somewhere outside and every half block or so another person asks me to give them something. Change, cigarettes, car keys... taking advantage of people's natural tendency to want to help one another. I suppose it wouldn't help them to give them a copy of "seven habits of highly effective people" or tell them the story of the ant and the grasshopper, or one of many other fables whose moral is "get to work you slackers". Certainly, many of them have really good reasons why they would be dead if left to their own devices. Fortunately, they've discovered that other people can and will save them from this cruel fate! Except for me. But they tell me to have a nice day anyway! By the time I travel to the grocery store and back, I've had twelve good days, 4 blessings from God, and one encounter with someone who didn't make any sense.

Speaking of, I've certainly been meeting more than my fair share of rambling incoherents on the bus. From the bearded guy with the green sleeping bag who muttered "chink" when an oriental girl sat across from him and proceeded to mutter something hostile sounding every 2 or three seconds until she got off, to the fat bald guy who said "Pig!" every couple blocks until he got off with a "go to hell!". Ed and I are still going "Pig" during long silences.