I'm really supposed to be working right now, but I just removed a huge number of bugs from a component, seemingly all at once, and I'm feeling too good to get started on the next part just yet. So I'll waste some time with some directionless boss ramblings! Uh... or, I could get distracted and start working again even though I supposedly was going to take a break. Well, anyway. I got that throat sick thing thats been going around, then I got better, and now it feels like it wants to come back but can't.

I took my guitar to Fat Monkey guitar repair and Jeff diagnosed it with a flaky jack switch (the input jack has a teeny switch inside it that turns on the active electronics). The switch is monolithic and unfixable, in its hi-tech way, and can only be replaced. Forty bucks for the part and $10 for the labor, says Jeff. Meanwhile, the guitar intermittently buzzes while plugged in. Thus many of my songs have been unexpectedly rewritten with noise solos during practice, which annoys everyone. "God, that's annoying," says Kris. This is like going up to someone with awful vision who has broken their glasses and saying "man, it's annoying that you can't see!" Speaking of which, Brian broke his glasses, and from what I hear, it's annoying.

My upstairs neighbors continue to clonk and bonk about their apartment like a family of 200 pound dustbots. The constant low-frequency booming I experience is comparable to that resulting from medium proximity to one of those cars that fart. Buhhh buhh h buhhhh. Sometimes it makes my head hurt. To try and mask it, I can turn my amp way up!

I'm also trying to write a letter on a piece of paper, which is something I've done maybe 5 times in my whole life. I'm thinking about maybe typing out the whole thing first and then transcribing it, because I'm used to inline revision during composition, and when I have to go with what I've already written, the sentences tend to flow strangely or go off on long tangents in the middle. I get lots of practice doing this in my personal journal, since it is rarely edited (or spell checked), but I haven't done a term paper or essay on anything in a long time, so my written coherency is probably at an all time low. Fortunately, the only official sorts of documents I have to write are technical in nature, and not evaluated for literary value. (i.e. "Peel back plastic from over tater tots. Cook at 350 for 23 minutes or until cooked.")