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A friend is having trouble deciding whether or not to go to her 10 year college reuinion. She said that she didn’t have any friends in her class year and wasn’t pleased with her career path. Here’s my comment back to her

I hardly realized that I missed my 10 year reunion, and I’m none the worse for it. I can only name a handful of friends from college and I keep track of most of them.

Last year, I went to a reunion of a middle school group… it was terrific. I’m so glad I went. I was initially bothered that careerwise, I was just starting a tiny little business while the other people were… let’s see, working for the US Patent Office, a Washington lawyer, making computers understand speech, teaching high-level math in college, “on a break” from working at the U.N. and other worldly pursuits. But they saw my situation differently. They saw me as independent and gutsy. And we all had a good time talking about the various paths we’ve taken. Most important was that being with these really old friends was touching an important part of my past. That felt really good.

So, as far as your 10 year reunion… If there’s no one you’d care to see, then don’t go. You’ll just get that many more mailers from the school, begging for money for a new building or something; whatever it is, it won’t make any personal connection. That’s what’s important.

Yesterday I was so sick. It started with a hacking cough 2 days ago and progressed. I went to bed at 10pm the night before last and…. didn’t get out of bed for 39 hours.

Everything hurt. Rolling over hurt. Getting up to use the bathroom was torture. But enough about me.

I’m coming out of it. My sister came over and gave me some needed TLC, baby pastina soup and orange juice. That was good. I got to talk with VC on the phone. That was good too.

WP Paginate from Scriptygoddess because my beloved Page Navigation doesn’t work with WP 1.5.

Feel the love…. I guess. So far it seems like 6 of one, half a dozen that have to be hauled in from the garage… of another. I’m sure I’ll appreciate it soon… after I’m done picking all my plugins up off the floor. Hurumph.

Dumb AI still makes me mad.

Welcome to Earthlink LiveChat. Your chat session will begin shortly.

Not at home and you want to read your email? With EarthLink Web Mail you can check your email from any computer with an internet connection!

‘Sherman N.’ says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?
me: Hi, I have a mindspring dialup account. I’m trying to access my mail from another computer but my username and password don’t seem to work. Could it be that I’m not allowed to access POP mail via the internet?
Sherman N.: I understand that you wish to know your password. I can help by providing the password after veryfying your account.
Sherman N.: I see that you have provided xxx as account verification information, Is this your Internet login password?. If yes, can I have your permission to view the password in our database. You will receive an email regarding password view.ace=”arial” size=”2″>
me: No, I don’t need to know my password. I have my password. Please turn off that crummy artificial intelligence system and re-read my request.
Sherman N.: To best assist you, you need to speak with a Technical Support Representative. Please stand by while I transfer you.
Please wait while I transfer the chat to the best suited site operator.
‘Joshua G’ says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?
[There was a 15 second pause here that really got me bothered. I thought that I was going to have to repeat what I said to a MACHINE to a human. I was about to copy and paste my previous correspondence when…..]
Joshua G: =”black”>=”OperatorText”>Hello, I see you’ve already been chatting. Please give me a moment so I can read the previous chat and pick up where you left off.
me: Let me take this opportunity to say that "Sherman N" is a crappy AI.

…

Eliza… Eliza…. My heart’s on fire…… for Eliza!

This really freaks me out.
SSI Super Duper Shredder. Shreds all that ails you, from washing machines to 55 gallon steel drums.

Check out a local copy of the video that freaks me out the most.

Jeez…. I might just have nightmares about this thing… So why am I blogging it?!!?

I haven’t tried it yet but others say it works. Windows is playing a little catch-up here… Unix had symbolic links in 1973 and it’s not a clever hack… it just works. Junction Link Magic

Hard links too with NTFS Hardlink Shellextention.

Go to these websites, type in your name and they’ll tell you if there are any state “unclaimed monies” due to you. My friend Jen saw that I was owed money by the University of Massachusetts and gave me a call. I haven’t actually be able to claim the money yet but, yes, it’s totally legit.

National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators
MissingMoney.com

update 3-18-05: Yup, the University of Massachusetts owes me about $600. I just have to provide my current address at the time. Ack! I don’t remember the exact address so I’m asking some MA friends if they can help out.

update 9-10-14: It turned out that the money owed was because the registrar didn’t know to apply a payment to a class I took way back in the ’90’s. So they turned the check over to the state. This actually turned out to be useful because it helped me deduce why I couldn’t get my transcript from them when applying to grad school! The State of Massachusetts owed me $653 and University of Massachusetts wanted $653 before they’d release my transcript. We sorted it all out.

My trip to the bay area went very well. I got to meet up with a great variety of people, see a lot of the sights and get a real feel for the place. Since there’s so much to say, I’ll just spit this all out in no real order (if you want a good story, go buy a book… this is my life and my life is a mess)

I may add more to this later so check back…

The North-eastern corner of Lake Merritt in Oakland had a really really nice vibe. S.H. took me there and I couldn’t get the grin off my face at how nice it was there.

My brain was agape when Geo rattled off more than 10 organizations in the Bay Area devoted to cool things like fire and industrial arts. The best example I know if is The Crucible but it is certainly not the only one.

I’m amazed at how much the area from Santa Cruz to San Francisco is ruled by geography. In NJ, you can plop down a house or strip mall pretty much wherever you want but in San Fran… for example, hardly anyone lives in Fremont because it’s mostly wetland or steep hills. People try to live on the sides of mountains that, frankly they shouldn’t try to live on, especially considering the prevalence of earthquakes. But there are limits to even aggressive building practices… many structures are very close to large beautiful forests, mountains, oceans and the like. It’s an odd but fairly satisfying mix. Drive an hour in any direction and you’re among real nature. From my house now, if you drive an hour, you’re in either a city, suburbs, or sub-suburbs (east, south, north or west)

Housing is expensive… Mostly a bit more than Brooklyn. Expect to buy for $500,000 per bedroom. 1 BR $1,000+, 2BR $1500+, 3 BR $2000+. Bargains below this ($700-9000) can be had in various housemate situations.

Some people think Computer Guy would do great in the area, some people are…. not so sure. I’m not so sure. :-(

My hosts were all great. A big thank you to S.H., Tree, Brillig, G,

I am in the DNA Lounge in San Francisco.

Hey Trav, I was in The Crucible earlier tonight checking out a presentation about a monster fridge and teched-out sailboat and who walked by but Geo! I know 5 people in San Francisco and bump into 1 by accident! How about that?