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From what I remember:

Wife and I are on a vacation to Mexico.  We meet another couple we know.  We say hello, pleasantries and all that, then go different ways.  The city we are in has a very carnival atmosphere, only a Mexican carnival (whatever that means).  We meet the same couple again, decide to hang out together.  It starts getting late we try to find a hotel.  We find a place, but when we ask for rooms, we are told there is only one big room with lots of beds.  The manager shows us around.  All the beds are king sized beds, put next to each other, but separated by curtains.  He pulls back all the curtains one by one to introduce us to the people staying in the beds.  Somehow this seems important to him.  But we decide to go elsewhere.

Fast forward.   We find some person’s house to stay.   We spend the night.  But the next morning the owner of the house comes and says that one of us tried to hit on his teenage daughter and so he will punish us.  Flash forward and wife and I and the other couple are tied to a giant slingshot, where the crazy man is going to shoot us far into the sky to kill us.

The Beatles Hey Jude starts playing.  I wake up, realizing that wife is really playing the song downstairs while eating breakfast.  Hey Jude keeps going through my head all morning.

If you clock out early, and by early I mean anywhere from 45 to 2 seconds early, and your boss not only cares but sends you an email and gives you a "personal development issue", then you know your job sucks.  Observe:

Hi Ben,

It looks like you clocked out early (but within the last minute of shift) 3 times in the last pay period.  Please be sure to use the PIE time as reference when clocking out, and be sure it has clicked over to the top of the hour before doing so.  The professional development issue below has been entered into your performance record as a friendly reminder.  Just let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Ms. Manager

Ben checked out of three shifts early this past pay period. All of these checkouts were in the last minute of shift and he was never pointed for an early checkout. This is a friendly reminder that consultants are expected to observe PIE time and check out after their shift has ended. The shifts were:

· 12:00-16:00 on 9\8 in Ashton; checked out at 15:59:14

·  12:00-16:00 on 9\15 in Ashton; checked out at 15:59:58

·  12:00-16:00 on 9\19 in IC2; checked out at 15:59:58

Yes, that’s right ladies and gentlemen.  My manager decided it was prudent to spend the time emailing me and assigning me a "personal development issue" for clocking out 2 seconds early twice and 46 seconds another time.  2 seconds early.  Good grief.

Had a linear algebra exam this morning.  I was doing well up to the last problem when I got stuck.  You’ve had that happen haven’t you?  Something gets stuck in the cogs in your brain and higher order thinking grinds to a halt.  You see the page, you are aware of the problem and you know, somewhere in the recesses of your mind, is the answer you seek, if only the gears would start turning.  Time ran out on me this morning and not more than 10 minutes after turning in my test the wheels, as if freed from their obstruction, start spinning rapidly and I see, oh so clearly, the answer I needed 10 minutes earlier.  All I had to do was swap rows 1 and 3, then I could get the whole mess of a matrix down to reduced row echelon form and find the correct inverse.  D’oh!

Learning how to invert Matrices and having fun with reduced echelon form.

Expanding my classical music collection and attempting to correctly tag all the files.  I’m now re ripping my CDs to FLAC.  Hard drive space is cheap and expansive, why not have a bit for bit copy of the CD?

Still driving my little 49cc Honda Metropolitan around town.  I think I have around 3800 miles or so now.  Bought it with 400 miles on it, so that means that if I traveled at an average speed of 25 mph, I’ve spent 136 hours riding that little thing.  That’s a lot of trips back and forth to school and work.  And at an average of 100mpg, that’s only 34 gallons of gas.

Working of course.  Still at the Afghan restaurant and typing this as I work in the 2nd floor library computer center.

Just finished reading a Murakami book, Kafka on the Shore.  I enjoyed it, even if I don’t think I quite understood everything.

Jogging most mornings.  Don’t usually go too long now that school has started back.  I think my usual run is about 3.5 miles or so or around 30 minutes.

Read two very good books about running.  One was also by Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and also the very good Born to Run by Christopher Mcdougall.  Both worth a read even if you aren’t a runner.

Read the first Manga I’d ever read in my life, the last few chapters of Kenshin to be precise.  Much better than the end of the Anime, although I have to admit that the Samurai X prequel was awesome.  Or I should say the first 4 OVA was good.  Don’t think I’ll even watch the last 2 as it looks too sad an ending compared to the Manga.

Watching a lot of cool videos with Neil Degrasse Tyson.  Like this one.

Hmmm.. is this all?  It’s all the springs to mind at the moment.  Oh well, it wasted a good bit of time and now I can clock out, go home, change, and head off to job no.2 for the day.  I can go home, chill out, grab a nice beer in another 6 – 7 hours.