19 July 1999: "I'm Not Quite Dead Yet!"

Monday, 19 July 1999:

"I'm Not Quite Dead Yet!"

The car started this morning, fortunately. And, I noticed something odd as I was driving to work: When the engine revved up high enough, the battery light would start to flicker, and then go off entirely. And then come back on when the RPMs went down.

I also checked the battery, wondering if it's the kind you put water in (I had one of those once, actually), and maybe it was dry. But it wasn't. It did, however, have a little indicator which said when it's green then it's properly charged, and then it's black, then it's not. It was green. So, if the indicator is to be believed, apparently things were more-or-less okay.

So I took the car back to the garage, and, not surprisingly, the alternator was bad. Since it was under warranty, they replaced it for free. (Woo-hoo!) But, when I picked it up at the end of the day, the battery light was still on. It turns out that they checked out the power system, and the battery seems fine, and the alternator seems fine, but the light is still on. So I'll bring it back tomorrow and they'll try to figure out why. It doesn't seem like there's a whole lot it could be, except maybe the indicator itself. Eesh.

But, this is not dissuading me from buying a new car. I think this is a sign, and I think that the repair bills are going to start mounting with this car from now on.

Plus, I'm starting to get excited by the prospect of having a car with some actual power in its engine. And maybe even having A/C!

I finished a project at work that I've been working on on-and-off for a week or so, and was pretty psyched to finally get working. I grabbed my boss and showed it to him, and he said, "Cooool." That's one neat thing about my job: I can do cool stuff, and I'm not yet jaded about the stuff I'm doing or the tools I'm working with. It had been a while since I had really felt I'd done something cool at Epic, when I left.

Also, Apple reported a $200 million profit for the past fiscal quarter, which turns out to be enough for Apple's profit-sharing program to kick in for the quarter. So this week I should get a nice sum on top of my regular paycheck.

May there be many more!

Have I mentioned that I finished reading Lois McMaster Bujold's novel Komarr? It's about as good as its predecessor, Memory, and not as good as many earlier in the series. In it, Miles Vorkosigan is assigned to investigate a disaster that's befallen the planet Komarr, which his homeworld of Barrayar has conquered in his father's generation. And he uncovers a peculiar anti-Barrayar conspiracy, as well as a Vor woman with whom he falls in love.

The story's tension only really builds towards the end of the novel, and we really don't learn all that much about Komarr (unlike, say, the exotic locale of Cetaganda). It seems clearly a set-up for Miles to head towards getting married sometime in the next book or two. And, really, Memory seemed like something of a set-up as well. It was entertaining, as always, but a sub-par entry in the series.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)