Finally.

I have comments. And they are 100% homegrown and handwritten. I owe thanks to my old boss Terry for letting me host my scripts and database on his machine. I hope my code meets all your feedback needs. The layout is largely stolen from other comment generators and the code is entirely new. If you have any suggestions or requests for the comments let me know. Also, tell me if it's not working properly. Happy commenting.

I was reminded today that life is full of surprises and disappointments. An example of a surprise would be getting a check in the mail for nearly $3000 with your name on it. An example of a disappointment would be realizing that the check was a mistake and must be returned. Such is the culmination of a rather frustrating saga for me. Over three weeks ago I faxed a rather overdue set of timesheets to the financial guy of our company. For a couple weeks I waited thinking the check was in the mail. Late last week I started to get worried because rent was due so I tried unsuccessfully to contact our finance guy. On Sunday he got back to me and I was alarmed to learn that my check was not in the mail. In fact, not only had the paycheck not yet been written, but the accountant hadn't even been instructed to write one. On Monday morning I contacted the accountant to confirm that the finance guy had emailed them the previous evening as he said. I was told that he had given them incomplete information and they were waiting to hear back from him. I was promised a return call in a couple hours. Two days later I get a call from the accountant telling me that they finally did hear back from the finance guy but couldn't write the check right away. However, they promised me it would be in the mail by the end of that day (Wednesday). Sure enough they didn't mail it until yesterday and today it arrived in my mailbox. They arrived, to be specific. Two checks were sent, one for less than the amount they owe me and the other for nearly $3000. The first is not enough and the second is clearly a mistake. I suppose I'll have to settle for the small check for now until I can get refunded. Though, it was extremely tempting to cash the large check since I'll be in Vegas next weekend.

Last night was poker. Again, a rather delinquent announcement was sent out mere hours before the game. Amusingly all of the beer showed up early and most of the people showed up late. For a while we thought that 3 of us would be stuck with over 10 beers a piece. As people showed up the games became heated and many a mighty hand was taken down. I, sadly, was not among the big winners of the night.

Today's quote:
George W. Bush to Iraq: The game is over.
French PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin to Bush: It's not a game, it's not over.

Today both my brothers are on a 700 mile road trip down to Memphis. While I'm not envious of going to Tennessee I do miss hanging out with my brothers and road trips are always adventurous. Alex will be auditioning tomorrow for various theaters and handing out pictures of himself. No, not naked pictures. They arrive back Sunday and the following day is Alex's birthday. If any of you wish to send him birthday greetings his email address is acox [at] acs.wooster.edu.

In case you haven't been informed, I am the Universal Point of Contact. Shane declared this long ago and it seems to have stuck. Should you need to leave a message for someone you don't know the location of, call me and hopefully they will also call me and pick up the message. Sometimes this has resulted in strangers calling me unexpectedly. Thus is the burden of being the UPC. Usually the message gets through. For instance, today I got a call from a guy stranded in Orlando who gave me a message which was later picked up by a guy calling me from Puerto Rico. Crazy, no?

This week held an interesting piece of news for me. The country in which I was born no longer exists in any form. Yugoslavia is no more. Since 1991 my birthplace has been located in a different country after Croatia declared independence. The ensuing war left four of the original republics of Yugoslavia independent. This week the remnants of the Yugoslavia abolished the old country and declared the new union of Serbia and Montenegro. When mapmakers next update their maps, the country listed on my birth certificate will be found only in history books.