IMR: 1998: December: 18

IMR: 1998: December: 18 — Friday, 10:56 p.m.
Our Apartment, Makiki, Hawaii

Another day, another geekly folly.
I found an unused Connectix QuickCam at work, and thought, "I wonder if I could set this up and point it at Aloha Tower or something and have one of those tacky office cams?"
But things were busy -- what with several APEC-related site updates and a farewell lunch for two of the interns -- so the furthest I got, before being ordered out at 4:10 p.m., was downloading some shareware utilities and printing out a few FAQs. In fact, I'm still not sure if the capture card and driver software are anywhere in the office.
Singled-minded as I often am, though, I wasn't content with having to wait until Monday for another chance to tinker. After Jen turned in, I set upon her computer cam -- a gift from her mom for the occassional video phone call -- on the off chance it would work.
It did. And there goes the neighborhood... literally.
Given the usual state of the apartment (and our frequent state of undress), I was never going to aim the cam indoors. I pointed it out our window at Makiki, toward Tantalus, and set it to update every two hours. (It won't update if Jen's online or on the phone, though.) At present, I don't even know how the picture's going to come out, because it's dark out as I type this. I also don't know where the picture will be used... if at all.
For now, at least I'll be able to feel at home anywhere in the world. Never mind that I'm rarely more than five miles away. Um.
Feh. We'll see how long this little project lasts.

The office went to lunch at a tex mex place at Aloha Tower Marketplace today (its name escapes me at the moment) to say goodbye to Anne and Charlie, two of our interns. Both of them, essentially, soaked up as much international business experience with us as they could, and are moving on to other adventures.
I'm going to miss them. Charlie, who was my roommate during the meeting in Los Angeles, always had a tale to tell from his many adventures on the high seas as a crewmember on both cargo and cruise ships. And next to Lacene, Anne was most willing to humor my constant rambling about Katie.
The office has already become disturbingly quiet, since both Lovisa and Abbie left us last week for Sweden and a new job, respectively. Indeed, over the past two weeks, all but one of our interns have left.
It's a regular ritual for the office, apparently, that comes with the close of every semester. But I've only been working there since September, and there had always been a crowd of interesting people in the intern office. So much so that when I was made staff, I decided to continue working in there, fire codes be damned.
Heck, I'd say anyone willing to work miracles without getting a paycheck is a pleasure to be around.
Now that they're gone, I probably will move to an actual office... with my own voicemail extension and everything.
Fortunately, I'll still see Anne now and then, as she's staying on informally to help us draft our big Internet Business Plan. For all the bragging she endured, she deserves to actually meet Katie someday soon.

One of the biggest surprises of the week was discovering Jaimee was in town.
We hadn't heard from either her or Nate for nearly two months. Oddly enough, the day before she called, I had wondered aloud about how they were doing. When I first heard the news, for whatever reason, I presumed the worst, that something had gone wrong.
Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
She was just home visiting family, and Nate in fact was invited (airline reservation and everything), but couldn't make it because of his job.
His new job. His extremely well-paying job.
If I've ever come close to buying into Jen's fantasy of moving to the Mainland, it was when I found out how quickly he got hired, and how much he was being paid. I love my job to death, but I'm working my ass off for 40 percent less in a town with a much higher cost of living.
As it is, according to all the fancy charts and graphs Microsoft Money has drawn for me, it will take us about three years to come anywhere near being self sufficient. That is, eliminating most debt and "momfare" support to just break even. With a fast-growing child in the family, I'm growing less and less comfortable living so precariously.
Anyway, suffice it to say, they were doing well. So was their cat.
A friend had earlier invited William, Jen, Katie and I to a small Christmas-esque pot-luck dinner, so I decided to bring Jaimee and surprise them. It took a great deal of effort to not say anything, but it was worth it. William had arrived late and I urged Jaimee to answer the door, and the look on his face was just priceless.
It was a good thing Jaimee came, actually, as William was leaving for Hilo two days later. With Jaimee returning to Portland on Christmas Day, the two of them probably won't see each other again for a while.
And, Jen realized this afternoon, today is Jaimee's birthday. So we better be able to see her again, for some sort of belated celebration.

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