my day in review (fri 12apr2002)

[chris raettig <chris@raettig.org>]

i was awake until the early hours this morning. riding a wave of motivation
(as apposed to a wave of mutilation) regarding a much neglected programming
project i wanted to finish off. sensory deprivation is very good for focus. i
spent an hour lying in silence with my eyes closed. building a complete mental
map of what i wanted to achieve. rolling it around in my head until i
understood it from every angle. when i started writing the code flowed from my
fingers. it was a tremendously gratifying process. i felt like i was standing
in front of a room full of people, reading elloquent verses of poetry without
pause, and making it up as i went along. 

i awoke at a little past lunchtime and returned the assorted phonecalls i had
missed while asleep. i then caught up on my email. there has been a lot of
feedback about my new site layout and architecture, and about my postings
regarding geek tour, the virtual browser test suite, the web industry, and
love. i'm very pleased with the amount of interest generated (though always
welcome more) and this is starting to shape my plans. there was also a large
amount of email relating to two rather controvertial fridgelist postings i
wrote on wednesday but forgot to moderate out to the list until yesterday
morning. a good week for continuing conversations. 

i had arranged to meet someone at the old orleans bar in the 02 center at 3pm.
this is a bar i had once sworn never to frequent again after they strongly
objected - after several months of saying nothing - to my semi-regular
sessions of playing 'go' there. on the grounds that we /might/ be gambling. my
go partner that night had a deeply entertaining argument with the proprietor
which was always going to lead nowhere. all future sessions have been held
at the adjacent american bar where go playing is now officially sanctioned by
management, and they serve a mean chocolate mousse. 

but i still find some strange quirky charm to old orleans, not least because
they mix the best white russians in town. it also has the great blessing of
being profoundly unpopular. which makes it a great place for quiet friday
afternoon chats without being mobbed by the friday night drinking crowd.
it is a tacky artificial environment within the absurd disneylike mock-natural
environment of the 02 center. it appeals to some random part of me. 

i arrived early so i could plug in my laptop and review some documents i've
been writing. it was a little after 3pm when adam turned up. 

adam is an amiable geek with a very sharp intellect and the requisite facial
hair. he is also the founder of a quite exciting startup company the details
of which i'm sure he'd rather i keep quiet about. however it is one of the
most well conceived and credible startup ideas i have heard in a long time,
and his determination, sane-headedness and keen awareness make me believe he
has a greater than average chance of success. 

a mutual friend who studied with adam at cambridge sent him my way some time
ago though this has been only our second face to face encounter. 

i had expected our meeting to last about an hour. officially our topic of
discussion was to be whether i wanted to join this startup and what role i
would assume. however after a detailed and tangential initial conversation
about our mutual motivations, the nature of motivation and - in passing - the
meaning of life, we became rather chatty. 

five and a half hours later we finally returned to the subject in hand and 
hastily agreed that i would pay a visit to cambridge next week to spend a 
day with his team. adam then had to rush off to meet his connecting train and
i had to find some food to counter the curious affect of alternating between
coffee and white russians. 

it was five and a half hours well spent, in my book. a set of very interesting
conversations covering more subjects and in more depth than i can possibly
summarise. from the state and future of the i.t. industry and technology, to
the ideal computer interface, to sociology, people management, programming
languages, operating system development, the failings of barcoding systems,
self-manipulation, depression, life philosophy and any number of other things.
with no letup. no pauses. frequently interjecting each other, shouting each
other down, laughing, bringing up appropriate material on one of the two
laptops conspicuously sat on the table in front of us. taking conversational
tangent after conversational tangent before finally attempting to
systematically un-nest and reel-in every tangent. closing all of our opening
brackets. 

it left me enthused, but mentally tired. i went shopping then decided to work
off some excess energy by going for an impromptu and spirited skate around the
chaotic territory of mid-friday-evening cricklewood broadway. it must have
been an unusual sight to see while drunk; a high speed lanky geek gliding
around corners, long-limbs flailing. white trousers with flashing red lights.

it was bloody cold out there, though.

i am reminded that its almost the skating season. so to the small group of
people who i have suggested summer skate sessions to; lets get it together
soon. 

i was hoping to spend a productive weekend writing code. there are many things
to do, not least of which are the new site structure for warm company and some
server modifications for acava. but it looks like i will be fitting this
coding around a framework of other commitments. 

tomorrow (saturday) i have been invited to my second barbeque of the year.
this time a pleasant surprise invitation from dan. ("there will be meat! there
will be fish! there will possibly be cheesy comestibles! and maize cobs!").
dan and i have something of a history of brainstorming incredibly silly ideas.
one of these was the original concept behind the 'ischrisdead.com' website.

on saturday evening i have a v-shift, so sunday looks like my best chance to
get some warmco coding coded. another friend has hinted at the possibility of
arranging a drinking session including myself and some geek friends of his.
which would provide me with the unmissable opportunity to further brainstorm
geek tour. 

next week i need to be focused on arranging 'studio visits' at showstudio, and
making sure we obtain some new webcam equipment. its going to be a busy week,
though i've just about finished riding the latest wave of interest in
corporate anthems so i should be much less distracted than i have been of
late. 




hmmm... i was going to get an early night, tonight.