An addendum to the previous entry: I had referred to my pseudo-nephew Evan as “energetic and very drooly”. Mom writes to remind me that “Just so you know, drooliness, well, spitting up more than drooliness, was one of your salient characteristics throughout most of your 1st yr.” Point taken. That and crankiness, of course. How little things have changed.

My dial-up ISP, Bowienet, had always given me a headache. I stuck with them for years, over the strenuous objections of Pat and Sam (who cleverly and subversively dubbed them “Slowienet”). I finally got fed up last week with their latest fiasco and switched to cable modem. I don’t care so much about the extra speed, but I like the fact that the connection is always on and people can call me at home when I’m connected. (Mom at least should be happy.) The “always on” thing freaks me out a bit though, so I configured the built-in OSX firewall. (The default firewall configuration is just to let everything through, which, in my primitive understanding of network security, is not good.) Also, the cable outlet is pretty darn far away from where I want the computer to be. Good thing I’ve got lots of CAT-5 cable just lying around. Knew it would come in handy some day.

As an added bonus, I’m also switching my local phone service to AT&T through the cable. I’ve been waiting for this moment for nearly three years. Pac Bell earned my ire by charging me for DSL that I didn’t have and never asked for. It took half a year to straighten things out. Then they did it again for another six months. Not to mention all sorts of minor irritations, like losing phone service because of faulty street wiring. (I took a look for myself — the sheaths had mostly rotted away.) And the lying. Let’s not forget the lying. The customer service people are wonderfully polite… but the lying — that really hurt. If you can’t trust a faceless representative from a giant corporation, who can you trust? Pat told me he’s surprised I’ve let this fester so long. I understand the Talmud advises us not to hold a grudge for longer than 24 hours, but I think the rabbis were talking about people, not companies. Besides, revenge is a dish best served cold.

In Other News: Laura and I took a tour of SLAC yesterday. (You kind of have to be on the same wavelength to know that when you ask someone to go on a date with you to see a particle accelerator, they’ll say “yes.”) It was a lot of fun. The grad student tour guide was very enthusiastic in a geeky sort of way, and he did a great job explaining some tricky physical concepts. The labs were of course bigger than anything I remember from Santa Barbara or even Lawrence Berkeley, but just as cluttered and messy. That’s the one thing the movies get wrong. You never see concrete floors, rusting rebar, long-forgotten pallets, or twenty-year-old workstations still humming away. Still, SLAC did have a five-story shaft with a catwalk, which is kinda like the movies. All they need to do is replace our tour guide with Matt Damon, add some chrome, spotless white corridors, and blinky flashy lights, and they’d be all set.