Sometimes I like to make shiny things. Like this little color thing:

If you’re reading this from a RSS feed, I don’t think the color thing shows up. You’ll have to visit the site to see it.

Change, change, change.

Work with my biggest client is tapering down, and come January I’m going to have a lot more time on my hands. What am I going to do with myself?

I installed OS X 10.6 Leopard this evening, and my computer is 61% more lickable. It’s shiny in ways I cannot describe.

The install was not as painless as I expected; there was something dramatically wrong with the drive on the iMac and I had to spend some time with fsck in single user mode before the install would work – there were a few moments where I wasn’t sure if the drive was going to pull through. Please note this wasn’t due to the install. The drive was messed up before, but it didn’t come to the surface until Leopard tried to install. The fact that I had to get so low level to fix the problem was frustrating, however. And V’s laptop is having its own set of install problems, which I will have to look at in more detail over the weekend.

The new OS is really nice, though. I had forgotten how much I missed reliable virtual desktops.

Popping my head up from piles of Things That Need Attending To. Please insert a sentence or two here with the general sentiment of “I’m really busy.” I’m sorry if I’m slow in getting back to people at the moment, feel free to prod me.

Saturday I rode over to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival, and sampled many delicious vegan treats and hung out with the vegan illuminati. I got a signed copy of the excellent Veganomicon from the dynamic duo of Isa and Terry. I also got to meet the legendary Josh Hooten of Herbivore. Later that night, these people and a many more went out for a magnificent dinner at The Elephant Walk in Cambridge. I was out late, but it was totally worth it.

The ever delightful tomh is visiting from the Ukraine for a week or so. He’s taken over the front room, and is helping with the dishes and generally being awesome.

The city is repaving the road on my street, so the sounds of heavy machinery and the smell of tar is wafting through the window. Sometimes I love living in the urbs.

One of the highlights of today was taking a 100 pound, 4 by 6 foot rubber mat out of the bed of the truck and hauling it downstairs. 100 pounds is a bit on the heavy side for me, but it would have been manageable if I could have picked it up, rolled, or folded it in any meaningful way. As it was, it was kicked, dragged and generally manhandled into its place in the basement. I was exhausted at the end.

I’m tempted to cash in and create “The Drag a Heavy Mat Around” workout system.

The Wilds Oats near my house is closing, to be reopened next Spring as a Whole Foods. I went to get stuff for dinner today and was met with nearly bare shelves and dozens of glum faces. They will be closed for good in the next few days, once the liquidation of stuff is complete.

I’m taking this unusually hard; it’s very convenient, sure, and I’m going to miss being able to walk to the grocery store in the winter, but more importantly I really liked shopping there.

Today was running from one meeting to another. I did manage to bake a cake in the morning before the mayhem began, but after that it was nonstop action.

I forgot my wallet for the crucial 15 minute lunch block between meetings, which was bad as I was eating out. In a totally unexpected act of generosity, the man at the restaurant insisted that he’d feed me on him today. I just about broke into tears at the register. Filled with food and kindness, I made it through the day.

I haven’t done much this weekend besides work. Today was pleasant in that for the most part it involved finishing things. My list of tasks is growing very slim indeed – the end is in sight! I should be able to wrap up quite a bit of what I’m doing by Wednesday, making way for some more fun projects in the following weeks.

Between eating well and exercising regularly, I still have a lot of energy, despite having programmed for so many hours.

This is my current wallpaper on my computer; I took the photo a few months ago, and fixed it up a bit to make it a good background. I’m spending a lot of time in front of the computer these days, so it might as well look nice.

Click the image to get the full 1920×1200 resolution image.

Guess who’s working his butt off? It’s me, that’s who! Fall is a busy time for this boy monkey, and while most of it is enjoyable stuff, it requires a lot of energy. Every time I finish one project, two more take its place. Madness!

I got an official body fat test today, and was measured to have 9% body fat. I am one lean man.