woops

The other night, as I was leaving my office, I ran into a security guy, who was locking up.

He asked for my ID, to make sure I belonged in the building (it was about 1am).

As we were both walking towards the door, he joked, "I just want to make sure I don't lock you in."

"Can you do that?" I asked.

"Oh, no, of course not." He said.

Then after a moment's pause:

"Well, not in this building at least. It happens at least once a week in Rush Rhees [the library]. Someone falls asleep in some corner..."

i am a professional time waster

To-do list for this weekend:

* Eat frozen custard by the lake
* Get a guidebook to Mexico and the Copper Canyon from the public library
* Sit on the grass in the shade in a sunny park, and read Claude Shannon's thesis
* Get some MDF, paint it, and finish up my neon project

Amazon has a deal where, if you sign up for their credit card, they give you $30 off your first amazon.com purchase (≥$30) with it. What should I get? A delightful gift basket of Dover Classics in Mathematical Physics (aka textbooks)? (Sadly, I think they may have caught onto my previous scheme, which was to register as an "affiliate" and then earn a 15% commission on books I recommended to myself.) Seriously, I'd enjoy some book recommendations. (And for the same, I recommend you befriend fourmilab_books.)

I updated my list of possible courses for next term with a partial textbook list.

I got my federal tax refund today. w00t! I haven't bothered to do my state taxes yet (for New York and California). It turns out you can get a four-month extension via a point-and-click interface in New York, and you don't have to do anything in California. The procrastinator in me rejoices! (is there any other part?)

!!!

Amazing thing just happened—one of the landlords whose house we were looking at turns out to be founder of http://genesee.coop/ and generally a maniac for all co-op ideas. We've met the right person!