Rovers, Job, Other

The Spirit Mars rover turned five today, and Opportunity will hit the same milestone on the 24th. Not bad for a 90-day mission.

I tried to go to work today, but there were already four people in the kitchen. I've been doing secretarial work (creating checklists, new menu, etc.) and the owner had some stuff I could work on at home. So I put in four hours on that and called it a day. I just don't see a happy ending here. If I had stayed at the cafe, there would have been eight employees total working in the cafe. That has to be close to $100/hour burdened labor when sales are optimistically about $500 a day.

Ah well. I got an e-mail from my adviser and I'm all set for college starting on January 26. I'm doing all six classes that I need for my degree between then and May 11, so if my job turns to crap or goes away completely, it will make my life easier. At least for getting homework done. Paying the bills might be another matter, but we'll hardly be alone in that.

John Travolta's son died Friday after apparently having a seizure, falling, and hitting his head. What would be tragic may turn out to be much more. Travolta and wife are practicing Scientologists and the son has a history of health problems that the parents have in the past treated with such standard claptrap as detoxification. Depending on what the autopsy turns up, this could get ugly. I don't know what sort of person John Travolta is, but I've enjoyed watching his acting since his Welcome Back Kotter days. The fact that he stays more or less out of the news means he is probably a fairly normal person who just happens to subscribe to a belief systems that is popular with the Hollywood crowd even while being seriously wacked.

I didn't include resolutions in my New Years Day post because I was barely conscious due to high fever. I normally don't in any case, or have a list like Bob Thompson's. But this year may be different. One year ago, I was 190 pounds. Then I started working around food all day and taking a half-dozen meds that all cause weight gain. That isn't their primary function, according to the label, but it's the only thing they do predictably. I am now over 230 again. The meds haven't really fixed what they were prescribed for, but they certainly made me fat. So I'll be working on that this year both for myself and as support for Debbie meeting her resolution.

And of course, completing my four-year college degree 27 years after I started it will be 2009's biggest achivement. Maybe I should just be happy with that.

Not much else happening. I got up our Christmas and Vegas photos. I want to try to get downtown this weekend if only to get out of the apartment for a bit. With some luck, I'll be doing some data gathering as well, about Macs and local scanning and printing services from some local artists. I also need to look into getting my parents into the digital photo age when they don't have a computer. I'm sure it's possible, but I haven't done it that way, so I have no clue about availability or cost.

Well, I need sleep.