This was my day today. Not bad, I guess...
5:00 am: After having been awake for a number of consecutive hours not previously thought possible, finally get the chance to go to sleep.
11:00 am: Awake to the sound of a voicemail notification. Not surprisingly, a reporter.
11:15 am: Speak with an out-of-town newspaper reporter about LoadPod, via telephone. Plug billpalmer.net as much as possible during the interview. ;)
11:30 am: Come across this article about my former school district, which was always split about 70% Mac and 30% PC. Find out that the district's new Chief Technology Officer has plans to "put more Apples into classrooms" and "wants to move towards an all-Apple shop." Smile so wide, I nearly start crying. My old district had been tortured by non-stop threats of some kind of Dell-based coup or another, for my entire five-year tenure. And now, it seems, that the long nightmare has finally come to an end for my many friends and colleagues in that district.
11:40 am: Find out from a reader that the August 9th issue of BusinessWeek magazine, which features LoadPod and iPod Garage, has begun appearing on newsstands in some areas.
11:55 am to 12:45 pm: Find out the hard way that there's not a single store in my little hometown that actually carries BusinessWeek magazine. Give up looking for the time being.
1:00 pm to 6:00 pm: Spend five hours as a volunteer at a local elementary school, breathing new life into ten slot-loading G3 iMacs that had seen better days. Realize that it's been so long since I've worked with OS 9, that I barely even remember where things are. Resort to relying on an old article of mine in order to recall just what it is one does to "breathe new life into an aging G3 iMac." Thank myself profusely for including in that article the direct links to all of the various OS 9-related software updates. Use my laptop to show off MacOS X, Keynote, and the iApps to a classroom teacher who seems very interested in getting to that point eventually.
6:00 pm: Make plans to come back to the same school on Thursday to help that same teacher implement some OS 9-based strategies and lesson plans, and also to spend that afternoon teaching some Kindergartners in another classroom how to use the computer (on their very first day of school, no less).
6:15 pm: Leave the school realizing that this whole volunteering thing could be a whole lot of fun and really worthwhile. Make note to self to make time to keep doing this, even when I seemingly don't have the time to do so (such as, let's say, right now). Chew on the irony of the fact that of all the times that this school could have chosen to recruit me as a volunteer, it ended up being this week, when I've never been so busy in my life. Realize that being busy isn't necessarily a bad thing. Smile widely.
6:30 pm: Arrive home. Fend off the urge to take a nap. Slog through an unbelievable amount of LoadPod-related email. Forget to eat dinner.
7:30 pm: Head out to the next town, in search of a store that carries BusinessWeek. Decide to drive past the old Target in east Kissimmee, in favor of heading to the brand new Target that just opened in west Kissimmee.
8:00 pm: Find out the hard way that the brand new Target in west Kissimmee hasn't actually opened yet.
8:30 pm: Stop off at a relative's house in order to drop off a computer cable. Decide to stick around for an impending rocket launch that ended up not happening (please don't ask, the entire thing simply defies explanation).
9:30 pm: Find my way to the Virgin Megastore at Downtown Disney, which just happens to have the August 9th issue of BusinessWeek on its shelves. Stand there for way too long, staring at the article and smiling (page 72, if you're wondering). Wait in line behind twenty-five other customers, just to buy a copy of the magazine. Note the irony of the fact that usually, this store never has anyone in line buying anything.
10:15 pm: When I'm nearly home, suddenly remember that I haven't eaten dinner. Decide to actually eat out for once. Struggle to find a place in this town that's actually open past 10 pm. End up heading back west to the Wing House. Ponder the fact that it's owned by a former pro football player whom I've never heard of.
10:20 pm: Decide to honor the request of the cute barmaid who insists that I abandon my table and eat my dinner at the bar, which is otherwise entirely empty. Decide that she's clearly interested in me when she asks me my name, proceeds to tell me her life story, and then sits there and watches me eat. Clearly, she reads BusinessWeek, and she knows that I'm somebody important.
10:55 pm: Have my momentary delusions of grandeur shattered when she walks back past me and asks me, "Was the food OK, Tim?" Realize that this is just an appropriately bizarre ending to a bizarre day, and decide that it's best not to correct her.
11: 20 pm: Arrive home, begin working on today's updates to my websites. Hey, I've got thirty-nine minutes left before the day's over, that's plenty of time. Wonder what I'm gonna write about?
