I've been a little stressed out lately. Never mind geopolitics, I have my first major project as a developer due
tomorrow.
Despite getting to work after 11 this morning and missing the team meeting (and I was worried about looking bad by being
late yesterday, because I had an errand to run before work), I actually pulled everything together and got everything
done by around 7 tonight. Which means I didn't actually work any overtime—which I disapprove of on principle, but in
this case, I figured I should to make up for all the slacking off I've done.
This feels really good, actually. I said I'd be done by the end of the month, and I'm done. People were willing to let
it slide (again), but I dug in and said "It will be done by the end of the month, dammit!" and lo, it was. They
doubted me, and I proved their doubts groundless. There's still some clean up work I should really do, but what I
promised I'd do, I did. Vindication! And it's kinda cool, too.
So I think I'll reward myself with a car. I deserve it, 'cuz I'm pretty darn amazing, if I do say so myself. :)
Okay, I don't actually have it yet. They didn't have the colour I wanted, so I'm picking it up when I go home for
Thanksgiving.
I bought a car on Saturday. I didn't really mean to, but I was getting sick of car shopping, so I decided to just go
with it. I didn't want to have to deal with another Mazda Guy. And I decided I really prefered to stick with my under $
20,000 rule. I think I made up my mind in May sometime, actually. Here's a picture:
No, that's not really a picture of my car, because I don't have that yet. That's from the brochure.
It's a 2002 Toyota Corolla CE plus. It's black. I didn't haggle very hard, but I did get free rustproofing, etc. out of
the deal. It's fast enough to scare my mom (which, admittedly, isn't hard). It could be neater (I couldn't convince him
to give me power everything for the same price), but it goes. That's good. I'm happy anyway. I'll make it neater by
putting a hula dancer on the dash board or something.
Okay, I'm better now. I haven't been coping the last few days. I've needed perspective and reassurance—things impossible
to find in the news media. I found them instead
in Larry Smith. Truly, he is my hero. I sat in on
his ECON 101 lecture last night. I've been meaning to do that for a few years now.
So I'm a bit better now. I'm going home this weekend, skipping out on anime-related festivities. I made a bit of an ass
of myself on Monday, and I don't want to repeat that. And, given the way things have been going lately, I can't see
hanging around the club making things better. I can see it making things worse.
![[Corolla]](/img/s8LK3wbX38-300.webp)