Man, what a weekend. I was simultaneously working on my new laptop (new laptop! I love my new laptop!), decimating my personal property ("Do I need 14 polo shirts? No. And I don't even wear them."), happily eating Crenshaw melon, but otherwise feeling really sluggish, unproductive, and confined-to-quarters - I love my aunt's house, but wish it was much closer to public transportation - and wishing I could make it into town for Mako & Mika's housewarming party, but having no way to get there.

After battling kernel modules and getting Feisty to boot consistently, I fired up wireless, installed Xchat, and headed for the #olpc-content channel for the first time in a long while. Chris (Crschmidt), Mitchell, Julius, and Adrian were talking about meeting up for a beer. I wished out loud I could come, but reckoned it wasn't going to happen because I didn't want to walk several miles to the under-construction Green line in the middle of the night. The next thing I knew, Chris had swooped out to pick me up, and we headed to The Cellar on Mass Ave to meet up with the rest of the crew. During the next 24 hours, I...

  • Hung out @ the Cellar playing with laptops and giving informal demos - such a good way to recruit new potential volunteers!
  • Went to the new Acetarium location (Mako & Mika's new place) in Davis Square, where I tried the worst blueberry-coconut smoothie ever (apparently vodka makes things taste bad) and saw SCUL riding down the streets of Somerville from the Acetarium's roof.
  • Decided we were hungry at around 3am. Piled into multiple cars, drove across town to the South Street Diner, consumed copious amounts of cholesterol-laden comfort food.
  • Crashed for all of 2 hours on one of Mako & Mika's many couches, bounded up refreshed at 7:30 ("Did you sleep?" "I don't usually, yeah.") and washed dishes from the night before as a relaixingly productive way to start the day.
  • After an amusing episode involving Mako's attempts to decide whether or not to wake up Ben Swartz, we headed for brunch at Johnny D's. They had excellent quesadillas and live Jazz music on a Sunday morning. I had my second bowl of cheese grits, which were delicious.
  • Spent the day replying to email, reading a book on typography, and (apparently) micronapping intermittently, all on the Acetarium's couch. Was reminded (via email/IRC) by Steve Longfield and Nikki Lee how much I miss long conversations with Oliners about randomness and learning and life. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone when they move back in on Tuesday.
  • Eventually headed out with Mika to meet the guys at Harvard Yard - ate chips & salsa and played a card game about bean farming, which is a lot more fun than it sounds like (and reminds me that I'm a terrible card player - although I ended up in a 3-way tie for second place).
  • Wandered down Mass Ave, bubble tea in hand, past throngs of people (including the closest-to-naked dancers I've ever seen) coming back from the Cambridge Carnival, which had apparently happened directly in front of the OLPC office. They were breaking down the booths as I went by, and the delicious smell of roasted meat and plantains was thick through the air.
  • Hit the 1cc OLPC office... and stayed.

Yeah, I spent last night at the office. And I wasn't the only intern to do so on a Sunday night. Rafael and Joel were there through most of it as well. I'm not sure if Rafael slept; joel and I both took naps on the couch. My couch-nap accidentally made me miss the MIThenge moon event at 4am, which I'd intended to wander off to as a break from slogging through a month of email backlog. Oh well.

Brain core dump finished - I just don't want to forget the mindblowing whirlwind that's been the past day. Back to backlog!

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