Two days ago, there was a sign in my office building’s lobby congratulating my division for exceeding its first-quarter revenue goal. Numerous delicious cookies and bright balloons accompanied the sign. Yesterday morning, my company’s stock opened about 3% higher than the previous day’s close on heavy trading thanks to a favorable reimbursement statement from a government agency.

Yesterday afternoon, my company issued an earnings warning. Its stock dropped nearly 11% in after-hours trading.

Today, at least three major investment institutions downgraded the stock. The stock closed down over 15% compared to the previous day’s opening, reducing the market cap by almost $10 billion.

On the upside, my company remains strong despite the miss. The options chain suggests that investors expect a rebound in the stock price in the not-too-distant future, so this is probably a buying opportunity. The company has weathered worse hits; 22 years ago, the stock dropped over 16% in a single day. Nowadays, the stock trades roughly 10,000% higher (split-adjusted) than that 1984 low. I’m not worried, just a bit frustrated.

I suppose it could be worse.

Last night, I attended Minnesota’s premiere drum corps event: Drum Beauty. Six corps performed: three senior corps and three division one corps. Minnesota Brass impressed the crowd with their creative program and tight execution. Of the D-I corps, I found the Cavaliers‘ show the most appealing. Titled “Machine,” a nod to their nickname “The Green Machine,” the Cavaliers’ show featured their trademark visual precision and musical prowess. When the show starts with the drum major doing the robot, you know it’s going to be good.

From what I understand, drum corps competition is highly political; thus, the winner of a contest can often be predicted prior to its start. So, when the scores were being read at the end of Drum Beauty, a murmur when through the crowd when the Cavies took silver. The winner? It was the Blue Devils, who beat the Cavaliers 86.080 to 85.500.

At 2:05 p.m. today, just after I sat down for a meeting, the power went out at my building. We tried to continue the meeting, but as the discussion centered on some complex flowcharts that were to be projected, we soon abandoned the effort. Twenty minutes later, word spread around the building: the powers-that-be were sending us all home for the day.

As I left the parking lot, I looked down the road and saw the likely culprit: a utility pole was leaning at an alarming angle over the road.

It can’t compare to the Auckland power crisis, but it was inconvenient nonetheless.

I just got my cable modem installed, and it’s great to be back. For the past few days, I’ve been mooching off of my neighbor’s wireless connection with my laptop. Now I’m back to my much-newer desktop computer, and it’s sooooo nice.

Comcast requires new customers to run some custom software in order to activate the connection. I tried to avoid it, but they seem to have things locked down pretty well. I sacrificed my laptop to the task and installed the bloated software. When that was done, I tried plugging my desktop computer into the cable modem in place of the laptop (my router hasn’t arrived yet). No dice. It seems that Comcast locked the connection to my laptop’s MAC address. Bah.

After a quick dive into the recesses of Windows on my desktop, I had my desktop’s NIC spoofing my laptop’s MAC address. Translation: internet internet internet!

Good times. It’s hard for me to imagine a world without the internet. I’ve been using it since 1994, and BBSes since 1993, so from my perspective it’s always been there. Granted, those first few years were experienced at a blistering 2400bps pace, but slow connectivity was better than no connectivity. I can remember spending an hour to download a 500kbyte file from a BBS. Nowadays, downloading a multi-gigabyte file at 500kbyte/s is no big deal.

I can’t wait for fiber-to-the-home.

As I look down from my new townhouse’s loft, I see an austere living room and a completely barren dining room. A short walk to my bedroom reveals only a bed and a hamper in its confines. The cupboards in my kitchen are similarly bereft of contents; while a few house multiple items, most contain only a token implement of cooking. It is a Spartan existence, but I am making do.

In my previous residences, I always stored most of my belongings in my bedroom. When that was the case, I felt that I owned an excessive amount of stuff. Now that I have an entire house to fill, my possessions seem woefully sparse. My only furniture was a couch and a bookshelf; for a couple of days, I didn’t even own a bed. In a telling act, my first furniture acquisition was a desk for my computer.

A quick call to Comcast should have been sufficient to hook the elixir of the Internet into the veins of my home. Should have been, but wasn’t. Due to a previous occupant not returning some cable equipment, Comcast insisted that I present myself at their office with a copy of my lease before they would grant me broadband service. That was bad enough, but then the rep had the audacity to wish me a “comcastic day.” What? I’ll tell you what would be comcastic: connecting me to the bloody internet without jumping through hoops. Arg. Comcastic. Is being “comcastic” even a good thing?

Although people seem to think that I now live out in the boonies, my commute is significantly shorter than it used to be. Whereas it was previously about 16 miles, it is now about 12. More importantly, the traffic patterns allow me to drive in without fighting stop-and-go traffic; thus, the four-mile savings is translated into ten minutes of extra time in the morning.

I find myself getting up earlier than I did in my previous residence. The driving force is simple: sunlight. Whereas my previous room was notably lacking in natural light, my new bedroom grants the sun full admittance. I find myself waking up rested and eager to face the day despite the clock reading 5:45 a.m. Winter might be a bit tougher, but I’ll enjoy the long days of summer while I have them.

I will have the opportunity to do something that I’ve never had occasion for in the past: throw a housewarming party. I’m a bit hesitant, but I think it would be good to do; if nothing else, it would force me to get more furniture in short order.