There aren't many movies that I know I will buy before I leave the theater, but Amelie is one of them. So good.

The laundromat near my warehome is a really poor excuse for a business. As I had to spend a couple hours there today, I did some looking around. 55% of the dryers were out of order, and 40% of the washers. One of the change machines was out of change and the other was broken.

As I sat there reading my Issac Asimov short stories, the one thing about the laundromat that made me smile was the twit who walked in and proceeded to put all her dirty whites into a washer that had a huge sign on the front that read, "OUT OF ORDER." Not to be deterred by the sign, she emptyied the last of her detergent into the washer and headed for the change machines.

Again, not one to read signs, she tried putting a dollar into both machines. First the one with the "no change" light lit returned her dollar. The one with the "OUT OF ORDER" sign on it just ate the dollar and gave her nothing in return. She left in a huff to get change from the 7-11 next door. Only when she came back did she realize that she now had some very sticky laundry in a non-functional washer, and that she was out of detergent.

It was a thing of beauty.

And her boyfriend gave her a "you numbskull" look that was priceless.

Spy Game was entertaining, if rather heavy on the stupid camera sweeps. I think fun cinematography can really spice up a film, but it's got to be done in moderation. Look at Contact, for instance, where they threw in subtle camera tricks all over the place just for fun [watch the girl run up the stairs, round a corner, then down the hall - all through the reflection in a mirror?].

Spy Game basically had two cinematographic goodies that it hits you with over and over and over. But Brad Pitt is still a hottie and Robert Redford still, as in Sneakers, makes a great spook. You might say he was a Natural.

The 2001 Leonid Meteor Shower, probably the most intense meteor shower I will ever witness. And what a way to see it.

Alex knew of a good private beach in Little Compton, Rhode Island that we could get onto. The Cruftlabs denziens plus a bunch of assorted friends packed up some munchies, a lot of warm clothes, and blankets. The peak of the meteorite activity was at about 5:00am local time, so we gathered in a parking lot on campus at 2:30. To stay warm we pushed Alex's battered station wagon around the Kresge parking lot.

It took awhile to get everyone together, but by 3:00 we were on the road for the 1.5 hour drive. I was in the car with Mikkel, Lin-Z, and Erin. I think I spent the whole trip looking out the sunroof and craning my neck to get a good view up. Even while driving through the city we could see the occasional meteorite.

Our three-car caravan pulled into a very exclusive-feeling beachfront property and parked by the dunes. Once outside the car, the full extent of the meteor shower was apparent. There were many within view every minute. The sound of waves crashing came up over the dunes. Being relatively unaccustomed to the sea, I thought it was just wind blowing through the brush. There was a strong smell of kelp.

We walked out onto the beach, layed down the blankets, and everyone just packed in next to each other like sardines to keep warm. The temperature was well below freezing and there was a lot of wind.

We were far enough from Providence that there was very little light pollution. The sky was not as clear as I've seen it in Los Alamos, but it was orders of magnitude more clear than in Boston. For a long time, everyone was so overwhelmed with the meteorites that every single one would bring out an "oh! there's another one!" But after awhile, as the frequency of impacts increased, they came down so often that there wasn't time to point them out.

At the peak, just before sunrise, there was more than one meteorite visible per second. It was amazing. It really looked like rain. Over the course of morning, we saw several that exploded like flashbulbs and some that left wide plasma tails that persisted for minutes. We also saw what I believe was the ISS passing overhead and a number of other satellites.

The best meteor shower I had seen before today was the 1999 Persieds from Los Alamos, but even then it was only on the order of several visible per hour. This was really the first time I would consider them to be showering.

It was deeply moving.

Eventually Venus rose and the eastern sky started to brighten. The added light gave me a better view of our surroundings. The beach was relatively small and flanked by large outcroppings of rocks that shot out into the water. We climbed out onto the rocks and watched the sun rise from this new vantage point. Everyone was so mezmerized by the still very active meteor shower and the glowing eastern sky that everyone just stood there motionless and silent on the rock.

The image of all those solitary figures standing on a thin rock ridge surrounded by ocean, staring off into the sunrise reminded me of a very intense dream I had once and I was lost in thought for awhile.

Eventually the entire sky brightened, swallowing the stars. With only Jupiter and Venus left, I saw the last meteor of the morning explode with a red plasma tail, directly overhead. The sun rose and there was applause.

Today's APotD was exciting enough to finally displace the giant plutonium button from my desktop.

Big day. I met Meg in person for the first time, after having an AIM friendship for over a year. And over the course of the afternoon and evening she proceeded to completely impress the crap out of me.

Hearing someone so articulate, who never says "uh", who has good ideas spilling out of her ears, and seems poised to do important meaningful work and do it well makes me feel like a big nerdy fud.

I could go on for some time about the extent to which an evening's listening to Meg has fostered respect for her, but that would only further my fuddy-duddiness. Anyway, suffice to say that she said a lot of stuff that made me think and inspired me - and that is so valuable.

Cameron gave Meg a tour of the Media Lab while I tagged along, and they talked for a long time about weblogs and their work. Between the tour of the lab facilities and the descriptions of the work that goes on, I think we sold her on wanting to come here for grad school.

Then I gave Meg a general tour of the MIT campus, including the rocket team office [no laughing, she's actually interested in it, it wasn't just me being a dork]. We met up with her friend Cory and the three of us had dinner at a Caribbean place in Central Square.

Cory, it turns out, is also brilliant and great to talk to. I wanted to contribute something cool to the evening so I took them over to the ambulance garage where everyone was setting up for tonight's big party, hoping to give them a demo of Frostbyte's LED towers. Unfortunately they weren't ready to go yet so we headed over to Cory's hotel for drinks and more chatting.

It was at this point that I learned, among other things, the extent to which Meg cooks amazing food and that my friend Jason, her boyfriend and, as it turns out, a total idiot, doesn't eat any of it. Kottke, what are you thinking? She cooks what sounds like amazing food and slaves over it for hours, and then you microwave up some Stouffer's?? ;)

Anyway, Cory was asleep on his feet so he went to bed and Meg and I headed back to the party to see the lights which were now in operation. She stayed for about 2 minutes and then headed home herself, also exhausted. The party was way over-crowded by about midnight and I was too tired to really enjoy it, though it was good to see Courtney again for the first time in months.

We have hot water!

The drywall on the Alex/Albert wall is now 50% done and the Albert/Mouser wall is about 75% done. When I left last night they were starting to install the shower. Yay!

More fun warehouse news! The floor collapsed and the entire place was overrun with torch-weilding leprechauns.

And back in the real world, what actually happend was that we located our power meter, allowing Nstar to come activate the rest of our freakin outlets. Also, the plumber is coming Friday morning at the butt-crack of dawn to activate our hot water. The amennities are piling up here! This place'll be a luxury craphole within no time.

Oh, and we killed two mice - viva le groceries!

AND the building owner expressed an interest in renting the big empty space next to us out to more people like us [read: our friends] for ultra-cheap. Sweetzor!

Today marks the first appearance of wall-like objects in the warehouse. We hung the first few pieces of drywall on the studs. Alex says he wants to finish most of his room by the end of this weekend. Perhaps I can do likewise.

All I need are some concrete anchors and I'll be ready to attach my doorframe to the pillar. Once that's done, I'll be able to finish the front wall studding. Moments later, I'll have drywall and a room. Still need to work out how we're going to get power into the rooms and from where, though.

Tomorrow the super comes by to get the hot water situation resolved. Woo! That's one our major stumbling blocks right now. When that's done, we will have a green light for hot shower action [literally]. And that means I can stop wearing out my welcome on Tetazoo.

After a breif hiatus, the Mousercam lives. Now beaming straight to your eyeballs live from my office in NW12. This as a result of finally retrieving my linux box from the evil clutches of my former roommate Evan. And now that polychoron is back in action, I have exactly 1000 cold-cranking megamahertz of SETI@home action. Track my meteoric rise to fame on the MIT team stats (and see me pass rob99!).

Unfortunately, due to the NED computer services lady being hopelessly incompetent, I am forced to call it MIGHTYMOUSER.MIT.EDU. Oh, the humanity.

Another weekend, another rocket launch. Still no waiver. I've been done with the Nerd Magnet for a month now and have still had no luck finding a place to launch it.