Lava Lamp

Irish Americans are about as Irish as black Americans are African.
-- Bob Geldof

Wednesday, May 12, 1999
One year ago: Full Series Pass
Two years ago: RTW = Release To Web

When I did my two-year anniversary entry a few days ago, I forgot to alter my template to add the two-year link. Today is actually the anniversary of the day I posted this journal! I did write a few entries before posting.

Our product ship gift this time is a lava lamp, with the product symbol etched in the glass. At first it didn't look like contractors would get them, but I guess there were extras, or someone higher up realized that it's better for team solidarity to include us, so we got email a few days ago that we should come to the admin's office and pick one up.

The ship gift for IE4 was a nice polarfleece pullover. I got one of those because my manager at the time gave me the one that would have been hers. She knew I'd enjoy having it, and she felt that she had enough logo'd clothing.

I like the lava lamp; it's hypnotic! Blue blobs drift up, then float down again. Here are the instructions (I didn't know one would need instructions for a lava lamp -- excuse me, lava lite!):

Optimum lava flow --

• Intial warm up of your lava lite takes 4-6 hours.
• Your lava lite will go through many different phases of lava action.
• Please allow 7 days of operation, 4-6 hours a day, to achieve optimum lava flow.
• If you have been running your lava lite and it starts to settle at the bottom,
  please do not be alarmed.
• If the lava continues to sit at the bottom after several hours of use, turn the lava lite off for an hour and restart. Remember, it takes 7 days of operating your lava lite, 4-6 hours a day to achieve optimum lava flow.

So now you know how to achieve optimum lava flow.

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I'm reading a grand book -- How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill. I need to look for Cahill's other books!

I'll bet you didn't know that the Irish saved civilization, but they did. During the Dark Ages, when barbarians had destroyed the Roman empire, the Irish monks, in love with language, copied away furiously, not just the scripture, but every book in Greek, Latin, and other old languages. Then when things calmed down, a hundred fifty years later, the monks took up the White Martyrdom and spread their monasticisim and knowledge back to the continent as missionaries. The Red Martyrdom was being killed for your faith; the Green Martyrdom was living in the woods as an ascetic; the White Martydom was leaving Ireland, the most cruel duty of all.

It's lovely, smooth reading, with great snippets from St. Augustine, St. Patrick, and many more. I'm loving it!

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I'd planned to go dancing tonight. I'd missed it on Monday and Tuesday through not feeling up to it, and sure enough, a wave of malaise passed over me at nine o'clock and I decided not to go. Maybe tomorrow night, then.