Lots of great food and lots of dancing. =) I was a bit shy about
dancing in the beginning, but once the sugar and the vibe hit, I was
all in.

During one of my rest breaks, I managed to sit down next to what was
probably the only other Emacs person in the room. How did I find out?
Well, we started talking about courses, and then he asked me what
programming languages I use, and I said Lisp, and he asked if that was
the language used for Emacs, and I was like… whoa. =)

He then proceeded to tell me about his only gripe about Emacs – lack
of on-the-fly spellchecking.

… and I of course proceeded to tell him about emacswiki.org and
flyspell.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Even though I was dressed to the nines
(black velvet floor-length gown with red satin ribbons/and paper
roses), I was still a geek…

Awesome fun. Totally worth it. Met interesting people, too. =)

I had been grumbling about it for all of five minutes as I fiddled
about with various settings, finding it completely unfair that newer
residents got hooked up to the Internet in _one_ day, whereas I've
been waiting for _three weeks!_

My roommate helpfully noted that she'd had connection difficulties
before. Apparently, the jacks in our room were miswired. I scribbled a
note on one of my index cards, packed my laptop, a patch cable, and a
book, and decided to head over to Robarts Library to see if I could
get a connection.

On my way out, I ran into Trevor, one of the CS guys I met over
Scrabble and Go.

And… he was holding a sheaf of network activation requests.

Ding! So the mysterious network activation person was _not_ a quirky
and selective PhD student on a long vacation.

I told him what my roommate told me. He nodded sagely and said he had
hooked _both_ ports in just five minutes ago.

Yay!

Well, there goes all of my night-time strolls. <laugh> I need to
get a really long cable or set up my wireless card so that I can chat
with people in the evenings (morning in the Philippines), although
Skyping from the lab is still best for people's schedules.

WHEE!

Internet!

Well, that sucks. Apparently, the reminder I got in my e-mail is a
generic reminder sent to everyone at Graduate House, not a
welcome-to-the-Internet sort of thing. Maybe I should volunteer to
help maintain the network, if only so that other people will get
connected faster. I really, _really_ want to get connected!

I could go to school today, but I don't know if anyone will be in the
lab and my ID doesn't open the door to the room with my cubicle yet.
Hey, wait, I have access to that other room… Right. If by 8:30, I
don't have access yet (and fat chance anything will change between now
and then), I'm going to head over to school and Skype from the lab.
Mwahahaha.

My network connection in the dorm has been activated, too! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Hmm. 1.5 gigabit weekly bandwidth limit, though. I _may_ end up
Skyping from the lab early in the morning, then…

E-Mail from Rebecca Spagnolo

It may be the height of summer, but the temperature of the Bahen IT
building allows me to wear crisp long-sleeved blouses. Which is why I
doubled my efforts to find the Mythical Ironing Board said to inhabit
the common room.

Right by the door, my roommate said. From the elevator, turn left, go
straight, and go in. By the sink, another said. Somewhere there.

I looked everywhere for anything that vaguely resembled an ironing
surface. I found an outlet near the sink, but the white plastic didn't
look like something I should be ironing my clothes on.

Nope.

Up and down. Asking for directions.

On my sixth trip down, I finally collared someone and asked him if he
could please explain to me exactly where the mythical ironing board
was supposed to be.

He walked back with me, opened the door, and said, “It's right
th… Hey. Hmm. It's not there.”

Well, at least I know it doesn't really exist.

Mom, could you bring me an ironing pad? Something small I can use in the room.

Yay! I don't have to worry about not being able to make it to office
hours! I can move into the Graduate House in the evening!

That's a relief. Now I just need to get that darn visa and sort the
rest of the stuff out…

E-Mail from Tara Bunting