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looks like i'm doing some work for SRM again. today todd and i ironed out the details and i'll be starting next week for the month of december, if not january as well, building a beta (and maybe beta will become gold). i increased my rates but since they figured the budget with my old figures, i'll be making less than usual; nevertheless, i took the project anyway. i didn't plan on doing any work in december, so this is all bonus income. save up some money for a rainy day or another extended vacation. the best time to travel is during winter (when it's cold here and warm elsewhere), but looks like i'm going to be working for most of the season. in the end this is good: in lieu of any social life, at the very least i can have wall-to-wall non-stop totally-wild freelance work to fill in that void. with just a month left in the year, this is what i have to look forward to.

today, i worked. then i went to the airport to pick up my parents, coming back from their 3-week trip to taiwan and china. by the time they got back to belmont, it was already dark. they had at least 4 suitcases, all to capacity, like smugglers coming back from a trading expedition. i got a ride home, along with a trash bag full of loot: fossilized fish from shenyang (my parents were also in harbin, they couldn't shower for two days because of the benzene contamination in the water system) and an bounty of taiwanese snacks (some of which were from my exchange student, who went to serve in the compulsory taiwanese navy on thanksgiving day).

i worked a few more hours when i got home. i was extremely jittery, couldn't stop moving, and it didn't take me long to realize that cup of dunkin' donuts coffee i bought from the airport must've had something to do with it. it did make me work more efficiently, not my usual attention-deficient manner. however, i like to do my work naturally, without artificial stimulants, warts and all. i finally stopped working when the "must eat food" light in my head lit up.

for dinner i had some sichuan mala-flavored ramen noodles from taiwan. thousands of miles away on the island of formosa, they're taking ramen to the next level. even when i was japan i didn't see the wide array of ramen flavors that you can find in taiwan.

nothing stands between me and the weekend except for friday. poor, lonely friday. friday's going to be in a world of pain if i don't put in a few more hours of coding tonight; whatever bugs i don't fix from now until i go to sleep, i'm going to have to finish up tomorrow. and if i don't finish any of them tomorrow, let's just say there's going to be a lot of hurt feelings this weekend.