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i started the morning early working on some fixes for client J. the previous sysadmin informed me that the mysql database i requested was actually included in the drupal package dump he sent last weekend. i set up the database but things still weren't quite working yet. the problem had something to do with clean URL's versus those that contain a query string. i tried to clean up the .htaccess file but after much tweaking it still didn't work. i ended up just turning off the clean URL feature altogether. after that things worked fine, content was being pulled from the database, everyone went home happy.

i stopped by the cafe briefly via motorcycle, to show my mother my latest knit and my yarn collection. coming back home looking at the bundle of knitting supplies bungied to the back of my motorcycle, the ridiculousness of the situation finally struck me. how mant knitting bikers do you know? being a contrarian is one thing, but i was taking it to polar extremes.

i brought back home an iphone 3G, the one that i played around with last weekend, transfered some songs onto it for the owner of house of chang restaurant. my father did some more work on it and ended up stripping the jailbreak/unlock on it when it accidentally upgraded the iOS (4.2.1). now it wouldn't recognize the SIM card and the only option was the emergency call screen. so i was given the task of re-jailbreaking/unlocking the phone (it had already been broken once in taiwan). jailbreaking was pretty easy once i realized the phone was just in DFU mode and wasn't actually dead. unlocking it wasn't a different story. the modem firmware is 05.15.04, which is one of the unfortunately firmware that can't easily be hacked. there was a way, but it involved updating the firmware to an ipad version; the procedure is irreversible and will also disable the satellite GPS capability. the weird thing was it seemed to recognize the t-mobile sim card housed inside, and even gave me a single bar of reception (might've been more if i didn't live in a cell phone dead zone). so who knows, maybe even with the iOS upgrade it's still unlocked.

i ate weirdly today. i had some more chicken sausage and a fried egg for lunch, but then for dinner it was a dozen pizza rolls, a bag of expired frozen edamame beans, some chocolate, two glasses of tea, an apple, and some potato chips. not the most inspirational of dinners.

client J accidentally erased a crucial page while making some edits and asked if i could get it back. i told her i could restore the last version of the database but it'd mean losing any of her changes. fortunately i figured out a way to save the lost content without having to rebuilt the database.

marco came home around 9:00 but left soon afterwards to go have a drink with his coworker friend david and then later have dinner at his place. he invited me but i declined so i would watch fringe instead. i told him about our plan for tomorrow, a bit of naturing in wayland, as much for him as it is for me since i haven't been in the woods for months now.

tonight i was trying out a two-tone lattice slip stitch pattern. gave me some practice learning how to read a pattern chart. even after an hour of work (while watching a repeat of prohibition), i still don't have enough to get a good look at the emerging pattern. i think using bamboo barbecue skewers as knitting needles is sort of like playing russian roulette. while trying to pull some of the stitchings, i drove a splinter straight into a fingertip.