25 March 1998: Seized by the Internal Revenue Service

Wednesday, 25 March 1998:

Seized by the Internal Revenue Service

I bet that subject line got your attention!

No, nothing happened to me, but I got a rude awakening when I went to my local comics shop tonight: The store had been seized by the IRS for non-payment of federal income taxes, and was dated last Thursday. It was quite a shock to me, and I hope everything works out okay, since it's the best comics shop in town and I'd hate to see it close down.

I picked up my bicycle after I got home, and it seemed to be working fine. I'd been having trouble with the lower gears, and I got new foam-rubber grips for the bars (I used to have some of those wrap-style grips, but they were in bad shape. These are much nicer). Although it was nice to have my bike back, I didn't get to my alternative comics shop tonight before it closed for the evening, so I guess I'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Yesterday a bunch of people at work (plus my friend Brian from grad school) got together in the commons area at work and spent the evening playing RoboRally. We played two games over four hours (counting time to explain the rules and order and eat pizza) and had a fun time. We had seven people! There was actually somewhat less chaos than you might expect (although someone did drop The Big One once, which took out three robots and damaged a fourth), but maybe we just haven't designed the maps right. We didn't play with either of the mazes, for instance.

Anyway, people seemed to enjoy the game (only three of us had played before) and appreciated the convenience of playing at work on a weeknight, so we'll probably do it again sometime. We may need to bring an extra set or some other games, since there are at least two other interested (and experienced) people in the company who weren't able to come last night!

I also found out that several of the people who played last night are into either science fiction or comic books. Hmm!

Work is going pretty well. As opposed to the last release when my big project grew all out of original projected proportion, drove me up the wall, and was just generally a big pain, my big project this time is only running slightly over (about three days, it looks like), and I've gotten some other work done in addition to it. I'm still a bit behind, but mainly because I needed to consult with a couple of people on some projects when those people were unavailable. But it's not a big deal.

The temperature outside is up in the fifties now, and is supposed to shoot into the sixties tomorrow. Assuming it stays dry (and it is supposed to rain some over the next few days) I hope to get some biking in, build up some nominal leg muscles. Within a couple of weeks I want to be either biking around Lake Monona (ten miles, mostly flat) or to work (four miles each way, but all uphill on the way in). Must get in better shape!

Michael Rawdon (Contact)