drcuriosity

I had an interesting Friday, but I think a productive one.

We were supposed to be having a meeting on Wednesday with people from Story! Inc. about a project I'm involved with, but they postponed until Friday. So, I was told that I'd have a meeting at 1pm to discuss whether or not they would be using the technology that I'm developing or going with some commercial off-the-shelf product. Stress time? Yes.

They were held up, and got there around 1:30pm, and then spent the next hour and a half discussion the Lord of the Rings museum project (coming to Boston soon, if you're in the area) with other people in the lab. Much of it was interesting, but I would have liked to be able to duck away for breakfast at some stage.

So, 3pm arrives. There's a seminar on over in the CompSci basement that I'd really like to attend, but the time has come to discuss the project that I'm involved in. My supervisor, who knows a lot more about this Japanese World Expo project and the technological issues that need to be addressed than I do, decides to go to the seminar instead, followed by drinking at the staff club. The Austrian guys who have been doing most of the background technology review work on the project were away holidaying in Rotorua, (having made those plans weeks in advance, at least, so I was forewarned). My other supervisor who knows quite a bit about how the Japanese do business and how they treat technology was away in the U.S. (though they did call him later). Stress time? Oh yes.

In the end though, I think I managed it a lot better than I thought I would. Though I loathe marketing/sales-related things, I seem to have a knack sometimes of being able to speak the varied dialects of Creative Person, Technical Person and Management Person. I now have a better idea of the issues involved with getting things working in the way they'd like them to, and they're more confident that the stuff that I'm developing will do the job they want. This means that I'm more likely to get support in building a prototype in the lab to work on, which benefits not only that project but my thesis work. Yay time? Most certainly :-)

Now, if I can get things sorted with the flat finances, I'll be much happier. There was a monumental fuckup last month that caused our internet bill to be $800 larger than usual, due to being 4GB over our 10GB traffic cap, and being charged excess at 20c/MB. After looking into our traffic stats, it looked pretty conclusively as if peer-to-peer filesharing was the problem. I don't use it (and I spent much of that time camping out in the lab finishing doing thesis proposal work), but both my flatmates do. So, it looks like $400 of debt for each of them - which they don't currently have. Much ouch :-(

One's looking for work and the other's pulling extra hours, and I'm glad they're both trying so hard to get stuff together, but the bill's due in a couple of days and it looks like I'll have to cover most of it out of my own pocket (I might be able to scrape enough together, if I dip into funds earmarked for other stuff and watch what I eat) until they can afford to pay me back. I'd rather not see debt collectors turning up on our doorstep.

I'm really, really hoping that the debt situation doesn't end up coming between us - I don't like having to be an ogre about things, but I may have to be if I end up being taken advantage of. Hopefully it won't come to that. *crosses fingers* Still, having to play Dad is difficult.

This month's power bill is around $20 more than usual - possibly due to our unexpected house-guest, combined with people being up at all hours of the night and things being generally colder. That one's not due until the 19th though, and not worth quibbling about compared to the ISP bill.

Stress time? You guessed it.