My parents tell me that I shouldn't be eating a bit meal before I go to sleep, which I sometimes do since I come home rather late sometimes. I find that eating a lot before bedtime can be bad as I wake up with a bit of heartburn. Probably something to do with the body trying to rest so it can't digest the food and acid build up. But if I eat some food (not too much) then I wake up comfortably full...

Dave seemed a bit offended that I had doubted his ability to get the propane tank filled for Shannon's barbeque. There was a time when I trusted Dave's abilities implicitly and always backed him up when he wasn't there. But being let down a few too many times has curbed that impulse in me. Not that it's his fault, I was expecting too much which I usually don't do. I'm usually much more cautious about people...

I just finished reading "Marked Cards", a Wild Cards mosaic novel. Most anthology collections are random stories for a genre or random stories from one (or two) authors or random stories based on a world. The Wild Cards series are random stories based on a world. But, unlike other books of its type where the authors write independent stories, here we have basically a novel written as a set of stories with one story tying them together.

As an example we can consider the Thieves' World series, where I read this first. Most of the early Thieves' World novels are independent stories set in the city. Occassionally characters intersect, but in general each story stands alone and the whole novel is a bunch of relatively unrelated stories.

I'm not sure what the first Thieve's World mosaic novel was, I think it was about Shadowspawn or whatever his name is. In this novel the writers wrote stories all along the same thread. Each writer has their characters (well established in the Thieves' World universe) interact with Shadowspawn as Shadowspawn tries to complete some sort of quest. Each story is independent, yet together they tell one tale, albeit one in a variety of viewpoints and emphasis.

After Thieves' World (edited by George R. R. Martin), the Wild Cards series was started (also edited by George R. R. Martin). Although the first couple of novels were standard anthology collections, the last ten or so have been mosaic novels. It's neat to see the different viewpoints, and having different writers mean that the viewpoints and story styles are unique to the characters. Well worth reading, although some of the stories are not suitable for kids...

Looks like Pacific Bell has been having problems installing new DSL lines in the last three months. They started a new company to handle DSL (Advanced Solutions), a condition of the SBC Communications and Ameritech merger. But Advanced Solutions has had a lot of problems with their order processing and with manpower shortages. Good thing I got my DSL installed almost a year and a half ago. It's been running fine, other than occassional 30-minute service interruptions...

I got to work rather late today. Supposed to get here by 11:00 for an all-hands meeting. Left a bit before 10:00 and had a fine drive until I got past Hegenberger Road in Oakland. Then it was backed up to the 92 and from the 92 to the San Mateo Bridge. I got to the meeting at 11:45, just as it was ending. Oh well, next time I should just come to work the night before and sleep here...