[ Friday, August 15, 2003 | 10:17 p.m. ] Neat blackout, wot? The power went out in my office just before I was going to leave. (It was at 4:14, I believe, and I get off at 4:15.) After navigating some pitch-black areas, all of us left on our floor headed down the stairs together and dispersed. It was weird getting outside. Oo, the traffic lights are out. Oo, the subway's closed. Oo, none of our cell phones are working. I, of course, simply headed over to Sean's new apartment, a ten minute walk from my work. At that point I was still, "Should I eat some leftover pizza? I'm starving, but I don't know if I'm still having Thursday dinner with dad." Of course, dinner with dad did not happen. Not much happened for the rest of the night, really. Sean dug out his old Walkman and cranked up the volume so that the headphones functioned adequately as speakers. I admit it was very cool listening to all the breathless reports on the AM stations; it was like we were in one of those alien invasion movies. Very War of the Worlds, you know? As darkness fell, we realised there wasn't really anything at all to do. We'd both checked in with friends and relatives and made sure that they were okay. (My mom and dad were both safely home.) The identical reports every fifteen minutes on the radio were getting kind of annoying, so I think eventually we just went to bed. (Mom and I talked on the phone, and we decided in the end that we should both just stay where we were.) I was really looking forward to looking out over downtown Toronto with most of the lights out. Unfortunately, the two most prominent buildings visible from Sean's window both seemed to have an abundance of backup power; they had enough windows lit up that they looked pretty much like they did every other night. We had to look in the other direction, or just down at the sidewalk, to get a real feel for the darkness. I almost wish I'd been home at my mom's; it must've been really, really dark out here. I don't think too many homes have backup generators. That would've been cool. Anyhow, I think our power came back up at Sean's around 5:30 a.m. and stayed on for the rest of the day today. It was really a very normal day, with no hint of that whole state of emergency business. When we got up, we had waffles, and watched the blackout coverage on CNN and CP24. It was funny to hear the Americans say, "We believe the problem originated in Canada," and the Canadians say, "We believe the problem originated in the United States." It was also cool to see so much Toronto on CNN, like we're a real, important city. As a bonus, A&E was showing Murder, She Wrote from I think eight a.m. to eight p.m., twelve hours, and I think I managed to catch at least half a dozen episodes. I love that show. Later in the evening, when my mom left work (they'd lost power again for a couple of hours there at Toronto General, but it was back by the time she left), she swung by Sean's and picked me up, and thus ended my sleepover adventure. Now I'm back at home, where it's 85°F, or almost 30°C. I'm hot, but damn, was that fun. Now I'm just worried about tomorrow night. Sean and I have tickets to see The Lion King...

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder [ Thursday, August 7, 2003 | 3:32 p.m. ] Which OS are You?