Douglass Hall Update #7.21

7/21/1998

Since I've plently of stuff to go over (and it is uncertain whether or not I'll exist in this universe tomorrow), I'll give you the scoop today.

First the exciting stuff:

Discovery Update: If you didn't already know, I found a vault full of old exams, books (The Spirit of Menlo) and movies. I've distributed copies of the book to various faculty members already...don't hesitate to ask (although service might be slow because I don't get much free time to go into the Hall...)

Today, with the help of Mr. Warren, I finally got a crack at those movies. Here's what I found:

The film itself is in pretty good condition (having been mumified in the vault for the last trillion years) although the clear stuff that precedes the film is very cruddy and brittle (I've managed some really good bungling trying to feed the projector! No film damaged!) and showed some of the films to a select audience (read: whoever was around at the time)

The movies are silent, black and white movies. Correction: I told Mr. Thibs and Mrs. Jeffers the film was from 1938. Oops! After squinting at the faded, nonexistant ink once again, I discovered the movies were filmed in 1930(!). Thus they are 68 years old, not 60, and if anybody knows any alumni from the summer programs (who is also 86-82 years old), perhaps they can identify the films.

Two of the film reels needed to be rewound, so I didn't view them. The others:

One is a 15-minute promotional clip of a swim meet, graduation (yes, the seniors went crazy afterwards), the summer camp and various treks up the Russian River into Siskyou county.

There are several film clips of unidentified boys playing at the beach, and a river.

One of the films is of a rodeo and horse race, possibly at Stanford (?)

There were several others that seem to be more beach clips, although I didn't go through them carefully.

...and that's it for now. I'll probably be around school tomorrow.

Onto some construction.

Menlo Hall: the old faculty lounge turned computer center has been recarpeted. I think they're planning to recarpet the entire school. For all of you in Mr. Chandler's room, sorry, but your delightful scribbles have been painted over, and the room's been carpeted. The carpet is a dark navy bluish color. They've installed a door between Ms. Abramson's old office and that room. Ms. Abramson is now in Curtis Hall.

Patterson Hall: They're repainting the doors to match the gutters outside. Somehow I suspect the entire school will be repainted to have white walls / yellow stucco with green trim. The water-heater-room turned claustrophobic "office" had a window, but the window is now sitting on the floor, leaving a big hole in the wall. I don't know why.

Music Building: Repainting. Green trim, white walls.

Middle School: Portables *still* not moved!

The Nameless Hall: In the last 6 days, doors have been put in. More painting and library carpeted. Further details to come later...IF I do go to school. My schedule is weird this week.

Rumor going around: School opening will be delayed. I don't know if this is true or not, but if they don't finish the building on time I'm sure you can figure out what will happen. The building looks like it's 95% done...but like I said above, time will tell.

Ok, the news is over. Here's some interesting stuff I picked up in the last week:

Recently seen in Marina Food in Cupertino: "There is a $10 charge to marina for any bounce check not processed within 3 days. Otherwise, an additional $20 will be charge to telecredit office in addition to prior $10 charge if not taken care of."

Microsoft: "All dates are stored internally as Win32 FILETIME structures. The FILETIME structure is a 64-bit value representing the number of 100-nanosecond intervals since January 1, 1601." 100ns = 1ms. Says so in the Win32 documentation of the FILETIME structure. By the way, how many people have files dating back to the 17th century? Who had a computer in the 17th century?

Funny: IE on a Mac is more configurable than IE on a PC--IE/Mac can run any Java VM you choose, whereas you're stuck w/ MS's on Windows.

Windows Common Controls: Get the latest at "http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/ ieplatform/ie/comctrl.asp" The latest version is 4.10.3110.9.

A guy got a bill from the IRS saying he owed $270 billion, due in 3 easy payments of $90 billion. So that's how they're going to eliminate the debt! Another guy got a bill for 1 buck.