At the produce stand I got strawberries today, since even their kiwis were hard. Wonderful taste! Spring is here.

I was going to be lazy & not write tonight, but I had a sudden memory I thought was worth recording; might possibly be of interest. I saw They Might Be Giants do a free concert at one of the Tower Records in Tokyo. This was in December 1992... I saw the handouts announcing it at the Shibuya Tower and as I've actually bought some of this group's records I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I was continuing on to Hong Kong in a few days, but I would return in time to see this show, which would be at the Shinjuku branch of Tower. No backup, just the two guys, one with an accordion & the other with a guitar; no funny hats. They played songs I wanted to hear, but the surprise was they covered a tune I'd also been digging at that time: Lesley Gore's "Maybe I Know", from 1964. I don't recall any other round-eyes present, among what seemed like mostly Japanese kids just out of school (this was in the afternoon). During the performance, as usual I looked out on a sea of black-haired heads all ending nowhere higher than the altitude of my chin - made for easy viewing. I do have a photo I took; if I had a scanner here's were you'd see the JPEG. I could probably have gone up afterwards to "make the scene with the famous rock stars" but instead I beat a hasty retreat, leaving early to avoid the exit stampede.

Received email from the Swiss Miss today - she has finally arrived safely back in Switzerland.

Work was sluggish with frustration today. Trying to fix a bug, should be simple but the solution eludes me and my feelings of ineptitude amplify into self-doubt and wondering why I'm even acting out this charade of being a programmer. Can you tell? My inner child was bawling "I can't do this, I'm not smart enough!"