I bought an Italian and a Spanish grammar today. They’re pocket-sized from Barron’s, just like the French and Russian ones I got last week. (The German one I got isn’t by Barron’s but it’s quite similar.) Very exciting. And I’m sorely tempted to start going through my Middle Egyptian grammar, my Old Norse grammar, my Old English grammar, and my Sanskrit grammar. But alas, I haven’t the time. School needs attention. And I’m now going to be doing the graphics for the BYU Unix Users Group website. And my to-do list for this site is several hundred items long.

I had my mission physical done today. I haven’t really mentioned that in here — getting my papers ready — and I don’t know why. Anyway, last week I had my hair cut, my picture taken (the photographer will have the proofs ready tomorrow and I’ll put the picture up here as soon as it’s done), and my dental exam. Wednesday I’m getting my hepatitis shots and Thursday I’m getting my wisdom teeth pulled. I’ll be able to turn my papers in on April 13th. I can’t wait. Oh, I suppose I ought to clarify: I’m going to be serving a two-year mission for the LDS Church. Hopefully I’ll leave in July or August. I’ll know where I’m going and when I leave by the end of April if I’m lucky.

I really have spent a lot of time on the computer and on this website over the past month or two. I usually don’t. Hmm. Anyway, I need to put together my resume so I can start looking for a job for the summer. I’d like to do something web-related if I can, preferably with Linux. But I guess I’ll take what I can get.

The Distributed Proofreaders project is really cool. Robert Rowe wrote a Windows client to make the proofreading easier, and I’m seriously thinking about writing a Linux client. It wouldn’t be too hard. I’ve wanted to learn the HTTP protocol anyway. I still want to learn about SQL and study CSS and PHP and Perl in more depth. I need more time. Anyway, I also want to start proofreading Project Gutenberg books (that’s what the Distributed Proofreaders project is for, by the way). It’s a very good cause and it really isn’t that hard to proof.

I wish I could do the site entirely in XML. It would be much nicer and cleaner. I keep finding myself trying to do things that I can do only in XML. But alas, that must wait. Perhaps XML will be the standard by the time I get back from my mission…