I've had three people in two days say to me, "You know, you're really patient and explain things really well. You'd make a good teacher."

I find this flattering, but also puzzling, because back when I actually did teach, I don't think I was better than mediocre. I was probably better than average in one-on-one situations - unlike many TAs, I loved holding office hours, and my office hours were generally well attended. But as a lecturer. Meh. I've seen great teachers in action, and I can't do what they do.

But I can explain things. Which is a very large part of the reason why I became a technical writer.

Today was a pleasant, low-key kind of day. At work, we went out to lunch as a send-off for a woman who's been working for us as a contractor for about 8 months. She's moving to Seattle. I'll miss her - we worked quite closely together on the Giant Project from Heck. Anyone know anybody up in Seattle in the biotech/scientific instruments field who needs a tech writer? There's a good one heading your way.

Later, Daniel's sister Diana came down - she'd had a job interview in Mountain View, so she was in our neck of the woods. We went down to Santana Row, and had dinner at Consuelo's. It was fun. I hope she lands the job, 'cause if she does, we'll get to see her more often.

My after-dinner project was installing the MT Blacklist plugin on Daniel's blog. (I deleted something like 80 comment/trackback spams today - I was getting fed up.) Apart from a little snafu with the file permissions, installation went off without a hitch. (One note for anyone thinking of installing it - the instructions on the website seem to be out of date - use the ones in the README file that comes with the plugin.) It looks very promising. I can't wait to see how it copes with actual spam.

But, you know, you have to love any program that has a confirmation button that reads, "Now go forth and do my bidding".

Now that I have gone forth and done my spamfighting work on Daniel's blog, I think I will go see if I can get in a couple of rounds of Katamari Damacy before bed.