I have to retouch 176 photos by the time I leave for work tomorrow.

Walked for 40 minutes, thwarted an attempted mugging, and walked up 4 flights of stairs while carrying a tree the entire time, and without stopping to rest.

I was at the book store looking for information about multithreaded Linux programming in C++ when a man approached me.

"PHP books?"

"Yes, they should be around here."

The PHP books were right behind me. He apparently knew this, but I thought he was asking where they were.

"Do you know PHP?"

"Yes."

"Do you know it well?"

"Yes."

I resumed reading and flashed the cover of the book to show him that I was not reading a PHP book.

"Are you familiar with One World?"

"No."

"It's a proprietary CRM. Closed source."

I did not look at him and tried to continue reading. He started explaining what his company does and asked if I would be interested in working for them. I said I was not interested. He talked more about the company and their programming needs, and he asked again if I would be interested. I repeated that I wasn't interested and he looked very disappointed, so I told him that I might consider it if it's a very good offer. He assured me that it would be very good without giving any details.

Someone else came over looking for PHP books. They discussed the merits of various PHP books, but this newcomer did not get a job offer. After that guy left, the conversation with me resumed. His persistence made me curious, so I decided to ask a few questions.

"What is your role in this company?"

"I'm the head of the IT department, but I'm leaving soon."

"Why are you leaving?"

"I need to move on."

"Is it a bad work environment?"

"No! Everything's good. I just need to move on."

He repeatedly evaded the question. Before leaving, he asked for my email address and I gave him one that I use for spam.

"I will introduce you to the owner and if you want the job, it's yours."

"OK."

He hasn't messaged me yet.

I saw one report of plans for Occupy Wall Street to interfere with subway service today, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of it on their Facebook page. If it's true, it's probably a very bad decision. This will likely cause them to lose support from people who are inconvenienced by it. It will also not hurt the 1% much. They may lose some revenues for one or two days, but they will just make it up by charging higher prices or skimping on Christmas bonuses.

Also, the 1% seldom ride trains. This reminds me of the time when I caught my client on the train. She is a multimillionaire and appeared visibly embarrassed. She immediately started justifying her ride on the train and mentioned how JFK Jr. rode on the trains all the time. I was amused.

As I approached the train station, I saw a man who I thought might be homeless. He started asking for money in the usual way.

"Spare some change? Some food to eat?"

I sometimes give money, but I had worked late and wasn't in a good mood. As I walked passed him, he uttered one final plea.

"I live in Greenpoint!"

I don't know much about Greenpoint, but I didn't think that living there would be bad enough to merit sympathy. I was sufficiently amused by this to give him money, but I heard the train coming and hurried down the stairs.