How to begin this one? I guess I'll start when working hours ended.

The jukebox rip feature hasn't been working lately. Playing and everything else has worked just fine, but no ripping. Obviously, you can't have a very good jukebox without a rip feature. So today, in true pair programming fashion, the renouned Mr. Zan Lynx and I stuck around after closing, and laborously stepped our way through the C code to our jukebox, the libcdaudio library, and ran many a tcpdump. (Well, not that many, but it sounds good, doesn't it?

Eventually, we discovered that the problem was neither caused by our daemen, nor libcdaudio, nor freedb. However, the it was easily worked around using a simple config file setting, once we knew what was going on. (Exactly what was going on still remains somewhat a mystery, but suffice it to say that this discovery has reinforced my long-standing theory that web proxies in general, transparent or not, are of the devil.)

So anyway, once the jukebox was working again, it happily started ripping away at Under Rug Swept. Now that the rip was in progress, it would take nearly an hour to complete unless we aborted it. I didn't feel like running the necessary sequence of sql deletes and rm commands to clean up after a partial rip, nor did I feel like sitting in the office another hour, nor did I want the jukebox to be sitting trying eject all night after it finished. So Zan Lynx and I decided to go out to supper, and I would return to retrieve the precious disc after eating.

After a good filling meal at Arby's, we split, and I stopped by the office to grab my disc. Lights were all out, so I figured everybody had left. Slightly apprehensive (since I've never worked the new alarm system before), I went in, and checked the alarm panel. It said "have a nice day" (or something to that effect), and nothing was beeping, as I would have expected to hear if the system were armed. So I assumed it was all good, and proceeded to retrieve my disc.

Halfway back to the front door, a shrieking wall of high pitched noise pierced the night air.

Uh oh.

In the interest of saving my eardrums, I walked outside the front door, and stood, contemplating what to do next. I didn't see any swat teams surrounding the building, so I threw my disc in the car, and... waited. I vaguely recalled something about contacting $person in such an event, but I didn't have any phone numbers.

After thinking about it for a minute, I remembered where the phone number of at least one person was posted, so I re-entered the building, plugged my ears, found the number, and exited again. Used my cell to try and make the call, and got an answering machine. Doh.

I waited outside for a few more minutes, figuring that the alarm would alert somebody eventually. If there had been theievs, they would have long since made their getaway.

After waiting about 15 minutes or so, I began to contemplate just how long I should stand there before giving up and going home. "Hey, I'm a thief! Come on cops, come and catch me. I dare you. Please? I'm running away. See how fast I'm going. Run, run! Better hurry before I'm gone." But with the exception of the alarm buzzer blaring through the closed building, the night was silent.

Eventually, the buzzer stopped buzzing. Then I really started to wonder. Had anybody really been signalled at all, or did they just tell us that to make everyone feel like the building was secure? I was certain without a doubt that my entry had been logged somewhere (my magnetic key card tagged with a unique identifier assigned exclusively to my person), and certainly the alarm would have been logged too. But the alarm was no longer buzzing, and there was nobody around, and I had exhausted my known avenues of individuals to contact. (I certainly wasn't going to go back in the building and try to hunt for more phone numbers.)

Finally, a police car entered the parking lot, parked, and two officers got out and started walking toward the building. I came to meet them, and asked if they were here about the alarm. They were.

From there, it was a matter of convincing them that I was in fact an employee here, I wasn't stealing anything, and admitting the embarrassing fact that I had entered the building to retrieve a personal article, and not realized the system was armed.

After a series of questions, and they had made sure that that the premises were secure, they said I could go on my way, and that was the end of it. Until tomorrow, of course, where I might have a bit of explaining to do.

Sometimes I really feel like an idiot. Duuuuuh. That concludes my tales of adventure for the evening. Out.