I also discovered that my new cow-orker also prefers natural light to artificial light to the same extent I do. Like me, he's more than willing to work in a dimly lit basement where the only light source is what filters in through the glass block windows. I discovered this because I was the first person into the office yesterday and didn't turn on the lights. The new guy trundled in a bit later. I let him know where the light switch was hiding and left up to him whether or not to turn them on. He didn't. A bit later, my boss came in and screamed in horror to find not one, but two cave dwellers working in the dark of an early winter morning, faces softly lit up the cold glow of their LED screens.

The other odd thing was that my Exchange account at work was locked. Usually these accounts only get locked when someone tries the wrong password too many times. Someone, methinks, was trying to log into my work email account. Since we use a hosted provider outside the company network, this narrows down the people with the capability to do this to the entire population of the Internet. But I have my suspicions.

I found an interesting article on the dust up caused by Archbishop Rowan's speech on Sharia. I haven't read his speech with an eye to the level of detail that it deserves. But if I understood what he's saying the  phrase `tempest in a teacup' comes to mind. My understanding is that he's saying that one way that Islam may come to terms with living in a liberal democracy like the UK is to have a society within a society that enforces Sharia (so long as it doesn't conflict with secular law) among its own members. The Ottoman empire used a millet system like this for centuries for non-Muslim communities that they controlled. It's an interesting idea. Our very own cam says that Malaysia uses a similar system. I should research that a bit because it sounds a bit like al-Farabi's analysis of democracy put into actual practice. On the other hand, it does have some interesting problems. Mixed-faith marriages, as one example, become immensely problematic. In the Ottoman days, Sharia trumped the faith of the non-Muslim spouse. It isn't so obvious how to handle that in a world where Islam is subservient to secular law and the religious laws of all faiths are on the same level as Islam.

Most of the rest of the day at work was uneventful. When I went home, I found Miss E had come over to do her taxes with that newfangled tax preparation software stuff that some folks like my wife are wont to use. She stayed for dinner which was a simple soup.

Equal measures black beans + beef stock put on to simmer.

An onion, a few cloves of garlic and a green pepper, chopped and sauted until the onions start to carmelize, then added to the stock and beans.

Salt to taste. Serve with shredded cheddar cheese.

After dinner, I was all amped up to get started on my Latin homework for the week. Then I discovered that I had left my briefcase with my text book at my desk at work. This killed that idea. Instead I went to bed early and woke up well rested.

By morning I woke up to find that General Motors reported the largest loss ever reported for one calendar year. They lost about 106 million dollars per day over the past year. The mind boggles.

Driving into work went smooth as silk. With all the school and business closings and hand-wringing and worry-worting, there were few cars on the road and all of those were driving sensibly for the conditions. (That is rather unusual for Cincinnati.) Driving in at a sane speed took me only a few minutes longer than driving in on a clear day.

Now, it's time for me to practice some helpdesk-fu.