Anyway, so the kitchen drain was slow, and, having an auger and not wanting to trouble the landlord, I thought I'd get it myself. I tackled it for a bit on Sunday, removed quite a bit of goo, and presumed that was all good, so I called it a day. Turned out I'd turned it from slow to stopped. Frig. I decided I'd take a hack at it the next day, as I'd already cleaned everything up. Next day: I removed a bunch of goo and seemed to have gotten through it all, but the downstairs neighbor came up and said her drain was now clogged and called the landlord and all that jazz, so we determined that I had knocked the goo down a level. Landlord said he'd come by the next day and get it from below. I couldn't test whether my drain was clear because it would just send the water into the downstairs neighbor's sink, but I presumed it was, since I had clogged up the neighbor's drain. Presumption: wrong. Landlord unclogged the neighbor's drain, we found out ours was still very slow. Called the landlord, he came out this morning and fixed it. I didn't give it a whirl myself because it did not seem like a great idea anymore. Verdict: no more DIY plumbing, except maybe shower drains, since those are straightforward.

Work: a handful of projects are coming through. Range from somewhat interesting to somewhat workful. Huh, just had a productive meeting to discuss ideas.

Chess: I'm still sucking. This will, of course, probably last a year. Actually, the rest of my life, as anybody below candidate master level sucks, by definition, and I don't know whether I'll ever make it up to candidate master level.

Great, I have the algorithm in mind, I just need to figure out how to do it with the existing technology (shoelaces, duct tape, paper clips).

Eh, I've made a little progress on my homework since last week's delay of class due to weather. Whatever.

Played a little chess at lunch, low on time, agreed to a draw after time was up, I opened up the a-file and put my rook on his 7th rather uncomfortably, but he owned the e-file and had uncomfortable pressure on my d5 pawn and the e5 square. I missed an opportunity to win two pawns and a rook for a knight and a bishop with rough tactics possibly allowing me to get a piece back (and my two pawns were passed), he had an unclear way to weasel out and we were both out of time so we agreed to a draw. Or something like that. Actually, I might've been able to win the exchange and two pawns or something. I forget the exact circumstances. There were some tactics flying around.