August 23rd, 2006
In addition to just doing general IT stuff, I also happen to have a degree in Computer Science and a fairly strong background in programming, particularly web programming of late. What I don't have, however, is much skill in the way of web design; I can set up a very basic web site that isn't ugly, but visual design just isn't my thing. So one of the other things I've been thinking about ever since I hatched this crazy plan of mine has been the possibility of teaming up with a web designer to do backend work.
That aspect of my plan, it seems, may be bearing fruit. Thanks to the miracle of Craigslist I'm now talking to two different web designers, both of whom may be interested in hiring me for a project that could lead to a more formal work relationship. Things are sounding pretty good, so I'm very hopeful about this. With luck I should have at least two projects coming in within the next two weeks. At the very least I'll hopefully be able to get a good website out of this.
August 23rd, 2006
It appears that at least one real newspaper did, in fact, cover the shooting that happened outside my apartment on the 13th. The Cambridge Chronicle ran an article on the 17th about it. (Many thanks to Adam from Universal Hub for sending me that link.)
Around midnight on Sunday, Aug. 13, two 18-year-old Columbia Street residents sitting on a porch between 41 and 45 Columbia St. were fired upon several times from a blue Honda Accord.
The porch they're talking about is directly across the street from my apartment, I can see it out the living room window (but not out my bedroom window which is on the other side of the building). Apparently the searching around I saw them doing afterwards bore some fruit as the article says they 'were able to recover several shell casings' ('several' being a number between 1 and 4, I'm guessing...).
In the six days since that article ran, not much has changed really. There are routinely at least two cops stationed in the park next door, and it's not at all uncommon to see 3-4 cruisers around. The other day they even pulled a car over across the street and spent at least 45 minutes doing something. They had the marked cruiser that pulled him over, an unmarked car that showed up a little later, and the two cops who had been in the park. And I don't think they even ended up giving the guy a ticket! The car, I believe, was a red Corolla, so definitely couldn't have been mistaken for the blue Accord that was used in the shooting.
Oh well, I suppose with the essentially constant police presence here now, there's unlikely to be any further problems. And nobody commits crimes in the winter anyway, so we should be safe until at least spring. But rest assured that we fully intend on moving out of this apartment at our earliest convenience.