It may not have escaped your notice that I'm writing this journal at five in the morning. This is the downside; recently I've been waking up at 4.30 every day. The upside? I'm feeling better than I've felt in years, despite not getting enough sleep. For once (touch wood), everything seems to be coming together at the same time.

I have so much energy that I'm able to pour it into all of the little projects I conceive but rarely give birth to. This week I spent two feverish nights at Safeways, scanning every inch of the shelves for components of my new diet. Yes, at my advanced age, I'm finally taking up cooking for myself instead of relying on takeout chicken-caesar salads.

The idea for the new diet came about after I read up on the deletorious effects of my recently renounced high-protein diet. There's an effect called ketosis which is a typical result of eating too much protein, and the symptoms include fatigue, bad-breath, and difficulty concentrating, all symptoms that I immediately recognized. So I've decided to switch to the one tried and true diet; that is, eating balanced meals. It's so obvious. There's a big obstacle to overcome, however: my hatred of vegetables. It comes with being English.

Hence the hours spent in Safeways, looking for components that I can live with, and that won't go bad after a few days. I came home with all kinds of experimental foods; dried Roma tomatoes (will they ever spring back to life with the recommended added water?), low-fat cottage cheese mixed with pineapple; dried minced onions; skimmed mozarella cheese sticks; tins of smoked salmon; jars of capers. The next task is to figure out how to assemble all this stuff into a meal. After hours of shopping, though, it was time for a snooze :).

I've been following my new diet for a few days already, and the hardest thing about it is to make sure I eat enough. I had a scare yesterday when I weighed myself and found that I'd lost a few pounds. That's the last thing I need! But it's just difficult when you're my height and weight, and with my level of activity, to get enough food. Before, if I bought a chicken-spinach salad, say, I could just ask for a double order of chicken. Now, though, I can't do that, since to do so would result in a meal far too high in protein. I guess I could order two chicken-spinach salads!

I hate to admit it, but even work is looking more promising recently. I've just finished working on a project that reminded me how much I enjoy programming. And today I'm going over to Marin County for a meeting with a software company with whom my company are discussing a joint development. It's a great opportunity for me; it's not often that software consultants get the opportunity to participate in development of commercial software. And this project came along just at the right time; if it goes ahead, it's just about the only thing that will keep me at this company for the time being.

I wish things were going as well for Jed as they are for me. The long, systematic process he's going through to find a professorship has recently taken some dark turns, and he's feeling somewhat pessimistic about his future. It's a cruel world, academia, at times; you put in years of work, and, in the end, your fate is in the hands of luck, as well as a few other academics, academics who are often influenced by decidedly non-academic feelings such as professional jealousy and pay-back. Jed is where I was, now, a few months ago: completely unsure if he still wants to go in the direction his career has been leading him towards for years; suddenly lacking in confidence. It's at personal crises like this when you really start to learn what a person is made of. Until now, he's completely impressed me with his doggedness, and his ability, and I've a strong feeling that those qualities will ultimately carry him successfully through this period.

My company was unusually generous with bonuses at the end of the year, so I decided to treat myself to a new computer. My old desktop has seen me through thick and thin for five years now, and I've reached a point where there doesn't seem much point in continuing to put in money to upgrade it. So the other day I ordered a new, fully-loaded Dell. What's amazing is that it's actually two-thirds of the price I payed for my computer five years ago!

The other piece of technology I've indulged myself in is a digital camcorder. You can guess what I'm planning to do with this: make movies, of course. The only question is what should the movies be about?