01/10/2000

Wow… long time no write. You’d think I’d been busy or something. Well,
it’s late and I want to get to sleep at a decent hour (ie: before midnight),
so I’ll slap out a bit for you before hitting the hay. I’m going to start on
a bit of a downer but end on an up note I think. Well, kinda. And depending
on how far I get.

Through circumstances beyone my control today I didn’t leave for work till 10
or so. This left me time to sit and relax in front of the TV. Nothing like
daytime talk shows to depress me. Today it was Sally. I don’t even know why
I dignify this crap by linking it. Anyway, Sally’s show today was “shocking
teen sex confessions”. Nothing like oversexed teens to get the ratings up.
Before going back to listening to CDs and reading my copy of Linux Journal I watched some bi-curious
19 year old confess her sexuality to her mother. Ohhh…. Ahhh…. such
drama! Such true life stuff! At the end of the show her mother turned it back
on her and told her that her “friend” that her daughter thought of as a second
mother was actually her lover. Oh god. Let me puke and die now. Like they
used to say in elementry school… “gag me with a spoon”. Well, gag me with a
chain gun man, cause I’d probably get on TV like that. Apparently they’ll put
anything on. Keep an eye out on Sally though, according to her show guide on
the 14th it’ll be “pregnant mistresses tell all”.

Please.

ObNote: “irregardless” is not a real word. It’s just “regardless”. My world
is shattered.

Perl/mod_perl/DBI is going ok. Some database issues are appearing while using
mysql though. I may redo peer2peer
first just using straight Postgres for
now, and leave mysql for the ufies site. I just want the time to go and do it
and do it right.

Today I entered geek nirvana. I swear to $DEITY. We went to an install at
some place that does data collection and reporting or something, anyway, their
techie dude… nick of Prodigy, about my age… was in his office. Well,
first of all, let me describe the main office.

(and I did this to Iambe this eve while pacing around my living room and
making wild arm gestures)

The cube area has moniters all over the place. All along the edges of the
desks encircling the main area is moniter after moniter. Lots of scanners
too… both flatbed and single sheet.

Moving from there we go into the network room. One of those big ass command
centers you see at comdex and lust after was in there. About 5 moniters on
the top row, a couple more on the main section, all displaying data and
reports. Wires everywhere. The rest of the room was stuffed to the brim with
networking cable, power outlets (all used) and more computers.

Then we get to the room labled “R & D”.

You could tell it was a young hacker because the music was loud and heavy
metal/rap (coughcrap*cough*). The room housed 2 people, a programmer (not
there) and a network/techie. The programmers desk had 3 moniters (<hand
motions> thunk thunk thunk) and 3 keyboards (thunk thunk thunk). MS
optical mouse. 2 moniters were a dual head on a windows box and one was off.
Oh, and another computer beside the desk (apart from the 2 that belonged with
the moniters. The techies area had 2 moniters, one running Storm Linux and one running windows.
Another computer and moniter beside. Another computer on the top of the desk.
Sub underneath. 4 speaker system running off of Winamp for mp3s all around. Another box and
moniter beside the desk. Desk littered with sticky notes and papers. Dead
mice all over. Coke cans and assorted supplies on the window sill beside,
along with a stack of boil-to-make noodles. Behind him more stacks of
computer parts and stuff. I mean stacks. There was just
enough extra room in there to be able to navigate comfortably, not enough to
make it look empty. There was even a water cooler in there with the label
“this here be a PIRATE water cooler. Keep your hands off the PIRATE water”
and a larger label below with “captain james” on it.

It’s hard to describe. My hands are still shaking.

Lets just say that in this one room I counted 7 moniters (all 17″ or greater)
and 8 computers, 3 brand new looking cams and more hardware and cabling then
I’ve seen in a long time.

I want to work there. Actually, no, the programmer was using windows (and
some Britanny Spears background too….. ) so how about if I just
live there? Please? Prodigy was a cool guy too. “One of us” if you
know what I mean. Same mindset. Quake player, net junkie, networking dude,
icq/irc/userfriend/slashdot type person.

Ok, the day’s ticked over. Later.