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 [archive.org link]. 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 (coughcrapcough). 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 [archive.org link] 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 [archive.org link] 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.