I'll probably be writing another blog to rescind this in a week, but I'm going to stop eating processed sugar. Oh, yes, we loves the sugar, yes, yes, my precious. But, it makes me antsy and irritable, and makes me lose self control when I'm around it, and it makes my tummy hurt, so no more sugar for me, no sir. I swear. Really. For at least, um... Easter Candy... no! No! Must resist! Must... resist... robin's... eggs...
Understand all you who are very creative network engineers in this world (but then, considering that my total audience is probably somewhere between 0 and 1, I don't suppose that's very many people), that I say this as a characterization of my relationship with networking, not with networking in and of itself. But the problem with building a network, at least as it is, is that you can't dream. Building a network has the same allure as assembling a new toy. You build, and build, and build, and your goal is to get it as correct as possible, ad then to keep it that way. I've been taking classes on it all this semester, and oh are they ever interesting! The complexities of the system give me a healthy dose of respect for the geniuses that designed it, and a certain understanding of the people who take care of it. But, the problem with it, for me, is that it reminds me of 'The Machine Stops' - it feels less like creation and more like configuration, like I'm maintaining the genius of someone else, because that someone just needs more hands. Building a particularly grokky Perl Script isn't terribly inspired, of course, and it's not as if I'm not just standing on the shoulders of Larry Wall, but the product of efforts doesn't feel quite so inevitable, it feels more as if it's a new thing that I've willed into being. Wow, that sounds awful, when I say it out loud...
Read More......Because sometimes, dont' you need to dismiss something?
Read More......
I feel very uncomfortable around the elderly - I don't think this is a particularly rare sensation. And it's not, mind you that I dislike older people, by any means, I've always had the idea that if one could really sit down and be friends with someone who is 85 years old, it might be a very interesting relationship, but the whole idea of actually DOING it seems VERY intimidating somehow. This wasn't as bad when I was a child, although I mostly base that off my Grandpa who I think was in age denial right up until he died. And in all honesty, I must admit I was never fully comfortable around my other three grandparents, despite them being very friendly, nice people, I imagine. But even so, the idea of meeting a new older person, now, is very unsettling. We were at Amanda's Grandmother's house today, for dinner, and I felt utterly out of place, the entire time. I like Amanda's grandmother, she seems like she's probably a saucy, queer-smiled British woman with a lot of great stories to tell. But, I sat next to her, and I felt enormously, shamefully uncomfortable.
So, I've never really listened to Opera, I never went as a kid, being as they don't probably have a lot of opera houses on Army bases, you know, or small towns. And most of my personal taste I developed by buying CDs I knew nothing about - well, I knew I wasn't interested in buying the 'Best Arias Ever!' CD, and to actually BUY an opera is a pretty big investment in something that a lot of people proclaim to be dull as sticks. I'm still not very good at listening to it, but after going to an opera recently with my dearie, and after getting a small-ish Nova Scotia over the Ring of the Niebelungen, after naming a programming project Siegreud (long story...), I've checked some out from the library.
