Via Negativa
Dec. 18th, 2000 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ocelotOriginal: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2000/12/18/191522/93
Today is an odd day. Actually, the past few days have been quite odd. Perhaps I'm actually asleep, and just think I'm awake.
Quiet days at work are bad, especially when I have very low motivation to begin with. On busy days, there's just so much to do that I can't put it off. On quiet days, it's just so much easier to procrastinate than it is to do one of the chores that I leave around for quiet days, like billing and documentation.
However, billing must be done today, since it's due tomorrow.
An online acquaintence of mine died last night. One of those people I never really talked to, but we'd been on the same IRC channel for years. Reminders of mortality are always disturbing. He was young (in his 20s) and died when his lungs collapsed and his heart stopped after a severe asthma attack.
So I'm rather shocked about that.
The new version of pine bugs the heck out of me. They've implemented color in a rather obnoxious way, and there seems to be some sort of bug when trying to read GnuPG signed messages. I'm sure both of these things could be fixed without too much work, but it isn't immediatly obvious, so I guess I'll put up with it till I'm bored enough to deal with it.
While walking back from lunch, I watched a homeless man who hangs around that area. He takes a few shuffling steps, pauses, and then takes a few more steps. I wonder why he does this. Is it a mental thing, or physical? He's heading for McDonald's - I frequently see him in there using the bathroom. Suddenly, a car comes swerving up into the gas station and almost hits me. I mentally curse myself for having my head in the clouds and not paying attention, and then realize that it's my co-worker, and get even more embarrased. But he'd done it on purpose - trying to give me a heart attack or something - so chances are I really had looked both ways before I started crossing. He gave me a ride the rest of the way back, though, so I'll forgive him :)
Tomorrow is the work Christmas lunch thingy. We're doing a present exchange. I happened to have the bad luck of choosing someone who 1. I barely know at all and 2. Is in a position of power. So I have to find something relativly generic that could in no way be taken as offensive. Whee :) I'm thinking a mug and some ground coffee or chocolates or something.
The sun is shining through the little opening between the blinds and the wall, right into my eyes. Ugh.
So I'm sitting here watching this Kevin Mitnick thing that was posted, and kind of regretting voting it down. It provides a nice distraction. But the article really doesn't have much substance.
MLP thoughts - I don't think it's beneficial for the site, since people use it as an excuse to post without including substance which could be a perfectly good article with a little bit more effort. On the other hand, if you're going to post something without substance (or that truly doesn't have anything to be said about it), put it in the category that was designed for such a purpose. Idea: Have a place to post "story seeds" where people can post things they'd like to see articles about, but don't have the time/knowledge/whatever to follow through with themselves. Or replace MLP with a breaking news section, where people could post a link and a one line description.
Today is an odd day. Actually, the past few days have been quite odd. Perhaps I'm actually asleep, and just think I'm awake.
Quiet days at work are bad, especially when I have very low motivation to begin with. On busy days, there's just so much to do that I can't put it off. On quiet days, it's just so much easier to procrastinate than it is to do one of the chores that I leave around for quiet days, like billing and documentation.
However, billing must be done today, since it's due tomorrow.
An online acquaintence of mine died last night. One of those people I never really talked to, but we'd been on the same IRC channel for years. Reminders of mortality are always disturbing. He was young (in his 20s) and died when his lungs collapsed and his heart stopped after a severe asthma attack.
So I'm rather shocked about that.
The new version of pine bugs the heck out of me. They've implemented color in a rather obnoxious way, and there seems to be some sort of bug when trying to read GnuPG signed messages. I'm sure both of these things could be fixed without too much work, but it isn't immediatly obvious, so I guess I'll put up with it till I'm bored enough to deal with it.
While walking back from lunch, I watched a homeless man who hangs around that area. He takes a few shuffling steps, pauses, and then takes a few more steps. I wonder why he does this. Is it a mental thing, or physical? He's heading for McDonald's - I frequently see him in there using the bathroom. Suddenly, a car comes swerving up into the gas station and almost hits me. I mentally curse myself for having my head in the clouds and not paying attention, and then realize that it's my co-worker, and get even more embarrased. But he'd done it on purpose - trying to give me a heart attack or something - so chances are I really had looked both ways before I started crossing. He gave me a ride the rest of the way back, though, so I'll forgive him :)
Tomorrow is the work Christmas lunch thingy. We're doing a present exchange. I happened to have the bad luck of choosing someone who 1. I barely know at all and 2. Is in a position of power. So I have to find something relativly generic that could in no way be taken as offensive. Whee :) I'm thinking a mug and some ground coffee or chocolates or something.
The sun is shining through the little opening between the blinds and the wall, right into my eyes. Ugh.
So I'm sitting here watching this Kevin Mitnick thing that was posted, and kind of regretting voting it down. It provides a nice distraction. But the article really doesn't have much substance.
MLP thoughts - I don't think it's beneficial for the site, since people use it as an excuse to post without including substance which could be a perfectly good article with a little bit more effort. On the other hand, if you're going to post something without substance (or that truly doesn't have anything to be said about it), put it in the category that was designed for such a purpose. Idea: Have a place to post "story seeds" where people can post things they'd like to see articles about, but don't have the time/knowledge/whatever to follow through with themselves. Or replace MLP with a breaking news section, where people could post a link and a one line description.
