Fending off the Rise of the Machines one day at a time.
In Spirit: lucid
Reading: Song In the Silence, by Elizabeth Kerner.
It's amusing, in a gloomy sort of way, how my lot in life has gravitated toward something I am in temperament quite unsuited for.
While school is cruel and installation was boring, the art and science of programming is ever titillating, yet I've been drafted into the role of network engineer. I don't really care why the computers aren't talking. I just want them to do so and get on with my life. The only reason I'm so good at it is that I'm smart, trained, and bloody fucking stubborn, but it's nothing but a dreadful toll. A monkey could try every combination of IPs and subnets and gateways and policies until it started working.
It's interesting to learn, especially since it's how I make my money, but I've only grown less and less interested in the topic as I've advanced. And I've been flipping out like crazy from some of it. Of course, I still want to keep the company functional and safe, so I'm not going to simply drop it. Still, since every week brings a few new networking challenges, integrating something, looking for what needs rebooting and maybe why, blocking or unblocking this and that. Right now I've spent the last three days banging my head against this multi-DSL problem, screaming at XP's pathetic networking UIs, against a backdrop of a storm bringing the main DSL down. Funny that the firewall works fine to and from the new DSL, but refuses to let anything else use it.
My recent experiences with Linksys haven't helped; thankfully at work we hardly use them. Besides the well known yet denied effect that their wireless routers overheat, especially when using encryption (what's the point of getting G if B at half speed makes it reboot after two minutes?), the last two I've had have been spontaneously rebooting for the sin of constantly passing a constant low rate of traffic (say shoutcast or ADSL ftp) across the LAN. No WLAN involved, but once it dies the wireless won't come up again for hours. This is complete BS, no router should reboot under normal light traffic. Entirely unacceptable, so I'm going to RMA this as well as crafting a nice bitch letter, for all the good it'll do. Cheap piece of shit $80 linux router.
Setting up this and a couple other Linksys setups for other folks has definitely spoiled my amity toward networking. Though it's still hilarious that they sell what's basically a direct LAN-to-wifi antenna for more than the cost of a full router, and it doesn't even work consistently.
Oh, and I've switched from wanting a 60 gb 7200 Hitachi to a 100 gb 5400 Seagate for a little more.
Enough computer crap. I've been messing with my car a bit - did I ever mention I bought a new one? 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse, black. Rice, rice, baby. It's cozy and fast and fun to drive though, and I've only been in one wreck so far, though I tried for a few more this morning. Hey, that's how I break in cars. I'm taking it down to LA for the Black Mages concert next month, so I want it in top shape.
God, I'm so tired. The arch I slept in last night must have twisted me worse than I assumed.
You might've noticed, LJ and I... sort of mutually decided to see other people. The reasons lost, but I simply lost any love of creating, lost to a passive consumption of others' arts, losing my social graces while I lock myself away. Who wants to read the daily diary of someone who can only write that this and that happened today, but he's still just as tired and troubled as yesterday, without the energy to despair? Even I would skim myself.
To be honest that only reason I'm writing now is to avoid reading the finalist for the World's Most Formulaic Fantasy Novel. I stick with the drivel simply to embellish my diet of crime, horror, and adventure with a genre I once held so dear, looking for a glimmer of hope in this canned tripe. I suspect the only reason Jane Yolen called her "A strong new voice" is because they cut off "who should have stuck to yaoi fanfiction".
Funny that I check and a couple of people have added me as friends though I've made no entries in a season. Goofs.