Death by PowerPoint

I work for a very large company. My usual day is a cross between a Dilbert cartoon and an episode of The Office with Milton from Office Space thrown in for good measure. Office gatherings are filled with akward pauses and uncomfortable situations.

I am a system architect for multiple large financial systems. Daily I must navigate code changes, abends, audit requests, regulatory requirements, and stupid users. Basically, I speak multiple kinds of geek.

But on the bright side, I have a boss who knows that he sometimes acts like the pointy-haired boss and is my friend as well as boss. I have a few normal co-workers too. It's a good way to pass time while I figure out what to be when I grow up.

I have meetings, pre-meeting meetings, partial team meetings, full team meetings, post meeting meeting reviews, status meetings, web conferencing and more every week (if not every day.) A person from another department glanced at my calendar and commented that I had a lot of meetings this week. I counted them - 27 meetings. Sadly, it was a light week.

Now I can sleep at night!

Over the years we have gone through many many computers. We have had a few accidents with laptops - dropped, smashed, crunched, soaked with water, etc. One memorable time when Deuce was a puppy he crawled up on my lap while I was working. I thought that he was so cute and sweet and cuddly until he looked right at me and projectile vomited all over me and my laptop.

Sadly, we have lost more than a few things over the years. Music, photos, important documents, who knows what else.

Enter the time machine. This thing really is cool. It will wirelessly - and automagically - back up multiple computers with NO intervention! Because, let's be honest, I am never going to actually back anything up with any regularity. My friend the time machine - I call him Phil (as in Phil F Nformation) - quietly goes about his business, backing up my laptop every hour. If my laptop isn't there or turned on he patiently waits until I get back and then catches up and saves all my information safe and sound.

Phil is also a wireless print server and a 2 gig network hard drive. He has been working hard for a month, and I am happy to have him. I love Phil and task 93 is complete!

Banned Books Week Sept 26 - Oct 3

I have always loved to read. From my earliest days I can remember my dad reading to me every single night. Of course there were the normal children's stories. My absolute favorite was Fantastic Mr Fox, a fabulous book by Roald Dahl which is about to be released as a movie voiced by George Clooney. I bet my dad read that book to me 100 times. I also remember the Bunnicula series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and everything by Shel Silverstein. Big books, small books, thick books, skinny books. Big words, small words. What seems a bit unusual (or at least I haven't heard of others doing this) is that we also read a lot of non-fiction. We read National Geographic books about nature and animals. We read history and science books. Biographies and Tell me Why.

I grew up in a big old rambling house. There were books everywhere. Shelves upon shelves of books about anything and everything. Fiction and non-fiction. Old and new. Reading and learning wasn't really encouraged - it didn't have to be. It just happened. As the only child at home and living in a small town in the middle of nowhere books were the path to a million adventures.

As an adult, I have gone through phases. Sometimes life gets in the way of reading, but I always find my way back to books. I am in two different book clubs. One is the normal kind of club - women and wine and (usually) mainstream novels. The other is made of a motley crew of coworkers - all men, all quite a bit older than I am. We only read books from the list of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century. Many times we have preconceived notions of what a book will be, often times we are wrong. The books are widely varied and so are the points of view. It is wonderful to be able to be a part of it.

Banned books? I guess I just don't understand. Why would someone think that they should make choices for me? That they are qualified to decide what is appropriate and what is not. I fully admit that there is a lot of crap published in this world. But I also would never presume to say that it doesn't have the right to exist. I would never tell anyone what they can and can not read or do or think. If everyone in the world spent more time worrying about themselves and less time worrying about others, I think that the world would be a much better place.

Each year for banned books week I try to read another book on the banned books list. This year, it will be The Chocolate War. My sincere hope is that many others do the same.

Hello, Tall, Blond and Dead

I just watched the season finale of the HBO series True Blood. It is a pretty good show - sometimes a bit corny (including tonight) but different than the normal fare. It takes place in Louisiana and follows the lives of some people in a small town. And by people I mean people, vampires, shape-shifters, fairies, werewolves and such. It's pretty southern - full of accents, front porches, bars, sweltering days and half naked men.

This type of show is not my typical genre, but this particular show has a few pretty people to look at, so that helps me remember to tune in. My particular favorite would be Eric Northman, aka Alex Skarsgard.

I wouldn't mind being a vampire if I could hang out with him for a few hundred years. Which got me pondering . . . . think of all the time you'd have if you became a vampire! You could learn so much about so many different subjects. Anything and everything. And that folks, is what makes me a complete geek.