People always crow about how Mondays are awful. Back to work. Dreary weather. The weekend is over. How do I know these things? The telemarketer that called me at work today because I’m the guy that takes care of the computer printers told me so via her poorly written script! Never mind that I picked up the phone after she dialed 0 for receptionist.
But back to Mondays. I must admit that I was looking forward to going to work today. As I’ve mentioned before, I *love* this time of year and 2003 is no exception. I was mildly productive and had a good attitude about it to boot. I felt good throughout the day… perhaps a little tired, but not all draggy and crabby because it was Monday.
Yesterday we went to my father’s side of the family’s (follow that?) holiday party. Yes, I know it was only November 2, but, my grandfather and his wife leave for Florida about this time every year, and they throw a Thanksgiving/Christmas party first weekend in November for all families involved. It was great seeing everyone and I think a good time was had by all. I was able to talk geek with my cousin Nathan… he’s going to school to be an IT Administrator type, and he seems to know his stuff. I was able to talk FreeBSD with him, which is a nice change of pace. It’s funny, because Nathan and I used to chat over modems back in 1984 or 1985 when I had a VIC-20 and he had a TRS-80 of some sort. We dialed in long distance to the GEnie service so that we could chat back and forth, even though we lived about 10 miles apart. I bet my folks loved that phone bill.
Speaking of FreeBSD, I’ve made great strides on learning this new (to me) operating system and I must say that I am quite pleased. It seems much more cohesive than Linux. One thing that I like is that I am being forced to build my software from the ground up, whereas Linux throws everything but the kitchen sink into an install and tries to follow the “it just works” scenario, but doesn’t quite live up to the bar set by an iMac. FreeBSD, on the other hand, requires that you read, study, chat with other users and keep your wits about you to get it working, but once you do, it’s working the way *you* want it to. I like that.
We are awaiting one final piece of paper before we can close on the house – the abstract on the new house. I’ve given up waiting and am plotting ways to torment our lawyer’s paralegal. Earl has discouraged me from doing this and has taken matters into his own hands.
On a final note, my beard is progressing along nicely, though I had to give into a bit of a mustache trim because Earl said I wasn’t getting any unless I did. I do have my priorities.
