Diary of a Network Geek

The trials and tribulations of a Certified Novell Engineer who's been stranded in Houston, Texas.

11/12/2007

Wallace Shawn’s Birthday

Filed under: Art,Criticism, Marginalia, and Notes,Fun,News and Current Events,Red Herrings — Posted by the Network Geek during the Hour of the Hare which is terribly early in the morning or 6:47 am for you boring, normal people.
The moon is Waxing Crescent

Today is Wallace Shawn‘s Birthday.

Wallace Shawn is an avant garde playwright who was born in New York on this day in 1943. He’s the son of the former New Yorker editor William Shawn. I find him interesting, in part, because, even though his his friends took jobs writing for his father’s magazine, he didn’t. Instead, Shawn supported his playwriting by working as a photocopy clerk. But, and this is the idea that I like, he also got the idea of selling stock in himself, and managed to raise $2,500 from investors. To this day, he sends all those early investors a small annual check.

The other thing that fascinates me about Shawn is that you have probably seen him, even if you don’t recognize his name. You see, he wrote and starred in a movie titled My Dinner with Andre which came out in 1981 to much critical acclaim, which consists entirely of Shawn and the theater director Andre Gregory talking over dinner. I don’t know how well it did in the theatres at the time, but it became a cult classic.
You’re even more likely to know him as Mr. Wendell Hall from the movie Clueless, or Vizzini from The Princess Bride. Or, perhaps even as the voice of Rex from Toy Story. (For more of his acting resume, you can check out the Wallace Shawn entry on IMDB.)
I found it interesting that, for all his spot on timing in humorous roles, he claims not to understand what people find so funny about his acting or the characters he plays. He’s quoted on IMDB as having said, “I don’t happen to have a sense of humor personally, so I don’t know what’s funny about a character… This happens to be a feature of my life generally. I do things, and other people laugh at them. I rarely know what the joke is supposed to be or why they’re laughing.”

Anyway, he’s an interesting guy and I hope he has a happy birthday.

2/5/2006

What’s Up With That?

Filed under: Criticism, Marginalia, and Notes,Deep Thoughts,Life, the Universe, and Everything,Personal — Posted by the Network Geek during the Hour of the Horse which is around lunchtime or 1:55 pm for you boring, normal people.
The moon is a First Quarter Moon

Damn, I could really use a cigarette.
So, the other day, I’m talking with my therapist and he points out an interesting “coincidence”. The women who appreciate me most are all pretty well unavailable. Damn if he’s not right. Let me break it down.
First, there are the married women. Mostly, the unhappily married women, or at least married women who seem to be missing something in their marriage that I seem to have, or so they think. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m in touch with my feelings and can actually express them. Maybe it’s that I’m not obsessed with sports or some other distracting hobby, other than blogging, of course. Maybe it’s just that I pay attention to them, while their partners, who see them every day, don’t. Maybe it’s just that they don’t know me.
Damn, I could really use a cigarette.
Then, of course, there are the divorced women. Sure, they’re available, but, they either have no time for me or they fall into the next demographic group. Again, I think all the same things apply from the first. The divorced women who find me interesting, I think, must see in me everything that their ex-husbands were not. At least, I hope that’s it and, hey, it’s a working theory until one of them straightens me out, right?
Damn, I could really use a cigarette.
Next, there are all the nice, young, attractive women in distant lands. Anywhere from Oklahoma to New York to Denver to the Phillipines to Japan. Anywhere, in short, that’s too damn far to drive to from Houston. Now, really, I did not start this blog almost six years ago looking to “hook up”, okay? I started the whole thing as a marketing ploy to boost my ranking in Google. It worked, too. But, along the way, I got married, then divorced, and found myself with a largely female readership. At the time, I thought it was great. A lovely turn of events. Turns out, not so much. So many of the most interesting women were all, well, rather unreachable. Not out of my league, or anything so narrow-minded or self-limiting as all that, but out of my reach geographically. Yeah, great. So, the girls in far off places think I “look fine” and write well and have interesting hobbies or whatever. That’s great, but I don’t exactlly get to the Phillipines for coffee, you know?
Damn, I could really use a cigarette.
And, really, this is not for lack of trying here, kids. I have tried to find someone local. Really. Stepped way, way, way outside my comfort zone to ask out ladies from on-line. Tried the Bookstore Method more than once, but with similar results. Even looked around at church, but, as I told someone via e-mail, I “love the Lord” and everything, but, well, I don’t think I want to double-date with Him, you know? I’m sure that whole “water-to-wine” trick is great at parties, but, crown of thorns sort of puts people off. Anyway, it just seems to me like the more available a woman is, the less interested she is in me.
So, anyone care to tell me where I’m making my mistakes? What am I doing wrong here?

Damn, I could really use a cigarette.

8/13/2004

Novell Training Cruises!

Filed under: Fun,Fun Work,Geek Work,Novell,PERL — Posted by the Network Geek during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning or 7:24 am for you boring, normal people.
The moon is Waning Crescent

It’s like a GeekCruise, but just for Novell Geeks!

A co-worker told me about Gioffre Consulting, who run training classes for Novell products on cruise ships. It’s just like the infamous “PERL Whirl” which I’ve seen advertised in the PERL Journal before, but with really cool Novell classes instead. And, get this, they’re just as expensive as a regular Novell class! Well, okay, you might have to pay some extra airfare to get to New York, but still, the rest is the same. How cool would that be!?! A Novell cruise…. Ah, heaven…..

Ah, well, it may be Friday, but I’m still stuck at the office! Maybe next year!

3/31/2004

Escaping the Matrix

Filed under: Criticism, Marginalia, and Notes,Deep Thoughts,News and Current Events,Personal — Posted by the Network Geek during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning or 7:30 am for you boring, normal people.
The moon is Waxing Gibbous

What is the matrix?

Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with the movie, that’s for sure. In this case, the matrix is a multi-state database of supposed anti-terrorist information. In fact, MATRIX is an abbreviation for Multi-State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. Well, it sounds great, but it tends to erode privacy in the name of security. So, it’s not a huge surprise that, according to this article on Wired News, the states of Wisconsin and New York have actually dropped participation. In fact, they cited privacy concerns as one of the primary reasons for doing so.
As regular readers know, I am in favor of personal privacy. I think the government should stick to what they do best; social programs, law enforcement and military issues. Oh, and, of course, taxation. But, frankly, I think they should leave my privacy alone. I hope this move by Wisconsin and New York is a growing trend towards more privacy, not less.

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