Tuesday 10 August 1999
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Pic of the day: My desk at work. They say that a cluttered desk is a
sign of a cluttered mind. If so, I guess I have computers on my mind.
AND it is still cluttered. :)
Last night I used IRC for the first time. Internet Relay Chat. Yes, I know it is all the rage and has been around for years. I have even used web-based local chat programs a few times. And I've played text based MUD (multiplayer dungeons - online roleplaying games) a bit. But for some reason I never touched IRC. The reason why I venture into the scary world of IRC was that I found out about a dedicated journal channel. I'm not going to paste its address here, as it should probably be reserved for journal writers and their closest associates. I actually found a couple of friendly journallers there, but at that time I was so tired I nearly collapsed. So I hastily excused myself and crashed into bed. There seems to be a multitude of chat channels, many of which are public. From what I have heard, this is one part of the Net where women are just as active as men, if not more so. There are also a lot of these channels where flirting etc is accepted (not to say required) and occasionally your local newspaper will write about someone who found their love on the Net. In these cases they are usually talking about IRC. (Another reason why I've kept well away from it. Mushy stuff, blecch!) Anyway, it was scaringly simple. That's what I tried to say, but you know me: I cannot say a thing simply even when I try. I just logged on the nearest friendly shareware server with a good reputation (in my case, Scandinavia Online, though I was on the verge of going for Tucows but am not sure of the spelling). I chose to download mirc even though it is shareware, not free; it is the most common. My hope was that I may be able to handle the rougher freeware programs when mirc expires. That's what I did with FTP, after all: I started with CuteFTP and went on to use the built-in FTP in Win95. By then I understood how FTP worked, so I could use a rougher tool. I may do the same here. The program installed itself, and when I started it I had to fill in a few obvious fields, and connect. The biggest problem was that it was too simple. I kept suspecting that there must be something wrong, long after I was actually online.
No, I don't have any use for this at all. But since when has that
stopped any of us?
What should have stopped me was that the clock was 2 AM. I need quite a bit of sleep; 6 hours a night is not enough. Apart from having a hard time at my job, I also got an infection under my right eye. Probably a root canal or possibly a sinus (if they're around there) or something about my nose. There is no visible swelling, but it is quite uncomfortable, especially around my eye, which is blinking a lot. And I know that I can probably blame this on myself, most probably I would have repelled such an infection easily if I bothered to get enough sleep. It is a shame really.
Life is too short to sleep, but not sleeping makes it even shorter...
Funny thing happened after I wrote this entry. The Gallup called me. They wanted me to answer some questions about the upcoming local election. I dutifully replied. I do not intend to vote in the local election, I am not interested in it, I do not know what they are discussing, I do not think it makes a difference, and I haven't done so in the past. Now that made me feel useful. Especially since yesterday a competing market research company called and asked essentially the same questions. Plus some about TV ads, to which I repeatedly assured them that I did not have a TV, never had a TV, and couldn't help them. I hope they have a fixed salary or something. I am fully aware that if everybody did what I do, democracy would collapse. Presumably this would be a bad thing. Then again, if everybody was a programmer, we would all starve to death. Or if everybody was single and celibate, mankind would go extinct in a generation. If everybody lived on the south coast of Norway, this place would be pretty crowded. The point is, not everybody does the same. And I don't vote for political parties. Your mileage may vary. But to me it makes no difference. The things they have quarreled about during the past four years did not interest me; nor the four years before that; nor before that. After I grew up, I saw that they were all alike, and voting for one of them is like cheering for a football club. If one wins and the other loses, it does not change my life. Not with the ones we have here, at least. |