Saturday 21 August 1999
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Pic of the day: Screenshot from Daggerfall, showing the outskirts of a
small farmstead in the Alik'r Desert. The best illustration I managed
for a new idea I got for a fantasy story. I've found that too much of
magic fantasy stories take place in castles and stuff. Well, there are
reasons for that, I guess, but I wanted to make a story about rural
rebels, a bit of guerilla war, and lots of magic of course.
Offhand I can only think of one story I have written about rural rebels,
and that one is still a bit too similar to Donaldson's Chronicles of
Thomas Covenant. Well, except for the rural rebels. Being a farmboy
long ago, I do have a certain sympathy with rural rebels...
Saturday is not a workday for me, but I've been away a couple days. So I took the bus to town and went to work. Two letters had arrived while I was at the IBM training center. (Note that this is not an endorsement of IBM. It's just my job.) One of the letters was from Bennett Business Travel Internation Nordic, henceforth called "the morons". The morons had sent me a new invoice, for the ticket they forgot to send me last time. And rather than humbly apologize and lick the dust of my travel-weary shoes, they had slapped on another fee for their trouble. This is it, people. From now on, I shall endeavor to make fun of the morons formerly known as Bennett BTI Nordic in every forum I deem appropriate. It is now evident to me that this is not the mistake of some overly tired and slightly retarded clerk. Rather, stupidity is enshrined as company policy. Of course this is largely the case for my own workplace too, but ours is an arm of government (or at least a finger) and so stupidity is to be expected. And furthermore there is no competition, by law and under threat of armed reprisal. The morons formerly known as Bennett, however, have competition. And it is in your best interest to use their competitors unless you find that these are even more moronic than the morons.
Competition is a good thing, which is why I like Microsoft.
They have duelled near-monopolies such as IBM, WordPerfect
and Netscape, and delivered superior products at an
affordable price. I remain convinced that the day they
start resting on their laurels, they will be attacked from
old enemies and new rivals all around. This is as it should
be. Their MSN tried to outcompete the Internet and was
swallowed whole. Now they are taking on AOL, which is hardly
a bag lady either. May the best product win!
Regardless of the morons' greed, I feel a slight trace of intrinsic euphoria today. Unwarranted joy. Or, in the words of my hero Alan Greenspan, "irrational exuberance". Somehow this expression leads me to think of a small over-eager chihuahua dog, and this of course makes me feel even better. Yesterday night, for instance, I saw a frog. A practically grown up frog. This is reason for cheering. Amphibians all over the world are in retreat, many of them in areas far from people. Whole species have disappeared from one year to the next. Frogs with too few or too many legs abound, at least in North America. But his frog looked quite well as it hopped along the road in the early night. And today a large butterfly landed on the sandy path in front of me. In the warm sunshine it walked slowly, dignified, its wings spread wide like a Rorschack test in red, white and black. I know it is not a good sign for a butterfly to land on the road like that. It means that its energy is nearly spent, its end is drawing near. This one is not going to seek shelter when the cold nights come. And yet, the quiet dignity with which it met its autumn ... the trustful pride in displaying what it was ... it inspired me with a rare beauty. Too bad I did not have my camera with me. Good thing I brought my heart. |