Tuesday 6 July 1999

Sometimes luck is better than wits; and when the wits are pretty good, luck can be downright impressive. See what I just happened to read in that scientific magazine: "For this research, Intimacy was defined as living with another adult in an interdependent, mutually responsible, committed and intimate fashion for 10 years or more. Some individuals were well on their way to this process by 25; some not until age 60; and some, usually those with schizophrenia or severe maturational deficit, never."

I almost barked loudly, which would have been somewhat unusual on the commuter bus, though it might have fit in the context. I don't have schizophrenia (or at least the voices in my head say so...) but "severe maturational deficit" sounds good. Hey, I am tempted to change the name of my site. Of course, there could be other uses too. "I've been diagnosed with SMD and cannot do any stressing work, like for instance working before lunch."

Speaking of which, I was at work till over 19 this evening. Much of that time waiting for a tape backup to finish. It's funny how work sometimes mirrors real life ... we got a new server today and in a while we're sending away the old one. But the next two days will be spent transferring data from the old server to the new, and getting the new up and running. There won't be any access to the database for that time, I personally guess we may be ready late Thursday or early Friday. Others are more optimistic.

Momentarily back to gender differences ... As I walked through town Monday morning, in the nice summer weather there were already some quite decorative women out and about. Again I noticed the fact that the pretty women did not bother me; or more correctly, my instincts did not bother me about the pretty women. They were just a nice part of nature, like birds and flowers and stuff. And again I noticed that this is a feeling (or lack thereof) which tends to be strongest on Monday, after a weekend alone.

And then I thought, again. I thought that this is probably how the women feel almost all the time. Most days of the month they don't have much of the hormone that makes it necessary for us guys to turn the other cheek or something to avoid walking out in front of a car without noticing. It just ain't fair.

I'm not sure it is a well informed decision by the government to require a quota of 40% women on the boards of all state-controlled organizations. I mean, that's all well and good for the women, but what about the poor male members of the boards? How will they get anything done, let alone anything remotely rational?

Tonight, because this interests you in particular, I'm defrosting the fridge. It has grown progressively milder in there, and today all the milk was rotten. That was the spark that made the cup run over. There must have been a bucket of ice up there in the freezer box. I'm probably going to wash the floor when I can't find my shoes, too. Hey, that was a joke! Why are y'all looking at me that way?

To top it all off, my favorite phone company (TELE2) called again. As usual they wanted me to know that I could change my choice of default phone company, such that I no longer need to dial the 1502 prefix to signal that this call be routed through TELE2. I don't know how many women they have calling around, but most of the incoming phone calls I've had this summer have been from them. I politely told her what I've read: That there is a huge backlog of people who have ordered transfer to TELE2 but have not yet been effected. So when they call with no prefix, they think they are using TELE2 but are instead using the more expensive former monopoly, Telenor. Furthermore I informed the polite young lady that I normally call only one number, so it is not much trouble for me. (Particularly since I dial it only once a month or so.)