Moanday 21 June 1999

Stupid bureaucrazy at work. I had made the computer mass produce letters to nearly 50 people who all were in a similar situation (namely, they were dead). That's what the computers are here for, right? And me too. To reduce the burden of meaningless repetitive office tasks. So imagine my feeling when told, politely, that a handwritten registration form had to be filled in for each and every of these, and then registered into the computer system, because we have to have an incoming letter to respond to. (And it is less than likely that we will get any from these people in a long time.) I know that the computer system has no such requirement - I was the guy who taught them said computer system - but obviously the minor deity known as The Office required it. People who don't believe in spiritual entities should work with me for a little while. We're just around 70 humanoids, many of those part time. You would think that we could make out things among ourselves. Not so: An invisible entity known as The Office rules our workday. Basically the leaders and the staff (including me) are the priesthood, and perform various tasks for the benefit of The Office. And so The Office now required a form filled in by hand, even though no person in particular needed or even wanted such a form. It will be archived along with the letters. I did however avoid the obligatory client information computer printout (two pages) that should also be archived. Touch wood. This permission may still be overturned by a higher leader, but they don't read my diary and I can't imagine how they would know about it otherwise. ... The other day, I was surprised by a rather eye-catching "For sale" sign on the neighbors' house. It's the neighbors closest to my bathroom window and by far the closest neighbors overall. And I had no idea they were moving. I guess I don't socialize all that much around here. I'm not very socialistic. [Timword alert, Timword= "socialistic" .] Lately I've been more occupied with the virtual neighborhood I'm moving into in Open Pages and the mailing list. Anyway, I think this is the first time in my 40 years that I have seen neighbors moving. Until a few years ago, it was usually me who moved. After I moved out when I was 15, I lived three years in Sokndal, except for the summer holidays, and that was to be the record for quite a while. Then two years in Grimstad. After that, I moved to Kristiansand and here I moved on average once a year, from one cellar to another in the town and neighboring counties. I also had two winters in Bergen in between this all. Only a few years ago did I move here, for the second time actually, and started to really wear down the place. Now I've lived here so long that I will have to replace the floor when I move out: The furniture has made lasting impression. (Of course, it helps that almost any piece of furniture is heavily loaded with books or magazines or computers or all of the above.) Next time I move, if I do so, I need no bigger place than this. But I need a really big garage or loft or cellar or ideally a warehouse, to store all the stuff that I have accumulated and refuse to let go of. A habit I suspect that I picked up back home, or it could be in my genes. Nice to have, nice to have... Or as the saying goes: "He who dies with the most toys wins."

Fun with tables! I'm very cautious about using any browser feature that is not standard even on old browsers. And if I do, I try to keep it purely decorative, such as colors and the .JPG pictures. Ideally the page should make sense even to the most primitive browser. I'll not offend the Lynx community by mentioning any names... (Just kidding! Lynx is extremely well adapted for non-graphical Internet work, but I doubt I'll see many of them here on a .JPG diary.) ... It seems to me that subscribing to a mailing list without posting is like watching a porn film. Not that I would know, I've never watched a porn film of course... Then again, I had never subscribed to a mailing list before either. How long can I just sit here and get more and more excited before I do something stupid?