In late August of ‘07, I moved to a new position out there in the World o’ Work ™. As many of the denizens at my new job will soon be making their appearances within these hallowed cyberhalls, I thought it might be useful to have a brief thumbnail sketch of them to guide you along, Constant Reader. To-wit, then, those with whom I spend many waking hours. (NB: this will encompass three separate posts)

Babbage: Our senior Unix admin. Babs is one of the few individuals with whom I’ve ever worked that knows the significance of the IBM 701. This can either be described as reassuring or frightening as hell, depending on one’s point of view. Besides being a top-notch Unix guy, he’s also a bit of a philosopher-king; in addition to having 30 years under his belt as a geek, he’s taken classes at the University of Heidelburg. In German. Key attribute: Sangfroid.

Sarge: Develops and maintains all server and security monitoring services for the company. In his prior life (geek for the Air Force) he handled sensitive communication for various departments, so he’s already well-versed in such machinations, although he’s oftimes hamstrung by the goofy lack of hierarchy our company has. (it’s flat as a pre-Magellanic worldview) Takes no shit from no body, and therefore occasionally finds himself gently at odds with his more mossbacked or less accomplished colleagues. To date, no blood has been shed. Key attribute: Whoop-ass.

Lore: PHP developer. Named not, as might assume for the Lore of Star Trek fame, but rather after the talented Lore Sjöberg of Brunching Shuttlecocks and Bad Gods fame. Not because he’s in any way like him, but because he looks like him. Lore is tremendously skilled, but has no safety valve. If he were a locomotive, he would go from “standing immovable on the siding” to “hurtling down the track at 240 mph with no deadman’s brake” almost instantaneously. Good man to know, especially in a crisis situation, but don’t…stand…in…front…of…him. Key attribute: Attaque à outrance.

Roebling: Our resident software engineer. He serves in the necessary “prophet on the rock,” preaching the gospel of good software design to those who have yet to accept the Good News into their hearts. In many cases, the ultimate doom of some of our more crack-brained hastily thrown together crisis management hacks work has been correctly ascertained by Roebling as being destined to fall apart under its own weight. Basically stated, from a good-design point of view, he’s almost always right. Conversely, however, we don’t have anything better to replace any of the crappy software yet, either. Can’t stop the business, don’t you know. Key attribute: Loathing.

Doodlebug: Big D is our boss. He’s been in technology for about has long as I have, but much more of his time has been spent as a manager and executive than have I. Smart guy, basically a good guy, but as they said in the Victorian era, a deep old file. Quotable quotes: “It is what it is.” (Used to close a topic.) “Take it offline” (shut the fuck up and fix it) and while not quotable, his cherubic, unsettling, and vaguely Pope-like grin. Dress him in red with a little hat, and he’s Richelieu. Key attribute: Management by fractal mathematics.

Pete
1998?-October 5, 2007

Friend and pet. He will be missed. Really, really, lots.

Two today.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.
Bertrand Russell

Science is evidence in search of a solution.  Creationism is a solution in search of evidence.
Anonymous

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

 

Steven Weinberg, quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999
US physicist (1933 - )

A quote worth repeating:

When the enemies of freedom come to “rescue” us from the regnant social chaos, they will not be wearing brown shirts and hailing der Führer; they will come waving the flag and clutching the Bible—seemingly innocent symbols of American culture. –James Luther Adams, in 1972.

Haven’t read it yet–am GOING to.

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
Satirica rating:	Four stars: Not bad at all; good points, well written. Recommended.
Author:	Chris Hedges
ASIN:	0743284437
Label:	Free Press
Date added:	2007-05-03 15:07:27

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My son, Shogun, has been staying with me since mid-March, earning money by working at my company as a junior sysadmin. He left yesterday headed back to his Mom’s–he’ll be leaving for his two-year LDS church mission to Mongolia (!!) on June 13th, and he still has odds-and-ends to tie up; passport, Visa, ensuring he has all the necessary tidbits for the trip. What this will mean is that for the next 24 months, he’ll get one email per week to let us know how he’s doing, and unless I misunderstand the protocol, two calls per year home.

I have tremendously mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the thought of my only progeny being sandwiched ‘twixt Russia and China in the tundra for two years is not a pleasant thing to contemplate. On the other, I have phenomenal respect for him in having the sheer gumption to do it. Then there’s the practical aspect; speaking from sad and weary experience, I am fully aware that getting two years to learn how to take care of running your own household–laundry, dishes, food, personal hygiene (well, hell, he IS a 19, almost 20 year old guy, and us males of the species are not well-known for being great housekeepers)–could very well be a good thing and stand him in good stead when he returns and starts his college career.

All that taken, however, the overriding feeling at the moment is a gut-wrenching sadness in knowing I won’t see his face–with elements of both his mother and my genes–for at least two years.  Honestly, at this point, it’s hard to even type this much about it; a large portion of my psyche hasn’t come to grips with it yet.  Just too much to wrap my brain around.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste.
Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancel’d woe,
And moan th’ expense of many a varnish’d sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan.
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d, and sorrows end.

Shakespeare, Sonnet 30

Shogun (Mycroft Junior, if you will) will be departing stateside in June to spend two years in Mongolia (yes, THAT Mongolia) teaching English to the Mongolians. For those of you not familiar with the Mongolian climate systems, it gets cold in Mongolia–as in -20 degrees Fahrenheit for portions of the year.

Therefore, Shogun needs a coat. A reeeeally warm coat. The longer, heavier, and more woolen the better. I’m having trouble finding such an animal. I had originally thought that it would be child’s play to find a 1960s-era Cold (ha!) War German or Soviet coat at a military surplus store, but searches both locally and online have yielded precisely nothing.

Recommendations sought.