I've been lurking too long. I've decided to participate in that most narcissistic of endeavors, the blog.
I'm a mediocre perl programmer and general jack-of-all-computing trades; I have been a DBA, Unix Sysadmin, NT/2K Sysadmin, and programmer, basically in that order. I often feel supremely average in my computer knowledge and intelligence, which probably means that I am the Omega geek in this group. I enjoy reading gnat and pudge's journals, and had the good fortune to attend the O'Reilly University of Perl in '00 in Seattle, but that's the extent of my perl training. Someday I'll get off my butt and go to YAPC...
I have been a consistent fanboy of gnat, Damian, and MJD (although MJD strikes me as a little odd... generally in a good way, but he's a little too cerebral for me to idolize). I work with some incredibly smart people, who generally tolerate my mediocrity quite well... if nothing else, I amuse them when I show off my latest, enhanced bubble sort algorithms.
This introduction is getting long and tedious, as evidenced by the continuing thread of self-doubt running through it. To continue along that vein, as if anyone has time to get this far, I live in Alaska. I have a wife and two kids (BTW, for those of you identifying with my self-deprecating style, there's nothing like the adoration of progeny to boost your self confidence. You should have read me before). I do an incredible amount of home maintenance, mostly due to buying our house in a big hurry without properly inspecting it--to illustrate, we call it the POD, for "Pit of Despair". My current endeavor is to complete a 1200 sq ft. deck, supremely overengineered so as to cost more than the national debt of Paraguay.
Anyway, it was time to wrap this up about five paragraphs ago. Next time, I'll try not to seem so self-important.
Re:Welcome aboard
Timbo on 2003-08-14T19:34:30
It is an amazing place, especially in the summer. Let me know when you're coming back, and we'll roll out the (slightly frayed) red carpet. Was your visit at the end of a geek cruise, perchance?Re:Welcome aboard
pdcawley on 2003-08-14T19:39:23
Yeah, the first Perl Whirl. We had fantastic weather, warm, sunny, not at all what we expected.Re:Welcome aboard
Timbo on 2003-08-14T19:52:44
This summer has been even better. We in Alaska are anticipating global warming with some eagerness...:-)
Re:Greetings!
Timbo on 2003-08-14T19:57:03
Thanks... I must apologize for my slightly dark introductory message. I do application support, and had two fairly major applications bite the dust last night. In between attempts to kickstart a server, I decided to start a blog... maybe not the most opportune time. I'm reminded of the assasin in the Borne Identities' last words: "Look how much they make you give." How was that for hyperbole?Re:Greetings!
CromeDome on 2003-08-14T20:12:39
No apologies necessary - it was that dark message that prompted me to reply. The dark humor was very much appreciated today!
Sorry your apps took a dive the other night. Server crashes are entirely unpleasant when you're the one having to support them. They can be humorous if they aren't yours though, or if you don't have to support them.
Another way to look at it. . . when the latest worm/virus hit our MS servers on Monday, our pres. asked what was happening. My choice of laymen's terms was: "our servers are going down like a cheap prom date!":)
Have a better day:) And again, welcome!
