We are about 3 days from a complete technology move. Holy shit has this been a struggle. By the end of next week everything should be all wrapped up and tidy. The entire client base will be humming on my new engine/database and the importers will be handing out data like they were condoms at a planned-parenthood clinic. Or like they were quickdraws at a gunfight. Or like they were flush bladders at an American Standard factory…

It is way late and I am somewhere between here and completely fucking useless, so don’t expect much from the vault of colorful metaphor. Shit, see I just did it. The preceding should have read ‘the vault of colorful simile’, as there were, like, ‘like’ or ‘as’, as you know – you know?

I have begun the master screen copy for Motivational Growth. It is a dark little comedy about a boy and his blob. I think I’ll post a bit more about it as it progresses. For certain I will alert you, my faithful few, of the launch of the MG site, when it launches. If you’d like a synopsis or script samples let me know – they’re pretty good for a giggle, I’m told, and I am more than willing to take one in the yarbles in the name of constructive criticism.

As well I have 2 secret web projects underway. One is a site that will be launching very soon and the other is a site that has already launched but must be found to be enjoyed. The latter is part of the marketing/press package for Hollow Ground (another film in pre-production) and is pretty spooky, as no one will find out that it is actually part of a larger piece of art until it is way too late. I am told that some of my ideas might get me in a bit of a snag when it comes to the milicents at me doorsies with a knock knock knock. To those that have done the telling I say this: Freedom of expression will prevail, and if I am arrested for whatever you think I’ll be arrested for in what is going on that site I promise it will help the cause.

Besides, the last time I got in trouble with the two-tones it was because I looked like someone they were looking for. I am not exactly a master criminal or anything.

I did, however, recently steal 5 soldering iron tips from the local Hack Shack, but I consider my actions a justified protest. I was standing at the counter as the Shack drones milled about talking about nothing and completely ignoring me with 6 $1.99 soldering iron tips and a few capacitors. After about 10 minutes of waiting I decided that every 5 minute block to pass would find an item slipped from my hand into my pocket. I was not afraid to start taking shit off of the walls if it got to that. The things one must do to get ones money taken these days.

I suppose I could’ve spoken up, but how would I justify my petty theft then?

I began this entry with the idea that something profound would come spilling out. It turns out that the spilling has been, entirely, and only, just, my brain – and there is nothing even slightly profound about that. I am pretty sure my brain looks, smells and tastes just like Ray Liotta’s – just like yours.

So much for that 3 day weekend. The technology shift at work required, still requires in fact, each and every one of my spare minutes. There are those who would say, and a younger more ideological me would agree, that the opportunity to spend a day in self revilation never be considered ‘spare time’. I feel that the opportunity to live where and how I do is worth the temporary sacrifice, as the days I do get alone are always stellar.

It would also be a bit of a stretch for me to say that I don’t have a lot invested in this new technology and, much like Miles Dyson, don’t want it to freak out and kill people.

This weekend Ryan and I are going to be building Theremins. We both pitched because it’s hard to buy a single resistor, of any resistance, from anywhere reputable and because it is best to do these things with someone else who might call for help should one solder one’s spine to one’s computer desk. The parts came Monday, and there looks to be somewhere between 10 and 20 THOUSAND pieces that need connecting/wiring/boarding/fluxing/not losing.

Intimidation doesn’t even describe it. I’ve built a few BEAM bugs before, my redboxen are hot, I’ve bent a few old keyboards and I’ve dSubbed all off my old PS1 controllers; A few shit-simple hacks does not an electrical engineer make.

Lev Theremin was an electrical engineer. The guy made shit that MI6 couldn’t even begin to figure out. He virtually invented electronic bugging and his Thereminvox is a work of fucking art. I feel I will be doing a great disservice to him if I jack this thing up. Let’s keep on the hush hush the fact that I am building it into a TG16.

I await the return of the sleeping princess.

My UE has a limit of a few hundred thousand text lines. At least it has a perceived limit, as that is about when the CPU decides it’s seen better days and tells you so by setting it’s squeaker to ‘beep’.

I have a limit of about 44 consecutive work hours before I pass the hell out and type ‘ftklhnfgb’ over and over again with my forehead until awaken by beeping.

POTs and springs get all out of whack and you need to recalibrate.

Center: click.
Top-Left: click.
Lower-Right: click.
Center: click.

I have a 3 day weekend alone after tomorrow. I haven’t been alone more than a day in months. There is no limit to the time I can spend with myself. I am excited, to say the least.

There is also no limit to this. None. Impose and be destroyed. Soundwave superior. Everything else inferior.

I spent Friday evening on a low-level. Serious fun. I suggest everyone spend at least one night off firing a metaphorical round into the equally metaphorical brainpan of his blistered and haggard OS only to replace it with a copy that will surely be as pathetic and atrophied in nigh more than 4 months.

I tell myself it if because of the game support. I can’t synch with projects at work otherwise. I’ve got all these great peripherals that wouldn’t work. Shit, I’ve even told myself that it would get in the way of COH. The real reason I don’t just up and ditch XP and go the way of the über is just plain good old lazy assed convenience.

In college I was Linux boy. I wore a path-to-PERL t-shirt and refused to use anything but SSH for email. I had 3 cheap-assed laptops running benchmarks on the 3 hot distros of the day and I could mount a fucking bag of Doritos for network share if I wanted. But in college I skipped class and spent more time playing UT than breathing.

I had time all over the place. I could stay up for days dicking around with configuration and getting all excited about the newest build. College may lead to careers, but it does not properly represent the time one might need to allot to actually support one. When I come home after 11hrs of coding I could give a shit how fast my box boots; I am pretty satisfied that it boots at all most of the time.

But there is, inevitably, the day in which it does not – and that day calls for the low-level. I look at it as an investment. 2.5 Friday (or equivalent) nights a year spent on reinstall ensures smooth sailing for what little time I spend on my box at home that doesn’t involve blowing shit up.

One thing I am working on in my oh-so-precious/precarious free time is a project with Langel from firteen. It is coming along nicely and should make some waves when launched. I don’t want to be the spiller of the beans, so I’ll wait till that half-bearded bastard says something more about it.

I can tell you this much, though: chip music + programming + samples + community = geekgasm.

I have been spending what can only be described as an ‘unnatural’ amount of time at work for the last few months. It seems like every hour I put in at the office somehow begs another until finally I am either exhausted or asleep.

I have a pair of orange fuzzy pillows and a course green blanket rolled up into a neat little pile under what I describe as the ‘left causeway’ of my desk. This is that into which I collapse after 16 or so hours pumping data, matching patterns and modularizing the last 3 years of the company’s code; getting ready for a move, a change of pace, face and base.

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