The Life of an IT Guy

Sorry that it has been a while since I put anything up on this here page. We've had a series of disasters at work and I've already put in about 50 hours since Saturday morning. On the plus side, we watched Gladiator on Saturday night. I know this is cliche but I can't remember the last time that I watched a better movie than that one. I think that in my head I had a bias against it because it was a big hollywood movie and I've been conditioned (by hollywood) to think that they are sh$t because they almost always are.

- Last week I read in the newspaper that fish oil is supposed to ward off Alzheimers and other ailments that might cause you to forget who you are or make a mess in your underwear when you get old. So we're at Sam's Club on Saturday and my bestest gal decided that she was going to be a peach and get some for me. Now that I think about it, maybe I should be worried that she seems to think that my brain needs food. Anyway....

So last night I go to take my pill. I happened to notice that the label says that the pills are the "soft" kind. I think the lack of sleep had gotten to me because in my head I equated "soft" with "chewable". Needless to say, they are not the same thing.

The pill was in fact soft - so soft that it broke when I applied even a little bit of pressure. And then it hit me: the pills are really just a casing for fish oil. Real fish oil. It smelled and tasted like I had just pulled a salmon out of the river, cut it open and drank out of it.

- Unless you're in IT you really don't have much of a feel for what we go through.

I wanted to be a software developer in college. Unfortunately, the best job that I could get coming out of college was as a server administrator with IBM. I really enjoyed that job but being a server administrator really sucked at times. I think the biggest problem with being an admin is that there were only two things in your world: no news and bad news. If everything was working and life was good, nobody knew who you were. The minute something broke everybody knew who you were and they wanted you dead.

So I decided that I was going to go back to being a developer. Or rather, start being a developer. I had no real-world experience doing it and I had only written rudimentary programs while working as an admin. So I basically over-sold myself at the interview with my next job. It was actually quite funny - I would be tasked to make something and I would have to BS my way through the day until I could go home and read some books or find samples online.

Anyway, the nice thing about being a developer is that you can show what you've done. At the end of the day you can produce something that people can feel and touch and use (and potentially hate, but that is a story for another blog). The sun does in fact shine some days and it is cool to make something that helps people to do their job.

As luck would have it, I'm also the server admin at my job so I still get a taste for the days where the sun doesn't shine. It is good for me - it keeps me humble :-).

- You may not have heard this but Las Vegas is now offering male prostitutes. It honestly never occurred to me that this wasn't already happening. I mean, was it only legal for woman before? That doesn't seem to make sense but with this kind of stuff anything is possible.

In related news, it was reported that Leif Garret is pulling in $5k a "session" with female fans. In case you don't know, Garret was the most famous person in the world for about 5 minutes in the late 70's. That's right - over 30 years ago. To me, this is fascinating on several levels.

First... they guy is in his 50's and hasn't been famous for 30 years. Where is the appeal? Second, it isn't like he has held up. I'm not kidding - he actually looks a little like Charlie Manson now. Jane Seymour was incredibly hot in the mid-70's and is now in her late 50's but you'd still hit it because she is still smoking hot (at least she was in Wedding Crashers).
Bu what woman is paying for sex? Unless you're incredibly haggard you could go just about anywhere to get it if you wanted to. My wife and I have had this conversation before and for some reason women are amazed to find out that guys aren't all that picky (let me clarify that the conversation was not about me and her - I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea). If you're willing, most guys are willing.

I wonder how that all works. I mean, after finishing the act I just want to roll over and go to sleep. When you were dating you kinda felt bad. "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here". I guess paying for it alleviates the burden of having to tell someone that they've overstayed their welcome. "Beat it, the next haggard 'ol bitty is waiting in the lobby".

Nice.

- I've been having really bizarre dreams lately.

For some reasons I have been putting myself in situations where I feel really guilty. It is almost like I want to feel guilty. The other night I met a woman and her autistic son at a hockey game and they came back to my house. And that was it - nothing happened out of the ordinary (other than a woman and an autistic boy, neither of whom you know, coming back to my house). I didn't get a reach-around or anything.

But the overriding theme of the dream wasn't about them coming home with me. It was that I felt really, really guilty. It isn't the first time that I've had this kind of dream. I woke up and felt like I needed to confess something to Rebecca. Who knows - maybe this is the adult version of having the dream where you forgot your homework.