Not quite goodbye

There was a blog, a well-known blog, that I used to follow. It has something to do with my job, and it was very active. It was updated more than twice a day. I didn't really like it, but I felt like I was supposed to read it.

After a while I began to realize that I wasn't getting anything out of it. It didn't have any news I hadn't already seen. Nothing there was was memorable or helpful.

So one day, I quit following it.

No big deal, of course... but as I said, in my line of work it's a well-known blog, so I really had to ask myself Am I making a mistake? Will I miss anything if I don't read it?

But in the end, I just said the hell with it.

I'm nearly at that point with the Second Life Forums.

I know that I ought to read it. After all, Lindens do pop up there. I've even had an exchange of posts with M Linden himself. There are a lot of residents who are very smart and helpful, and some who are quite funny.

On the other hand, there's a lot that's wrong there.

On the technical side, the forum software is missing a lot of basic functionality. It's hard to use. It's hard to get around. It's hard to follow threads without setting a bunch of bookmarks. And even when you do that, you have to open ALL the bookmarks to see if those threads are updated.

I've written a bunch of scripts to make it easier to use. It was fun; it helped make the forums interesting. But it's not enough any more.

I began working out a sort of proxy or wrapper for the forums: it would be a read-only website that let you see what was updated since you'd last viewed the site, and allow you to subscribe to threads. If you wanted to post something, or edit your posts, it would pass you through to the real forum.

None of that would be difficult to do, but I'm not sure that it would be worth the trouble.

In addition to the technical problems, there are problems on the human side. There is a group of people who weren't at the old forums, or maybe they weren't very active. They made their home at the new place before the old forums were merged in. They are very hostile to people from the old forums (like me). If you say you don't like anything, anything at all, they heap you with scorn and abuse and tell you to either shut up or leave.

Usually I wouldn't care. I'd just take my place and let them complain. The thing is, the place isn't really worth it. It's not as though it's a place I'd want to call home.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to the new forums, but every day I'm getting closer to it.

An Experimental Life

It's well known that the last child born in a family is often... well... not spoiled necessarily, but definitely Treated Quite Differently.

And so, while my sisters and brother and I were all obliged to suffer the complete horrors of a fully Catholic education, including Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, at least four of the Seven Sacraments, and the ugly, utterly unsexy Catholic school uniform...

... Six, being the last born, was allowed to grow as an uncatechised heathen. She was baptized, yes, but was raised without any idea who Jesus was, what the inside of a church looks like, and what the Pope does when he's at home.

It seemed to work out well for her, aside from the occasional unexpected grace before meals with cousins. (Six developed her own two-handed version of the Sign of the Cross.)

Lately, though, she's become quite the scoffer at anything religious. While I have nothing good to say about Roman Catholicism or the current big-eyed, red-shoed Pope in particular, it is a little distressing to see Six so cynical, so young.

But oh well! She's also happy, sharp, and funny, so who knows where it will all end up?

Last night she was reading one of the Little House books of Laura Ingalls Whatsit, and came upon a chapter about Sundays. The little girls were obliged to sit quietly most of the day, while one parent read aloud from the Bible. The father in the book tells a story about how much more difficult things were in his father's day, when they didn't dare to laugh or smile the entire day.

Six demanded an explanation.

"That's religion," I told her. "Religion is all about rules. The Sabbath is supposed to be God's day..."

"And what does God care about it? What if their parents didn't *see* them laugh and play? No one would know."

"The idea is that God would know."

"Hmm, yes," she said. "But who would He tell?"

Where am I now?

I glanced up from my computer and jumped! Robert Burns is staring straight at me.

Of course, it's just a marble bust of him, but it's set to look directly at the seat I'm in.

And this picture to the right - that's where I am right now!

Turns out the public library has wifi. And this very cool reading room is equipped with many outlets hidden on the underside of the tables. Very smart! The old timey look is not compromised by the modern convenience.

Ironically, the newer parts of the library aren't as well-equipped with electric outlets.

So...

Today is the third-week anniversary of my being laid off. And where am I now?

The first week I spent getting organized, doing the budget, figuring out unemployment...

So I've only spent two weeks applying for jobs, contacting people. Only one nibble so far, but I wasn't exactly what they wanted. It *does* seem that there are a lot of openings in my field, so that's encouraging. I only need one, after all.

I've been exercising a lot. I take breaks to do stretches. I'm running 3 miles every other day, and an interesting thing happened! These stretches are resistance stretches, so they build some muscle. I'm not very muscular, but I noticed the difference when I went for a run. Turns out that having muscle makes it easier to run. Now that I wrote that, it sounds stupid, but I'd been thinking that it was all cardio, you know? Breath. Seems that even having a *little* more muscle in my legs lets me run farther and better.

I've been meditating every day, too. I figure that being calmer will help in many ways.

I've only had a couple, very brief, fearful moments. Six was reading Little House On The Prarie last night, and when I looked over, there was a drawing of the part in the beginning when the family tries to cross a ford and the wagon gets washed downstream, with the horses and family and all... It just struck me for a moment, until I told myself Get a grip! It's scary being the breadwinner, but I keep reminding myself that so many people have REAL problems while mine are only in my head.