June 21, 2005
Donating computer mainframes? :)
The topic of how to deal with all the old computer-related equipment that has been quietly piling up in the attic - or in the living room - over the years has come up quite often in personal conversations over the past few weeks. Now, it seems there's a new twist on it :)
One of the most common ways to handle old stuff (besides just dumping it or setting up a computer history museum) is to donate it to a charity. Well, apparently at least one charity has been burned by such attempts already - Jeremy Zawodny found out that Goodwill Industries International will absolutely refuse to accept computer mainframes!
As Jeremy writes, "You just know that a rule like this only appears after someone tries to donate a mainframe." :)
Unequal Injustice for All
They came. They saw. They played.
Skin O' My Teeth and Symphony of Destruction live. Scratch one more off the list of things I never thought I'd see. Come to think of it, I might as well scrap the whole list, the way things have been going lately...
Sure, as Lina wrote, I had a slight problem this morning, convincing my legs that there actually is a need to move. Still, yes, even after a Megadeth live, there still are some things worth living for - even if only to spread the word and tell others about the experience :)
June 17, 2005
Song of the day: Trouble
The song that best describes my day this Friday is most definitely Elvis Presley's Trouble, from the soundtrack to his King Creole movie.
If you're looking for trouble
You came to the right place
If you're looking for trouble
Just look right in my face
I was born standing up
And talking back
My daddy was a green-eyed mountain jack
Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery
Well I'm evil, so don't you mess around with me!
I've never looked for trouble
But I've never ran
I don't take no orders
From no kind of man
I'm only made out
Of flesh, blood and bone
But if you're gonna start a rumble
Don't you try it on alone
Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery
Well I'm evil, so don't you mess around with me!
And just in case you're wondering, no, I'm not whining or depressed or anything. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that when I'm depressed, I should never write in public, speak in public, or do anything that will leave a lasting impression of my current state of mind - for it will pass, and any traces left will only serve to bring me down many more times in the future when I come back to them.
No, the reason I've picked Trouble for the song of the day is simply that today is one of those days that I either let myself get sucked into trouble on someone else's whim and suggestion, or, conversely, I play the fiddle to someone else's dancing right into an alluringly disguised trap.- pretty much starting at midnight with a visit to Vasil's (and Velin's) place for a quick game of Worms, then plodding on through an ICQ conversation in the early hours of the morn, then on with some weird goings-on at work, then wheedling a close friend into wasting a couple of hours for a quiet talk over a cup of coffee and a quick stroll through a park... and Eris only knows what the rest of the evening holds for me!
June 16, 2005
PGP key-signing party at the Linux-BG conference?
Just an idea I've had for some time, and thought I'd finally share :)
Wouldn't it be a good idea to throw a little PGP key-signing - or at least key-exchange - party at this month's Linux-BG conference on June 18th? The adventurous souls who like to lug laptops around and are gullible enough to stick in untrusted media from others would be able to do the key-signing right on the spot. For the others, IMHO it would be nice for everyone to bring sheets of paper paper (or, as Kaloyan Doganov did some time ago, just put the info on business cards) with their name, their PGP key ID, and its fingerprint on them, and give them away.
As a side benefit, this will give yet another opportunity to match faces to names ;)
June 15, 2005
Just a couple of words...
Yep, just a couple of words in the other blog, which I don't think would be easy to translate. Not impossible, certainly - just not right now.
June 08, 2005
Knowin' what to throw away and knowin' what to keep...
Now every gambler knows that the secret to survivin’
Is knowin’ what to throw away and knowin' what to keep.
'cause every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.
When I woke up today, Kenny Rogers was singing "The Gambler" in my head, over and over again. No idea why - the last time I played that song must have been, oh, about 2002 or so, although me and that song, we've had a long, deep, meaningful relationship, that's for sure! It goes back to the time when, about 20 years ago, I dug into my father's vinyls that lived in my room simply because the gramophone was in my room; then there was a tape or two of Kenny Rogers found in various music stores; then there was the TV series that aired on Bulgarian TV around 1990; then a CD or two; then a pause of a couple of years, and today it comes back in full swing.
Well, okay, so maybe there is a reason for me to think of that song; maybe it's because this is pretty much the way I feel about the last couple of months of my life. Nope, this isn't about me feeling like jumping on a train to the Wild West and trying to establish, once and for all, whether a Smith & Wesson *always* beats four aces! It's more about the flurry of people, things, events, incidents, accidents, wrongdoings, rightdoings, plain ol' crazy doings - everything that seems to have rushed into my life once I opened the floodgates and let it all in. Old people coming to know me in new ways, new people coming to know me in old ways, many people (including myself) coming to know me in crazy ways... And of course, the other way 'round - finding new sides to people I thought I'd always known, getting to know people old and new, making friends, making enemies, making people sad, making people happy, making things up as I go, making mistakes, generally making whoopee - kinda making it sound like the Wild West after all, isn't it? :)
And just like the song goes, there are some things and people I've come across that I'd rather throw away; there are many more things, people, and lessons that I'd rather keep; but there are very, very few things that I actually regret doing. Again, I'm reminded of Richard Bach - his words about the world around us, the people around us being neither good nor bad, but just *being*, and the metaphor of every person's life as a movie with a single director, a single spectator, a single leading actor, a single playwright who chooses what kind of movie it will be - and for my life, it seems I'd choose a kind of fast-paced, illogical, unpredictable comedy of errors that could be so much fun at times it actually blows up and drags half a dozen innocent bystanders into the next crazy scheme - and that's the way I like it!
Oh, and, um, speaking of crazy schemes, here goes another one - say hi to my little new place for ranting, in Bulgarian this time.
