The following article, entitled ‘Why Nerds are Unpopular’ is actually a terrificly (and almost terrifyingly) salient look at the dangers and distresses of being ‘one of the smart kids’ in high school, and why that is so often a bad thing. It rambles a little in the later middle, but overall is a very cohesive article, with simple insights that are a marvel to read.
Hmm. What I am saying is go read it now.
Found out today that seven people were let go across campus today. Two in ITS. One of them someone I’ve worked with for months now. Times are tough. Although I’m grateful that I am still employed, it pains me to see this person go. She’s worked at Brandeis in various departments for 15 years now, and the only reason she is being let go now is not because of her track record (which is impeccable) but because ITS has been forced to make even more sacrifices (despite the fact that we’re already running horribly lean, we’re still one of the largest administrative expenditures at the university, next to facilities and the library). We have no choice now but to reevaluate some of what we do, and to cut services, and she was a fallout from that decision. Her job was specifically about providing a service we’ll no longer be doing. Things suck sometimes.
In other parts of my life, things appear to be good. I’m slowing down a bit, so I won’t be so frantically busy, but that’s only so I can pick up the pace on other projects and deadlines that are approaching. What with the upcoming convention duties (more on that in the extended half of the article), the social obligations I need to fulfill, the practical things I want to get done, and the long term plans I should lay out, I suspect I’m going to continue to overwork myself. What I need is someone who will help me when I’m tackling a big project, make me relax when I’m not, and prevent me from biting off more than I can chew. Unfortunately, I’m so busy right now that I don’t think I’ll be able to find anyone before long.
Dark times….. Happy Valentines Day folks.
Read on for further updates on me, my projects, and my life.
Continue reading Dark times, dark times.
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Been swamped. Likely no new posts for a while.
I’ve just finished installing and setting up a jabber server. If you know what that is, great, feel free to sign up for an account. If you don’t know what it is, go to http://jabber.org for more information. essentially it is an open, free, and extensible XML based Instant Messenger system. Meaning that it is more a service like e-mail, not controlled by a central group, and useable by any and everyone, with no proprietary things to keep one group from being able to talk to another group. I’m currently talking with the developer of the AIM-transport plugin to allow contact with the AIM crowd, but it is there and running for anyone who wants to use the jabber service. Once I have the transport installed, jabber useres on my server will be able to talk through it to AIM users, and vise-versa.