Tuesday, October 5, 1999

5 October 1999

The Worry-Wart strikes again. About halfway through the Hall last night, Jeff excused himself to answer his door. About fifteen minutes later, Matt got bumped by his shareware IRC program, and when he logged back on, we realized that Jeff (who was the channel owner last night) hadn't come back, because he wasn't around to re-invite Matt to the channel.

Matt gave up and logged out, and Karen and I, who were by that time the only ones left, tried to wind things up gracefully. Then we sat around for another half an hour, wondering what had happened to Jeff.

I worried on-channel that Jeff had opened his door for a mugger or something. The thought hadn't occurred to Karen, but once I mentioned it, she worried, too. We tried to keep it light for a while - made jokes about how even worse than a mugger, it could be his research advisor. Then we decided it was the girlfriend he hadn't told any of the rest of us about.

But after he'd been gone for about an hour, his IRC client timed out and logged him out. Then we started to worry. I tried to call his house, but he was still dialed in, so I got a busy signal. I was right on the verge of calling the operator to break into his line when he logged back on - it had been an annoying acquaintance of his who had been bored and dropped by to talk for an hour.

At least I'm not the only one who worries for no reason.

But hey, Jeff - next time, excuse yourself for a minute or two to log out or something!


We're going bowling tonight - T finally decided on this as a suitable wrap party for his comic. I'm actually looking forward to it - I think bowling is sortof fun. It's one of the few games I can play and not get irritable when I suck at it. (And yes, I do suck at bowling; I'm having a great night if I manage to keep my score above 50.) I don't know why for every other game in the universe, I'm a terrible, sulky, pouty, grumpy loser, but for bowling, it's just funny.

I never promised to be consistent.


Maybe it'll be good for me - bowling involves throwing around heavy weights and knocking things down and generally creating a mess. I need to do that. On my way home yesterday I was fantasizing. I picked up the monitor of the computer I've been working on in the test lab, and heaved it at the creep's head. In my fantasy, his head made a lovely and satisfying red mush on the wall. Then I picked up the CPU and winged it into the awful air conditioning system that won't turn off. And then I took my various peripherals and stuffed them down the throats of the legion of smokers who surround me.

Two more weeks... I think I need aggression therapy or something.

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