an abridged catch-up on a few things i hadn't gotten around to journalling

[chris raettig <chris@raettig.org>]

recent activities from the user account of chris raettig;


- our hero and friends badly, though with great vim, kareoke the abba 
classic 'i have a dream'

- a legal threat from some washington quilters

- chrisr has his laptop computer grabbed from him in a london underground
station, only to have it safely returned due to cctv and the efficiency of
underground staff and the london transport police.

- an unexpected early morning trip is taken to tunbridge wells

- further corporate anthems coverage is given courtesy of
msnbc. chrisr apologises for being unusually snowed
under when they attempted to make contact, and hopes he didn't hurt microsoft's feelings.

- our weary hacker manages to get out of bed at 7am with the (greatly
appreciated) assistance of a series of trans-continental alarm calls 
from japan.

- a disgruntled mud game developer almost goes postal as our hero sends a
mildly sarcastic response to some critical code updates. despite strong
warnings and equally strong reassurances that the patches would be the epitome
of robust idiot-proof design, chrisr manages to destroy the development
platform in spectacular fashion only thirty-eight seconds after merging the
code into the source tree. he learns that the game engine does not at all like
a curious wizard logging on as the root object then allowing themselves to be
killed, and that a certain developer has a high sensitivity to marginally
sarcastic code review. 

- a short break affords a calming opportunity to look out over fields of cows,
sheep and new-born lambs. 

- the worst kfc experience in the history of anything is experienced, served
by people who have forgotten that what they sell has anything to do with food,
and view it soley as product. our hero is also stunned to learn that they do
not have any 'large' beans left, only 'regular'. 

- an olympic phone conversation with a close friend and mentor results in the
final dissolvement of a niggling long-held item of emotional baggage. 

- our protagonist suffers, quite uncharacteristically, a vivid nightmare. 
perhaps brought on by a sleep pattern more ruptured than usual it was
a memorable and almost cronenbergesque dream ending with chrisr removing
a number of large-ended pins and other metallic objects grotesquely from
under his skin. 

- the chrisr mop of hair grows beyond the acceptable realms of unkempedness
and teeters dangerously close to 'unmanageable' and 'crap'. yet he
*still* stubbornly refuses to make time to have it cut. 

- preparations are made for a long expected party.

- a rare wrestle with a windows server reminds chrisr of why he considers it
an appalling environment under which to get anything done, quite akin to
kicking a dead whale down the beach.