Advogato blog for jimray

25 Aug 2000

Fri, 25 Aug 2000 16:24:42 GMT

Settling back in
Classes have started again and, hopefully, this will be my LAST FALL SEMESTER at UNC. It's nice to be back into a bit more relaxed atmosphere (if the first week of class can be considered relaxing) and, truthfully, back to the slightly slower paced South. ahhhh.
For the first time in my life, I'm living with a girl. I never had sisters and my mom was, well, mom. Fortunately, she's cool as shit and I'm looking forward to a fun year. And, she gives better fashion advice than Joe.

17 Aug 2000

Thu, 17 Aug 2000 16:53:01 GMT

Travels with Guylhem
So, I've spent the better part of a week in San Jose with Guylhem and I gotta say, it's been a helluva good time. The two of us hang out at Linuxworld for about 9-10 hours a day, bum around the city, and then go out and drink free beer and eat free food all night. Without a doubt, a very good time indeed. Getting along with Guylhem has been incredibly easy. First off, he's one of the smarter people I've met. He's my age, attending med school, running the LDP, speaks at least 2 languages and travels all around the world advocating free software for no other reason that he thinks it's the right thing to do. Cool.
On losing my identity
Like an idiot, I managed to lose my license the first day I was here. Scratch that, within an HOUR of being in San Jose. First, I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to fly home, but my dad assured me that wouldn't be a problem (thanx dad!). However, Tuesday night I came to the stark realization that I would need my idea to go to free parties, etc. I got stopped at the door of the mandrake party. That sucked. I mean, I've waited all my life to be 21, and now that I am, I lose my fucking ID. It's just frustrating. Last night was fun though. We came back to the house and I'm trying to figure out how to be 21. Guylhem looks over at me and says, as only he can, "Tonight, you will be French!" and then we work out this scheme where I'll use his passport to get in. The only downside: now I have a killer hangover.

16 Aug 2000

Wed, 16 Aug 2000 15:50:25 GMT

On being a Geek
The thing is, I'm not real sure that I fit in here at LinuxWorld. The disturbing thing is I can't decide if that's a good or a bad thing. I'm taking it as a kind of mixed blessing.
As I walk around and take in the sights and sounds of the geek fair, collect the countless amount of worthless crap and mingle at the free parties, I just can't shake this feeling that I'm probably not a true geek. And I don't mean geek in a disparaging way, as any geek knows. It's mostly a term of endearment, not an insult. The reality is, I'm kind of straddling the fence here. And this has always been a problem, not just recently. It's like there's a problem committing to, well, anything. Odd.

15 Aug 2000

Tue, 15 Aug 2000 21:03:38 GMT

live from linuxworld.
I figured, what better place to start my geek journal that at the largest collection of geeks i've ever seen in my entire life.
LinuxWorld is surprisingly hip. I don't feel totally devoid here. I'm also totally pumped that people actually understand what it is that I do and (gasp) where it is that I work. You say metalab around here and people go nuts. this one guy from Australia thought it was the coolest thing in the world that I had a metalab email account. wow.
So i'm thinking that this Silicon Valley place ain't that bad. It's fast paced, to be sure. But the people here a relatively cool, if not a bit disconnected at times (meaning disconnected from LIFE, not the 'net). The weather's incredible, though, and San Francisco was one of the nicer big cities I've ever been to. We'll see.
So that's it so far.