July 30, 2004 - 10:35 a.m.
This week has found this humble diary writer in a Firewall Analyst class hosted by SANS. Now as terribly cool as that sounds (for all of you non-geeks � trust me on this one, cause I think it is cool), this has also meant that I am spending anywhere from 1.5 � 2.25 hours getting to scenic downtown DC for said classes. And of course there is a similar time investment on the getting home part. This makes for some long days.
In an effort to add to the cruel and unusual nature of the conference � no real network access!!! There is one room with some limited number of ports that we can access during the 20 min morning and afternoon breaks. This is just about enough time to pop some simple email and possibly and I mean POSSIBLY fire off one response. Grrr. Making everything more interesting � this class requires that we NOT use our productions systems, so my email contact with the office has been a functional ZERO. Haven�t popped mail at all this week. I think that I begin to fear what the world will look like on Monday. Feh! That is then, this is now.
So, for your entertainment � some highlights and reflections from my week.
Think like Letterman for a moment �Top Ten Reasons to go to Geek Training� Coming in at #1 � No waiting lines at the women�s room on break. There is something karmically balancing about seeing the line for the men�r room wrapping out and down the hall and just breezing in and out with no wait. Starts to make up for the endless waits at theatre intermission all those years.
And then Tuesday I was stalked by a duck!!! No really. I went to the park to eat my lunch (from Subway) and while eating accidentally dropped a Dorito. One baked cool ranch Dorito. This was apparently of great interest � one she-mallard came basically racing out of the pool/pond area and gobbled it up. One happy quack of thanks and it was done, right? Well no actually.
She watched me eat the rest of my lunch, conversing with me throughout. �Quack, quack, grunt, quack.� I guess she liked it. Only slightly disconcerted and feeling like I had fallen into Theo�s world, I threw out my wrapper and headed back to the hotel for the afternoon session.
But no, this was one determined duck. She began following me. She followed me across the park, to the end of the street and waited to cross with the rest of the pedestrians. When the light changed and I began to walk away, once again with a quack and a waddle we were off. She followed me for 2+ blocks.
We parted ways as I headed into the hotel, just next to valet parking. I wished the attendants the best of luck on finding a place to park THAT.
I have never been stalked before. I most certainly have never been stalked by a female before. And I have DEFINITELY NEVER EVER have been stalked by a waterfowl. Should I get a restraining order? I am afraid to eat Doritos in public again. I am afraid to go to the park! I think this calls for extensive therapy!
As it turns out, Tuesday was also the day of vendor booths and ritualistic business card exchange. One of the vendors was apparently raffling off an iPod mini. I didn�t realize this. So on Wednesday when some vendor hunted me down in class in the afternoon (hunted, not stalked � I checked for feathers) and handed me my new iPod mini � I was very confused. KEEN! Shiny!!! Toy!!!
Of course in a moment or six of compulsiveness I HAD to install it on my laptop at the house and this became a catalyst to get a bunch more of those CDs ripped that I have been meeting to get pulled over. Note to self � never begin this process at 2100. Especially don�t begin this during a week when you are doing 12 hour days plus evening commitments (like station duty, board meetings and dinner with friends from out of town *sigh*)
So now I have a cute small way to amuse myself while on the metro. The iTunes store is a very dangerous place. Worse than that � www.ipodyourbmw.com This natively applies to model years 2002 and higher � mine is *sigh* a 2001. Per evil Roland�s suggestion (yes, I said evil � the man has a streak of demonic proportion. Ah the sense of humor �) I sent the link off to Trevor (car-geek and audio snob). Not shockingly when I got to the station last night he was pages deep in research on what would be needed to get said setup added into my car. Heh heh heh � we will see if it is worth the effort. How is sometimes that free things are so akin to pandora�s box.
After Tuesday-Duck Day and Wednesday-iPod Day, Thursday was positively boring. Class was class no stalking, no surprises.
�
�
