One of the things I have discovered about doing something you really love is that there is a temptation to bring it home with you whenever possible. I work with computers, and I still love to fiddle with them when I'm not at work at Company O. This has useful outlets. As I have noted before, I do make house calls for computer problems for family, friends, and Fiancee S.'s school. It also comes in handy when Frankencomputer acts up.
It is less appealing however, when there are no real problems to solve. Frankencomputer (*knock on wood*) seems to be more of its dependable self again after acting up badly through much of the months of November and December. Other elements of the network in the den at home also seem to be behaving themselves. Aside from a little software maintenance, all has been rather peaceful.
Like a career soldier back from war after armistice, I find my geeky self at loose ends when I am at home. So I've begun making up problems to solve. I took some parts in a corner of the den, bought a $20 used hard drive, and turned it into a working computer that won't be able to play Doom 3, but, could act as a small mail, web, or file server. I decided to name this new machine godzilla. Frankenstien was a more appropriate name as it was constructed from cast offs and parts from other dead computers, but I like shorter host names.
So, I asked myself, what can I do with the newly christened godzilla now that it was up and running? Well, Fiancee S. pays Earthlink for dialup and e-mail service every month, but, couldn't send mail from the den without dialing up because of security issues. This is something of a shame because the den has a connection to a cable modem, and she can otherwise make use of this very speedy connection to the Internet.
I thought it was a perfect idea to take a couple hours on Sunday and turn it into an e-mail server she could use to send mail. Well, you could use the term "couple hours" loosely because a few more hours than expected (surprise, surprise) were required to be successful. This kept me up late on Sunday and had me rather bleary-eyed on Monday morning for work. Plus, I eventually discovered that the whole effort was wasted because my cable modem provider would allow her to send mail from her Earthlink address.
See what time you can waste if these geeky impulses go unchecked?
I'm feeling a distinct lack of impulse control this week where my geeky interests are concerned. I guess I need to cut down. I didn't turn my computer on at all last night (though I did check e-mail with Fiancee S.'s computer once). I should do this more often and read a book or watch a DVD. I just got the DVD release of Sergio Leone's last film Once Upon A Time In America and that looks good. I also need to finish up Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. I got What Einstein Told His Cook for Christmas, and that looks good as well. Finally, there's also a honeymoon to plan. Plus, I suppose I should go out and see Return Of The King before I lose all geek cred (don't worry... I read the book, three times, and know how it ends).
said drgeek
on 2004-01-15 at 11:11 a.m.
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