Frequently Asked Questions (updated 10/03/18)

(Original post: March 2008)

I've had a few people emailing me with the same damned questions over the last couple of weeks years, so I thought I'd put together a FAQ in order to better serve my not-so-adoring public.

Q. I love your nickname! Are you really conceited?
A. No, but I have every right to be.

Q. Are you a sociopath?
A. No.  I'm normally quite friendly and easygoing until you piss me off.

Q. Are you single?
A. No, I'm a happily married father.

Q. Who is this Nadia?
A. Despite my referring to Nadia as "her" or "she", Nadia is a "what" and not a "who". Nadia is my beloved Macintosh Powerbook G3 "Lombard", still in active service as of 10/03/2018.

Q. Why aren't your blogs updated more often?
A1. I don't have much to say.
A2. I did have something to say, but someone else has already said it better, and I hate being a "me too".
A3. Social media gets the lion's share of my attention, along with any thoughts that might have turned into blog posts.
A4. I have an active family life away from my computers.



Q. Why don't you allow comments on your blog?
A. Because, frankly, I don't care what you think.  Most internet commentors seem to be either loathsome trolls, racists, partisan, or are just plain ill-informed, and I refuse to deal with any of that crap on my own blog.  The only feedback I'm interested in is guitar feedback!

Comments are however allowed for Blogger/Google+ users. I won't allow anonymous comments because I believe everyone should have to sign their name to what they write and take responsibility for what they write, instead of hiding behind the relative anonymity of the Internet like the spineless fucking cowards they are.  I will delete irrelevant or inflammatory comments, and don't owe anyone an explanation as to why.

I'm also tired of spammers.  I don't have a lot of free time to spend deleting spam.  I also have little to no time for (or interest in) engaging in debate on anything appearing here.  I'll clarify statements I've made and will make an attempt to answer relevant questions when I have time, but don't expect to have any sort of discourse apart from that.

Unlike some people, I don't spend hours upon hours on my computer or mobile devices every day.  I'm an adult, I have an adult life, and adult obligations outside of the internet.  I have no time for book-smart pseudo-intellectuals whose social consciousness was formed by the Internet.

Q. What, exactly, is your blog about?
A. The focus of my blog is broad, and vague.  It's about nothing, and everything.  Mostly, it's about me, my experiences and observations, and a bit of (anti-)social commentary.

Q. Why don't you write about something constructive? Like politics or current events?
A. I write about current events as I experience them; I will not quote, reference, rehash, or reinterpret newspaper or news site articles (or worse, someone else's blog) for my own purpose. There are plenty of other local blogs do cover politics et cetera better than I care to do.  Frankly, I absolutely loathe partisan politics.

Q. Don't you ever think before you post?
A. Rarely, if ever. I prefer to use my blog as a spontaneous, off the cuff, knee-jerk reactionary outlet, as it captures my true feelings concerning a particular subject at the time of posting. I prefer this method and I find it's a great deal more honest, and not peppered with half-assed rationalizations and/or justification. My motto has always been "Justification is for people who lack conviction".

That said, a lot of my writing has a moral buried somewhere within. Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes it's not.  Sometimes I'm wrong.  Sometimes I'm not.

Q. Why do you name your computers?
A. It's a holdover from my Project Planner/Implementation Coordinator days at a previous job as a warehousing/logistics specialist, where everything was assigned a project name by the higher-ups. This practice, which I was forced to use, soon carried over to my life outside of work, where I used it when working on several similar computer projects at once.

It all started when I did a buyout of several dozen identical computers from a failed dotcom. I wanted to tailor specific machines for certain tasks, while I fiendishly experimented on others. It got to the point where I was unable to keep track of what I was doing on which machine, so I started designating or "naming" my machines and writing a project manual on each in order to keep track.

Desktop machines and servers were named after cities or countries, while portables and laptops were typically given women's names (as in "my girl friday").  Sexist, I agree.

Q.  Why do you feel you need to write multiple paragraphs when a single sentence will do?
A.  I wrote freelance for a number of years (1990s through early 2000s), and I'm used to padding my word-count.

Q.  How much of this blog is factual, and how much is made-up bullshit?
A.  All of it.

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