The coder sits behind his screen
writing the prose that makes computers dance
and do his bidding cheerfully

His life is lonely; no one sees
him as a person with deep emotions
he’s a brain with no personality

Typing away in a language cryptic
his poetry translated by electronic chip set
into images and actions directed by unseen command

Although his world is of two dimensions
His mind delves deep into both future and past
To create wonderlands bound only by imagination

He’s thought out of the box for so long
That he no longer knows just what a box is
He’s into the clouds and beyond

In social settings (of which there are few)
He may be shy and awkward until he’s introduced
To others of like mind, with an IQ to match

Then he’s alive and into the fray
With syntax advice
And then the next day

He finds himself once more
In front of that screen
Typing away at the next coding dream

I am so far over my head with my current project at work that I might as well be looking for an Orange New Jersey cosmetic dentist in Timbuktu Egypt.

I know I took a couple of classes on SharePoint, but holy moley did they NOT prepare me for the reality!

MAYBE just MAYBE if it were ONLY SharePoint I would have a bit more confidence in implementing what I learned in my classes, but it’s not “just” SharePoint but MOSS AND Business Portal. After what my boss has gone through in just getting those parts to “talk” to each other politely, I’m terrified of breaking something!

I did ask him to mirror the site onto a test box so I can do stuff that won’t impact the production box, but that hasn’t happened yet. Meanwhile, my deadline approaches with all the speed of a bullet train.

Oh and that’s not to mention that the rest of my work load has increased. While it was very manageable (enabling me to have time to write in this blog fairly frequently), now I’m hard pressed to keep to an 8 hour day. That in turn impacts my time availability for doing my schoolwork. What a hamster wheel I’m on!

Well, it’s clear that I need to get some time management going here. Set priorities and time limits. It’s the only way I’m going to survive the next few months.

There was a young man from Bath
Who was very VERY bad at math
When he added two plus two
His answer just wouldn’t do
So his teacher gave him a bit of his wrath

* * *

There once was a bird could not sing
So she hid her head ‘neath her wing
She felt so ashamed
But she couldn’t to be blamed
Everyone knows chickens can’t sing a thing!

* * *

There once was a clock in a cathedral
Whose face was shaped tetrahedral
When the time was at ten
You only knew when
the Choir sang octahedral

* * *

There was a young lady who lived in an inn
And never needed any Pronexin
Who wandered forlorn
In full dress adorn
‘Cause she never knew which bed she’d sleep next in

* * *

In the interest of full disclosure
the fellow retained his composure
because it was said
if he yelled off his head
he might suffer a complete foreclosure

* * *

There once was a Muslim in jail
for refusing the Ayatollah to hail
his crime was a sin
but he still had to grin
at the jokes he received in the mail

As I was driving into work this morning and listening to my favorite radio station, an interview with author James Ellroy came on.

Now, I do enjoy reading crime novels, so was immediately captured by the subject of the interview. I was, however, totally unprepared for what came out of my speakers.

Ellroy’s presence literally erupted from the radio, diminishing my own character with the strength of his. Reading his words on paper  gives you no sense of this man’s strong aura. I cannot imagine sharing a room with him for any length of time.

It became apparent that Steve Inskeep, the interviewer, had his hands full with Mr. Ellroy. To Inskeep’s credit, he managed (barely) to stay on top of the interview.

Ellroy’s writing style may be more (or less) than the casual reader can follow. The excerpts of his novel “Blood’s A Rover” show him to write in staccato sentences that often aren’t complete. No adherent to proper grammar or sentence structure is Ellroy.

Taking his description of the outline to heart, this novel is compacted with information; no page should be skimmed over or the reader is likely to miss out.  A nearly 400 page outline is nothing to be fooled with.

Ellroy is self described as a history re-imaginer. He lived through the ’60’s in a haze of drugs but the rich history of the age seeped into his soul and is now emerging as these imaginitive twists on what we perceive to be the events of the time.

From peeping-tom-to-private-eye main character Don Crutchfield (who is supposedly modeled after a real Hollywood PI) to Wayne Tedrow Junior who turns diet pills into hard drugs and kills for the fun of it we are exposed to some raunchy people. But in the end, it’s a come-to-Jesus experience or so says Ellroy.

Read more about this amazing author at NPR.org.