We’ll call this the first official post to my weblog. I’m using blogger to automate the process of updating this log; without it, content would become stale after this first post. There’s no guarantee that I’ll upate with any regularity, but I’ll do my best. Many people see weblogs and webjournals as narcissistic drivel. I view them as a cathartic and creative outlet for the creators, a way to keep in touch with friends and to make new ones. I don’t pretend that I’ll ever acquire regular readers, but I have an urge to write. This weblog will provide an outlet for that urge.

This afternoon was an odd mixture of tumult and silence.

Work at Custom Box Service was slow: the phones just stopped ringing, as did the fax. Jeff sent the crew home at noon, which is a nice break for them, I think. They’ve been working hard lately, and had many hour of overtime last pay period. I hope the business picks up again soon. (I’ve talked with several other people whose businesses are slow now, so I’m not too concerned that this is Custom Box specific — it’s likely an industry-wide slowness.)

Meanwhile, the Computer Resources team experienced friction. We’ve decided to throw in the towel on the computer that we’ve been trying to build. We can’t get the components to work together no matter what we try. It’s the most frustrating computer-building experience that I’ve ever had. The parts need to be returned soon, but nobody is willing to do it. Though I value Jeremy and Andrew as friends, having them as business partners is often frustrating.

Kris and I just finished watching Waiting For Guffman. It came highly recommended, and with a good pedigree (from the same people who brought us This is Spinal Tap and last year’s Best In Show.

All three movies require a certain sense of humor; they are droll and self-mocking and because they are played straight they could easily be mistaken for insipid dramas. Of the three, I like Guffman the least. It has some amusing moments but lacked any of the laugh-out-loud humor that was present in the other two movies (from Spinal Tap: the diminutive Stonehenge, the amp that goes to eleven — from Best In Show: “We have so much in common. We both like soup.”, Parker Posey’s frantic search for the stuffed bee).

I’ll spend the rest of the evening cleaning the house and installing software on this rebuilt computer (I’ve added a new motherboard and processor). I’ve been busy lately, and the house is a pig sty. There’s crap everywhere. I accumulate too much stuff, a habit that I’ll likely never cure despite the fact that I recognize it as foolish. I’d love to find somebody that could use all this crap and just donate it to them. I have scores of computer books, magazines, notebooks, and more. Many of these items are scattered over the office floor in semi-organized piles. Others are stacked in the storage shed with no organization whatsoever. For a guy who is so anal-retentive about order in certain facets of his life, I sure have cluttered surroundings.