This one's just gonna have to be a quickie. I'm sick of looking at a computer today.

I'm learning Flash—it's turning out to be not nearly so difficult as I thought it would be. I explained to Cathy today it's like drawing in photoshop on three axes instead of two—you have to think in terms of time as well of in terms of width and height. It was a bit of a shift, but not nearly the paradigm-shifting-without-a-clutch that I was expecting.I've got the first scene of the movie done—the intro. I don't know how to link the buttons yet—I'll figure that out either by my readings tonight or by tomorrow morning's explorations. Tomorrow I'm going to work on the kittypix portion of the flash movie. Shouldn't be difficult. I might have to try a morph from Edmund's face to Tenzing's. That will probably be amusing.

we've gotta hold on to what we've got
doesn't make a difference if we make it or not… *insert jon bon jovi yowlin' here*

Y'know, it's moments like these that I almost miss the 1980s. It's something about the big hair and guys in nicely frayed jeans and…oh, wait, this is more than you wanted to know, isn't it?moving on:

OUR HOUSE IS WIRED!

Jeff is in the living room, serving up mp3s from his computer [in here in the computer room with me] into the Mistress [our huge speaker system in the living room].

SWANK.

In here I've got a nice little set of Altec Lansings that do quite a serviceable job at aurally blasting mp3s in my general direction. I've got Three Doors Down cranked up to drown out whatever Jeff's listening to in the living room. Hopefully he won't get into a loudness pissing contest, because the NHT 2.5is will terrorize my little computer speakers and make them hide in the closet and beg for mercy.

Y'know, maybe it's just me, but when I was preparing to enter in the work world, I had it drilled into my head over and over that professionalism isn't just about a mindset—it's about how you present yourself, in all forms of communication.

Now, granted, I often deliberately break professionalism rules to make a point—but when I do so, it's obvious, and the points are generally well-made. However, I really have to wonder about people who seem to have lived with their heads in the sand for the past decade…so much that the way they present themselves is so lacking that you have trouble taking them seriously.I've run into this with a person that I've got dealings with at work right now. Obviously, I'm going to be circumspect and not name names, but this person could use some back instruction on how to conduct business in today's world.

The decision: do the spraying ourselves, or call in an exterminator?

The problem: we spotted a healthy and happy black widow spider with a huge web right outside the guest bedroom.

I don't like spiders, and I especially don't like them making happy little nests right outside my guest bedroom when I've got three guests coming to stay with us in the next 30 days.

Either way, her days are numbered.It's been a quiet day at work—things coming in slowly but steadily, so the day has passed quickly. I'm ready to go home, although I'm not totally sure of what I'm going to do when I get there. Perhaps clean the kitchen or something eminently useful like that. Or maybe I'll just sprawl out on the guest bed and read for a couple of hours—that sounds pretty good.

I totally forgot to set meat out to thaw, so I guess that we'll be having leftover chili tonight. We'll live.

Here's my question for the evening: what makes a geek, a geek? What is it, exactly, that gets you entrance into this peculiar little world?

And, I suppose my true question is…why am I in it?

I ask myself this sometimes, and tonight after Heather and Jess visited, I've really been asking myself those questions. It's sometimes difficult for me to listen to the wondergeeks talk about what they're doing with their lives, because I always feel that in comparison, my life comes up lacking.

This, I think, is because I'm torn between what I'm good at doing, and what I feel that I should be doing. The two aren't the same, and I know it.