Journal

It may also reset the hit counters when I upload. I’m not sure. It’s really weird that way. For the record, I checked the hit counters before I started editing. There were 341 hits to the "On Ramp" page (plus 657 from when I was on the "old" server,) and 138 on the "Present" page. I forgot to check the hit counter on that page before I moved the site.

But part of the reason I do this is to experiment. If it blows up, it blows up. Then I try to figure out how to fix it. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t. Life goes on. It’s the way I’ve learned almost everything I know about PCs and networks. I have no degree, just 15 years of experience, learning things the hard way. I’ve taken a few seminars here and there, but for the most part, I read, think, experiment and see if it blows up. (After all, that’s what backups are for!)

Back in high school, I was suspended and almost got expelled for one of my experiments. Junior year, chemistry class. No, I didn’t blow anything up. (Although nitroglycerine is fairly easy to make, it’s notoriously hard to handle.) Just had a little fun.

Somewhere along the line, I had read a novel which introduced me to "poppers", amyl nitrate, an inhalant. Amyl nitrate is a controlled substance, used mostly to rapidly raise the blood pressure in certain types of medical emergencies. It was a really popular chemical to abuse in the 70s. Just inhale deeply, and get a huge rush for a few minutes. Lots of people used an almost legal commercial variant, butyl nitrate, during sex. (Talk about an orgasm!) It was sold in the bars and the baths under the brand names "Rush" and "Locker Room." (Can you see where this is going?)

So we were studying organic chemistry, things made with carbon, the stuff of life. We came to a sub-type of organics called esters. It covers a kinda broad range of chemicals. A couple of common esters are things as diverse as nail polish remover, and artificial flavors. Well we’re whipping up things like nail polish remover and artificial banana flavor in the lab. We had a whole list of stuff to make. And yours truly begins to pick up on the relationships between what you start out with and what you end up with.

Hmmm. Amyl something, something-else nitrate. Take one from column "A", one from column "B". Whatdaya get? Laboratory-grade amyl nitrate. Nice buzz. Being the sharing kinda guy I am, I passed it around to some of my classmates. They were somewhat less than subtle with their praise. The teacher was not amused. Nor was the vice-principal, nor was the principal, nor were my parents.

By the way, if you’ve ever used poppers and gotten a nasty skin burn under your nose, it’s because they used too much nitric acid in the batch and not all of it was consumed in the reaction. Just like baking cookies, you gotta measure your ingredients!

Of course that all seems pretty lame compared to what people cook up now. Meth, crack, and who knows what else. Innocence lost.

So how’d the rest of the weekend go? Got almost eight inches Saturday night. Snow! Not what you’re thinking! (Damn.) It was snowing pretty heavily when I left for Muther’s. Kept a lot of people home. Only the die-hard partiers and the desperate were out. Being neither, I left early and went grocery shopping. Had to do it sometime! Might as well avoid the crowds.

Sunday was spent messing with the PC, and I went to dinner at my brother and sister-in-law’s. Then I came home and went to be early. Life in the fast lane.

It was nice to be well rested on a Monday morning for a change. And the weather today, sunny! Boy it was nice. And all the snow made it so much brighter too.

Three things from it that I can’t resist sharing:

First, from the Tired/Wired department, something I found particularly amusing in light of the above entry:

Tired: Homebrew absinthe. Wired: Homegrown opium poppies.

The second comes from Jargon Watch. I think it’s perfect for those of us who have tired of typing (and misspelling) "journal phenomenon." Here’s something easier:

Scribe Tribes

Netizens who publish their journals, diaries, and daily ramblings on the Web and organize them into journal webrings and link lists.

Finally, there’s another one in Jargon Watch for those of us who are contractors in the workplace:

Coin-Operated Employee

An employee brought in for a particular project or set time period.