31 January, 2007

Today has been an odd day. Odd in that it has included an unusually extreme mixture of highs and lows resulting in a mixture of somewhat turbulent emotions. I imagine people who know me would say this is not unusual and that I am unusually turbulent most of the time…but today was odd.

Somedays you get a curveball from someone you trust and it can get you thinking for the rest of the day. Mine came today from a friend who, comparing me to someone they knew, commented that I tend to look at people with a sort of “you are wrong, dipshit” expression. If you really know me you’ll know this would hurt…quite a lot. I like people a lot, I like working with people and I have consistently and enduringly high hopes and expectations for people in my life…I am regularly disappointed by people. My natural thinking expression is to frown.

I went in to school today to sort out the broken computers in my classroom. I have set up a dual boot of Windows XP and Linux (Ubuntu) and the imaging hadn’t worked apparently. I spent time on each machine repairing the master boot record (as the partitions had copied over) and now have 24 working machines. Tall poppy syndrome be damned, that is bloody phenomenal considering I started using Linux seriously last July(ish) and had no support from the supposed IT people I know (and Iknow quite a few). I will never be thanked for my effort and in all likelihood my students will argue and fight the setup until they leave school.

In the last few days I have watched “Who Killed the Electric Car” and “An Inconvenient Truth”. The first was just plain sad for someone who rides an electric scooter in a city of SUVs and the second was…actually I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’ve heard all the info about climate change before, none of it is particular news to me and I live in New Zealand where 15 minutes in the sun can cause really nasty burns. I am making and have made major changes in my life to live more sustainably and I am educating others where I can and when it is acceptable for me to do so.

I am often more certain than right…today I feel more right than certain.