jr conlin's ink stained banana

Sigmund Freud would have loved being at lunch with me today.

No, not because i had a hotdog, milkshake and a fine cigar (just like Mom used to make), but because i was more than a bit angry and more than a bit stressed. Some people eat when they're like that, others cry, i crack jokes. In fact, i usually try to crack as many jokes as i can about damn near anything i can find.

So what's with the Freud reference? Old Siggy wrote a pretty long paper on the Theory of Humor. i read this early in my youth after finding it buried on a dark corner of my father's office. You know, there's probably something to be said for both my father (who kept stuff like theories of humor in the dark corners of his office) and myself (who gave up looking for girlie mags for that tome).

Thing is, he had a point. Most people are funniest when they're angry. Sure, it helps to be funny to begin with, but folks like Louis Black wouldn't have had quite the career he's had if he gave a 90 minute monologue about bunnies and sunshine. From "Yo Mama" contests to Oscar Wilde, nothing brings the funny like a right good pisser of a mood, and my GOD does it feel good to let loose. Best thing is that the rant can have absolutely nothing to do with what you're really mad about, but be instead about finding mayo on the barbeque sandwich you got at the cafeteria.

Who the hell puts mayo on a barbeque sandwich?

Is there not enough fat in the shredded meat slathered with sugary sauce that someone decided "You know what would really make this sandwich squirt through someone's system like a Tijuana ex-lax slurpee? Bob! Get me that gallon tub of Hellmans!" i mean, i'd understand if it was back in Virginia. They put mayo on everything there. That glob of white creamy substance in your soup? No, that's not sour cream. Yeah, you'll only WISH the chef was happier to meet you. It's the one state where i would reasonably expect to say "i'll have the chocolate shake, hold the mayo".

After that, i think i was off after something completely different that may or may not have involved badger related headgear. It's kind of a blur to me, but since folks were generally not running away i'm pretty sure i didn't start stabbing the table with my silverware.

i do admit that i felt much better afterwards, and able to meet the next soul crushing with a song in my heart and a smile on my lips.

Granted, now i'm worried that folks will try to make me angry just to get a better show out of me.

Hmm… i wonder how that could have effected others? Ladies and gentleman, fresh from his Broadway Smash, Shecky "the Hulk" Banner…

Today was not a banner day for me.

Oh, not like i set fire to anything, caused anything to explode and i'm pretty sure i'm not responsible for any loss of life (directly at least), i wasn't exactly in prime mental shape today.

Worst thing is that i have no idea why.

i had plenty of sleep last night (even with a raccoon doing a rather good impression of someone creeping around my window at 3 AM), had a nice, restful weekend and was actually pretty rarin' to go work wise. i have a list of stuff what needs doing, a clear course of action on how to accomplish said tasks, and a mostly clear schedule to accomplish them. Didn't get a lick of any of that stuff done though.

For whatever reason, Mr. Brain decided to shut down on me. Oh sure, i tried to actually do some of the stuff, except that i'd find myself five minutes later wondering how Derek will justify this to D or hoping that one day Pixar will just release all their shorts on DVD. Usually after a brisk mental lashing, i'd once again set into the task at hand only to get confused and lost along the way. Possibly due to some particularly shiny dustspeck.

Thing is, i know everyone has days like that. Days when you make up for exceptionally productive periods. i just wish that i had some sort of warning about it.

So i can line up better stuff to get distracted on that's a bit more useful.

[Photo of Water Wars booths, which were two roll up shacks fitted with slingshots so that people inside could fire water bombs at the folks across from them. A few folks were deadly accurate, scoring direct hits through the firing hole of their opponents shack. Others were a tad long and wound up bombing passers by who generally laughed and loaded up a few water bombs of their own.]

[Photo of really long line for the 150cc go-karts, and general lack of red shells to toss at opponents.]

[Photo of the live band, Modern Appliance Band, that was not only darn good, but also not responsible for hearing loss.]

[Photo of equally long line for the segway races. Possibly followed up by picture of Richard noting that in the great tally of one's life, "Riding a Segway" should be checked.]

[Photo of the 20 folks that i bumped into and knew. A new record for a company event.]

[Photo of the fog curling over the hills in the distance, keeping the blacktop event a cool 72° with a delightful breeze even in the direct sun. Possibly inlaid with a photo of the empty misting tents.]

[Photo of the employee owned 1920's 190 SL Mercedes Benz coup convertible complete with a slightly faded Y! Parking Ticket.]

[Slightly blurry photo of a small girl who was terrified to go on the 20' inflatable slide, but decided she'd go anyway. She sat at the top for a few seconds, closed her eyes, and slid down screaming all the way to the bottom only to giggle fiendishly and scramble her way back up to the top four more times.]

[Somewhat blurry photo of the bathtub racers whirling by.]

You know you're having a good time at the company picnic when you get home and realize you forgot to take any pictures.

i'd like to announce a few changes to my upcoming schedule:

i regret that i will not be attending the following:

1. San Jose Gran Mal Prix - Sorry, last time i got quite a headache from that.
2. Milpitas Downtown Ramp and Durian Festival (sadly, my sinuses are not congested this year).
3. Rascal 500 - 500 miles, 500 laps, 500 old folks on scooters. Don't miss the action, thrills, and nap time.
4. Nightly Queso Dance Lessons - Thrill to the suggestive romance of cheese dancing. Live the Guda, Love the Limburger, and set those feet fleeting thought the Velveeta.

Ok, i finally got around to installing Synergy on my work computers, and i'm seriously digging it.

Ah, i can hear you now. "What the hell is Synergy?" Well, the quick answer is that it's like having VNC without the need for a remote display. A longer description is that it is a program that allows you to remotely control a computer that happens to be within eyesight of another computer. (Think two machines sitting next to each other and being able to slide between them.)

For what it's worth, i'm running it across two windows XP clients, and since Mr. Cutts did the Unbuntu version, i figure i should probably describe my setup, as well mention a few complicated, additional aspects.

Ok, so my primary work box is on a protected network, my dual screen laptop is on an unprotected network. To make things more interesting, my work machine is on a fixed address, while my laptop is on DHCP, meaning no fixed address. Not a big deal since my main box has a bigger screen than the other two, but i still want to control things there.

So, here are the steps:

1. grab a copy of Synergy for windows and copy to both machines. (i used a commonly accessible directory that i SCP'd to).
2. Install and config it on my main box.
   It's a bit counter intuitive, but what i want to do is share my main work computer's keyboard and mouse, effectively putting it in "server" mode. This means that this machine is the primary controller.
   1. hit the [Configure] button and add Screens: for the machines that are connecting up. For this, i used the windows lmhost names for the machines. (That's the name that you give your computer when you set things up. An easy way to get it is to go to |Run… "cmd" and then run "hostname") Add one for the local machine and the remote machine. i'll call them "foo" (the server) and "bar".
   2. Under Links: add links between the screens you defined above. In my case, i have two links:
      bar is left of foo
foo is right of bar

      Remember to add both directions otherwise one screen will act like a roach motel. Pointers go in, but they don't come out.
   3. For what it's worth, i left most of the other server options as is.
3. Now, set up the client:
   1. Since i'm going from unsecure to more secure, i need to use a protected tunnel to do it. i'm using putty, but any tunneling agent will work.
   2. Under putty, i created an ssh tunnel from port 24800 to foo:24800. Considering the large number of tunnels i have, adding one more wasn't a huge issue. ;)
   3. Start up synergy and pick (*) Use another computer's shared keyboard and mouse (client)
      For the Other Computer i specified "localhost".
   4. Now for the proof. Click [Test]. You should get a window that says:
      INFO: Synergy client 1.3.1 on Microsoft Windows Server XP
NOTE: started client
NOTE: connected to server
      If you don't, you've got some fixin' to do.
   5. Clear that window, and the one behind it that says "Click stop to end test"
   6. Make fixes, or click [Start]

   From your main desktop, you should be able to move your mouse to the client and back again. You're done, and now have amazing control over another computer.

   Oh, and one last step: try to avoid the obvious temptation to install a client on someone else's computer so you can dork with them.

So far, it's amazingly cool and works surprizingly well. The only kind of strange hiccup is that minimizing the putty shell seems to cause "issues" with synergy. Nothing fatal, but the process seems to stall. All i can think of is that the temporary bump in CPU is causing the connection to skip, but there may be something else going on.

Of course, the other problem is the crick i'm getting craning my neck around to see two monitors that are slightly behind me, but that's something i'll get used to.