Moo!

Each morning I commute from Baltimore to DC via the MARC commuter train. When I detrain at Union Station, I'm often struck by how much I'm reminded of dystopian visions of the future.

Especially today, when there were two trains arriving at virtually the same time at the same platform. Dozens and dozens of commuters, threading down the platform, into the station and down to the METRO. Because of the sheer number of people, you're limited to a sort of slow, shuffling walk. Add in the noise and the huge machines closing you in on either side and the ceiling cutting you off from the sky, it feels like a scene from a bad science fiction movie.

Getting through Union Station stands in stark contrast to the comfort and civilized feel of actually riding the train. Fortunately, getting through the station just takes a little patience and courtesy. Once I exit the METRO system at Metro Center, I'm once again an individual person rather than a lemming carried along by the crowd.

Yesterday evening was particularly brutal. Apparently, a car tumbled off the New York Avenue overpass onto the tracks that the Amtrak and MARC Penn line trains travel near the Times Building. Russell and I quickly boarded the Camden line, when arrives in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, when they announced that the Penn line would be delayed one to two hours.

We managed to find two seats together, and then watched as the train began to fill up -- standing room only. Everybody seemed to take it in stride. Russell and I arrived in Baltimore and switched to the Light Rail to complete our trip -- me to the Cultural Center stop and Russell continuing to the Mount Royal stop. I got home about forty minutes late.

(no subject)

My boss has made arrangements for my coworker and I to travel to the client's office this afternoon to install PHP, MySQL and my in-progress project on their Windows server. My coworker will be leading the installation, and hopefully she won't have any trouble.

My boss will next approach the client about having me onsite for at least the rest of the week while I continue to finish the project, to strengthen the relationship and hopefully get more work from them.

The good news is that the client's office is immediately next to Union Station, so my commute for the duration will be that much less complicated. They are literally half a block away. I'll also be able to graze at some different places for lunch.

Not "coming out" -- Coming TO

"In the gradual, continual, and constantly modulating process of becoming who we are, all events take their meanings, characteristic or uncharacteristic, from the surrounding event field in which they occur." -- Samuel R. Delany, "Boys Like Us: Gay Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories"

Realize Diversity

Take a look at everybody. You see diversity. Not just some political concept of diversity; real diversity. You see different hair colors, different hair textures, different eye colors, different skin colors, different ages, different sexes, different heights, different weights. You hear different voices, each one unique.

What I can't understand is, when confronted every day with all the ways we're each different on the outside, some people still haven't realized that we're also each different on the inside!

One of my favorite books is "Please Understand Me", which describes the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator system. Regardless of whether you buy into a personality classification system, the message I took from this book is just this: people are different.

Really.

Apparently, I kick ass

So my coworker and I went to the client's office this afternoon to do the installation of the server software and the current version of my web application. She was to be responsible for the server software, but was having a little trouble because the instructions she had printed seemed to be for a prior version, so I ended up doing most of the driving. When we were finished, she returned to the office while I sat down to continue work on my code.

My boss called and told me that she had returned to the office singing my praises about how skilled I was with the Windows machine. Of all the things to get praise for! Still, it's nice to work in an office where we all are working together and aren't having to watch our backs. In a company of only four people, it's a necessity, I suppose.

One bummer is that I can't get my PowerBook to play nice with their Windows network. They aren't using DHCP, and their settings don't get me connected. This is the first time my Mac has failed me, and it's very distressing. I'll have to do my coding using Dreamweaver on Windows, and I've already decided that I hate Dreamweaver. It fucks with my code and I can't always tell what it did so I can decide whether it did a good job or not.

Still, I'm pretty skilled with Windows, so it won't be impossible to work -- just not as much fun.