Orkut -or- Saving Me from Me

Recently, I’ve not been as ogre-ific as I’d been for the last three years. I’m coming out of it, I think. This doesn’t mean, of course, that I’ve suddenly shaken my will to get myself into trouble by speaking out of turn.

Sometimes I get lucky, and someone saves me from my mouth. And sometimes, I finally get a grip on context, and stay clammed up. Yet other times, I get a little help. You see, there’s this delightful girl at work — who I barely know — that caught my attention. I was getting up the nerve to start up some sort of out-of-context conversation with her, and thought that I finally figured out how I was going to approach this. I was very pleased that I’d hatched a plan.

But thankfully, I consulted the oracle, Orkut, before saying a word. After a quick search, I realized that mystery girl is in a committed relationship, and is living with partner. While not a great conclusion as far as me pursuing anything was concerned, learning these details did cause me to sit here in my recliner, pumping my fist, celebrating the victory of averted disaster.

The Longer of Two Evils

As a human, I think, I go through these bouts of dissatisfaction. Sometimes it’s money related. Sometimes it’s date related. And other times, it’s the mere act of looking at something that I’d like to be good at (but aren’t currently), or how I’d like to be perceived.

Currently, I’ve been asking myself this question:

Would you rather be insanely good-looking, or have the cognitive powers of a genius?

I chose the route of genius, because it’s my belief that the brain always wins.

I’ve been posing this question to single guy friends of mine. Most, if not all of them, said that they’d want to be a genius… until I posed the same question to J.

J said, “That’s a pretty stupid question. The answer is obvious. I could be better-looking. I’m pretty satisfied with my brain as it is, as I get by. What I really want, however, is a gigantic, fucking schlong. It doesn’t matter what I do with it. I just want to know that it’s there when I need it!”

Alt Dot Duh

Linux, I’m realizing, will be my cross to bear. It has its good parts, sure, but there’s certainly enough chaos to keep my hands full. Case in point? The ever-changing firewall implementations under Linux. First? ipfwadm. Then? ipchains. Now? iptables. Really now. Maybe there’s something else? I’m using an 18-month old version of Linux anyways.

What gets me, tho, is the number of people who ask firewall questions on “the net” (like USENET, which I guess has involved into an internet service, given its archival on Google Groups), and use their real IP addresses in the examples that they post. Thing is, most of these people ask why something “isn’t working” in their firewall rules. And in fact, when you review their firewall rules, there are big, gaping holes in their ruleset. So, suddenly, you’ve got their real IP address, their “back end” IP address for their lan, and their faulty ruleset. With an extra bit of time on your hands, and more than a spoonful of malicious intent, you’ve got yourself free access to their systems!