Just when I'm fired up again...

I had planned on going off on Georgie's fallacious governing and maybe even ramble on about golf courses and "old boy" clubs today, but I've had a change of heart. The sun is shining and although it is a bit cool and the wind is blowing a bit too wildly, it is a beautiful day. I ate lunch with a friend and enjoyed a good conversation, few things are that fulfilling anymore. Surrounded by the darker side and all too pervasive sickness of humanity, I find it's increasingly difficult to stay connected to the beauty that is the true nature of our universe. Then, when I my despair begins to overwhelm me, I find that beauty still alive in the most unlikely of places...human output.
Look for Ferry Halim on Google and you'll see what I mean. I have often sought solice at his Orisinal site. He is (intentionally?) keeping a purity and innocence alive that I thought humankind had caused to go the way of the Dodo. Also, check out MonkeeHub. The charming animation is comforting. I guess there's life on this planet after all.

Call sucks!!!!

Why am I up and wide awake at 0445 hrs. on a Saturday morning?!? Not because I am a youthful, partying lad, I assure you! I am on call at work. I went on call a little over 20 hours ago. I was sound asleep at 0300 this morning when the first page came through. An hour later I was trying to wind down in order to go back to bed. When I finally got back upstairs at 0430, I hadn't even folded my pillow just right before the fuckin' pagers (that's right, two of them--explaination forthcoming) went off. WTF?!? Are you kidding me???
I am on 24/7 backup call anyway because I am the system admin. and I am accountable if my team doesn't answer their pages. However, when it is NOT my call week, I usually ignore my pager (same number as the rotating call pager, but works better in my county) unless it is vibrating off the hook. Well, I happened to notice that this last week's call was slow---hell, no pages for her in the last six days! What happened when I took the pager? Three calls in the middle of the night within the first 20 hours!?!? This does not bode well for the next six days. Luckily, we are able to do all of the network troubleshooting from home and thanks to redundancy, most of the actual physical failures can wait until one is lucid and ambulatory enough to drag one's ass into work on a fucking weekend!!! I am starting to think about clocking in for the work that I do here at home. Normally, I let the hours I work at home slide because I am grateful to have my job (former sociopath that's lucky to be alive, let alone leading a productive life) at this point, but these "zombie calls" kill me. I'm gettin' too old for this shit!!!

On the way to work, Winter 2004 

Lake Erie 2002 

By way of introduction....

My name is Geoffrey. I was named for Chaucer, not the giraffe. Mom was an English Lit. grad. I will be 35 in June. That is approximately 15 years longer than anyone thought I would make it. But here I am. I hold down a good job as a PACS Administrator (yeah, go ahead and look that one up...oh, and sweet dreams) and I am married to an extraordinary woman of whose loyal companionship I am completely undeserving. I have an eleven year old son who was born on Christmas day. He is more than I could have ever hoped for and it is only by God's mercy that he isn't as screwed up as his father. My mother passed away suddenly in 1996, but my father has since remarried. I have a sister that is sixteen months my junior and a "step-sister" from my "step-mother's" first marriage (her first spouse died as well.)
All in all, I am happier now than I have ever been; indeed, this may be the first period in my life when I have been "happy." I do find that I have not completely suppressed a lifelong restlessness; a restlessness that is only sated by time spent with God in the wilderness. For now, however, I am completely domesticated and resolved to spend my free time learning and growing with my family and friends.
I have a few well-defined interests, principal among them being the combat sciences or "martial arts." I also enjoy the outdoors, mostly hiking away from civilization. A former Chemistry buff, I now have an avid interest in Physics and Mathematics academically. I am something of a Sinophile and have a keen interest in Taoism that I have pursued for more than twenty years now. I do enjoy computers and have an aptitude for such things, but find it all too sterile for me sometimes. I like to play in the dirt.
I am lazy with a capital L. I could live out the remainder of my life with no responsibilities and find profound happiness in doing so. That's not to imply that I would not be active, or even productive, but my timetable has never been in sync with those around me. So, I struggle daily to play the game by everyone else's rules, as much for my family's sake as any other reason.

As far as the direction this blog will take, your guess is as good as mine. If the title of the blog is any indication, it will find its own way.

Shalom!