A quick update on the Lost Gems of Yesteryear: Odyssey Two quest:

  • 8 e2 users have submitted a total of 23 writeups to the Quest. They are listed near the bottom of the Quest node.
  • There are 20 different authors represented at present, as 3 authors each have 2 writeups in play.
  • Approximately 40 votes have been cast on these writeups during the quest period, ranging from 0 to 4 new votes per node. Reputation changes range from -1 to +5, with the Mode for the reputation change at +2, and median at +1.

I say 'approximately' because there's a chance that I can't see some of the votes. I suspected my data at first, because for a few writeups, the historical +/- counts had shifted since I recorded them on day one of the quest. I have since proven that this can be caused by shifting a previously recorded downvote to an upvote or vice versa. That is, flipping your vote changes it 'in the past' as the database sees it. I hadn't accounted for this possibility in my data collecting scheme. I do not think that the flaw is a fatal one. It does mean that if two users each reversed a previous vote, but in opposite ways, I wouldn't see it. For quest purposes we can ignore this edge condition. But to the mystery vote-changer(s), if you thought you were being sneaky, not so. :)

I would very much like to have more writeups nominated. If you haven't suggested any yet, please do!

Since I have voted on them all, and they were almost all new to me, that means I've done about half of the voting. Your votes matter! (Our UK noders can newly attest to the importance of voting.)

If you have not yet done so, please consider reading some (or all!) of these fine writeups. Peruse, enjoy, discover some of the fine e2 authors of the recent past and present. As well, please give the writers your feedback: cast your votes, use your Ching!s, use /msg to tell them what you think, or have RedOmega snuggle them. It's all good.

Finding ways to publicize your favourite writeups (writing a companion piece, adding a writeup to the same node, or otherwise drawing attention) is part of the fun as well. Can you slip some Cheese Mites into your next writeup?


Obligatory personal notes: No job yet. The expected rejections I alluded to 12 days ago have arrived. New prospects are slim at present. It may be a long summer. My leg continues to recover, and holds up well under low stress. I had the stomach flu for 2 days this week, and that was nasty.

Ever since I left the NOC, I've been doing work on a much smaller scale. Now, on the eve of going back to work in the Internet infrastructure, I'm thinking a lot about doing meaningful work, what it means to be doing meaningful work, and small actions in the context of a larger whole.

The kind of work I do, the managing of technical programs (change management, among others), the actual job role, only exists in medium to large sized companies. And, where I'm going, the company is large, the company is experienced, the company has gone through a few burn-in cycles. My uncles worked there, many of my friends work there, and in a lot of ways, it's kind of the family business. There is a sense of rightness of not only going back to big infrastructure, but also to a place where my own mentors came of professional age.

I can do meaningful work anywhere. Serving coffee is meaningful. Pulling weeds is meaningful. Taking care of people is meaningful. All of these things make the world better.

Those things are great, and I could have passion for them. It's not, however, what I've worked so hard on and trained for, sacrificed for. It's not what brings me the most amount of joy in the context of my life.

The Internet is how I escaped a sad life in Minnesota, how I got the strength from people and friends I never met. When the breakup mentioned in there is nothing more permanent than a temporary measure happened, it was three people who helped hold me up through lawsuit threats, the loss of my friend group. They were there for me working to find some sense of self after a terrible time taking care of a depressive parent and dealing with the other being a narcissist. They critiqued my writing, they spurred ideas, they helped me figure out apt.

I don't necessarily feel a debt, but I do feel that what I do, the improving of the Internet, maybe helps it become more solid. I'm not plugging in cables anymore - I'm helping communication in the departments that oversee large chunks of the cables, and helping push it up to decision makers and other departments. I am a cross-functional cog in a machine - and I'm good at it.

In a lot of ways, the Internet has saved my life. While I paid my dues back in the NOC, there's more good I can do, and I'm going to go do it. And I WANT to do it. I want to build systems made of light and glass, systems of people communicating well with the right information. I want to build a better infrastructure operations department that is an example to all the other dysfunctional places I've seen before.

I have the opportunity to go make the world better for people working 110 hour shifts, for teenagers dealing with depression, for engineers burnt out and dealing with the same shit day in, day out. And that - that is an amazing thing.

It's not something I can do forever. One day, I plan to retire to a place outside a medium-sized city or college town, build a chicken coop, plant some kale, and maybe some apple trees and an expansive garden. I want goats, I want a ceramics wheel, and I want a view of green hills covered with expanses of neatly ordered vines.

Right now, that's not in the cards. Major internet infrastructure providers don't co-exist with the grapes, or the chickens. The passion, the ambition to build something better from my career does not immediately coincide with this retirement plan. But one day, years from now, I hope to look out at my garden from my kitchen and think "look at what I've grown - isn't it nice? isn't it worth it?"

I think - I hope - that the answer will be yes.

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