Lost… trapped… in a creative wasteland… without direction… without… purpose… surrounded by suffering fools…

DAY 3:

It has been only two days since I first entered this nightmare. My disorientation has become almost complete. I find myself easily distracted, as if my mind is wrapped in cotton. The zombies around me spend their time making telephone calls that lack any sort of information content or coherency.

I realize now, as the pain dissolves along with my consciousness, that this place is like the other pockets of Hell found drifting in the commercial aether. Without any exotic talent, without any outstanding product, they have been forced into the ichorous web of deceit: marketing proven technology as “cutting edge” by using all the buzzwords underlined in photostats circulated amongst the shambling masses.

Still, I must go on, survive, and pray that my sanity and creativity remain intact…

OK, OK, so I’m not H. P. Lovecraft. And it really isn’t THAT bad. Nobody has complained about my jeans and lack of tie (yet), and the manager is trying (albeit unenthusiastically) to get me a position in the South Bay. GRE’s are only a scant four months away, so there’s that light at the end of the tunnel too.

My hopes that this is anything but your standard consulting company are rapidly dwindling, however. Management is topheavy, as expected. Their products are pedestrian. The Gestapo are doing system administration. The most depressing thing is that the President is only a few years older than me.

On the other hand, all this free time has given me some time to think about using memory management to optimize network closure operations, so things balance out. Sort of.

— Rob

P.S.: My choice of adverb (not adjective, as I mistakenly said in my earlier message) for describing my anti-Microsoft feelings was “rabidly,” as I often foam at the mouth during more passionate tirades.

I wish Jim had contacted me earlier, as he reminded me of his one-line summary of my dislikes: “Doesn’t do Windows, toilets, or legacy systems.”