Blog - /Personal

I fixed my Planner (unofficial) and Emacs Wiki (official) archives yesterday. Apparently people who had been sitting on patches and problems for a while took this as a sign that I finally knew what I was doing. The result: I was flooded with requests today. I think I probably got about 15 messages today. I am afraid to check Gnus to find the real number for fear that I would see another couple messages and spend time savoring them, pushing bedtime back another hour.

This email tsunami is a good thing though. I like getting email. This is one of the parts of software maintainership that I enjoy. Trying to edit patches so that they apply correctly, even though they were made against an earlier version ... that's a bit less fun, but still fun, nonetheless.

I am beginning to realize that Jimmy and I are quite different in personality. I usually do not notice personality, but when you live with someone for more than a week, you start to notice things. He is quite outgoing and energetic. He rushes through things at a frenetic pace that drives me crazy when I try to help him with something. He will have tried to open and close the browser two times before I can tell him which page to go to. By the time I formulate my next instruction, he's chomping at the bit and minimizing the app that I'm trying to familiarize him with.

The polarizing glare from his ethos brings into relief my own personality. I am comparitively calm. I like to think things through slowly and leisurely. I am an archivist. I am very laissez faire in my approach to personal conflicts and dilemnas.

One fiasco happened when Jimmy decided that he wanted his hair trimmed on the sides so it would not look "triangular". Of course, he wanted my help. I am no hair trimmer, and I informed him duly of this. He insisted, so I watched him make a nearly bald swatch on the side of his head. /me sighs. He wanted to fix the damage, so he did something similar to the other side. He then thought that I could somehow fix this, but I was able to convince him that I have no such powers. He said, "Well, then can you trim all of my hair so that the length is uniform?" (my paraphrase). I told him no in no uncertain terms, even though he asked me several times. He finally called one of his friends who had the appropriate tools. I mean ... using school scissors to cut hair?