The Weekly Linux Meeting

By the grace of good fortune the Weekly Linux Meeting is done with. For the better part of a year, the weekly Linux meeting would be held every Tuesday on the 4th floor, from 3:00 to 4:00. Initially, my boss went to the weekly Linux meeting, but then he got bored of it and started delegating it to me. For a few weeks I sat bemused, and then I got bored by it. Unfortunately, I have nobody to delegate things to. So I was stuck with it.

Week by week this meeting represented nothing more than a waste of time, which in itself isn't that bad a thing. The real bummer is that it meant I was never able to catch the early train on Tuesday. When you knock out 20% of the available early trains in any given week because of a stupid meeting you care little about, it then becomes more than a waste of time. It becomes a burden.

The real downer was that I had little to nothing in common with the other people there. By some obvious mistake, I was put in this meeting to represent our department, which is a joke since the title of the group is the Linux Center of Excellence. Why they would put me in it is beyond me. But hey, if they think I'm excellent who am I to argue? For the record, I did not offer a single useful contribution to the cause. But it did cause me to get home later every Tuesday.

In general, it was a management meeting, which explains why my manager was invited and not me, the decidedly non-excellent dope in the group. Aside from this small detail, everyone there has a different agenda than I have. These are people who want to strive for the top, to reach to pinnacle of the corporate ladder. I, on the other hand, want to catch the early train as often as possible. I am on no ladder; see no pinnacle. I have grass to cut, a bike to ride, and beer to drink. Climbing the corporate ladder will always take a back set to climbing a real ladder to remove the winter slop from the gutters.

I also found it impossible to believe that anyone in that room rode a mountain bike. Sure, there were the stark differences in inter-personal skills that were obvious. And there was the fact that everyone there wore a tie and I often don't tuck in my shirt. But physically it was clear to me that nobody there rides a mountain bike, nor do they think of riding mountain bikes. These are also the kinds of people who schedule their next haircut at the end of the current haircut. I usually wait until my wife starts complaining or my hair obscures the view when I drive.

So today is Tuesday and I have no weekly Linux meeting, thankfully. I'll do my best to jet out of here at 3:45 and make the 4:32 to Gladstone out of Hoboken. This gets me in the door around 5:35, which sounds like a really long commute when you put it that way. I could probably leave at 4:00 and make it, most of the time. But why bother? I like to make sure I hit that 4:32, since it gives me the most time at home. Granted, the view at home is a lot louder these days with a crying daughter. But she doesn't wear a tie either. So I think I've got a lot more in common with her.