[Bitscape munches merrily on fries and mcnuggets. bbq sauce.... mmmmm...]

A fine diner, I am! lol.

So anyway, I seem to somehow have managed to allow myself to become convinced to agree to go into work tomorrow for a bug squashing session. Exactly how this freak occurance came about, I still am not quite sure. But so it is, and so it shall be.

(Ok, so it has something to do with the fact that this is something resembling crunch time. Anyone in the software business knows how that goes.)

To be honest, when the request for engineering staff to pitch in was sent out (and yes, it was made as a request, not a demand), I was seriously considering turning it down. Not just because there's about a million things I could be doing tomorrow setting up Argo, getting maintenance performed on Tobias, watching DVDs, or whatever else, but because of the whole fear of it becoming a slippery slope.

(Ya know, visions of bean counting Mr. Burns types sitting in their plush offices. "Smithers, I just had a brilliant thought! Last weekend, when all the employees came in and worked Saturday, productivity shot up by 30%, driving quarterly revenue into the stratosphere. Why haven't we been doing this all along? Let's call everyone again this weekend, and every weekend thereafter!"

"Very good sir.")

Well, anyway, I talked about it a bit with some fellow proletariat types, and decided that the above scenario was indeed highly unlikely. lol.

And of course, another point to be made is that probably anyone who really cares about something is going to go the extra mile when necessary. Yes, I'm getting the strong feeling that Carmack and the bunch at id probably worked a few extra hours when it came down to the wire. :)

Now I'm not in any way trying to say that what we're doing is anything that could even hope to be as glorious as Quake, but if you ignore the psychobabble that comes forth from certain sources at the other end of the building. Ignore the rantings of computer junkies like myself who believe that the command line is the One True Way to configure the computer. Ignore all the BS, and maybe, just maybe, we're making something that might be of use to somebody. Maybe.

Anyway, blah blah blah. So I try to strike a balance between the fear of being taken advantage of by the corporation (which they will do if they think they can get away with it), and the desire to be more than one who just comes into work 8-5 every day, does their duty, picks up the paycheck, and at the end of it all, really doesn't give a shit about the success of any of it. "What?!?! Work Saturday? And just why should I care if this company ships a late and/or shoddy product? What does it matter to me?" That's not how I want to live.

So tomorrow, into the office I go. In exchage, each one who helps has been promised a free day off, which will be redeemable after crunch time is over. Fair enough.

(I imagine that for some, this will be no big deal, since they regularly make a practice of coming in on weekends anyway. Although I personally think such individuals are crazy, I guess they probably deserve raises or something. Don't quote me there. :)

Yes, even though it could debatably be argued that I have no life, I treasure these lack-of-life moments greatly. Hah! :)

Hmmmm... That being the case, I think I'll take this time to give the still unopened box containing the Caldera technology preview a little spin on Argo. Woohoo! :)