Today, I spent the afternoon in Boulder, helping people get Linux installed on their computers. Truly, it is an invigorating activity to participate in. If the world is to be saved from Microsoft, it will happen one computer at a time, at events like this, for people who want more freedom for themselves.

I spent the bulk of my time there helping two teenagers install KRUD on their personal systems. One of them, who was mildly familiar with Linux, brought in his monster tower machine for help. He had attempted to install Red Had 7.2 himself, but for some reason, it crashed with a kernel panic on bootup every time the init scripts ran. (Looking at it, I suspected it may have had something to do with the USB drivers, but I couldn't be positive.)

When someone arrived with a load of new KRUD cds, we tried giving him a fresh install of the current stuff, which is based on Red Hat 7.3. The install worked via Red Hat's X-based graphical install interface, and the thing booted, but X would not run. A little investigation revealed that the USB mouse was not beinig properly detected, which was odd, because the mouse had worked fine while running the installer.

I poked around at it for a little while, but since I've had practically no experience in dealing with drivers for USB peripherals, I had to defer to someone with a little more knowledge of this area. I got the local kernel guru to do some poking around. He looked at the /lib/modules directory a bit, ran several modprobe commands, and consulted some documentation on his own laptop. Eventually, he found the names of some of the modules that needed to be loaded. As he shouted over two tables, "modprobe hid", I followed the instructions, and the mouse started working.

A total of 4 modules had required manual insertion in order for the mouse to work. For some reason, Red Hat's installer hadn't bothered to put these in the bootup configuration. Odd.

But once those modules were installed, X worked smoothly. All the good stuff was there. After getting his user login account going (advising new users against using root for day-to-day operations is a must), he fired up AbiWord, Gnumeric, the Gimp, and started playing with his Gnome desktop preference settings. Could this be another ex-Windows user in the making? (Haha, funny pun. Say it out loud. ex-Windows user.)

He said one of the reasons he wanted to try Linux, aside from its general coolness, is because he got fed up with Windows XP when he tried to install it several times on his machine (with various problems during each install attempt). For some reason, Microsoft made the registration key stop working after a certain count had been reached, even though it was being installed on the same hardware each time.

Like many of us have done over the years, he decided he wanted to try running something a little less mean, if it could be found. Enter Linux.

It's a story we've all heard (or experienced) before, and will hear again. Linux grows because certain people want it, not because it is being force-fed by a media marketing machine. It was happening before the media hype of '99, and it continues to happen, just as it did before the bubble began. Gradually. One machine at a time, as each computer user wakes up and decides they want to try something better.

Yes, I was inspired by what I saw today. A room full of people who want to improve themselves, hungry for knowledge, and also willing to help others freely. If only the whole world worked like that. One can dream, right?

I helped another teen install Linux on his laptop. This guy was a friend of the previous person I mentioned. He had virtually zero knowledge of Linux or the command line, but seemed rather impressed with the gnome desktop. He's planning to be a dual-booter for a while.

I'll be interested to see if either of these guys show up at future BLUG meetings. The first one seemed highly interested in attending. If I see him at future meetings (hopefully, I'll still be around here to attend a few more of those), I will be very curious to find out how he and his friend fare with it.

If it works out for his friend, then I would take it as a sign that Linux is truly beginning to cross the threshold of being genuiely useful for non-technical folks on the desktop. Although... this kid did appear to be relatively savvy as a Windows user, so he might not quite be the test case for the web-surfing grandma class of users. Still, it's a step in the right direction.

After BLUG, I made the not-so-wise-financially decision of going out to eat with several other BLUG members who had helped host the installfest. Well, despite the hit to my poor little wallet, it was good to just hang out afterwards, talk about random stuff, and eat a big juicy chili-burger.

Now, it's getting close to my bedtime. (In fact, I really ought to be in bed already, but I'm letting it stretch a bit.) I have a busy week ahead.

Tomorrow, my plan is to job hunt in the morning, beginning at 08:00, and work on buildmeasite all afternoon.

As far as job possibilities go, my mom is going to recommend me for a position that might be opening at the office where she works. I know it wouldn't be anything resembling my ideal job, but it would be something to get by on for a while. If it works out, the pay would be enough to at least sustain my basic expenses. Admittedly, the thought of working in the same building as my mom is less than thrilling, but... shit. At this point, I'll take what I can get. It doesn't have to be forever.

I also grabbed a Sunday paper. My plan for tomorrow morning is to peruse the want ads, and call relevant prospects. On Tuesday, I think I'll canvas the entire area around my apartment on foot, walking into every business to ask about possible employment. No exceptions. I'll at least ask at each place, even if looks totally crappy. (Unless, of course, something extraordinary happens on Monday and I find myself employed, in which case, the search will be over for the time being.)

...

Beebles lives! Beebles lives in me. Beebles lives in you. Open your heart, and listen to Beebles. He calls you from the forest. He wants you to boycott Keebler. Don't buy anything from Keebler. Keebler is a nasty corporation. Next time you find yourself in the grocery store looking at a Keebler product, think of Beebles, and do everyone a favor by NOT buying it. Buy something else instead. If you do this, Beebles will thank you in the end.

...

Now, before I go to bed, I'm going to hold a ritual. I'm going to light the candle that is myself.

The last time I held a ritual with this candle, it burned strongly for a while, but after an hour, I blew it out harshly. (Practicality: I needed to sleep! However, in some Wiccan traditions, it is often considered a Bad Thing to blow out a ritual candle with wind. It angers the God of Fire. Or so I've been told. Instead, one should gently place a cup or other implement over it.)

Though I didn't quite intend it this way immediately, I later realized that even blowing out the candle, and the way it was blown out, was relevant to the ritual. It represented the attempt by a former employer to extinguish my light by immediately preceding my abrupt termination with an assult upon my character. I was never violent. They knew that. I knew that. My co-workers knew that.

But I do not fault them for this. They wanted to get rid of me, and they believed the only way they legitimately (or cost-effectively) do it would be to pin me with a fault. Though it hurt, this attempt to blight my spirit will not succeed permanently. I will continue to live, and eventually thrive again.

That which does not kill me makes me stronger.

I will light the candle that is myself tonight, and place it next to my bed. It will burn in its container for as long as it wills as I sleep, filling me with the scented essence of my will and power.

Before I sleep, I will offer a prayer to %DIETIES to bless me during the coming trials. (I have decided that in my case, the $DEITY variable works best as a reference pointing to the global %DEITIES hash, which I can use to summon the appropriate powers on my behalf. Optionally, the $DIETY variable may also be assigned the value of a member of the %DIETIES hash.)

Well, enough of this expository talk. I put it here for people who want to know a little about my religion. If people don't like it, they can read a different page.

That's all for tonight. Peace.