Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 11:01:32 -0800 From: "kosmos" <abowhill@blarg.net> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Cc: MLandman@face2interface.com Subject: Re: How do hackers drive? Message-ID: <20031102190132.GA9020@dsl-129-176.sea.blarg.net>
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>>I only have this problem when the destination is so well know that I've long >>since established the optimal way to get there. > >One of the things I love about where I live is that there are back roads. >The straightforward way to get from a to b when it's the highway is >generally only the way I take when there's snow or ice, or a chance of >flooding. Otherwise there are generally back ways, sometimes several >different choices making it easy and interesting to change routes for >variety. Saving a minute or two doesn't come close to the appeal in cutting >the boredom off taking the same route each time. Then again we don't have >what you'd call traffic jams, except if you're unlucky enough to be waiting >for a train so the road's opened up again. :) I spent about 6 years driving to work in a nearby suburb, and the traffic on the interstate would bottleneck every day at the same places for extended spans of time. Almost daily I would find myself, along with every other idiot who expected to go 80 mph, going exactly 0 for long stretches of time. Nothing to breathe but air tainted by carbon monoxide and diesel fumes, nothing to look at but concrete walls, nothing to listen to but somebody else's idea of music. Little can be said about the quality of that experience. So, alternate routes become the standard way to get from a to b for any sort of repeated driving task. I just got up earlier, planned to get home later, and learned to appreciate the countryside. There are not many people who will make this kind of trade-off when they drive to work. At least I don't recall talking to many. Most people just believe the simplest, fastest way is the best. But the truth is it's not always so fast and simple, and offers little in the way of quality. -- Allan Bowhill abowhill@blarg.net I can feel for her because, although I have never been an Alaskan prostitute dancing on the bar in a spangled dress, I still get very bored with washing and ironing and dishwashing and cooking day after relentless day. -- Betty MacDonald
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