Friday, August 24, 2007

Jenny, Myself, and Her Ring

One glorious summer I had a romance with my best friend's sister's best friend. She and I were both teenagers at the time, but she was three years older than I, which was quite a feather in my cap with my friends.

In our teenage eagerness to act the part, we thought that being in love meant kissing a lot and touching each other in dark theaters, so that's what we did.

Her name was Jenny, and my yearning, angsty teenage heart thought that we just might last forever.

We were no more brainy than any other teenagers, so she and I and the friends we hung out with would walk to a local school around midnight and goof around in the schoolyard. More than once, our running around and giggling woke up locals who threatened to call the cops, and we had to split quickly.

One night on the way out or on the way back, a ring slipped off of Jenny's hand and into the grass of a yard next to the sidewalk we were following. Jenny was distraught and insisted that everyone search for the ring in the grass.

The ring was given to her by another guy, and I didn’t give a damn whether she found it or not. On the other hand, I didn't want to look like a jerk. I looked for the ring with everyone else, not knowing what I'd do if I did find it. I still don't know what I would have done.

Jenny didn't find her ring, and it dampened the evening. About halfway through the summer she or I (ok, it was her) lost interest and the relationship came to an end.

I was young though, "Wayne's World" was a new movie, and I had no idea that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was an old song getting in a good second run. Life went on.

I saw Jenny not long ago, working at a local restaurant, and the memories came flooding back. Now that I don't have to be a lovelorn teenager anymore, I can remember her and the ring that I didn't want found--but still looked for earnestly--with a fond smile.

Monday, August 20, 2007

SCO Soon to Cross Styx: Buddy, Can You Spare $2?

This last Thursday, Crystal and I packed up our little family and drove to St. George. On both the trip out and the trip back, I pointed out the freeway exit for Lindon, Utah to Crystal, noting that it's the home of SCO Corp. This always spurs interest from her, because she reads most of what I write, and 15 months ago I gave SCO a doozy of a lashing at this very blog.

Of course, being on vacation and behind on my business and technical reading, I didn't know yet that Federal Judge Kimball's declaration that SCO owes basically the whole company and more to Novell had sent SCO's stock into a death spiral, and that the bell has begun to toll for them. (Image courtesy of Ars Technica.)


But then we got home yesterday, and today I got to catching up on my reading, and my, is that birds chirping in blue skies? I suppose Lindon will never quite be the same again, and I think that's a good thing.

My take on the tangled and twisted wreckage is over at EMB. Have a look, won't you?