My Friend Apathy

It has been two weeks since I've posted anything, hasn't it.

I suppose I should more ashamed of myself than I am. But really, anybody who's ever done a software release cycle knows what it's like at the very end. For those not in the know, it is best described as "a stinky gray tornado of toxicity".

Picture this: it is mere hours from the release date that cannot be moved, and a bitter mixture of cold pizza, bad coffee, and discarded integrity drips from the cubicle dividers and stains the gray low-pile carpeting. The stench of self-righteousness gets into your clothing, your hair, your soul. Egos are stroked and shredded in the same breath. The name-calling, trash-talking, threats, compromises, and raw nerves that have all been stewing together in a broth of hacky code and last-minute requirements are finally and exhaustedly ladled out to become the CD you buy or web site you log into, only to hear two days later that there's some cutesie open-source crap that does the same damn thing, but for free, and with a vaguely European animal mascot.

Well, maybe it's not quite so dramatic. But there have been some pretty long hours this month. And it's been coupled with an abnormally acute attack of absolute apathy.

This recent weird sense of not giving a crap about the issues of the day is foreign to me; there's usually something going on that's got my boxers in a knot. But between the long hours spent computing for hire, this weeks-long stretch of Global Warming's Revenge, and the lackluster choice of issues presented to the consumers of local news, I truly have been unable to work my way up to anything beyond a mild lather about much that has taken place over the last half-month.

Time Warner, Anna Nicole, the Iraq Resolution, Scooter's trial, slot machines: eh.

Not that some of this stuff isn't important, and not that I have no opinions about them. There's just not enough habañero in any of those issues to make me want to squeeze out a few hundred words. Picking my battles, I guess. Saving up my vital juices for the next regularly-scheduled rousing of the rabble.

In that respect, there is a lot to be said for apathy. It allows one to step back and really just not care about some things. Put a little effort into it and you could probably think of well over a dozen people who would be more universally admired if they were only a bit more apathetic. Putting all your energy into rooting for a cause that in the end you have no control over anyway just adds to your overall level of stress and in general makes you less fun to be around, you know? So why not just take some time, here during the bleak midwinter, to just slow down and ignore the roses?

There. I'm starting to feel better already.

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Forgotten to add: I wanted to make you all aware of a great event coming up that you can get behind: Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Berkshire County is holding a sweet event called "Bowling for Kids Sake" over at the Mt. Greylock Bowl in North Adams on March 10th. You can either sponsor a bowling team, or provide much-needed support by visiting the web page at FirstGiving.com. There's also an article (with heavy emphasis on the inevitable "balls" puns that crop up whenever bowling is involved) at iBerkshires.com. This one's about the kids, folks, so don't cheap out now. Our gratitude will be gi-normous. How could you not want that?