[PLUG-TALK] Shooting in Portland

wes plug at the-wes.com
Fri Jan 30 01:36:53 UTC 2009


On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 12:40 PM, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:

> 24yo Erik Salvador Alaya, the young man who allegedly killed two
> people and wounded seven in downtown Portland Saturday night,
> could have easily been one of us.  He is a computer and game
> geek, who has been underemployed for a while.  I'm sure violent
> computer games (and computers) will be trotted out to "explain"
> his alleged rampage.  And given people's tendency to single out
> differences, much of the "computer" blame will hop and skip
> lightly over familiar Windows and stick to Linux.  Heck, the guy
> may even have an Ubuntu Live CD somewhere, and Tuxracer may be
> the game that media pundits will decide drove him over the edge.
>
> Well, fellow computer nerds, be ready for a little marginalization,
> until the news moves on ("Adams accepts new post as Governor of
> Illinois!  News at 11!").  That is just the way people are.
>
> And if any of you react to such marginalization with thoughts
> of revenge against the Cool Kids, please take a deep breath, and
> find some distraction along a different path than violent video
> games.  I suggest tearing stuff apart at Free Geek, or killing
> bugs in open source code.  Not that violent games aren't fun,
> but hacking code looks better on a resume.
>
> Show up for meetings, and blow off some steam (rather than
> bullets) at afters.  I'm a nerd too, not a wise psychological
> counselor, so I probably can't do much to resolve your inner
> conflicts,  but at least we can trade snarky jokes about the
> cool but clueless.
>
> BTW, Alaya's roommate was Mike Delisle, a name that sounds
> familiar.  If anybody is friends with that guy, invite him to
> the meetings - I imagine he needs to talk to somebody besides
> cops and reporters right now.
>
> Keith
>


My boss brought this up today. From what he has seen, the media is focusing
more on the job loss aspect of it. Which is not as bad as it could be, I
suppose.

-wes
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