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End of the experiment 2006 April 1 17:19

Posted by diamond in : Random , 6 comments

Today marks the end of the 3.5 year experiment. Here is the evidence:

It was always going to happen, it was just a matter of when. I realised this today. The hassle of maintaining long hair long term is just not worth it. It had also become an excuse for not doing a whole bunch of things.

Every now and then i try to do things that scare me. I don’t like talking in front of a big group of people. So, last year i gave a talk on the design of kerberos. That terrified me (though admittedly less so than the kerberos play myself and artemis were considering doing -). I don’t like organising large events, don’t like dealing with bookings over the phone etc. So, four years ago i organised a mini-lbw in doolin. I felt too embarrased to talk to people about my health problems. So, i wrote this. And, in case you’re wondering where this is going: I have a phobia of actions with permanent consequences of uncertain worth. So, today i went and got my hair cut in the knowledge that i will never have long hair again (the first 1-1.5 years of growing your hair is amazingly annoying and hasslefull). Amen, so be it.

What’s interesting to note is that i only figured out about half of the reasons after i had made the decision. I had been unable to be objective about it for a long long time, but once i’d made my choice, i could then see that it was the right one.

When i was last in the hairdressers, i had a bit of an ‘incident’. I walked up to the front door, looked around for a push or pull sign, saw neither. Looked at the handle (one of the big brushed aluminium pull bar type) and the door frame, concluded that it must be a ‘pull’ door. Wrong. When i gave the handle a pull, the bolt that held it to the door snapped with a ping. I then reversed my earlier conclusion and entered quickly by pushing. Feeling rather silly and ashamed, i sat on a couch in the waiting area and kept my head down. The bolt had been going straight through the door, securing an identical handle on the inside. When the next customer went to leave, the inside handle came off in her hands. I cringed some more. The staff looked puzzled for a few moments, then shrugged and went back to work. When i arrived there today, i was amused to note the handles had been removed from both sides of the doors, causing some amount of confusion to customers. I really should have said something. Ah well.