Do you know what I, a programmer, fear? Hardware. And networking. And operating systems. In short, pretty much anything that could brutishly impinge upon the realm of abstract logic.

So, last week, my manager took his first full-week vacation. He's the network administrator and handles all our dealings with phone and Internet providers. Well, guess which week was full of network equipment crashing all over creation? Here's a hint: it was a recent week with a full moon in it. I won't say much about it, except that, if you think computer languages are maddening in their pure literalism and their inability to produce any information beyond what you program into them, just wait until you have to deal with a telecom company.