Mental Marbles

Lyrics by David M. Syzdek. Sang to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."

Refrain:
A cable cut
a cable cut
a cable cut
a cable cut

In the Rack Room, the offline Rack Room,
The hacker sleeps tonight,
In the Rack Room the quiet Rack Room,
The hacker sleeps tonight,

Refrain

Near the network, the server network,
The hacker sleeps tonight,
Near the network, the secure network,
The hacker sleeps tonight,

Refrain

Hush my user, don't fear my user,
The hacker sleeps tonight,
Hush my user, don't fear my user,
The hacker sleeps tonight.

Refrain

Do not call people thick skulled or airheaded. if they truly are one egg short of a full basket you can simply call them "A splendid autonomous being that enjoys a resiliency from data ingress into or data contamination of their granite cavernously bereft cranium."

To a casual listener or some one with a limited vocabulary this phrase sounds like a praise or compliment, however upon closer examination it is clear that it is not.

You are in reality saying, in a more elegant fashion, that they are stone headed, empty minded, and incapable of learning.

I suffer from Wikiploria (Wikipedia Exploration Disease). It is terrible. This syndrome has cost me my family, my friends, and my health. I only have my job because the corporate proxy server blocks the site. I am embarrassed, but I spend all of my time reading from this captivating site and I cannot stop. Wikipedia has information on every conceivable topic, except the remedy for Wikiploria.

My problem manifested itself three or four years ago when I started using this snow ball of information. Initially I would only look up things occasionally and would not follow cross references. As this tar pit of facts grew and cross references became more numerous, I started spending greater amounts of time reading topics of interest and following links. I eventually reached the point where I would lose myself in this labyrinth of data for hours on end completely forgetting the original topic I was researching. I only manage to break out of this suction cup of knowledge I follow an external link link into a uninteresting subject.

As an example, yesterday I tried to find the caloric content of an Avocado. After hours of perusing I learned that an avocado has 60% more potassium than bananas, has the highest fiber content of any fruit, and is toxic to many animals. I never did find out the caloric content of an avocado, but I did learn that Wendigo is a mythical North American cannibal, Donner Pass is where the Central Pacific Railroad crosses the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and that tallow was used to lubricate the engines of steam locomotives.

I have talked to a therapist about my condition and she recommended that I retrace my steps and analyze my weaknesses in order to help me over come this disability. Following my quack's advice I retrieved and summarized the following session from my browser history:

• Avocado: Possibly co-evolved as a food for the now extinct giant sloth
• Ground sloth: Proposed to be the basis for the South American mythical forest creature mapinguari
• Mapinguari: Many have dismissed this creature as a folkloric creature much like the North American Wendigo
• Wendigo: a malevolent cannibalistic spirit
• Cannibalism: a famous instance of Cannibalism is the Donner Party
• Donner Party: settlers that were trapped at Donner Pass
• Donner Pass: The location where the Central Pacific Railroad passed the Sierra Nevada Mountains
• Central Pacific Railroad: Was leased until 1959 when it formally merged with Southern Pacific Railroad
• Southern Pacific Railroad: The Souther Pacific Railroad painted the majority its steam locomotive fleet black
• steam locomotive: Enginemen used tallow as a lubricant for the pistons and valves.
• Tallow: is rendered form of beef or mutton fat.
• Mutton: I realized that I have a Wikipedia problem.

In retrospect my therapist is correct. I can clearly see the error of my way. I should have followed the links to either "traction engine" or "Steamroller" from the steam locomotive page. Tallow was clearly a bad path to follow since it ended in a mundane topic like mutton. In actuality this analysis does not help me to resist my vice, rather I now want to look up traction engine.

Until a cure is found, I will have to resolve myself to a life as an e-bookworm.

My name is David Syzdek and I am a Wikipedia addict.

P.S. The traction engine article is very interesting.