Greetings fellow worshipers of Ib'm and its most holy "i".
I am writing today to explain my dearth of sermons of late, to expound on my general absence from the net-sphere (mostly blogs/Facebook/Twitter), and to make a confession of sorts. The truth be told my essays on this blog has been bereft because I have been submitting secular tomes for publication in another venue. The process of churning out said tomes, and other travails of life in 2011, has been arduous and has left little time for writing the free-wheeling missives that I've posted here over the years. While this state of affairs is rewarding, the blog, et al. has lain fallow.
I'm unhappy with this situation to say the least and I'm going to be making a concerted effort to post more on the net in the future. It is the age-old problem, post theological treatises here so that they're freely available to all, for very little remuneration. -or- Submit other content to a profit-making journalistic organization, for personal monetary gain. As so often happens, subjects that would be perfect for this blog end up not getting written because the siren song of the
coin of the realm is hard to resist.
You might be asking yourself "which aforementioned organization does he shill for?" Well, to be blunt, my benefactor in this realm is the Penton Media Group, specifically System i News magazine, for whom I've written staid and professional sounding articles, tips, and (ironically) blog posts. Even more ironic is the fact that the writings on this particular blog that you're currently reading is what got me this great gig in the first place.
If the next thing you're asking is "wait, I don't remember seeing anything written by Joe Code in the magazine or website", then you'd be correct. Father Joe Code is of course the
nom de plume that I adopted for the purposes of anonymity when I first started out with the blog. I didn't know how people would react to someone writing theological treatises on the monotheistic worship of our most holy "i".
The more I wrote professionally the more the anonymity started becoming a hindrance to actually posting on the blog. Also, I couldn't comment on my articles. The most I would say about them was submitting a tweet saying "my friend and colleague has posted ..." on my Twitter feed. Of course doing so has had the unintended result that this supposed secret identity is now about as secret as Silverlake was back in the 80's.
Believe it or not, the name
Joe Code actually came from the
Jargon File. (Also, I liked the sound of "Father Joe" better than say, "Father Steve".) For the record, my real name is
Peter K. Levy and I've been programming computers, first in college and then as a career, since late 1978. If you click the link on my name it will take you to my web site. There you can click on the "
Writings" link to view the secular articles that I've written to date.
The idea for an iSeries priest also came from the Jargon File. I did and do feel as if we alone know how to write the words that make the bits flip, the numbers crunch, the disks spin, and the great waste of paper. We are the select few, who wear the cassocks of our high office; muttering prayers and incantations in languages that only we understand; to do the things that will impress the board of deacons, scare the lesser priests, and confuse the parishioners.
The dialect of this blog will not change. I am a proud and humble priest of the church of our lord Ib'm and its most holy "i". I will not shirk my responsibility to enliven the ecclesiastic point of view
that is so needed to enhance the meditative state necessary for enlightenment in our dank and fluorescent drenched cubicles.
Satire is important in all aspects of life and I should mention that in this blog I am not satirizing religion; I'm poking fun and satirizing our tendency as technicians to worship at the alter of one computer platform eschewing all other gods and idols. Many a flame war is the result of this tendency. We should all not judge those worshipers of false religions for they know not what they are missing out on.
Dominus,
dominus, dominus, you're all Ib'm-ists now. Bless your heathen souls. May the most holy "i" reign supreme forever or, at the very least, long enough until we can all retire. ;-)
In the name of the Corporation, the Power System, and the holy "i", Amen
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