Someone at work is doing a computing course of some sort (Certificate II in IT or something); most Thursdays, they talk with me about what they’d learned the night earlier (since the course takes place Wednesday nights).

Generally, the conversation ends up being them saying something like, “We learned about pins and jumpers” to which I responded with a dodgy way to make jumpers. Another example was in regards to CAT5 patch cable; he said “You need to put the coloured wires in a very specific order.”. My reply? “Bah, as long as they match up at both ends it’s fine”. Another discussion related to anti-static straps and the fact that I’ve never used one, and never had anything blow up (that I know of) from the lack of use of said strap.

There are other examples, too, but I won’t bother going into them. Today, there wasn’t much discussion of what he’d learned, but there was a short discussion on what he’d discussed with the teacher. The teacher had told him that I am a cowboy. Cool!

So now, I’m thinking of myself as the IT Cowboy. The guy who comes in, doesn’t do anything by the rules, but God damn it, I get things done. John Wayne, eat your heart out.