It’s Friday afternoon, and it feels like it. I’ve spent all week sitting in front of computers writing technical documents and/or sitting through Teams meetings (Teams is the Microsoft product for video conferencing) with other geeks. So Friday really feels like Friday again and the weekend is more definitive and appreciated.

I am enjoying learning things as I go. Today I learned:

• That a previous job involving VPN (virtual private network) services, long ago, is now very helpful in my quantum encryption gig.
• How to transport a quantum-entangled photon over long distances using a multi-spectral laser.
• That I really miss whiteboards for real-time technical discussions.
• And that there’s now pretty reliable information that indicates that COVID is an engineered virus and that it escaped from the Wuhan lab in late 2019-ish. Not conspiracy theory shit, but some evidence and some well-reasoned inferences by scientists who have had a while to chew on the question. If that’s true (and I’m leaning toward yes, it’s true), then…wow. Pretty big fuckup on someone’s part at that lab. They basically stopped the world.

So the work is interesting, but it’s still work. As I’ve mentioned to a few people, getting paid for computer work during pandemic quarantine does beat day drinking. Mostly. And thinking about that, and the fact that it’s a Friday evening, reminds me that there’s a tragic shortage of bourbon in this house. Unforgivable. Normally I would just trundle off to the local and have one at the bar and watch some golf with other TGIF’d ne’er-do-wells, but…COVID.

So here I sit, bourbonless, listening to Khraungbin and writing. First world problem…