I rode the bus in this morning and having finished my book last night I found myself with nothing to do. So like any self-respecting geek I hauled out the laptop and wrote this on the bus. Few things can identify you as a geek as quickly as typing on a laptop on a bus, but I guess I’m ok with that, given the fact that I write on this blog is sort of an easy tell that I might have geeky tendencies.

There’s a good article on The Register that talks about how a global flu pandemic is almost as sure as sneezes are wet, the question is just when it will happen. The author makes a pretty good case, given the bird or avian flu is already around, it will only take a very small mutation to make that one a very big problem. So you may wonder why I bring that up right at this moment as I bounce along on public transit? Well, it because I’m sneezing my frickin’ head off due to my allergies at the moment and I’m probably making the person next to me nervous. I just forgot to take some allergy medicine, but for all they know I’m patient zero for the next global killer virus. There’s no point trying tell them that I’m probably harmless. It’s hard to be convincing arguing that point when your head can’t seem to stop whipping front and back from the punishing sequential chain sneezing. In fact it’s hard just making eye contact at that point.

Ok, so I’m exaggerating slightly, but still I’m sitting here sniffling mightily to keep the snot at bay and its darned inconvenient, unattractive, and annoying. But at least with the laptop people know I’m just a nerd with allergies, and not the guy who escaped from quarantine.