Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down

Subject: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 03:14 PM

The Day They Slowed Ol' Mudcat Down
(with apologies to J. Robbie Robertson)

Alex Riggle's my name
And I code data runs for Boeing
And I like surfin' the web
While my programs are up and going
Mudcat was a wonderful find
I could hang there and enlighten my mind
There's not much to do while my code is engaged
Except hang out on the Mudcat "all threads" page

But the day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
I got an error warning
The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
My afternoon was boring
I went
Wah, wa-wa-wah, wa-wah
Wa-wah, wa-wah, wa-wa-wah, wah wah

I emailed my wife at her office
Till finally she said to me,
"Look, I've got work to do.
Don't mail me so much, sweetie."
Now I don't mind choppin' code
And waiting for my programs to load
But once they are running I get bored
I like surfin' to Mudcat, but Oh Lord,

The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down (etc.)

Like my father before me,
I'm a workin' slob
And like my mother before me,
I took an office job
I was 23, loud and brave
When I started writin' code all day
These data jobs take so long to run
While I'm waiting I want to have a little fun...

The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down (etc.)

(C) 2000 Alex E. Riggle. All Rights Reserved.

(Yes, Aine, you may put this in the songbook!)

line breaks added

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 03:18 PM

sorry about that forgot the br's. Sigh.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 03:22 PM

Beautifully done Ratso!!!!!! Just a real winner! And BTW, if the 'Cat is pretty slow on www.mudcat.org, try loki.mudcat.org........Loki is often doing things while Shorty is struggling.

Great song!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Jed at Work
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 03:25 PM

great song, mousethief - and a fine way to pass the time during the odd mudcat slow down!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 03:28 PM

Well-done. That will be a nice addition to the songbook!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 03:30 PM

Could ya not call me Ratso? Maybe MT or Mouse or something if you can't type the whole thing. Please? Even "Alex" -- if it's good enough for my mother it should be good enough for most purposes.

Thanks and snogs,

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 04:17 PM

mOUSETHIEF<
tHAT SONG HAS EARNED YOU MY FORGIVENESS FOR OUTBIDDING ME ON eBAY! lOVED IT. mAYBE aINE WILL MAKE A CHALLENGE OUT OF IT.
mARY
yES! dAMN cAPSLOCK!
I need to explain. I have to work in caps to enter invoices. I switch to Mudcat while the system is digesting my sale and forget that I am in Capslock. Not senility just stupidity.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 04:21 PM

What were you bidding on, Mary?

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: paddymac
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 04:23 PM

Alex - I look forward to additional contributions from you. This one is brilliant. Don't take offense at the "Ratso" thing, I'm sure it was nothing more than a well-meant familiarity. Your response, though, was more than equal to the task. People like you help to make this place so enjoyable.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Áine
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 06:13 PM

Dear mousethief,

Brilliant! May I please place your song of 'woe' (hahaha) in the Mudcat Songbook? And don't mind ole 'Spaw there -- he's only calling you 'ratso' because he likes ya! Kinda like the way I call him a saggy-butt tortoise sometimes (long story)...

Great stuff there, mousethief, keep it up!

-- Aine

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 06:19 PM

Of course, Aine! I had your songbook in mind when I wrote it.

I'm not offended or put out by the Ratso thing, just don't like it much. Hence the (what I hope is) polite request for a new nickname.

I like whoever called me kleptomouse. That's very clever.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 06:53 PM

Well damn!! Now see if you had said you were deeply offended or even generally pissed by it, I would have redoubled my efforts on the Ratso thing........However, since you phrased it so nonchalantly, I'm screwed. Okay MT, I'll take it this way since it only involves two letters and is easier yet..........being a Bohemian slob of the first order, this is very important to me.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Snuffy
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 07:06 PM

This was one of the 3857 missing tunes on Mmario's list - can anybody post it to fill in the gap?

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Lena
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 02:28 AM

Intense.Intense.I'd put it with 'Bonaparte's retreat'...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: kendall
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 08:38 AM

We all know that mudcat is slowing down because of 300,000 posts, so, why do some of us post to such things as cereal? Do you really want to slow it down even more with that sort of thing? I'm not in favor of censorship, but, I am in favor of reason and restraint.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Mark Clark
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 11:14 AM

I'm not technically familiar with the computing and software infrastructure here but I would be very surprised if Mudcat is slowing down because the total number of posts is over 300,000. That is a rather paltry number of entries for database management systems to handle and I seriously doubt that it's having an impact.

A more signigicant measure of system load is the number of "hits" experienced by the system in a given period of time. It's the activity at the moment that, when heavy enough, can tax the system and slow it down. The fact that the forum archive has increased two hundred percent in the last year indicates that the Café is far more popular, worldwide, than in past years. Either that or there are a fair number of folks who have found some way to earn a living by sitting all day at their computers going post, post, post. (Please let me know how that works.)

At the end of the day, the solution to the problem is always the same... money. Money for infrastructure, money for software, money for development and system administration tasks. Sources of sustenance are all pretty well identified (well, Max hasn't started selling pop-up ads yet) so we need to ask ourselves if we are helping out as much as we can. Does everyone have at least one tee shirt? Do we always come to the Mudcat "Shameless Commerce" page first when contemplating a purchase? Do we send donations or offer items for auction? These are the behaviors that can result in faster service at the Café.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of all citizens to freely express their opinions. Note, however, there is no provision to guarantee that opinions can be expressed for free.

I know this has all been said before but, as we all know, learning comes with repitition.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Mark Clark
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 11:28 AM

Oops, I forgot to say how much I enjoyed the song, the reason for my reading this thread in the first place.

Thanks, kleptomouse (if you'll excuse the familiarity).

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 11:31 AM

I'll make an exception in your case, Mark.

Actually like I said above, I think "kleptomouse" very clever. I know some people operate on a nickname basis here, and of all the nicknames I could accrue, "kleptomouse" is one of the better.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 11:32 AM

Hey Alex... While the "Cat's AWAY"... the mouse will "PLAY" ???

And get paid for it! ... (clever mouse at that!)

Cheers, LL

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 11:46 AM

mOUSETHIEF,
be CONTENT WITH RATSO (again!). He could have called you mousedroppings. That would have been really offensive. You, Sandy Patton, and I were bidding on "Long Steel Rail". You and I were bidding on "Murder Ballads". i was joking - it happens all the time.
Mary

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 11:55 AM

I lost both those bids!

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 05:25 PM

No wait -- I guess I won the Murder Ballads one. Hope it's good.

I kept losing bids for the one-volume Child Ballads (Cambridge Edition, 1910). Then I found it in a local used book shop for US$10. Didn't feel so bad then!

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Noreen
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 07:12 PM

Now you've done it, mousethief! MMario will be after you to do some small amount of proof-reading if he hears you've got a hard copy of the Child Ballads.

BTW are you a Brian Jacques devotee?

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 11:54 PM

Very good Noreen! So far nobody has guessed the origin of my moniker. Full marks for Noreen, who knows where the name "Mousethief" came from! I like to fancy myself as very much like the "Prince of Mousethieves" except he's a bass and I'm a baritone. :)

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: Noreen
Date: 20 Sep 00 - 06:09 AM

Widely read, me! My son introduced me recently to the Redwall stories, but I remember Brian Jacques from his folkie monologue days in Liverpool. Recently discovered that my uncle taught him!

Noreen

Good song, BTW.... sorry about the thread creep!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The day they slowed ol' Mudcat down
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Sep 00 - 02:46 PM

Not a problem. Threads creep; there's not much you can do about it.

Alex
O..O
=o=