Almost achieved Satori

There I was, finishing programming problem that had eluded me for quite some time, when I took a moment to step back and examine my work. I took a deep breath and looked at it. But then something strange happened while I thought. It seemed as if my mind was expanding. My field of view embiggened until this particular program was just one part of the larger picture. It was no problem I had solved, it was an old friend I had invited over for drinks and wise advice. We talked about our troubles and parted on good terms, both better for having met. I could feel the computation coursing through my veins until it seemed I was floating in a vast ocean of solutions, and all I needed to do to know all was let it pass inside me. It was right there and all I had to do was inhale and let the universe fill me and make me pure.

But then, it was over, the moment was gone and I couldn't find it again. I was at my desk, staring at a mediocre solution to a tedious and annoying problem.

>>21
> Also do you fall in love with every girl you see?
Sure, why not? Fer instance, a week ago there was an incredible petite beauty sitting on the bus when I got on. Lustrous brown hair glowing in the sunlight, luscious red lips, shapely gymnastic body. I was afraid to ask too tritely, "Where does this bus go?" Then a black blind lady got on and kept asking the driver if he would stop at "X" Street for her and her seeing-eye dog. After a while I spoke up and told the blind lady that I would try to remember for her when we reached "X" Street. Then I got a bright idea. I said to the petite beauty, "Excuse me, miss. Would you please help me remind the lady to get off at "X" Street?"
"I'm sorry, but I get off at the stop before 'X' Street."
"Do you speak Russian?" I say, because I can always tell either a Russian or a German accent. Yes, she did.
"Я говорю по-русски," I say, which is, "I speak Russian." And she has been here six years, first studying English, then something like sociology.
"Где вы жили в Росии?" which is, "Where did you live in Russia?", but she did not live in Russia, she lived in Uzbekistan. We had a very pleasant but brief conversation until she had to disembark. And these encounters, Prog-riders if not bus-riders, happen over and over again. It is our duty as he-men to make the first move and let the sweethearts either reject us or accept us. As the Roman poet Ovid wrote two thousand years ago in The Art of Love, "Spectatum veniunt; veniunt spectentur ut ipsae", or, "They come to watch; they come so that they themselves may be watched."
> How were you with women when you weren't old?
I was young and stupid and did not even realize when maidens were making a play for me. Now I am old and useless but having more brief, intense romances than ever. Suddenly last summer, fer instance. On 29 June 2014 I told lifeguard Malibu that they call me Crawdad Man and I find lost valuables in the lake. When I went there a month later, lifeguard Malibu handed me a list of names and phone numbers for people whose eyeglasses she wanted me to find at the bottom of the lake. I found three of the four eyeglasses, twenty pairs of goggles, ten face-masks, one Samsung Galaxy smartphone, and a big Sterling silver ring that I gave to the snorkling barista at the Eigerwand (but that's another story :-) and because I adjusted my travel schedule I had a month-long romance with Kirei-na from Tokyo.
She asked if she could take a picture of her and me at one of the bus-stops. She said, "I have a boyfriend in Tokyo, but we are fighting." So take heart, young prog-rammers. You do not know how to deal with the ladies now, and you never really will, but you can have sweet sublime experiences as you age and mature. Remember, men become more distinguished and appealing as they age. Signing off, old useless Mentifex.