It turns out that we mainframers apparently have a casual side to ourselves - and maybe even a sense of humor!

I've just been checking out TREXXers.com, an easy-going mainframe website of which CA is a sponsor, and I was reminded that it's possible to have fun and be a mainframer at the same time.

You know, over the past few years or even decades, as we mainframers have put our noses to the grindstone and worked harder and harder, it's been easy to forget the human side of our profession. And yet, as mentioned in a very informal posting at http://www.trexxers.com/uploads/pdf/Reg-limericks..pdf, the mainframe is too important to be taken seriously (apologies to Oscar Wilde).

That's why I like what might be called "cultural" mainframe times and places.

That also includes the SHARE sing-along.

Now, for the uninitiated, every Thursday night at SHARE (the semi-annual mainframe user group educational meeting) there's a unique session that begins at 10:00pm. It involves singing a selection of familiar tunes with mainframe lyrics. It's a wonderfully eccentric experience, and one which naturally de-selects anyone who isn't a major mainframe nerd.

If you search around the web, you can discover some other casual/cultural sites as well - in fact, TREXXers.com can be a good starting place to link to such places.

Personally, I think these are very important, even though they're intrinsically whimsical, because they bring out the human side of what we do. After all, when you spend a very substantial amount of your time every week for most or all of your working life doing something, it had better have relevance to the fact that you're a human being!

So, yes, we mainframers have a culture that includes the ability to have fun, and I, for one, am all for affirming and building on that!

What about you? Feel free to reply to this blog entry with your own thoughts, or even better, post them at TREXXers.com where they'll be part of the ongoing journey of developing the human side of mainframe culture!