<jennray>  OK, so I invited my friend over here (the one we ended
                   up transforming, per perlygatekeeper’s advice) and she
                   should be here soon.
        <blarned>  She must be a fine cat.
              -->  erisa has joined #perl
        <jennray>  erisa: hi! Good timing, I just told the channel
                   about your arrival.
          <erisa>  jennray: Jennifer: ♥! I’ll see if I like the company here.
                *  blarned paws at erisa
        <rindolf>  Hi erisa! Meet blarned - he’s our resident cat. Kudos
                   for the Unicode, too.
          <erisa>  blarned: meow!
          <erisa>  rindolf: UTF-Love!
        <rindolf>  erisa: and ISO-Hate-Hate-Five-Nine-*.
<perlygatekeeper>  erisa: so I understand your transformation was
                   successful?
          <erisa>  perlygatekeeper: oh yes! I’m a completely different
                   person now.
          <erisa>  Hold on.
          <erisa>  http://eve-siegel.eu.org/temp-images/eve-before.jpg vs.
                   http://eve-siegel.eu.org/temp-images/eve-after.jpg .
          <erisa>  And that’s just the way I look.
                *  blarned claws the ‘before’ and nuzzles the ‘after’.
<perlygatekeeper>  erisa: yes, they are a difference of earth and heaven.
        <rindolf>  erisa: awesome. I understand you are jennray’s
                   classmate?
          <erisa>  rindolf: yes, we’re also good friends. And I will
                   continue to torment her during our (and our boyfriends’)
                   Bachelor’s in university.
        <rindolf>  erisa: sounds like a plan.
        <jennray>  erisa was initially reluctant to join IRC because she
                   thought it was a place for chronic time wasters and
                   “script-kiddies”.
        <blarned>  Perl cats like to waste time, but we are at a constant
                   war with those pesky script-kiddie critters.
          <erisa>  I’ll join that Perl Cats’ herd (“clowder”?). Meow!
        <rindolf>  erisa: by the way, how did you reach that conclusion about
                   IRC?
          <erisa>  rindolf: hmmm… let me think.
          <erisa>  Well, I used to enjoy chatting on IRC a bit before I became
                   a rebel, but then I recall an E-mail exchange with someone
                   whom I believed told me that the reason he was such a great
                   hacker was because he lacked any social life.
        <jennray>  A “nerd” so-to-speak?
          <erisa>  Yes, exactly.
          <erisa>  Oh my God…

At which point, I received a phone call. It was Eve and she was crying.

“Jennifer, I think I’ve realised why I became the punk that I was… it was all because of that E-mail exchange. I think… I think… I was trying to emulate a nerd, because I cared a lot about hacking.”

“Oh, Eve!” I told her. “Maybe I should come to your house?”

There was a pause. “Well, OK… if it’s not much trouble.”

“It’s not, really. You’re my friend after all.” I told her.

I went to her house, and when I came, she was still very excited. She told me about her past, how she was not happy with what she was, and how non-sensical her past philosophy appeared to her then. She returned to her happy, joyful, state after a while and we returned to the IRC conversation taking turns to type things at the computer. I showed her some of my other favourite channels, and she ended up making new IRC friends. Eventually, Eve concluded by saying: “Wow! Wasting time can be a lot of fun. I should do it more often, I think”.