So much for the blog. Not enough time, too little interest. I suppose some day I might start posting entries again, but I doubt it.
I've stopped posting new photos to my web gallery, too, instead putting all of them into my Flickr page. The Gallery software is extremely flexible, but it's really a giant pain in the ass, and Flickr is just more convenient.
I'll leave all the old pages up, at least for now.
"But that doesn't mean anything!"
"Not to you, maybe, but to millions of Americans it means 'Merry Christmas' in Mexican!"
Merry Hannakwanzmas!
Jesus Christ, I can't believe how old I've gotten.
I screwed up my back. Again. By doing absolutely frickin nothing.
No idea what I did, but I woke up this morning with my back very sore, and it tightened up as the day went on. I've spent most of the day popping Advil and sitting on the sofa with a heating pad. I don't think it's as bad as last time, when I couldn't even stand in one spot without my lower back screaming at me, but we'll see.
I say again: dammit.
I haven't felt much need to post anything in the last month or so. I decided to stop with the daily political comments, mainly because it was taking so much time, and because there are so many other political blogs it just didn't seem like it was a great way to spend what little time I have...
Which isn't to say this site will be politics-free. I have no love for Dubya, or the Republican Party, or much of the Democratic Party, for that matter. I just won't bitch and whine every day in writing. I have more or less imposed a political news "embargo" on myself, for the sake of my own mental health. I was too pissed off too much of the time, and that's just not healthy. I'm in bad enough shape without the added stress of being constantly pissed over events I can't control directly.
So, Happy New Year. Same as the old year.
So I got this bizarre email in my Yahoo mail inbox the other day, copied and pasted below with original English manglings:
From: "*Citibank*" schandl@madhuri.com
To: "Johncbuie"
Subject: CITI-ONLINE EMAIL_ Verification
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 07:38:40 -0400
_Dear Citibank _Client_,
This email was sennt by t_he CITI_bank serevrs to veerify _your EMAIL addres_.
You must complete this process by clicking on the link below and enntering
in the litlle winndow your _Citibank_ Atm/Debit full card-nummber and _pin_ that
you_use in the Atm_machine. This is done for Your protection -P- becouse some_of_our
memmbers _no longer have access to their _e-mail_ _address_es and we must verify it.
www.yahoo.com/?xXmjOctm3HhFyZgEPOOQT8cWYLyWuQUQcJ3F7moMVnFcw1RmVA0mojjUcfLZP47YqKlWqz
To verify your_ _email adress and access _your_ Citibank_
account, klick on _the link _below.
ZXARwUWm UjMfETqTPTkU1ily4 IututmOohLLb6Ap
Um...
Yeah. I'll send that info to you right away.
Spent most of last week at the beach. It was a bit cold, but it didn't rain til Sunday.
Every time I go to the beach (or really anywhere, now that I think about it), I conclude that I'd really rather not have to work for a living. I could easily come up with things I'd rather spend my time doing other than being a corporate slave. Trouble is, most of those things do require that I have an income... dangit.
Anyway, back to work and bills and homework and a cluttered house. Good thing we're going back in a couple months or I'd never make it.
Yow, what a long winter. I think except for a brief respite in late February, we've had at least one person sick in the house since last October. Usually, more than one. We've had bronchitis, croup, the flu more than once, many many colds, sinusitis, and strep throat / scarlet fever.
Haven't had much motivation to post stuff to this blog. Too much other stuff to deal with. Hopefully, as the weather improves, and everyone gets healthy, I'll find some time to post stuff.
I'm sure whatever few people have ever come here have long since given up...
Wow, it's been over 2 months since I posted anything. It's not like I have suddenly been stricken with a lack of opinions. There's been lots of stuff to talk about, W's corrupt government, the 7 dwarves running for the Democratic nomination, The Governator, Carolina football sucking mightily...
But, I just haven't much felt like posting anything. It's not like this site gets huge amounts of traffic anyway, so I doubt anyone's even noticed. I have had plans to update some things, but it will probably be a few weeks before I get around to it. I have to renew my web hosting account, and will probably move this site to a new server. That might be a good time to tinker with the design a little.
I find I just don't have the inclination to spend many hours in front of the computer. I sit at two computers all day long, sometimes bring the work laptop home at night and on weekends. It's just not as much fun as it used to be.
But I'm sure I'll get around to posting more stuff here eventually.
Going to the beach tomorrow. These weekly trips every summer are getting expensive. I'm not sure if we're going to do this next year; it'll be our 10th anniversary, and it's occurred to me that we should try something different.
But we probably won't...
So, it looks like I got a job. Two, in fact.
I interviewed for a unix job back on April 2nd, with The State. The pay was actually pretty good for The State, but of course those benefits... They offered me the job, and I of course accepted, because I had no job, and on balance it was a pretty good opportunity.
Then I got another job, one that I had left for dead. Slightly better pay, insanely better benefits. I'd-be-crazy-to-turn-down benefits. So, I did the only thing I could. I called The State and told them I couldn't take the job. I felt terrible about it; I was supposed to start on May 12th, and called them on May 5th.
The woman who interviewed and hired me was not happy, not that I blame her. I feel bad, I'm sure my bailing has stressed her out and left them in a lurch. But, there are a lot of good people looking for work, and I doubt they'll ever miss me.
I've known of unix admins around here who have been out of work for 12-18 months, so I feel very lucky to have gotten one job offer, much less two!
I start my new job on May 12th, unless a reorg defunds the position while I'm waiting...
Yay! I'm going to get paid again! I will have been out of work for a total of 7 weeks, and won't have accomplished a damn thing except throwing my back out cleaning a tub and spending the last two weeks sofa-ridden. I'm old.
So, I'm going on three weeks without a job. I've applied to a mess of job postings, been ignored by most everyone, had a couple interviews, and have one solid possibility. I was hoping something would work out at my previous place of employment, but that doesn't appear to be in the cards. With any luck, I'll have a job before we run completely out of money. That will happen way sooner than I'd like... I keep telling myself even a bad job would be better than no job. Unless I win the powerball or something.
A friend of mine suggested I get my MCSE if I want to get a job. Thanks for the helpful advice, John! I'll get right on it...
Being jobless is pretty disorienting. For the last 6-plus months, I've been living with the stress of knowing the end was coming, and not being able to do anything about it. No jobs to go after around here. Add that to the stress of losing my job, throw in a couple job interviews (normally stressful enough, I guess, but when you are unemployed with 3 kids, the stakes are really high), and I've been about as cheerful as Mr. Rogers off his Xanax.
I have no idea what to do with my time. Linda thinks I should clean the bathrooms. Logical, I suppose, but not much fun. If I knew I was going to get paid again soon, that would be different. But I can't run off and shoot 10 rolls of film without knowing whether I'll be able to have them developed.
And I'm sure my friend John would tell me I should go digital anyway...
Finally got around to taking the guestbook down. It was getting a bizarre variety of entries, almost all auto-generated by real estate web sites and porn sites. Mostly from Germany, too.
The thing was just taking up too much space, and it was depressing that it was the most visited page on this site.
So, it's gone now. If you want to say something to me, send me email or use the comment links at the bottom of each entry.
Had this strange feeling lately that it's really 1991. A Bush in the White House, CNN on 18 hours a day, and stuff blowing up in the middle east. Strange how events seem to wander all over the place from year to year, and yet it seems like you wind up right where you started.
Almost, anyway, considering since 1991 I've gotten married, had three kids of my own, added several nieces and nephews, lost my father, almost lost my mother, lost my sister figuratively, changed careers 4 times, gained 25 pounds, lost the ability to hit the open J, gained the ability to change diapers, improved my photography ever so incrementally, and so on, et cetera...
And yet, here we are, 12 years later, worrying about Saddam Hussein and Scud missiles again. Weird.
Oh, wait, that's right, Iraq doesn't have Scud missiles any more. Right. Forgot.
Two weeks from today is my last day of employment.
I've known March 31st would be my last day since last summer, but it knowing hasn't made any difference. I've been looking for a job for months, even had a couple interviews, but no offers. I was offered a job last December, a GIS job, for what I was making in 1997. I couldn't afford that salary then, and especially couldn't afford it now. At the time, it still seemed possible that something would come up before my legs got cut off.
I know of unix admins who have been looking for work around here for over a year. I can't say I'm feeling too optimistic about my chances.
I'm not normally an optimist, so I'm trying hard to approach my impending unpaid vacation as positively as I can. Lots of time to spend on stuff that's needed doing, like weeding the yard, painting various rooms, learning Farsi, etc. Even more free time than would otherwise be available, since we won't be able to afford broadband internet or the DirecTV subscription.
Sigh. There I go being negative again, dangit.
A few weeks ago, the local school system proposed sending our kids to a different school.
The school system presented its revised plan last night, and they've dropped the proposal to reassign our kids, so that's good news for us. Just goes to show that a little organization can have an influence. The parents' group made reasoned counter-proposals to the Growth Management group, and it appears to have worked. It was either that, or the loud whining and complaining, I'm not sure which.
There are still over 2000 kids being moved around, though, so the larger problem still exists.
It's raining and foggy. Of course it takes me twice as long as usual due to an accident, so I spend most of the morning bitching about it. Turns out two people were killed in a head-on collision that shut down traffic in both directions for three hours. Nothing like a little perspective to make me feel like a total ass for complaining about traffic...
Joe Strummer died today. Bummer. Always liked the Clash, although sometimes I thought they tried a little too hard to be punk. Now that I think about it, how the hell do you tell if a band is genuinely punk??
Today is my dad's birthday. He would have been 67.
Miss you, dad.
Haven't posted much lately. Not much going on, really, so I haven't had much reason to write anything.
Kids have been sick, that's always fun. And we had an ice storm, that was cool. Nothing like being without power for 30 hours to remind you why you're not Amish. Well, there's the whole religion thing, too, but electricity and hot water and synching my Palm Pilot are pretty high on the list.
Last day for my on call rotation. Being on call during an ice storm was not a good plan.
Happy Birthday to my sister, wherever the hell she is.
Oh, by the way, Kris, mom is fine. She's been out of congestive heart failure for a while, and there's no sign of the cancer returning.
Election Day.
Yippee.
Looking forward to the restoration of single-party rule, in which the national legislative agenda is determined by the Psycho Wing of the Republican Party. It's like the country is being run by J. Edgar Hoover (hint: NOT a good thing).
Here in the progressive state of North Carolina, Jesse Helms is finally retiring, only to be replaced by either Elizabeth "No, really, I'm from North Carolina!" Dole, or by Erskine "Bill who?" Bowles. Where the hell is Terry Sanford when we need him...
Well, it looks as if I have avoided unemployment about as long as I'm going to. By all appearances, I will be out of a job beginning October 24th.
I work as a unix administrator for a certain contract firm, we'll call them "Lords, Inc." I've worked for them since July, 2000, on-site at a large pharmaceutical corporation. The drug company pays Lords, who then pays me after taking their (large) cut. Hundreds of people at LDC (large drug company) are contractors, worldwide I'm sure it's in the 10s of thousands. My contract has been renewed in 3-month increments for the last 18 months because that's the max time limit LDC will allow extensions these days.
Last summer, LDC decided to narrow the list of contract vendors to minimize the variation in charged overhead among vendors. The vendors were invited to submit applications to be on the new "approved" list. For consideration, the vendors had to agree to all sort of conditions, one of which was waiving their employees' non-compete clauses. So, if I work for Lords, but Lords doesn't make the list, I could go to work for one of the companies that did without interference from my current company.
This is exactly what happened: Lords didn't make the list, and I received an email from Lords informing me that my contract would not be extended beyond 10/23/02. Lords has also decided to prevent me from continued employment at LDC through another contract vendor by vigorous enforcement of the aforementioned non-compete clause. Of course, Lords has not identified another job to send me to, so at some point in the next few weeks they will be forced to terminate me, sending me into unemployment just before Christmas.
There are 8 members of our unix team, half of which are contractors. Three of us work for companies that did not make LDC's approved list. Mine is the only company which is attempting to prevent its employees from retaining gainful employment by switching to another vendor.
I am trying to appreciate their position in this, but am having trouble. My position in this is: I have three children I have to clothe and feed, and my "employer" is actively preventing me from gainful employment.