Tick Tock

I'm still around.

Job is going OK so far.

Going to be busy for a while.

Hang in there.

Life goes on.

New Days (or New Daze)

My new job starts tomorrow. The reality hasn't hit me, yet. I don't know if I am ready.

The timing sucks, too. I just went to a theatre audition last night and they are considering me for the part of Dr. Montague in the Haunting of Hill House...but I don't think I can really devote the time and focus necessary to do the part justice while I am simultaneously filling my head with work stuff. They called me today to ask if I would be willing to cut my hair for the part (which indicates they are seriously considering me). It hurt to tell them I was withdrawing (and not because of the hair), since this would be my first real theatre performance opportunity. Man, it was hard to say no. I just know how obsessive I get about learning the lines and getting into character, etc., I just know it would be a major distraction from work...something I don't need in the first few months. I really went just for the audition experience - I didn't expect to be considered for a lead role!

Like I said, it hurt to say no. Can you hear me howling?

My wife, the eternal job hunter, sent me a job announcement. It started with the following:

"Do you enjoy working in fast-paced teams? Do you thrive on building disruptive platforms? Do you consistently push the envelope on what can be accomplished, achieve the mission impossible and enjoy the thrill that comes with it? Do you wish you had an opportunity to work at Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Siebel, Oracle or eBay during the early days? If you are an accomplished engineer with at least 10+ years of experience, consistently been a top performer in your prior jobs, have high IQ, energy and passion for innovation with 'take no prisoners' type attitude, look no further."

Gee, is that how they sell jobs these days? Is this even a selling point? If I were to re-write this lead-in, I would get right to the point:

"We want to work you to death. Interested?"

Perhaps some people enjoy that sort of thing. Not me. Well, we'll see how things go tomorrow.

Haphazard Musing

I was just thinking about some of the insightful things I have said over the years, and realized just how few of them I can actually remember. So, I thought it might be a good idea to start writing them down. To start, here's a very small selection of what I can actually remember:

"Friends are worth their weight in friendship; gold means little to me."

"If I were truly smart, I never would have learned so much."

"It is easier to live an authentic life in the face of persecution than it is to live a lie."

"What doesn't kill you, wasn't meant to."

More are sure to follow, as many have already gotten away. Stay tuned.

It's Official

Well, it's official. I got the job. I have the papers in my hand. I guess that means I'll be working again. It will be good having money coming in again so we can start saving money instead of just making ends meet. But, on the down side, I'll be working again. Blah!

By the way, Christmas was a bit pre-empted this year because of this job. My wife has been pushing hard to get me in at this place, and I worked late into the night for several nights - straight through Christmas - to put together a prototype to demonstrate some of my skills and ideas. And I think it did the trick. Everybody I interviewed with found something (different) of interest to them in my work. I hope that it is all worth it in the end, because I endured the most stress of my life (that I can remember) while undergoing this process. Even got an ear infection out of the deal, and a clicking in my TMJ (jaw joint). It was not pretty...or fun. In fact, I just stopped the ear drops yesterday.

So, we're still planning to take a weekend and celebrate the holidays in a belated fashion. I'm going to treat her to a massage (of her choice) and I am also going to buy her an iPod when I get paid - she really wants one. She got me a job for Christmas, I guess. But she also got me an electric park flyer radio-controlled model airplane. I just started putting that together tonight. It has been a long time since I have done anything with my airplanes, and I need to run down to the hobby shop tomorrow, because all my glue has dried up. I also need to order some servos...now that I can.

I also did some mundane things today, like some filing (the papers have been piling up), and created a folder for tax stuff, since forms are already starting to arrive in the mailbox. Also bought some 2-cent stamps, but I don't know where I put them. Hopefully, my mom will get her birthday card in time - I mailed it with a 37-cent stamp, not realizing the postage had changed. Oh, well, I'll call her in the morning.

I feel like a window is closing and my reign of free time is coming to an end. And that worries me, because I rarely felt I had any free time, even though I was out of work. There's always so much to do, and I can remember when we were both working, house stuff always fell behind. And I remember when I left my last job how I was amazed anything got done at all after being faced with trying to catch up with everything that had fallen behind. Two years I have been out of work and I'm still not on top of it all.

Psst! Hey, Bill! Get off the computer!

Well, you know, life isn't all about work. I have to balance it with some fun. It's all about balance. It will be interesting to see how this new balancing act will pan out.

It's getting late and I have to extract my wife from her chair and put her to bed. We looked at chairs, couches and love seats yesterday, hoping to find something we could sit closer together in and something she can fall asleep in without hurting her neck. But our height difference makes it difficult to find something that is comfortable to us both. But knowing her, she'll find just the right thing.

Oh yeah - happy Friday the 13th! Only two more days before the Stardust probe returns to Earth following its 2.88 billion mile round-trip to collect comet dust. Too cool!

Moronica the Insignificant

I had a thought about a new animated character, but I don't know what to do with it. I thought it might be funny as an on-going Flash animation, or maybe just a comic strip. I dunno. But it was inspired (in part) by the drivers here in San Carlos.

It is a story about Moronica the Insignificant. She is a hairdresser in a small town and comes from a super rich family, so she has a lot of money that she doesn't know what to do with. Her parents died when she was young, leaving her their entire estate. She chose to continue her modest small-town lifestyle and remain as the town's choice hair stylist. But she always wanted to drive a Hummer and have a cell phone and an Internet connection...so she really stands out in the little town she lives in.

But she discovered the secret to her parents' money. Her father was abducted by aliens, but he had a brain condition that prevented him from falling victim to the mind altering effects of the aliens, so he had the thoughtfullness about him during his abduction experience to fight back. In the process, he stole a device from the aliens that allows him to manipulate time - or at least the perception of time for the people in the general vacinity. Her father used the device somehow to his monetary advantage.

That's the premise, anyway - I haven't flushed anything out beyond that. But I see her using her powers (or, rather, the power of the device) to boost her popularity - for example, by telling people she knows how to do things that she can't, but stops time for others while she learns how to do a thing and get good at it, thus suprising everyone with her talents. Over time, she grows bored of being the popular one and amasses a number of skills and delves even deeper into her secret life to become an unseen super hero. So, although her life appears to be completely self-absorbed and insignificant on the surface, she is performing all these heroic deeds behind the scene, using her time-altering device, and no one is the wiser.

Any thoughts? :D

Going With the Flow

I saw this over on Jude's blog (there's a link from this page in the right hand column), so I thought I'd follow suit.

4 jobs you've had in your life:
Computer lab aide, computer operator, software engineer, application engineer (though it was really software related).

4 movies you could watch over and over:
Galaxy Quest, Groundhog Day, Sleepless in Seattle, Back to the Future.

4 places you've lived:
Tucson, AZ, Phoenix, AZ, San Carlos, CA. There is no #4, yet, though I have lived in several places in Tucson.

4 TV shows you like to watch:
Monk, Medium, Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Atlantis.

4 places you've been on vacation:
Rocky Point Mexico, Cabo San Lucas Mexico, Maui and Florida.

4 websites you visit daily:
Not sure there are any I visit daily (except Google), though I visit a few, frequently (some blogs, Craig's List, ebay, lynda.com, w3schools.com and other web development related resource sites). Mainly, I do a lot of surfing, researching information, and spend considerable time reading email from the list servers I belong to (sfcutters, home brew robotics, bay area theatre bums, etc., etc.).

4 of your favourite foods:
"Favorite food" is kind of an oxymoron to me. Mexican food (the "right" kind - Sonoran style) is my favorite, though I also can do Chinese, Italian and seafood.

4 places you'd rather be:
Tucson, Hawaii, Tucson, or someplace warm in the desert, like Tucson.

4 albums you can't live without:
Hmm. Dunno. Whatever's on my computer, I guess. Whatever brings back memories.

4 other things you can't live without (not people):
My main computer (i.e. all my creations on it), my radio-controlled airplanes, my tools and my memories.

4 people to pass this meme along to:
You, you, you and you.

Lots-O-Fun

Oh, boy! I've been having lots of fun in the Computer Circus, with more to come. I'm also still waiting on pins and needles to hear about whether I got this job or not. If I do get the job, I'll be working with my wife. Not sure how that will work out, but we've worked together before. Twice. We'll just have to be careful to keep our work life and private life separate. We're just waiting for the paperwork to go through. Her boss is encouraging, but there may be others who are opposed to the husband/wife thing. Hopefully, we'll hear something today.

I am disconnected from my workshop computer today, as we are having a new sliding glass door installed, and that is where my network cable runs. Maybe today would be a good day to futz with that machine to get the backup thing going. The guys should be here any minute to start on the door. Maybe I need to go out and look for them - they may be trying to find my apartment. Funny thing about this place is that our apartment is the largest in the building, but the most difficult to find the entrance to.

I hope you enjoy today's music selection. It is from a CD my wife got at Cirque du Soleil last year. We're going to this year's performance this month (the 25th?). Should be very cool.

The Grass is Growing

Feeling a bit vapid lately. Not compelled to write much. Just sitting here waiting for what, I don't know. Just wanted to let you know I'm still around. Turn on the light so I can scurry back into a dark corner somewhere. ;)

Or, like I told my wife the other day, put some cheese on a shoe and shove it in my mouth. (That was my way of telling her I was wrong about something). Not that that has anything to do with anything, I just thought it was funny, and it came to mind, so I wrote it down.

So there!

How Many More Years?

Some funny Bushisms in the form of a game. Well, they might be funnier if he wasn't our PRESIDENT.

I understand this guy was in Tucson when I was home visiting in Tucson. In fact, we JUST missed the traffic nightmare that was created as he arrived for his departing flight at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport on the day we were leaving to fly home. Among the many thoughtful and enlightened remarks during his visit, he had this to say:

"Those who enter the country illegally violate the law."

He's good at pointing things out, though not so good at making points.

Anyway, I was up channel surfing last night and caught a few minutes of George Carlin. Wow, he's getting old. He was talking about how parents never seem to want to take responsibility for their kids when they're bad, but will be the first to stand up to show their pride ("look at my kid!") when their kids are good. He was making some point about how parents are responsible for their kids' behavior.

I can't agree with this. I just can't. I think parents are responsible for imparting concepts of "right" and "wrong" and for talking to their kids about important issues, like drugs and sex and the realities of life, but beyond that, the kid is going to make his or her own decisions. I think there should be some kind of test or something that all parents should be required to complete with their kids, to basically cover their asses, to indicate (and have some way to prove) that they have discussed certain issues with their kids and that the kids acknowledge that they have completed the material (like home schooling?). That way, if a kid gets in trouble for doing something stupid - something where he or she made a choice to do, having KNOWN better - then the parent cannot be held responsible. A parent can only do so much.

I have a cat that misbehaves. Hardly a comparison to a child, but I have seen the same behavior in children. I have done all I can and all I know - and continue to do so - to get this DAMN CAT from climbing up on the counters. The cat OBVIOUSLY knows better, since she doesn't dare do it when we're looking. But the minute we're out of sight, she's at it again.

Kids can be like that. I know from experience.

Anyway, not sure where this all came from. I just don't think it is right to blame the parents, completely, for all a child does that is wrong. After all, we can't attribute everything that a kid does well to the parents. I mean, do we attribute a prodigy child's musical talents to his parents if they are deaf? Parents can only do so much, and the child will ultimately exhibit the character that it truly is in the end.