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Tonight is the night EL returns from Colorado. I saw what looked to be an interesting job... 48 hour work week plus additional overtime/call out, sign on bonus of $7500, completion bonus of $500 per month, accrues, paid at end of year, an annual vacation travel allowance of $6500, and compensation of $100,000 to $150,000/year... then there was the fine print... foreign area living allowance $10,950/yr and hourly rates increased by 50% for hazardous conditions. It turns out the job is in Qatar. Even if I wanted to work in Qatar... which I don't... EL would put the big veto on that gig. The messed up thing is, it was listed as an opening in Colorado. Apparently this tactic is more popular than ever... you place a job listing as local so people find it looking in the local area they want to work when in fact, it is a national listing or other (ie. Qatar). On a lighter note, I read today that IBM is introducing a protective system in laptop hard drives that acts similar to an airbag. There is a sensor that can detect a sudden acceleration or inertial change (like dropping the laptop or kicking it) and park the drive head in less than 1/10th of a second. Nifty.

Dammit!

"Motivational" - Toadies To get a leg up you must put your foot down You roll your sleeve up You put your back into it You get your head around it To find the fast track to enlightenment You must cleanse your mind and body You must get your head around it Must get your head around it You want to be ringside, or in there swinging You want the grand prize You must get your head around it Let's get your head around it You want the last laugh You want the victory lap You want the finer things You want the brass ring You must get your head around it To get a leg up you must put your foot down You roll your sleeve up You get your head around it Let's get your head around it...

Since I'm not in a hurry to set up my own blog again it seems as good a time as any to take Mista C up on his offer to rent blogspace to me for real cheap. Like, dirt cheap. Free even. Here's the short version of what I've been up to post joining of C -n- EL : work, and not much else. Oh, every once in a while I'll squeeze in an evening to go watch my friend DJ Engine spin at the Voda Bar in Santa Monica but that's only every other Wed. evening. Yeah, Wed. evening, what kind of time is that for getting your doll eyes on? Wrapped up in continued wondering if I even want to do what it is I do for a living I've found some distraction in once again, like after 20 years or so, taking up guitar. This time, thanks to the internet, I'm making a little better progress on my own than I did as a kid thanks to the world of tabs pages. I'm also going to get some lessons from a friend of mine that just so happens to be an excellent axe ripper. I'm not going to expect him to turn me into the next Rhoads, Yngwie, Vai, Satriani or Lynch, but I'd like to someday jam out some good old Toadies with conviction and confidence, along with some nu metal strumming. Right now I'm sparing the neighbors via headphones. I'd rather not get my roomie and I evicted while she's working in New Zealand.

It's official. The resume is online and activated. Bring it!

Now past, the weekend was a complete blur... busy. Last night's rain brought an end to the most wonderful week of weather to date this year. I'm sad to see it go. It was prime outdoor adventure weather. Ironically, I've been a hermit. I can't seem to get going this morning. I would say that my lethargy stems from lack of sleep, but careful consideration of my current office environment reveals a sea of career depression and dark bottomless pit of negativity. Moral is at an all time low. Of course, each day here is worse than the previous, so I could say that indefinitely. I've been tasked with preparing and presenting a lecture on one of our design decisions to the CIO next week... a presentation that has already been given to the CIO on a design that has already been implemented. The current (corrupt) regime of new (incompetent) management simply wants an excuse for some face time with the upstairs exec and a chance to fluff their tail feathers and smooch some overpaid booty. It happens. In an ideal world, I would have another job lined up to step into and simply walk out of this utter insanity... sweetly leaving them to fill my overworked position with another unappreciated IT stooge. Since we are in the real world, I'll procrastinate until my boss is riding my ass like a circus stunt horseman... you know, standing all the way up on the ass... and then I'll shit out some rushed, yet superficially spectacular Power Point presentation that the educated and trained eye of a real network indian would see right through as comical. Catastrophe adverted if only for another day or two before the regime comes up with another plagiarized, overdone method of sticking their heads in superiors asses while standing on the broken backs of subordinates... carefully ensuring traction by clinging to the handles of the blades routinely driven into their backs during ritualistic witch hunts. Burn her! She's a witch! Do I sound bitter to you? You have no fucking idea.

Somehow I feel there should have been more hours with the eyes closed.

Damn mail server suckage. Clayton is sleepy.

Little did I know that was going to be the understatement of the century. I did a little "server maintenance" since EL is gone out of town and wiggled myself into trouble. I am still not back up at 100% since my outbound mail is fux0r'd, but everything else seems to be ok. I fucked up my MT import and imported all the entries as me... hence, those posted by EL way back when are probably hosed. I still haven't gone to check. Also, I ditched all my template info in haste, so that will take some time to restore. The other big goof was my reinstallation the photo gallery at 13th Stone. I changed my data path to the images, so all the links referencing them in archived posts will henceforth be referencing crap. I may fix that someday, but that would require reinitializing the entire image database (again). I suppose that's easier than fixing the broken links in the ton-o-posts from old calendar squares. My weekend was busy. I did a lot of work around the house and accomplished much. I have been reclusive since EL left for Colorado, but that has led to productivity. There is a Crown Royal in the other room with my name on it. Cheers. update: Shit. I think I may have thought of a workaround for the broken image link problem... who needs server space anyway? I'll just copy the scaled pics into the other path. Note to self: Fix this when not so lazy. On a brighter note, I did finally upgrade MT. I think I was still on 2.21 or something. Yippie. update two: I did some ultradelete ninja action and re-imported in original format, so guest post entries are conserved. It's amazing what a little CR can do for ya! It's like Red Bull... sorta.

Server is going down for maintenance.

"I would like a deep-fried Monte Cristo-Macwich on a stick, please. With
chougat."

Arteriosclerosis anyone?

The new Photoshop is available. Yippie!

Unfortunate that they've developed BGS (Bill Gates Syndrome).