Category: Opinion

I did that just the other day.   I’d previously worked at this organization for nearly 10 years.  I quit a couple of years ago to pursue my own endeavors and hopefully be successful ‘out on my own’.  Well after trying for two years, getting by but by no means living rich – the opportunity presented itself to go back to work where I used to work.  I was requested by name to go back and work on a new project.  The caveat was that I had to help another group play catchup with their software development.

It’s a government organization and without getting into too many details – it was plainly and painfully obvious that I was spinning my wheels, accomplishing nothing, and getting flack for faults that are endemic to the organization.  The managers involved were only interested in producing a happy statistical variance that made it appear they were actually producing a product.  They have no concept that keeping the developers happy should be their number one job.  Give us what we need to do our jobs, keep us happy and we can be very productive.  I managed to suffer through the place for nearly 6 weeks.  In that time I’d received no real input as to how to accomplish my tasking, multiple finger pointing regarding access issues etc.  After that entire time I STILL didn’t even have access to email from my desk.  Last Thursday I just packed my bag and walked out of the building.

I still can’t decide what to do next.  They claim they’ll make it all better if I go back.  I am somehow sure this won’t happen.  My contract manager (yes I am/was a contractor) apparently can’t read and has annoyed me with his attitude, treating me as if I was a pluggable resource with as much respect as one might feel for a toaster.  I have no tolerance for idiots and every time I walk into that building I feel my IQ drop 50 points.

I accidently bought something.  I recently returned to my old full-time job after a  near 2 year hiatus.  No I wasn’t just playing and enjoying life on my riches.  I was struggling while helping my wife with her graphic design business.  In the end there just wasn’t enough work for the both of us to pay the bills – and I believe she probably thought it was a good time for me to get out of the house.  I can’t blame her in the least.  I can be a moody bitch.

As part of going back to that horrid new job I decided I wanted a new Motorola Droid phone.  I’m a teck geek afterall and my old LG Dare just wasn’t cutting it.  I needed something I could SSH into servers, surf the web, check on my Facebook news feed and read email.  The HUGE screen and speed coupled with the Android OS was and instant sell for me.  Installing applications is as simple as clicking and ‘BAM’ they are there.  Unfortunately I installed the Amazon application last night after having more than a few vodkas.  Within seconds (I later realized the next day) I’d ordered not one, but two ASUS netbooks.  Uhg.  I have to either uninstall that application or turn off that one-click purchasing.

I’ve always thought my computers need a breathalyzer before they let me do anything stupid.  However regarding the netbook – I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while since they first came out.  My HP laptop workstation is just too heavy and unwieldy and sometimes I think it would be nice just to settle down somewhere and write.  I’ve been wanting to try my hand at writing again but sitting at a desk to do it just doesn’t work for me.  It’d be nice to sit out on the back patio or in the zen room without 20lbs of steaming computer on my lap to type what’s in my head – just too uncomfortable.  I might keep one just for that purpose.

Chris at Cynical-C Blog was asked if he goes to any atheist meetings.

To answer your question I had to think long and hard to find out how bored I would have to be before I went to an atheist meeting. I think perhaps if my wife was out of town, my friends all died, my cat had really bad diarrhea while all the electricity went out leaving my tv and computer useless and if Amazon had come into my house and removed all the books in my personal library because of some copyright problem (leaving a refund in my Amazon account of course) and if all my musical instruments were broken along with the disappearance of every writing instrument and paper product and the closing of all music clubs, comedy clubs, cafes and if my telescope was useless due to all the stars in the sky suddenly going black I may be bored enough to go to an atheist meeting. Provided that it was close to my house. Although, after all that it may be wiser to go to a Seventh Day Adventist meeting.

This is a sad commentary on religion.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed,

Pew Research Center Survey

You know how time seems to just fly by as you get older? I think the reality is we just think slower. I am not as impatient as I used to be; but mostly it’s because I just take longer to get my mind to the point of impatience.

As of last night the automobile manufacturer bailout has flopped.  It’s amazing to me that our government is willing to spend trillions bailing out financial institutions with little or no oversight.  These financial institutions that gambled on crazy schemes like interest only loans and credit default swaps.  Yet, the brick and mortar manufacturers, their suppliers, advertisers, and hundreds of small businesses that support all of that overhead are being left in the cold.  They are at fault to be sure, for not responding fast enough to the future needs of the end users.  However, I believe the price of oil, the declining value of the dollar, two ongoing armed conflicts, dropping interest rates and printing money we don’t have has done more damage than lack of foresight on the part of auto manufacturers.

GM alone spent over $1B in advertising in the first half of 2008.  These manufacturers do more than just produce cars, they drive the economy.  They are too big to let fail.  If in the worse case senario one major manufacturer falls, it is very likely that Ford and Chrysler will be the next.  All of that will amount to nearly 2 million jobs lost. Most of these people will no longer be able to pay their mortgages and rent.  So we fall back to the financial institutions once again faltering.  If we think our economy is bad now just wait and see what happens next.