Mango is making a magazine, well a Mangozine. Its all very silly, actually. The whole thing is a satirical response to blogging! magazine which is a stupid idea. Why people would want to pay for a magazine filled with content that is freely available on the web is beyond me. Anyhow, Mango asked my to contribute to his Mangozine and I did. So go on over and check it out. It’s OK this one is free!

Read Part I

We finished the climb and started walking along the ridge. It had stopped raining, but everything was wet. Each step was a splash of water being forced out of my wool socks. I could see the water seeping up through the laces of my new boots. They didn’t look so new anymore. The trail was a mess, more mud than anything else. I had given up trying to avoid stepping in mud or water. I slogged on not caring where my feet landed. We reached the Deer Lick Shelters and took a break.

There were already two hikers there for the night. One of them was a thru-hiker we had met at PenMar. The other was a heavy guy who was happy to chat with us. He lit up a cigarette as he explained that he was on a 4 week section hike. I couldn’t help but think that it was hard to believe that a man his size who smoked (3 cigarettes in the time we were there) was going to walk everyday for 4 weeks. My dad was tired and actually so was I, although I did not realize it at the time. My brother and the dog, as usual, showed no signs of tiring. Dad kind of wanted to spend the night there, but we talked him out of it, mostly because that would have meant walking 14 miles or so on Sunday. I was relieved. That section hiker creeped me out.

We headed back on the trail, having agreed that we would spend the night at Antietam Shelter, right next to the Antietam creek. The guide book had said that as you descend from the ridge you will hear the babbling of the Antietam Creek. As we descended from the ridge we heard not babbling but the roar of water rushing out of the mountains. We found that the babbling Antietam Creek was more of a roaring river. It had flooded its banks and the little bridge that the trail crossed was unreachable. We could have waded across the stream but the water was moving very fast and there was a trail labeled “High Water Blue Blaze.” We could see the shelter across the stream from us, so we knew we wouldn’t have to go far. We took the detour. We were wrong. The detour took us over a mile around to the shelter. Having already laid eyes on the shelter, that was the longest mile I had ever walked.

After walking in rain and mud for six hours or so I had arrived at my destination: the Antietam Shelter. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It was not a very nice looking structure. I looked inside and it was worse. I don’t know if can express to you how dingy this thing was. Even a great shelter isn’t much more than three walls a floor and a roof. This one had all of those things, but the floor was worn and there was a one foot gap between the front of the shelter and where the floor began. It had some trash and debris at the bottom of it. We could not reason out what purpose this gap existed for other than some sort of flood protection, but that didn’t really make sense either. My dad and brother assured me that there were many shelters that were better than this. The Deer Lick Shelter we had stopped at earlier certainly was nicer. I didn’t really care though. At least I was done walking. I took off my boots and changed into dry clothes. We cooked dinner and ate it. I was feeling much better. Its amazing what a hot dinner can do for you. My brother pitched a tent and called it night (although it was before 6 PM.) He went in the tent and pulled the dog into the vestibule. My dad and I sat and talked. After a while we saw a hiker coming up the trail. The water had receded enough that he was able to walk across the creek. He walked up, took off his pack and asked if there was room in the shelter for one more. We assured him that there was. He introduced himself. His trail name was Notes.

Notes was a thru-hiker. He was a young man, just out of college. He had decided to walk the whole trail before he was saddled with a job and that sort of thing. He was going to be a teacher. I envied him. I was already saddled with a job and a family. I knew that if I was ever able to thru-hike it would be under totally different conditions. We talked to him as he made his dinner. He told us of many of the people he had met and things he had seen. He told us how bad the mice were in the shelters in the Smokies and in Shenandoah. He said that this shelter wasn’t the worst he’s seen but it was the worst he’d ever actually stayed at. I was fascinated. A real live thru-hiker. I listened raptly to every detail he had to offer. And I watched how he managed his food and his equipment. He was so more efficient than we were. This wasn’t something different for him, this was just dinner. He had walked over 900 miles on the trail before we met him and that had an effect on the way he dealt with this stuff. I made mental notes on how I would do this or that better next time.

Finally I crawled into my sleeping and tried to get some sleep. Notes laid in his sleeping bag scribbling in a notebook as I closed my to sleep. He was still writing when I dozed off. I think I know why they called him Notes.

Continued in Part III

I was planning to go hiking this weekend, but some snow and a lack of snowshoes has changed my plans. If I can’t go backpacking, at least I can write about it. I will tell you about the first backpacking trip I went on, well the first one of my trips on the AT. Remind me to tell you about my first real backpacking excursion another time.

This story will take some telling, so I will break it up into 2 or 3 parts.

My brother and my dad starting hiking stretches of the Appalachian trail about three years ago. They had invited me to go with them,, but I wasn’t able to go. I was working two jobs at the time and I just couldn’t make it work. As my schedule freed up I started planning to go on trip with them. 20 miles from Northern Maryland to Caledonia State Park in Pennsylvania. I was extremely excited about the trip. I went and bout myself a pack, some cheap trekking poles, new boots, and some other smaller necessities. My brother had decided to bring his dog with him. He’d never taken Dirka hiking before, but he decided to see if he would be a good trail dog. As the day we were to go hiking approached, the weather forecast became bleaker and bleaker (or wetter and wetter.) It looked like rain and lots of it. We were determined to go anyway.

We were dropped off at the trailhead at High Rock, MD. We put our packs and set out under hard cold rain. The trail from High Rock descended over slick wet boulders. Those trekking sticks came in real handy… but I still found myself flat on my back before we got to the bottom. As we walked a the rain kept coming dowin and the trail was beginning to get sloppy. As we got close to the Pennsylvania Line, the trail transformed it self into a fasting moving stream. Already thoroughly soaked, I plunged forwarded stepping in this stream that used to be a trail (and probably is again.) The water was over 6 inches deep, it flowed right into my boots giving me a new definition of cold feet. Onward we went until the trail opened up and we had arrived at PenMar State Park at the Mason Dixon line.

We stopped for a break under a pavilion. As we stood there dripping, a ranger came up to inform us that dogs were not allowed in the park. My brother explained that we just passing through and we would only be here for a few minutes. This ranger guy decided that he would let it slide, this time. Even the dog rolled his eyes as the ranger walked away. I took off my boots, wrung out my socks, and feasted on jerky and trail mix. I looked around. It was a pretty park even in all of that rain or maybe because of it. In another pavilion they seemed to be setting up for a wedding. Someone was probably regretting the decision to have an outdoor wedding at that point. There were some other hikers in the pavilion we were dripping in, but there really wasn’t much to say. The amount of rain that was falling was overwhelming. There was no point in talking about it, it spoke with its own voice as it beat on the roof of the pavilion and splashed in the water pooling up in the grass.

I do not think I have ever been as wet as I was at that moment. But I was happy, and I didn’t yet understand the different stages of hiking. I was still in that in euphoric first stage. I didn’t know about the others yet, but my dad and my brother did. When we started out of Penn Mar, they walked at an even pace, knowing we still had several miles to go. I figured that they were just out of shape, so I pushed ahead and left them behind. I was having a blast. I steamed ahead, and didn’t even think about slowing as the trail starting climbing up a mountain. As I climbed the energy drained out of me, but I pushed on. Finally I was beat, I found a nice wet rock to lean against and snacked on jerky and some cheese. After a while my companions arrived and joined me in my lunch break. I felt better after eating but I never got all of my energy back. We started climbing again and after a while I realized that it wasn’t raining, or at least it wasn’t raining very hard. It was hard to tell with every thing as wet as it was.

Continued in Part II

father’s computer. I didn’t mind. I felt more useful and more comfortable doing that than trying to chat with the in-laws. I like the in-laws, I’m just better at troubleshooting a computer than I am at small talk.

The point is this: I’m not afraid of work and I like what I do for a living. The big grin that has been on my face for the last two days comes from the working conditions. So far I’ve observed the help desk. Not real demanding. So I’ve been observing my co-workers too. These folks chat with each other, they tell jokes, they are relaxed. And when the CIO comes out of his office, they don’t change their behavior one bit. There is plenty of work being done, but they are relaxed about it. I don’t want to harp about my old job, but that wasn’t the environment at all. People worked hard at being busy. If you aren’t busy then either you weren’t doing enough or you weren’t necessary to the operation. If the boss came by, all these busy people somehow got busier. People came in on vacation days for an hour or two take care of stuff. If you walked out the door at 5:00 (Close of Business) everyday, people whispered about it. That guys not working hard enough. It was a grim environment. Some of that is just inherent to the manufacturing industry, but this place was hardcore even by those standards. Cost cutting was the only thing that mattered. Why employ 2 or 3 people to do a job when you can get 1 to work himself to the bone getting the same thing done.

I do not think there is much that can happen that will wipe that grin of my face. I know that there will be days, there always are, but I couldn’t ask for a better place to work. I am going to be doing what I love, and in place that will appreciate it for what it is. So, how’s the new job going? Couldn’t be better.

I do not have a lot of time to write tonight, so I’ll just give a brief update. Started the new job today. I didn’t do anything, of course, but still enjoyed it. It really looks like I work with a good group and I am actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow. That is a pleasant change. I also got my treo back, so I feel a little more balanced now. That device contains to much of what I rely on to be comfortable with its absence. They are calling for snow and depending how much we get this could throw my plans for hiking out of whack. But still life is good.

Note: Sorry. This didn’t published until 2/24 cause Blogger wasn’t playing nice with me last night.

I am a little nervous about starting my new job tomorrow. Not very nervous, I did my homework, I researched my decision, I want to work there. I’m not scared that I won’t do well or that I won’t fit in. I am confident about those things. Its those other little unknowns. Where is the best place to park? Where is the bathroom? Will I get the hairy eyeball if I accidentally drop the f*bomb? These are things that will all be cleared up in the next day or two. Its just this is the first time in four years I’ll be going to work unsure about all these little things. So the stress might also be making me a little cranky, that and this cold I seem to have. I’m probably not much fun to be around right now.

I am going hiking this weekend. Just a short trip this time. 2 miles or so up the mountain and then spend the night and back down the mountain in the morning. A little cold weather camping. And I still don’t have any snow shoes. Of course this time it look like I won’t need them.

I watched a good movie last night, at least it seemed good through the cough medicine haze. It was called Girl with Pearl Earring. It was one of those subtle art-house kind of films. If you don’t like that kind you won’t like this one. But I am a dork for those artsy kind of films so I enjoyed. Scarlett Johansson is incredible. After seeing her in this film and Lost in Translation, I think she is one my favorite actresses. The basic idea of the movie is the (fictional, I think) story behind Johannes Vermeer’s painting Girl with Pearl Earring. The story itself is quite simple, but it is the subtle interactions between the characters that tell the real story. And the cinematography is sensational, light and color is emphasized again and again with obvious respect to the painter’s eye. Like I said, if you’re into that kind of thing, give it look.

Today and tomorrow, I am unemployed. Yea! I am also sick. Boo! There is nothing worse than being sick on a day off. OK there is plenty that is worse, but it still sucks.

As I was working on updating the SBC Blog, I realized that I suck. I have put more time and effort in that project recently than I have here, on my real blog. The reason, it occurs to me, is that the SBC, is easier. I can say whatever I want there. It doesn’t matter if it worth saying or not. Here I trying to represent my thoughts and whatever else, so I tend to be more selective about what kind of thing I write about here. The worst part is that the SBC pulls in way more traffic than this pathetic little blog. The whole thing is a little twisted if you ask me.

Last night, Hunter S. Thompson put a bullet in his head. Wow. Thompson was a genius. He was also very, very fucked up. If you are not familiar with Thompson, the easy way to get a feel for his work is to watch the movie, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Happy Trails, Hunter. I hope its Happy Hour wherever you are now.

It is my opinion that many aspects of the Bush Administration are fascist in nature. Apparently, I’m not alone. (via fellow shitty blogger, prisoner of gravity)

The Iraqi election has resulted in a big win for the ultra-conservative Iranian influenced Fundamentalist Shia parties, Da’awa and SCIRI (Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.) What are we thinking. We push the Iraqis to vote in a government, and shocker, they vote for a government that is opposed to the U.S. occupation and the U.S. in general. Furthermore, they will likely ally with a country that we have labeled one the Axis of Evil, Iran. We didn’t see this coming? OK, Saddam was a jerk, but how has turning Iraq into another Iran helped anything? Is it possible that we have gone into this with such lack of preparation we did not see this coming?

Ahh the last day of work at this job. I spent the morning reading blogs and walking around saying goodbye to people. They had a cake for me in the afternoon, which very nice of them. Lots of handshakes and hugs. It was mostly very nice. Most of the people I worked with are genuinely happy for me and will miss me. And then there is my boss. He tried to be polite and say encouraging things to me, but even those things only demonstrated how little attention he paid to me. He kept referring to my 5 years there, hmmm by my count it was over 6 years.

I told him he was an ass, he was arrogant and was wrong about more than just the way to run that IS Shop. I told him he really needed to take a hard look at the world and realize that it is more than Profit and Loss, that there are people and you don’t just shit on them when they don’t fit your world view. You work with them. I told him that until he learned that, he would never be more than what he is now: a bitter small minded jackass, who can’t figure out why people work around him, why his marriage is on the rocks and why he has no true friends. I told him all that and more, in my head.

But in the real world, I smiled, shook his hand and wished him the best. I grabbed my jacket and walked out the door without my keys and without my laptop. I walked out of there for the last time as an employee.

And I feel good!

47 minutes. That is how long I have been hold with Sprint. Have I spoke with a customer service representative? No I haven’t. Does the recording that tells me that one will be with me soon play every minute? Yes it does. I have heard it 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 times. Am I getting mad? You bet I am. Fine. I give up. I’ll try again at lunch.

Update 12:31 PM: I’m on hold again. 22 “The next available representative will be with you as soon as possible” and counting. I am beginning to think that the whole thing is a scam … you just sit on hold forever and they never have to replace the phone. I should be at the gym now, torturing my self on the treadmill, but no I’m sitting here listening to a rotation of three classical music pieces with the “The next available representative will be with you as soon as possible” interruption every 60 seconds. I pay five bucks a month for this protection plan and I’ve told myself that it is well worth it in case this kind of event, but every second that passes with no friendly Customer Service Representative telling me not to worry, my new Treo is on the way, is making me very anxious and irritable. Its not just my phone that is not working it is my PDA and that is unacceptable. I’ve got about 10 more minutes before I have to hang up and go back to work. Then I’ll have to start all over again. If I don’t get a hold of someone today I may have go ballistic on someone.

Update 2:47 PM:Called again. Got an answer immediately. Really makes me think that no one was even there earlier. Did they tell me don’t worry your new phone is on the way? No they didn’t. They said you have to go to the nearest sprint store. Huh? Then why have I devoted over 2 hours of my day to calling this number? Why don’t you just say on your website go to the Sprint Store? Tonight, I go on a field trip to the Sprint Store. If they tell me I have to call the 1 800 number, it could get ugly.

Update 8:03 PM: Drove 26 miles to the Sprint Store. Sat in some sort of traffic thing for 30 minutes. Waited another 30 minutes or so while the “tech” in the backroom of the Sprint Store looked at my phone. Apparently he thought it was dead too. Duh. So they ordered me a new one. I assume that means a new refurb, but that’s fine. It will be here in 2-5 business days. I should say it will be there. They can’t ship it to me. It will be shipped to the store. Which means another trip down there for me. I am pissed. They could have done this over the phone and they could have shipped it straight to me. This is a crock, I am paying for this level of service. Once the “new” phone is in my hand and working, I’ll be OK.

There I was chatting away on the phone, when it occurred to me something wasn’t right. I looked down at my Treo and it was off. I tried to turn it back on. No Dice. I tried the reset button. Nope. It’s dead Jim. It’s kicked the bucket. It’s in a better place now. But it’s useless to me right now. Am I panicking? Am I ready to flip out? No. Tomorrow I will call Sprint and get my money’s worth out of the protection plan I’ve paying for on this thing since I got it. Good thing, I’ve got nothing better to do at work tomorrow.

These Random Thoughts posts are so not popular, I was tempted to abandon them. But, I won’t my blog, my thoughts, though shit. Without further ado:

The US has pulled its ambassador from Syria and is demanding that Syria withdraw from Lebanon. Not a good sign. Memo to the Bush Administration— NO starting new wars till you finish the ones you have now! And to think we thought Iran would be next. Well don’t rule that out either. Or better yet let’s take them both on. In the regrettable words of our President, “Bring ‘em On!” I think anyone who has read this far knows that I am opposed to war in general. But what I’m talking about here is common sense. We can only engage so many “evil-doers” at one time. Don’t think that Iran and Syria are unaware of this. North Korea knows it too. That’s why these countries are getting bolder. Are strategy of bold talk and unilateral action doesn’t seem to be worrying these folk. We need a new plan. Dr. Rice we are waiting.

And Please can we just shut up about Jose Canseco. Yes, he did steroids. Yes, he knows about others that did. But he hasn’t named any names that are truly shocking. This is not news. This is an attempt by a messed-up individual to cash in. Spring training is starting, can’t we hear about the normal drivel … Can A-Rod step for the Yankees, Can Boston do it again, Will the O’s ever get any pitching?

The NHL, meanwhile, is enjoying more coverage about the pending cancellation of their season than they had all of last season.

I’ve been using the Microsoft Anti-Spyware Tool Beta 1 for a few days now, and Monday it got its first real test. I was looking to download some cracked free password recovery software (stop looking at me like that, a user forgot the password she put on an Excel document. Really. It’s true, I swear) and well let’s just say I got infected pretty good with some spyware. It tried to stop the stuff from installing, but it was unsuccessful, it did however tip me off that something was up. I ran the cleaner and it deleted a bunch of junk. I ran AdAware afterwards and it only found traces of the infestation to clean up. Not too shabby. And big Bill just announced that the product will be free once it is released. Good job Microsoft.

Microsoft has been pressured by the Upstart browser Firefox. The Software Giant says it will not be able to release a new version of Internet Explorer until the next Windows product is released. The reason is that IE is too integrated into Windows for them to upgrade it independently. Good job Microsoft. It just goes to show there was no reason for the Justice department to worry itself over whether Microsoft was be anti-competitive when they integrated IE into Windows. Now, that same move has made it impossible for them to compete. Firefox will release several new versions before the Next Windows Product (Code Named Longhorn, Nicknamed Longwait) is released.

Now that I am on the verge of not working at the place that I currently work at, I feel a little more freedom to talk about that job.

I have been there for six and a half years, which is of note, because I’ve only been in IT for the last four years. So here is the story of how I came to work there:

I quit my job. I broke the cardinal rule and quit my job without having another lined up. It wasn’t a very good job, just retail, photofinishing to be precise. I was underpaid, they had me commuting an hour to get to the store I was in. I was doing this so maybe I could move up to store manager, I’d been a manager once, but it hadn’t worked out. I had taken a vacation, my first day back they reviewed the lab and failed it. The lab was “my responsibility” but the store manager had let it go to pot while I was away. The regional manager was telling me how I needed to do better with the lab, and didn’t want to hear how I hadn’t even been there. I got upset. I got angry. I quit.

I was 26 years old, unemployed, living with my parents and I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I decided I would put all my energy into becoming a professional photographer. To support that i applied to several places as a portrait photographer to attempt to pay the bills (yea, my parents charged me rent.) I got an interview to work at Sears Portrait center. It was only a part time job, but it was a foot in the door. The day of the interview, I put on best shirt and tie, got in the car and was on my way. As I drove, I was thinking through how I would answer questions I might be asked. And I was so lost in thought, that I drove right through a red light. A pick up truck, hoping to jump out and make a left hand turn before the on-coming traffic got moving, jumped out in front of me, and I nailed the front of the truck, cruising at about 60 miles an hour. The truck rolled, I never saw it, and I was spun 270 degrees. The airbag deployed, knocking the cigarette out of my mouth and the glasses off of my face. Everyone was OK, but the car was totaled, my insurance premiums went up and I missed the interview. Things were not going well.

My brother, for some reason or another, was talking to the HR Manager of a factory located near where I lived. There were in desperate need of workers because they had lost many of their workers during a long shutdown brought on by a strike. Their workers weren’t striking, but the company they provided parts for was. He arranged to get me an interview and I got the job. The work was hard. And it was hot as hell in the plant, the temperatures outside were in the 90’s, inside the plant the temperature was well over 100 degrees. But I was making money, more money than ever could have made at Sears Portrait Studio.

I knew I could do this work forever. Repetitively loading metal into a machine and then unloading it was not only back breaking for a skinny little runt like I was at the time; it was mind-numbing. I took some of the money I was making and invested in one of these “Get Your MCSE and earn $70 Grand a Year” classes. I didn’t get my MCSE, and I haven’t earned $70 Large in one year yet, but by 2000 I had learned a lot and did earn the less prestigious MCP, by passing 2 of the six tests required at that time. (They phased out the NT 4.0 Tests before I was able take them all.) I sent my resume all of the place, I even gave a copy of it to my HR Department just in case. Meanwhile, I kept learning and trying new things (much to my new wife’s dismay, our computer was often not functioning correctly as a result of my experimentation.) I went on a few interviews but with no success. I was beginning to feel panicked. The skills I had trained for were becoming irrelevant, NT was replaced by the shiny new Windows 2000, and people were talking about something called Linux, and the tech industry was poised for a bust. I was afraid if didn’t “break in” soon, I never would.

Then a strange thing happened. I was told the MIS Assistant position had come open suddenly and the New MIS Manager wanted to interview me for the position. It was the break I was looking for. It gave me my foot in the door and it gave the factory a Support guy for next to nothing. I spent the next four years, improving myself and improving my position. Now, its all over. Which is a good thing. For the last two years, I’ve been the only geek in the place, my manager moved on and was replaced by my current boss, an ambitious manager looking to climb the corporate ladder (Dilbert readers will recognize him as a PHB.) I will not miss the manufacturing environment, nor will I miss my boss. But a lot has changed in the last six and a half years and those change will be intertwined with that factory forever.

Jeckles, the voices in my head say, you claim you’re a geek but all you talk about is backpacking and politics. To satisfy the voices, I offer the following:

Let the geek talk begin. I have had to clean up a lot of spyware over the last two years, at work, at friend’s and family’s homes, even a little bit at home. The tried and true tools I have used are AdAware and Spybot S&D. As insidious as the spyware is, it seems to require both of these tools to clean it all up. The good news is that they are free. The bad news is that, recently, they seem to be unable to get some of the newer malware that is out there. There are anti-spyware software packages you can pay for, but personally I won’t sink any money into them while I can still get the free tools to do the job.

I had heard that Microsoft was releasing an anti-spyware tool. It is in beta right now (and it’s free) so I thought I should check it out. It irked me from the get go, because Microsoft want to make sure that I had a valid version of Windows installed before it let me download it. That really ticks me off. My version is valid. That is not the problem. Get ready for the mini-rant. The problem is the notion of providing support and patches only for valid versions. I am sorry that people steal Microsoft’s products, but that is no excuse to allow those pirated versions to become little cess pools of viruses, spyware, and zombie spammers. The existence of those kinds of boxes will only diminish the security of all the valid Windows installations out there. Mini-rant done, sorry.

Otherwise the tool worked fairly well. It sound some residual files from spyware I had previously cleaned off the test machine. My only complaint is that it categorized VNC as a threat. VNC could bee used maliciously, but is mostly used as a tool by admin types like me. The interface was smooth and friendly. It has a seamless autoupdate feature that is great. Plus it also includes some useful system tools like, a Privacy Tool that let’s you get rid of various temporary files and a System Explorer that gives lots of useful info about what is on your PC. The real test will come when I have an infected machine to work with. For now, I’m keeping it in my anti-spyware “toolkit,” and hoping that it improves as it goes through the beta process.

Yeah, I changed the template. The other one was getting crowded and I was, increasingly, having trouble getting it to play nice in IE. Since, half of you that swing by here still use that browser, I feel I have to design for it. (Please note: I use the word design loosely.)

I think I like it. It will take some getting used to. I stole it from Blogger Templates and then messed with it till I had it the way I wanted it. I want to put haloscan comments on here too. But there is no way for me to import the old comments in. I don’t want to lose the old comments. So until I decide to copy and past the old comments into haloscan, I’m kinda stuck.

Meanwhile, my job has gone from stressful to boring overnight. No responsibilities, no projects, just waiting for the phone to ring so I can troubleshoot whatever “helpdesk” issues come up. That’s OK. I can live with this.

Wow. What a long day. I got to work had to chat with my boss for a bit, then when he went to his morning meeting I hopped in my car, drove to gas station and called the HR guy. He offered me the job. I accepted. I went back to work. Pretended like nothing big had just happenned. Waited a few very long hours till lunch. Ran home and printed out the Letter I had composed last night. Ran back. Gave the letter to the General Manager. Gave a copy to my boss. Everyone took the news well. The GM had some very complementery things to say to me. My boss was … well my boss.

I could write about how this is a big change in my life or how one chapter is closing and another is beginning. Who knows I might. But not right now. Right now I will just keep dancing around my house singing, “I’ve got a new job. I’ve got a new job”

I got it! I start February 23.

Yes, it is Super Bowl Sunday. One of the grandest of American Traditions. A day when folks who don’t know the difference between a Tight End Slant and a Safety Blitz sit down to watch the Big Game.

I have this sneaking suspicion that most of my few readers aren’t football fans, but I am. So today is huge for us. We are making Chili and Wings, have friends and family coming over and will watch the game in all of its big screen glory.

Ok the last part is not quite true. And I’m more than a little upset about. We bought a 65″ Widescreen High Definition TV this summer. And we bought it for one reason only, FOOTBALL. Sure, Jimmy Neutron is most impressive on the big screen, but who cares. Yes, that’s what my TV plays most of the time: Nickelodeon and Disney. But when I’m watching it, it plays football. Well in those other months when there is no football, its been known to play basketball, baseball, hockey (but not this year), and arena football. Oh wait that is football too. The point is I shelled out more money than I really should have spent to watch Football In HD. And my stupid cable company doesn’t offer FOX in HD. As a matter fact, FOX doesn’t come in that well at all. So the Game will be BIG, but it won’t look that good. I considered switching to the Dish, but I’m not sure that I don’t just end up spending more money and then end up with the same problem if it rains during a game I want to see.

I’ve called my stupid cable company several times, just to rant about this. But it doesn’t seem to make any difference. And those customer service people are so polite about the whole thing, it ends up making me feel guilty.

Anyway, if you somehow don’t know, The New England Patriots play the Philadelphia Eagles tonight. My Dad grew up in Philly, we lived there last time the Eagles actually made it to the Super Bowl, so he will be rooting for the Iggles. I, of course, root for the Ravens. They won’t be there, but one loud mouthed wide receiver will be. (OK Freddy Mitchell will be there too, but no one takes him seriously.) I was upset when Terrell Owens whined his way out of being traded to the Ravens, and he only offended more by bad mouthing our star player (Ok everyone has something to say about Ray) and our General Manager, who is by all reports a great guy and one of the best GM’s in the league. So I don’t want to see TO get a ring tonight. Besides Pittsburg was the best team in the NFL this season and New England dismantled them. I get a little tired about all this talk about Belichick being a genieus, but he’s doing something right.

My Prediction:
Pats 34 Iggles 16

wikipedia defines fascism as: any system of government resembling Mussolini’s, that
exalts nation and sometimes race above the individual,
uses violence and modern techniques of propaganda and censorship to forcibly suppress political opposition,
engages in severe economic and social regimentation.
engages in corporatism¹

“Strength lies not in defense but in attack.”
- Adolf Hitler

“The gravest danger to freedom lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. When the spread of chemical and biological and nuclear weapons, along with ballistic missile technology - when that occurs, even weak states and small groups could attain a catastrophic power to strike great nations. Our enemies have declared this very intention, and have been caught seeking these terrible weapons. They want the capability to blackmail us, or to harm us, or to harm our friends - and we will oppose them with all our power.”
- George W. Bush

“America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people.”
- George W. Bush

¹Corporatism is used in reference to tendencies in politics for legislators and administrations to be influenced or dominated by the interests of business enterprises (limited liability corporations). From Wikipedia.

I was dreading going back to work on Tuesday. I was all jittery still from the interview (no word yet by the way) and I knew that my boss had a bone or two to pick with me. I got in and got settled and braced myself for the inevitable. But it never came. If you are waiting for me to say something nice about the boss, keep waiting. He never came in. Around lunch time, the receptionist was nice enough to let me know he had called in sick. A reprieve!

Wednesday, no boss. Of course there is still work to do. But it was so much nicer to just do what I do, with out the micro managing and the criticizing. Wednesday Morning, one of the managers told me that we were not receiving vital data from one of the customers. This was tied to something the boss had been working on. I talked to the lady in the department who wasn’t getting her data, I figured out where the hell it was supposed to be coming from. I made some phone calls and I found out that the data was being delivered but the database wasn’t processing it. I worked with the support folks from the company that provides the Database. We discovered the problem, we fixed the problem. I re-queued the customers’ data and viola it got processed. The problem: someone had changed the configuration and it caused the data not to get processed when it was received. There are only two people who could have changed those settings and it wasn’t me. I’ll let you guess who screwed it up. But more importantly, it was me who saved the day!

The boss was out again today and will be out tomorrow too! It’s so nice to remember what it was I used to like about my job. Of course even though I bailed him out on this, I bet you he’ll still be ready to bust my balls over every little thing once he’s healthy again. I’ll enjoy this while it lasts.

We all know that Groundhog’s day was once the celebration of some rodent in rural Pennsylvania. Everyone sing it together: The Pennsylvania Polka! We also know that now in the dawning of the 21st Century that the whole rodent thing is a bit too quaint. Groundhog’s Day now symbolizes the existentialist dilemma of having to live the same day over and over again. Put your hand in mine … I hope you enjoyed your day today, because you just might have to live it again tomorrow.

I hope that is not the case for me. Once was quite enough, thanks anyway.

Yes, I went to the interview. I did well, I think. Now I wait and wait and wait.

Enough to make a person crazy.

In an attempt to keep my mind off of all of it; I am installing Gentoo Linux in one of my computers. I had planned to do this a while ago, but as these things go, I got sidetracked. Anyway it is going well. I’m doing the install the most manual way possible, what good is a distraction that is quick and easy. I’ll keep you posted. Yes, I know the blogosphere is holding its collective breath to see how I’m doing with yet another Linux distro.