Other Times they suck
Our newest set of neighbours have decided that the anti-smoking rules don’t apply and I really don’t want to have to alienate another set of neighbours by complaining about their late night habits.
I can’t stand having my house stink of cigs though.
I’ll have to take this up with the managers and let them sort it out.
Both my house and my direct neighbours have small kids, along with long residencies in these places. I wish that counted for something.
I came home tonight, spent some time with “TheSpawn” and tried to share one of the great thrills of my childhood “Return of the Jedi” but she was only really interested in “Empire”
No Joke. She said that she’d rather watch Empire (It’s a down ending, and that’s what life is daddy. A series of Down Endings)
okay, she didn’t say the last part, she just can’t wait to see the big “Reveal Scene” in Empire.
I had been waiting to see this version of Jedi again for ages (I bought the DVD collection last year and was crestfallen about the changes to things I remembered so well. Being able to watch the “crappy original” was manna to me)
After she went to bed (she watched the climax and ending of Jedi, but wasn’t really into it; I had a nap.
It was a 2 and a half hour nap, filled with the kind of vivid dreams one only gets when one is not in a deep enough sleep to get total rest, but a deep enough one for REM sleep to come on. Some highlights:
1) Driving a very tall mobile platform through a swamp.
2) Sneaking into some building and operating a pirate radio station, then trying to hide from the owners.
3) Picking up friends to go out to some social event.
4) A long form riff on the behavior of wealthy kids.
5) Some sort of post-war malaise.
I think that the TV (on in the room) was affecting what I dreamed about.
It was a good nap, but I’m still tired and I’ll be back in bed soon.
I work on the West Coast, so this is a relative term. May day starts at 5-6 am at work so when I talk about late evenings I’m usually saying 4-6 PM.
Last night I was in the office from 6AM until 11PM.
It was a helaciously long day and I still made it in to the office before 9AM, so I have that to be proud of.
I sold my older Kodak z740… I haven’t really been taking any pictures with it. I took a couple with it when it came back from the shop; but since have not. It took some really nice pix, there was nothing wrong with it, but the new Canon is quite awesome and performs as well as the z740 on most things (no 10x optical zoom).
I think you will agree that the a530 takes nice pix (even in the hands of old shaky)
See that nice kitty, he’s a real bastard. That’s a tale for another blog post.
Do you know your way around a mail server? I mean REALLY know your way.
Do you know how to set up a DNS server (from scratch) and explain it to a 12 year old?
Can you write long documents about how to do *anything* on a computer and put it in terms that a 12 year old could follow?
How about SQL (Mysql, MSSQL, POstgress, etc) are you good with them?
Do you mind being on Call?
Would you like to live/work in Oregon?
Would you be okay with taling in front of a crowd of strangers?
Are you comfortable with air travel?
Do you know your way around computer security?
Do you know your way AROUND computer security?
Are you secretly a rebel, but long for benefits and a stable job?
Are you a pop culture junkie? (Okay, really this is for me)
Are you “Creepy Smart” on computers, are you the go to person for computer stuff for other computer people?
Do you lack a degree, but can still go circles around your friends with Bachelors in Computer Science?
Can you learn a new OS in a week or so? Have you done that already?
Do you run your own servers out of your house?
Are you willing to relocate? We may be able to move you.
Do you want a job? Contact me, we might want to talk.
I have a great job, (007Ben can confirm this) and we’re looking for savvy tech-nerds like me to come work for us. I won’t lie to you, we need someone awesome. It’s a great job, you get a great deal of responsibility and time to work. I have no shortage of time to improve my skills when things are quiet and there is enough stress to keep an east-coaster happy. You’d be working with 007Ben, myself and a bunch more tech-oriented people (geeks and nerds man, Geeks and Nerds) we have good times at the office and I’ve made a number of friends that I consider life-long. The culture is what you might expect from a corporate job, but being in a hippy town means there are alot of concessions to eccentricity (especially if you are wicked smart or talented)
I won’t give away the Firm’s name, but this job is listed on Monster if you want to check it out.
EDIT: from June 2008 — We were still looking for someone to join the team
What are your personal memories of September 11th?
From myolder blog:
I’m not 100% sure I will get this right, as it has been 2 years, and it was all so surreal to begin with. I’ll attempt to remain unvarnished, and attempt to portray my actual thoughts. So, Click MORE to see what NiteMayr thought of September 11, 2001.
At Around 8:00 AM (EST) I was arriving at my desk on the 7th(?) floor of the office building where I worked. It was a normal day, I had been listening to my Mp3 player, and not the Radio on my way in. It was a typical Tuesday morning.Later, Doug (Sweedish Chef) came into the office and told us that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We all began to scramble for news, and ran to the TV in the lunch room for news. Sure enough a plane had crashed into it he world trade center. The newscaster was talking about another plane abut to crash, but it wasn’t true, just some smoke.
We ran back to our desks and started scambling for news feeds about what was going on in New York. Luckily the local 24 hour news station had a live feed and it was clear and strong. That feed never halted for the rest of the day.
Now, my recollection of the events become real hazy, as I was blinded by the thought that the US government might have actually “let†some planes fly into buildings to justify some nefarious agenda. And I said as much to the people around me. When we were told it was “palestinians†I was willing to believe it, but found it hard to believe just the same.
When the first tower when down, the newscaster said †I don’t want to think about what that looked like†It looked like a mushroom cloud to me too.
Around this time the CN tower was evacuated and there was some sort of fire in a parking garage down town. We could see the CN tower really clearly from our office, we thought we might have had a seat for yet another plane crash. The planes never came.
I was a wreck by this point, but we could not leave the office. We had been told to stay and work, as customers may need help.
It turns out that more than a few people did indeed need help with their stupid computers that day. A few people in Virginia earned my undying emnity that day, for knowing what was going on, but continuing business as normal. these were schools… I would have sent the kids home, to be with their families, to deal with this insane day.
The day rolled on, with endless shots of the planes and the buildings…It ground me down.
On the way home. I was sitting on a bus, south on Don Mills, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that this WAS just like the movies. The streets were empty, the papers were screaming the headlines from that morning…I eyed every arabic man I saw with suspicion.
When I got home I couldn’t stop watching the news, then the ghouls started showing the people falling form the buildings, it was too much, I started crying and blubbering over it, I still do when I see that footage.
You see, I had just been there.
I had just stood there, where the people were falling, and dying.
I was there, just a week earlier.
Now it was gone.
Two weeks before the Towers fell, I was in New Jersey, embarrassed at how impressed I was by the towers, and apparently charming the Taxi Driver by my Awe and embarassment.
Now, these two buildings, that I found so amazing were gone.
I woke up each day in New Jersey, with a view of the Empire State Building and with a little effort of my own, got to see the towers up close, (from where Homer Saw them)
I was devastated by the whole thing.
I would never get to share this experience with my Daughter, never let my wife hold me close in fear and terror from the sheer height of them.
I hated the people who let this happen, I was, and remain sure that the Bush government LET this happen.
Osama needed to be caught, but so did the fools who let this happen.
I still ask myself, how did four planes escape capture or destruction at the hands of the worlds most formidable Air force?
How did the worlds most secure building get hit by a plane, especially after the same thing had been attempted just years earlier at the white house.
It’s a morning at the office, just like any other morning. I walked in, dumped my lunch in the fridge and filled four pots of coffee (over half an hour).
I’ve put up some nice bloody handprint stickons on my white board (they are made of the same stuff those stick hand things are)
It’s september 11, the day the laughter died. So you know, I’m watching all the footage and feeling bad again, it still makes me twinge up with anger at middle eastern people when I watch the footage (which is what I’m being conditioned to feel I guess) but I always end up at the same place. How did this happen in the country where more money is spent on the military than health care and education?
Like the Gulf of Tonkin I’m sure that history will not be kind to this date.
How many places have you lived in your life?
Oh A few:
So, a couple of places.
We moved around when I was young and my dad was transitioning in his job and I moved more when I was out on my own (and with my spouse and daughter)