People of Earth are idiots!

An apropos quote for Election Day

2010-11-02T15:23:01Z

As for the Republicans—how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical "American heritage"…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.

—Howard Phillips Lovecraft, private communication, 1936

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

2010-07-04T21:35:18Z

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.——That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ——That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.——Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

North Carolina:

William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Massachusetts:

John Hancock

Maryland:

Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

New York:

William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple

Massachusetts:

Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire:

Matthew Thornton

Feeling a bit meme-ish...

2009-12-28T05:24:51Z

here's a fun, short, getting-to-know-you meme I ganked from beckyzoole.

If you respond to this, I will:

1. Tell you why I befriended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours. (after some searching on my part)

In return, you must post this in your blog.

Home safe and sound

2009-12-01T05:12:38Z

After spending Monday night, all of Tuesday and Wednesday, and much of Thursday in hospital, my beloved riverheart came home on Thanksgiving night. The medical staff still don't know what was wrong, but we suspect a combination of electrolyte imbalance combined with an unexpected drug reaction/interaction.

Friday was mostly a quiet day at home, except that her mom and mom's partner cut short their East Coast visit to fly out and make sure all was well. Saturday we played D&D at our regular semi-monthly session (she GM'ed, I played my current character), and Sunday was another quiet day.

I want to thank, most sincerely, all of you who sent healing energy via my previous post. I also put up a diary at DailyKos which garnered many expressions of concern and hope for riverheart's well-being.

Thank you.

Please send healing energy

2009-11-26T04:55:56Z

My beloved riverheart has been in hospital since Monday with what we first thought was a severe electrolyte balance — she had been in fine fettle Saturday night and early Sunday morning, but by Monday was in sufficient distress that I thought best to get better care than I'm capable of delivering.

Her fluids seem to be better, but her state of mind is still quite disturbed. I just this moment got a phone call from the neurologist who's consulting, and he's as puzzled as the rest of the hospital staff as to what may be wrong. She's scheduled for an MRI tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day, for the U.S.-ians among us) to see if she may have had a stroke in her speech centers.

I'm gravely concerned, worried beyond sick, and asking you to send your healing energies to her in whatever form you prefer to manifest.

Thank you.

See today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

2009-08-13T16:26:11Z

My beloved riverheart, who blogs on Daily Kos as Kitsap River, is on the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in connection with an article on this year's Netroots Nation conference.

I am so very proud of her, and so very thankful to her fellow healthcare bloggers whose generous support made her attendance possible.

Ow.

2009-06-29T05:38:21Z

Last weekend I finally succumbed to the necessity of clearing the barn and porch of several months' accumulated trash. (In these parts, weekly garbage pickup is upward of $40 per month; a monthly or bi-monthly trip to the transfer station is usually $10-20. This is an intelligence test.) Having left the job undone for far too long, I rented a 14' U-Haul, spent several hours loading it up with both garbage and recycling, and headed for the transfer station.

Unfortunately, by the time I started offloading the recycling, the day's rain had left the rear bumper of the truck just a tad more slippery than I expected. My foot slipped, and I fell several feet onto the asphalt.

Scraped my chin a bit, but mostly landed — hard — on my right side. It hurt like a mofo, but I really didn't have any other option but to "walk it off" (so to speak) and finish the job.

I couldn't see any bruising, but throughout the week the pain in my side didn't really abate. So finally, at riverheart's insistence, I took myself off to the urgent care clinic. One set of X-rays later, the doctor on duty tells me I broke a rib. Fortunately, the break is well below the lowest lobe of my right lung, so there's no chance of unpleasant complications. Just another month or two of (eventually) lessening pain as the rib heals.

That's the thing about broken ribs: you can't splint them, wrap them, or do much of anything to hold them in place. All you can do is try to mitigate the pain while the break knits itself back into place, and remember to breathe deeply a few times a day to keep everything else in its proper place. Oh, and try to cough as well, no matter how sharply it hurts; phlegm leads to anger, which leads to hate, which leads to the Dark Side. (No, wait… that's "fear", not "phelgm".)

Anyway, for the next month or two, OW.

Not dead yet

2009-06-14T20:25:56Z

First of all, my deepest thanks to all of you who offered prayers and energy for my beloved and myself. I felt your strength supporting me throughout yesterday.

Now, it seems to me that in at least one regard, doctors are like pagans: ask two of them a question and you'll get three opinions. Long story short, after a CAT scan of my brain (they found nothing, ha ha ha) and ultrasound examinations of my carotid arteries (basically clean) and my heart (likewise), they don't really have a clue as to what happened to me.

Could have been a TIA, could have been a complication of hyperglycemia, or could have been… well, they don't know what else but maybe it wasn't either of these.

So, what's next? Like a lot of guys, I needed a wake-up call to get off my ass and start doing what I should have been doing all along: taking better care of myself. That's on the top of my agenda, and I'll keep y'all posted as to what's what as I go along.

Once again, thank you.

This is what losing your kidneys looks like

2009-06-11T08:44:14Z

My beloved riverheart has gotten her first trip to the Daily Kos Recommended List for this diary. Go; read it, get angry, and contact your congresscritters to demand real healthcare reform: Single Payer.

Go on, I'll wait.

I am so very proud of her; it took no little measure of bravery to expose herself like that.

And while you're at it, go vote for her to receive a scholarship so she can attend Netroots Nation later this year. If anyone deserves to go, it's her.

I must be doing something right

2009-03-11T05:47:47Z

Some of y'all may remember that about a year and a half ago, I got a job at F5 Networks as a Network Support Engineer. It's a "tier 2" support position, taking calls and working cases that are more complex than the front-line phone guys can handle.

I started working cases sooner than expected, and although there have been ups and downs, my performance— as documented in formal reviews as well as via "attaboy" letters from customers— has been exemplary. I've maintained a consistently high customer satisfaction rating, the highest case closure rate in my team, and near-perfect compliance with our phone queue log-in and log-out times.

My boss told me about this a week ago, but it was formally announced today: I am now a Senior Network Support Engineer. A half-dozen of my peers in the North American support centers (Seattle and Spokane) were also promoted, but I think I have either the briefest or second-briefest tenure of the group. (In other words, I got promoted faster than just about everyone else in today's announcement.)

So, now I get to do more of the same, except more: more case closures per week and higher customer satisfaction ratings, plus acting as a mentor within my team, authoring customer-guidance articles for our knowledge base, and gaining further depth and breadth in F5 product knowledge.

I guess I must be doing something right. It's a good feeling.

Happy Birthday...

2008-12-10T22:32:45Z

...to my best beloved riverheart. Without you, I would never have gotten this far.

I love you, my beauty.

It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness

2008-10-23T05:44:19Z

Princess Bride Meme

2008-10-17T15:23:53Z

From everywhere...

When you see this, post in your own journal with your favorite quote from The Princess Bride. Preferably not "As you wish" or the Inigo Montoya speech.

Inigo Montoya: You are wonderful.
Man in Black: Thank you; I've worked hard to become so.
Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am.
Man in Black: Then why are you smiling?
Inigo Montoya: Because I know something you don't know.
Man in Black: And what is that?
Inigo Montoya: I... am not left-handed.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

2008-07-04T13:36:23Z

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

North Carolina:

William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

New York:

William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Happiness is...

2008-04-25T23:33:22Z

Discovering that a customer's email to my boss was displayed during our Official Quarterly Meeting— to the entire company, worldwide— as an example of good customer service:

Just dropping you a quick line to say how extraordinary (and gracious) Charles was to work with during the day today. His leadership and expertise were an extremely refreshing breath of air in an otherwise very tense (very, very long) post-migration troubleshooting exercise-- with a very visible and important client. Our sincere thanks is certainly in order here and I'd appreciate you placing this note in Charles' file for reference at review time. Thanks again!

(Customer's name omitted for reasons of confidentiality.)

I am proud

2008-01-10T05:31:06Z

You may not know this, but my beloved wife riverheart contributes to Daily Kos as Kitsap River.

Her most recent diary, How long can I afford to live?, was selected as one of eleven (out of several hundred posted today) considered sufficiently noteworthy to be recognized on the front page.

I am very proud of her— both for her bravery in facing a devastating illness, and her forthrightness in speaking out about the politics of healthcare in America.

A must-read LJ post by Elizabeth Moon

2008-01-07T06:37:33Z

Read this post. Now.

This is what frightens me the most about Huckabee, Romney, and all the bible-thumping Nehemiah Scudder wanna-bes: they LIE. By word and deed, every last one of these Pharisees wants to rip up the Constitution and replace it with their narrow-minded screeds.

Does it frighten you, too?

Happy Holidoozies!

2007-12-26T06:42:59Z

Seriously, I'm not returning anything I've received. My sister-in-law's family sent me books of Sudoku and New York Times crossword puzzles, my brother-in-law's family sent me a beautiful embroidered silk dressing gown, and my mother-in-law sent me an amazon.com gift card.

My beloved riverheart commissioned a hand-made artisan's work, which won't be ready for several months. I gave her a pair of gloves, which greatly pleased her.

So, nothing's going back. It's been a good holiday so far.

Ganked from rivka

2007-12-21T21:52:51Z

The Shortest Day
by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

No matter where you go...

2007-11-21T19:50:04Z

…there you are.

Your Score: Buckaroo Banzai

152 Heart, 174 Genius, 164 Cool, 117 Excitability

Buckaroo Banzai - (Peter Weller)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

You are Buckaroo Banzai! Hard-rockin' neurosurgeon, brilliant scientist, and all-around cool guy. Maybe you didn't have the cinematic success of some of the other guys here, but it's okay - you're a cult classic!

"Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are."

Other scientific possibilities:

Gary Wallace

Wyatt Donnelly

Peter Venkman

Jordan Cochran

Egon Spengler

Doc Brown

Newton Crosby

Paul Stephens

Ben Crandall

Wayne Szalinkski

Winston Zeddemore

Ben Jabituya

Lazlo Hollyfeld

Ray Stantz

Buckaroo Banzai

Chris Knight

Link: The Which 80s Movie Scientist Test written by xxyl on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Success!

2007-08-21T19:19:20Z

I don't know whether it was the haircut, the dye job, or your positive thoughts and support, but I signed an offer letter with F5 Networks this morning. I'll be starting on September 4, with benefits effective from that date. (It's the first working day of the month, so they won't impose the standard "wait until the first of the following month" delay.)

Thank you all, and wish me luck and fortune in my new job.

Question for Seattleites

2007-08-17T07:42:58Z

Do any of you have any information, either direct or anecdotal, about working at f5 Networks?

I interviewed there today with a couple of managers, a senior manager, and an HR person. I can't say much about the nature of the job at the moment (drat those pesky NDAs) but it would be challenging yet within my grasp, a solid learning opportunity with significant promotion potential. I got the distinct impression that they'll most likely make me an offer by the middle of next week.

So, does anyone around here have anything they'd like to say, either positive or negative?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Out of work. Again.

2007-08-02T21:15:17Z

That wonderful job I got in mid-June went South on me yesterday. The bosses decided that they needed a skill set that was significantly different from what I brought to bear— different enough that despite their earlier commitment to getting me trained in areas where they knew I was weak, they couldn't wait for me to learn whatever it was they needed. (They wouldn't say, despite my repeated request; all they said was that the decision to let me go had been made and wouldn't be rescinded.)

On the positive side (such as it is), I've been paid and will get two weeks' severance at the first of September, their next payroll period. And (unlike my previous employer) they won't try to contest my unemployment claim.

Dammit, this was an ideal commute, and a tremendous learning opportunity. Dammit.

So, I'm job-hunting again.

I'm just about ready to cut my hair short and dye it dark brown, in hopes of at least looking young enough to get past the first in-person contact. I'm looking at my 56th birthday anniversary this month, and it's hell competing with twenty- and thirty-year-olds in this job market.

At least I know COBOL. Take that, Gen-X slackers.

My mind is a scary place

2007-06-30T06:24:34Z

Just a moment ago I saw the words, "Werewolf: the Forsaken" in someone's LJ.

I swear by all the ten thousand little gods, I initially read that as "Werewolf: the Foreskin".

Help me.

Cognitive Dissonance

2007-06-17T19:38:55Z

Cognitive dissonance is when Republicans oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants but support a pardon for (convicted lawbreaker) Scooter Libby.