Monday. Again.

It was another difficult Monday today. For those of you who do not know, I started a new job in December working for a Fortune 10 company. The department I am working for does not hire people directly, they start people as a contractor for six months, and then bring them on permanent. I am in that contractor phase. The other catch is that they are in Jacksonville, while I live in Gainesville. Here is a map from airport to airport to give you an idea. Basically it takes about an hour and a half to drive home and two hours to drive to work. I have been driving up on Monday mornings and driving back on Thursday afternoon's, and working from home on Friday. So Monday's tend to be a little bit hard. Leaving my family, long drive, tired, Monday. Kim and I agreed that until I receive a permanent offer, it is not a good idea to move to Jacksonville. We'll see how long we can continue with this arrangement.

Kim started painting the inside of our house today. We went and bought paint this weekend, and prepared the living room for painting last night. She said it looks pretty good. I can hardly wait to see!

I have some great new music to share! I'll write about that in another post. Look for it.

The Mark of the Beast

True or not this is really funny.


[tags: 666 devil hebrew funny]

War Path

I found this today (thanks to George Ure).

Scott Ritter was the weapons inspector who repeatedly said that Iraq did not have WMDs. He now says that Bush has already Ok'd plans for a June attack on Iran. We won't have to wait long to see if he is right.

On another note I would like to observe what I have never seen published elsewhere: If we agree that Iraq had no WMDs (at least not when the US invaded, and it is reasonable to suppose that they did not have them for some time before the invasion) then I am forced to wonder at the UN. For years it said Iraq had weapons and put sanctions on it. Leave alone the fact that the US had no grounds to invade, sanctions should have been lifted years early. What would the middle east look like now if that had taken place? What would the US and the world look like? It's 10:00 o'clock, do you know where your government is?



[tags: Bush WMD Iraq Iran Ritter War]

flickr.com

I just started a page at flickr.com. No photos up yet, but I plan to put some up this weekend. So far it looks really cool, but I found a catch: If you have only the free account, they will only display 100 pictures, so when you upload the 101st pic, the first one is no longer displayed. It might be worth buying an account, it's not too expensive, but the whole paying for some online service sort of rubs me wrongly. As you know "I think all software should be free." This does include services like flickr. And before you ask let me assure you that I am one of those people that clicks on advertiser's banners to support my favorite sites.

I'll write more about flickr as I start to use it. I hope to get my family members, who are spread across the country and internationally to start using it.



[tecchnorati tags: flickr pictures photos ]

Guitar practice part deux - Plus an interesting realization (at the end)

I did the jam session last night. We played for about two hours. The first hour was great! I was really on, and noticed a certain maturity in my playing and my timing that really surprised me. The other guys I was playing with were relatively new to music, so it was hard to get into a pocket, and when we did there was no way to expand or explore. Still it was fun.

Since it was a group of guys from work, for the second hour my boss showed up. That hour basically sucked. I just could not get comfortable and it really showed in my playing. My rhythm was off and my solos sucked-a**. I was surprised that there was such a change.

I've had bosses in the past who I really clicked with, but my current boss just makes me feel nervous and self-conscience when he's around.

On that note, I had an interesting realization this week. During my Monday morning drive from Gainesville to Jacksonville, I was feeling quite melancholy and really feeling like "I hate my job." I thought this was odd, since my job is going fairly well. As I contemplated this I realized **dramatic pause** that it's not my job I hate, it's all jobs.


[tecchnorati tags: music guitar work]

Outsourcing

This is a good article about the job drain.


[tecchnorati tags: outsourcing jobs" india software business ]

Guitar practice Part 1.

For those of you (myself included) who thought I would never (or at least not in any foreseeable future) really pick up a guitar again, let me shock you: I just finished a practice session! Kimberly actually said it sounded great! On Tuesday, I will be participating in a get together with some guys from work to play! I wanted to make sure my equipment (including my fingers) still worked. It will come with less surprise to you than it came to me that everything (except a few cables) worked very well. I'm sure this can't be true, but it seemed the equipment almost performed better than before hibernation.

Needless to say I am more excited about Tuesday now that I feel like I can still comp.

Look for part deux later in the week.


[tecchnorati tags: music guitar ]

An end to Partially Hydrogenated Oil?

Probably not, but this article in today's NY Times indicates that there is a new labeling requirement (to report on "Trans Fat" content) is on the way, and that companies are trying to rid their products of partially hydrogenated oil.

If the nytimes.com asks for a password before allowing you to read the article, use userid: redrum7 password: redrum. If these do not work, go to bugmenot.com and ask for a new password.


[tecchnorati tags: health ]

Politics-Oriented Software Development

Here is a link to a great article about the process of writing software:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/1/28/32622/4244

The article is slightly technical, but very good. I think part or all of it might be tongue-in-cheek, but I think it is accurate in its sarcasm.


[tecchnorati tags: software business politics ]

Decode ViewState

For anyone interested in asp.net, here is a great viewstate decoder: http://www.pluralsight.com/tools.aspx



[tecchnorati tags: .NET asp.net viewstate tech programming decode encryption ]

Shocking

Check this out:
The Great Omelet

What do you think about that?!

[tecchnorati tags: politics torture]

Hello world!

This is the first blog. Exciting isn't it.