Well, last week was the last week at my old job.  The ironies lined up, the Traffic Gods spoke and "I believe"; that I made the right choice, that is.

Tuesday, on my way to work, a semi I was following kicked up a large piece of plywood which slammed into the nose of my Thunderbird.  $600+ in damages, and an insurance claim.  Additionally, I was nearly 3 hours late.

Wednesday, traffic on the way home was so bad, it took well over an hour to get home.  I was late getting home so Ang could go to work.  No reasons I could see, just normal VB stupid people.

Friday, my last day, on my way in, there was an accident in the Downtown Tunnel.  I sat in traffic for a half hour not moving at all.  I was almost late getting to my exit interview, which I found extremely amusing.

I will be very glad to not have to deal with rush hour traffic at the downtown tunnel again.  This afternoon I also realized that before I drove East in the morning and West in the evening, enjoying Sol each time, and the blindness that goes with it.  Now I am driving West/East.  Ahhh.

Finally, I finished the audiobook series of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.  All 7 books.  I will be posting the review shortly.  Just seems fitting to end an era with the conclusion of an epic.

Don't want to leave him out, so here's a direct and personal note just for him.  Now you've been mentioned by name on 2 blogs!

Happy?

A Happy Birthday nod to one who, through some quirk of pride in arithmatic ignorance, doesn't actually know just how old he is today.  (It's 37, big guy!)  I should lend him a copy of Innumeracy to help him on his brithday.  Oh, wait, I already did!

Here's to another year of crazy.  T!

The Ghost Brigades is the sequel to John Scalzi's Old Man's War.  Scalzi has immediately become one of my favorite authors.  I read Old Man's War very quickly and really loved it.  No surprise that I immediatly picked up this one.  What is a surprise is that I actually pre-ordered it.  I've never done that before.  And at the expense of getting ahead of myself, I am going to pre-order The Last Colony coming out next year.  I may even pre-order The Android's Dream, which is not an OMW series novel, but comes out next month.

The Ghost Brigades is not quite a sequel in the traditional sense, where the protaganist from the original book goes on to new things, but a continuation of the universe featuring some of the supporting characters.  The central plot follows Jared Dirac, the cloned body and mind of traitorous Charles Boutin who is on of the CDF's top scientists, in his mission to discover why Boutin betrayed mankind.  Tension is built through control of Dirac and questioning whether he too will defect.  Our OMW Hero's interest, Jane Sagan from the first book is key to Diracs control and we are treated to a glimpse of the Special Forces perspectives as wholly cloned, without childhood, killing machines through her experiences.  The Ghost Brigades reveals more of the OMW universe in a much more detailed and darker way as is fitting moving from a newbie infantry perspective in the first book to a more "informed" viewpoint of the professional having known nothing else.

Again, Scalzi rocks!  I did not enjoy this one quite as much as the first, although I would say this was a better read and a more matured rendering.  I think I really liked the first one more because I was not expecting to be blown away, where I was with the second.  If you fashion yourself a Sci-Fi fan, this is a must read.

Note:  I finished this book a while ago.  Due to blogging difficulties, I am trying to catch up with the highlights from the past.  Expect more soon.

This morning starts the last week here at the job.  I started here in July 2000 as a temporary gig until I could find something more suitable.  A combination of good people and lazy, more the latter until this year, caused this to be the longest company position of my career.  Also, it was the least diversified.  In 6+ years, I was a WebMaster, WebMaster TeamLead, and Web Engineer - eCommerce.  In comparison, my last formal job ran exactly 4 years and I was a CBT programmer, Network Manager / Systems Administrator, UNIX administrator, the telcomm admin backup, and website designer.  I am moving on to a company where I can be a bit more of everything.

It is funny how free one can feel with a simple change of status.  Short-Timers Syndrome is very real.  A few people last week have commented that I seem much happier than normal, despite my efforts to keep the news on the down-low.  Equally surprising is the rapidity of the news flow.  People come up to me and comment about my departure that have no reason to know.  It's nice to know that despite my reputation, I will be missed by many people.  After all, GP swears my job title should be re-labelled:  "Frank".

Linked through Cox & Forkum:  Conspiracy Theorists calling themselves "Truthers" demonstrated at the WTC site on Sept 11.  Also see the 9/11 photo posts at the blogsite TiffanyCuffLinks.  I especially love the signs suggesting that WTC was brought down on purpose with demolition.

Now I have been called many things from naive to fascist.  Many times by people who don't really understand the meaning of the works they use.  (Look up fascism in a reliable source before accusing someone!  No, wikis don't count.)  Furthermore, I never claim to understand everything that is going on; at least I hope the government is keeping some things classified to protect necessary assets and to minimize unnecessary panic.  Yes, I admit, the last bit is something of a sticky wicket.  However, how can anyone cleave to an irrational theory with no evidence especially when it flies in the face of other evidences and apparent facts?  Sure, everything we know can be fabricated, but to what end?

Things were different a thousand years ago when the exposure of mistruths was nearly impossible.  Then the populous was easily led and frequently, if not always, was.  Try not to notice historic Catholicism in this argument, it may just upset you.  But today, with rabid reporters and loads of documentation easily obtainable, it is arguable that anything can be hidden very long.  And the catastrophic consequences of revelation of misleading will destroy those involved.

Or so I've been told.

After 6+ years, it has finally come time to move on.  I turned in a letter of resignation to my boss JF after lunch.  I did give the company a few days to come up with a counter, but after dwelling over the reality of the situation over the weekend, I made a judgement call.  Even if they countered at the same rate, they are still short.  I won't detail the pros and cons, but even just monetarily, old is less than new.

It is with heavy heart that I abandon my current project; it has been phenomenal.  I will especially miss the guidance, instruction and motivation of GP.  And TB has become a fixture of working life long ago.  TC, or CT, and his brand of Crazy will be missed, but he's a consultant and not long for this gig.  LE, WG, JR, JP, CF(!) will all be missed.  Damn, what a downer....

But!  On to better things.  While the timing is inconvenient, this is an opportunity that I have been waiting for a long time.  The near 25% raise don't hurt either!  And nobody said I can't come back if it doesn't work out!  I'd prefer to take the team with me though.

Yesterday we were out at lunch and stopped at the bank drive-thru.  Below is the site that greeted us:

"So what", you say.  Notice the red warning sign on the bottom left of the glass.  No, not the phone number, the international sign of No Guns! 

Does this work?  It must, because why else would it be there?  Besides, in a "Here's your sign" sort of world, some idiot probably tried to rob a bank from the drive-thru!  "Hey," the robber must have thought, "I don't have to get someone to drive the getaway car, I can do it myself using the drive-thru!"  Do you think he was surprised when the girl just walked away and called the police?  "Hey!  Come back!  I'm not finished, yet.  You haven't heard my demands!  Come on...."

I guess international symbols are useful!  I am going to make a few for myself, now that I know they are effective.  Stay tuned....

BTW, the above picture was altered in only one way:  I pixelated the name of the teller, she just works there, it's not her fault.