In my own little corner...

Job Stuff

Old and new...

Old job - part-time, independent contractor work that kept me going and supplemented my student loans.  This is my last week working with them, and I'm finding that I'm sad, relieved, and liberated all at the same time. And I've got a severe motivation problem where they're concerned, which is diminishing the normally stellar quality of my work for them.  Guess I'm making sure they'll be glad to see me go, after all.

New job - starts on Monday the 10th. My new boss called me last week and told me to not come in until around 1pm on the 10th, since he's flying in from NJ and won't be there before then, and he wants to show me around. OK. No problem, says I.  :)

Got an email from him on Monday - he wants to take his team out to dinner on Tues night. He'll give us details later. Free food? I'm up for it! :)

Got an email from him on Tuesday - it had flight info in it.  Seems I'll be flying to NJ the 17th to spend a couple days observing a class that I'll eventually be teaching.   So the pups will go to the sitters for 4-5 days.  We'll be talking about travel plans and such when I see him next week, I'm sure.

Ulp.  Just occurred to me - I've no idea where the town is compared to the airport, and have no idea if there are any bridges that need crossed. I have serious problems driving across bridges (as in, panic attacks).

Car Dreams

With 2 greyhounds, my  Ford Ranger is no longer a practical vehicle.    So I'm dreaming.... not big dreams, just reasonable, 2-greyhound dreams.

I've been thinking about other cars since I first adopted Angie, and have narrowed my choices down to either a PT Cruiser or a Pontiac Vibe.  Both cars will easily fit 2 greys (and an IG), and both cars have good points to them. 

The big question now is how long can I wait. I wish I could afford to take advantage  of the inventory-reduction sales currently going on.  I can't remember if they're as desperate in late Jan as they are in late Dec, but if so, maybe by then I could swing it, if I could find a good enough deal.  I don't really care whether it's brand-new or late-model, although I'd prefer brand-new if it's an automatic - I've replaced both transmissions on the 2 used automatics I've bought.  Kind of left a sour taste in my mouth for auto transmissions, ya know?

Right now, it takes 2 trips to drop the girls at the dog-sitters, and that's gonna get real old, real fast, when I'm doing it every couple weeks.

So I'm dreaming....

What did you give?

What are you doing for someone else, at Christmas time?  Not your family and friends, but the other folks amongst us?

Adult Education

The academicians assure us that anytime an adult is learning, it's adult education.  If that's true (and it must be, since they are, after all,  academicians), then I've been engaging in a large amount of it lately.  Mostly via the Internet, and not on a topic I would normally choose.

Seems  the heating/cooling unit in my rental house in Texas is on the fritz.

Things I want

Besides peace on earth, good will to men.  :P

This will be a very materialistic, goal-oriented post. I need to write them down so I don't forget them.

Once I'm working again, and have a paycheck or 2 under my belt (and in no particular order other than as they left my brain), I want....

Ben's Game

Just read about this in Guideposts Magazine (nov 2004, p12)...

9-yo Ben Duskin has acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Diagnosed with it at age 5.  As a way of keeping his thoughts positive to help his own healing, Ben (who loves video games) pictured his medicine like a giant PacMan, gobbling up all the cancer cells in his body.  Ben's convinced that the visualisation helped him into remission.

So he said he wanted  a video game that would help kids fight cancer. Finally, the Make-A-Wish Foundation found a programmer who would  do it.  Eric (the programmer) has created games for Windows, Mac, Nintendo and Playstation, including some Indiana Jones games and some Star Wars games.

Ben & Eric worked together weekly for seven months to create "Ben's Game."

"Players zoom around on a hover board, stocking up on medicine, health, attitude and weapons to fight cancer. They must defeat seven mnonsters - like the baldness causing "Q-ball" - to win shields that prevent the side-effects of chemotherapy."

Here's the link to the game:  Ben' Game

Kudos to Eric Johnston, for making a little boy's wish come true. 

The website also has a page where you can get updated on Ben's health (he's 10 now, and the leukemia's back, but it's responding well to his new drug regimen.)   There are also links on the page to learn more about leukemia, and links to info on being a marrow donor.

Check it out, and pass it along.

Nice Things

This morning, I returned a phone call to an executive recruiter who had responded to my resume submission, and after a brief chat, he said he thinks I"m a good fit for the position their customer is filling, and he'll pass my name on to them. I've got no expectations about that until I hear from the customer, but I *did* do a little happy dance when I got off the phone. :-)
(especially since he told me the pay would be an amount that took me almost 10 years to work up to when I left the Air Force)

And my boss from this sporadic part-time job that I do as an independent contractor told me that I'll be getting 2 free shirts (he's only giving them to "select reps")

Better than those (those are just work, these next bits are real life, and I refuse to get overly excited about job prospects until the second interview), I received these 2 messages today.

This first one was an email forwarded me by my group prez:

Hi, I'm a 12th grade student at XXX High School in XXXX, XX. I came across the greyhound site where (I'm assuming) your dog "Reko Azeza" is featured in many photos.

http://www.pbase.com/greytfriends/aziza&page=1

I'm in a Multimedia class where we use various IT software to manipulate and create compilations of photographs, and I couldn't help but marvel at Reko Aziza's form and sporty appearance. If at all possible, I'd like to request a few very high resolution photographs to use in a project for school, completely non-profit, only for a grade and for fun. A lot of cameras will display the raw file at a very high resolution (a 5 megapixel camera translates to 2560x1920
on-screen pixels.) If you've got any of these files that I could use, I would greatly appreciate it.

If not, I could suffice for the lower resolution images featured on this site, with your permission of course.

Thanks in advance!!
-Mark

This other was left on my pbase gallery a couple weeks ago, and I just now saw it.

I really enjoyed your pictures on PBase - I am putting together a picture library for UK primary school teachers to use in science lessons - would you consider giving me permission to use some of your images in the project?

Particularly http://www.pbase.com/image/4604907

I told them both yes, of course. :lol Asked them to be sure and credit me as the photographer, and pointed them towards some other photos they might want to use, as well. And I asked the high-school kid to also plug Greyt Friends. :-)

I feel like I felt the first time someone wanted to publish one of my poems. It's a good feeling. :-)

Gosh, it feels good to not be able to stop smiling. :-)

Catching Up

Haven't been around for awhile - I really hate it when real life gets in the way of my cyber-life (well, not really). Anyway, now that Capt Patti is home, her DH is discontinuing the blog. It's still up, and I strongly suggest you read it, at least the last week or so of postings, and vicariously rejoice with those whose loved ones have returned from the sandbox.

Stars and Bars

I was in someone's house yesterday, and from where I was sitting, I could see the bedroom door belonging to one of their sons. There was a sticker on the door, showing the Confederate Battle Flag. Underneath it were the words "It's a White Thang"

Since this was the first time I'd met these people, and the bedroom door was not in the public area, I chose not to say anything or ask any questions about it, but it's been bothering me ever since I saw it.

How is a sticker like that any different from a white-hooded robe?

And doesn't a sticker like that fly in the face of all those who would have us believe that the kerfluffle regarding the Confederate Battle Flag is about history and/or states' rights, not about racism?

It struck me as a very racist sticker.

Maybe I'm overly sensitive, but I don't think so.

New Kid in the Blogosphere

Decided it's time I jumped on the Blogging bandwagon... not sure yet what, if anything, I'll have to contribute to the 'sphere, but at least I've decided to risk sharing my thoughts in a more structured fashion than just posting comments on other people's blogs.

I'm calling this blog "meandering musings" because I like to wander around from topic to topic, depending on what catches my attention at any given time.

Right now, I'm just getting it up and running, but check back... I'm sure I'll think of something to say shortly.

Update: I thought I was being clever and original with "meandering musings," but a quick google showed me otherwise. So it's now renamed to Fiwit's Folly, until I can think of something that I like better.