seasons greetings

Hi all, haven't posted in awhile. Hope everyone is having a great holiday. Spent X-mas down in Florida. For those who know the details about that trip then you understand why i say that i have had better Christmas's. But I am back in one piece and most sane. Tomorrow I jump on a jet plane and head out of the country: New York City. I am still trying to work out how this all came about. This whole last month has been a bit of a blur. All i know at this point is: I still hate hospitals and the unexpected can sometimes be great.

Merry Whatever!!!!

......and now I am old!

So I guess it was just a matter of time. I'm old :'( Last Friday was the big day that I officially became old. I turned 30!! Although, as my grandmother used to say, it beats the alternative.

The birthday was on Friday and I most certainly wasn't going to spend that day at work. The only thing better then a three day weekend is a four day weekend; I took off Thursday as well for good measure. You have to be careful about these things.

Thursday evening, I met up with Noah and took the train down to DC. The ever wonderful Heidi (I am not calling her that because of the tasty food she keeps making, well thats not the only reason) was waiting for us at Union Station. With Pat and Dave to round out the ranks we made our way over to the Dubliner. After one good meal and a couple too many tasty beverages, I was in a happy place.

Friday evening, Kelly picked me up and we headed into B'more. She had gotten a reservation at a Thai place on Charles street for us and the Ferguson crew who came up from DC. Food was good but traffic was horrid. Afterwards we all walked over the Charles Theater to watch a strange Swedish vampire movie. Sadly, though, the movie stopped showing the night before. We switched gears and saw "Slumdog Millionaire" which was an awesome movie but far from the feel good movie that the poster claimed it to be.

Saturday, Greg, AJ, and I went to the Columbia Earthtreks X-mas party. It was lame so we only stayed a few minutes then went to Panera to eat dinner. We all came back to my place and after a few false starts we final decided to watch Akira.

Sunday, I install roof racks on my car so I can haul snow boards easier. They look silly up there, and they whissle at around 40 mph, but they work. Greg, Jessie, AJ, and I went to Rockville that afternoon to go climbing. It was fun, although i was starting to come down with a cold.

Yesterday the cold hit me like a hammer. I made soup and buried myself under blankets. Today the cold is breaking up, but i still feel like poo. Took a half day at work, going to eat more soup and curl up under a good blanket again.

such as life.

One Brain for Sale!!!

The job market, the idea that you are a commodity that can be bought a sold. I found out that a good friend of mine, who had retired and then came back as a contractor, had a purchase order number linked to his job like a piece of test equipment. Finding this a bit odd, I asked him how he felt about that. His response was that he didn't mind being bought a sold like test equipment it was the probing they did every couple years for calibration that really hurt.

The hiring process is more then an auction for brain matter. Going on job interview is like going on a blind date. You both know that since you are there you are both a little desperate, but neither of you want to admit that. There are a lot of awkward question why you try to carefully feel around and see if the other person is out of their mind. You have to delicately balance the amount you lie about yourself: can they verify my lies, would i need to prove i actually know anything about what i claim to know, do they know even less then i do??? Such a fine line between deceit and exaggeration.

At least I have learned a couple usefully bits of knowledge: I am grossly underpaid and I can cleanup nicely when I want to ^_^