WangNet

The meeting with Modis was.. interesting. I am still not on the level with being hired by them for a little wage.. working for three to six months on a contract with the option of being hired by the company. The company being Millard Refrigeration.

Hopefully by Tuesday of next week I'll be in for a face to face with Streck. I am starting to be sold on their company.

I'll have to give my contact a hollar at HDR and see what is up.

An application out to Creighton University and Pharmaceutical Technologies Inc... Those look semi promising, though I doubt Creighton would be willing to shell out the dough since they are a university and what not.

The phone interview with Streck went well. Hematology controls are their business (as well as other things), and I should know more by Tuesday for an in person interview. They sounds wonderfully corporate and managed. +3 to them.

No HDR. I think I might call them up tomorrow and see what the plan is.

A cold call from Modis was at 9.30 this morning. Apparently they hound dice.com quite a bit and found me on there. I am going to chat with them tomorrow morning at 9 and see what they know. I believe the guy said a job with Paypal and one with Millard Refrigeration are on his desk. Ugh.

It has been a full week since I was laid off. Well a full week minus an hour. I have applied for five places, only have one call back for a phone interview, and nothing out of HDR's corner. I can't say I am now starting to feel the tremors of panic rising up. I know I am okay for the moment, but hell if the amount of jobs out there are pretty limited.

I might have to break down to be a consultant or something. Ugh. I enjoy medium to large stable companies... not a nomadic life.

Time to refresh dice.com from about fifteen years ago.

Side edit - Northern Natural Gas.. your error message indicating 'maximum characters exceeded' in no way indicates I have too *many* positions entered.. just that I thought the text box with my information was too long. *sigh*

Little resume movement today. I applied for a few places yesterday (DOTCOMM, H&B) so they are in the hopper. I have a phone interview with Streck on Thursday. Maybe I'll be wearing a lab coat. That would be boss.

No word from HDR. I am a little worried since that would be the most preferable place right now. I am still kicking around Drupal, and trying to get a good CMS running with some custom modules. We'll see. I should go buy a book on this.. damn you money.

Resumes sent out a plenty. HDR, Streck, Cassling, and Northstar Financial.

Today's going to be less canvasing intensive and more learning about Drupal as a CMS (content management system) to prep for the talk with HDR next week.

Damn Rangers, you played a great game.

I got all my miscellaneous work done, finances, email responses, and tweaking my resume. Sadly one of the jobs I was looking at two days ago expired. This is exactly why one needs to start hustling early and quickly.

In review of yesterday I have to say not having Falloutboy or anyone else at work to chat will has significantly increased my isolation. I believe the only two people I interacted with (outside of my dad calling twice) was my hair dresser and the guys at the gas station. Over all I began to substitute human interaction with chatting with locals in Fallout:New Vegas... and then shooting them in the face. Hmmm.... This could start a nasty habit.

After my mentoring I have a few people to call up, grocery shopping to do, cleaning to do, a jog (or yog) to do, and then more "BOOM!HEADSHOT!" to attend to.

State of concern and panic: mild.

I spent the first hours of my non working lifestyle doing what all good people who were laid off should do... playing an hour of Fallout:New Vegas, eating Ramen, and watching House treat some CIA spook who consumed too many Brazil nuts (while his team was treating everything from lupus to polio for some race car driver chick).

Now it's on to my action plan, resume updates, and applications... maybe after the gym.

Yes, I was laid off due to "lack of work in my area" - a work pipeline intentionally dried up by the folks on high.

Six of us, of note Sticks, Wheezy/UberGeek, and BJ included.

This sucks.

A lot.

Ten years at FDR and I juked every seasonal layoff and now I get nabbed here? At Kiewit? What hurts more is how much I cared for this company. I drank the koolaide, I was enthralled when the old timers who talked about how Pete built this company on the foundation of its people as the number one asset. How every other construction company has the same opportunities, equipment, and materials but we make the difference in the dedication, loyalty, and skills of our people. I believed in the sole purpose of Information Technology was to assist the field in making their lives easier and more streamlined. Increase the number of craft folk while decreasing the support staff needed. I loved our projects we worked on... I loved going out to the field to visit the job site where Krick's brother worked.

... and now this.

I am being pulled into a meeting with: a handful of developers, a designer, our HR, and my boss's boss. The request was only a subject line of "OneIM Review" and the body said "Make sure to be back from lunch for this". Ah.. what? Paranoia abounds. My boss wasn't aware of the meeting and had a very quiet response.

Maybe my next post will be from home...

Coming from dk's mouth: "We are going to prototype it, distribute it to about eighty people to beta test, and get our requirements from that beta testing.".... ah... what?

Holy shit! This is hard core super group from parts of Candlebox and Live. Ah.. this might be a "have to go" thing.

Date: Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
See more dates!
Time: 8:00 PM
Price: $10*
Venue: Whiskey Roadhouse
Seating Chart: General Admission
Reservations: 1-888-512-SHOW

THE GRACIOUS FEW WITH AMERICAN BANG

The Gracious Few is an American rock band featuring guitarist Chad Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey from the band Live, along with lead vocalist Kevin Martin and guitarist Sean Hennesy from the band Candlebox. The supergroup plays new songs as well as the favorite Live and Candlebox hits.

CONCERT INFORMATION
Doors | 6:30pm
Show | 8pm

TICKET INFORMATION*
General Admission | $10

http://www.harrahs.com/EventsDetail.do?locationCode=HBR&detailName=the-gracious-few-detail&eventTitle=The%20Gracious%20Few

I finally got around to snagging this really stellar photo for my place. 20x200: Steps *sigh* I guess it means I shall have to get frames, nails, and get a few more things put up on the wall. Bastards. As of now I only have two things to put up - my lithograph from pennyarcade and this. Sure.. that seems sufficient!

Now the question is do I use nails or one of those glue on things?

Falloutboy was over in the land of milk and honey - aka our CenterStreet facilities - this last week and taunted me with the pixie stix over there.. through a fit of awesomeness he brought me a fist full. I have been nom nom nomming on these all day and aware him gold star of the day for doing this.

Side note I will be applying for a job with UP here.. I am a bit lacking on a few of their recommended skill criteria, but really - how hard can Oracle be when you already have a firm choke hold on SQL?

Today was a decent day over all. No process work, b had the look that he was going to deck dk for telling us misinformation on the sequence diagram and M.V.VM, and I finally got my damn Silverlight test project to hook up to my local database. Real accomplishments today.

UNMC gave me a ring to check on references for a buddy who sort of worked under me (and I may have sort of officiated her wedding) and it was all glowing reviews in my best boss voice.

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http://www.inkleafleather.com

Came across this from 'art of manliness' in my news net. Hopefully I can snag a moleskin cover, but if not I need to keep an eye out for this rumored "ultimate writers bag".

Here's a quick gun of topics of note from the last few days.

The wedding was great for the lil' sis. I was sweating up a storm in that bastard tux because of some sort of Pavlov's anxiety attack of being in a suit. There is rarely a good reason for me being in a suit.. district meetings, weddings, or funerals. Ugh. I am also amazed at the magical nature of weddings.. drink, drink, drink, and still sober. An hour after the carriage turns into a pumpkin and I am riding the hammered train making a questionably bad life choice wheeling around town putting the savage burn on another bar location.

My cousins were set on getting me setup with the photographer for the wedding. Sarah.. you can see her facebook profile from the notification we are now friends for those of you who are snoopy. It would have been embarrassing at the time but frankly I was busy doing wedding stuff. We'll see how this one goes.

My cousin Ryan advocated I start looking into defense contractor jobs setting up networks and computer-ie shit on military bases in the green zones. That might be an avenue of fun and sight seeing.. I could pull up stakes and go hang out in Bosnia or something for "little work, triple the pay, and awesome benefits". Okay itt.com I shall keep you on the radar.

I am now moderately concerned about my buddy. He skipped out of the wedding, to much of my relatives dismay, and only offered the response his girlfriend was ill and would call me Saturday. He didn't call Saturday so I phoned him then and Sunday. No response. After the episode a few Tuesdays ago I am now worried that: a. he did something to himself, or b. his girlfriend is ill and that will affect her and the little baby boy she is carrying. Of course all of this could be him ducking me because he was too drunk to go and doesn't want to have me explain it. Regardless I left him a voicemail in addition to thinking I was texting *her* number when in fact it was probably his house land line. Oh well. I threw an email to his sister to see what's up and that should sufficiently stir up the pot to get an f'n response.

What the hell is up with the D? A text to him and no response? That is very unlike him.

I thought Bubbi's passenger window dropped out on me last night. Nope it was the stupid switch disconnecting from the bumpy travel (I took off the crap electricians tape holding it together a few days ago when I was inspecting it). Thankfully the new one I threw in (before I was going to plastic up that window) worked like a charm. I should have done that earlier. Now my Lawyer has full access to his window's down AND up controls.

No news on Mysterynurse.. that's good I think.

The Yankees swept the Twins. Rock on!

I had a fucked up dream last night of me, my Special Agent friend, Zach Morris, and AC Slater being sent to Cuba to smuggle out a scientist from a prison. It was an in depth plan detailing his defection to the US, but we had to set up charter boats and jet skis to avoid flying out.

Stance Socks

Uncertain how to operate since they are not in my size. Stitch two together?

I vaguely remember reading this story line - well let's be frank skimming was the name of the game back in the day (a Wednesday, right Dane Cook?) - and it wasn't until recently it surfaced from the murky depths of foggy bottom to hook me all over again. I am addicted to reading this well put out story. Yes.. Yes.. I read the latest chapter and then started back in at the bottom - "Futons Your Girlfriend Will Hate". I am on chapter sixteen of twenty four and having problems not reading it. I must suffice with paragraphs at a time between sequence diagrams. Bastard work in always in the way making me avoid the fun in this story.

Yes.. yes.. I am diagramming only the interesting parts DK... yes I am starting in small subsets of use-cases. Callooh! Callay!

Friday night was a mild blur of half assed plans, a splitting headache from work, and the glimmer of a whisper of some slump busting. Join me for this one regarding the reoccurring character - MysteryNurse.

Friday was Bob-a-roo's bachelor party. Shit happened and I'll leave it at that. From what I hear even more crazed bat style shit went down on the limo perusing the finest of local strip clubs (The 20's and Saries). The roast was, from my view a bust, but then again I only knew about four people in this Stoli's bar. I went home.. took a nap.. and wandered up to the 'Box for some gin. It twas'ent nye more than an hour into my gin that MysteryNurse texts me the hackneyed question "what are you doing?". Mind you earlier she was making tentative plans of me coming over - of course all pre-drinking chatter. A flicker of a pulse perhaps in this "thing".

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I caved and purchased my $13.00 Minecraft license last night and I think I am hooked.. Hooked like how cocaine would suck you in. It's a fun and games to experiment but damn if you don't lose track of time.

The game is simple in it's graphics and simple in its concept. You get a randomly generated world consisting of different times of dirt, ore, stones, plants, and some animals. I see many people 'digitally spelunking' these caves, while I was set more of constructing a barricade for the inevitable zombie attacks at night. I wandered around from the respawn point, got lost, and quickly figured out how to build a dirt house up. Zombies came, night was boring, and then some spikey thing didn't die in the dawn and blew up a chunk of my house and me. Mkay? I respawned and could not find where I built my house v1.0. I then went to a significantly tall mountain and started to build up a good set of walls and a second floor. Night came I and I was safe... until the stupid spiky thing blew up an even larger chunk out of my house 2.0.

Now I am pissed. I wander around and find my house and rebuild. I dig around a bit and finally realized how to craft a pick to cut a hole out better. This rained down on my new fun of crafting rock times, smelting rock in to stone, making windows from sand, and I picked a nicely located spot and started to dig. Dig and I dig. Oh shit it's night again! I make it back before the zombies come and craft more items. Torches, a sword, and a few other items. Back to the hole I poke out the side of the mountain to find a sheer rock face. I hit stupid time suck gravel (worthless and chucked out of my inventory), and now it takes me significantly longer to get out of my mine. I think eventually I might find gold and gems, but what eva.

When I get home I may make a beach house and use that as a secondary camp while I get more pork to keep my health up.

The game gets me on a few levels..
1. I don't have to interact with people in some MMO setting (I can but I won't).
2. Free space to wander around in. I like that sort of control.
3. Building - it rubs me nicely like the SimCity series.
4. A sense of anxiety - constantly watching the horizon for night fall, worrying about zombies, spiky things, and perpetually having enough raw materials to replace my tools as they are used up.
5. I am more or less playing against myself (similar to Portal). I determine where I want to dig, what I want to build, and fully form the world around to my aesthetics.

Just a word of warning - stay away My Biggest Fan! Though it might get you off the WoW crack this java game will be equally addictive.