WangNet

A 'contract to hire' interview today. This should be interesting in determining what is going on via the tech recruiter versus reality. It's a minor stretch of skills since they deal with ASP.NET and I am application/desktop heavy. Let's hope it's something.

In other news Ubergeek is thinking about moving to Portland and putting his house up for sale.

Thanksgiving was good.. I will now boycott Stovetop stuffing in all forms. Black Friday sales at Krypton was great.. only spent fifteen bones. Yeppie.

Also The Doctor had his boy. Wow.. I feel like a chump for not being married or having kids now.

So Bubbi's back.. running better. The new belt, and subsequent other belts being tightened, have made her work a bit better. My greasing of my grease points have made her pretty quiet... and with the cold weather has closed off my 'evaporator emission system' and thus my CEL is off. Yeppie. I thought it might have burned out. Nope!

Friday's moderate panic attack came and went. Though Saturday, at 5am, I was woken up with an irrational swelling of my lower right lip. Benedryl and myself were friends that morning. This comes off an odd case of my upper right lip pseudo swelling at 10am on Wednesday. I think these might be symptoms of my stress levels peaking. So far so good today.

Tomorrow's Monday.. let's hope next week brings something more awesome than just turkey and stuffing!

Let's see how today ran in order of events...

A sunny day (good)
Mentoring (good)
Aureus called to say NorthStar probably filled the spot I interviewed for as well as IPG has a more fitting candidate they are looking at (bad x2).
Greased Bubbi's grease points (good)
Noticed Bubbi threw a belt (worse x10)
At home wondering if I'll get her back today, the cost, and what was the cause of the belt being thrown (anxiety x9)
FML.

Edited update:
The belt was my AC belt - it will be replaced tomorrow. Only 80 bones. I guess that's my second 'win' for the day post mentoring.

These rhymes are getting tedious.

Today's recap... A morning meeting with Prokarma. Nice ladies, nice chat, and it was nice to get out of the house. End result - there are little jobs at the moment.

A day spent writing tutorials and snippets that I need to finish.
A bit of head way painting my deer and hunter.
"Wayne's World" was on and that was a welcomed distraction. I do love that movie.
I rereviewed the "Green Lantern" trailer.. not bad.. not bad. A bit more on target than "Cowboys vs Aliens".
I met up with Pops and his contractor buddy at the 'Box. A dinner of CFS and a few drinks. That means I have had CFS two days in a row. FOB would be jealous.
"Fringe" made my night with a stellar episode. Olivia, Walter, and the crew makes Thursdays bearable.

I've been looking back at my old company for a job. Data Architect sounds like something I have done and just took it to be part of my current role. I fear if I go back there I won't be for a developer position and any ground I put will dull my skills for later use. Oh well.

I would really love to hear back from Aureus or HDR. I mean something... anything. I was doing a bit of background research on this marketing firm Aureus was talking about. They sound fun and well established. I would much like that.

I have also looked into free lance work. Rent-a-coder and what not. Ugh. Those jobs spook me.

Hopefully Nate-dawg is in tomorrow so Mentoring will occur.

Hooray.. it's Friday? Does that even count with me and this limbo I am in?

It's Wednesday and I am dragging and fairly bummed. Monday and Tuesday were a holding pattern with little movement. Falloutboy's boss - a buddy of mine - asked if I knew Peoplesoft or they open up a SQL development job in Denver if I would jump on it. I had to decline - I am no shape to move Bubbie and my possessions to the mountains.

I reapplied for the Programmer Analyst job with Streck and hopefully I can get farther up stream with them. I am not sure how to exactly say I am flexible on a lot of points of my employment with out sounding like a desperate petitioner.

It is times like these I should find a pond to stare off at and record my thoughts for my book. Not in some station to test myself in living deliberately or deeply but just to be away to let the world. Let it lock into place so I can rejoin society with my head high. Alas the world waits for no one and thus I must keep up the hustle.

Oh - yeppie! My 'forum leader' badge just flipped with my new abilities to close shit and edit posts. That should keep me occupied.

Legal lunch today! Free pie! Mmmmm....

A stellar start with the week. I am going to bump weight at the gym - well dumbbell wise - so hello more wrist bruises!

Falloutboy was in town - packing up his worldly possessions for the end game hike to Denver. He got a kick out my Ubergeek story and agrees he can narrow that list down to about one person. FoB is having quite a bit of fun in Denver with his Uncle and really enjoys the atmosphere with the TIC folk. He tried his best to con me to moving out there, but alas I am not moving to the mountains in the start of winter. We were up at the 'Box watching the game and shooting the shit. It made me realize how much I do miss chatting with people during the day and it was good to hear things are progressing well with OneIM.

In a stroke of good karma FoB donated his LaSabre to the Vehicles For Veterans and that will force his hand into getting a new car (like him and I weren't talking about that for five years) in Denver. He is trying to find a V-8 Jeep to off road and run up the mountains with. Go FoB go!

I am now also going to be promoted to 'forum leader' for the VB.NET and C# forums on Dream.In.Code. Kudos to me for being such a fancy helpful bastard.

In a freak turn of events it appears I cannot EDIT my resume on dice.com. I would have to retype everything to add a few pointers. Ugh. Why is that so difficult?

I am getting a little pissy with Corel Painter X. The pencil lines are all sorts of jaggy and I can't find a good solution for it. I think I might start getting my outlines done in Photoshop and then watercolor them in PainterX. This could lengthen out my drawing time.

... and my sister just sent me a job posting for the National Parks Service - out of Washington DC. I think she wants me shot or something. DC was stellar to visit whilst I was in Baltimore but I won't be living there full time unless it is with one of my secret jobs I lust after because they fulfill my sense of national pride, civic duty, and need to provide protection.

Off to give BJ a reference for a job he is looking at, clean up, and get this new drawing idea I had at the gym down on paper. That and finish up my code tutorial for DIC on abstract/interface classes.

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Funny story - so I just got out of my hour long interview with a consultant company and the lady stopped me ten minutes into my answer to her asking about my time with my past employer to say that I have such a positive outlook on what happened, my dedication to trying to stay there, and general awesome respect I convey towards my past employer .

This is very unlike someone else (who she forgot the name) that came in a few weeks ago (this person was part of the lay off group) and spent the better part of twenty minutes ranting on the evils, mismanagement, incompetency, and general hate upper management had for employees. She said that sort of misplaced anger and ranting - to a complete stranger who *works* with finding people for my past employer - really turned her off towards helping that individual finding a job and working for them. It makes them hard to offer that person up as a candidate for a job.

With in 90% certainty I know it was Ubergeek and I really really wanted to ask her if it was him. God.. still shooting himself in the foot.

On the aside I did really enjoy the enthusiasm and assistance this new recruiter company gave me. That was such a fun interview and I came away with a better resume and a sense that someone cares enough to work with me to get a job. Go team go!

Bubbie was hit by a deer tonight. Circa 10.15pm. Bastard trash deer comes careening out of the western side of 168th (between Blondo and Dodge) to slam into Bubbie's right flank. A quick turn into Village Pointe affirmed no major damage outside of a smooshed in passenger rear door. Fucking deer. I was mildly annoyed I did not see a carcass on the return trip. Mother Nature is funny how spry she makes those creatures.

It is now officially three weeks into my vacation.

I just went through an hour and a half interview at NorthStar Financial. The first part were easy softball questions regarding feelings, unethical behavior, and me doing what I do best - tell stories. The second half was with their development head and that was an abridged version of the first part and a six page test of my knowledge and skills. Tip of the hat to you NorthStar - you asked things that made me feel like an idiot for not knowing... even more so with me looking up answers ugh.

I should hear back from them by mid next week - that is if they can cut through my scrawl. That should help me tread water for HDR or any particular decision I have to make.

Tomorrow's Aureus. Maaaaaaaaan oh man.

My thirty minute lunch meeting was great! Not only have I found a shirt collar size and sleeve length that works for me.. but it seems this company is going to work hard to get me fit somewhere. They would lean the .NET side, but recognize I am flexible enough to pick up Peoplesoft in no trouble. It was genuinely nice to have a company care about you even as a non employee. That and it felt... nice... to be in a business atmosphere. I fear I may be come to accustomed to my current affairs that I go native.

Either way it was like watching a single green light off - small and far away.. perhaps at the end of a dock. Hope and the nature of positive possibilities. Yes, that was a Gatsby quote for you who are keep track.

Let's see how NorthStar goes tomorrow.

Oh and back on my normal site I finally threw up some of my gallery of images. Here's a link for those who are too lazy to go up an level.. (Gallery)

Stoked and ready to rock out my lunch meeting!

Three ding letters now.. Streck (I am disappointed in this one), Cassling, and Northern Natural Gas (they had a jank online app anyways). On the plus side I have a skills interview with NorthStar Financial Wednesday and my lunch meeting with the guy at HDR Tuesday. Both are promising.

Another consultant group got my info off dice.com and was calling me during mentoring with Nate-Dizzle. Ugh. After dealing with Prokarma last night (7pm phone skills interview which turned out to be an 8.10pm call) I am a bit agitated. It was a series of jank questions more or less dropped as statements and what amounted to small snide accusations on how Kiewit did their programming and testing. Not good but I don't really care that much for how the Cousin-of-Sticks came off.

In a fit of insanity my dream last night consisted of me watching Cobain sing "Don't Follow" with Layne Staley and Paul McCartney on guitar. This segued led to some crazed trip past my lawyer's place on streets made up of gravel and dirt then ended in a military boot camp with Lomey and a bunch of others being trained to be consultants or something. The question is what the hell is McCartney doing with my grunge icons? For shame.

I just got my ding letter from Streck. This is not, and I repeat, not looking good. The follow up contact with positions I applied for is going slow with little feed back. It looks like Modis and being a contractor is going to be my new things. *sigh* *double sigh*

Edit to my depressed post - I just got an email back form NorthStar Financial and they are interested in speaking with me! Happy day! Somebody likes me!

It's been two weeks and I would expect things moving more than they currently are. A company called ProKarma found my information off dice.com - yeah they are another contracting place - and have a not-for-hire job with Vallmount. Six to twelve months. I may break down and have to start considering these things.

On the plus side I do have a lunch meeting next Tuesday with the guy from HDR. Come on HDR... throw a brother a bone!

I am not going to lie - this is getting frustrating and concerning.