Category: Rant

Is this a first?

I bet there aren’t very many other people out there who have turned in a resignation letter at their job the day they went to pick up a new car. Well, I’ve just done the resignation letter, and I pick up the car in a few hours.

Update I forgot to mention: as well as the offer from Global Crossing, I have another offer from Paychex. The Paychex one surprised me, because I’d only had a phone interview with them and I’m not used to getting a real offer without having a chance to meet people face to face, look around the facilities, etc. Because I was expecting it to lead to a face to face interview instead of an offer, I didn’t ask enough detailed questions about unimportant things like “where are you located?” and “what will I be doing?”

I’ll never understand the thought processes of stupid people

I got an email to the mailman administrator account from somebody claiming that the previous owner of his email address must have been a pilot, and he wants to be unsubscribed from the mailing lists because “they clog up my mailbox”. I run a bunch of lists for pilots, but none of them average more than one message a month, so I wasn’t initially inclined to be kind to him.
Continue reading “I’ll never understand the thought processes of stupid people”

A long one

In a probably futile attempt to get ready for the Long Lake kayak race, today I decided to duck out of work early and do a longer paddle. I wanted something not as fraught with power boats and wakes as Irondequoit Bay, and not as shallow and draggy as Irondequoit Creek. And the solution I came up with was the Genesee River.

I started at the Genesee Waterways Center, which is a boat house for rowing crews as well as a boat launch, and headed upstream. I don’t know why, but I started pooping out really early, but by alternating paddling and resting and paddling again, I managed to do 6 miles in 1:27. In spite of the fact that I was going upstream and into the wind, it actually took me 44 minutes to go up, and 43 minutes to come back. On the way up, first a single rower passed me by and continued upstream, but on the way back the river was full of 8s, coxed 4s, dual sculls, and motor boats with coaches. It’s too bad I was so bagged, I would have liked to hold my own in the level of effort if not the speed with all those boats.

We’ve always been at war on povertydrugsterror

Bush cements his legacy: Bush quietly seeks to make war powers permanent, by declaring indefinite state of war

I don’t know about you, but I’m scared. And the thing I’m most scared about is if Feisty McGeezer gets elected, he’ll stack with Supreme Court with more Scalitos who will be happy to rubber stamp more outrages.

Someday we’ll look back at 2001 as the year the US stopped marching forwards towards greater and greater civil liberties, and started a permanent slide into despotism.

Now comes one of harder decisions I’ve made in my career

I’ve been here at Kodak for over 6 years as an hourly wage contractor. No benefits, no vacation, and no 401(K). And while I’ve bitched about it here many times, overall it’s been a damn good job. Good money, the respect of my peers, an active role in design, interesting technology, etc. But several months ago, they told me that they couldn’t renew my contract any more, and that they’d convert me to a full time employee. And that was all going ahead nicely when the head of our division suddenly left. No warning, no explanation, just “Heck of a job, Brownie” one day and “We can neither confirm nor deny he ever worked here” the next. Something fishy happened. But the new person came in, and of course the first thing she did was put a freeze on hiring.

So since that time, they’ve been renewing my contract one month at a time, and usually waiting until the last week of the month before confirming it. So needless to say, I’ve been “exploring my options”, spreading my resume around, registering at Monster and Dice, talking to headhunters, and going on some intervews. And now I’ve got an offer from Global Crossing. It doesn’t look hugely exciting, but it might be mildly interesting and a chance to get some experience in some technologies I’ve been interrested in, like Hibernate and EJBs. It’s contract-to-hire, which is a bummer, and it pays way less than I’m making now (which I expected) and probably a little less than what Kodak would come up with if they ever get around to making an offer. On the other hand, it’s in a new building, rather than a clapped out industrial building where the ceiling tiles are older than I am and the asbestos warning stickers confront you at every doorway.

So now it comes down to: do I take the nearly sure thing at Global Crossing, or sit here waiting while Kodak jerks me around for another week, another month, another quarter, or whatever?

In my career I’ve always played it by ear, but I’ve also made a habit of getting out when the going is good. I swore I wouldn’t do that here, because the pay is so much better than what I’d make elsewhere that it would be worth it to stick it out to the bitter end and maybe lose a month’s pay while looking for a new job. But this constant worry if they’re going to renew my contract this month is driving me batty.