The Last Ephor

Just decloaking for a minute to say that I'm still breathing. Thing have been, well, not dull. Too much to report at the moment. Some of it good, some of it not. If you've read this far and have checked in after all this time thanks for sticking with me. Updates to resume shortly.

largely because of personal difficulty which I was going to elaborate on. That was, until I read this . Comparatively my post seems like petty friggin whining so I'll continue to shut up. God bless Dom and her whole family. Especially Ashley. "Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet princess. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." -Hamlet Act V, Scene ii

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. -Dylan Thomas

I was reminiscing about childhood Halloween costumes yesterday. My Mom was a really good costume maker when I was a kid. Nobody bought costumes because they were expensive or just terrible. If you were unfortunate enough to get one with a mask it was made out of the world's thinnest plastic and had razor sharp edges. The eye and mouth holes were always too small and you couldn't breathe in the damn thing. The result would be many Batmen and Supermen running around with a mask atop their head rather than over their face. Some would pull it down after ringing the bell but no way you could run around in those things on. You'd be in for serious injury. One year I wanted to be the grim reaper. That required a long black robe with a pointed hood, a scythe (made by Dad in the wood shop in the basement) and face paint to look like a skeleton. A week from Halloween I was ready to go. My Mom did a fitting (so I wouldn't be tripping over the robe) and a trial run on the...

Today's the day. Seven years gone and the rest of our lives to go. This blog honors Sean Thomas Lugano I knew Sean casually. We went to college together and were on the rugby team together. He was much better than I was. He was very fast and much stronger than he looked. Sean was one of those guys who was reserved but very funny. He wasn't one of those guys who garnered attention by being outrageous or demonstrative. He was just there, always with a smile and quick with a laugh or a joke. He took a lot of flack in college because of his modeling career. He used to model to make money for college and the idea of a rugby player being a model seemed absurd. The only commercial I ever saw him in was for The Gap and ironically, he was playing rugby in the commercial. That seemed to redeem him somewhat in the eyes of his teammates and we didn't rib him much after that. I didn't know Sean well enough to keep in touch with him after college. Occasionally, I'd see him in the...

Very very bad. Explanation forthcoming. Bear with me on this one.

One thing about working "in technology" or "with computers" means that like any doctor in the family, people call me for free advice. My parents who are about as technically literate as a Masai tribesman. They are currently using a circa 2000 eMachines minitower machine. The thing is a dog. Runs like crap and is probably drowning in malware. They've finally decided to give up and get a new one. I suggested a laptop with a wireless card. My elder brother (who does not work "with computers" said that was a bad idea. According to him, printing is almost impossible with a laptop. Rather than argue the point, I said, "that's fine, whatever you want to do." I must be getting better at this because my parents went laptop shopping the next day and showed me the two models they were looking at. One was a Dell and one HP. Both lower range machines but considering they read email, look at pictures of the kids and print the occasional w...

I’ve been thinking of late about Shelley’s poem (sonnet really) Ozymandias. I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said -- "two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away." I’ve always liked the imagery. The narrator doesn’t see the scene he describes. Rather it was related to him but his description is enough for the reader to feel the sand shift beneath his feet. All things pass away. No matter how powerful and omnipresent they are at their zenith...

I got a call from a recuiter about a position at a bank. It's a BI job (since nearly all of my readers have seen my resume you know that's what I generally do). It was sold to me as a PM job by the recuiter but when I spoke o the client they billed it as more of a tactical role. When I expressed confusion they were confused and asked which role I'd like to be doing I told them that tactical was losing its luster and PM is where I want to be. "Interesting" they said. No indication of "good interesting" or "bad interesting". From there I had two more technical interviews with Infrastructure and BI Champion which makes me assume it was more toward the "good interesting" side of things. Things went well and then went quiet. That's usually not a good sign. I called the recruiter a few days later and he said they were interested and would meet my quote (huzzah!). But...(you knew that was coming didn't you?) they had to rew...

When we last left our hero, he was unceremoniously given the boot by CandyCo in the wake of budget cuts. I moped around despondantly for a week or so. brow furrowed and mutering to myself. The second week was actually quite nice. I fell in with the rhythm of the household. Waking when the kids did and going through the day. Week Three: The longest break from work I've had since college. Getting concerned about finances. I called past contracts to see if they needed anyone and scoured Monster, Thingamajob, BrassRing et al. No Dice (if you'll pardon the pun). Week Four: I'm having trouble sleeping. Worry keeps me awake. My eldest is not sleeping either. He's awake @ 2:30 AM for 6 consecutive days. He does not nap and is very aggressive. Wife and I are tired. We fall into a pattern wherein I get up with him and nap later when the baby takes one. Week Five: Still nice to be off but being unemployed sucks. I get to spend a lot of time with the kids esp. b...

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is in the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Governm...

It's Friday at 3:30 and I get a call on my cell phone from my recruiter and account manager. For those of you who are consultants, you know this is not good news. I can practically hear the sympathetic head tilt in their voices as they start talking. I stop them in mid sentence. "They're cutting the contract aren't they?" "Yes. But it's not performance related." "Small consolation. How long?" "Two weeks which is generous." She's right. Most contracts end the day they cut the funding for the project. In any case I finished the job and on my last day home from work I stopped to get gas. When I got back in my car it wouldn't start. Had the car towed to the dealer who got me back on the road a mere $900 later. Cause that's what I needed now that I'm unemployed. Oh, and yesterday the A/C stopped working. I can only imagine what that's going to cost me. The long and the short of it is: I'm unemploy...

I'm on something of a haitus for reasons to be explained later. Bear with me.

Since April is nearly over and it's autism awareness month, I suppose I should talk a bit about it. I guess the best way to start is to rehash the story of How I Got Here. My oldest was born in 1999. Healthy, happy and so on. One peculiar thing he did as an infant was to avoid eye contact. Our doctor assured us it was because he was so young and his eyesight was undeveloped and he was probably focusing on something in the background that was more interesting. Besides, babies don't recognize faces for a few months after birth. Only later did we find out that our doctor was an idiot. He was 16 mos. old when his little brother was born and he was walking and making wishes known by pulling me or my wife by the hand to whatever he wanted etc. He was fascinated with the wheels on toys. If you gave him a truck he'd turn it over and spin the wheels and smile. Only later would I find out this is a major warning sign. This was our first born and what the hell did I know? ...

So, you all remember my whining about the dishwasher , right? Well after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the new one has finally been installed. Yesterday. The bill arrived...a week ago. The salesman had assured me that it would take three days to deliver, a week at the most. Rube that I am, I believed him. It took 9 days. Sorry, nine business days. Weekends apparently don't count. I called and suggested they put the billing people in charge of product delivery and vice versa. He didn't see the humor. Lastly, The VeryBigDishwasher company and I have come to an agreement on the previous item that gave up the ghost. Part of the agreement was that I not blog about the terms of, or discussion with, said company. The matter was resolved to our mutual satisfaction. I can say that a few key words known well to CSR's were effective. Some of those words may be: blog sausage Digg automobile Technorati dog EECB laundry Consumerist energy link sidewalk email Steve Jo...

Remember this post well, The Anchoress gets to the heart of the matter in a single sentence: “ Black” America is forced to live a psychic duality, but in a way, “white” America is, too. We are supposed to - apparently - somehow split our brains, into never even noticing that there are racial differences between us, unless we’re working in praise of those differences. So, there are no differences between us…but we celebrate the differences…but their are none, and if you think there are, you’re a racist. Now celebrate ! Read the whole thing. The opening story is absolutely heartbreaking.

I work from home quite often (like today) and there are some things you hear at home you just don't hear when you're at the office. Example: I'm sitting at my desk. I face the windows and have my back to the door. I hear the door open and little footsteps enter the room. "Dad? You wanna know why I'm naked?"

So the dishwasher saga continues. Repairman #2, who does not look like a Bears Superfan arrives. I give him the part and he sets to work in grim silence. Upon dismantling the door to the thing he pulls out the fried circuit board with a grim expression. He gives a harumphing noise that doesn't really sound like that but that's as close as I can get onomonpedically (I made a new word, take that Freeberg!) Him: "That's melted pretty bad." Me: "...." Him: "The door handle is melted too." Me: "um..what?" Him: "The closing mechanism for the handle is right behind the circuit board so you couldn't see it and I guess the first guy didn't take it out so he wouldn't have seen it either." Me: "And how much is that going to cost me?" Him: "The part is nine dollars and twenty seven fifty for labor" Me: "So, because the first guy didn't diagnose the whole problem I'm going to get hit w...