Right Hand Rings and Neighbors

Have you heard of right hand rings? I've been told that they are diamond rings worn on the right hand, therefore indicating that they have nothing to do with marriage. This is the same as businesses that have made people feel unloved unless they don't receive flowers on Valentine's Day. There's a reason why 22% of women and 2% of men who send flowers on VD send them to themselves. What's wrong with being single? Does not receiving flowers on VD or being given a diamond ring after the age of 20 mean that you're not a valid human being? I absolutely hate how this commercialism seeps into every aspect of life. Now these companies are trying to money off women feeling like they have to prove they're 'Available and Happy'? To me, that's a sign of a woman that has too much material need to be marriage material in the first place. DeBeers wants to sell more diamonds, but want to keep the prices high. In order to do this, they are creating a demand, much like they did back in the 1940s, to keep up with their supply. It's not just DeBeers but every jeweler. There's always a nice cut involved with jewelry, right?

This entry from WiseBread peaks my interest. I haven't been comfortable even trying to get to know my neighbors since I moved out of the dorms in college. Why is it that community bonds through geography have been deteriorating? Strengthening of other community bonds? Religious, cultural, political, and hobby based communities have been thriving. Do people not see the need to strength their neighborhood communities? These are the ones who will really save you from outsiders in the most practical of ways. They're the ones who will call the police if they see someone carrying stuff out of your house when you're not around. They're the ones who you can most quickly get a helping hand from when you're putting up a ceiling fan. They're the ones who will come and check on you because your grass is getting a little long or help you find your dog when he gets out of the backyard. I think we should get to know our neighbors, even if we don't depend on them. It's not like I'm leading the cultural revolution here either, as I can only recognize some of my neighbors and have only spoken to about 2 of them. When I move into a house, I will get to know my neighbors, even if they don't want to know me. I probably won't ask to use their lawn mower, but I will tell them to call on me if they need help in a hurry.

Banning the Death Penalty

So it seems that New Jersey has now banned the death penalty. I don't really know how
to feel about this. Their reason against the death penalty is because "government cannot provide a fool-proof death penalty that precludes the possibility of executing the innocent." Ok, sure, that's a pretty good reason to do it. But then I ask, why is it ok to imprison the presumed
innocent prisoner for life without possibility of parole? Either way, you're taking his life away.

A related subject is the overcrowding of prisons. I guess New Jersey doesn't have this problem. Granted, the 8 men who had been on the state's death row probably won't overburden the state's prisons anyway. I guess the death penalty shouldn't be seen as a way to clean out our
prisons either, but still. Why were these men given the death penalty? Someone who makes that kind of call obviously thought this was the solution to dealing with them and their crimes. I just don't know what to even make of it. Thoughts?

Horror Movie Setup

In reading this article, I can understand why the teacher was freaked. Imagine the situation.
Doodle-ee-doo! Doodle-ee-doo! Doodle-ee-doo!
You're alone in a high school, at night. Half the lights are off, and you haven't heard anything outside your classroom for hours. You've just packed up your bag, and now you're walking down the hallway from your classroom towards the front entrance. All of a sudden, some voice
sings over the PA, "Welcome to the jungle, baby! You're gonna die!"
"What the Hell?", you think. "Oh no. It's happened. I'm in a horror movie." You run back to your nice, familiar classroom, being sure not to trip and fall on your way there, barricade yourself in, and call the police.

Here's where it differs from a horror film. Surprisingly, the police show up with a sizable force of 6 officers and 3 police dogs to take on the movie murderer, instead of the one local deputy who is either liked or disliked by every character in the story. They treat everything as though it's a legitimate threat, and they handcuff the people they find, not letting them out of their sight, despite a perfectly reasonable story. They find and 'rescue' the frightened teacher. The teacher hears the story, believes it was a harmless joke and that they probably didn't think anyone else was in the school either. The police uncuff the kids and probably tell them not to do it again, which is about the only thing you can say in a simple misunderstanding.

I fault no one for this situation, unless it's horror movies. They're too stupid to actually lay the blame on, so no harm, no foul here.

Party on, Wayne.

Thursday, 13 December 2007

Got into work late today. It's not a big deal because I'm not doing anything anyway. Several of my coworkers have expressed the same sentiment. I have begun not caring about this again, which is really a shame.
Yesterday and the day before, I spent a sizable chunk of my day studying Russian. Ends up that paid off and I'll be able to move on to the 2E course. I think I'll do it, but I'm pretty conflicted about it. It'll take an hour a day, every day, basically locking my schedule four days a week to 8am-7pm because of an hour off for Russian and class after work from 5:30 to 7pm. I like having a solid schedule, but I'm not sure I'll like having the same schedule everyday. Also, I don't have any plans during the Spring semester to need to work time off in a work week, but you never know. If I needed to, I would basically have to work long hours on Friday and sacrifice a weekend day in order to make up the time. That's only really valid anyway if I have work to do, but it really sucks.
There was a cold front that came through yesterday, dropping the temperature to... 50! Holy crap! We're all going to die! If Russians thought their winter would save them from Nazis, they would be damned sure to destroy Houstonians with it.
We got cake today at work! Thanks, people who worked on the securing the contract! I really appreciate the cake! Yesterday we were given lunch thanks to all the money we saved by turning off the lights every night. To think, things I do at home all the time saved the company enough to buy lunch for everyone that works for it in Houston. We all know they saved way more than that, because they would only give us between 1-5% of the proceeds. Unless they actually liked their employees, which I really doubt.
I finished rereading Harry Potter 7 again, after rereading the other 6 after hearing that Dumbledore was supposed to be gay. It made absolutely no difference. That's why I am annoyed that J.K. Rowling said that he was. If it gave us a different insight as to why he ever did what he did, but it makes no sense. He didn't go and defeat Gridelwald for several years not because he loved him as a lover, but because he loved him as a friend. Hell, he helped him develop several of his ideas anyway. Why would he bring about his downfall if he was leaving him and his country alone and doing exactly what they talked about the whole time? If J.K. wasn't the creator of Dumbledore, I would say it was just untrue slander.
Now Amanda and I are going to dinner over at her friend's place. I even helped by making the rice dish that she likes to make for parties and such. Hopefully we will have fun there.

Strip Games

My opinion on strip games is as such:

The purpose is to get people naked. You're just trying to have fun getting there and draw it out a bit.

Granted, it usually ends with a decision to run around in a darkened park, go skinny dipping, or whatever else you can think of... Eventually you put your clothes back on, and it's over.

JAXA's HD View of and from the Moon

On 14 September 2007, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the spacecraft SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) to visit the moon. There is a great set of science instruments onboard the craft, but the one causing the loudest buzz is the High Definition Television Camera that has been taking some awesome pictures and video of the view from 100 kilometers above the surface of the moon.

This press release from 7 November explains how the camera caught a spectacular video of the pock-marked surface of the moon. In the second half of the video linked on the press release page, the SELENE gives us the eerie view as it approaches the dark side of the moon.
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071107_kaguya_e.html

This next press release from 13 November is possibly even better, as it exhibits the Earth-rise and Earth-set videos. I'll just have to leave it to you to come up with your own description of awe here.
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071113_kaguya_e.html

If this has peaked your interest, I suggest giving the mission's homepage a visit.
http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/selene/index_e.html

Listening to: The Silence of Space

Scheduled Maintenance

After a long, full day of training, work, partying cut short, and my boring math methods class, my car decided not to start when I was finally ready to go home. I hate this car so much now. After having it towed off and inspected by my mechanic, I learn that it was the security system that caused the car not to start. That's just so infuriating. Having that security system saves me an estimated $2 every month on my insurance, but now costs $500 today. The complexity of cars has gotten ridiculous. So much can go wrong and cause the car to not even start because it doesn't recognize the key. And one of the parts is in Dallas, so I won't be able to get the car back until several days after I took it to the shop.

This is just such a silly thing to cause the car to stop working. Good thing I've got an emergency fund set up for car troubles. At least I won't be hurting because the car is, and maybe it will stop pissing me off so much. I still need to get new tires for it though. *sigh*

Listening to: Mogwai - Young Team - R U Still In 2 It

Buying a House vs. Renting: The Epic Battle Continues

According to the New York Times, it will never make financial sense for
me to move out of my apartment and into a house.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html
I just can't imagine that. I am seriously bummed out by this. At some
point, I want to own a home. If it never makes sense for me to own one
financially, I'm really going to have to reconsider things. I probably
need to put into consideration the fact that I am the only one living in
my apartment and that if I got married or had kids, the place wouldn't
be big enough, and then maybe I should look into buying a home or
renting a much larger place. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to
renting anywhere, ever. I'm big on having something of value to sell if
I ever need to liquidate.

New Frontiers

You know, the hardest part of writing a blog entry is coming up with the title. At least for me. The rest is just a flow of consciousness, if you haven't noticed.

I have changed jobs within my company. Remember how much I disliked the work in the last job? Things are way better now. I think it's a better fit. First off, I know what people are talking about. Today I was able to come up with an answer faster than my lead, which I don't expect to happen very often, but still felt good.

I've been doing this new job for about a month, I think. The first week, I went on vacation to New England, which was really fun. That was the first week of October, and it was beautiful. I crossed Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine off my list. Oh man, it was a great trip.

Boston was the low point of the trip, and I don't believe I will be returning there unless someone pays me. Hear that, Boston? You suck! The traffic was unbelievable. There was nowhere to park, and nowhere to go without parking your car first.

The high point was hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Gorgeous. Breath-taking. Exquisite. I really can't put words around it. The air had just the barest chill. The fog was rising to become clouds flowing around the peaks. The trees had the aged and wild feel of nature. The leaves were in such a great variance of autumn colors that I have been deprived of in Houston.

That being said, I did see a tree today that was half red here in Houston. I'm sure that one will look dead tomorrow though, as the trees do here once fall actually arrives. The cold front we had come in here dropped the temperature to about 50 degrees, so all the Texans were wearing coats, and I finally stopped sweating.

There's plenty more to tell you about, but let's leave it for another day.

The Results are in!

I had one vote for me to stay here. Luckily, I count my vote as 10 of your votes, and therefore, I will be dropping my myspace account.

I'll be leaving this here until the new year, if I still remember it then. If not, then I guess it will continue into infiniti. Odd thought, eh?

Just in case you still wanted it - transmissionsfromoutside{dot}blogspot{dot}com

I figure somebody cares about what I have to say, considering the 130 visits to the blog this week, probably just for the last post, considering there haven't been any other ones for a long time. I moved all the old posts over to the new blog, so everything is retained, except the comments. Boo-hoo-hoo.

You won't see me around here any more, so if you want to get in touch, you know my address.

End of an Era

I finally figured out how to get rid of most of the ads on myspace. Problem is I don't care any more. I plan to delete my account. You have one week to convince me otherwise, and it's going to take a lot.
I've set up a new blog - the only thing I kept myspace so long for - at transmissionsfromoutside{dot}blogspot{dot}com
What's with the new name? I'd heard you can still buy a domain name at the .su domain (that's soviet union for those that don't know). Therefore, I thought I might go with something that would work for that if I decide to transition again. I'm kind of doubting I'll move since the people who are in charge of such things as domains have been trying to get rid of .su for about a decade. We'll see.

Transitional Period

I'm moving my blog from myspace, which is a piece of shit, to here, which is slightly less obtrusive. Expect to see more posts here in the future.

Things is goods, dey is.

Wassup? How you been? I'm happy to hear that you're doing well enough to still be able to read my blog, being that you have the time, the money to pay for internet access(or at least can get to the library for a while), and the ability to read English is still with you. (Hi Lars/Melanie/Elena/Satomi/Igor/Irina!)

So I've been doing a lot lately. Really, I have. Shut up! I am not lazy! You are such a liar! Friendship discordancies aside, I have been busy.

My mentor at work has left the company on a Leave of Absence of Unknown Duration. Is he going on a cross-country trip to discover himself, an African safari, what?

He's gonna spend the summer with his wife(a teacher) and his kids. Then... he's gonna find work somewhere else. He's a pretty cool guy and has been trying to teach me stuff for a while now. He commented Friday night at the bar that I have noticeably shaped up and started figuring stuff out in the last few weeks before his departure. This is certainly true, but mostly has to do with beginning to understand, and realizing what a valuable resource I'm losing. I'm going to have to pick up the slack for him, and the other guy that already left in our area. I'll be doing the work of two senior software engineers. This may be a bit of a problem because I'm some newbie who has got rocket science on the brain and knows enough Fortran to optimize a trajectory to the moon, but next to no understanding of how the damned computer works! Arg! So anyway, now I'm in charge of wiring the test rig as well, and I have no idea how that fell to me except that the mentor used to do it and nobody else was really listening when he was talking. It's weird suddenly having responsibility, and especially weird knowing that I can handle it easily.

Other things that have happened... I went out on the mentor's boat with him on a beautiful boat on a Sunday a little while ago. It was just great. The sun was passing over light clouds with an otherwise blue sky, just warm enough to be comfortable when we got to skipping over the waves. I also have been hanging out with my friends a lot more, which is cool and all. I've been doing some pleasure reading and forgetting about grad school for a while. I really need to take the GRE, but I also need to figure out which program to which I should apply. That sentence was difficult to write in proper English, I'll have you know. I'm pretty sure I got it wrong anyway.

Down to business. You should check out my friend's fledgling clothing shop. She's got an eye for fashion if you ask me, and would like you to be seen as fashionable as well. I personally like the skull butterfly and the omaha skyline shirts. Now that Omaha has a skyline, we must pimp that shiat out!
Next, I think you may like I Can Has Cheezburger. This is the ubiquitous "captions glued onto your cats" website that some of you may have heard of on that Internet to which you kids seem to have developed an addiction. Then, there is Daily Puppy. I have vomited blood twice as a result of the cuteness of some of those puppies, but I really should stop OD'ing on puppy cuteness. Finally, you should have been listening to SomaFM while you were looking at all these sites. I personally love their GrooveSalad channel, but rock whatever you can, while you can. Apparently internet radio is going to be all but decimated by some new bill in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Apparently they're supposed to start paying huge royalties to somebody because of how many people could be listening to their stations, instead of the same ones that satellite radio pays. This could easily kill the last safehaven for independent radio outside of college stations, and we all know how much that sucks.

Alright, that's pretty much what I've got for you. I hope you have a good one.

Suicide Pill and the Opposite of What It Brings

My sister knows me a little too well, I think. She sent me this:

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

This is almost exactly how life is right now, except minus the actually being an astronaut thing.

After three months, I finally got around to actually to replacing the fuse in my car that allows me to use my car lighter/auxilary power. Now I can have fully inflated tires whenever I want! ...or at least when I get around to it without much extra effort, as I keep the car lighter powered air compressor in the trunk. Gas is expensive, and I like to bitch, but my newly reinflated tire will help me to get better gas mileage, w00t!

I am currently eating a bologna sandwich, if that pleases you to know. If not, I have no idea why you're reading this. Unless you're my friend and just decided to click the link that says I've got something to say. Thanks for being my friend. You know, we never talk anymore. I should really call you. Oh man though, I think I lost your number when I changed phones. Maybe you could call me? That'd be great! Then we can talk for, like, ever!

*whispered* Did they notice the thinly veiled attempt to get them to call me? No? Good, good.*/whispered*

My SE class is almost done, and I think I'm done with that Master's program. I don't feel like being ridiculously bored for the rest of my life by what I do. I'm looking into some more technical graduate studies now, like Plasmadynamics and Orbital Mechanics. Doesn't that just sound more awesome than Systems Engineering? Also, systems seems like something I could do after about 20-30 years of experience in engineering when I was tired of being in the lab. At this point though, I don't think I'll ever be tired of the lab time. It's even better to be in the lab when you're doing computer programming!

On that note, I leave you now. Please have a nice (insert period of time between blogs here.)

19 Rubber Duckies Down, 1 to Go

So I've been learning a bunch in Russian. In fact, I could say that in Russian. That's probably better than what I could do in Spanish right now. That's 6 months of Russian vs. 5 years of Spanish. Public school is at a severe loss compared to direct government education. I really hate the ads on myspace, and the webcam girls, and the idiots who add them as friends because, and I quote, "Daaaaaaaamn biatch! Ya the hotest shiat up in dis bizzzzzitch Holla bak atcha boi! and chek out these RINGTONES!!!!!" The existence of myspace is proof that God exists and that He HATES US WITH A FIREY PASSION! I'm pretty sure Benjamin Franklin said that... or something like it.

Next item on the list: Work. It's going alright again. I'm learning, and applying my knowledge, and all that. It's awesome. I'm beginning to understand why I ever felt smart in the first place. This is probably one of those good things, because you don't want unsure idiots programming your spaceships. Speaking of spaceships, this makes me sad. This is mostly because I didn't find the Battlestar Galactica on it, and complained about it to a friend. This was before she pointed out that it was there, which actually made me feel a little relieved. That is how you know I am a nerd.

I've got a couple of friends who have just gone live with their website, AnswerPond.com. You ask questions and can offer up a reward for a thorough answer. At the same time, you can earn money by answering questions. You should check it out. I already earned some cashola myself, and am going to be lobbing some easy ones out there to try to get some action going on the site. While you're at it, check out those GoogleAds on the side. Click if you find something even mildly interesting.

Finally, you might want to know that I was nowhere near any shootings at JSC. I was about 6 miles away at my office building. As it was a Friday, I wasn't even going to go there for my Russian class. I do know a guy who works in the same building, but he was off in another building running an errand.

What was kind of eerie about the whole incident is that up until the Monday after this happened, there was a sign up on the fence next to each of the entrances onto JSC. The sign said something along the lines of, "Are you being safe? April is a high injury month at JSC. Please be careful." That wasn't the exact wording, but it was definitely close. Also, they had to change out the 'days without a time lost injury' numbers too. Those won't even start to be updated again until next week.

The culture here is weird about it too. I don't know anyone who knew any of the people directly involved. The people that I do know were all at least semi-sensitive about it, because nobody knows whom anybody else knows. This was also the last day of work for a few hundred people at my site for the company. Layoffs. The managers were all going through a sort of nervous laughter stage about the incident, which we were initially told was a 'domestic dispute'. None of these managers wanted to fire anyone, but they had to. My boss had to let his friend and coworker of several years go. At least everyone in my team had somewhere to go this time.

To return to the original point, the people were weird about it. One of my friends/colleagues ranted about the news coverage of the event, like CNN was being particularly unfair to NASA. They were, if you view NASA as a company. They weren't when you view them as a gigantic, lumbering government pork barrel project. Nancy Grace made wild claims that NASA burns trillions of dollars. This isn't true. NASA is granted less than one percent of the national discretionary budget annually. That's about $0.37 to you and me.

Again, I steer from the main point. People here seem to forget that two people died, and something went terribly wrong, long before anyone picked up a gun. There's something broken here when we start seeing people as cogs in the machine and not for what they really are: people. Living, breathing, feeling, fearing, joyful, real people. I am afraid for us.

What to do tomorrow?

I've got it! I'm going to go North! and East! I'm gonna go hang out in Philadelphia and New Jersey and New York City. Why? Because I hate my fucking job. and I need a change of scenery. and I've never been there before. (With all these I's it would seem this writer is very selfish.)

The only reason I kept doing it was to make money. I have now made enough to finance this trek. When I get bored, I will come back. Maybe. If I can find a way. Chances are that if I am bored it means that I am broke. That will make it hard to fly. or drive. or do much more than breathe in this day and age, pardon my colloquialism. (This writer obviously loves his little colloquialisms. Do they keep him warm at night when the cold air of loneliness is upon him?)

One problem with my plan is that I have work. and homework. and class. and people who will worry about me quite a bit more than is truly necessary. (This writer is an obvious narcissist.)

I will take pictures, and probably post them. sometime. somewhere. (The vanity and self-love is deep in here.)

Thank you. and goodnight. (Afterthoughts. my. ass.)

The lover and dreamer. (The psychoanalyst and spell checker.)

Inspiration and Imagination

I have utterly thorough inspiration for this post... and I lost it. Therefore, I must imagine myself an emotional roller coaster for my intellectually famished audience. Thus, I will tell you about a dream I had this morning just before waking, as it appears that is how all dreams happen.

I awake, in my bed, here in Houston, hearing the college radio station I left the radio on upon going to bed. I realize I need to go. This is one of the stupidest dreams I have ever had.

Maybe it's because my mother is in the hospital right now after having surgery. I talked to her today, whilst inquiring what room she was in so I could send flowers. I would be in town right now, had she not told me this just Sunday, 2 minutes before ending the telephone conversation. She said she is doing fine, and that she will be strong like her son. I told her she ought to be, for only the strongest women can give birth to sons of my caliber(of which I meant actual size. I was huge.) She chuckled, and I only wish that she had seen 300, so that I could tell her that she must be a Spartan woman, so that she could understand what my pop-culture-movie-quoting-lame-ass is talking about. I may be strong, but original... that's for the ages to decide.

Speaking of 300, it was good. It's awesome for guys, because there's lots of awesome fighting action of awesomeness! It's great for girls, because as my friend(Amanda) and her sister(Stephanie) giggled about throughout the movie, "Could they have amassed a hotter army?" I have to admit that, no, they probably could not have. Those dudes made me so ridiculously jealous that I've been hitting the gym again, eating salads, and even foregoing the dressing. Stephanie informed us ahead of the movie that she would most likely be covering her face three-quarters of the time in squeemishness for all the blood this film was rumored to fling about. In the end, she admitted to only doing this for a grand total of two minutes. The bloody mess part was well done with silhouetting and computer graphics, showcasing the blood as simple circles of dark red ejecting artistically from the fallen. If you are adamantly aghast of beheadings, you might want to leave this one alone though.

That is all the imagination I have for tonight. Good night, Shelbyville! There will be no encore!

How to Live Life

Drunk. I'm pretty sure that's how I should be living it. When I have had one, or two, or maybe a few more, I can deal with just about anything. I can pay attention to my boring-ass lecture. I understand where my parents are coming from with their need to claim me as a dependent and why it is financially better for everyone. I stop caring about things, and start caring about people, and music, and art, and just think more about how we interact. I don't think I need as much money as I make. I don't like this idea of saving up for a house that I'm not sure I'm ever going to buy. I'm too unsure of where I'm going to be in a year to think about buying a house. Would I want to live in a house by myself? No. Living alone in anything larger than say, 500 square feet, seems ridiculous to me. Granted, I do that now. I believe I began renting here because I honestly believed someone would be joining me here within a year. I was very foolish. Now, I just don't want to have to move. Perhaps I could simply rent out the dining room to a very small & new restaurant, just starting out. That would be best, I think. Any takers? I know I would probably dine there at least a few times a week. I feel like I need a better breakfast than dry cereal with milk, and yet, I do nothing about this because of... well, I don't know why, but I'm sure there's a perfectly logical reason. I do know this though. Cranberry juice and vodka is the best way to go if I want to be happy. It is also delightfully uncomplicated and inexpensive.

Pros:
Fruit intake goes up.
Alcohol is pure energy.
Easy & cheap to make.

Cons:
None found as of yet.

GAAAAHHH!

I am twitchy! I haven't had any mountain dew for over a month, and I had some tonight to stay awake through my 3 hour Systems Engineering lecture online. I am having problems slowing my blinking! I <3 Mtn. Dew, as many of you know, but this stuff is probably going to kill me eventually.

This class is sooo boring. Each week, the prof. reviews the goals of the class and the syllabus that he passed out a month ago for the first hour. Then, he went into questions that people had asked during the week that he had answered. We were given the file that held them all earlier today, so I'd already looked through them. At the point that we started with new material, we'd been going for over an hour and a half. I'm slightly disappointed. At least the class seems to be easy. I'm not looking forward to the "academically challenging" homework that the prof keeps refering to during class.

Oh yeah, and one of the other things causing my general malaise right now: MORE LAYOFFS! w00t! They already trimmed the fat. Now they're cutting away the meat. The only reason this would be good for me is because I would end up gaining a nice sized lump sum out of it from $ they owe me over the next few years. If I stay for 3 years, I get to keep that stuff. If I leave on my own, I don't get it. If they lay me off... CASH MONEY, M*F*K*R's! I think I would move back to Nebraska and lie about for a bit in the snow. Then my Dad would come out and kick me until I went and got a job. Thanks, Dad, for all the positive encouragement you've given me throughout the years. I might just stay here and apply at NASA, or another company a friend of mine is talking about. I do still have the lease going here at my apartment anyway. But anyway, this may be why I don't make any plans to travel for a while. We should find out from management on 16 February at the latest. The good part about the company is that after they let you know, you're still employed for 60 days. It's actually just a notice, and there is a possibility that someone else leaving could give you back your spot. The last day is, get this, 20 April, and yes, the end of the day would have to be around 4:20 that day. That carries too many different meanings for one link.

As of that day though, I will, or will not, be buying a plane ticket to Philadelphia(& back) for the end of March sometime. One of my friends here offered to put me up for a few days while she visits family in New Jersey, and I can explore the countryside. This is awesome, because in about a day, I could visit 3 states that I haven't gotten to yet. I just hope my employer sees fit to keep me around and allow me to afford that trip.

I went to the opera Saturday to see Faust, which my friend was actually in, albeit as a supernumary. It was pretty cool, but also... well let's say I'm not that in to opera. Sunday I watched the Super Bowl, as is required by my American Male Red Blood. I was going for the Not-Bears because I knew too many bandwagon fans.

Finally, to answer the generally third-most-burning-question asked of me, No, I am still unattached. No woman I have found interesting enough to have a twenty minute conversation/staring contest with has burrowed her way into my heart. Which reminds me, what are you doing for Valentine's Day, Beautiful?

Lacking Foregiveness

So I haven't had much go all that wrong in my life that wasn't already. Therefore I have less to complain about, and a better life overall, and less to blog about.

I'm figuring more out at work, and starting to understand all the stuff I have to know about my job. "They" say it takes a year to become a useful employee, and it's only been six months, but I had a goal of being fully competent by year's end. Well that passed, and I didn't meet that goal, but I'm on track for the one year competency, so that's good. Still worried about another lay-off, though, and that's a bummer. The only consolation is that I wouldn't have to pay for anything they've already given me if that's what they decide to do, and I could still apply at NASA, with a reasonable hope of getting my dream job.

Class is going just fine, I guess. We've only had one meeting so far, and the prof wants us to WebEx in for the rest of the classes so he can ask us questions in real-time. w00t! Now I can't really watch my class whenever I want, I've gotta watch it 8:30-11:10 now, which isn't really that bad, but whatever. Russian class is going pretty well, actually. There's only one guy that is doing better than me, and he's motivated by going to Russia in a month, whereas there's almost no need for me to learn the language. I'm quickly on my way to becoming sort of trilingual. I need to go and get re-imersed in a Spanish speaking situation, unlike the last five years of my life.

When I'm not working or studying, I'm actually hanging out with people now. That's a bit refreshing. Granted, when I got here, I had expected that I'd be hanging out with people every night, like when I was an intern. Now people have lives, and I hadn't prepared for that, myself. Now that I have my own life, there's plenty to do, so I don't feel bored all the time. I've even been reading more, for pleasure! Not just to figure out my next move in the stock market, or improve my abilities at work, or to understand just why the rest of the world hates us!

So life's going alright for me now.

I still wish I were back in Omaha though.