Asleep at the Wheel 40 Miles Left to Go
That really says it all about this cartoon. The concentration the pig shows while tooting is pretty funny, and the subtitles allow you to “sing” along at home.
I imagine it’s what would happen if you dropped acid after reading Le Petomane. Weird.
More slacking. I know, bad kev, no donut.
The last couple weeks have been fairly hectic, and I Haven’t been terribly inspired to provide updates. The updates also have seemed a little inane of late, what with some people around here writing actual content. With any luck my brain will start to come back, but if Rachel keeps messing up my brain like she did this morning, I will not hold my breath.
Work at my old place of employment wrapped up last week. I didn’t finish anywhere near what I wanted to get done before I left, but I guess that’s ok. New people have been hired, other people are moving around within the organisation, and management has finally realised they need to invest a little more in the portfolio. It’ll be a tough year, but they’ve characterised it as a rebuilding year, so they’ll have a little slack. I wish them all the best, and hope the new folks turn it around.
As coop pointed out, I was very unhappy where I was. It always surprises me how when something is finally over, no matter how bad it was, there’s always some level of sorrow or regret. Thankfully, it hasn’t lasted. I left on pretty good terms with everyone, which is about all I can ask for. I don’t plan on ever going back, but you never know what the future holds.
I started my new role this week, and have a lot of reading to do. I’ll be doing some consulting, as well as some strategy and business development work in a field I’m comfortable with. I’m joining at an interesting time, where there’s been a fairly large shift in focus in North America from a strategic selling side. I’ve worked with all the folks on my team before, but that was as a customer, so this will be a little different. I’m looking forward to it. In keeping with that whole “kev doesn’t really want to get dooced”, I will not be mentioning my place of work by name here. I’ll also try and obscure what I’m doing specifically. It’s intentional, and it’s not without reason.
I’m going to be working a fair bit in the US, so I had to get a visa from our friends down South before I started working. On Monday I made the 50 minute trip down the 416, and spent about a half hour answering questions from a couple of very nice USCIS folks. I had all my documentation, and have successfully applied for entry before, and left (happily) with visa in-hand.
Tuesday I went to Toronto to visit the office there, finish some paperwork, and get my cel, laptop, and access information. The laptop I got is a wee bit ancient, but it makes a fine serial terminal for the two Sun boxes I’m using as my sandbox. I don’t think I’ll be trusting any data on the 6-year-old hard drive any time soon.
Since then I’ve downloaded a pile of documentation and software, and will be spending the next few days reading and playing. I’ve talked to my new bosses, as well as a couple of my teammates (all of who I know from past work), and I think things will get interesting in fairly short order. For now, I Have some 1500 pages of documentation, templates, and proposals to go over. I’m looking forward to this gig.
So, on the work front, everything’s shaping up nicely. I’m still not sleeping the whole night through, but I’m considerably happier than I was, and am looking forward to the rest of the year.
So here’s a picture of my neighbour’s garbage from this morning. I’m figuring he is not having a good week so far, as this was put out last night, which for the slow people out there was one day after Valentine’s Day.
I don’t know about you, but there are very few happy people I know who would pitch what appears to be a dozen long-stemmed after only one day. It always amazes me how much information you can infer just by looking at the trash. Of course, I may be completely off-base, but with the snow it’s a pretty depressing picture.
Speaking of the snow, we’re due for 4-6 inches of wet snow. I’m glad I don’t have to drive to work.
I’ve discovered one very good thing about changing jobs.
Now, when I tell people where I work, they don’t bitch to me about their experiences with my company (mainly because they’ve never heard of it). That’s actually a much nicer bonus than you’d think it is.
Bill Simmons nailed it right on the head.
And we are all victims of a once-likable league that screwed itself up beyond repair, the same way you screw up a relationship by drunk-dialing too many times. The NHL made two unforgivable mistakes: expanding more recklessly than Krispy Kreme and paying their players way, way, way too much money. It was a lethal combination of greed and sheer stupidity.
I really am sorry there will be no more hockey this year. Here’s to hoping that the league dies, and we adopt the regional, European model of hockey. 5-10,000 seat arenas, officating that encourages skating and style over obstruction and goonery, low salaries, and a love of the game. Dear NHL and NHLPA: rot in hell, and don’t come back, for the love of the game (that thing you folks all seem to have forgotten about).
You were never as big as you thought you were, and if you can’t see it now, you deserve to be selling used cars in Aurora, IL.
The Illini are 22-0, and are crushing the opposition.
Thirteen treys. Twelve steals. Four of five starters scoring in double figures. Their second straight road win against ranked opponents. Their fifth win of the season against ranked opponents (in twenty-two games!).
Awesome, simply awesome.
For the record, I think Dukie is full of shit; these guys are the real deal, and are going to finish with a bagel in their back pocket.
Go Illini!!!
I tweaked dspam two days ago, and am currently enjoying a spam filtering rate of around 97%. My mailbox hasn’t been this quiet in years. I receive around 50 legitimate messages a day, but I’m used to around 400-500 total per day. DSPAM is now doing it’s job fairly effectively. I’m surprised, because it didn’t look good there for a while.
I miss my spam, because I’m used to Tbird screaming “INCOMING!!!” every 5-10 minutes. Now that most of my spam is being stopped at the border, it’s very quiet. It’ll take a little getting used to.
Update: There was zero spam in my mailbox this morning. That’s the first time in years that that’s happened. Normally I get 80-200 spams while I sleep. I’m impressed, and will be tweaking everyone’s settings in a an attempt to get the same kind of hit rates for everyone else.