There has been quite an IT shortage lately. Anecdotally, it has been hard to hire new engineers, both at hw and at my new company. I thought the reason why hw couldn't find people was because they paid low. No, it wasn't just me being paid badly. I learned (after leaving) that upper management had classified each employee by the job that they ( Read more... )

Last weekend was a good time. I managed to bribe Andy, with promise of trip to the duke of perth for fish and chips, to paul's chorale concert. The choirs performance was quite good, but for some of the pieces I did not care for the melody; harsh and cacophonous. Paul's new piece was very good though. He really has a lot of talent as a composer ( Read more... )

I think everyone wonders what happens to the people who you went to school with. I went to school with many talented people, and I wonder what they are doing now - if they ever turned their passion into a career. I knew quite a number of people who were fantastic at art, and I wonder if any one of them pursued a professional career as an artist ( Read more... )

Riding on the bus the other day, I started thinking about how I got there. I feel so far distant from my past, yet things seemed to have happened over night. One minute you're in high school, the next college, and the next your SECOND job out of school ( Read more... )

I think a cold is coming on, but I truly, truly hope not. Tomorrow is Andy's birthday, and we're going out to a nice dinner. We'll probably do something with the gang on Saturday. I was sick last year on his birthday too, and I hope that I'll feel better tomorrow, and that it's just my allergies. I've been downing the zicam and the airbourne, ( Read more... )

I thought I had gotten used to working with people from different religious backgrounds. I think right now I'm having trouble with people from Catholic backgrounds. I am a practicing Catholic, but sometimes non practicing Catholics can have cruder, less informed, and bigoted opinions about the church than outsiders ( Read more... )

Saturday ( Read more... )

Yes, I have been doing alot of cooking lately. I went on a new diet, and it mostly requires fresh, cooked at home food. I think I'll probably lose weight just by standing in the kitchen and chopping vegetables. I like this diet, but I was really frustrated last week with it, b/c it's expensive (Whole Foods anyone?) and requires alot of work. I ( Read more... )

New Years resolutions can never come too late, right?

1. Read 3 articles each week. I read alot of articles halfway through to extract what I need from them; I need to read one all the way through and study a bit more on them. Maybe I will start a technical blog ( Read more... )

2006 was a hell of a year for Andy and I. A couple of days ago I asked him what I was doing to help people and make the world a better place, and he listed off a few things. So, instead of thinking about resolutions, here's what I'm proud of from 2006. I know it's corny, but I'll get to the resolutions later ( Read more... )