January 2006 Archives

So Congress is finally accepting what the news and bloggers have been reporting for months: FEMA turned away help from all offerers.

I think it's time for criminal proceedings against Brownie, and maybe Bush as well. It's time that someone learn that the kind of blatant political patronage that's occured can really have personally disasterous consequences.

I would feel this way if it were Clinton or someone else that was president. This is not a partisan issue. This is a matter of you don't appoint your friends to positions where it kills and hurts people and destroys their lives. It's apparent now that Bush's appointment of his friend has done just that.

So I'm no economic expert, but everyone seems to have a economic gloom and doom scenario, and I thought I should post the one I have rattling around in my head.

I heard an interview with Attorney General Gonzalez yesterday regarding the NSA wiretaps stating that getting a FISA warrant was too much of a burden and that the wiretaps were akin to when you go to the airport and get searched or enter a government building and get searched.

I find those to be appalling examples, but getting on an airplane or entering a building are voluntary actions undertaken by the searchee who consents to being searched as part of the action they're carrying out.

When my mom calls Germany to talk to her family she didn't consent to be listened in on by the NSA. It's an involuntary search, and that is the reason why we have warrants. It's gives us the assurance that an independent judge has at least reviewed the merits of the case and it passes muster.

I'm 100% fine with the NSA and FBI wiretapping people as long as there are stopgaps in place, like FISA, which ensure that civil liberties are protected.

But for Bush, and by proxy, our Attorney General, to claim that they have the authority to flaunt the Constitution and its protections of our civil liberties is distressing.

I find it ironic that Bush is more worried with trying to build a democracy in a country half-way across the globe while so glibly destroying and dismantling the one we have here at home. The same democracy he was elected to be the steward of.

One of the best commercials I've seen in a long time. It's work-safe but not politically correct in any way.

I really want one of these: an oversized blanket with sleeves. The person who thought that up is a genius. Of course, the next thing they need is to make one with two sets of sleeves so you and your SO can sit together under the blanket and both have sleeves. Hoods would be a bonus too.

Maybe this says something about the temperature in my house...

I'm rereading "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and implementing the book's suggestions at my new job. I've got a DayRunner that Heather gave to me years ago that I never used and I refilled it and I've been using it to help me track my tasks and get myself to complete. It's been good so far, and I have seen a spike in my productivity and vast decline in my general level of angst...but one thing occured to me yesterday.

In addition to doing "Getting Things Done" I'm also doing the "Artist's Way" and one of the things that's important in that process is the morning pages, which is a time when you sit down for 30 minutes as soon as you wake up and just write free-form stream-of-consciousness so that all of the scum floating on top of your brain gets skimmed and left behind. The idea is the same as Getting Things Done: when you've cleared these little nagging issues and problems from your head you're more able to focus on the big and important stuff (not exactly revolutionary, but important to address all the same).

As I was writing out my morning pages yesterday I came to the realization that a large part of my anxiety surrounding work had nothing to do so much with the complexity of the work or the deadlines so much as it was that I am suffering from a profound doubt about my ability to architect a software solution around a problem, so much so, that I often end up procrastinating on building anything until it's (almost) too late and then I try to hack something out.

I know in my head that I have the skills and knowledge to be a good architect, but somehow I lack the emotional fortitude to believe it. That's huge, and I've never openly acknowledged it until now.

So I think that that has been a contributing factor to all of my stress and worry and job churn that I've gone through in the past. I'm happy though, because naming it means I can tackle it and fix it.

I think this is a huge step for me.

I started my new job today at a company in King of Prussia. It was a tough start to the day because my daughter was awake and in bed with mommy when I walked in to tell my wife I was leaving.

She looked at me and said "Daddy, I want you to play with me today. I told you that yesterday." and little tears ran down her face. It was very heartbreaking.

But I'm happy to have a job again! Hooray for that.

A British woman has married a dolphin. Upon seeing that the name of the dolphin was Cindy, the Lord took great displeasure, fearing that sodomy might occur between two species of the same gender, but then finding out it is indeed a boy has had to pause for reflection. Is this marriage between male and female, albeit of different species more okay or less okay than a gay man marrying another gay man?

I say we send Fred Phelps to investigate. We all know he keeps a cool head about these things.

I'm seeking new employment, and I'm looking in the Harrisburg, PA area, so if anyone knows of any companies doing .Net, Perl, or Java work in Central PA, shoot me an email.

Thanks

I can begin to live out my plan to become a Czech hobo.