A waste of bits and bandwidth

I haven’t done a Friday 5 in a while so I thought it was about time…

You have just won one million dollars:

1. Who do you call first?
My family, then a travel agent…

2. What is the first thing you buy for yourself?
A first class ticket to somewhere, anywhere, that I couldn’t be found for a while. Of course with Fido, that means anywhere outside of Greater Vancouver. “One ticket to Squamish please”

3. What is the first thing you buy for someone else?
New plugs for Biff

4. Do you give any away? If yes, to whom?
NO! It’s mine! I have no job; win your own damn lottery! Uh, well, yeah I guess I’d pass some out

5. Do you invest any? If so, how?
I’d buy a certain company that just laid me off, again, and employ upper management as pool boys. Biff would get the coveted job of ‘bringing the Bentley ’round’

Ok, that felt good. Then I noticed that it was only a million bucks. A lot of cash but not that much these days.

I’d travel for a bit, return to school and buy a bit of real estate. The rest would be invested so that I only had to work for something to do… Sometimes reality is boring as hell…

I watched all of five minutes of the Superbowl yesterday. It was half-time and Janet Jackson was on. She was lip syncing “I’ll have you naked by the end of this song…” and then suddenly, an ‘unfortunate wardrobe malfunction’… Right.

Let’s see, who has a CD coming out in two weeks? Janet. What would cause everyone to talk about Janet? An exposed boob at the Superbowl.

Now I’m all in favour of shocking to get a reaction but all the denials that this business wasn’t staged is ridiculous. Actually, I could give a rat’s ass about any of this; I just needed an excuse to put a boob on my site. “Put down the phone Mom, this is a current event comment.”

Time to head over to Windows Update. Microshaft has released a critical update for all you Internet Explorer users. Or, feel free to use Firebird and relieve yourself from having to worry about this sort of stuff. Your call…

So I was sitting here in my plush, well-lit apartment this afternoon doing what unemployed people do (read: nothing) when someone slipped an envelope under my door. I ignored it as I figured it was probably a menu or something.

Then there was a knock at the door a second later. I opened the door and there is this old woman standing there who had just slipped the envelope under the door and she’s asking for it back.

I pick it up and it’s obviously full of cash. I hand it back to her and she goes, “Sorry, it was supposed to go to #601″ 601? She’s on the 16th floor, ten floors from where she should be and shoving envelopes full of cash under doors without looking at the number? “Thank you, come again…”

I’ve decided to set out on my job search on Monday. I’ve been terribly bored the latter part of last week and I think the only cure is to get going ASAP. Hopefully any potential employers will understand about my upcoming trip. Oh yeah, and apply for EI… I guess I should do that as well.

I’ve been going out on walks with my camera lately and have been enjoying taking pictures of whatever catches my eye. It’s sessions like this that show the strength of digital photography. I was able to re-shoot pics that didn’t turn out right away and also not be worried about developing the film.

I still haven’t bought a proper media card so I’m only getting about 35 shots before it’s full. Even with that, I would say that only a handful really look good when I transfer them to the computer. Maybe if I had some idea of how to compose a shot…

With that having been said, I’m investigating a few different options for a photo gallery and will hopefully have something up in the near (?) future. I have a few more to look at and just need to decide which would work best for me and what options my host would support. Sounds fun, no?

I also noted with some delight that the SCO Group (bastards) has been knocked off the web now that Mydoom has been triggered. While I don’t agree with using personal computers as zombies, I point and laugh at this particular target.

Woke up today and had no place to go. I think that will be the hardest part of all this. I feel pretty upbeat about my chances for finding a new job. I think that disappointed describes my feeling the best when it comes to getting laid off. Not that big a deal, just disappointing.

I guess you really do get used to it after a while. Maybe it’s more that the unknown isn’t that scary when you have hung out there a few times before. Thanks to all of you for your comments! Nice to know that you guys are pulling for me.

Went out for lunch with Biff and Roger at the Cactus Club today. (Man, that’s a special place…) I carefully consulted my calendar before agreeing and surprise, I was free for lunch! We haven’t seen Roger since he left for the flat lands to fly helicopters some time ago.

After listening to him tell his storey’s, Paul and I looked at him and told him to start blogging. Damn that was funny… Hopefully he’ll be around for a while but it looks like his trip will be shortened as he has a test flight that could see him moving even further north.

It’s not for me but I completely understand him. He’s doing what he loves and that is the very reason I have never gone back to the shop. If you do what you love to do everything else will fall into place.

Now I have to try and fill my day tomorrow. I’m going to work on the resume a little and maybe send a few out depending on how the tweaking goes. I might even follow up with a few people that I have good relationships with. After that? No idea. Maybe I’ll do a lap of the park and take some pictures.

You can probably expect some changes/additions to the site, as well. I’ve got the time…

Well, today was the day and I got the axe. We had heard that the layoffs had started in the morning and sure enough it was on. The planned meeting was a survivor meeting and I wasn’t invited. In total, about 20% of the company is gone after today. At least I didn’t go alone…

I’m fine with it and have no regrets at all. It was a good time while it lasted and better than where I was before. The severance package was much better this time round so no worries. Plus the CTO offered to give me a reference to anyone who was interested.

I’m not sure what the next step is. I guess I’ll take some time off before my trip and then start the 2004 job search! Oh joy… I hear that the market is better, so here’s hoping…

We hit the Shank Club which is the official IW watering hole when this sort of stuff happens. I’ve been there more times than I can count during my time at IW and frankly, I’m just relieved that this is over. Now I can move on again.

No worries, I’m fine. I always am…