More uninteresting crap… Now from England!

The last few months have been… well, mostly crappy. It's not that I didn't have a lot of fun things to do, or that particularly bad things happened to me… I've just had this cloud of job stress hanging over me. Fun seemed to have a short half-life in it's shadow.

For months I knew my present employer was in some dire straits financially. I also knew that the search for funds would see the parting of the team that made it almost fun to work there. What really sucked was how long everything seemed to take to play out. Each day revealed a new wrinkle, which prompted another few hours of adjusting my strategy. Oh, and lots of bitching too.

Today I finally inked a deal with a new employer. It will be nice to work for a company on the rise again… one with some structure and stability. The deal is nice too (cash, benefits, etc.) Cashing in my unused vacation from my old job, will also certainly help brighten October's financial picture. Also, my commute drops from at best an hour a day round trip, to at worst about 15 minutes. (Although for Deb, this means more time on the bus… I'll miss her silent company in the morning.)

The bitch is that I get one stinking day off between jobs. *sigh* So much for my plan of enjoying months of subsidized vacation (unemployment). Maybe I'll just buy a few things to make me feel better (already have… more on that later.)

Ivan is dumping his load on us here in Pittsburgh… 6.5 inches and counting. Even though we live at the top of a hill, we've got a wet basement (first time since we lived here that wasn't some plumbing disaster.)

I ducked out of work early, and it was a good idea. I barely made it home before traffic completely stopped. It's crazy out there, and is set to only get worse.

The bummer is that Deb isn't home yet. Would be a good night for staying home.

Came home early last week… noticed a musty smell in the basement. Chalked it up to a wet rag I had left in a bucket, which I promptly removed.

Two busy days follow, along with the remnants of hurricane Frances and I go down to the basement again and the moldy funk is impossible to ignore. WTF!?

That's when I notice the main carpet is damp… no wet, and the one near the sink is absolutely drenched. I then discover the sink drain below the trap is blocked. Above the blockage the drain pipe is cracked. The AC system dehumidifies as it works and the water is pumped into the sink… which thanks to the 100% humidity caused by 24 hours of rain is an awful lot of water, and it all poured out the crack soaking the basement floor.

A trip to Home Depot suggested we were not alone in our dampness problems due to Frances… all dehumidifiers and box fans were sold out. Luckily Sears had one in stock (of course only the most expensive model) and we grabbed it.

I took my comp day to take care of the mess, but then I end up working (work work) all damn day from home. The basement is still funky, but at least the drain is mostly taken care of. Now I just need to let the dehumidifier and a ton of Febreze to do their work.

Just when I thought I had the next few months more or less plotted out, I was thrown a curveball yesterday. Either way it shakes out, the next few months will certainly be interesting.

More details when/if the deal is done.

Chris and I went fishing Friday on the Yough (the Youghiogheny River Friday. With the help of some online resources and the local sporting goods store we found out where to access the water.

Without a boat (I need something that will tow/hual a boat soon) we stuck to wading down the river as we fished. This proved quite challenging (as Chris can attest to) do to the very irregular and rocky bottom. This is however the perfect habitat for the fiesty Smallmouth Bass. Pound for pound they might be the toughest freshwater fish.

I was fighting my new rod/reel combo (I don't know if I really like this new Powerbraid line) and Chris got the first fish of the day. It was mostly slow going as we each caught a few more fun but small smallmouths. However persreverance paid off as I hooked into two large ones downstream. A 19″ and a 17″ proved to be quite a fight on an ultralight rod and 4lb test. I fought the 19″ fish for at least 5 minutes as he pulled me downstream. I put them back so someone else can have a try at catching them. (As much as I like fresh fish, I'm a big proponent of catch and release.)

The day did end on a bit of a sour note though… The local constable gave me a ticket for an expired plate (it's a bitch keeping tabs on 5 vehicles.) What really irratated me was that it was only expired by 3 days… Come on, can't a brother get a warning? I could have renewed on the spot via my phone, but I doubt that would have got me out of the ticket. Didn't want to wind-up in Gitmo for giving him grief either.

BTW: To the Perryopolis policeman that pulled me over: Consider using about 1/100th the amount of cologne you currently use. A bottle of Drakkar Noir, Old Spice, or whatever the hell that was, should not be a weekly expense.

I've reached a point were I no longer will tolerate complicated and/or tedious software installs (well at least when I'm not getting paid to do them.) If I can't have it up and running in 2 or maybe 3 minutes, I really start to question my need for the software.

What brought this up, was investigating blogging/wiki/bliki software. I'm largely sick of Moveable Type. Sure the license change was a pain, but in general it's too fiddly for what it does… which for me isn't much. Ideally, I'd switch to a bliki (weblog + wiki) and be able to import my old stuff, and be off and running.

That is still not to be. The leading contender Snipsnap is nearly excellent, but the speed of its development seems glacial, and the documentation is craptacular, and not even all in one place. A well documented, easy interface for creating new topics would be great… it would make importing data from my legacy systems a snap. It is however the model for easy to install. Even if you don't use the webstart installer, you can download it and be up and running in maybe 60 seconds. No messing about with databases, installing a dozen different libraries, or fooling with Apache. They do this by including a lightweight database and webserver as part of the package. If you want to tap into a heavier weight database, you can, but to test drive the software you don't have to bother with that hurdle. (Jira from Atlassian is similar in this respect.)

All the other packages I tried (I'm too lazy to linkify them) Drupal, TikiWiki, and even the claimed super easy to install WordPress, I gave up on. If your setup relies on me having Mysql setup/installed/ and vigilantly administered, it is not a super easy install. I honestly don't want to learn how to administer yet another database… It's not even learning, the fundementals are all the same, I just would have to fill my head with it's pointlessly different way of doing things… likely at the expense of my knowledge of other databases.

That's not to say I'd never use anything that relies on Mysql, or some other software I have yet used. I just need a compelling reason to do so. So make the initial install super quick and easy (like Snipsnap and Jira) and when I realize how cool they are, I'll suck it up an install a database for performance/security reasons.

Significant life change via email… I just sent the email that signals a significant change in my current job. I didn't resign, but I let it be known that I was looking for a change. I hope it gives them enough warning to work around me. It was a surprisingly difficult decision. I normally take pride in my very business like attitude towards… well business. But I guess in 6 years time I managed to set some roots. The decision, was not made easier, but instead forced by an abrupt change in staff. It was easy enough to live with a shakey economic future surrounded by friends, but now that the bulk are gone… The last month or two has been too punishing. I need a fresh start.