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07/09/2004 Entry: "The story so far..."

I am in misery. My jaw/teeth really hurt. It's hard to tell which, but there's like a thunderstorm in my mouth where all the work was done. Sometimes it's the teeth, sometimes it's some weird line in the middle of my lower lip, and sometimes the gums are just sore. I keep tasting random things, too, like my taste buds are on the fritz. It comes and goes, but it's happening more and more as the days go by. I am also incredibly tired and sleepy most of the time, which may or may not be related. Feh.

Poor Fran. He's not well. The diagnosis changes a lot, as the Hep C and his failing liver ravages through his system. He was feeling better and taking a sabbatical to some of his relatives. Last week, he was staying with his father and stepmother, but then he got real sick, and had to go to the hospital. They gave him some meds and filled him with some fluids, and he felt better for a while. He came to stay with us because his father couldn't handle seeing his son this way, and they were too old to effectively take care of him. So we picked him up from the hospital, and he's been at our house all week, fading in and out. He tried to cook us a meal a few days ago, but he got too tired and we had to finish it. Now it looks like Christine's going to have to drive him home today or tomorrow so he can get back on his nursing care.

In other news, I am planning my next two months. There's a lot going on.

This Saturday, I am having a meeting with MSD about GenCon, and what we need to do there. I will be helping out at the table a lot more than I had planned, mostly because they lost yet another person. It turns out that Cheryl had misunderstood what Kory had said, and the book is NOT selling off the web as briskly as I was led to believe (it's okay), but it was their #2 seller at Balticon, which is saying a lot. I'll probably talk to them about more small writing projects they have.

I will be working at Otakon! CR and I will be working the Katsucon table, and hanging out with Katsu folk, like we have been doing for years. Look for us there the weekend of July 30th, being silly as always.

After all the stress, Vegas sucking, and no summer convention (i.e. Castlecon), Christine decided to have a big party in August. Actual dates and times TBD. We're going to do Legos this time around, as well as the normal gaming and drinking. Okay, I won't game and drink, but I will be working with Legos. I have a 55 gallon tub filled with Legos, but I don't care if no one by me plays with them; I just like the company.

My potential new job prospectus is in limbo. The status is complicated (it would take paragraphs to describe the soap opera they are going through, and might not be wise to say some stuff in a public blog), but let me give you the summary: if I hear anything, it won't be for a few weeks. Apparently, there are two piles of applicants: "junior people" and "senior people." I am at the top of the "junior" pile. He told me "not to worry about being hired," which could mean several things, but is generally a good sign.

Then, on another set, my current work has made hints they want me to stay. Maybe even compensate me in many ways that would be... beneficial. See, we're part of a migration from two groups into one. It's not going well, mainly due to personailty and goal conflicts. On my team, I am "the Perl/Linux guy" and the other team needs me to get my team to move over to a Perl/Linux platform (because our platform is stuck in the 1980s-early 90s)

I also got the barest hint that another company might want to hire me for a lot of money. This is really sketchy at this point, but happened while I was discussing this job development over lunch with a friend. He had been offered two jobs recently in the 6-digit salary range, and asked, "Say... if another company were to offer you the same pay... would you be interested?" Not that I would make 6 digits (I don't think), but it looks like the sort of thing if he takes the job, he might want me to work for him. He asked a lot of questions about why I'd chose to stay with my current company, and what it would take to hire me away. Lot of if's, which is why I call this "the barest hint."

Money is one thing. I like money. It's not the MOST important thing, however. I have friends who make a lot of money, but hate their jobs so much, it's affecting evrything in their life. My friend Brad went through that for a few years, working for 3 soul-sucking companies until he worked at one place long enough to get laid off with a severance package. When he left, he had a lot of money saved, and said he wasn't doing "the tech thing" anymore. Now, he's got a full time job doing "the tech thing" again but it's not soul-sucking. Yet.

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