So most of you who still read this site know what all is going on. Academy fired me for total bullshit reasons which I won’t go into. I have no hard feelings towards anyone there. I might think it was crap but being upset at someone for doing what they thought was their job would accomplish nothing. I am upset about losing the monthly poker game even though I knew it was likely. It is held at my now ex-boss’s hacienda, thrown by her husband, and I guess it would be weird for her. For me work is work and social is social is social. I really liked that game even though I didn’t always win. It’s not easy to find a good home game and that was one for me.
Anyway I am back in webhosting doing sysadmin work for a lot less money. There are some perks to the job and some drawbacks. The perks include: no dress code, free lunch (if you accomplish certain goals), some cool people with which to work, and a schedule that allows me to consult. The drawbacks are: Low pay, a schedule that doesn’t let me off until midnight, dealing with customers, some people with stereotypical sysadmin hygiene, and having to deal with porn on a daily basis. It’s a gig and it’s paying the bills. I also have two consulting clients at this point and am open for server management consulting. I have a non-compete so I can’t do hosting but I never really did anyway.
So that’s the long and short of the last three weeks.
Seamus also turned six last Wednesday and we will have a party for him and Michelle next weekend which will apparently involve painting on Saturday. I am working Sunday through Thursday so Friday is the day I relax and since I get home long after the family goes to sleep I am giving Michelle Saturdays as her day to choose what we do. Today we are going to a park that has Bluebonnets and taking pictures with the kids. It sounds alright and gets me out of the house which is good for me. Next Saturday, as I mentioned, is painting day. We have to borrow a ladder but we are beginning to fix the house up a bit since we will be here a while. On my current salary we can’t afford to buy a house.
Well I am trying not to whine and ramble on about how much things suck as I want to have a good attitude about all of this but, quite frankly, it is a struggle. I upgraded to WP 2.5 and have to get some of the plugins working again but everything is looking good so far.
So I am making it through the work day on gum. The problem is that it upsets my stomach in a massive way. This means I can barely drink by the time the day is over so I buy a pack on the way home. I am down to under half what I used to smoke but that’s not good enough. I am trying to cut back during the day so I can do the gum longer into the evening but I suspect that is not the best plan.
At work I am stuck playing with a technology I know and love. The problem is that anything gets boring after you have done it too long. I am head down in Nagios all the time. I have learned a lot and am still learning but damn it I am bored. I am about to write some check plugins so I will get to play with perl which is never a bad thing.
I am trying to get approved to go to Brainshare this year and I will likely know today whether that is happening or not. We will wait and see.
That’s all for now but more later for sure.
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Well I havwe failed two days in row to stop smoking. I have gum thanks to my friend Dermot and it works as long as I am not arounf any other smokers. I haven’t failed yet today so we will see how it goes. I want one smoke free day under my belt. This may be the hardest thing I have ever done but I think it will be one of the best things as well. There is not profit without sacrifice in life. I just have to see how much I am willing to sacrifice.
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Well it’s right after lunch and I am posting from the men’s room on the blackberry. The day is half over and shows no signs of ending. The new Lotus Notes client came out today with a borked installer so I haven’t got to play with it. I am overloading myself with two late night changes this week to install firewalls on a bunch of servers! It will be hell but I want to move on to the next project and soon. This has been killing me! The drudgery and boredom past the initial research is just insane.
See I can whine about work without saying one bad word about anyone! That felt good…
One more tight, but not broke, pay period and we are out of the woods. I am looking forward to that for sure.
Fry’s is going to kill me. But they did take months to fix my computer so they can wait a while for me to pick it up.
So randmon and so cheap. What did you expect from the men’s room?
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Cook Rosa Maria Salazar’s eyes dart anxiously to the door as customers file into the Salvadoran cafe in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles.
“We’re terrified. The police could come for us at any time and deport us,” she said in Spanish earlier this week as diners fingered maize tortillas stuffed with beans and pork scratchings and chatted softly.
The 55-year-old undocumented worker from Guatemala is among many Hispanics deeply shaken by recent immigration raids at the heart of Latino communities in southern California.
So you mean to tell me that illegal immigrants are actually afraid of being deported? That people breaking the law are scared of the consequences? I say that it is about damn time! I don’t care if you are making corn tortillas stuffed with beans and pork grease. I don’t care whose lawn you are mowing. I don’t care what meat packing plant employed you. If you are here without a visa you are here illegally and as such you ought to be afraid of what will happen if you are caught. The feds are finally cracking down but it’s too little too late. Unless they keep up the pace it won’t change anything. The criminals will go back to being complacent and won’t worry about the fact they are breaking our laws daily. They have no respect for our laws, culture, or our people. They only want what they think is best for them. They are selfish and they are criminals. They are humans and deserving of love but they also must face the consequences of their actions. It is not loving in the lest to allow someone to have no consequences at all for their actions.
The-seven day Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep, dubbed “Operation Return to Sender,” targeted jails across five counties in the Los Angeles area, where police took 423 of what they called “criminal aliens” into federal custody for deportation, after being held on charges unrelated to their immigration status.
Federal agents from seven teams also fanned out in local communities, where they nabbed 338 undocumented immigrants, more than 150 of whom were classed as “immigration fugitives” — foreign nationals who ignored final deportation orders.
The raid was the latest in a series of get-tough enforcement measures by ICE in the United States, but the largest action of its kind in California, where more than a third of the population is Hispanic.
You will note the name of the operation “Return to Sender”. This name is because the people that the raid targeted are in fact repeat offenders. Sure the net caught first time offenders as well but that is as it should be. I say we implement the three strikes law and upon catching a third or more time offender we give them their wish. They get to spend the rest of their life right here in the US courtesy of the federal prison system. We do it for much smaller offenses why not this one? With the current political climate I don’t see that happening. I see us, as a country, about to embrace these criminals and welcome them with open arms ignoring the fact that they have already broken multiple laws by the time we catch them.
“We hadn’t seen anything like this here before, and it came as a shock,” said Antonio Bernabe, a community worker who runs a day labor program at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
“The police didn’t just take people with deportation orders, they took anybody … guys who were just hanging out in the street and even from a Jack in the Box restaurant … and now people are afraid to go out,” he added.
And this article doesn’t mention how many of these people were actually innocent and released. I wonder why the media doesn’t bother with those figures at all? I don’t see anyone complaining about being innocent and caught up in the raids. This is strange as we usually see cries of racism and the rights of innocents being trampled. We aren’t seeing that this time. I find that very interesting. I know what conclusion I draw from this but I will leave you to your own conclusions.
The high-profile sweep netted mostly Mexican nationals, but included people from 14 countries including Ukraine, Japan, Poland and Trinidad.
It culminated on Tuesday, when President George W. Bush gave a State of the Union address that ranked immigration legislation among his top domestic priorities.
Bush called for “comprehensive immigration reform,” combining a guest-worker program with tougher workplace and border enforcement.
I wonder if this new border enforcement will actually include our agents on the border actually being allowed to fire their weapons when confronted?
He remained vague, however, on the thorny issue of how to deal with the 10 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows, more than 2.5 million of whom live in California.
It looks like they already know how to deal with it. Just keep up the raids and the deportation. It’s really that simple.
Not today. I had to skip the Austin trip for various and numerous reasons.
1. Michelle has been showing more and more signs of being ready to pop. I would never forgive myself if I left town and the baby came. I have been there for every birth and this one ain’t gonna be any different.
2. The weather is pretty much teh suck and as much as I want to see the boys I would be miserable for most of the day.
3. I feel like utter and complete hammered crap today.
4. Even with the wonderful gift the possibility of the baby coming early is a budget concern since I will miss about a week of work.
5. Transportation wasn’t going to be an easy issue to tackle.
So for all those reasons and more I didn’t get to go to the music festival, have lunch with UberLutheran, crash on Jake’s couch and pretend I am eighteen for two days, or drive to Austin with Freddy. I am not depressed about this at all to be honest. I made a responsible decision and I am proud of myself for that.
Moving is teh sux0r. Ok that’s about as 1337 as I am gonna get. I just wanted a smile on your face when I tell you how much it sucks to move with no help. The truck arrived today. I asked around work to find some help, been asking all week, but it’s to no avail. If we don”t get some help we may end up leaving major appliances behind because I will not be deterred from the path of return to the Lone Star State. I am way to ready to go.
I moved up my last today to be tomorrow. I will work as short a day as possible so that I can cram the trailer full of stuff and leave Friday. I will be back in Tejas before nightfall if the truck is loaded by around 1000 MST. Well maybe not nightfall but damn close. Right now I am taking a break. Michelle and I just loaded the washing machine. Yes me and my wife loaded a washing machine. It wasn’t easy. We have to get the dryer next. I do not know if I want to attempt the fridge but I may have to try that alone as well. The table is the other heavy thing. We can handle the bookcases easily. Hell I can handle those by myself. The boxes of books are gonna suck but are doable.
Anyway that’s all I got right now. I have all sorts of thoughts on the days news but it can wait. A pox on anyone who thinks their problems are worse than mine right now.
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