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What next?

As everything else comes to a head, the IRS decides to start breathing down my neck. Let’s suffice it to say that last fall my attorney wanted me to give him $1000 retainer to begin straightening this out (I am certain the final bill will be 5 times that) but didn’t want me to do anything until I could bring him all my paperwork in order. Hmm.. Seen my house? The paperwork is anything BUT in order.

So this is how we come to make those difficult choices in life.. Does one choose to live under the bridge or jump off of it?

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Do I know XML?

So I get this email:


I noticed you had some XML on your resume. How much experience and how

recent is your experience with XML? I have a contract that just came

for dealing with XML that may be a possibility for you.


The problem is the only reference to XML on my resume is circa 2002. (btw, if you are going to look it wouldn’t be complete without also looking at brief 1 and brief 2) I reply that I know XML very well because I believe I do and that obviously there is more to the job than what the initial email implies. To make sure I’m not fooling myself, I run out to the W3 Schools and spend the evening reviewing XML history, standards etc. Of course, the first thing I see is this joke:


Question: When should I use XML?

Answer: When you need a buzzword in your resume.


For my level of skill, XML is far from rocket science. But to make sure, I took the W3Schools XML test. My results appear below:


W3Schools XML Quiz

Result:

20 of 20

100%

Perfect!!!

Time Spent

3:23

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Poetry: Addiction

Tim of Spy Journal has written some exceptional poetry. I used to enjoy dabbling in some writing and presenting it at coffee house poetry readings until one day I read something that the guy I looked up to as a respected poety responded with “What the f*(& was that?!” He didn’t mean it in a bad way but it made me a little bashful about presenting poetry anymore. However, there is one small piece that I wrote around 1992 that thought needed to be read (the recording didn’t come out as well as I expected. Now that audioblogger.com has arrived I can put up some poetry. Special thanks to Tim for the inspiration!

this is an audio post - click to play

Addiction

I am addicted!

Oh I can’t get enough

7 times a week

24 times a day

60 times an hour

60 times a minute

Oh I can’t get enough

Hey you! Can I have some of yours?

Just a bit

Please!

All I need is a little more

Time.

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Bad scene

Had a huge blowout with the wife. We went to pick up Sarah from her week away at camp. Everyone is happy and Cathy does something innocent and for some reason I found it intolerable and got upset. Cathy unhappy with me driving angry made a comment and I blew up worse and ended up parking the car and started to walk home in the rain. Made a complete ass of myself in front of Cathy and 3 of the kids. I feel horrible. How could I have been that way? There was no good in it and my chest still feels absolutely hollow inside. I question whether or not my heart beats. Of course to add insult to injury was the power cut off notice when we got home.

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Scheduled Power Outage

According to the nice pink note that appeared on my door sometime between 1:30 and 3 my electricity is scheduled to disappear at 5pm if $300 doesn’t magically fly out of my hindquarters. No matter how badly you hate your job, be thankful you have one.

While trying to make arrangements to keep power the person on the other end of the phone says “Is there anything else I can do to help?” and my reply was “Yes, don’t vote for Bush!”

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Goals

a) telephone interview DONE

b) update dice.com

c) email friend regarding dates for helping him

d) email pay monthly prospect DONE

e) contact Linksys re support question

f) email “barter client” DONE

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A New Day! Let’s start the day off with a PayPa…

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

Gentle rain outside. Pleasant to listen to except for the occasional memory that both the windows in the Jeep are down and the thought that kids didn’t zip up the tent. I wanted to stretch out because my back is aching so much from sitting in this horrid wood chair but the time is flying this morning and I’ve got to get productive. Main goal is to prepare for a decent phone interview. If all goes well I’ll have 4 large companies offer me jobs at the same time!