Month: February 2005

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

This Morning
What an exceptional day I had yesterday! Now if only I could code a little faster.

Sometime like this always pops up when I’m suddenly underworked.

“Do what you love and the money will follow” is great in theory, but the truth of the matter is, certain jobs and fields simply pay more. The Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey, published in August 2004, showed that white-collar earnings — which averaged $21.85 per hour — were the highest among occupational groups. Blue-collar pay averaged $15.03 per hour, while the hourly pay of service occupations averaged just $10.40.
…
Top Paying Jobs Overall
Physicians and surgeons $147,000
Aircraft pilots $133,500
Chief executives $116,000
Electrical and electronic engineers $112,000
Lawyers and judges $99,800
Dentists $90,000
Pharmacists $85,500
Management analysts $84,700
Computer and information system managers $83,000
Financial analysts, managers and advisers $84,000
Marketing and sales managers $80,000
Education administrators $80,000

Top Paying Jobs That Do Not Require a High School Degree
Industrial production managers $36,000
Bailiffs, correctional officers and jailers $36,400
Paralegals and legal assistants $36,400
Drafters $36,000
Construction manager $33,600
Electricians $31,900

Top Paying Jobs for High School Graduates
Computer software engineers $58,900
Computer/information systems managers $56,400
Computer programmers $55,000
Network systems and data communications analysts $49,000
General and operations managers $48,000
Database, network and computer systems administrators $48,000

Top Paying Jobs for a Two-Year College Degree
Business analysts $58,000
Electrical and electronic engineers $57,000
Mechanical engineers $56,800
General and operations managers $54,000
Computer and information systems managers $50,400

Unlike the rebate ripoff I received from Cingular, BestBuy was quick to act on their rebates.

Woot!
Slickdeals.net

Need I say more?

Updated resume sent off and uploaded to The Perfect Job.

Last night I thought I’d tackle a box labelled “stuff and trash” but I couldn’t bring myself to go through it. It has old calendars, my first father’s day cards from the kids, account statements and other miscellanea. I’ll try again tonight.

Thanks to Marshall!

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Low
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Moderate
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Moderate
Histrionic:	High
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	Low
Dependent:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive:	High
— Personality Disorder Test – Take It! —

Did the Teacher Say to Put Your Tongue in My Mouth?

Since 1998, more than 500 couples have paid $275 to learn Byrd’s secrets for giving or receiving a passionate kiss. … Most are married and in their late 30s to mid-50s. Some couples have come from as far away as Africa, Korea and cities all over the United States…

Ok. I could teach this class! And if I could get 20 students per month we’d be doing ok!

For Valentine’s Day my wife got me my very own red Swingline stapler! If anyone tries to take it I might just have to burn the building down.

So I decide to take the dog to the bus stop and when the other girl showed up Molly became so excited that she spilled my coffee all over the console ruining our school coupon booklet and getting coffee on my near mint condition book. I called to Sarah to hand me the towel we keep in the back of the car and she moves in that one speed that all our children seem to only know. These kids have no understanding of urgency.

At least I maintained composure and did not curse or yell.

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

This Morning
I woke at 1:30, 3:00, 4:30 and finally got up at 6:05 in one of those panics where I wished death would visit instead of making me have to face the day. I really wanted to skip sleeping last night in favor of productivity. I need a vacation so badly it hurts and I mean one of those vacations where I get away from work, bills and home repair.

Sarah wrestles the dog. It’s nice to see them starting to bond.
Noah, thrilled in his own independence, has walked to the bus stop.
Tommy refuses to eat the eggs I cooked today; instead he sits on his bed waiting for the bus to come so he can get dressed.
Amy, by some miracle and despite Sarah playing fetch with the dog up and down the hallway, remains asleep.
Omega grows.
Cathy rests.

I declared Monday’s for Marketing. But this morning I decided that it was important to make some headway on my two projects. Once of them required that I put a new CPU fan on my development server. I headed to CompUSA and bought the wrong fan. Went out a second time to exchange it but left without my wallet. They didn’t have the right fan anyway and fortunately returned my money without asking for id. I finally found the fan in another part of town. It’s now 10pm at night and the machine is finally back together…a process that only took 14 hours.

I’ve dusted off William Gibson’s Neuromancer to rekindle the cyberpunk in me. I’ll have to watch Hackers and blare Billy Idol’s Cyberpunk to really draw out the punk!

    

Ugh. My dev server’s cpu fan is dead. I must go to CompUSA and pay way too much for way too little.

If anyone knows someone with $10k or so that they are looking to dump on a good cause, have them contact me. I sure could use a little relief.

Heidi Crumb (University of TN, Knoxville)
Patricia Sothman Vinyard (University of TN, Knoxville)
Craig Howard (University of TN, Knoxville)
Joline Johnson (Medford, NJ)
Suzanne Summers (Univeristy of TN, Knoxville)
Earl Harrison Reed “Bucky” (University of TN, Knoxville)
Amy Brace (University of TN, Knoxville)

When I was 11 years old I became over the top concerned with the potential loss of memory. By that point in my life we were living in my 4th house and 3rd city and already I felt a lack of permanence. The people around me did not know my stories and had not shared my adventures of previous years so no group memory of clubs, friends and escapades existed. I decided I wanted to start chronicling my life on paper but like my family tree and letters to past friends and family nothing ever materialized until roughly 10 years later when I finally began journaling.

Ironically I have very patchy memories of my teens. The memories are there and come in spurts but its like I’ve blocked them.

I know when I moved to Medford, NJ at 14 years old that I suddenly realized no one knew anything about me, could not verify my stories, and I could become anyone I wanted to be with any past that I so chose to create. I chose the truth and I’d had so many off the wall experiences by that point in my life that even the truth sounded far fetched at times.

At 19 I started blackout drinking and spent the next half a decade give or take with my evening’s actions being commentated to me by others that remembered far more of the night than I ever would. There is one particular 20 minute lapse in my life at 4am in downtown Knoxville with a cute blonde that I’d really like to remember. Am I making a sexual reference? I dunno. It could have been 20 minutes of rejection, sex, smoking or shooting heroin for all I know. (to the best of my knowledge I’ve never shot heroin) I distinctly remember being in the club. I remember the girl. I remember being questioned about where I was and what I was doing but for the life of me I have no recollection of that 20 minutes of my life. Do I want to remember those 20 minutes for the act? No, not really. Mostly I’d like to fill in the blank but that’s just 1 of 1000 such blanks.

Now-a-days names and faces of people that I don’t interact with for two weeks or so quickly fade. It’s very frustrating to recognize someone and not be able to nail down exactly why you know this person or what their name is.

My Alzheimer’s is going to be fun!