The Stagnant Winds of Change

I really feel sorry for the troops these days. Not only did they probably miss their only chance to get home and/or not stay over in Iraq until the shitstain (read: Bush) gets out of office, we cemented the hatred of practically the rest of the world until he's out of office in 4 years.

No, I'm not quite as hopeful thinking something bad might happen to him in the meantime. I think Haliburton Man may be even worse. It's not like they're not all Old Rich White Guys (hell, even Kerry rode the Heinz bus all the way to the polls), but at least Kerry was labelled as the Most Extreme Super Liberal Evar and he got 48% of the vote.

For the rest of the world, I apologize. It was my own fault I didn't get to the polls on November 2nd. My short window of registration opportunity ran out (as the last day to register was October 2nd...a Sunday, for fuck's sake) and I'll be left to wander aimlessly in regards to my local officials until I can right this wrong in another few years.

Political office always seems so strange. And also so very unpaying. Is it me or does public office pay pretty much nothing, but it dictates how we live our lives, from the judges in office or the officials who put together tax proposals and whatnot. Therefore, those in power have already earned the money necessary to (what some may amount to) throw away in hopes of steering the community (or state, or country for that matter) how they see fit?

Interesting to me, anyway. I know that some of the higher offices pay their officials, but it never seems anywhere near what it actually costs to achieve such an office. So the conundrum continues.

A Long Silence

I tell myself that I'm waiting for employment before posting on my own site again. That I'm letting my $13/mo go to waste as I stay in my little life, waiting for something to happen. There have been several employment close calls, and each cuts a little deeper than the last. I tell myself that I should have said this, I should have done that.

I do not do this regarding my departure from ORNL. That I will not speak of as who knows who reads this 'net rag anyway, and the last thing I want is to give the people I used to work with the enjoyment of trying to peel apart my prose into some sort of thin veiled apology, as I am not sorry for anything I did there.

I do however, feel very sorry for my former employers. Both my boss and the CIO, a guy who admittedly had so little experience in the field he was only appointed to the position because he got a masters degree and all people who get masters in that organization get a VP position, have both left in the past few weeks.

Why is this, you wonder. For my immediate supervisor, I have no idea. For the CIO guy, I have no qualms saying he was unqualified and that he took a $150,000 "solution" and ran it so far in the ground I'm sure it had some influence to his departure. It was a woeful mistake, but there are other such tales I can tell but I won't. The point is, they are gone after I left. Interesting to think about.

The kids? The patented Annie and Abby Update(tm)? Well, they're doing great. Annie has officially become the smartest two year old ever (by my judgement alone, of course), and Abby is crawling at 8 months, which is excellent by anyone's standards. Annie, by comparison, didn't crawl until 12 months and walked around 14. We since learned that you put kids on their stomach ASAP and that this will facilitate movement. Sounds simple, but really you have to let them get a little bit mad, as that struggle is what drives their motion.

The finances from such a loss of employment, as I feel obliged to at least mention such a facet of my life, have been okay. I'm the kind of lucky bastard who always gets a last minute windfall to carry me over the next crisis, and while I seem to be reaching the end of this luck as it were, I believe I am very close to employment at two seperate locations and will of course update this page in light of such fortune.

On a much brighter note, let's cover my hobbies and game development pursuits. I still write for Star Chamber on a weekly basis, along with posting articles from players. You'll find those at starchamber.net as always. Otherwise, I've kind of went headlong back into Magic: The Gathering (both the cardboard and the Online versions), with appearances at the TN State Championship (I took home a box of cards by winning a mini-tournament), along with spending a good deal of cash on nice cardboard and online drafts. I love the latter, and have since taught my friend Christian how to play. He seems to greatly enjoy it, and that makes me feel good and a little sleazy as I know how addicting that damn game can be.

Lastly, I've got some great news reading game design that I'll get to share soon.