I started a new job on Wednesday! I am a LAN Analyst, sounds cool eh? As a friend if mine says, "no longer a phone bitch!"
Basically, I am doing user account migrations, creations and modifications for a LARGE financial institution that shall remain nameless. It is a 6 month contract position but when I get done I will be a Microsoft Active directory god! That means it will be a perfect time to take the test.
The pay is excellent and the commute is long, both are good things (I really like driving). With any luck I will be able to use this as a foot in the door for a permanent position or possibly another contract job when this is over.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Yesterday was a good day!
Yesterday was one of the best days I have had a long time (mostly). I had a job interview in South Chandler (which is like 45 miles from my house) for an Active Directory/Exchange Administrator job that I really want. It is a contract job but it is an excellent opportunity to get into a good company. The interview was outstanding and I left feeling great!
Once I got home I decided it was time to clean-up my car so I spent the next hour or so scrubbing and cleaning. Man, it was freakin' hot! Then I got a call from a friend to have lunch so it was off to North Phoenix (about a 20 mile drive). While we were eating our lunch on the patio of a nice Mexican restaurant another of our friends stopped by with his wife and talked for a few minutes.
After lunch, I stopped by another friend's house to pick-up my daughter, who had spent the night (his kids are in town for the summer). After a short talk my daughter and I headed home. I hadn't been home for more than an hour when I got a call about the job! I got it! Wo-Ho! Things are now moving very fast as they want me to start on Tuesday.
To celebrate, I took the family to an early dinner at our local Chinese restaurant (the wife had to work last night so dinner had to be early). After dinner, I finished painting an English Civil War unit for Warhammer ECW 9one I have been working on for months and never seems to be motivated to paint) and then played Codename: Panzers for about an hour. Good fun!
Later in the evening I went to play poker (in South Tempe only 37 miles from home) with some friends from my previous job. It was great to see everyone and catch-up with happening for the last couple of weeks.
A very good day!
(All that driving and I never left the metro area - people wonder why Americans drive so much. The place is huge! The Phoenix Metro area is about 90 miles across! It is at least 40 miles North to South. I am sure glad my car gets good mileage.)
Once I got home I decided it was time to clean-up my car so I spent the next hour or so scrubbing and cleaning. Man, it was freakin' hot! Then I got a call from a friend to have lunch so it was off to North Phoenix (about a 20 mile drive). While we were eating our lunch on the patio of a nice Mexican restaurant another of our friends stopped by with his wife and talked for a few minutes.
After lunch, I stopped by another friend's house to pick-up my daughter, who had spent the night (his kids are in town for the summer). After a short talk my daughter and I headed home. I hadn't been home for more than an hour when I got a call about the job! I got it! Wo-Ho! Things are now moving very fast as they want me to start on Tuesday.
To celebrate, I took the family to an early dinner at our local Chinese restaurant (the wife had to work last night so dinner had to be early). After dinner, I finished painting an English Civil War unit for Warhammer ECW 9one I have been working on for months and never seems to be motivated to paint) and then played Codename: Panzers for about an hour. Good fun!
Later in the evening I went to play poker (in South Tempe only 37 miles from home) with some friends from my previous job. It was great to see everyone and catch-up with happening for the last couple of weeks.
A very good day!
(All that driving and I never left the metro area - people wonder why Americans drive so much. The place is huge! The Phoenix Metro area is about 90 miles across! It is at least 40 miles North to South. I am sure glad my car gets good mileage.)
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Never Stop Thinking…
I wonder if all the people who accused Michael Shiavo of abusing his wife and being an evil, vile person will now apologize. From the sound of the autopsy report he was advocating the correct action and Terry was finally humanely treated. I love it when people pass judgment without knowing the facts.
Several years ago I read George Orwell’s 1984; in this book there is a character whose job is the destruction of words. You see, it is much easier for a totalitarian society to censor the people if you destroy words that can be used in a subversive manner. The only difference between this book and real life if that in the book the government were the ones who destroyed the words and censored people, in real life the government just gets the big corporations to do the dirty work. I especially like how the corporate mouth-piece refers to authoritarianism as a “regulatory environment.” If a company were to enter into this type of agreement with the government of the United States what would the press say? The share-holders? The political parties? Would we all be keeping so quiet about it? So why do we think it is OK for a company to do this in another country?
I wonder why no one has ever made a movie that contends that Mohamed never existed. Oh yeah, because the people who believe in him won’t roll over like the Christians do! People will show this as an example of the true glory of the Freedom of Speech, and it is, but they will never question why these things are always about tearing down Christian beliefs. When will we get the movie about Moses being a legend? How about the Great Buddha, any movies in the works denying him? Christianity is the safest religion to attack because Christians do not have a RECENT history of killing people who don’t believe what they believe.
Just when you begin to think that good sense and honesty are things of the past in the academic world you find a story like this! What is truly sad is that a story about a professor writing an honest textbook is even news-worthy, but such are the times in which we live!
As many of you already know I am a huge fan of Ayn Rand and her Objectivist ideology. In her writings one of the strongest recurring themes is the destructive nature of Altruism and the welfare state. She contends that Altruistic tendencies on the part of society and government actually harm society, in the long-run, by destroying individuals and making them dependant on the state. I found an excellent article about the Swedish welfare system that seems to prove the point. Read it and understand that there are people in this country who believe that this is a model that the United States should follow.
Several years ago I read George Orwell’s 1984; in this book there is a character whose job is the destruction of words. You see, it is much easier for a totalitarian society to censor the people if you destroy words that can be used in a subversive manner. The only difference between this book and real life if that in the book the government were the ones who destroyed the words and censored people, in real life the government just gets the big corporations to do the dirty work. I especially like how the corporate mouth-piece refers to authoritarianism as a “regulatory environment.” If a company were to enter into this type of agreement with the government of the United States what would the press say? The share-holders? The political parties? Would we all be keeping so quiet about it? So why do we think it is OK for a company to do this in another country?
I wonder why no one has ever made a movie that contends that Mohamed never existed. Oh yeah, because the people who believe in him won’t roll over like the Christians do! People will show this as an example of the true glory of the Freedom of Speech, and it is, but they will never question why these things are always about tearing down Christian beliefs. When will we get the movie about Moses being a legend? How about the Great Buddha, any movies in the works denying him? Christianity is the safest religion to attack because Christians do not have a RECENT history of killing people who don’t believe what they believe.
Just when you begin to think that good sense and honesty are things of the past in the academic world you find a story like this! What is truly sad is that a story about a professor writing an honest textbook is even news-worthy, but such are the times in which we live!
As many of you already know I am a huge fan of Ayn Rand and her Objectivist ideology. In her writings one of the strongest recurring themes is the destructive nature of Altruism and the welfare state. She contends that Altruistic tendencies on the part of society and government actually harm society, in the long-run, by destroying individuals and making them dependant on the state. I found an excellent article about the Swedish welfare system that seems to prove the point. Read it and understand that there are people in this country who believe that this is a model that the United States should follow.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Michael Jackson
Well, the verdict is in and I must say I was not surprised. The jurors sited the mother’s history of lies as a main reason for the acquittal. Strangely, most experts on pedophiles say that this is precisely the type of people pedophiles target, it is the unreliability of the family that provides the cover for the abuse. Oh well, I think the local radio program said it best, “It just proves that in America you can get away with anything if you are rich and white.”
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Still no Job…
…and I am getting board. I am still applying every day for 2-3 jobs and I check all the on-line job sites, but so far I haven’t gotten any calls. It has only been just over a week, and I know it could take a month, but I started looking more than three weeks ago. Patience is the name of the game.
On the good side, the time off has allowed me to spend more time with the family and catch-up on my reading. I just finished War Trash by Ha Jin. This book filled me with some very mixed emotions. Throughout most of the book the Americans are the “bad guys” which was a new perspective for me. As I read the book I began to see it as a simple pro-Communist story, but the ending really changed my mind. The story is a very complicated tale that ends up not fitting well into a simple pro-East, pro-West argument. It is a very good book that I highly recommend.
I have not seen any new movies or watch anything of consequence on TV. Most of my time has been spent, when not looking for a job, on Medieval: Total War. My next game will probably be Codename: Panzers. For some reason I have not been inspired lately to paint, maybe I will get back into it this weekend.
On the good side, the time off has allowed me to spend more time with the family and catch-up on my reading. I just finished War Trash by Ha Jin. This book filled me with some very mixed emotions. Throughout most of the book the Americans are the “bad guys” which was a new perspective for me. As I read the book I began to see it as a simple pro-Communist story, but the ending really changed my mind. The story is a very complicated tale that ends up not fitting well into a simple pro-East, pro-West argument. It is a very good book that I highly recommend.
I have not seen any new movies or watch anything of consequence on TV. Most of my time has been spent, when not looking for a job, on Medieval: Total War. My next game will probably be Codename: Panzers. For some reason I have not been inspired lately to paint, maybe I will get back into it this weekend.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Leftists attack each-other...
This may be one of the funniest examples of leftist kookery around. Sir Bob Geldof – a near saint if leftist buffoonery – is being threatened by even bigger left-wing nuts over his Live8 concerts and his “long march to freedom.” You see, Sir Bob hates modern capitalist society and has been active in African relief charitable causes for years. His latest efforts – Live8 and the long march – are continuations of this fine tradition. It seems that the real heavy hitters in the anti-G8 protest community have decided to highjack Sir Bob’s march in Edinburgh in July. Classic! I hope the commies beat the crap out of each other…
On a related note, Sir Bob is getting some criticism that the London line-up of his Live8 concert is too white. So now we are to believe that he is some closet racist I guess. Why don’t the critics of this event stage their own concert with the proper racial mix? Easier to criticize I guess. Just think, if they had let the Spice Girls play there would have been one more black performer!
Bob Geldof makes me sick! He does not care about starving people in Africa, he only cares about using Africa as a cover for his radical political agenda. He seems to like being in the public spotlight and seen as a humanitarian saint, however.
On a related note, Sir Bob is getting some criticism that the London line-up of his Live8 concert is too white. So now we are to believe that he is some closet racist I guess. Why don’t the critics of this event stage their own concert with the proper racial mix? Easier to criticize I guess. Just think, if they had let the Spice Girls play there would have been one more black performer!
Bob Geldof makes me sick! He does not care about starving people in Africa, he only cares about using Africa as a cover for his radical political agenda. He seems to like being in the public spotlight and seen as a humanitarian saint, however.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
I have no job and I should be bitter…
The 10 most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries. These books have been dubbed the most harmful by a group of conservative scholars. I agree with all of the top ten but in the Honorable Mentions there are a few that I would deem to be great works. Just as a side note, I have read some of these, mostly as excerpts. I plan on reading them all one day. Don’t ban books read them – but don’t believe everything you read.
Hollywood and the Anticapitalist Mentality is an excellent article discussing how Hollywood always portrays big business and businessmen as evil. This coming from movie studios that are themselves successful big businesses. There are many links in this one to keep you busy.
Hollywood and the Anticapitalist Mentality is an excellent article discussing how Hollywood always portrays big business and businessmen as evil. This coming from movie studios that are themselves successful big businesses. There are many links in this one to keep you busy.
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