Below are the most recent 6 friends' journal entries.

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
the_s_guy	6:11p	Grr. Gah, annoying people who insist on doing followup business over a desk or around a table rather than by email or even a quick phone call. No, sitting down and providing me with nine zillion details is NOT going to make me change my offer. I happen to be working to a budget. Give me your best counteroffer and I'll give you a yea or nay. I'm only interested in the number. Just. One. Number. It would have taken half a second to tell me the number over the phone. About the same in an email. But nooooo, we gotta sit down face to face and 'discuss' it for half an hour of my life I'm not going to get back. Keerist, do they really think they're going to be able to change facts just by making a Charisma check? (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
the_s_guy	11:08p	More money on the horizon? Spoke to a bloke who knows some blokes, the other day. Met him through another bloke. This particular new bloke was the "Must meet a man, shake him by the hand and look him square in the eye" type. Blinked, shrugged, summoned up gregarious persona #87b, and swapped industry war stories and backgrounds for a while. Seemed to work. He's apparently going to go see some blokes about some other blokes, and possibly all of this bloke-to-blokeing will at some point resolve into slightly better consistency of clientele. The hope is that if this guy turns out to be an adequate source of contracts, I'll be able to lay off that side of the business and concentrate on the turning-contracts-into-dollars bit, ie the actual work, which I do quite well. While it's not quite the Old Boys' Network, there's certainly enough testosterone sloshing around in these arrangements for me to make a mental note to see if I can do some more female-oriented networking at some point. I'd hate to find out I'd shut out 50% of the market through only dealing with blokes who know blokes. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 20th, 2009
particle_man	1:12p	Life update Wife's machine updated to 10.6.2. I'd waited to do the 10.6 update because of the "/home folder deletes itself" problem but since 10.6.2 fixed that little bug I felt it was safe. So far everything is working fine. My Win 7 machine is up and running great with the $50 student upgrade of Win 7 Pro. A bit annoyed that the pro version didn't include Bitlocker but since TrueCrypt has been updated to work with Win 7 that's not really such a huge deal.In fact TrueCrypt is currently about 23% through encrypting my current Boot volume on the Desktop. Next step is locking down the netwok connections coming into and going out of the house. That's going to probably require a co- located VPN though and that involves cost. Speaking of cost the job hunt could be going better but overall it's moving forward slowly. Been on a very low calorie diet lately. I believe things are going well with the average caloric intake being under 1000 calories a day. Most days it's actually closer to 800 but I've set the limit at 1000. I'm doing it under doctors care, in prep for something else. Once that date is actually set I'll post about it but until then I'm keeping it to myself. Things are good overall and life is fun. Current Mood: geeky Current Music: Watching: Tekzilla (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
jblindsight	7:57a	Hammerklavier, Beethoven Sonata n. 29, by Brendel. (3/6) (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
jblindsight	12:15p	Charter for Compassion - TED  If, after reading this, you feel that you would like to add your name to the list of those affirming the Charter, you can go to the homepage of TED to do so.  CHARTER FOR COMPASSION The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect. It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others — even our enemies — is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion. We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings, even those regarded as enemies. We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community. Current Mood: thoughtful (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
jblindsight	3:03p	Veterans Day  I didn't know what to say to mark the day. Sometimes you don't need words, just a few kleenex. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/40324 Current Mood: grateful (3 Comments |Comment on this)