Last Monday

With next Monday being a holiday, I’ve spent my last Monday at my current job.

Even though the current gig has been a good ride, it’s run its course; people who can do aren’t allowed, and those who can’t go to meetings, fill out forms, and generally play the game.

I just want to work.

-k-

Banking

I was just talking with my little bride about bank accounts and financial provisioning in our new location.

It has been close to 20 years since we’ve opened a checking account. In earlier times, we’d cut a check from our old bank, combine it with cash1, trundle to the bank, and open an account.

The 21st Century has rendered that a thing of the past; thanks to these internets, we can open our account online, including the transfer of funds from our current bank.

Man, what a great thing.

I’d still like to cash an exacta ticket, though.

-k-


1 On one occasion, a winning exacta ticket from Hollywood Park provided the cash.

Another Short Timer

My little bride’s last day at her current gig is September 19.

We are getting into serious logistics planning and budgeting. I’m one to stew and fret over every little niggling detail; I wind up settling for Mixed up and Splendid operations.

This old blog’s tagline is Whistle through your teeth and spit. Another line from that song is

We will get by, we will survive.

Damn straight.

-k-

Sidebar Shuffle

The Bridgeport WV weather has been promoted ahead of the Reston VA forecast in the sidebar.

tbbs-land will be ready when I begin typing this drollery from Almost Heaven.

Though the heavenward direction starts with my seeing Northern Virginia recede in my rear view mirror.

A beautiful sight, to be topped only by Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.

Start your engines!
-k-

Like Reading Your Own Obituary

I got a work mail-o-gram the other day with an invitation. The subject was:

Farewell Lunch for Ken Nelson

Reality sets in; the joy at leaving an untenable-and-getting-worse work situation is sometimes offset, at least in my mind, by the sheer hassle of moving and getting settled in new environs.

But I’m stubborn tough, and committed.

That, and the lunch is at Famous Dave’s. I’ll be there.

And outta’ there.

-k-

One Less Feed

With the new gig day one approaching, I’ve unsubbed my Jobs in Kansas City feed.

No point pursuing that now; my future Kansas years may be as a beekeeper, and perhaps a small time truck farmer.

Nothing wrong with that. For now, there are Linux servers to stand up and maintain.

-k-

Update: I’m still, always have been, and perpetually will be, for hire.

Knowledge Transfer is Tiring

As I look forward to removing the Senseo coffeemaker and USB lava-lamp from my shabby cubicle a short 2 weeks away, I’m engaged in explaining to a couple of co-workers what I’ve been doing for the last 5 years. The old knowledge transfer, memory dump game.

I’m tweaking scripts, showing them how the Solaris and Red Hat provisioning processes work, and generally getting the place broom clean.

It’s tiring, but it’s also my last few times at bat. I’d like a home run or two during that time.

And for the handful of good folk who will remain, I’ll strive to do just that. It’s still tiring.

-k-

Akismet Slickness

I don’t know how long this option has been in Akismet, but there’s now a checkbox labeled Automatically discard spam comments on posts older than a month
.

Following the recent WordPress 2.6.1 upgrade, I noticed the option when reactivating plugins post-upgrade. I checked it, and my incoming spam trap has been squeaky clean. This is better than turning off comments; anything that I’ve ever written here has comments open, so someone with something legit to say can still say it, irrespective of the post’s age.

Thus far, it has been a win-win, and far fewer spam comments to trudge through looking for false positives. I’ve had precious few of those.

Thanks, Akismet!
-k-

Intelligence Test

A coworker took exception to his colleagues’ hitting “reply all” in response to an emailed request for information that was sent to our group. Our project manager was compiling a list of exactly who had Microsoft Project and Visio on their Winders workstations.

After the second “reply all” to the mail-o-gram, the coworker sent this to the group, with the subject line Intelligence Test:

One of the “reply all” bunch hit the button again to transmit his views; the message read

F- you.

-k-