Opportunities

You know, how when a friend looses their job (or funding for their job) you usually feel bad for them? Especially when they work at a pretty important, meaningful, vital, if perhaps internally flawed organization? Well…then you know how sometimes – after feeling bad for them for about a second – you are all like, “hey, my company should hire her.” You know how that sometimes is? Well that’s how I feel now.

For years now I’ve been telling people how lucky I am that I get along so well with J’s folks. No parent-in-law stereotypes here. Nosiree-bob!

Oh well. I guess the illusion was nice while it lasted.

Damn right he is. Well, his ashes, anyway. The cannon is to be mounted in a sculpture of his “Gonzo” fist atop a 100 foot pillar. Live loud.

Most people who really enjoy coffee agree that Starbuck’s has nasty, over-roasted and over-priced coffee. They sell a lifestyle and nearly everyone you know is buying. Hell, even you dear reader, are buying. I too admit to falling prey to the comforting green glow.

The problem is that the neighborhood coffee shop is being pushed out and with it, some part of community. The neighborhood coffe shop – like the neighborhood bar and, in my opinion, the neighborhood laundromat – help define a neighborhood. Starbucks doesn’t care about your neighborhood.

This site, the Starbucks Delocator, serves to help you find local coffe shops by zipcode. Odd, you say, that the words “Starbucks Delocator” don’t appear on the site? Fear of lawsuits prevented the San Francisco Art Institute from using that name. So here’s my part in Carrie McLaren’s Google campaign to get the name mentioned in as many places on the ‘net as possible, so that the Starbucks Delocator will come up in Google’s search results when you type the word “Starbucks.”

Go on over to the Starbucks Delocator and search for cafés in the zip code “45245” to see what I’m talking about. One café, 10 Starbucks. Ugh.

You thought the lord jesus wasn’t an alien invader, bent on the evil subjugation of humankind? You thought wrong.

Downhill Battle is trying to save Eyes On The Prize, and they need your help. You remember Eyes On The Prize, don’t you? For many of us it was our first introduction to the Civil Rights Movement. Well, apparently the cost of renewing rights to all the clips used in the series is prohibitive and the makers have been unable to run it on TV or sell it for nearly 10 years.

Downhill Battle to the rescue! Download your bittorrent copy now and save one of the most important documentaries ever made.

It’s Monday again. This seems to happen, like, every damn week. It’s cold. Really cold. The 8 inches of snow that were promised – nay, threatened – never happened (more like 3 maybe), but it is definitely cold. I’m in my new (soon to be old ’cause we’re moving) office with two space heaters cranking, wearing my coat, and googling for the nearest place I can go buy another heater. My toes are really, really cold.

I’m still waiting to get busy at work. It’s slow starting, but I will be taking over Client Manager duties for two of Beaconfire’s clients: Parents’ Action for Children and The AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s new community site. The PAC site is not new to me. I spent the last few months working as a freelance Interface Engineer on that project. I built the XHTML templates and did a bunch of other shit too. I think if came out very nicely, and I look forward to working on it. The AFC community site is an extremely customized implimentation of PHPNuke, and I’m still getting up to speed on what it will require.

Love the job. Love the people. Can’t wait to move to the new office and be warmer.

I’m half watching The Omen as I get my Outlook Contacts all sync’d up with my new Tungsten E Palm Pilot, and I can’t help wondering: how the hell can you have a kid named Damien and not know he’s the spawn of the Devil? I mean really!

Why did I decide on the Tungsten E? It had the biggest color screen for under $200 that I could find and didn’t come with any of the extras that will never work as well as I want them to and then just end up unused anyway (camera, phone, shit like that).

Oh yeah, Outlook is for my new job. Did I not mention that? Yeah, I got the job I’ve been waiting months to get. I’m the newest Client Manager/Functional Consultant for Beaconfire Consulting. Check out the client list. This is my kind of company. I’m staying.

A CNN/USA Today Gallup poll conducted over the weekend leading up to Bush’s inauguration says that 49% of Americans polled think Bush is a “uniter,” while 49% think he’s a “divider.” As usual, 2% are fucking dumbasses and have no opinion. Never have I seen a poll that so clearly demonstrates that one side of the equation is wrong. I mean really, if half of the people say the nation is divided, then it is. It’s not even debateable. Just, duh.

Apparently Bush voters were less likely than Kerry voters to take part to exit polls, thus skewing the results and indicating, to some, the possibility of fraud. “There were certainly motivational factors that are impossible to quantify,” the report said. My guess at those motivational factors? Shame. Fuckers just didn’t want to admit that they’d voted for a lying piece of sack of shit.

Report suggests changes in exit poll methodology (CNN.com)