My roommate and I are getting ready to move, so updates may become sporadic over the next month. Our plans are to move sometime around the end of April (give or take a week or two), but we'll probably spend much time packing and tending to all that move-related crap that simply must be done (change of address, setting up new and scheduling termination of current utilities, scheduling movers, carrying odds and ends to the new "crib" as time permits, and so on). I'll make every attempt to keep the site updates coming on a regular schedule, but don't be surprised if I seem to vanish for a day or two at a time. There are times when the real world takes precedence over the virtual world.
Monthly Archives: March 2003
Site newsletter now in place
I finally finished the site newsletter application and have it up and running now. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter by clicking on the Newsletter link in the Main block in the top left corner of the page, or you can go link removed. The newsletter will be a summary of the new articles from that week and a list of the last seven Random Thoughts. That may change in the future as I come up with additional content to include, but I think that's good enough for now.
Be sure to sign up! The next newsletter goes out Sunday, March 30.
The newsletter system has been disabled and the associated links removed.
Veterinary medicine could save your life
I've paid for hip surgery for Grendel, multiple urinary tract infection treatments for Kako, upper respiratory infection treatments for both Kako and Kazon, long term asthma treatment for Grendel, geriatric treatment for Henry, and the list goes on. My pets have always been a part of my family. They are my children. I do not "own" them just as human families don't own their offspring. I am the guardian of my pets, and I care for them in that regard. Given the medical treatment I've been willing to pay for to keep the quality of life high for The Kids and other pets, I found this article on Wired to be extremely fascinating. It's about veterinary medicine pushing the envelope of science — often to the benefit of regular medicine.
IT industry still crumbling
It comes as no surprise to anyone in the IT industry, but two recent studies show that jobs continue to fall away from the technology sector and that morale in the IT industry is spiraling downward at an alarming rate. I have friends who have left the industry due to the increasing workload, ungrateful environments, lack of advancement, lack of compensatory incentives, lack of training, and stagnating technology. Companies continue to amaze me at how blind they can be to these threats. Productivity falls as burnout rates increase, yet they continue to cut IT staffs and demand more from remaining employees — all without any type of compensation (whether that be formal training opportunities, bonuses or increases in pay, or opportunities to gain experience on the "latest and greatest").
You can read eWeek’s article on the studies here.
Happy Birthday, Ms. Jenny!
Although I’m running very late in the day with getting this posted, I wanted to wish a very close friend of mine a happy birthday. Better late than never, I guess (I hate being cliché, but sometimes it fits).
Since I know you've mentioned a few times that the small font sizes on my site can be difficult to read, I thought I'd make sure you could read this by selecting a slightly larger size. Let me know if you have difficulty reading this…
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday, sweetie!