Following up yesterday's posting about the outsourcing of white-collar jobs to foreign countries (in this case, mainly India), I ran across this article on ZDNet.com and decided to share it with you.  The article talks about how US technology workers are becoming a political force in response to the continuous hemorrhaging of US white-collar jobs to cheaper labor pools — such as India.  As should have been expected by political and business leaders alike, the continuing loss of jobs in America as they are shipped overseas is rapidly becoming a significant hot-button issue.

If, like me, you love chocolate, then recent news about the confection is confirmation that our love affair with the sweet is not misplaced.  Speakers at the National Academy of Sciences discussed anecdotal and scientific evidence which indicates that chocolate, which contains chemicals like those in green tea and red wine, may have health benefits — such as cutting blood pressure and improving circulation.  See the article at CNN for more details.  Like the announcement about coffee and type II diabetes, this news is more confirmation of what chocolate lovers have known for a very long time.

Once December rolled in with a heavy sigh and not so pleasant things to look forward to, I put my entire workout routine on the back burner.  I knew I'd eat too much and would spend more time in the company of others than I normally do, so, perhaps in an attempt to provide an alibi before the fact, I set aside my exercise and focused on surviving the horrodays.

Well, I didn't gain but a few pounds and spent more time being busy than I did visiting or partying.

But I had also become too stressed and too tired to be constructive in my workout.

To the contrary, I had reached a state of stress and fatigue that made working out dangerous and counterproductive.

Now that it's February and I've had time to recover, I think it's time to get serious about this.  In fact, I'm seriously looking at personal trainers right now.  I think I'd like some guidance on how best to achieve my goals.

I think one of the reasons I quit so easily was because I had become frustrated with the minimal results I felt I was seeing.

Now I think I'd be more challenged and focused by knowing I was following a proven approach to achieving my goals.

I just keep kicking myself in the ass for caving to my own cheap excuses.

an ode I now to you write
to tell of inner strife and pain
to my heart you are the light
and all my life is had in vain

my love for you knows bounds not
with my heart your games you play
to be and then to be not
never mean you what you say

friends, more than, friends again
my heart breaking all the while
remember not I when these begin
sustaining me your warm bright smile

say I time and time over
love you I do, believe me no
ask again I be my lover
why not — do not you know

[circa 1987]

Yes and no.  The site engine is based on PostNuke, an open-source PHP– and MySQL-based content management system (CMS).  The version running on xenogere / strange behavior / is heavily modified and customized.  It's also been merged with custom server-side and PHP code for management and other back-end functions.

As for the interface design, I'm afraid I have to take responsibility for that (or claim credit, if you like it).

I'm what you might call "artistically challenged" (as the site indicates).

Still, I did my best to come up with something that I could live with and that was somewhat presentable.  Being that purple is my favorite color, I started with that and worked my way from there.