Remiss

I thought I'd pimped this, but Linoge is running a fundraiser for HAVA.

The entry period ends at midnight tomorrow. Five bucks a ticket, and there are some SWEET prize packages that various folks have donated.

Get in on it while you still can. He's at $1,755 as of 36 hours ago, and I'd really like to see that number go over $2,000.

Or don't, because I'd love to grab a package or two. ;-)

Kim Jong Crazy

"state of war"
"will not limit (itself) to limited warfare but to all-out war and nuclear war."
"the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation,"
(All via CNN.com)

You're a tinpot dictator with delusions of grandeur and relevance. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm sure you could probably rattle us pretty good - especially given the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania, who hasn't dealt with anything resembling a real crisis since ... well, ever.

But let's be crystal clear about this.

Your country is 46,000 square miles. My state is 55,000 square miles.
Your country's GDP is $32 billion. My state GSP is $1.1 trillion.

The American people are not likely to accept yet another war on foreign soil due to the actions of one crazy goatfucker, even if you somehow managed to lob a nuclear weapon somewhere in the vicinity of Hawaii.

I suppose you're a little less distinctive than a 6'5" Arab on dialysis, but you don't seem to understand the low-key life. Those punchbowls your generals are wearing on their heads? The brass and crimson and pomp and promenade you've surrounded yourself with?

That shit makes you an easy target. DevGru6 or whatever the hot name of the CoD-kiddies is this week won't have ANY trouble finding you.

But the reality is this: a nuke is, without question or quibble, a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The Pakistani goatroper? He used airplanes, and killed a lot of people, and damaged a lot of property - but he wasn't acting under the flag of any one nation. And he wasn't using something universally recognized as A Very Bad Thing.

You? You've got a flag. And a standing army. And a seat at the UN.

If you use a WMD, the little blob of light that is PyongYang will get much brighter for about 50 milliseconds, and then be a soft green glow for... oh, 15,000 years.

Bring it, motherfucker.

Out of pocket

It's been a few days, but I think by now you're all used to sporadic content from me. Life has been plain old nuts; I've been putting in steady 10-12 hour days at the office and trying to keep the house in one piece (and STILL trying to get it ready to list) and stay at some version of sane.

Even though we're planning to sell, I decided that we should take advantage of the sugar maples we have on the property. Yes, we tapped late - according to most, the proper time was about a month ago - but we've gotten a solid 40-50 gallons of good sap. One tree has gone over, and the other is probably a day away - but that's tomorrow's problem.

We don't have a good outdoor firepit to boil over - and tending a wood fire is MAJOR work - so we've been doing it over propane. Not ideal, but it's working. I borrowed a turkey fryer from a friend, and that was our first step. Next day we bought a 6" hotel pan and put it on a Coleman camp stove, and that has been fantastic. LOTS of evaporation.

There's now a pan of nearly-finished on the stove inside, boiling off the last quart or two of water.

Hooray. :)

York Arms - SHIRTS

I got mine yesterday, and today it got its close-up.

Well, of COURSE the Pale Horse got featured.

I still have that?!?

I spent part of the afternoon reorganizing the safe and starting on the ammo cabinets. (There's still ammo and ammo cans strewn across the den floor; I'll get to it...)

Found several things I didn't know I still had, and made a few tweaks to a couple guns, and generally neatenated. The safe is still over-full and sort of cluttered, but it's better.

Jiggity-jig

I am, as the title implies, home again, home again.

The trip odometer on the rental is showing 2,320 miles since Saturday morning. I'm impressed by the Camry, truth be told - it ticked along at a solid 35-37mpg for the trip. It was relatively comfortable (NOTHING is comfortable after ten hours in one seat), had enough ass for highway miles, the sound system was good, and it had a USB port that let me put all my MP3s on a thumb drive and use those instead of repeatedly hitting "scan" to find a tolerable radio station. If/when I'm in the market for a midsize sedan, Toyota will get a closer look than it might have before.

The drive out was long. I had lunch with pediem and ThotPD, then stayed the night with TheJack. Out early the next day, stopped in St. Louis for coffee with an old friend, then on to the KC 'burb that was the final goal. Had dinner with my brother (in-law, but "brother" is fine) and collapsed.

Tested with Agency 1 late Monday morning. *Just* testing. "Here's the computer, give it the information it asks for, if you have any problems or need the restroom let me know, the test can take one to three hours." Took me about 90 minutes, doing ALL the practice problems. I'm quite confident of my test performance, but the oral boards will be based on both the test and a two-page essay that all applicants had to submit previously. So... We'll see.

I went back to my hotel and veg'd for an hour, then back into the suit and headed southeast to Agency 2. This was a relatively impromptu visit and far from a formal interview; I have an application in there as well and emailed the director before this trip to see if I could stop in for a tour and chat.

We ended up talking for nearly two hours. (!) *I* left feeling like we had a pretty good "click". I am hoping she does as well.

I don't know what will happen next; they're both going to require oral boards as part of the process which will mean another trip out. It's a five-day production and not cheap, but if it lands me a job it's worth it. Agency 1 pays more than Agency 2 by a significant amount, but #2 is a career step instead of a career slide. In other words, it's a promotion. An exciting one. #2 has some MAJOR projects in the works for the coming 12-24 months, and being in early on those would be both FUN and a hell of a resume pad further on.

Fingers crossed - for either.

I had dinner with my brother and his fiancee Monday night, crashed earlyish at the hotel, and got on the road whenever I woke up. That translated into turning wheels around 0800. I flew across MO, around STL just before noon with no trouble, and cruised through Indy around 4 - just before afternoon rush.

Shortly thereafter, I came over a hill on I70 and braked hard for a parking lot. Eventually things started rolling again, and ISP had I70E shut down at Exit 123. I took the scenic tour of US3 and US40 through Spiceland, Lewisville, Dublin, and Cambridge City before jumping back on the interstate - total diversion time about one hour.

That delay, fortunately, meant I missed rush hour in Columbus. I kept chugging along and made it to pediem's place around 10pm, where we chatted over a couple beers for a while and then I collapsed. Back on the road early this morning, some nasty weather between Cleveland and Jamestown, and I rolled in the driveway here right around 3pm.

Good trip, hopefully productive, the laundry is in the wash, and I'm decompressing.

And by the by, Ohio - you have HANDS-DOWN the worst drivers I have ever encountered.

Thanks, all

Several of you reached out promptly after my last post. I have my lodgings arranged for the trip each direction.

I'm exploring two separate opportunities in MO at the moment, and will be out for testing with one. I decided to reach out to the other to see if I could make a stop in for a quick introduction. Lucky me - I am able to.

I'm trying very hard to not get my hopes up too much, but either of these jobs would be... really good. I'll take whatever thoughts, prayers, candles, chants, incense, chicken guts, or tea leaves you've got.

Couch bleg

Reaching out to the Indy-area peeps - Tam/Roberta, Brigid, TheJack, etc... there is a near-certain probability that I'm going to be driving through your area (and back) next week. It's a convenient mid-point of a two-day drive, and if anyone would be willing to provide couch space and enough hot water to take off some funk for a night each way, that would be wonderful and amazing.

Drop me a note if you can - or have any suggestions on places that I won't lose the rims from my rental. :-) zercool/gmail