Several months ago my boss left the company and my team of three people was folded into another team in a different department. Since then one of the three of us has transferred into yet another department, the other one quit, and I've been looking for a job for two months with zero success.

I'm finding that the overwhelming majority of jobs in my field are suddenly wanting experience I simply don't have - programming and/or automated testing. Add in the fact that I am desperately trying to avoid contract work and the number of positions that are a decent fit is disgustingly small.

Then there's the fact I don't even like what I do. I would really love to get into some sort of project management or production role, but despite the fact I can do the job and have experience doing that sort of thing it has always been a secondary aspect in my positions. And as such it keeps getting overlooked when I go after those jobs.

Combine this with the train wreck that has been my personal life over the last two months and I've finally embraced the idea that it might be time for me to leave Austin. As of yesterday I expanded my job search to include New York, Las Vegas, and Seattle.

All in all I really hate this entire process. It's incredibly defeating to keep throwing myself at job opportunities and having nothing stick.

Someone, anyone please explain to me why the item contained in the following link exists and how it is a good idea.

Click Me

Today's entry in the world of things that just don't make sense comes from the realm of safety.

Over the past year I've seen a number of reports of schools across the country that are banning such mainstays of childhood as tag and dodgeball. The reasoning given always revolves around protecting the children from harm - physical, emotional, and social. The gods forbid that the prepubescent flesh sacs might fall down and skin their knee or get hit a bit hard and come away with a bruise or a bit of spilled blood. When will we start requiring they all come to school in their enviro-safe bubbles?

While I could go on at length about this alone, that is not the point I'm here to make, at least for the moment.

What doesn't make sense to me is how paranoid we as a people are becoming about protecting our parasitic offspring while allowing adults to run around doing all sorts of things that are completely unsafe.

I'd be willing to bet that dodgeball and tag on the playground are quite a bit safer than riding a bicycle IN the street AMONG cars going somewhere between 50-65MPH. Especially when said cyclist is wearing shorts so tight they might as well be painted on and helmets are optional. Or wearing all black and performing this idiotic stunt in the middle of the night in an area that isn't exactly illuminated.

Proof that once again this country has no sense of proper priorities.

After way too long without getting out of town for anything other than seeing the family I managed to arrange a real vacation last week.

Myself and three friends headed out to Vegas last Thursday and crawled back into Austin dark and early at about 3:30 Monday morning.

Thursday night we caught the Pussycat Dolls and then spent the rest of the night between Ghostbar and Rain.

Friday we wandered the strip and gambled during the day. At night we hit up Pure, which turned out to be a bit of a bust so we wandered back to our hotel and spent the rest of the night hanging out in the new lounge they had opened up.

Saturday was our 'big' day. We again spent the day wandering the strip and gambling, taking it a bit easy in anticipation of the night's events. We had dinner at Tao, easily the most beautiful asian restaurant I've ever been inside.

After spending some time in the Venetian we headed back to hotel and made our way to Tabu, where we had a table reserved for the night. We were escorted to our table, which was in a VIP room just off the dance floor. Despite every table in the room being reserved we ended up having the room to ourselves all night, excepting a half-hour when a bachelorette party popped in before heading on to their next destination. By the time the clock rolled around to three-something most everyone was ready to crash so we called it a night.

Sunday was our recovery/prep for going home day. We headed up to the Wynn to hang out for a bit and then headed over to TI for some last-day gambling and to catch the Sirens show. Then it was back to the hotel to collect our bags and head to the airport.

All in all a very good and much needed trip. Now I get to prep for my dad's family for Thanksgiving and my mom's family for Christmas.

And in school news, I got my first set of books, etc last week and have already dived into the initial study materials. The three year countdown to finally getting my degree has begun.

I've been neglecting this space again for no particular reason. There's really just not been a whole that to say until now.

First, things at the workplace have been very interesting. The two people directly above me on the food chain have both been promoted in the last couple of months. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there are any immediate plans to refill the spot vacated by my boss. On the positive side it looks like I'm being transitioned into some sort of quasi-leadership role with the goal of eventually moving me into the now empty position. I just hope that happens sooner rather than later.

I'm waiting on the final paperwork to come back, but short of that I'm officially a student again. I sent my registration paperwork and funds in to the University of London a couple of days ago. I'll be starting sometime this fall on my Bachelor of Laws degree. It's an online program that will take me three years. And once I get that out of the way then I get to start looking at law schools here in the states.

I'll be going to Vegas for four days next month, New York for the Thanksgiving holiday and then back east to see the family for Christmas.

And of course as has become annual tradition, I'll be moving into a new place (specifics yet to be determined) sometime around the first part of Decemeber.

We just picked up tickets to see Poison and Cinderella in San Antonio in July. To top if all off we're also going to see Skid Row and Quiet Riot later that month.

That is all.

First, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.

Second, I am not old damn you all. Age is just a number that I happen to find rather meaningless. I'm more interested in an individual's maturity level and personality than I am their age.

Third, for all you Boondock Saints fans, in case you had not heard there will be a one night only showing of the movie in select theaters. I haven't bothered to look up info as to where, but I'm sure you can dig up the info. Only thing I know is the date, May 22.

Now I have to get back to figuring out how the hell I'm going to spec out the computer I want for under $1000.

Last year was one of the worst years of my life, so far as that part of my life that I have full recollection of is concerned. In some small part it was of my own doing, but like everything else in my past, I regret nothing. The experience helped me further define myself and gave me insight into a great many things I hadn't dealt with prior. All in all, like so much else, it was a valuable learning experience.

So far this year has been very good to me:
A beautiful new apartment at a steal of a deal, even if it is somewhat out of the way and my roomie situation bites arse.
An amazing new job.
A much improved social life.
And today's news - I've been accepted into the University of London's online program and will soon be working on getting my bachelor's of law degree.

Now I just need to figure out how to make this streak of good fortune continue.

I was going to do another Good Thing, Bad Thing but after this morning's run through the news there I decided to go with something else insted. Three news stories caught my eye, each one because it shows a facet of just how terribly fucked up people are out there in the world. We start off with the bad and each of the following stories is worse than the one before it.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189941,00.html?sPage=specialsections.foxnews/lawcenter
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190137,00.html?sPage=specialsections.foxnews/lawcenter
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189485,00.html?sPage=specialsections.foxnews/lawcenter

Then I found this article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190140,00.html

It is with the Amusing.