Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in

I know I have been scarce lately, but I swear it is all for a good reason.

It's hard to see when it's all moving so fast,
originally uploaded by milkfish.

In the middle of April, I received an email out of the blue from a former colleague of mine from when I was working software tech support/quality assurance. It had been at least a year since we'd had contact, and he was checking to see whether he had my correct email address. I wrote back telling him that he'd found me, and that things were still pretty much going the same for me since the last time we'd met.

Turns out that the same was not true for my friend - he'd left the old company to work for a computer startup nearby, and was wondering whether I might want to get together sometime. One thing led to another and when stopped by to visit I found that there was a grand total of three engineers from the old company who, along with an experienced financial expert, had set up the new venture to produce something new in the field of computer datacenter virtualization. They were looking for people who they were comfortable working with and willing to entertain the idea of a little risk to join their startup.

It turns out that although I had been fully planning to keep the franchise running for the remaining two years of my contract, the idea of jumping on board a tech startup was just the kind of chance I was positioned to take right now. Everybody there already wears more than one hat: the roles I was considering in the company include setting up the in-house virtual datacenter, technical documentation, and product release management. There would be some travel, too, plus a few more bucks headed out our way than I have seen for the last three years.

Sure, there's a possibility that things are going to come crashing down in a way reminiscent of the last tech bust six years ago, but in my reckoning it is not far out of line as compared with the chance I would be taking by not changing jobs. Although I am just about certain that I could make a go of my current business, it seems to me that with all things considered, it's better to take heart in hand and to switch. How's that for an idea?

So, I've decided to close down my onsite furniture repair business and am closing out my ongoing commitments to customers. I have already started working part-time at the new place while everything gets sorted out, but hope to begin working full-time by the end of next month. I have been really channeling a large share of my excitement over there the last month or so and I kind of hope to be able to spread some of that around before too long.

It claims to be 70.0513% cacao

I think this chocolate bar shaped- and scented-calculator would be the ideal gift for a Mom who happens to be a CPA, if she happened to like chocolate as well. Less problematic, I believe, than the chocolate covered cherry body spray.

Fun with negative numbers

This is a screenshot of part of my browser today after I'd clicked on a message in Yahoo Mail. I am eagerly waiting to see whether when I get a new email, that will bump the total up to "0 unread."


More useful would be to have the Spam folder total reported as an imaginary number.

Or maybe "your hair - it's so awesome."

I do like this guerrilla art item: anonymous plaques in public places. Here are a few other sayings one could put on a plaque.

• 


• 


• 


• 


• 


• 


• 

As you can see, I favor the creepy/morbid angle here.

One holy, Catholic, and apostolic cellphone

Lest one think from the previous entry that I concentrate only on other cultures' religious artifacts, here's one from my very own. Catholic Mobile has the right idea, but they ought to consider a few other ideas in their marketing to tie in the two concepts on which they are based:

• Plans structured Novena-style., in which you get a reading every day for nine days (or one every First Friday in a row maybe).


• Forty Hours' Devotion, with litanies and readings sent out every hour over a weekend.


• Speaking of litanies, they could make them interactive, where they send out the antiphon, and the user would then send back the response. It could get kind of expensive if the phone is on a per-message charge rate structure though.

In my opinion,Universalis already has access to the Divine Office via mobile phone sewn up, however, so there is little sense in trying to compete there.

Two Towers,
originally uploaded by Princeps autem justus.

(Via Coudal Partners.)