Michael R. Barrick's blog

OK. The funeral home is out. My niggling suspicion that things were not as good as they presented them at the interview has basically been confirmed. The details are moot, the bottom line is there are major signs of flailing headless chicken syndrome... Good thing I have the wireless place to talk to this afternoon. To hell with the funding problem, if they last a year that will be enough to get me on my feet and back to consulting, if they last longer, well great. At this point I'm convinced the wireless place is a better opportunity.

...that I was born with a horseshoe up my ass. Not only did I peg the attire just right (I was dressed similarly, but slightly better than the people who interviewed me) but the interview(s) went swimmingly. Despite the fact that, at this stage in the game, one never gets the job off the first interview, I thought at several moments that I'd walk out with a concrete offer. Probably would have, too, if the guy who makes the final decision hadn't had a 1:30 meeting. So back I go tomorrow, 11am again, and I'm sure I'll walk out with an offer.

Let's hear it for employable skills! I've had two solid bites in my search for a "real" job today. The first came from Toronto - an absolutely perfect sounding job description and a decent wage. That got me excited. No Houston, staying in Canada and in a city where I know people. But then the ultimate kick ass call came in. It was from the head of Lotus Notes development at the Loewen Group. So what is so great about that you ask? Let me elucidate:

I am totally bagged. I stayed up waaaay to late on Sunday night redoing my résumé and other things, then going out to Gateway last night and driving Opium to her mom's in Ladner afterward meant I got to bed way late last night as well. I'm supposed to go to Labyrinth tonight to hang out with Evilyn and Lusus but I'm just too tired now.

I rejoined Corpgoth on Yahoogroups and posted a general question about the livability of Houston and got some immediate responses. It doesn't seem like such a bad place at all. The clubs are air conditioned and they have an underground tunnel system downtown so you can stay out of the heat. From the salary survey information I could find I am worth about $85 - $90K there. No state taxes, low income tax. At this point it is just a question of what kind of offer I will get. And of course I don't have the luxury of being quite as choosy now, thanks to the dot.bomb and the plummeting market.

The global economy weirds me out sometimes. I just received and e-mail and a phone call from a $1.5billion Indian software and consulting company looking to place me with a Fortune 100 company in Houston, TX. That certainly meets my stability requirements, but Houston? I don't know about that. I wonder if Bridgid is still kicking around down there?

(Hating Everything is Not the Same as Having an Opinion)

So I've finally begun working on my new web site. It took me a while to decide on a "look". I've gone with using old notes and such from my old notebooks, sketchbooks and diaries for backgrounds. For my default background I found the original hand-written draft for my very first web page. For this journal I went back into my old diaries and went spelunking for an interesting entry - I found a good one: the day I first dyed my hair black waaaay back in the 80's.

I was a bit too tired to write yesterday. The important work I referred to was taking care of Ivana's kids for the day. It was a blast :-)

As a general rule I don't like kids, but as a general rule people don't raise their kids well. Ivana's children defy the former generality because she defies the latter. She's a damn good mom and as a result has remarkable children.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/1989.html

Yay. I was just playing teacher to Evilyn. Now she knows how to post pictures in her journal. So much for working on my own web site tonight... lol

Got to get to sleep now though. I've got really important work to do tomorrow. I'll write more about that tomorrow.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/1604.html