Category: Uncategorized

Last Thursday in the mail we received some local ads. Even though we’re between jobs, my brain said, “I can’t miss out on a deal, I’d better glance through and see what’s going on in town.” So I’m flipping through nonchalantly and didn’t find anything in particular. On my way back through, I noticed a $100 off coupon from a butcher. HMMMM.

As I’m reading through their sale flier I thought, “I’ve always wanted to buy a cow.” So I called up my good friend, Emily and asked her if she might like to split a cow with me. She discussed it with her husband and said yes. I made the appointment for yesterday and got real excited.

While on the phone with my mom over the weekend, I mention that I’m buying a cow this week. She says, “So who’s going to milk it for you?” I about fell off my chair laughing. She laughed, too, as I explained that we’re buying the cow from a butcher and splitting it. I figure if we’re out of work for awhile, we’ll have plenty to eat between the meat and the other food storage I’ve been building! Mom was thrilled and said she’s enjoyed the half a beef they bought awhile back.

So Tuesday rolls around and Emily and I drove to American Fork (an hour south) to the butcher. We took the back roads, and as we passed a cow farm, we were making jokes about our cow. Of course now none of them seem all that funny, but for Emily and I this was big adventure!

Once we find the butcher, the haggling starts. Those of you that know me, know that I’m cheap and I want it on sale, so I was a little nervous about the price of the beef being what was on the ad. So the guy sits down with Emily and I at a table to discuss what cuts of meat we’re wanting to buy. He says most people come in and buy $1500+ of beef at a time and I’m sure he saw my eyes about fall out of my head. So after telling him I don’t want to spend $7 lb. on meat he says he wants to make me a deal and am I interested. Suddenly I’m feeling like I’m at a high pressure sales car dealership.

So he goes to the back room and pulls out several hunks of beef and takes us back to show us what we’d be getting and tells us what kind of cuts they would be. I started to think about this and realized I didn’t have to buy any set amount of anything, he’d sell me whatever cuts I want. So I told him to put back the expensive cuts and bring out more of the middle grade cuts and tell me what $$ we’d be looking at. Then he tells me, if we’re that close we might as well add a little more so that we can get some extra free groceries. Doing this and including the “free” foods into the initial cost of the beef brought our price under $3lb. which I decided was just fine considering steak is typically so expensive.

I felt like I haggled him down well, discussed with Emily how she felt about the new deal, and we began to cut. YEAH! We’re buying a cow, or the same parts of several cows. Anyway, people appeared out of the woodwork, big machines turned on and they put Emily and I at the end of the table to stamp our packages so that we would know what was in each package. It became very exciting as many different types of steaks as well as roasts, london broil and ground beef were individually wrapped, taped closed and stamped, and put into grocery bags that were waiting in grocery carts. They filled up fast.

So, in the end we purched 160 lbs. of beef and received 50 lbs. of other free foods: sirloin steaks, chicken, bacon, hot dogs and veggies of our choice. Yahoo! I bought my first cow and so far, those sirloin steaks were delicious! My freezers are clean and full of food and we will eat like kings while we’re in search of the next job opportunity!

So for those of you who are foreign to this type of shopping, here’s a song that our family loves!

Cows with Guns

A momentous step in the growth of Accompany Publising. Two weeks ago I moved into an office. For the first time since starting the business two years ago, I am no longer operating Accompany on a cell phone and 100 sq. feet in a dark basement.

The decision to not secure a dedicated office space was simple. My feeling was that until the business generated revenues and customer traction it should not leave the comfort of a rent-free location. Minimizing overhead was key.

For anyone out there interested in launching their own business venture, I will now offer that incurring startup overhead in the form of an office can offset the productivity loss brewed by sitting around your basement. I can’t tell you how despairing it can get working out of your own home. No matter your level of discipline, and earnest, you will have to overcome separation from people. There is a feeling that I was missing out on what was happening in the world.

I remember a time during my Nashville stint when I got hit with a nasty virus. I didn’t leave the Vanderbilt apartment for 4 days straight. Slept and read, trying to lick the bug. After I turned the corner, and could stand up, I walked outtside. I remember the awkward, feeling of leaving this little apartment and moving into this big world. That’s an allegory to the mental state of working from home.

The other thing about getting an office is that people start to look at the business differently. Before it was: “how’s your little project coming?” Garnering an office creates a different external perception of the enterprise as an actual business. People treat you differently. I don’t have to take meetings at coffee shops anymore.

Of course, my commute is now longer than ten seconds.

Anyway, the office itself is fantastic. My business associate found a commercial leasing company that caters to small businesses. For a cheap monthly rent, Accompany not only enjoys a spacious modern office, 1 mile from downtown, but also receives, included with rent, telephone, high-speed internet, fax, copier, elevator, doored-office, mailbox, security, electricity and immediate facility support. The owner/manager works three floors below me, and is emotionally committed to making the building concept succeed. I moved in on a Sunday night and this guy is sweeping the stairwell.

Now, about selling some product and making rent payments…

So the job hunt is finally over, I start in two weeks as a Personal Staffer up on the hill.

And so begins a new chapter in my life, no more Marine Corps, to the Hill I go. Why does that sound like the end of a fairy tale.

Bottom line… I got a phat job with money benefits and I’m gonna be all kinds of importnat ‘n stuff.

Sweet.

(thanks guys for the advice, I removed all the “juicy stuffy”)

I found out a couple of weeks ago that my sister is pregnant with her first baby. Today she called me to tell me that she had her first visit and everything is normal. The baby is growing and has a healthy heartbeat. I am thrilled for her. She asked me to be in the delivery room with her. Of course I agreed without even blinking. The best news, IF the baby is born on time, it will be my 35th birthday present as it is due on September 27th, my birthdate. YAHOOOO!!!

There it is again. Lurking in my email inbox like a tiger hunting its prey. Giggling at me behind the veil of gentility, mocking me. Smirking at me during meetings, provoking me unintentionally with both its ubiquitousness and fundamental inaccuracy. I know I should ignore it, yet I cannot. It draws me like a moth to a flame, like Homer Simpson to a caramel bologna sandwich. It’s compelling, and yet… so, so wrong.

The Needful.

“File system /db0a1 is 98% full. Please do the needful.”

“Yes, will you please do the needful to fix this?”

“The needful is to overwrite the existing files with…”

Yes, those two little words. The. Needful. The word “The”, by itself, is innocuous! One of the most common words in the English language. “Needful”, too, by itself has nothing wrong with it. It is an adjective, a part of speech used to describe a given thing as necessary, or required. Put it together with a noun, such as “thing”, or “actions”, or, well, really, any noun you wish; it is innocuous and descriptive. “The Needful Thing”. Just the kind of word a proper adjective should be.

And yet today, particularly in corporate technology cultures dominated by non-native speakers, it is a phrase that has acquired life of its own, devoid of the noun it was supposed to support. It’s as if, somewhere along the line, “The” and “Needful” just chucked the noun out of the stationwagon at fifty miles and hour, shouted “So long, sucker!” in unison, and left it in the dust at the side of the road near Silicon Valley as they sped up to match the flow of traffic along highway 101. I think they probably whipped out a handgun and peppered a few cars with bullets in their new-found catalystic freedom. Teenagers, you know. What can you do about their youthful exuberance?

So The and Needful together decided that they were a noun, with all the rights and privileges thereof, and found a fertile breeding ground for this point of view in the lexicon of technical workers. And in so doing, they continually irritate language purists everywhere. I include myself in that distinguished and geriatric association, despite my frequent and painful abuses of the language.

Every time I see these emails in my inbox, my brain automatically substitutes the word “thing” after “the needful”, with another person-shaped rubber stamp used on a stray neuron to up the counter of times I’ve seen that particular phrase.

Yet when I hear or read the phrase “The Needful”, in absence of a noun, a part of me wants to whip out my patent-pending Foam-Rubber Clue-Bat of Righteousness and whack the user over the head repeatedly, while shouting “Where is the noun, man, where is he? Just chucked him out of the car, did you, without a second thought for his safety? You will pay for your treachery!”

I suspect my incarceration would be swift even if short, and I would be introduced to more abuses of language than my ears care to hear. Alas, the Clue-Bat should remain safely hidden in the upstairs closet next to my 1988 Mako-branded generic electric guitar purchased at Victor Litz Music near Lakeforest Mall for $75.00. There among the dusty belongings The Bat cries out to be used, vigilante-style, against this violation of the language. But in this age of litigiousness, it is better to simply pull it out late at night, the candlelight illuminating the beaded sweat on my forehead as I murmer “My Precious” and slowly thwack the hefty Clue-Bat against my damp left palm.

“The Needful”. Ugh.

What is to be done?

EDIT by matthew: OK, obviously I need to explain what this essay is about. Dangit. Anyway, in the technical field you get a lot of “jargon”. The latest jargon, predominantly in use by non-native-speakers, seems to be using the phrase “Please do the needful” instead of “Please take care of this”, “Please help resolve this problem”, or the more mundane “Dude, it’s broken, fix it”. I guess I assumed it was more widespread than it actually is, or that more people have experience working with non-native-English-speakers in technical fields who tend to use shortcuts when they talk. Hope that explains it a little.

Time vs. Newsweek vs. U.S. News & World Report.

Discuss.

Finally, one of my posts has made the top 3.

Sure, I did very little but paste a description of the Star Wars Episode 3 trailer, but still.. I’m honored and would like to thank the members of the academy.

Congresswoman Ellen O. Tauscher is currently serving her fifth term representing California’s 10th Congressional district, which includes San Francisco’s suburbs in Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano Counties. She is a leader on defense, homeland security, high-tech, transportation and veterans’ issues and is one of Congress’s leading experts on nuclear nonproliferation. As a New Democrat and Blue Dog, her fiscally responsible, bipartisan, independent brand of leadership was coined “Tauscherism” by Time magazine.

As National Vice Chair of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Rep. Tauscher travels across the country meeting with elected officials and building a base of New Democrats for state and national office. Rep. Tauscher has served on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and chaired the group’s Democratic Business Forum. She is also a past Finance Chair of the New Democrat Network.

Rep. Tauscher has been called one of the “50 most powerful people in politics

Now I don’t know what everyone’s opinion is when concerning Gay Rights.

Mine are that I believe that even gay Ameerican’s should have the same basic civil and in my belief God given rights that all humanity has. They should be able to decide and have the same marital rights as the rest of us. Who are we to decide whom another person of “Freedom” should love. I can not decide for any other person what there moral beliefs should be. We are a country of many diversities.

So with great pleasure I applaud a major corporation and public one at that when they stand up for these very same issues. Ones that cause such controvery. We watch there shows. We laugh at the character of Jack and Will on Will and Grace. We have respect for the handicapped lesbian doctor Carrie on ER, but we never really have a chance to walk in there shoes. It wasn’t too long ago in history that African American’s fought for similiar reasons.

Basic respect.

They were never incourgaged to better themselves. They were isolated from many places in this country based solely on there color. We learned though as a country. Unfoutunatly it took this country too long. Are we going to go through the same mistake for what some think is a different reason. It is basic segregation. Appaling! So tonight when I watched two men dance together in an exclusive club of Right wing opinion, I clapped and cheered. When I watched a woman look and say the words ” I will not take love without acceptance.” I cried, was moved and hoped that many felt empowered. I just hope that many more will not stand by and allow votes 78 to 13 go unnoticed.

To allow the same feeling that this country once gave to an entire race fall on our relatives, and friends. My sincerist wish is that one day will will finnally take a lesson from God and learn acceptance and that it is not for us to judge. It is for us to serve each other. It is only then that we will experiece that utopia which is Heaven. However that may be.

EDIT by matthew: Formatting. However, I left everything other than paragraph breaks unchanged.

So Siebel Systems laid me off today. Dang. I kind of expected it for the last several months, though. I’ve been very busy, but not in the department into which I was hired; in other words, I was benefitting one department while another one which wasn’t making money paid me.

The background there is that they created a new group to handle application management services. There was a big account lined up, and they began staffing in order to handle the account.

Then the account fell through. Then they replaced the head of the division, who froze all new initiatives for review for several months. Ours was one which got the axe. Oh, well.

Anyway, so I’m on the job market again. I’ve updated my resume to reflect my recent experience. I have a couple of contracts that I can ramp up my progress on now that I have time, I got some severance, and our income tax return should be very reasonable this year, so I’m not too worried about our immediate prospects.

But if you guys know of someone looking for a UNIX admin, and are willing to pay decently (keeping in mind that the D.C. area is 18% more expensive to live in than my current arrangement), let me know!