The choice

What would you do?

I have the very, very fortunate problem of choosing between 2 job offerings (I never, never thought that I would be saying that in my entire life!). Unfortunately, I need to make the decision by tomorrow or Friday.

As it turns out, each job's weakness is the other job's strength. For instance, the job in DC is a longer commute, the one here is very short. The job here doesn't look like I could move up much in, the DC job looks like it could have a lot more potential. The other problem is that I've been working here for about 5 weeks and know exactly what to expect from the job...in DC I know generally what to expect, but there is still a degree of uncertainty as to what the people are like and what the stresses are like.

The other unexpected thing is that I was offered more money than I expected here, and slightly less than I expected in DC (although still more on paper, but slightly less if one figures travel expenses). I think my next process will be to negotiate a slightly higher salary in DC, mostly because of travel expenses.

Anyway, I'm about 85% sure that I'll be taking the job in DC...I think it would be stupid for out future if I didn't...

wish me luck


-N

Problems

Well, I seem to have an abundance of them lately. My largest personal one, concerning which job I should take (it's good news, but I hope to post about that tomorrow) seems to pale in comparison to what my cousin and his wife are going through...

They, and subsequently we, found out about a week ago that their 9-month old son, Drew (the youngest of two), has Bilateral Retinoblastoma: eye cancer. If you want to hear more about his condition, go to his blog.

I have been doing some reading on the subject and, apparently, it's very treatable. I just can't imagine the stress of having to make the decisions that they are making. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.


-N

Still waiting

and waiting...and waiting.
No news from either job prospect, but I am supposed to hear either today or tomorrow (I've heard that before...)
So, I'm on lunch right now. I usually eat my food within 10 minutes and, seeing that I have a full hour, wind up either sitting around and playing Tetris on my cellphone, or staring out at the city. The cafeteria here is on the 9th floor and has panoramic views of the city (there is also a deck, which no one seems to know about, that I frequent when the weather is nice). Most of the time during lunch I stare out the window (or over the railing), waiting for some great epiphany to hit me like an unsuspecting sparrow flying head-on into an all-but-invisible window. So far, nothing. Not even a sparrow (which, if I'm outside on the deck, is a good thing because the bird would fly into my eye).
Speaking of birds, I did watch/listen to what seemed to be a car chase the other week. There were a lot of police cars tearing down one of the major roads. After a few blocks, they split off and tried to flank the unrelenting purp. All of this was made easier, I'm sure, through the assistance of the "ghetto bird" (props to Tupac) flying cirlces around the East Baltimore neighborhood.
Other fascinating things to watch from the oberservation deck are the blue blinking lights that pepper every block of East Baltimore like nefarious blue Christmas lights. They are police cameras. One every block. Blinking all day long. I'm not sure if they stop much crime, but they sure do look neat from 90 ft in the air. They are also good signposts for letting you know when it's neccessary to roll up your windows as you're driving through the ghetto on your way to the store.


-N

What does it mean?

So, two nights ago I had this very perplexing dream…
Kristin and I were camping in the Boundary Waters (which turned out to be my parents backyard) with our two cats (which, coincidentally, happened to be dogs). All of a sudden, a bear shows up. As I know from past experience, black bears (the kind that reside in the BWCA) are fairly easy to scare off. (This is where it starts to get weird) Having remembered this fact in my dream, I proceeded to reach either into or near (I’m a little hazy as to which actually occurred) my wife’s “back door” and pull out an air horn (you know, like they use at football games) and blast it right in the bear’s face. At first, the bear ran away. Soon however, he came back. Nothing scared him. Then, all of a sudden, the bear started speaking. He told me his name was “Snuggles” (or something ridiculous like that) and informed me that he was a "swamp bear" and posed no threat to us or the cats (dogs). He then showed me his teeth and explained that they needed to be long and sharp to chew the tough roots that made up a large part of his diet. Shortly afterwards, I woke up, having no idea where I was…


-N

I know how to fix voting problems!

Three words:

Scales...Of...Justice. (like these)
The heaviest side wins (theoretically, the side with the highest turnout).

I know what you're all thinking: "But that will never work! What about the really fat people? What about the really skinny people?! Under-representation of certain socio-economic classes?!"

Here's how it will work (it's easy because we only have a "two party" system):

Republicans on one side, Democrats on the other. You see, all of the Republicans will be thin, likely due to their expensive gym memberships and personal trainers. To offset the handicap of their svelte builds, they will simply line their pockets with all of the gold (coincidentally one of the heaviest metals; see AU on the periodic table) that they have accumulated through hard work and tax cuts.

On the other side are the Democrats. Yes, there are some wealthy Democrats, but not many. Instead of lining their pockets with gold, they will be able to use packets of foodstamps, which they freely hand out. The real coup de grace for the Dems is the fat people. Being mostly poor, the Dems can't afford a personal chef....So, they eat fast food and get fat. Advantage: Dems.

Now, whilst these two mainstream parties piss and moan about who is cheating, the Independents will sweep in and kick the scales over, thus ending the two party gripe sessions that so often accompany elections. They will then assume office and proceed to lead the country in a more "peaceful" direction.
Hooray! It seems like the only thing Independent party is known for is drug decriminalization. Really folks, an ounce of marijuana!? (yup, it's the big bag). As if we weren't stupid enough-let's make everyone dumber. Coincidentally, this referendum was on the ballot in Arizona and Nevada...Nevada being the state with the strictest drug laws in the nation.

Politics are amusing. I tried to offend everyone with this post...don't take it too seriously.


-N