Where's everybody?

[LunarMist]

Waiting around the ER for someone with UTI?

 

[ddrueding]

Well that sucks.

 

[LOST6200]

Now I am alwasy somewhere else. Are you travelings too or only my foolishmens..

 

[ddrueding]

I did the trip to Disneyland. The next trip will be to Houston, TX in Feb and then Moscow in late May.

 

[LunarMist]

Hey, maybe you could visit Gary there in Texas.

 

[ddrueding]

Is he around Houston? I won't have a car, and will be staying with the GF's relatives.

 

[ddrueding]

Quiet around here. What is everyone up to?

(I'm working on my resume - in HTML)

 

[Mercutio]

Work lately has been less sit-at-desk and less talk-on-phone and more this-must-be-fixed-yesterday.

 

[ddrueding]

All week I've had 2 this-must-be-fixed-yesterdays and nothing else. 4 billable hours total, in the last 7 days.

 

[blakerwry]

lots of that going around... less time for movies, though I did get in an episode of the new American Gladiator. Not bad, Hulk adds a certain element that was missing from the original.. though the new one can never quite live up to the nostalgia of the original.

 

[mubs]

Just slogging my butt out.

 

[LunarMist]

Quiet around here. What is everyone up to?

(I'm working on my resume - in HTML)

I'm reviewing resumes and interviewing, but not for IT positions. It is quite difficult finding qualified candidates in my area. Many resumes seem to be PDF format lately.

 

[ddrueding]

Many resumes seem to be PDF format lately.

I've noticed that, too. My thoughts were to get it to render correctly in HTML first, then create PDF, plain text, and RTF versions based on it. It's easier to go from HTML to everything else than from anything else to HTML.

 

[timwhit]

I've noticed that, too. My thoughts were to get it to render correctly in HTML first, then create PDF, plain text, and RTF versions based on it. It's easier to go from HTML to everything else than from anything else to HTML.

I thought you were self-employed, Dave? Are you looking for a corporate job?

 

[ddrueding]

I thought you were self-employed, Dave? Are you looking for a corporate job?

I am and I am. I intend to "settle down" to a certain degree. Marriage is near, as is buying a house and 'securing a future'. None of which are things that I cared very much for when I picked much of my current lifestyle. Most of it is on it's way out. So I'm looking for a stable salary and a shorter commute from someplace with more affordable housing (a condo for under $500k would be nice to start). I'm quite confident that the economy will get much worse before it gets any better, and battening the hatches seems like a prudent move.

 

[jtr1962]

I'm quite confident that the economy will get much worse before it gets any better, and battening the hatches seems like a prudent move.

I share those sentiments. We're definitely headed for a major recession. It might turn into a full-blown depression if the Hildabeast gets into the White House.

 

[ddrueding]

I don't think anyone will be saving us from this. Combining how buried we are (massive exports, massive debt, poor education, corruption and bloat) with our unsustainable expectations (federal assistance for cable TV?) means there is some well-deserved suffering to be had.

 

[Tannin]

I'm not so sure about a recession as such in the US. More like a permanent adjustment of living standards. For years now the USA has been producing less and less and spending more and more, living high off the hog on borrowed money. Sooner or later, the USA has to either start earning some serious income (which it won't - it can't compete with India and China on cost, or Japan and Europe on quality) or cutting back hard on the amount it spends on imported consumer goods, imported raw materials (especially oil), and the military (which chews up vastly more expense relative to GDP or population than than any other country in the world). Probably all three.

The USA is in serious difficulty right now, the more so because hardly anyone there seems to realise how bad things have got and everybody just wants to keep on spending the money they haven't got. The first step is to actually admit that things are serious, and the second step is to wind back on useless consumer spending. My guess is that both of these things will start to happen as the year goes on. But it's not really a "recession" looming. It's reality.

 

[time]

I'm quite confident that the economy will get much worse before it gets any better, and battening the hatches seems like a prudent move.

It's good to see you facing up to reality, Dave. I've been winding down my business for the last 2-3 years, and five weeks ago I started my first 'permanent' job in nearly 20 years. I still don't know if this shelter will be enough to weather the storm.

Mind you, the writing's been on the wall for longer than that in IT. It's just been tough for entrepreneurial types like us to accept.

 

[time]

It might turn into a full-blown depression if the Hildabeast gets into the White House.

It's unwise to poke one's nose into another country's politics, but I'd suggest that your future choice of president isn't going to make a whole lot of difference - you had your chance 7 years ago and you blew it.

Your current choice is more than capable of driving your country (and the world) into an economic depression. Until you admit your error and purge the Republican Party, only misery awaits (BTW, I'm an optimist and tip McCain).

Obviously, I agree with Tannin's comments.

 

[jtr1962]

Your current choice is more than capable of driving your country (and the world) into an economic depression. Until you admit your error and purge the Republican Party, only misery awaits (BTW, I'm an optimist and tip McCain).

McCain would be good provided he adopts Huckabee's tax plan (sales tax in lieu of the income tax). As for a wave of misery hitting the US soon, it's probably a given. You and Tannin may call it a readjustment of living standards. I call it a recession. I personally welcome it regardless of what you call it. I'm sick of all the stupid consumer spending and associated barrage of advertising anyway. It would be nice if capitalism returned to its roots-namely making products to meet people's needs, rather than creating artificial needs/wants to sell mostly useless products which end up in landfill a year later. It's even more stupid that people have been taking every dollar in equity out of their homes to buy all this useless crap.

 

[LunarMist]

Is there any chance you guys can take the politics to another thread? This is getting OT even for the thread.

 

[sechs]

I've noticed that, too. My thoughts were to get it to render correctly in HTML first, then create PDF, plain text, and RTF versions based on it. It's easier to go from HTML to everything else than from anything else to HTML.

Why do you need an HTML version?

I've been laying out my resume in InDesign for some years and distilling to PDF. Looks darn pretty, too.

 

[ddrueding]

Waiting at a client site in the middle of nowhere, waiting for AT&T MIS to call back. T-1s can be such a PITA if you aren't in a metropolitan area.

 

[Mercutio]

I am going to go ahead and agree with time and Tannin in that there is a staggering amount of ignorance in this thread.

Today is my first fairly quiet day of the new year.
My problem, lately, is that more of the things that I have been doing have been more like favors and less like things I can charge money for. On the plus side, education of any sort is counter cyclical, so despite the generally grim economic outlook, work at my trainer job is picking up.

 

[Handruin]

It's unwise to poke one's nose into another country's politics, but I'd suggest that your future choice of president isn't going to make a whole lot of difference - you had your chance 7 years ago and you blew it.

Your current choice is more than capable of driving your country (and the world) into an economic depression. Until you admit your error and purge the Republican Party, only misery awaits (BTW, I'm an optimist and tip McCain).

Obviously, I agree with Tannin's comments.

Blew it 7 years ago? Who's to say the alternative would not have blown it also? With the choices we get, it's honestly like throwing a dart and hoping for the best. I admit no error since I didn't vote for the current choice in either election (however I will agree with the error), but the choices never seem to be worth anything.

 

[jtr1962]

With the choices we get, it's honestly like throwing a dart and hoping for the best. I admit no error since I didn't vote for the current choice in either election (however I will agree with the error), but the choices never seem to be worth anything.

Agreed on all counts. I did vote in the last two presidential elections but not in the last two years. In fact, I'm probably not bothering to vote any more unless I'm particularly excited by one of the choices. IMHO we would probably do just as well selecting someone at random from the general population to be president than by our current process.

 

[Mercutio]

Blew it 7 years ago? Who's to say the alternative would not have blown it also?

To be honest, a lot of the current issues with mortgage lending seem to have started with some really poor decision making on the part of the Federal Reserve and were exacerbated globally by Bush Administration policies which caused a devaluation of the dollar (making it cheaper for other countries with strong currencies to buy our debt) while at the same time increasing spending and decreasing real tax revenues. These policies are widely thought to be part of a larger agenda by certain neoconservative factions to "bankrupt" (as in, make economically untenable) the US government and thereby eliminate a number of "untouchable" social welfare programs such as Medicare.

In short, I sincerely doubt we'd be in the same fiscal situation if we had made good/informed/rational decisions regarding the election of our most senior executive.

 

[ddrueding]

IMHO we would probably do just as well selecting someone at random from the general population to be president than by our current process.

That I would certainly agree with. Anyone who wants to be president should not be allowed to have the job. Just draft someone every 2 years and call it good.

 

[Mercutio]

That I would certainly agree with. Anyone who wants to be president should not be allowed to have the job. Just draft someone every 2 years and call it good.

Because it's too much work to understand that the anti-intellectual fundamentalist authoritarian nutbags should maybe be kept out of high office?

 

[ddrueding]

Because it's too much work to understand that the anti-intellectual fundamentalist authoritarian nutbags should maybe be kept out of high office?

Because it isn't possible to convince a majority of americans (who are, for the most part, morons) to do anything smart.

As Jefferson said, a democracy only works if the populace is educated. It just isn't.

 

[Handruin]

Those who are smart enough know not to take the job.

 

[sechs]

The founding fathers were thinking ahead. They don't allow us to *actually* vote for the president. We only vote for the people who really do that.

 

[ddrueding]

Seriously no posts all day? What's going on?

 

[Tannin]

Just as well you are here, Tea, 'cause there's no other bugger wants to chat with me.

 

[Tea]

I think we scared them all off, Tannin. Must have been that heavy intellectual stuff I wrote in the politics thread.

 

[Tea]

Sometimes my own intelligence scares me.

 

[Tannin]

Tea?

 

[Tea]

mmmm?

 

[Tannin]

Pull your head in, OK? You are getting a bit too full of it lately.