Dangerous Territory

we had a really good time visiting my potential employer (even though it has been previously mentioned elsewhere, i won't mention the name again because blogging about jobs has turned into a danger, and just maybe a small amount of anonymity may be a good thing). east la isn't as bad as downtown. they still have trees and mountains. the traffic wasn't so much fun, but there are ways around it that may work out.

we had a really good time talking with the faculty and the department is definately on the move up, not just trying to maintain being a feeder school for doctors, dentists, etc. those students are the bulk and therefore the money makers, but they still want to graduate some people that want to stay in the field. the administration was nice and seemed to be in decent touch with how things really are (the assistant provost is the aunt of someone i went to high school with). there's always politics, but the head of the department seems to do a very good job protecting his people and fighting for them when needed. we got along well with all the people we met and i think i can really contribute to the students there.

at the end of the trip the dept. head said they would be making an offer on paper, but that he wanted us to know they were interested. so now we are looking for a job for keith and trying to figure out exactly how much we need to get out of his salary, where we can afford to live, and what to do with our houses up here.

MOM! =)

last week my mom took the train out to reno and visited for the week. i had a super good time and love having my mom around. we did some shopping, hung out, and made curtains for the dining room.

they came out really well and make the room look way cool. my is an awesome sewer and i'm glad that i learned a little bit of her knowledge this trip.
yay for my mom!

Linux to the rescue

there is a computer at work that interfaces with the flourimeter. i collect data but how, oh how, can i get it off? the computer runs windows 98 (not se and probably never patched). for some highly curious reason it recognizes one memory stick that a person in the group has, but not others (and when i try to load drivers for my memory stick using the other memory stick and transportation, i get a big fat nothing). so back to good old floppy you say. good idea. it worked once. and then the floppy drive didn't eject my disk and after retrieving my floppy disk with a pair of nice tweezers, the floppy doesn't read disks anymore. oh ya. no network card. not that it matters since there isn't a network drop in the room anyways. sooo how to get my data.
keith came up with the brilliant idea: boot to linux on cd and then copy to usb memory stick.
so yesterday i found and burnt my copy of knoppix and then called up my linux brilliant brother to help me out. the computer didn't have enough memory to load the gui (kde) so i used the terminal. so he stepped me through mounting the hard drive and my memory stick and then copying and unmounting. it was kinda fun.

moral of the story, get yourself a good bootable copy of linux (preferably include tools to reset windows stuff) and keep it at work. you never know when you'll need it.

Misc References

i love it when i recognize a misc. reference as part of a film or tv show. last night i was watching star trek: DS9 and the crew on one of the ships started quoting poetry and another filled in a couple of lines. i remembered the lines and realized i haven't read "Charge of the Light Brigade" in quite a while, which is what they were reciting. sad, but good.
read it here.

Right to Bear Arms

i read an article from an occupational safety website about how the courts are backing up employees rights to bear arms. at issue is if an employee is permitted to have a firearm in his or her car in the company parking lot. the basic arguement of employers is that it is safer to not have firearms at the company. employees argue it is thier right to have the ability to defend themselves in their car... and i would say to go hunting after work or whatever.

i sympathize with the idea of keeping a workplace safe, but i agree with the court in this case. which is a bit abnormal for me since i am not really a big gun rights person. however i think that the companies should be allowed to have people check-in firearms if the proper security is in place on the company premises (i.e. limited acess and regular patrols). it will be interesting to see if this type of thing becomes an issue for reducing the shootings at places of employment.

Hangings

in my closet, cloaked in white plastic
hangs my wedding dress
i enjoyed wearing it
i like the style
but
i wish i had worn my mother's dress
when i got married i didn't know how
my parents felt about their marriage
they are now divoriced
my mom wanted me to wear it
i should have listened to her
but she didn't push it, at all
because she loves me
i was worried that my dad might
not like to see me wear it
at thanksgiving i was at my dad's
new house and saw a picture
that i have always liked of his
it is a green and gray drawing of a lake
and a cabin
i remember it from when i was young
and have always felt part of the scene
somehow
we talked of where he was going
to hang the picture
i commented how much
i have always liked that picture
he said he likes it too
it reminds him of when times were good
with my mom
she gave it to him
and then i understood
too late
that i should have worn
my mom's wedding dress.

Real Estate

a new website was launched by the same guy that did expedia. i think this one, so far, is a bit better. but it still has some things that make you go "huh?". anyways, you can look at home value information and other stuff like taxes on at zillow.com.

well everyone but those who live in 83642 because they don't have data for that area yet and for us since they don't even acknowledge our street's existance yet.