Light at the end of the tunnel? in Off Topic

ID:51905
 
Dec 15 2008, 6:53 pm
At the end of October, my employer got bought. This is the third company that's bought us in the last decade or so. How did that affect me?

* My co-programmer, with whom I've worked since 1994 and who is by now about as good a friend as I could hope to have, got laid off. That was quite depressing, and as a bonus, it instantly doubled the work I had to do.

* We'd been with the last company for about five years, and had spent most of that time gradually integrating our systems with theirs. With no advance warning, we had to switch everything over to the new company. Another doubling (at least) of work. Only one system left to go, knock on wood!

* Then, a week after the announcement, there was the election. I'm trying to take the stoic John Wayne perspective: "I didn't vote for him, but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job." But it would have been nice to have at least a day or two to luxuriate in electoral angst without the job intruding.

Anyway, a month and a half later, things seem to be improving bit by bit. I realize that my catalog of woes is pretty paltry compared to many people's, but even so, Halloween kicked off a carnival of suckage this year, and I expect, nay DEMAND, a double-good Halloween next year to make up for it. That and two bucks will get me a cup of coffee.
#1 Dec 15 2008, 7:24 pm
Your CSS hurts me. Change the font color, muhn.
#2 Dec 15 2008, 7:36 pm
A couple of things to feel good about the election: For Secretary of State, Obama was allegedly considering John Kerry, so I'd say with Hillary we dodged a serious bullet there.

And on the economic side Obama immediately dumped all the redistributionist rhetoric he's been peddling for two years and has signed on some serious pro-trade people who are not the 70's retro British-style socialists I'd been fearing based on his campaign statements. In fact, with Larry Summers he picked someone I'm downright enthusiastic about, especially since this gives Summers a chance to come back after his character was assassinated by the PC Leftists who managed to get him kicked out of Harvard on trumped up crap.

Frankly I'm somewhat uncomfortable with someone bald-face misrepresenting his core views to the degree Obama may have based on what we've seen so far from him as President-elect, but heck it's better than if he had been telling the truth.

But the whole truth will be in the pudding...I'm waiting to see what actually happens once he's in office, but if he continues forward in ways I can generally support in some key areas, I'll be happy to support him in those areas.

By the way, I've been meaning to ping you in this sort of forum -- I've emailed you a couple of times recently without response, mostly with consolation about your work situation.

Of course you might have finally come to your senses and stopped talking to me, or quite possibly just been overwhelmed with the work situation, but I'm concerned that one of us is inadvertently filtering out the other's mail...I've been using the hotmail address I have.

Let me know!
#3 Dec 16 2008, 6:07 am
Deadron wrote:
In fact, with Larry Summers he picked someone I'm downright enthusiastic about, especially since this gives Summers a chance to come back after his character was assassinated by the PC Leftists who managed to get him kicked out of Harvard on trumped up crap.

True -- though, IIRC, Summers didn't do a lot to stand up for himself, or the perfectly reasonable questions he was asking, at the time. He may have some good ideas, but will he pursue them past the first signs of resistance?


Of course you might have finally come to your senses and stopped talking to me, or quite possibly just been overwhelmed with the work situation, but I'm concerned that one of us is inadvertently filtering out the other's mail...I've been using the hotmail address I have.

Had you but applied Occam's Razor, you would have realized the simplest answer is that I'm a disorganized chump. I read the emails, meant to reply, and then they were pushed out of my sight. A belated thank you for your good wishes!
#4 Dec 16 2008, 3:55 pm
Owch. It may not be the worst news I've heard but it sure does suck to lose a friend/co-worker. Especially when they pour salt in the wound by giving you more than enough extra work to keep both of you run off your feet.

I guess you'll have to resort to the age old payback scheme of spitting in their source before you give it to them. =P
#5 Dec 17 2008, 3:23 pm
Mostly off topic, I think its funny that a cup of coffee at some places costs more than a gallon of gas right now. Heck, so does a bottle of water.