Huxley: "An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex." Being "manly" in the sense I get from the summary is something only troglodytes admire. I would find more pressing things to stress over. And no, I don't have a sense of humor, so bugger off.

Of course I only read the summary, but why use the word violent? It sounds like this has nothing to do with violence but fast paced complex spatial reaction.

Mine lasts at least a week; I too lack any human friends... Want to get together over beers?

Thanks again. I am too inexperienced to jump ship now (I don't have a degree or any years under the belt) so I am holding tight. But, at night, I tell myself that five years as a (good) QA Manager is worth more on paper than a CS degree and that makes up for the petty reimbursement and obscene IP contracts. Regardless, I'll try to make use of your hindsight. Best regards.

Thanks for the insight. I'll thicken the plot for you a bit:

The smiles and beers are genuine. The boss is a good guy. The problem with that is that he leverages how he is a good guy and how the company is a good org to balance out the fact that I get peanuts for pay (The client I am contracted out to pays my company over twice what I see and we charge half what the client pays internals [found that out while chatting during an on-site], so you can estimate how little I make). The big question then, for me, especially after thinking about your suggestions, is whether I rather work for little monetary reimbursement for a "good" company and get a piece of mind or play the game in an evil corporate situation and actually afford to have a family some day. Regardless, I'm holding on to my job like it's my skin due to the nation wide layoffs.

And to think I proof read my post twice before submitting. That's what I get for posting on /. at work while peeking over my shoulder to make sure nobody sees me getting paid to make pointless +5 funny posts. I was sure I would get at least +3 Interesting.

Yeah here you go (myspace, sorry) http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/2/l_e5cff80dbb2f41c88eb0141c7b2c097b.jpg

Oh and Ingrid, I'm not going to give you the cipher... nice try :)

I have developed a mirrored left to right script when I write in my journal. It has some benefits:

No smearing of ink.
Wife can't read fantasies about HR girl.
Looks totally bad-ass like elvish.

I can write it about 2/3ds fast as standard right to left printing and read it about 1/5th speed (it's not just mirrored English characters: I use a substitution alphabet (I bet developing this 'skill' is doing all sorts of cool stuff to my brain).

PS: To my second grade teacher that wanted to force me to be right handed: How about these apples you tool!

*and reading the da Vinci code.