OK, they're hurting in Mumbai and Bangalore as well as here in the US. Buried on TheRegister.Co.UK is a very interesting little article about the attrition rate at Indian help desk mills.

Apparently lots of people working there are overqualified...guys with MBAs doing Level 1 support. I know that it's been bad here since the Dot Bomb crash but apparently all is not milk and honey there either. Teaching all the sudden looks really, really good to me now.

Here's the link:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/33667.html

My train trip back from Santa Barbara was delayed by the advance of the Val Verde/Simi Incident fire. Basically the part of the fire that burned through Moorpark jumped over the tracks, and if it had gone through 30 minutes later than it did the train would have been caught by the fire.

I have a whole little essay that I was going to post that I wrote on my Palm, but thinking about it, rather than griping about being on "Gilligan's Train Trip" last night, I am actually damn glad to be alive.

The slow trip through the burnt area was sobering, to say the least. Literally, it looked like a page out of Dante's Inferno. I have pix and I will upload them to web space when I get the chance. The train crept at a 5 mile-per-hour pace through Moorpark and some of Simi, which meant that it took us an insane amount of time to get out of there.

Anyway, here's coverage of the fire from the Ventura County Star.

I'm coming up to Santa Barbara on Saturday to visit my buddies and retrieve WallyNavi, my Wallstreet. I will also be bringing The Blue Tomato, my Thinkpad, with me. Maybe, just maybe, when I bring Blue Tomato back down it will have a CD-RW, 224MB RAM, MDK 9.2 and Win4Lin with Windows98SE. For sure it will have Mandrake and the RAM boost.

Oh yeah, and both Thinkpads and Wallstreets came up in this article.

Here's a link to my response to a thread about whether or not Thinkpads are built. They ARE, at least the ones designed and built at IBM facilities are...the iSeries and the Thinkpads built thereafter are not so great, being as they are IBM-badged Acers.

(Edited 10/15 3:44pm and 10/15 7:10pm)
Blue, blue, my laptop's blue...yep, I took the plunge this afternoon and within a couple of days I should have my Thinkpad 600E 400MHz. All I have to do now is buy RAM and it's gonna be ready to rock. Good Linux laptop. People still buy refurbed 600Es from the places that resell laptops loaded with Linux. It will either be running Knoppix or Mandrake. With Mandrake I'll prolly put 9.1 on first then upgrade it in situ once I get 9.2 disks. With Knoppix it's a matter of apt-get upgrade once it's installed to the HD.

I mean, yeah, all this money I got in the loan is meant to pay off credit card debt, but after careful consideration treating myself to a new technological toy is a Very Good Thing (tm). I deserve it. Especially after that 100% on my math test. :-)

BTW an interesting blast from the Slashdot past...IBM actually pursued Red Hat certification for the 600E. This article has all the info:
http://slashdot.org:80/article.pl?sid=99/09/14/1040235

Another interesting fact: A 600E similarly configured to the one I'm still waiting for (stupid fsckn FedEx Ground...it's 10/15 at 3:39pm and I'm still waiting...) was $4,011 and change when new. This is the link from Computer Geeks on what I bought:
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=IBM600E-9

It still shows as available if anyone's interested.

Anyway, one last note at 7:10pm PDT. Blue Tomato arrived safely at Catseye Labs about 2 hours ago. It booted Knoppix flawlessly, save for no sound. I understand that Linux gets a bit confused between the sound card and the MWave modem chip and has to be straightened out. But that's but a minor consideration. It truly is "A" grade condition...almost like new. I am stoked.

OK, since I usually bellyache in here, I want to show a little gratitude to the Universe for where I'm at right now.

Firstly, it seems like I'm going to be OK as far as being able to handle all 12 units I'm taking at College. I seem to be on track to get at least a B, if not an A, in all three of my non-Math classes, and I got a perfect score the second time I took my first test for Math 112. I am still in shock over that little detail. I flunked with a 60% score my first time, but made 100% the second go-around. And that was with a completely new set of questions.

Secondly, this cold I'm suffering through is on its way out. Yesterday I felt like warmed over dog vomit, today I feel pretty good.

Thirdly, my Home For Wayward Computers will be adding a brand new waif to the fold. My ThinkPad 365X is now living with a friend in Britain, and I didn't know how much I missed having one until I went to the Computer Show today and saw a 600 at one of the used computer vendor stalls. That one was kinda skanky so I didn't really make the guy an offer. But Computer Geeks in Oceanside, CA have a whole slew of 600s, including some really neat ones. I'm going to get a nice fast one and have them max the RAM to 288MB before it leaves for home. Then I'm going to slap Mandrake 9.1 on there and be a very happy geek. My birthday is coming. I'm entitled.

Which leads me to the main reason I am so goddamn cheerful today. I finally feel OK about being at the edge of 40. I finally feel OK about hitting 40 on 11/5 of this year. I finally feel OK that I outlived my father. I finally feel OK about middle age.

I don't know how long this will last, but dammit it feels good to feel like this. And not even Gov. Gropenator can make me feel bad this moment. Satori? Nerdvana? WTF? Whatever it is, it feels right and I want to savor it.

I had a feeling this would happen. The polls close at 8pm, and exactly at 8pm, Dan Rather got on the tube to let everyone know that CBS/Viacom's exit polls show that the Recall won and that Arnold Schwarzenegger is now the Governor-Elect.

Perhaps either Jello Biafra or the current lineup of The Dead Kennedys should do a third installment of "California Uber Alles" for Arnold. The first was a dig at Gov. Jerry Brown, the second, entitled "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now" was a barb at Pres. Ronald Reagan.

My husband figured this election to be a fait accompli for Ah-nold almost from the very beginning. I said "nah, people aren't going to fall for this, they'll wise up and vote against the Recall." He's right. I'm wrong.

Where do I sign up for the "Recall Arnold" petitions that are inevitably going to follow? :P

I had second thoughts about it and yanked it. I don't want to be known for bellyaching about moderating. And I can't keep away from actually posting here. It's become an addiction, an ADDICTION, I say! (shakes fist) ^_^

OK, just a brief update for the Teacher files: on Monday I sign off on the Promissory Note for a student loan to buttress the financial aid (Pell grant) I have currently secured.

Yeah, I do have another one hanging over my head, but check it: this way I can take some high-interest credit card debt and refinance it at a ridiculously low rate. And there are debt assumption programs that basically wipe student loan debt clean if you have taught at an "underserved" public school for 5 years. Considering where I live, schools in my neighborhood qualify as "underserved" right off the bat.

Anyway, it will be nice "getting rid of the albatross" as Johnny (Rotten) Lydon put it in the PIL days. Well, it won't be entirely gone, but large portions of the carcass will be missing, and the remaining bird parts will be "down to size."

Also, the courses I'm taking are fine. Even Math 112, which is a struggle, is not an insurmountable struggle, at least. I suspect I will ace the rest or at least get high Bs. The current work load is not getting in the way of study time.

Yeah, this is boring stuff only interesting to me. However, this *is* a blog, and that's what blogging is all about, right? ^_^

Forget what I said earlier...the 9th Circuit court ruled today that the recall is still on. Since this ruling is technically pro-Republican, it is doubtful the Supremes will intervene. So the circus is still in town until the beginning of October. W00t.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/970937.asp?cp1=1

I'm not going to comment on this link. I think it speaks for itself. Weird.

OK, this is my equivalent of a Slashback. You might remember that I am keeping track of California Recall stuff, and I also wrote a brief little posting bemoaning the new FCC rules. Well, looks like the impossible has happened and:

1.) The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has delayed the recall. Unless the Supremes weigh in on this, and if they do they will show themselves to be a bunch of partisan toadies rather than "protectors of States' Rights" as they would like you to think, the recall will be delayed until the 2004 Presidential Primary Election in March. Of course Ah-nold doesn't like it...it would mean a donkey stampede to the polls (go Kucinich!) and it would make recalling Gov. I.M. Weasel that much harder. Darrel Issa, the jerk who started all this, is hopping mad. Too bad he didn't have the guts to see this mess of his through to the end. (insert chicken-clucking sounds here)

2.) The Senate showed a little backbone and rolled the Powell FCC rules on media consolidation back. Here's the scoop from The Hollywood Reporter:

SENATE VOTES TO REPEAL MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
The Senate today approved a resolution to repeal media ownership rules that critics say could lead to a wave of mergers and ultimately stifle diversity and local viewpoints in news and entertainment. Defying a White House veto threat, the Senate voted 55-40 to undo changes to FCC regulations governing ownership of newspapers and television and radio stations.

Yeah, I know that there's a Slashdot article about this. However, this is such good news I had to mention it here. Yeah, neither decision is probably going to stand. But at least I can feel good about it in the interim.

Farm out. Right arm.

In the wee hours after Midnight this morning, America lost its true Poet Laureate. Who could I be speaking of but Johnny Cash?

He was part of the "Class of 1955" at Sun Records, recording alongside Rock legends like Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. His place in music history would have been assured just for that single fact, but Cash's long career, stretching from that time at Sun to his 6 nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards for the stark video of his cover of Trent Resnor's "Hurt," is one that parallels the history of American music for almost 50 years.

His music and lyrics were simple, but profound. No gangsta rapper could chill you to the soul with tales of violence like the Man In Black. "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die." Need I say more? It is entirely fitting that Rick Rubin, the man who brought both Run-DMC and Slayer to the public consciousness, was the man who helped The Man In Black become extremely relevant to today's music.

One little factoid that seems to have escaped most of the people writing his obituary on the Internet is that Cash was the first "establishment" musical figure to recognize the genius of Bob Dylan. The album "Nashville Skyline" is all you need to hear to understand the common ground that Dylan and Cash shared.

The death of Johnny Cash's wife June Carter Cash in May probably took the will to fight for the last scraps of his life out of him. It is good that Cash got a last accolade earlier this month...he won one out of the six VMA awards he was nominated for.

Do yourself a favor and listen to the Man's work. Even if you can't stand Country, you will be transfixed by the honesty, the brutality and courage of his musical legacy.

Quick update about my math class situation...I got my section transfer with a minimum of expended sweat. Now comes the hard part...actually making the grade.

OK, more from my school journal. (the Anime reference was getting tired) As readers of this blog know, I have been steeling myself for battle with the dragon that is MATH all this summer. Today was my first class, and I basically wound up with the Math Teacher From Hell.

Imagine this: you are already quite nervous about taking the class, and you wind up sitting in the wrong room waiting for a tardy teacher who is NOT your teacher. You are in the wrong room, and the right teacher has been teaching in the right room for exactly 10 minutes.

Why, perchance, is this teacher the Teacher From Hell? OK, maybe part of the reason has nothing to do with him specifically...I made the mistake of taking a class which meets only one day a week, and he has to teach at an absolutely breakneck pace. The guy also doesn't believe in review AT ALL and skipped an entire chapter to make sure that the stuff he thinks is VITALLY IMPORTANT is covered in the VERY FIRST CLASS.

And to make it even harder for me to follow him, he had an extremely thick accent. It could be Middle-Eastern, it could be Persian, it could be Armenian, it could be Balkan, it could even be Eastern European. But whatever it was, it was interfering strongly with my ability to follow a class hurtling along at a speedcore pace.

Anyway, by the time the midpoint of the class came, and we had a break, I literally ran into the Math department office and burst into tears. Not a problem, don't worry, said the Profs who were there at the time. There were plenty of opportunities to do a section transfer.

And offhand they knew one in particular would be somewhat immune to the crunch in class availability that has been experienced all around Los Angeles Valley College...the one which basically is taught by Prof. Pentium II in the Math Lab. I had remembered the "self-paced math lab" description in the course catalog and thought...ok, that might be a semi-painless way to ease into my most hated subject...but somehow or another I forgot all about it when I requested my classes.

On Monday I will talk to the Prof who is supervising that particular section of Math 112 and it is fairly assured that I will have no problems getting in. I have my book for the new section already. It wasn't too expensive, luckily, so I didn't go bargain hunting on the Net like I did with the other books.

I hope this all works, because it would really set me back if I couldn't get a math class this semester.

Additional note 9/6/2003: I also may have been walking around with an undiagnosed learning disability all my life. There *is* such a thing as Dyscalculia, which is a catchall term for mathematical learning disabilities. There are parts of this academic paper which read like the story of my life. It could hold insights into the reason why I have a hard time with math, so much so that I have been avoiding it for the majority of my life.

I might be on the verge of a very interesting discovery. I'll keep you all posted.

I have a very happy entry to make in the Onegai MsGeek-sensei files. My Financial Aid appeal has been 100% approved for Fall 2003 and Spring 2004. My award letter suggests that I have literally tons of financial aid coming to me. I will also see if I can get a Stafford Loan so I can retire a nice healthy chunk of credit card debt incurred during the lean times since I lost my job at a Dot.Bomb in June 2000.

So the Save Karyn strategy has been scrapped, and I can finally begin to relax. The begging bowl has been safely stashed by the statue of Buddha in the living room. Whew! ^_^