There're a lot of fun things that can positively to your mental and physical health. If I had extra time, I would try and learn a few trades like blacksmithing and wielding. There're a few languages I'd like to learn. There're some musical instruments that I'd like to learn as well. We were designed to work and play outside, not sit at a desk for hours on end. People that do stuff regularly outside generally are healthier from the activity, vitamin D production, and breathing some fresh air.

Start a side business that doesn't directly compete with your employer if your downtime isn't still on their time. If you do go this route, structure your company in a way that removes you from any liability; you may need to find a good lawyer for that since there're other good lawyers that are adept at legally seizing the company owner's assets that aren't related to the company. A former colleague of mine started a site that he sold fantasy and reproduction props from. He didn't maintain any inventory and just dropped shipped from suppliers. He'd advertise his side on a couple of enthusiast forums that he engaged in and also did SEO work on his site to get at the top of Google results. He said he spent one hour a day working on fulfilling orders with the suppliers, answering e-mail, SEO, and engaging the community. He ended up with about $2k/mo in profit.

If you're not interested or can't do that, try finding a fun video game. I suggest the X series from Egosoft. Those games are a blackhole of time. The latest one is X3: Albion Prelude.Each new release has gotten better and you really don't need to play the previous games in order to play the current one, however the back story from the previous games is interesting and explains WTF. You can still read the plot on Wikipedia IIRC. Another option is to play some MMO. Grind away and sell virtual wares for real currency.

What was the rational for this? Why would they continue on with such crap?

Genuinely interested.

Perhaps next time try and pass off 172.16.0.0/12 addresses as public IPs. Most people are familiar with 192.168.0.0/16 and 10.0.0.0/8 is common enough. 172.16.0.0/12 is rarely known by the mass populace in my experience.

Some a-hole. I found the post helpful in reminding me what happened. Thanks for trying to mod it up.

I really wish the Telepath War could have been explored. Really intriguing on what was setup for the story.

Let's keep it going.

Green. Definitely green.

Thanks. It has been so long that I forgot about that.

Is there any potential to continue making content in the B5 universe and perhaps producing the stories you've already written or are any potential initiatives dead? I understand getting WB to budge along with funding is a RPITA. I also respect your opinion that no one can replace the actors that have passed away and any future content with those characters wouldn't include the characters on screen. /Big B5 fan. I'm a bigger fan of it than Star Trek or Star Wars.

Everything I've read confirms the original CG models were lost. IIRC it was either due to the company that did the CG going out of business or some accident. A lot of the model work has already been done by the community though. There are fan made game mods where they started from scratch on the models and texturing. I'd imagine with permission they could take the existing models and improve on them.

JMS, if this does happen, please ensure they don't rape us at the checkout counter. $40/season is within my budget. I'd be willing to pay a little more because of how much I love this work, but $70+/season is pretty hard on the budget.

Agreed. Season 4 definitely rocked. Season 5 almost felt like WB wanted to keep the gravy train rolling, but things weren't planned out as in-depth as the previous seasons. I could sworn I heard early on that it was originally intended to run four seasons.

You hit it on the nose. That's why I went to go work for a MSP. My previous employer knew full well that I was underpaid, but didn't want to bring my pay anywhere near DOL medians for the area. I saw a lot of job openings where that wanted the guy to do everything from tech support to DBA all for $40-$50k. I looked for a job where the position is where the money is made and not burdensome overhead. I left for a 60% increase that they didn't even bother to try and counter to my boss' dismay.

At the MSP, the sales team needs work and there needs to be more staff in Tier 2 where 98% of incidents are solved. The company has problems, but they're open minded, look for ways that can be improved, and are open to solutions from the peons.

I think part of the reason why some companies that can justify the cost of a larger IT dept. is they don't know how to find the right qualified people. Yes there are other reasons, however I've done my fare share of being the interviewee and interviewer. Interviewers don't always know how to ask the right questions and weed out wrong candidates and over 90% candidates are not qualified for the job they're applying for. A number of applicants either fudge their resumé or the recruiter does.

CSB:
I had one candidate that his resumé was fudged to hell by the recruiter. A number of old tech and non-relevant information was put on there. I asked basic questions related to that claimed knowledge and he just froze. I had to pull out of him that he didn't know. Unfortunately he didn't have the balls to say that is not on his original resumé and must have been put there by the recruiter, which I would have fully accepted.

My last job started out great and slowly degraded over time. Towards the end the "new" Chief Idiot Officer (CIO) had things on the brink of disaster and only through the skill that stuck around and sheer luck did things survive. I bidded my time while I looked for a job. After searching for a while and even expanding my search to neighboring states, I finally got the offer I was looking for. I was tempted to just toss my resignation to the HR lady, stop by the CIO. There I would tell him he's an idiot, that's what the "I" in his title stands for, and he can EABOD, GFY, and then ESAD. I didn't do any epic bridge burning because I didn't feel like it would have been right to do to my boss (not that he was perfect either, but he was ok) and the PFY. If my boss wasn't still there, I probably would have done that; the PFY can handle himself.

Came here to recommend that story. You beat me to it.

Slight SPOILER hint:
It doesn't end the way you want it to. It ends in the typical fassion it would at any corporation and it drives me crazy.