On fifth I talked twice with some firm in Michigan, and what can I say, that was pure love at first sight, except the guy said „we can't pay you more than our CEO's salary is“. We differ by 25%, but if noghing better comes along, this ain't bad, and it's on the bank of the Michigan lake, a tourist place with hotels and pristine nature around. Still expecting few more answers, and I also applied at a few more places, so we'll see.
Wrote to dad (over 2-3 days, recompiled here):
We didn't even get any papers, not even the dismissals, it's simply that there's no salary so be kind to disperse. It will eventually look as if everyone spontaneously quit Zero. Formally, the firm still exists, for a month or two or so, the bank has to keep it open until the it calculates the final total, and then proceeds with sale, the so-called „courtroom staircase bidding“. The bank itself has to offer at least what its cost was, and to pray to god that anyone would offer a dollar more.
It exists formally because there's some 45 days that the bank has to keep it. American legislature comes in all colors, the laws are... rarely any of them is valid in all cases, it's always by category of the case. If the bankruptcy was filed (of which there are two categories too), we'd have the right to claim salary from the bankruptcy mass, and these claims would trump other creditors. But this turns out not to be a real bankruptcy, this is more a like a project, which was still completely in investors' hands and didn't even begin to return the investment, not to mention any profits. In the matter of fact, we never got any wholesome explanation. The natives have quickly given up on any attempts to squeeze any money out of it.
Yes, but that's under the condition that anyone of the investors joins in and that they all agree with the bank about how to proceed with the beheading and resurrection of the firm. They went back and forth with it for quite a while and then gave up.
This was a big con game played, until the very end the gang was fueled by enthusiasm and a hope that the firm will pull out and some salary for august will be paid. And then just a „we have bad news, negotiations didn't work out, there's no point for you to keep coming to work“.
Ford really did gather some interested customers, but it takes putting together some offers to them, calculate the needed time, cost etc etc, which wasn't worth even trying until it's clear whether the firm will survive.
...Ford resorted to pressure several times to force me to come to work on a saturday, or when I complained about the puny raise, or when I asked for a vacation etc etc. At some point he even mentioned his right to send me home if he wanted.
He's not a bos to me anymore, and this time he needs me more than I him. I want to know up front how much money will this be and when, and to see the first part, for the extras I did in august. And then I'd see whether I'll like the setup. [it ended with me telling him I can always work three days for free, and when he called me to do the fourth day, I asked whether there's a check waiting for me - there wasn't one, and I didn't come. Then Leanne asked him what happened, and he told her, and she sent a check to my name. And I think I did her enrollment season, what with another fresh EONS data import.]
Ford cooperates with Željko and V., who were (accidentally or not?) the last ones to sojourn here. And they are included in this post festum job. The others evaporated. Joška is, btw, leaving Brlja and going to the local newspaper and radio to do their web stuff, because ever since Mika Fišer was set up there as their CEO... anything is possible. Got a message from him last night. And for these two guys I also don't know whether they work for Brlja or is this freelancing. [of the whole team, only Pali and this V. guy stayed in USquad, the rest dispersed. And, ah, yes, Cica joined the team later]
I almost have one sure job in my pocket, and yesterday I sent my biography (called resume here) to m$ :). It was some Mike Stewart guy from m$, who's forever hanging around UA (that fox conference), wrote something there, and while reading that it crossed my mind to apply. Said „I'd slap my own face if I never tried this... and then it turned out that I should have. So... would you need one like this?“. He replied within five minutes - „for programming we're full, but in testing we should have some room. Gimme the resume and we'll see.“ Which I did in two minutes. We'll see.
As for Lena and her trial fourth grade... we saw a few A, A+, A* and a B+ (that one was orthography). Knock on wood, so far. Lena knows the local customs better than we do... though she was the only one in class who didn't know the rules of baseball. Even there she's ahead of us, as we thought that it doesn't have any rules at all.
Last night Go called, and there Ricardo was connected to Nina via the Net, so she asked Ricardo to ask Nina whether we were asleep, Nina said dad was awake, then Go called. We talked for a whole hour, midnight to one. They have some carousel in the neighborhood, and a wad of free tickets, so they went for rides. Should have lots left, so we'll go give Lena a ride.