Ford announcing that we may be back in business real soon now, "...in which they presented acceptable terms for ZDI or NewCo to move forward. They are faxing those terms to our lawyer Monday morning. If the written terms are the same as the verbal terms, we will be back in business. While this is good news on the surface, it has caused the bank to delay approval of our deal to move forward with Leevor apps. Once again, I must ask for your patience. In the long run, having the support of our investors is best for us all. I will be pursuing work/money for us aggressively on all fronts Monday and will keep you informed."
Dad reports mud in the vineyard, visit of Milosava, making more brandy.
This situation makes me pretty much unemployable, as xenophobia is only taking a start but promises to grow. I have grown hemorhoids. Taking suppositories and learning to like them. I had those already, back in winter 98-99, no surprises, just as bad as it was. Meanwhile I had two encounters with our new status here. One was when I visited Zero and got mail from the INS, asking the office to send a report on my current salary, just to ensure that, as a H-1B I'm not underpaid [which I was, but this much they could swing]. We concluded that it was too late for that and did nothing. Much later it occurred to me that we could actually have done that quite legally, the CFO was still in the building, got a job downstairs, and he could have produced the report and sent it, he still has all the rights to sign such papers. The questions about my employment status and the company's bona fides were answered previously. Who knows, maybe I would have got that green card after all. Who knows why this was good.
The other one was when I met someone from the office and got informed that I should be entitled for unemployment benefits, the amount for that was regularly taken off my salary for two years. So I went to the VES (Virginia employment services or some such TLA) and applied. The sticking point there was that I didn't have the AIN, alien immigration number, because that was the next step in the green card process, which I would almost have gotten, probably in a few weeks. The clerk, luckily, wasn't talking to me through any window, but rather had me in his office, wanted to chat and, among other things, asked about my work. There I noticed that the app he was using was done in fox, and the guy just asked me if I could do anything about one particular report they had, which would eject pages prematurely and was badly formatted. I gave it a good try, but the problem wasn't in the report itself, and the rest of it was packed in an exe, which I couldn't touch. Then he went back to the app to complete my application, and just routinely checked the AIN checkbox - it didn't ask for the number itself, just a yes-no about its existence. Well, it did exist, as an idea. So I started getting the 1200$ - about quarter of what I was getting, give what you give.
Went to Walmart (but they don't have milk at 2.35$, it's 3.08 now - 3.19 in Kuglager and 3.09 or also 3.19 in Food for lions), bought a pack of food for the Crumb (Mrvica - the guinea pig) and the big pack of cedar shavings, should last until spring. And I got two tiny needles in my left ear, acupunctural, against Ford (which is how I nicknamed my haemorrkhoid).
Went to the nearby library with Nina the other day, took "Difference engine" by William Gibson and the other guy. They have a nice exposition titled "Look familiar?" where they post all the pictures that people forget in the books they return.
Ricardo has filed for Go's green card, and the receipt just arrived. They used our address, as Jose's Hondurans are probably officially on his address, so not to be confused with them.
Burt's account of 11. september:
Tuesday morning I had my appointment with the Orthopoedist. I was going to go to work first, but I didn't feel that well so I just slept in some and went straight to the doctor's office. On the way, about 10:20, I turned on the radio and heard the news about the terrorist attack. The plane must have just hit the pentagon then. The doctor's office was in the professional building at Arlington Hospital. When I arrived, they were just beginning to cancel appointments as the orthopoedists were being summoned to the emergency room. However, they did see the patients that were already there, including me. I was told to wear my ankle brace for two weeks and, after that, to do some stretching excercises. The hospital was becoming a madhouse of traffic just as I left. Traffic was becoming jammed in the area. The Pentagon is between the hospital and my office in Crystal City. I called my boss and he confirmed that it would be very difficult to get to work, so I went home. I suppose that if I had gone to the hospital as planned, I might have driven past the disaster, probably before the traffic began to congest, or even passed under the plane.
Wednesday afternoon there was no smoke visible from the pentagon, which is not itself visible from my office. I suppose the hole is on the west side facing Dulles Airport, because I can't see it when driving home.
Not worth a CNN interview, but worth telling friends and relatives, I think. I don't know anyone who works at the Pentagon, or the WTC, for that matter. Our Navy clients are at the Navy Yard downtown. We heard that NAVSEA is allowing no visitors, not even us.
In another email, he continues
I hope we aren't about to make enemies of people who aren't enemies yet. I hope the rest of the world doesn't hold it too much against the Bush administration for telling them to go to hell all year. I hope we can actually find a way to do as you ask and punish terrorists without punishing everyone else. That is really the hard part.
When we went to war with Iraq, Palestinians and Yasser Arafat sided with Saddam Hussein, believing he actually sought to help them with what he was doing. The isolation they then faced compelled them to be reasonable after that. A shooting spree in a mosque and the assassination of their prime minister taught the Israelis to be reasonable around that time. The TV footage of Palestinians cheering the killing may bring them back to their position of 1993 or so. I wonder what has to happen to make the Israelis return to reason.
Canada has much to recommend it as a place to live. Do you wish to go to Montreal just to work with Michel, or for other reasons? Perhaps you are in a mood to learn another language. I like Montreal. It looks nice, doesn't have too much crime, has good transit and things to do. It doesn't seem too congested for a big city, except for the bridges across the St Lawrence River. I have seen terrible jams on the Pont Champlain at all hours of day or night. Maybe they actually finished construction at some point, who knows? Montreal has a pretty good art museum. A lot of people are well dressed. It is cheaper than Toronto. Many people speak English. I think they are more forgiving of non-Canadians for not speaking French. It will therefore not be total language immersion. Winters are much colder than here, but maybe not as frigid as parts of New York.
I wonder what Canada's national health system is like for the average person. Of course, our own medical industry has published lots of propaganda against them, mainly to do with months-long waits for operations. Of course, that is better than never getting the operation at all, which can happen to an uninsured American. If, however, we assume that you will have insurance if you find another job in America, I wonder how it compares then.
I saw Dersu Uzala. Very emotional, like most Kurosawa films. I have seen most of them. I have several on tape. I should bring you some, unless you are about to be further away. I selfishly hope not.
I have never worked with live data streams. The idea of working on an independent project is intriguing and scary in this economy. I seem to have more job security now. I don't imagine we will be cutting back on carriers now. Anyhow, if it comes time to find subcontractors, I'd still be interested to hear about it. I suppose that if Gradivoj worked on a contract, he would need an official employer so he wouldn't get sent home. He would also need health insurance. Perhaps he could find an umbrella company or something. Such questions could be posed at www.realrates.com though there are quite a few of anti-H1B xenophobes there.
Speaking of carriers, funny story told by our boss. It seems that a bunch of NNS people were staffing a booth at a job fair. They were all wearing black t-shirts with one of our poster pictures on it, the one that has a front view of a carrier and says "90,000 TONS OF DIPLOMACY". One woman was described as a cute blond with a big chest. She pointed at her chest and said "we build these!"
Gradivoj, you should write articles, even give lectures at conferences. Have you thought of doing that? I see your higher profile on the UT. For that matter, has Beatrice spoken at devcons?
Beatrice, how come you don't travel more?
Speaking of Pentagon, found this joke:
- what has four walls and five corners?
15-I-2015 - 30-VI-2024