30-VI-2001.
Zero is peeing thin so they thanked USquad for their cooperation, leaving me to bridge the summer at work. They'll keep working from home for a while but nobody will be coming, and even that much should cease by september. Though, that's not the only [thing], third af the workers are at forced vacations (which seems to include a few faces who have longer staž here than I do).
The end. Tap closed. The two or three are going home these days, the pack of disks for Boća and Škrba are leaving now, I told Željko to leave them in Avai, where they'll wait. As for the disks in the direction east-west, likewise in Avai, which Nina should pick up when she gets on her vacation.
I said to Škrba, „The guys with experience from failed companies are still the guys with experience, it's clear to everybody that it wasn't the programmers who shat up the business, it was the enforcement on investors' side. Half of the big dot com mania blowout stems from bursting out everything that was forced into rapid growth. There are things which can function only when small, and enlarging them requires a very intelligent change of their essence - what the quick capital doesn't know how [to do], because it relies on the word of experts, who are then general practice fuckers and don't understand the specific problem. While there's Zero, there'll be work for me as well, because someone has to maintain the old system and keep a finger in the dyke. Part of my work should move to the new system (which is unrelated to me) but then I got enough work on the old one to last me a year. Even if Zero breaks, I can catch a gig to maintain the old part privately until I find something better. No winter, it's 32° here. Looking at who got fired - documentation writers, testers, analyticists, and the rest of the programming bureaucracy, all of them.“
News from home, Sloba was extradited. Too bad they didn't pack the wife too, may she be outside the chain of command and lacking any authorization, she's no less guilty. The best of all is that he was extradited by an article in the state constitution, which he wrote himself, whereby the state, in case it estimates that it's in its essential interest, may ignore a decision by the federal government and act on its own. So it wasn't FRY that extradited him, it was Serbia... which is a čorba he cooked up himself. Twith the help of missus, or while helping her, irrelevant.
Seeing how my green card process is progressing, while Zero is sinking, I gathered we better be ready to do everything quickly when it comes to it. Which wasn't as easy. Here's what I wrote home.
...for the checkup we had to see an authorized doctor, one of those with a chit from INS. Jack passed us a list of such doctors in DC and Virginia, so I spent a few days on the phone, to make an appointment. The prices varied between 100 and 300$ per capita, and almost none of them were the listed ones, nor at the same address. It's all been inherited, the practice and the phone passed to the next buyer, or if still the same, they moved around. We finally picked one but he kept a message „don't phone before 2pm on friday“, and then on friday at 2:15pm the message was „don't call before saturday noon“. Then I went through the list from scratch and found one lady doctor, a Hindu, in a place I know - actually drove that way once, returning from Go, having lost my way. Actually it's shorter that way, but much slower, having a score of traffic lights more. And it turned eventually not to be on that address, same street but number's 63xxx instead of 70xxx, which means thirteen blocks closer, just four blocks from Go.
The checkup dragged for whole three hours, doctor writes very slowly, my lady rolled her eyes several times, said this would have been done in an hour back home. True, she did everything on her own, and lots of time was wasted on her getting up to find this or that. And took breaks to feed the birds and squirrels. Never seen a black squirrel before.
Then we turned out to be positive on tuberculosis, and not all of us, just two or three. All the same, we had to do an extra test, have an x-ray shot, which we can do in A-burg. Decided to do it in a non-profit hospital, guessing that would be cheaper. Hell it was, cost 125$ each, while it would be between 25 and 40$ at any street doctor's. Later we understood that these nonprofits, owned by foundations and whatnot, are money laundering schemes - they order most of their services from their founders' other companies, at blown up prices. So no profit there, lots of it elsewhere.
And we were positive because we were vaccinated, which they never did here and find it implausible, even though we showed the scars. Ow fuckit you never had customers from east Europe? First time seeing one and standing shocked? C'mon.
Ths week we should have the paperwork completed to send to Jack, and then hear from him the safe time interval when we can be sure the INS will not be calling us to interview and fingerprint. The fingerprint they previously did to all candidates, and people would travel quite far just for that and then get refused. Now this can be done in several authorized offices, in courts, local police etc. I guesstimate this wouldn't be before september-october, so we can go for an airplane ticket and organize the transportation to and from airport. I'll try to fish out anyone from USquad or Avai to get her from airport to Zrenjanin.
Actually, one is not supposed to leave the country while waiting for the green card, but H and J visas are exempt, so no problem there. I expect no further tangles, knocking on wood just in case and minding the details, lest anything falls through the cracks, which is why I want to hear from Jack first.
Well the new investors and the „comissar“ turned all upside down. Do T. and Željko stay on by previous schedule, or are they sent home earlier, and V. staying longer?
Everything as scheduled, it's summer and air tickets aren't fungible. When the news came out, they had just two days left, and V. is here now until about end of month, as his ticket has it, and then it's over.
As far as we understood that, the SZR* is left without further connection to Zero. If the newbaked director didn't grab a share of your customers and didn't find any new ones (here), with the currency income running dry, he'll find himself in unenviable position.
Exactly. As Vanji would say „you asked for it, so watch it“.
...Cica is where she is, went in may or june to Greece for a vacatio. Vanji told me of a scene where he almost ran into Brlja on the stairs when he was shouting for some girl from the floor below, and got „what do you need her for?“. „To make us coffee!“. „Ah, now you have no Cica, make it yourself!“. Seems to be he's ridiculed by Bangro as well.
Don't tell me that USquad is also in Bangro's building... Must be merry there.
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* Samostalna zanatska radnja - standalone artisanal shop, a type of low-key private enterprise which was permitted throughout the socialism years; could have 5 workers max. Such were barbers, cobblers, room painters, clock repairs, even goldsmitshs. Of course, USquad will be a LLC, dad's poking fun at him here.
Mentions: Annenburg (A-burg), Avai, Bangro, Božidar Sokolović (Boća), čorba, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Goran Staković (Brlja), Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), Jack Baran sr, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Slavica Urdulj (Cica), staž, USquad, Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), Zero Distance (Zero), Željko Popov, in serbian
13-VI-2024 - 20-VI-2024