Stardate 57101.4 (10-14-2003)

The Frightmares activity went well, except for Lagoon insisting that we remove all uniforms, insignia, and costumes. I was nervous about taking three kids of widely different interests by myself. But they did well. It was kind of sad to see that Rachel is too big to ride on the kiddy rides by a few inches now. 

The new benefits enrollment  information came in at work on Friday. The number of plans offered went from 4 to 1. The amount they will reimburse for such things as surgery went from 90% down to 85%. The copay goes up from $15 to $20. There is no word on the premiums, but my guess is that they will go up. I wonder what the point of doing the enrollment is. What choices are there?

I was reading in the Sunday paper this morning that techies are having to learn job hunting and interviewing skills. Because of the dot com crash, the recession, and overseas competition, jobs are scarce. I find this frightening. I have not interviewed for a job since 1987. My resume' is up to date, but I don't have any ready answers to job interview questions and those skills are very bad.

Rachel is still struggling with math, but she is doing better. She objects to studying it, because she says there is no use for it. So it was ironic that Thomas came downstairs that day saying that he only had four stuffed animals, and Patrick had seven. Rachel turns around on the stool and informs him he needs to find three more. I asked her how she knew that, and she grumbled that ok, she used math. 

Monday one of the analysts comes around looking for documentation on the server program I work on. She needed it to write up requirements for a new program they have been working on to replace it. That made me feel rotten. It's like someone planning your hanging and having you hand over the design for the gallows. 

So in thinking about it, I have come to the conclusion that losing the job is not a big deal. After all, I have been unsatisfied with the level of challenge and the lack of opportunity to learn new things. What bugs me the most is that I have no clear idea of where I want to go. The goal was to be a senior level developer, and I have been so for years now. There is always new things to learn, but I need a new goal. It makes it hard to answer the question of where I want to be in five years. 

I have been doing a lot with the ship website. This is an ongoing project, and I am having fun with it. There is lots to do with it, and with the operations site and this one. April has become pretty good at keeping the brownie troop site up to date.  These sites are the few places I get to do visual work with. Everything I do at Ingenix is behind the screen, so to speak. Usually I don't hear anything until something goes wrong.

I hope that no one gets offended by the zombie story I included in the review of Impluse. It came to mind very quickly on watching this episode. Zan has a strange sense of humor. It's still going because when he found out I was part of the Ticonderoga group, he took to calling me ol' Ticonderoga Tim. I've held on to the zombie letter for more than a decade just because it's a different perspective on this genre.

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