I was so smug....

I have been asked to stay on as a transitional PM for another month. My lay off date is now September 14th. I am starting to step up the job search, but this extra month will give me some room to take my time and hopefully find a good employment match.

I have got over the initial shock and mourning for my beloved NETg. I am now slowly realizing that I probably won't get another job as a remote employee and work from home. I have been so smug in my purple office these last 3+ years. I am so environmentally friendly, I only drive 4k miles a year. I can use 100% recycled printer paper in my home office. My work clothes are cheap Costco shorts and I wear Birkenstocks all year (my feet are so happy)....I haven't been to Talbots for dry clean clothes in years! I work from 7:30am to 5:30pm - I get out of bed at 7am and I eat a healthy lunch on the back patio with my cute kitties. Life has been good.

It's going to be a terrible shock to my system when I have to get up at 6am to start work at 8am after driving in rush hour traffic. I'll eat out more and be forced to eat unknown fats and chemicals. I am going to need a whole new wardrobe of clothes...whaaa, whaa, wha! I know that's what normal people do....it's just that I have experienced the other side; the efficient, healthy, environmentally friendly and economically pleasing telecommuting lifestyle! It's going to be so hard to go back to the old fashioned way.

I choose to look on the bright side - I may get lucky again and find a fun telecommuting job in a company with true professionals, just like NETg.

Invasion of the greenies!

OMG, Glasgow Celtic are going to be playing in Denver, Dr Jim, can you believe it????? Of course Bisset-face will never speak to me again (not that he ever will anyway). Being a Rangers supporter he will be horrified! No, he will be mortified, that I am even considering going to such a green affair. I'd love to go though, even if it's just to hear the Scottish accents - I could get very homesick even though the weather will be hotter than it ever gets in Glasgow.

Warm Glass

Making glass jewelry and small pieces such as bottle stoppers and purse hangers has become my addiction. I wake up each morning and do as much as I can before I have to go to my real job as a project manager. After work I'm back cutting, grinding and fusing glass. I dream about designs in my sleep, I have no finger nails anymore from grinding glass everyday, I choose to miss working out sometimes because I have to feed my creative passion to make something colorful out of glass. At the moment it is a hobby with a dream to make it a fulltime labor of love; to have a shop in an arty part of the world.

Ugg!

I'm really old now!

Slow realization

It's finally starting to sink in. NETg is being eliminated. We are all going to be laid off eventually. There will be no NETg essence left. SkillSoft is showing no interest in keeping anyone with any knowledge or history of any of our clients. I have been given a 3 month transition contract, my lay off date is August 14th. I'm in shock. Not because I have a lay off date, I am in shock that SkillSoft is removing everyone. They paid millions to eliminate a competitor. My initial thoughts are that they are not concerned with getting anything else from the deal. I am shocked and saddened - what a waste of good talent, knowledge and history.

End Of An Era

Today the sale of Thomson NETg by SkillSoft Corporation was finalized. There has been a death in the learning family.

I was originally hired by Knowledgenet, and soon after, they merged with Thomson NETg. NETg (National Education Training group) had been acquired by the Thomson Corporation previously. The merger seemed pretty easy from my view point and everyone on the NETg and Knet sides were professional and wonderful to work with. Today after the sale was announced the farewell e-mails started, people who had been with the company for 8, 9 and even 12 years had been immediately laid off by SkillSoft. Almost all of the sales team are gone.

Nude

This is another one of those English language rants...which is strange because my parents thought my English was mediocre, and my spelling even worse. They'd be shocked to see that now I have quite a strong opinion on the subject. It is strange that as I grow older I find myself shocked by the grammar and word usage of professional journalists. I think it has a lot to do with my experience with the difference between UK and US English.

Nude and naked!

In the largely unknown and nonexistent Dr C Dictionary of terms, rants and pet peeves "nude" is a noun and "naked" an adjective. Well, that is how I believe the two words should be used.

It annoys me when I hear of people talking about a nude body, meaning a body with no clothes....It's a naked body, as in "neckid as a jaybird!"

I found this wonderful Webpage;
A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude. http://cgd.best.vwh.net/home/naturism/wnl-0102.htm


On another note, I got my SPAM filter working...geeze, I was filterless for a month. There's a lot of SPAM and crap out there. Luckily I don't have to look at it anymore :-)

The World's Shortest Fairytale

Every now and then I get an e-mail that just tickles me.

The World's Shortest Fairytale
Once upon a time, a girl asked a guy, "Will you marry me?" The guy said "No" and the girl lived happily ever after and went shopping, drank martinis with friends, always had a clean house, never had to cook, had a closet full of shoes and handbags, stayed skinny, and was never farted on.
The End

Test from Treo

Stuff

Happy Chinese New Year! I like the look of the boar year, it could be a pretty good one. http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/more_zodiacs/boar.htm - A year of goodwill to all. An excellent climate for business, and industry in general will prevail. I hope so. Since I will be involuntary changing companies this year, I'm all over anything that is positive towards business. Also after a negative end to the last year I also want to believe that everyone will be safer, healthier and happier this year.

Last week I played my first game of Wii bowling...I sucked! However, when we moved on to golf, I faired a lot better - I'm sure it has something to do with those golf lessons from my Dad when I was 12. I ended up just one over par and it made me want to go out and pay the real game. It probably won't happen, there is more of a chance that I'll buy a Wii...if they ever become available to mere mortals like myself.

I love Bill Maher!!!!! It was a joy on Saturday morning to scroll through Tivo and see his show listed and ready for me to view. I love the guy!