Long time, no chit-chat, eh?
Yeah, I know ... you liked the book reviews, right? Hey, I even got some commentary on a couple of them.
Things have been spiraling downward here. I've gone, in a matter of a handful of months, from freelancing/consulting 40+ hours a month, with a "anytime now" clock on having a full-time job, to having no job, no (paying) clients, and not much hope. Just got told by the client who was buying 40 hours of my time a month that they could no longer afford to "have me on retainer" as it were, although I did talk them into using me "as needed" (I've developed two sites for them, and am familiar with the code, so it makes sense), although at the present time that might be just 10 hours per month. You don't want to hear me go on about this stuff, though, do you?
I'm hoping to do another NaBloPoMo this month ... which may mean a LOT of days when I'm "filling" with those The Job Stalker links (I have 40 thumbnails just waiting!) just to get a post up. Despite what you might be thinking with the six book-review posts in October, I'm way behind on both my reading and reviewing. As of the end of October I'd only read 57 books (as opposed to the 65, 64, 65, 65, and 61 of the past five years), which means I need to knock down 15 in November and December to hit my 72 book target, and I'm currently in two rather thick books which are going to slow me down. I'm guessing that I'm not going to make the goal this year, which is depressing, but I'm trying to "let that go" (or maybe put more emphasis on the average over time).
As I've pointed out before ... one of the reason this blog has been so boring of late is the damn job search, and the "new rules" where potential employers are almost 100% likely to go chase you down on the web to see who you are. For those of you missing my old rants and raves, "I feel your pain". Needless to say, I'm itching to launch into pontifications on "politics & religion", but just can't until I either win the Lottery (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!) or get myself ensconced in a job where I'm too valuable to my employer to kick me out just for being curmudgeonly!
Oh, and there's a picture, isn't there? Those are this Halloween season's pumpkins ... with a "Domo" pumpkin for Daughter #2, and a "Cyberman" pumpkin for Daughter #1 (who went trick-or-treating as some sort of SteamPunk "Time Lady" ... it's all about Doctor Who, you know). Of course, it's Daddy and his Dremel that do the jack-o-lanterning of the the squash, so I'm sort of showing off.
Anyway, if I succeed with the NaBloPoMo thing, you'll be hearing quite a bit from me in the coming weeks.