After a great date night last night–long, in-depth conversations and understanding–I awoke this morning feeling like crap. I’ll spare you the details, but the quote of the morning was, “Great. You apparently have Cholera.” Given the symptoms, I couldn’t disagree. So, I slept ’til about noon, with Whitney insisting I stay hydrated, then I watched a few episodes of ‘Glee’ on Amazon Prime (okay, the first 6 eps of the first season). ...

Just wanted to jot down a few notes so I’d remember this week: Sunday I heard a great sermon at church, then took Maria and Grace down to see Mom & Dad. We had a nice little visit, then drove back through 1 hour of solid downpour. It didn’t rain at all in Georgetown, though. Monday I had a quasi-regular day at work and then spent 2.5 hours with my pastor thereafter. Tuesday I had a somewhat regular day at work, though my “Driving Change” group–Dave Ellison and Patricia Ritchie–were back in town so we had some practice and preliminary work to do. Wednesday was Driving Change, all day, and a webchat with Cebu from 7->7:30 am. I was late showing up for the first presentation and was behind most of the day. At lunchtime, we got to sit with our CEO Paul Rooke and my Division Vice President, Marty Canning, to discuss how to move change through Lexmark. Thursday was the big presentation day. I woke up nauseated and threw up twice…couldn’t tell if it was nerves or if I was just sick. (In general, I don’t get nauseated by nerves) I made it through my presentation, but felt progressively sicker as the day wore on. Friday I didn’t really feel like going in–stomach hurt like hell and I couldn’t stray too far from a bathroom. I went in anyway, though, as I had a sizing for a future project due by 5:01pm. I submitted it by 5:01pm. A treat though: I got to hang with Gracie while Maria and Whitney went out to dinner and watched “Brave.” Also, the LXK stock managed to drop by ~20% yesterday, and Jim Cramer slapped us with a SELL SELL SELL on his charts, because we’re “Just an awful business. Awful.” ::sigh:: It was a tough week and I’m still not fully recovered. I beginning to wonder if all the stress of things I know and don’t know is giving me some serious physical effects.

In Ecclesiastes 6:3-7, we read: 3If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he, 4 for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity ; and its name is covered in obscurity. 5 “It never sees the sun and it never knows anything; it is better off than he. 6 “Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not enjoy good things -do not all go to one place ?” 7All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied. ...

Two months into our new house, amid the Drought of 1988 (redux). What’s gone wrong: Mold. Pervasive mold on every floor, especially in the basement. At the moment, my wife refuses to go down there for any length of time. HVAC. Turns out the mold on the top floor was caused by the 23-year-old HVAC unit that was listed as ‘7 years old’ on the disclosure form. In reality, the AC coil was leaking, and the drip pan was rusted out, so whenever it ran, it ran moisture down into the drywall in my girls’ room. New HVAC system installed upstairs, on credit. #facepalm TV reception. Despite my current efforts (the booster we had on our old house) the Jerry-rigged (asshole was named ‘Jerry’) coax from the attic VHF/UHF antenna won’t pull in our local PBS affiliate after 8am. Dishwasher leaks on the lower left front corner. Plumbing fun: Slow drain in the downstairs bath, indifferent water pressure (cold or hot) in downstairs bath, leaky trap O-ring under the kitchen sink. Our garage door spring snapped ~2 weeks in, cost ~$400 to fix. Still yet, the house is utterly solid, and build to a “they don’t build them like this anymore” level that has Whitney and myself thrilled. The hardwood in the foyer, stairs, and Den is holding up great, and the garage has plenty of possibilities. ...

As of June 23rd last year, I was “promoted” to the title of Architect within my organization, reporting directly to a Third line manager. I was taken off of regular, day-to-day delivery activities and basically given freedom to involve myself wherever I thought best, or wherever my boss needed me. At the time, I was given the following commentary and advice: “Welcome to being the bitch.” “So, are they going to let you code anymore?” “You’re going to have to get used to being very broad, and very shallow. You have to know alot and have a high-level understanding of almost everything, but not get mired in the day-to-day.” “You’re more of an advisor than an architect. Your job is to advise those making decisions and help do technical mediation for those teams.” Those quotes came from the first week. At some time or another in the past year, they’ve all been true. ...

Ah yes, John Carter, aka “John Carter of Mars,” aka “A Princess of Mars.” You single handedly assured that Andrew Stanton of Pixar will never, ever be granted final cut again. You lost something like a quarter of a billion dollars for your parent company, Disney. You know I’ve seen many bad films in my life (current nadir being “Tristan and Isolde”), and John Carter isn’t one of them. It isn’t a great film. Comparison to other alien epics like Cameron’s Avatar inevitably come, and Carter does poorly. We don’t truly care about our hero until well into the second act. Worse, the framework of the story–that John Carter has died suddenly on earth and his nephew Edgar Rice Burroughs (get it?) is reading his fantastic account of his Barsoon Exploits–just feels like faux epic claptrap right up to the end. ...

So, we moved. We sold our old house on the east side of Georgetown, KY and moved to a house on the west side. I’m currently so tired and overwrought I can’t even remember if one capitalizes ’east’ in a sentence. I think you do, but capital letters just hurt my eyes right now. We couldn’t have done it without lots of help from folks at church, especially folks from our small group. We got T’s Chevy Colorado truck (2.8L 4-cylinder, AT for those scoring at home) for almost a week, and schlepped stuff to T’s garage, B&D’s basement, our storage building, my office at work, and a Mobile Attic. Most of the stuff (at least the things not in the mobile attic, actually got moved *twice*. ...

So, Buzz Out Loud ended this past week, which sucks considering I only discovered it last month when I started using Doggcatcher as my go-to podcast reader (I’m aware of the term ‘podcatcher’ and its symmetry with ‘podcaster,’ I just think it’s a terrible word.) So, I had to go in and remove BoL from my subscription list. While I was in there, I the following subscriptions for the following reasons: Mintcast – This is actually a really good Linux podcast; they do news around new Linux distros, the latest in the Gnome/Cinnamon schism from the Linux Mint team, and general sys-admin-y stuff. Nothing wrong with the cast itself, other than it’s middle age sys-admin guys talking about linux Linux Outlaws – This one hurt. I’ve listened to Linux Outlaws for almost a year now–started right after I got my Atrix. The issue I have is the main creative force behind the show–Fabian Scherchel–has moved on. He’s acting like he hasn’t, but he’s really been phoning-in the podcasts lately. His co-host, Dan Lynch, is the ever-present straight-man and I still subscribe to his RatholeRadio podcast, but LO is don’t for me. NPR Culturtopia – Once I discovered that Pop Culture Happy Hour had its own podcast link, random stories from Netta Ulabe (sp?) became superfluous. PCHH is my favorite podcast–bar none–and it’s a welcome change from my normal diet of tech, tech, programming, nerd, tech stuff. Current subscriptions remaining: ...

I was sick all weekend (hayfever). Hot/cold, freeze/pollen, dust/grass…thankfully, none of it’s made it to my lungs. Yet. Grace was sick all weekend (Hand/Foot/Mouth). Hasn’t eaten normally since middle of last week. Nobody slept well. I didn’t get to go to church, as I stayed home with Grace. A bright spot was we had a new couple from our church over to the house to have Easter dinner, Tyler and Kayla Williams. Really enjoyed their company, their sunny disposition. Whitney and I are SO FILLED WITH HOPE. :-)

“Why do you like Europe?” In our house, we do lots of “apropos of nothing” discussion. One minute, you’re talking soccer, the next you’re analyzing the selfishness of the Baby Boom generation. Last night’s verbal ejaculation came in the middle of another dull, overwrought Shonda Rhimes pilot, Scandal--or as I like to call it “Scrawny balloon-lipped gal who flounces through every scene.” Anywho….“What, you mean like to live there or to visit?” I replied. ...

I typically abhor facebook. It’s banal. It’s boring. And, 20% of the world’s population is on there, so–like a bad High School Reunion–you sorta have to be there too. This thread I’m about to copy/pasta reshare single-handedly changed my perception of FB: Status: On cruise shuttle. Entering radio silence. I hope the world can survive without my exciting posts for a few days…. Okay okay, a little self-important, but hey, this is the Twitter/Facebook generation where every meal and waste elimination is comment worthy. But then….in the comment stream: ...

In working on my small group lesson this week, I’m stuck again in James 1, and there’s this verse (26) Ifanyonethinks himself to be religious, and yet does not [bb](http://www.biblestudytools.com/nas/james/1.html#fn-descriptionAnchor-bb “Or “control”")bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, thisman’sreligion is worthless. You could pretty much summarize my last 5 or 6 years right there. I’ve deceived myself time and again, focusing on what was easy, felt good. I can rationalize anything, it seems. ...

When I was born, my head was almost too big to fit through the birth canal. That explains much about me to this day. Just sayin'.

You know how you go out looking for the right car, with a checklist and a list of requirements? I’ve been doing that for the better part of two years. I’ve driven every small car known to man at intervals, trying to find some reasonable personal transportation when the Camry of Doom goes kaput. What I’m *really* looking to do is duplicate the love I had for the 1998 Impreza 2.5RS, a car with All-Wheel Drive, a sweet 5-speed manual transmission and the turn-in responses of a B13 Sentra SE-R. I still remember the test drive I took at the now-defunct Oldhan’s Subaru in Nicholasville Kentucky back in college, and whoo boy, was it FUN. Pity I had no job at the time. :-) ...

It’s been a rough few weeks, almost entirely self-inflicted. As the Eastern KY saying goes: “Work is aggravating me to death.” Nothing about what I’m doing is hard; tedious and frustrating, sure, but not difficult. Basically, I fight whatever fires appear, and 90% of the time these are communications issues between teams, not technical problems. Corporations tend to self-select for people who can hide within bureaucracy, stifle their own opinions, and dumbly line-up behind meaningless mandates. That’s wearisome, to say the least. ...

The listing Yes, there’s Kitchen-Aid porn in that picture. Jealous?

Nothing like a deadline, I guess. So, we’ve known we needed photographs of our house up on various MLS/Zillow.com sites, and our realtor scheduled a photographer for today. Today?! Yeah, lots of work had/has to be done. We were up last night until after 1am, and back at it again this morning ~7am. I had a Diet Mountain Dew influenced crisis of confidence at 11pm, but…uh…pushed through it. I stuck my head in our oven. ...

So, my home sweet home is on the market. It’s been a long road getting here. Whitney’s been feeling the tug to get out of the house since before the housing crash (!), and she’s been a steady force there throughout financial crises. Anyway, so it’s up. We’re supposed to be hosting a photographer Thursday, so it’s been continuous clean/declutter/reclutter/clean/declutter since New Year’s. I’ll give Whitney all the credit–she’s got the place looking great, especially the paint, staging, and her attention to detail. ...

Prove: Authoritarian Decision-making is myopic Assume: You work in a engineering-centric corporation with attendant corporate hierarchy. Engineers believe no one is as intelligent as an engineer. (Dilbert’s Razor) Engineers view non-quantifiable job skills as unimportant (Scientific Postulate) Engineers age and seek more salary, responsibility (That’s life) Engineers become managers (by 3) Engineers often communicate poorly (self-evident) Persuasiveness is not quantifiable (self-evident) Charsima is not quantifiable (self-evident) Persuasiveness and Charisma are unimportant (by 2, 6, 7) New idea implementation requires persuasion (The “He who has the Gold makes the rules’ axiom) Engineer managers must persuade to promote new ideas (by 4, 9) Engineer managers will be told ‘No’ (by 5, 10) There’s no point in resubmitting the idea; all pertinent facts were included, by definition. We were told ‘No’ (by 2, 8, 11). Those in power will only see an idea once, no matter change in market conditions (by 12). Those in power will not be given a chance to change their mind (by 8, 13) THEREFORE: Authoritarian decision making in an engineering-centric corporation is myopic. (13,14). QED * * * ...

I can’t be honest. Not anymore…not since 2008, basically. My honest, analytical opinion would hurt too many feelings and likely get me fired, or sued, or jailed. Suffice it to say, there are things I’d like to get off my chest and express that I just can’t. That’s hard, because my blog has always been the place where I did that, consequences be damned. Well, these days, “consequences” includes four other people. ...