That’s right. The funding for my contract was approved. I start next Wednesday. It’s a 26 week gig, 40 hours a week.
The money is good — a bit less than I was hoping for, but more than the minimum I would have accepted. No per diem as it’s a local job. Of course, this is in addition to my pension, plus we won’t have to touch our investments this year.
With this “bump” in my plans, I won’t be spending a lot of time trying to monetize my sites for a while.
related posts:
Today, I was about ten minutes into thirty on the elliptical trainer, when the guy on the one next to me had a small mishap.
The gym has holders for books and magazines for use on some of the machines that don’t have them built in. Often people use the holders for more than books and magazines — just as this guy was.
I don’t know this guy very well. We’ve talked a bit, and I carpooled with his uncle for a time more than 25 years ago. We’ve interfaced enough for me to get a bit of a perception of him.
I was pushing it pretty good and was focused on what I was trying to do (or maybe I was thinking about things I might write about) when all of a sudden there was a crash and a clatter next to me and he was flailing around to catch his stuff and the holder. Amazingly, it appeared that he had succeeded as he tried to get the holder set back up on the machine as well as his large sports drink and his keys.
Another ten minutes or so went by and I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was craning his body and neck around as though he was trying to find someone in the room. He kept that up for a a couple of minutes more and then I could see that he was beckoning to someone, but I couldn’t see who it was.
When she got over to us, I saw it was one of the fitness center workers. What he did next sealed my perception.
“Would you hand me my cell phone,” he asked, pointing down to the floor where it had landed over ten minutes before, as he continued to exercise at his less than vigorous pace.
She did. He did say, “Thank you,” very nicely.
You’ve got to be kidding!
Perception is important… even if I don’t know you.
A couple of days ago, I posted BIG BUMP in the road for my online plans…. perhaps and there were a number of comments wondering what the heck was up.
Opal already knew as I had mentioned it was a possibility a while back, so I asked her not to give up the secret. (Thanks Opal for the comment… it was perfect!)
Oh and the picture on the post — the same one I’ve posted here — did apply very specifically to this situation.
I’ll use Teeni’s questions and my answers for part of an explanation…
The main thing I am waiting on is approval for the funding and it’s at the VP level right now. They’ve already got me on the schedule — which I have a copy of — for a week from this coming Monday.
More later!
People have been asking me — and, sometimes, Karen, too — about this for weeks.
All I could do is shrug my shoulders and say, “I don’t know anything about it. No one has called me at all.”
I understand that it is a bad time, with the holidays just ended, so much disruption in weeks prior to that, and significant major changes just around the corner, but it would still be nice to know, one way or another. I’ve been about to the point of deciding it was all just someone’s pipe dream.
Then a couple of days ago, I ran into a fellow — a neighbor of ours — who is a very major stakeholder in this, and HE asked me about it. All I could do is shrug my shoulders and tell him, “I don’t know anything about it. No one has called me at all.” His look of surprise was priceless. It was almost as though he thought it was a given — and it wasn’t.
Earlier today, I was sitting right here when Karen answered the phone. “Just a minute…. ….. …., Mike! It’s for you.”
Well, now, when someone asks, I can say that I’ve been contacted and there is something to all of the rumors that have been flying around. However, nothing is official, so I’m not going to get into specifics at this time — more to come later, one way or another.
Okay — so it’s for a catalog.
And she’s only five — and our granddaughter.
We think it’s very cool.
It’s a school and library supply company and she’s on the cover of the 2008 catalog. The website description of the catalog says, “…. thousands of quality products in one place. Library supplies, AV supplies, and equipment, signage & display, furniture, Library Promotions™, learning materials, and more. A huge variety to choose from!”
Coincidentally with this, her mother found a picture of her in a Land’s End ad that she hadn’t seen yet. We’ve seen the picture in catalogs, just not in this location online. I think they’ve had this picture in at least two catalogs, except it had been photo-shopped with a different color for the coat.
The top Democratic party candidates were all on the same stage.
Three guys — a white, a black, and a Hispanic — and a woman.
How many jokes have you heard that started out something like that?
This, however, was not a joke. It’s amazing — and it’s America!
What I am referring to, of course, is the Democratic debate in New Hampshire sponsored by Facebook. They were randomly arranged in the order I described earlier, John Edwards, Barrack Obama, Bill Richardson, and Hilary Clinton.
What was really neat for me is that the diversity of the field didn’t strike me until late in the debate when I noticed how much Bill Richardson’s Hispanic heritage showed. Then it was, “Oh, wow!”
I watched both debates. They were strikingly different in tone and in substance.
I don’t generally watch debates until after the conventions when the parties’ presidential and vice-presidential candidates face off. These debates, though, were an opportunity to see the major candidates for both parties in a very short period of time.
The Republicans fielded five white guys.
The Democrats sent three guys — a white, a black, and a Hispanic — and a woman.
How amazing is that?
Can you remember having fun like these boys? I can!
Wishing all of you Happy Holidays! and many merry, happy memories!
I had stopped at Darren Rowse’s Digital Photography School and, after I left a comment, I saw an ad that interested me so I clicked on it.
The ad opened up and I read a few words.
My audio happened to be turned on and was set rather loud.
Normally I leave my computer turned on at night with the audio off so that incoming mail doesn’t wake us. This morning I had listened to something where the audio was rather quiet and I had to turn it up to hear it.
So when a guy started talking about whatever the heck it was that the ad was about, I jumped — it startled me, you see — and closed that browser window.
If I could go back and take back that click, I would!
No… I’ve reconsidered. I like it the way that it is.
Darren got whatever Google will pay him for that click and the advertiser will have to pay for it, even though I left and didn’t even have time to get a good look at his site.
I do NOT like audio that comes on automatically when I open a website, unless I know it in advance or reasonably expect it, as I would if I were going to a music site. If my sound is on and an audio clip starts, I’m gone!
And I might even blog about it, too!
But, I’m not going to mention the site I left, because, even if I remembered it, they’re not getting free traffic from me.
Related post: If your blog has music automatically start playing…
Actually, the head-line is intentionally misleading. We “fed up” pretty good with an early Christmas dinner, but we found it prudent to leave half a day early.
Our daughter actually was the one that suggested that we leave early.
The weather was a bit disappointing the entire time we were visiting. It was very foggy the entire time we were there, so much so that we were not able to see any of the countryside when we went anywhere except just what was right next to the road. With the amount of snow that was on the ground, it would have been really pretty — if we could have seen it.
We’ve been watching the forecast for this weekend since we got there on Wednesday and making contingency plans just in case. Saturday morning, our plans were to leave the hotel Sunday morning and go over to our daughter’s for a few hours, giving the road crews a chance to do whatever clearing they needed to do. At that time, the forecast was for two to four inches of snow. As the day progressed, the forecast changed to three to eight inches of snow overnight with widespread blowing snow and a chance of additional snow during the day on Sunday.
After our daughter suggested that we leave early, we decided that it would probably be prudent to cut the trip short and avoid potentially snowy roads combined with holiday traffic. We left the hotel at 3:40 P.M. and spent the night in Springfield, Illinois. We’ll be home some time late today (Sunday).
A year is a long time in the on-line world. A large percentage of the blogs out there today will shrivel up and disappear by the end of 2008. Many others will still be there, but posting on them will have slowed down to a trickle… or will have stopped all together.
Most blogs don’t have the staying power to last a year. Look at the archives of the blogs you visit. What percentage only have a few months in them?
Exit78 has been around for a little over a year now. It has gone through several transformations and the URL had to be altered slightly. For some reason, Technorati wasn’t recognizing posts to the original URL.
While posts on the blog go back to December 2005, those before December 2006 were transfered from an earlier blog… one that shriveled up and disappeared. Before that there was a blog on Blogger; that one didn’t last long.
Will I be here posting to Exit78 at the end of 2008?
I’m making this one of my 2008 goals, so, yes, I will be posting here this time next year!
How about you? Will your blog still be here at the end of 2008?
