Boston Marathan Terrorist Attack

I am not religious but my thoughts go out to Boston and especially those who lost loved ones or have injured family members.

Health News

The week I was hired as an employee I was diagnosed with colon cancer during a colonoscopy. Within two weeks I was recovering from surgery where a portion of my colon was removed along with 20 lymph nodes. The good news is that the doctors think that they have gotten all of the cancer. I must be monitored for the next 5 years before I can say I am cancer-free. Things happened so fast that I did not have much time for anything to sink in. It is now three weeks since I was diagnosed. Recovery will take a few months for me to complete. I am relieved that I did not have to have chemotherapy which I expected. Some say I was lucky. Others say prayer saved me. My personal belief is that I went to the doctor when I discovered blood in my stool and the doctor suggested a colonoscopy. And the doctor who performed the colonoscopy told me to not waste time in getting a surgeon to removed the tumor that was found. Many men do not see their doctor often enough. I guess men my age, around 50, were raised to ignore pain and hide fear. I think this way of thinking has killed many men.

More on job front

After being on contract for 6 months, I received an offer from the new manager. The old manager moved on to another project with in the company. The new manager is OK. At first she low-balled me but after some discussion and me giving her a copy of my resume she was able to get much closer to the money I was making as a contractor. I accepted the position and am now an employee of the company. I am not sure how I feel about that. My wife likes me being an employee better than a contractor. It is more stable than contracting but I am not sure of the viability of the company and whether I want to be a long term employee of the company. I have challenged myself to see if I can take over the technical lead role of the project. The current technical lead is a nice guy but does not know what a technical lead does. He rarely speaks up in meetings. He answers questions but does not follow through with newer developers. I have been a technical lead off and on for many years and think I could do a much better job. Well, we shall see where this goes from here.

Job Update

Within two weeks I accepted an offer for a contract position for a job downtown. It is difficult learning a new system. Here they use a waterfall methodology with a veneer of agile. This is not unusual, as most management teams don't like to acknowledge the unknown unknowns in their projects. I have been here for six weeks with three other "new" guys, all in the same boat. But last week on of them accepted a position, elsewhere. Also, our SCRUM master put in his notice. I don't know his reasons but I suspect something is going on. I will have to keep my ear open. There seems like lots of work here though I don't know if I want to be an employee here. Contracting is not ideal but the employees here do not seem very happy.

I cannot seem to find any passion or happiness in my work, anymore. I am sure it is something I need to change. Change is often hard. But maybe I have become too complacent with myself. But deciding what to change seems daunting.

What's been happening

Well, as of June 28, I was laid off from my job of two years. I should have seen it coming. The lack of assignments for the last few weeks should have tipped me off. I did not much like the job or the company, anyway. I was already looking for another job. And after looking for about a week I got an offer for substantially more than I was making. I am nervous as to why they are paying me so much. I don't like contract work but this is supposed to be a contract-to-hire position. We will see.

Blogging Boycott?

A blog I follow, Cosmic Conservative, mentioned a blogging boycott but did not give the reason. I have not heard of it or a good reason not to blog so I will be contrary and put up a post.

UPDATE: After the explanation by my friend at Cosmic Conservative I did some digging and found a story on patterico.com. It is hard to believe that people would find this a reasonable tactic. Threatening people's lives, families, careers and livelihoods is pure evil. The FBI should investigate this and make it a priority. I don't want to generalize but I think the link speaks for itself on the type of people who would do this.

Still Here!

I am sure you thought I was gone for good or even dead. Sorry, I am still here.

It is hard for me to write these posts. It is not that I cannot find anything to write about or that I cannot find the time. Writing prose is just hard for me. I don't think I am very good, either.

I am pretty sure that no one reads this blog. I don't blame them but it would be nice to get some feedback.

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My fantasy role-playing group is on hiatus right now. Life happens. It is hard to get six middle-aged guys together on a regular basis. I have been running a campaign for about two years that is about to wrap up. I look forward to being a player again. Being the game master feels like I am performing for two or three hours when we play. I am exhausted afterward. The group seems to like their characters and enjoy the dungeon crawl that this set of published modules gives.

I am trying to get the group together, minus a few guys, to do something, even it is not my campaign. It has been a month and no luck, yet. I will keep trying.

In the mean time, I have been working on the final detail of the big battle with the Boss. The player know it is a red dragon but that is about all they know. It should be a lot of fun. I am going to try to make it a memorable session. The mood will be important as I want they characters and players to be afraid. It is entirely possible that one or more of the characters will die. If there is not the chance or fear that a character will die then it won't be enjoyable and may be too easy. I don't think I am a "good" game master but we shall see.