My life as a telecommuter is coming to a quick end

Well, my little telecommuting gig got terminated due to budget cuts in spite of the client stating that I've exceeded their expectations. And in spite of the fact that this is a definite aspect of independent consulting I have to say that I'm pretty pissed about it. It was only intended to be a three month gig to start with so to cut it off at 1 mo. and 1 wk. is just retarded. More importantly, I bought a laptop for this gig because they said they wanted me to bring my own gear (of course it would be useful for telecommuting from coffee shops too but I could of made do by working at home if I knew it was going to be this short). They will still be developing all the stuff I was going to be working on it's just that it will take longer because the one coder left will have to do it. So back to the gig hunt...

It's been a while

Geez, I haven't posted in forever. It's not that I haven't had anything to say it's just that I don't have a blogging habit and if something isn't a habit it tends not to happen on a regular basis. In any event, I will try to do better (not that anyone actually reads this).

I recently started a new gig building a Wicket app for a trucking company. It's a small company so they were up to trying newer tech like Wicket and Java 6. We also don't have to use any app servers from a giant corporation so we just use Tomcat. Anyway, I won't go on about all that crap because this isn't intended to be a tech blog. The point I'm getting to is that I'm able to telecommute two days out of the week which is an option I've never had before. Frankly I really don't mind going into work for the most part since it gets me out of the house and if I'm at home my dog will bug the shit out of me because she thinks it's fun time when I'm home. So I've taken to working at coffee shops. I move around so as not to be particularly annoying to any one coffee shop and I can get unlimited internet access at will (although this requires a little hacking in some loocations). This whole routine has taken some getting used to. I had to learn where to sit, how to sit, and how to hack my internet access when necessary (which is pretty damn easy to do). It's a pretty cool arrangement really but I would prefer to have a local working location instead (like the co-working concept). I'm able to tune out noise well enough but I just prefer having a desk to work on instead of a lap or sticky table.

Reality: optional

I have come to the conclusion over my 40+ years of life that people simply hate reality. Lets face it...most of the time reality just gets in our way of having fun. More importantly, reality is simply too painful.

Now, many people reading this would say "hey, I don't take drugs, yadda yadda yadda etc..." Maybe. However, people always find ways to take themselves away from the real world. For example (and this is a short list): there's T.V., video games, drugs, work (I'll explain later), cigarettes, and comfort food.

We use all these devices to ease the pain of day-to-day living. Lets face it, life is not a bowl of cherries for most people and we need something to ease that pain. It's perfectly understandable.

Of course, maybe I'm just looking at this wrong. Society tends to declare anything that's not fun as reality. Couldn't we just as easily say that reality is everything we do? It's all real. It may often be stupid, pointless, and meaningless but it did happen. Shit, I don't know anyone who has any magic powers that can change reality to make it "unreal". Perhaps the whole notion is simply a nod to our egos. Who are we to think we can some how escape reality? There's no escaping it folks. The best you can do is to maybe ignore it for a while. Yes, that's it.

So, my friends I propose to you that perhaps everything you do is real. At the very least, it's real to you given that perception defines reality (see Humean philosophy and David Hume). That's all that really matters in the end. Consequently, the real world can be fun because everything you do is REAL.

First Post!

Honestly, I never expected to be doing this. I've always felt that starting a blog was somewhat of a hubristic journey for the author. With all the blogs out there, do people really think there's is so special? I've changed my mind. There are things worth blogging for. I don't think my blog is any more special than any other no-name out there but it's mine. For me, this is my expression of immortality. I certainly will not live forever, but this could potentially live forever. Most people express their innate desire for immortality by having children -- which is great. However, as I approach 40, this looks ever so unlikely for someone so independently inclined as I. So, instead I offer this weak form of immortality. Perhaps one day my cousin's children will want to look into family history and find this. (They are really the only ones to keep the family line alive so godspeed to them!) This is the genealogy of me -- nothing more, nothing less.

Now for some clues as to what you can expect from this blog:

I will probably not post every day. This isn't a time constraint issue, but more of a "I don't really have anything of value to say every day" kind of deal.

I will say things that may be offensive. It's not that my intention is to be offensive, but I think we pull too many punches in this world. This puts honesty in the dark with mushrooms and shit with only the mushrooms and shit prospering.

I will say things that are hypocratic. I don't want to be a hypocrite. I try not to be a hypocrite. But damnit if I'm not occasionally a hypocrite just like every other poor bastard out there. The first thing is to admit you have a problem...

I will use foul language. I know the old saying that foul language is the crutch of the uncreative, and fuckall if they aren't right! If I was truly creative, I would be writing books and making shitloads of money. I'm not. Let the truly creative light the way while I sit here and admire their fucking creativity. Fuck them and their fucking little high horses.

I realize that there will probably never be more than a half dozen people that read this thing -- ever. That's cool. Like I said before, this isn't ego trip -- this is about immortality (which of course has nothing to do with ego).

I will completely hork English grammar rules. I do this with glee since the english language is a giant clusterfuck of inconsistency. Instead, I will impose my own darwinian rules for grammer. If you don't like it, I suggest you read some other nobody's blog who actually gives a shit.

Now onto some real blogging...