packetrat

Well, this has been a year I will never forget, but may try really hard to.

Just after Thanksgiving, my partner became ill. I took her to the emergency room after about an hour of trying to convince her it wasn't just the stomach bug going around. And it turned out I was right: she had pancreatitis. Which became necrotizing pancreatitis. Which became a week...
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Home again, after a long, hard drive back from the north, where my family gathered for mutual support after the death of my brother.
I spoke with friends who were with him that morning, and got some more levels of detail about his state of mind. His friends were legion, supportive and loving, and reached out to the family. There was a line two hours...
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Kim Dotcom: is he a role model for all geeks, or a 12-year old boy trapped in a 6'7", 300-pound body?

I wrote about him this week, and I'm still not sure what he is: con-man, evil genius, or insane asylum escapee.

This weekend, I went to Small Press Expo in Bethesda, a wall-to-wall indie comics extravaganza. The highlights were meeting Anders Nilsen ("Big Questions"), and listening to Craig Thompson talk about his new book,Habibi.

I also started drawing again. It's been ages since I've indulged in it; I'm hardly in the category of the people I saw at SPX, for sure. But I...
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Yeah, you can be all macho until your pet dies. A cat I raised from a kitten, found under a porch tiny and hungry 3 years ago, imprinted on me like I was his mom and would sleep on my shoulder until he was too large to fit there, died last week from a genetic kidney disorder he never showed any signs of having until...
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Employment.

Yesterday, I gave two weeks notice, with no full-time job offer in hand, the economy roiling, and people screaming about the debt ceiling. And I have not felt so relieved in many years.

For various reasons, I had ignored my instincts in taking this job for many of the reasons I've just mentioned: the economy sucks. I had been laid off about a year...
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I'm back.

Our cub reporter
I just spent the last two days in a room full of engineers, covering a conference on an obscure technology that nobody except a select few people in camouflage have even heard of. And my. head. hurts.

On the bright side, I am allegedly getting paid to do this.

On the not-so-bright side, I have yet to be paid by anyone for...
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