While in high-school, one of my part time jobs was that I did gardening for rich folks in Evanston and Wilmette.... very nice folk. Wish I had bothered to keep in touch.
I still regard those seasonal gardens I "built" as 'mine'. :-)

In fact, it was so lucrative, that even my father got into it and helped out for the extry change. :-)

I found out I have a green thumb, even though I never really cared about gardening afterward because I was on the move so much as an adult.

So, with my interests reawakening, I nearly died laughing with Marn's "rumble in the jungle" piece.
Brought back memories of stinky gardens, maintaining active earthworm colonies in steaming compost piles and drowning earwigs in traps of .. beer.

In fact, I used to use that same growth mixture she used.

I'll never forget the smell of it. You cannot go wrong with it and Miracle-Gro. :-)

Oh yeah, and specially for the folks wit penis envy.. check out her Port-A-Penis (aka PocketDick) piece.

I can imagine that'd be useful in gardens too... :-)
----------------
2:30pm

JPennant: aright.. the server came! :-D
Now I gotta scrounge up a monitor.
rich: cool...where'd you get it
JPennant: friend of mine had a dual pentium box lying around. sent it to me. gawd bless him. :-)
rich: cool
JPennant: trying to see if someone wants to send me a Sun box. :-D
rich: heh what's a Sun box?
JPennant: Sun Microsystems.. expensive hevvy-duty server grade machines.
rich: heh
JPennant: Most web servers run Suns
rich: uh huh
JPennant: which is specifically what Im trying to learn right now.
JPennant: lotta financial firms run them too.
rich: Any luck with the job hunt yet?
JPennant: no, im still waiting. time to shift to plan b.. go work at Blockbusters
JPennant: plan E rather :-)
rich: heh
JPennant: Everything below what Im training for has gotten muy scarce...
rich: uh huh
JPennant: in fact...
JPennant: this is from a recruiter
rich: ?
JPennant: Dear Candidate:
This is a very hard market at this
time. There are 500 candidates for every one position. I do have some opportunities but the market and demand is drying up.
JPennant: Keep in contact with me through time, I will eventually be
able to help you out if I cannot at this time. Please forward a non text format of your resume.
Keep your chin up!
rich: A non-text format?
JPennant: Yeah, in Word rather than just text, so he can print it out.
rich: Ah
rich: That sucks, man...glad I got this new job (now I'll just have to make sure I make it through my 3 month trial period!)
JPennant: True dat..it's bad out there. Its not just me. In fact, on dice.com... all the below Unix admin posts were being pulled from the database ON THE WEEKEND.
rich: yeah?
JPennant: Which means either the jobs were filled that quickly or that theyve been inundated with candidates
rich: ::nods::
JPennant: yeah.. right now is no time to be unemployed
rich: Nor is any time for that matter...
JPennant: even up to November.. it wasnt this bad
JPennant: but since January... whoo.
JPennant: My mothers place.. (global insurance firm)
JPennant: just let go a lot of their techs.. replacing them with cheaper people just outta school.
rich: That didn't make it better to be unemployed in November, just easier to get employed...
JPennant: quite true
rich: yeah, I guess that's the downside of being in a "hot" field, always someone younger/cheaper they can try and replace you with...
JPennant: yeah.. thats the upside of everybody believing the hype and getting their MCSE... not as many people saw unix as the place to be.
JPennant: but thats changing...
rich: ::nods::
JPennant: Heh. I wish I had the matrix learning machine :-)
rich: LOL
JPennant: "I know kung-fu.... and Unix!"
rich: I just watched that yesterday
rich: "Show me!"
rich: One thing about The Matrix, though...when they're getting set to go in, why not grab a tank while they're loading up with guns??? Let's see what those military folks do when they crash into the lobby with an M1 Abrams battle tank and shoot 'em up!
JPennant: portability :-)
JPennant: gotta be able to hide the fun under them sleek, stylish leather jackets :-)
rich: So, climb out of the tank with your coat full o guns after you break down the door and blow away everybody in the lobby...
JPennant: that ranks as one of the five best movie gunfights ever. :-)
rich: ...and why not some of those "gattling guns" under their coats, too? Even "agents" can't dodge those suckers!
JPennant: heheh
--------

I was just telling someone... right now it would take only about three weeks of work at tech wages to pay the bills, take care of my needs and pay all my debts.

That's it.

Of course, at the start of the year.. it wouldve taken a little under a week.

So, its not really that good.

And of course they reminded me.. "Yeah, you gotta just gotta get it."

Yepyep.

Heh. Maybe I can do some gardening.. :-)
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