Christopher Merle (ENTP)

I haven’t posted on my blog in a while as I’m mostly posting on my Livejournal of late. I would have preferred to have one blog. So what I’m going to do is separate the material I post on both. I’m going to use Livejournal to post more personal stuff and my blog more professional stuff.

Anyway, about the title of my post. Sometimes you mishear what people say often with comical results. I was walking by the television and heard the phrase “crunchy goat clusters,” or rather I that’s what I thought I heard. Yeah, this particular post isn’t job related. I’ll think about what I can do with that phrase later, but it was pretty amusing by itself.

On October 9, 2008 at 1:06PM CDT (19:06 UTC), The Cassini probe orbiting Saturn just flew within 25 kilometers of the moon Enceladus’ surface. That’s 82,000 feet. The altitude the SR-71 flew at or a little over twice as high that most commercial jets fly at. All I can say is wow, just wow!

Emily Lakdallawalla of the Planetary Society detailed Cassini’s itinerary Cassini flies within 25 kilometers of Enceladus tomorrow

And JPL scientist Shadan Ardalan, Cassini Navigator tells us Cassini made it Xtreme Navigation,Not for the Faint of Heart

Actually, I took this picture when I went to the Internet World Fall ‘98. It was held at the Jacob K. Javits Center in NYC, though I like to refer to it as the John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt Center. I’ve been to a few tech conferences since then, but none quite as big as this one.

I fear we will see many more people on the streets in the coming months that truly are desperate. I’ve still never quite grown callous enough to ignore all beggars. I have enough guilt left over from my Catholic upbringing to give out the occasional dollar or handful of change. Sure some are scammers and make out like bandits. But who subjects themselves to such humiliation to earn a few bucks? The ratio will change and there will be fewer scammers.

I did ask they guy, “If I give you a buck, can I take your picture?” He said, “Done!”

Well now I’m beginning my job search in earnest. I’ve uploaded my resume to Dice.com and applied for two positions. I’ll be submitting my résumé and applying for many more positions over the coming days and weeks. I am currently employed in Tulsa but will be moving to Tucson in December 2008. My employer is fully aware of the situation and is sad to see me go. My wife is a professor and is starting a new position in January 2009 in Tucson. My skills are portable.

I’m looking for either a web developer or web administrator position. My language of choice is Python and I’ve developed a few Django apps, as well as customized Zope/Plone. If you see the Tucson page I’ve uploaded my resume and listed some of my skills. So far I haven’t found an ideal position so I’m seriously considering doing consulting work as well as contract work.

Just got back from Fen Con V. Had a great time. It’s a very well run convention. This is the third one I’ve been too. Saw a lot of people there that were at Denvention (WorldCon). The Brobdingnagian Bards performed at the con for the last time. Alas, Marc and Andrew are going their separate ways. They have one more performance in Austin. I look forward to seeing how their individual careers progress. Got to see Greg Benford, Jay Lake, and Brad Denton. Also got to see Caroline Spector, The Three Weird Sisters, TM Wagner, Gerald Burton, and David Lee Anderson. Alas Howard Waldrop was not able to attend. He was doing better but the doctors advised against him traveling just yet.

Fen Con has one of the best hotels for holding a convention, Crowne Plaza in Addison, TX. I really liked the way the meeting space was laid out. There were a lot of room parties. I think it would have been nice to consolidate the room parties in one or two of the hotel wings rather than spreading them all out over the floor. It’s the second year at the hotel and it’ll be there next year.

Tulsa fandom was well represented. Saw Curtis & Marylin; Richard & Lynn; Fran, Randy and his wife. There might have been others but didn’t know they were from Tulsa. Mel & I plan on returning for Fen Con VI. Lois McMaster Bujold will be Guest of Honor. It was Mel’s first time to Fen Con. She had a great time too. In fact we liked it so much we are going to adopt it as our home con.