Balance of Power

Ever since we sent Tex to The Big House, the balance of power in our house has shifted completely to Basta. Another example unintended consequences.

Ever since we sent Tex to The Big House, the balance of power in our house has shifted completely to Basta. Poor Billie is getting chased all over the house, and the brawls erupt at random, so much so that we’ve had to shut Basta in the office at night, so we can sleep.

It wasn’t supposed to work this way.

The original goal was to give poor Cecil some peace. Tex would chase him at every opportunity, and it was making him crazy. Tex also made Billie unhappy, but the two of them left each other alone most of the time (with Billie slinking away whenever they found themselves in the same area).

We thought that if Tex were no longer in the house, Cecil would be left alone to enjoy his golden years, and Billie might get a chance to sleep on the bed with us at night.

As it happens, Cecil is getting more peace, and Billie is sleeping on the bed with us. That part of our plan worked.

What we didn’t realize is that crazy Tex was keeping Basta at bay, unintentionally protecting Billie by not allowing Basta to dominate in the bedroom. With Tex gone, there’s no one to keep Basta from roaming every room in the house, and chasing Billie whenever she can.

Unintended consequences. This is why fucking with complex systems usually leads to Bad Things…

Hang ’em All, You’ll Get the Guilty

Truly the only approach to discipline when your cats misbehave whilst you’re away.

Yesterday I got a call at work from Rochelle, who had just arrived home. “Your daughter has been a very bad girl.”

Uh, oh.

“What’s she done?”

“You’ll see.”

When I got home, I found a pound of powdered milk sprayed across the kitchen floor. Apparently a cat, in some sort of frenzy, had clawed at the plastic bag holding the powdered milk we buy to take baths in, and then knocked it onto the floor, where the bag burst.

No proof which cat did it. But Basta is the one with the plastic fetish…

Yet Another Waste of Time

Announcing the launch of my personal weblog, for better or worse.

Yes, another weblog. I guess I’ve been wanting to keep some kind of a journal, and provide some kind of ongoing news for friends and family.

From another perspective, I’m doing this because I’m a geek, and I had to install MySQL on my new Mac OS X system, and then once it was installed, I had to do something with it.

Still another way to look at this is I am procrastinating on a project for work, and decided that spending a few dozen hours getting a bunch of software set up, writing, and fiddling, would be a “productive” way to do it.

Anyway, for better or worse, I’ve started a ’blog. We’ll see how well I stick with it.

Dot.com Daze: End of Daze

Today will probably be my last day going into my job. So ends my Cymerc daze…

Today will probably be my last day going into my job. I’ve cleaned out my desk, packed home my stuff, and pretty much just want to use the printer and copy a few things onto Zip disks. And so ends my Cymerc days.

We are going on a bender tonight, my former co-workers and I. One last hurrah, and all that…

Dot.com Daze: Accounting Knows More Than You Think

I heard today that our controller, who had known that our demise was immanent, was completely drunk at the all-hands meeting where our CEO announced that we were dead.

I heard today that our controller, who had known that our demise was immanent, was completely drunk at the all-hands meeting where our CEO announced that we were dead. Poor George, knowing what was coming for weeks, he could not tell us. It must have sucked.

Dot.com Daze: Spoils of War

My Aeron chair, should I choose to purchase it at the “fair market value,” is going to be around $500. It’s one of those badges of honor, or something, from the dot.commer experience. I think, even though I’m currently unemployed, that I’m going to buy it.

My Aeron chair, should I choose to purchase it at the “fair market value,” is going to be around $500. It’s one of those badges of honor, or something, from the dot.commer experience. I think, even though I’m currently unemployed, that I’m going to buy it.

Follow-up: the company’s landlord chose to “purchase” a large percentage of Cymerc’s physical assets (furniture), including all the Aeron chairs, in exchange for outstanding rent, or something. Our CEO “forgot” I wanted mine, and I hadn’t properly labeled it, so I lost out. Oh, well…

Dot.com Daze: Cymerc Is Dead

Today the CEO of my company called an all-hands meeting, to announce that he was 99.99% sure we were not going to be funded, and that we were closing down the business, effective today.

Today the CEO of my company called an all-hands meeting, to announce that he was 99.99% sure we were not going to be funded, and that we were closing down the business, effective today. It was a shock to all of us. Only a few people knew in advance. Supposedly we’ll get paychecks for the first half of this month, and hopefully “severance” pay through the end of the month.

Fortunately, my resume is up-to-date. ;-)

Unfortunately, I have over $3,500 in expenses that haven’t been paid…