I'm alive

Post #47,530 by orion 7/30/02 8:53:50 PM Reply	I'm alive and I had a long talk with my wife and mother. My doctor doubled my medicine and it is taking me a while to get used to the extra drowsiness. The other day I got up, and went right back to bed. My son later pried my eyes open, yelling "Daddy daddy, wake up!" into my ear. My father went into the ER for breaking his toe, my father-in-law went into the hospital to get his cancer removed. Lots of other stuff family related as well, which I won't mention here. My wife was crying over stuff with her family that was happening that had nothing to do with me, but upset me as well. So many people called, thank you, I am sorry that I haven't returned the calls. I've been trying to get my mind back together. I got a job interview tomorrow, and I hope I don't blow it. Local Beer Baron employs 1200 IT Workers for its IT shop, mostly contractors for up to five years. They want me for my web skills, but most of the web sites I made were for local Intranets and I cannot give them any examples. Not unless the law firm that I used to work for puts them on their Terminal Server, and they are a client of the firm. I took down my personal web sites when that spoofer was using my handle and name on Yahoo, and I never put them back up. In fact I misplaced the backups. Only things that I might have left are at [link\|http://normad.8m.net/clients/\|[link\|http://normad.8m.net/clients/\|http://normad.8m.net/clients/]] but they have a ton of pop-ups now. I mirrored an old business site of mine there, with some examples of client sites and some mockups that I was going to develop later. But I am not sure if I can show this to them, the counters don't work, and some pages may be missing or underdeveloped. I'll more than likely be working with ASP, VB, Crystal Reports and other things that I worked with at the lawfirm. My wife and I can live on her salary if we cut back more and try not to spend too much unless it is an emergancy. Not to use credit cards unless we really really have to, like to get a car repaired or something and we don't have enough money in checking or savings. I am looking to attend a local college, they have an Associates I can get while there and update my degree to MIS (have to take at least 15 credit hours there) was Data Processing. I'll do this while on my way to a four year degree. Have to get the student loan approved, and pay it back later. *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #47,536 by imric 7/30/02 9:24:46 PM Reply	smile Good luck on the interview! I'm pulling for you! Imric's Tips for Living Paranoia Is a Survival Trait Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised... Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
Post #47,537 by SpiceWare 7/30/02 9:32:41 PM Reply	Great! good luck tomorrow. (oh, and don't scare us like that again!) Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #47,539 by orion 7/30/02 9:40:35 PM Reply	Thank goodness for archive.org [link\|http://web.archive.org/web//http://www.normad.com\|[link\|http://web.archive.org/web//http://www.normad.com\|http://web.archive....w.normad.com]] click to see my previous work on the normad.com web site that is no longer up and running. It is a clear example of what I can do, but it is only an HTML snapshot of my web site that was generated with PHP code under FreeBSD Unix. *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #47,541 by Another Scott 7/30/02 10:24:07 PM Reply	Hang in there, and best of luck!
Post #47,544 by folkert 7/30/02 11:36:21 PM Reply	Excellent.... I am willing to "host" a few things fer you... I have one more Website I can host for free at Attbi... If you want it... it is yours... Just mail or call me... You have my number. I could also host it at the college... but it'd have to be a bit deeper than I like "resume's" to be... But it is ALWAYS an option also. `greg, curley95@attbi.com -- REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!`
Post #47,547 by slugbug 7/30/02 11:44:20 PM Reply	Best of luck tomorrow!!! Also have hosting facilities if needed.
Post #47,555 by tjsinclair 7/31/02 1:04:33 AM 7/31/02 1:04:50 AM Reply	Give 'em heck! Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000" Edited by tjsinclair July 31, 2002, 01:04:50 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #47,558 by JayMehaffey 7/31/02 1:36:14 AM Reply	Re: I'm alive Good Luck I am looking to attend a local college, they have an Associates I can get while there and update my degree to MIS (have to take at least 15 credit hours there) was Data Processing. I'll do this while on my way to a four year degree. Have to get the student loan approved, and pay it back later. As sad as it may be, it very well could help you. Both me and a friend of mine had much better job offers after getting some abbreviations to stick on our resumes. Neither of us really learned anything about programing, but in a tight job market people without something after their names are liable to get cut right from the start. Jay
Post #47,560 by pwhysall 7/31/02 2:37:31 AM Reply	Oh man You're going to work for the BEER COMPANY? Daaaaamn, that's cool. Good stuff. Break a leg in the interview. And yes, my offer of a firm arse-kicking still stands :-) Peter [link\|http://www.debian.org\|Shill For Hire] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Blog]
Post #47,564 by tuberculosis 7/31/02 3:37:36 AM Reply	Its not good beer - and I'd skip the examples Norm If its the big one in St Louis we all know from TV. But its a job just the same. Norm - I'd bail on the examples. Don't bother with them. Instead, I'd simply do my best to appear knowledgable about a couple of pitfalls in web development. Example - visual html editors are not so good for performance as they tend to construct deeply nested table structures to manage placements and the browsers tend to bog down in the table constraint calculations. The best way to speed up many websites is to remove redundant tables in the pages put there by the brilliant but technically clueless artists. Stuff like that. I'd bone up on a couple website style pundit postings before you go in as well. zeldman.com is one such site I think. Examples invite the discovery of flaws and can do more harm than good. I am out of the country for the duration of the Bush administration. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when democracy returns.
Post #47,569 by static 7/31/02 6:55:45 AM Reply	HTML table-tastic (and v.OT) I quick way to totally lockup IE, if not crash it, is to build several hundred nested tables. I did it by accident once in a PHP script - IE locked solid on my PC trying to display 6000 nested, unclosed tables! Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #47,577 by jb4 7/31/02 8:54:29 AM Reply	6000 tables! Way Kewl! Isn't it amazing how quickly automation can screw things up? It's good to see that even the experts occasionally lose control of that moneky wrench (or spanner, for those of you on the other side of either pond)... jb4 "I remember Harry S. Truman's sign on his desk. 'The buck stops here.' Strange how those words, while still true, mean something completely different today." -- Brandioch
Post #47,700 by static 7/31/02 11:47:37 PM Reply	Oh yes. grin "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #47,621 by cwbrenn 7/31/02 1:41:56 PM Reply	Visual web editors While most visual web editors are very poor at creating clean, optimized HTML, and if I do it by hand I can make web pages much smaller, I still wind up using Macromedia Dreamweaver to create all my web templates. Why? Because as far as tables go, it doesn't handle them too badly, and I can create layouts a lot quicker using it than by coding them by hand. Some visual web editors are absolute crap (like Frontpage) but some are a pretty good tradeoff. Most of the messy html on Ubersoft.net comes from the server-side includes on Keenspot, not the stuff I did in Dreamweaver (on my Windows machine) or HomePage Publisher (on my OS/2 machine). "We are all born originals -- why is it so many of us die copies?" - Edward Young
Post #47,629 by deSitter 7/31/02 2:08:15 PM Reply	Hey! For American beer, it ain't too bad. Sort of like being in first place in a weak division. -drl
Post #47,634 by a6l6e6x 7/31/02 2:42:45 PM Reply	Re: Hey! If you've ever taken the tour at your local facility and had the sample at the end of the tour (I did in July of 1974) it is quite good. Better than anything of theirs you can buy. Other than a hot day in July, I don't know why that was the case. Alex "Television: chewing gum for the eyes." -- Frank Lloyd Wright
Post #47,680 by orion 7/31/02 9:54:25 PM Reply	Its the King of Beers and they just are working on an agreement with the largest brewer in China, sort of a partnership. They will be expanding their market to China due to this. Did I mention that they employ 1200 IT Workers in St. Louis? They are Big on Microsoft, but they pay pretty well. Their contracts don't last more than five years, but that is a lot longer than most other local firms have for contract limits. I'll be a contractor if I get hired, and they have a right to hire me if I do a good job and they have an open position for me to move into their company. Oh course the taste of the beer doesn't matter to me, I don't drink beer. If any of their products, I might pick an O'Douls, or whatever the non-alcohol drink is that they have. I think I had one at my bachelor party in 1997, made the other guys think that I was drinking real beer instead of near beer. Tasted like beer, but no buzz. *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #47,693 by a6l6e6x 7/31/02 11:01:45 PM Reply	Tsing Tao. [link\|http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/020731/tsingtao_anheuser_busch_2.html\|Tsingtao Allies With Anheuser-Busch.] ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Beer-making giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. and China's Tsingtao Brewery Co. plan to form a strategic alliance to further develop the growing Chinese beer market. Neither company would offer details of the alliance, announced Tuesday, saying details are still under negotiation. But the deal would increase Anheuser-Busch's 4.5 percent stake in Tsingtao. The St. Louis company acquired that stake for $16.4 million in 1993. We've got a Tsing Tao (Chinese) restaurant here in Charlotte and I've named my Pekinese dog Tsing-Tsing. Stll don't know if Tsing-Tsing means anything. Alex "Television: chewing gum for the eyes." -- Frank Lloyd Wright
Post #47,756 by orion 8/1/02 4:19:28 PM Reply	Has to be approved by Chinese government if not, any deal would be a no-go. *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #47,876 by deSitter 8/2/02 4:15:49 PM Reply	You Know What They Say About Chinese Beer... Thirty minutes after a six pack, you're sober again. -drl
Post #47,568 by Meerkat 7/31/02 4:45:34 AM Reply	Thank goodness - I'm delighted to hear it! John. Busy lad.
Post #47,571 by drewk 7/31/02 7:54:37 AM Reply	The best part of that You mentioned a few things that went wrong, but the bulk of that post was things you plan to do in the immediate future to improve your situation. As long as you keep thinking like that, things can't help but improve. Good luck with the interview. === Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #47,575 by jb4 7/31/02 8:49:57 AM Reply	Go fo it! Don't worry about your 'portfolio'; emphasize your skills and knowledge. These people don't want you to recreate your old sites, they want you to help thme create theirs. All you have to do is convince them that you have the knowledge and expertise to do that. Play to your strengths, emphasize your knowledge, and exude confidence (peppered with a healthy curiosity). And send me a sixer when you get the gig! Good Luck! jb4 "I remember Harry S. Truman's sign on his desk. 'The buck stops here.' Strange how those words, while still true, mean something completely different today." -- Brandioch
Post #47,593 by a6l6e6x 7/31/02 10:56:36 AM Reply	Good luck with interview! Let us know how it went. We're all pulling for you. Alex "Television: chewing gum for the eyes." -- Frank Lloyd Wright
Post #47,595 by Steve Lowe 7/31/02 11:10:21 AM Reply	Right ON! Best of luck tomorrow...next time I'm St. Louis, can ya hook me up with a keg or two? ;-) ----- Steve
Post #47,624 by cwbrenn 7/31/02 1:46:05 PM Reply	What I really wanted to say, before I got distracted by the intricacies of visual web editors, was that it's very good to see you posting here. :) "We are all born originals -- why is it so many of us die copies?" - Edward Young
Post #47,627 by tseliot 7/31/02 2:02:16 PM Reply	Praise God! I had a LOT of people praying for you, Norm. Can't tell you how happy I am to see your post if not your face. Don't worry about not calling back; just glad to hear you made it through that crisis point, and that you have people physically near you who care; they are far better to go hunting for a willing ear than I could ever be. I think we gave your dad a good scare and probably a phone overload since we all found his number first. Please thank him for me for his patience with us and good-naturedness. Best of luck with the job! I agree wholeheartedly with Drew, good to see you making plans! Bob aka tseliot --------------------------------- Many fears are born of stupidity and ignorance - Which you should be feeding with rumour and generalisation. BOfH, 2002 "Episode" 10
Post #47,701 by static 8/1/02 12:01:08 AM Reply	I had a few people praying, too. It was a little ad-hoc, but every little bit helps. Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #47,631 by deSitter 7/31/02 2:10:27 PM Reply	Cool I'll be working around the corner (3rd and Russell) and there are a million places in Soulard to eat lunch. See you at Little Easy! Julie the bartender, woof! -drl
Post #47,681 by orion 7/31/02 9:59:22 PM Reply	If I get hired I'll be working at the Sunset Hills office. I can take Lindbergh to get there before it turns into South Kirkwood. Or I could take the 270 parking lot, if I overcome my fear of highways. :) We call it a parking lot instead of a highway for good reasons. Bumper to bumper traffic moving at less than 15 MPH can resemble a parking lot. If I get hired, they also will give me a pager, I can only guess what it will be for. P.S. I lost your phone number and other contact info, except for your email address. Please send me the new info when you have time. Let me know if I can use you as a reference, because you are local. *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #47,719 by deSitter 8/1/02 8:46:10 AM Reply	Re: If I get hired Sure, Boxer has the info. -drl
Post #47,755 by orion 8/1/02 4:17:01 PM Reply	So far so good Out of 27 people, I am one of the 9 finalists. They will decide on Friday who to hire. We shall see who they pick. *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #47,766 by Ashton 8/1/02 4:46:08 PM Reply	Hey.. that makes you IN THE TOP THIRD - no matter what. Revel in it !! :-\ufffd
Post #47,778 by orion 8/1/02 6:12:55 PM Reply	Usually happens but then with only one job opening, someone with a four year degree or a bit more experience than me usually gets the job at the last momment. No award for coming in the top third or even second place. *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #47,769 by Steve Lowe 8/1/02 5:19:31 PM Reply	Awesome News! What Ashton Said..revel in the in fact you've gotten this far! Still pulling for you and praying :) ----- Steve
Post #47,735 by gdaustin 8/1/02 11:27:38 AM Reply	Welcome Back! I'm glad to hear you had those talks. You need trusted friends and (hopefully) your spouse to let your feelings be known. Glen Austin
Post #47,875 by Arkadiy 8/2/02 4:00:26 PM Reply	Big smile, sigh of relief. I go on training for 4 days, stay away from IWETHEY, and you throw something like that! That's it, no more training for me. :)

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