Workin’ for da man?

I got a call today about a contracting job for the mayor’s office in Brockton. (That’s about 45 minutes away.) It’d pay the same as FreakBoss paid, but it would be full-time, on-site contracting…so 40 hours a week instead of “whenever I find enough stupid clients, make you drive down here and wait around before finally get around to giving you the crappy work” like FreakBoss did.
It’s just basic HTML crap. I’m sure I could do it in my sleep.

The other iron in the fire is a job as a “Web Site Process Engineer”. I’d be managing a team of contract people to build some company’s web site. (I’m not sure of the company since it’s through a headhunter. I think he said it was semiconductor or something.) That’d be cool. I could see myself hiring contractors (ie: my friends) and organizing that on a manager’s salary. Actually, he never did say what the salary was. I s’pose I should have asked…but those are things you don’t think about right after you wake up.

I’ve also got a couple small-to-medium sized consulting inquiries I need to respond to with a little proposal. I should really do that tomorrow.

…and then there’s hope that my 2nd cousin, Tim, can find an opening for me at Thompson Financial (and get himself a sweet referral bonus in the process.)

So, although I’m STILL in panic mode and my bank account balance is currently $-9.98 (thanks to the cash reserve), things seem to be shaping up a little. It’s weird though. I’m being SO conservative about cash now that I’ve even turned down the heat. I’ve discovered that if I have the heat set to around 60 in the living room (the only thermostat), that the temperature in the computer room with the door closed is just right (with the computer heating the room). Hey, no point in heating the whole place if I’m spending 90% of my waking hours in front of the computer, right?

I went to the grocery store for bread, Code Red, and 3D Cheddar Ruffles (my new addiction) today. The “Check Engine Soon” light came on. Great. :/ I know I’m way overdue for an oil change, so that’s probably it.

I’ve been working on my web site again. I’ve been doing that the past three days. I wish mySQL worked on this machine. I tried to install it months ago, but it kept borking about some missing library that SHOULD have been there. (Damn j00 Nick!) I gave up and have been writing my own system through the use of flat text files. Not too glamorous, but it works. Once this crap is done, finishing up Kawaii or Kowai should be a snap…I hope. There’s a bunch of other cool stuff here and Kawaii or Kowai is just a part of it. (A lot of it was inspired by RivalWorks, my old game web site employer.) A few things will require LOTS of data entry on my part though. I might just write a script to automate that and clean up the mess by hand later.
I still have to write secondary CGI scripts like “I’m a retard and forgot my password!” and “I decided I want to be JoeBlow14523 instead of JoeBlow26226!” …and a special something for the idiots that enter their e-mail address as “[email protected]”. Yes, an alarmingly high number of people really do think their e-mail address starts with “www.”…idiots.

Oh, and I put up a banner ad on my site (which comes up randomly) begging for donations via PayPal. It probably won’t earn me even $1, but who knows. I managed to raise $70 about a year ago when I promised to upgrade the DCForum software. A few CHiPs fans gladly fronted the money. Now they have a spiffy new forum. They’re currently drooling over the avatars. (All the guys use female avatars and the girls use male avatars. Go figure.)

I’ve also joined the CapitalOne affiliate program. (I was considering switching to that credit card anyway.) They pay me $40 for each person that signs up for a Platinum account through my links! Pretty sweet, eh? Well, I’ll get $40 for myself, at least. 🙂
Capital One Visa Platinum - Instant DecisionYou wouldn’t happen to want one, would you?

January 16, 2002

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