Monkinetic Weblog

I'm working full-time on the house now - partly packing, and partly wrapping up last-minute repairs and projects. I went to the neighbvorhood coffeeshop this morning for a leisurely cuppa before beginning the day's tasks. Nice.

Ev has an R.E.M. moment. Exhuming McCarthy

Nate (aka LEGOMAN) is the best: He gave me a going-away present - a U-Haul plaque made out of LEGO. Now that's awesome.

I've started cleaning up here at Compass. Unsubscribing from mailing lists... handing off reams of documentation and design work... inventorying software. It's sad and yet, I can't wait to get to Phoenix.

Well, I can finally get this off my chest. After working with Compass for 3 years now, I've taken a position with U-Haul in Phoenix, AZ. I'm emotionally exhausted right now, after turning in my resignation today, and explaining it to my project manager, supervisor, and the somewhat flabbergasted HR department.

Ten Mistakes in Site Planning: I saw a couple pointers to this out there, and it's a good brush-up for those of us that sometimes feel like we've got it down pat. There are a lot of things to consider when building a new site.

Today is going to be a big day for me, one I've been waiting for -- for months it seems. Bet you're wondering what it is...

I used to follow Robert Scoble's blog: Scobleizer regularly, when he was a conference organizer and respectful M$ apologist. Since joining Userland as Marketing guru, it seems like every other day is a Userland ad.

Rate your intranet sucky if it is not based on Manila.

Nooooooo: Jodi tells of an email exchange she had with network services regarding the forced migration of a LOT of Linux servers in her school system to Nt4/IIS. The people making decisions over there are ignorant of the events they are setting in motion.

playlist for today: misc R.E.M. favs

Ok, I found an infected site. (I notified the webmaster, who was already aware of the situation. The site is now down.) Anyway, here's the skinny:

This page from the Washingon Report has a very enlightening review of a book published in 1998: The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict. It touches a bit on salient facts about the establishment of the nation of Israel by the British, and the removal of the indiginous Palestinians. Hard stuff, and the current conflict comes as no surprise.

In Up For Air, I commented that I could only absorb Dave McCusker's writings in short bursts. I've been following him more closely the last couple days, practicing as it were. I can "hold my breath" in his parallel universe for longer now - a couple weeks worth of postings. Maybe one day I'll be able to breathe there?

Sigh. Some script-kiddie decided one exploit per Outlook/IIS worm was not enough, so they've bundled 12 or so exploits into one worm. Lovely. Don't you guys have anything better to do?

Israel and the Palestinians have called a truce. Astonishingly, it was Yasser Arafat to step out with a unilateral cease-fire. Isreal quickly followed suit. I say astonishingly because while I am generally pro-Israel, the Palestinians have had NO reason recently to lay down arms.

Another set to add to my reading list: Count of Monte Cristo (original by Dumas), and the 5 SF tomes David mentions here.

Heard on NPR:

INTERVIEWER: "What can we do to satisfy Osama bin Laden?"

EXPERT: "Pack up and move to another planet."

[via dangerousmeta!] Engineers Tackle Havoc Beneath trade Center. Extremely intersting article about the challenges involved. The WTC was an engineering marvel in every way.