We'll Burn That Bridge When We Come To It

I used to work in an office full of ntsd (NT Symbolic Debugger) wizards, and in a world where most programmers now use source-level debuggers and seem to shy away from getting near assembly listings, still use it from time to time and invariably discover something new. It has the huge benefit of being not only free but distributed with Windows itself, and is often still the best tool for low-level hackery^Wwork.

Today I'm stuck. Any other wizards left out there?

How are people finding the job market at the moment?

Several folks on my flist have been contracting for years, and I've been trying to go that way myself in the last few months since leaving Symbian, as I can't commit to a perm role between now and our move to Ireland.

At the moment things are looking incredibly flat. Jobsite/Jobserve mailings have tailed off a lot in the past few weeks, and those that do appear are often duplicated several times through different agencies. Both perm and contract seem to be affected, but I'm hardly seeing any contract work coming up at all (at a relevant experience level, with appropriate skills). Of course any agency that calls says that contract work is on the up, and strangely never offers any. They do seem to be good at offering perm work though, after confirming that I'm looking for contract only, and then revealing that it's in an entirely inappropriate location (say, Sweden) after confirming that I'm not prepared to commute far or relocate. Grr. *Thwack*

Moving again.

Monday's to-do list:

• Finally get around to asking that redshira one to marry me
• Get acceptance of above (huzzah!)
• Call family (squeal!)
• Post on LJ (Shira beat me to it)
• Entirely forget that I'm on call this week and stay up all night fixing a backlog of problems.

Next step: attempt to deflect questions about dates (not set yet but November is looking like a candidate), rings (nope), gifts & stuffs...

Oh, I missed out the bit where, being an old-fashioned type, I called Shira's dad to ask first :) And we had to ask the cats too. They seemed to be in favour (if raising a head, blinking, then planting it down back against the radiator counts).

Several people have posted these; I'd be interested in my Johari square results...

However, I think in many people's cases there are likely to be tricky discrepancies, like some attributes being HUGE but only some of the time, where some are constant but lower-key. Should one choose the "dependable" attribute, or the one which you feel is more outwardly visible and has more impact on a person's overall perceived personality? Does it matter if all respondents choose one approach, or distribute evenly?

Lost phone, probably in taxi last night. It's blocked and all that, but any which way I'm not contactable on it for a bit.

Hoping to get it back via taxi co, but just as likely to have been picked up by a later customer. Almost certain I had it as we left Chilworth Manor.

jmb

• She sings to my cat. In this instance, a hybrid live-weasel/Bond-movie-theme, of which reproduction in the privacy of your own home will require minimal imagination.
  

Well, I had been warned, but there wasn't really any getting out of it if we wanted to eat tonight.

There was much brandishing of food goods, bemused and wary people, and traumatised children. Del was chasing Shira with a pineapple, and Shira was defending herself with a melon and a leek. Or perhaps that was the other way around.

The others made it back to their respective shelves, albeit somewhat scarred, but somehow the pineapple ended up getting bought. Never quite made it onto the BBQ'd steaks though.

Mmm. Barbecues in the dark. Makes it easier to decide how well done the food is, anyway.

Accidental slip of the tongue invents a drink conconction that sounds awful but tastes rather good - even if it did give me really hard hiccups for a few minutes and made my head fell off.

Um.. oh yes, well.. if it isn't plainly obvious, it's a shot of half tequila and half Tia Maria.

A quick Google search shows that there already exists a cocktail by this name, but it isn't the same...

Oh.. and Shira, my gorgeous, sexy, wonderful, don't-forget-it's-boob-appreciation-week girlfriend took one tiny sip and flailed delightfully in an "ugh it has tequila in it" kind of way...

Hmm. Do I really need a one ton fire safe?

But but but, it's fitted with a Manifoil combination lock for my collection...

Ruffy's still sulking. He's decided to sleep under the bed. I think he's being very bored during the day, as well, with redshira away visiting tisme and no Mac around.

He seems to have taken to constantly licking everything in sight, himself (more than is cat norm) the blanket on his bed, my duvet, my lap, hands, feet, anything that gets close. I should probably see if the vet has any thoughts, but a quick net search suggests stress...

Ruffy was most unimpressed by the lack of breakfast today.

He's in for a dental fixup - mostly descaling, but probably needs one or two (more!) teeth out. I'm a bit worried because anaesthesia is difficult and risky for small animals, and he's small for a cat and getting on a bit, really. I've been having bad dreams for the last week or so about the (hopefully far off) future last visit to the vet...

Is anyone else getting the tiniest ely of suspicion over the way that the bombings suspects have been traced (within a week!) by having conveniently left copious ID documentation at the scene?

Um.. right. I had this from the Mel on Friday, registered post. And another copy sent to work (what is her point?)

We reject your position that the cat known as "MacGuyver" is your property. We regard the matter as closed. Further we require you to cease any and all attempts at contact by any means. We have approached a Solicitor and in the event of further contact will be referring the matter to them.

I guess that's the end of any attempts to resolve things amicably, then.

Not the slightest attempt to challenge any of the points I made in my previous communication to my ownership of Mac. However, since I mentioned it, she has been contacting previous vets attempting to change owner registration details - presumably as a subterfuge to support a claim of ownership.

Up until when she abducted Mac I thought we were parting on good terms - anyone want to hazard a guess as to why she took an unexpectedly acrimonious stance? She's not deigned to discuss the matter with me.

Well, after getting no reply to the long email I sent last Monday, at the weekend I sent a copy by post, which according to Royal Mail was signed for today..

( step 1... )

( step 2... )

Quoth the Shira: I need to stop posting useless posts about nothing...

Don't you just hate those things? I should however get out of the mindset of letting people walk all over me, and do more of facing them down...

I think I'd not mentioned the problem with just going up to Cambridge and demanding Mac back - a pile of Shira's belongings was still there. They went up in a van at the same time as Mel's things, and it's not clear that they'd fit into a car - and mine is hardly people-mover size. That and Mac? Nah.

( Strife )

If fuming over cat kidnapping wasn't enough, I've had to stay up till 6am working (I'm on call this week) on high-priority build breakages. Our catalog build systems are so &%"&^ing fragile and we're committed to an SLA of successful daily catalog builds... and analysing the typical large changes in item counts, or availabilities, is unreasonably time consuming and very largely pointless.

I only got up to phone the pet chip id people.

must.. not.. rant... must.. not.. rant..

OK, so Mel has just staged a daylight raid and stolen Mac.
( Story... )( Rant... )