Some days it's not worth chewing through the leather straps

Hi everyone, getting set up for my new job and going through all of the work of orientation, setting up a home office, and generally trying to learn how to learn again is taking it's toll. I didn't realize how much spare time I had until I lost it, know what I mean? One of my recent indulgences has been to read the stories from Iraq and Afghanistan that are posted in The Sandbox . G.B. Trudeau, the writer of Doonsbury has put up a milblog for the folks serving over there to say whatever they want. The stories are fascinating, and you get all angles. From the gung-ho to the support personnel and the front lines just trying to come home with all of their appendages. It's worth a read if you want the real poop from the front...

Associated Press reports that the Marine Reserves' Toys for Tots program has decided to accept a donation of Bible-quoting Jesus dolls, reversing course after saying earlier this week that it couldn't take them. Earlier this week, the program declined a suburban Los Angeles company's offer to donate 4,000 of the foot-tall talking dolls. The battery-powered Jesus is one of several Bible-based dolls manufactured by one2believe, a division of the Valencia-based Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Co. I think they should go one step further and use the whole action figure set ! Yeah, yeah, I know... It's the rocket sled to hell for finding this funny...

Remember the video floating around with David doing a pantomime of the song torn? Now he is joined onstage by Natalie Imbruglia, this is very good!

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - A man pleaded guilty in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend's four small kittens, which were tossed into a fire pit after the couple argued. Robert Tomlin, 22, of Smithsburg was sentenced Monday to 1 1/2 years in jail for aggravated animal cruelty. Washington County Circuit Judge John McDowell suspended the sentence except for the 134 days Tomlin has served since his arrest. In the plea bargain, charges of assault for allegedly striking former girlfriend Kelli Ann Green and destruction of property were dropped. "Taking defenseless animals as you have, and destroying them ... there is no excuse for that," McDowell told Tomlin. Washington County prosecutor Robert Veil said Tomlin had been drinking July 2 and Green left after he hit her, leaving her ear bloody. "When she returned to the residence, she heard a hissing in the fire," Veil said, and discovered the burning corpses of the kittens. She said Tomlin told her from jail that ...

I know I am late to the party on this topic, but I came across this great piece by Paul Hipp. Check it out and everybody sing along!

This Friday will be my last day at Sun Microsystems, and yeah, this is kind of how it feels! After surviving countless lay-offs, who knows how many re-orgs, and the new top-heavy organization changes, it was just time to go. And I am not somebody who moves around or job hops a lot. I was at my first big company for 11 years, the second company for 10, and now Sun for 7. I remember at my interview at Sun, one of the project managers, Neal, asked where the rest of my job history was on my resume. He had never seen anybody with just two companies listed. So, the only regrets are at leaving friends behind, and I will miss the day to day interaction with you. All the hallway conversations, the jokes, and gossip will have to move to email. But I live close to the Sun campus, so I will still come up for lunch every now and then to stay in touch, and because, well, ya know, for that great cafeteria food...