I’ve always wanted a pet penguin. Just thought it would be cool. Not the most practical pet, but all in all one of those pets that everyone would remember you having.

And now, for the low, low, price of, well, you get the idea, you can have your own penguins shipped from special penguin farms in New Zealand and Antarctica from Penguin Warehouse, Inc. and their offices in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Here is their top ten reason to own a penguin:

1. The perfect conversation piece for parties!
2. Make great foot-warmers.
3. Lovely lawn ornament.
4. Man’s true best friend.
5. Good dancing partner.
6. Bring South Pole home!
7. Come fully dressed in their own tuxedo.
8. Rid house of pesky krill.
9. Good Christmas Decorations!
10. Have you seen a penguin?!

Unfortunately, reality has to intervene, as always. Damn.
Go visit this site for some penguin action.

Wired 12.02: The New Face of the Silicon Age
Hey Scott, nice picture on page 2!

One such group has adopted a friendlier title, the Information Technology Professional Association of America. But its founder, 37-year-old Scott Kirwin, voices the same indignation. “I’m very pissed off,” he tells me over lunch in Wilmington, Delaware, where he lives. “I want to make people aware of what’s going on with outsourcing.”

Now, I’ve known Scott for many years. Very smart guy, always questioning everything. He’s ran the gamut of politics too, from member of Amnesty International, to 9/11 conservative. I’ve been to interviews he has done with reporters, and the points are right on.
The core idea would be, the government should do nothing to assist companies sending jobs to other countries. If they want to move offshore, thats fine. But no tax benefits for doing so. No special programs, no deals. In fact, the opposite should be true. Companies that pledge to hire locally should get some assistance. Governments don’t exist for the benefit of the world at large, despite what some people think. Government exists to exploit, I mean, protect its citizens and residents. At no point should any government in the world make its decisions based on what is best for Elbonia. Except the Elbonian government of course.

Kirwin was a latecomer to the IT world. After college, he lived in Japan for five years, then returned to the States hoping to join the US Foreign Service. He didn’t get in. In 1997, he and his wife moved to Wilmington, her hometown, and he took a job at a tech support company outside Philadelphia, where he learned Visual Basic. Kirwin discovered that he loved programming and did it well. By 2000, he was working at J.P. Morgan in Newark, Delaware, providing back-office database services for the firm’s bankers around the world. But after Morgan merged with Chase, and the bloom left the boom, the combined firm decided to outsource the responsibilities of Kirwin’s department to an Indian company. For nine months, he worked alongside three Indian programmers, all on temporary visas, teaching them his job but expecting to stick around as a manager when the work moved to India. Last March, Kirwin got his pink slip.

I was Scott’s manager when we worked at a consulting business and the nominal team lead at JPMorgan. I was also the first to be let go from there in the outsourcing. I didn’t care too much at the time since I already had a new position lined up, but I did worry because the quality of support went right in the toilet as each of us left over time. We understood the business requirements because we met face to face with the business users. We worked the same hours. We were just a phone call and usually 5 minutes away from fixing issues. No more, even a simple bug fix had to go through “The Process.” I still hear horror stories from end users who I see around town. Most important from the article is the following:

Indeed, Kirwin, the programmer in Delaware, partly confirms my suspicion. After he lost his job at J.P. Morgan, he collected unemployment for three months before he found a new job at a financial services company he prefers not to name. He’s now an IT designer, not a programmer. The job is more complex than merely cranking code. He must understand the broader imperatives of the business and relate to a range of people. “It’s more of a synthesis of skills,” he says, rather than a commodity that can be replicated in India.
Kirwin still believes the job is “offshorable,” though I’m less certain. And he’s earning less than he did at J.P. Morgan, though the downturn is much to blame for that, as it is for at least part of the broader anxiety that programmers are feeling.

With the mega-merger of his current company with another, Scott has been laid off again, his job taken over by H1-B and L1-B visa holders.

This is Nebraska.

OMAHA, Neb. — Officials disciplined students who papered their nearly all-white high school with posters advocating a white student from South Africa for the school’s “Distinguished African American Student Award.”

That story is what over reaching political correctness has done. The only true African-American in that school is suspended because he isn’t African-American according to “new-speak.”
I’ve also only really known one African-American myself. I’ve know a few more people from Africa, and lots of decendants of Africans, of course. But only one African-American. 65 year old white Boer from South Africa who became a naturalized American citizen. Whiter than anything with a funny accent. But as an African-American, he is not allowed to be an African-American, all because of the color of his skin!!! That’s racism folks. No doubt about it!
School administrators there get to walk the plank on this one…

Got lots of well wishes, congratulations, etc. from everyone. Me and the Mrs’s thanks you all. Been incredibly busy at work, literally day and night over the past week. Let’s just say, I hate Exchange server. Those of you who have to work with it know what I mean.
Things finally slowed down enough that I had a few minutes to actually spend with the wife, so we went to the baby store. You have to do it you know. Its required. At least a lot of the stuff is cool and relatively high tech. I really like the Graco stuff. All rather efficient and easy to use. And none of it that way too frigging expensive, but ultimately useless crap. Their stuff works, looks high quality, gets good reviews, and I wouldn’t be weirded out being seen in public with it. Thats as good a recommendation as I can get.
Well, just before we found out, we got a letter from my buddy Jeff Pickering out in Arizona. He managed to get his wife pregnant, and they’re due just about the same week we are. Congrats to him.
So tonite the doorbell rings, and its the girl I grew up with way back when. Gidget (nickname, not her real name!) now lives just on the other side of our development. Guess who else is now pregnant and due at the same time?? All these extra Christmas presents.
Either there is something in the water, things come in threes, whatever the appropriate saying is, its all pretty damn cool.
I should be getting back to my crazy rants again shortly, now that I can breathe again without it being in at the office…

Hard to think of a good pirate-like way to say this.

The wife’s pregnant.

Woo hoo!

Californian’s finally have something to be proud of.

“Excuse me while I whip this out!”

Also, I’m not sure whether or not I should be creeped out or turned on by this music video… Thanks to Ghost of a Flea for this one.

Just remember. According to the Supreme Court, Pornography is a more important right to protect than political debate. I just hope every blogger out there, right wing, left wing, down wing, whatever… Spread your message during the “restricted times.” It is that important.

Question: Can anyone explain the pros and cons to a weak US Dollar vs. Euro, Yen, etc?
Half the commentary makes it sound like a bad thing, and the other half explains why it is a good thing. Does a week dollar make our exports cheaper and therefore better to the world? Is it a sign of the extremely low interest rates? Any other good questions as to why?

“Closed thoughts and an open face” - Sir Henry Wootton.
“What You Can’t Say” is an essay that talks about Heresy. Not the religious type, but the more general society heresy.

When people are bad at math, they know it, because they get the wrong answers on tests. But when people are bad at open-mindedness they don’t know it. In fact they tend to think the opposite. Remember, it’s the nature of fashion to be invisible. It wouldn’t work otherwise. Fashion doesn’t seem like fashion to someone in the grip of it. It just seems like the right thing to do. It’s only by looking from a distance that we see oscillations in people’s idea of the right thing to do, and can identify them as fashions.

As soon as I hear anyone say they are open-minded, I know that they aren’t. If you truly are open-minded, you just don’t care. It would never occur to you to advertise the fact. More wisdom on human nature:

Changes between the past and the present sometimes do represent progress. In a field like physics, if we disagree with past generations it’s because we’re right and they’re wrong. But this becomes rapidly less true as you move away from the certainty of the hard sciences. By the time you get to social questions, many changes are just fashion. The age of consent fluctuates like hemlines.
We may imagine that we are a great deal smarter and more virtuous than past generations, but the more history you read, the less likely this seems. People in past times were much like us. Not heroes, not barbarians. Whatever their ideas were, they were ideas reasonable people could believe.

The Drinking Game!
Found this in a google cache for a site that no longer seems to be alive. Since this could be very important, we’ve decided to bring it to everyone here!

The Rules:
Print out this page and chill a generous reserve of your favorite vintage of beer. Keep a bottle of vodka, tequila, or gin nearby (this is just a good idea anytime). Check your local listings and flip on Most Extreme Elimination Challenge on the Spike Network. Kick back, crack a brew, and dig that edge-of-your-seat ass-on-ground action.

---

Take One Drink When:
The teams are announced. (At this point, pick your favorite team. At the end of the game, take a shot if you’re wrong.)
When Vic Romano, the host, ends a conversation with “Indeeeeeed”.
When someone chest-plants on an object.
Anytime the Captain’s henchmen flops on a contestant.
Whenever someone comes out in short shorts.
Whenever the opposing team scores a point.

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Take Two Drinks When:
There’s more than 10 contestants on the screen at any given time during a competition.
Whenever Kenny Blankenship, the co-host, says “Dirty girl”.
When someone ass-plants on an object.
Captain Tenneal says “Get in on!”
Someone face-plants in fluidic space.

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Do a Shot When:
Vic Romano, the host, farts.
Kenny Blankenship, the co-host, belches.
Captain Tenneal says “Let’s go!”
When Guy LeDouche sticks his tongue out.
Someone face-plants on an object or the ground.
Whenever someone receives a direct face or head shot from a fast moving projectile.

Update…
WHOA…
So I’m watching MXC, and I see a contestant wearing a t-shirt with this logo on it.
Now that is freaky, since that is the same basic training unit I was in back in ‘88, the 3706 Basic Military Training Squadron (BMTS).
Now, Takeshi’s Castle was filmed starting in ‘91, so this guy probably went through well after I did, but it is still weird. Something I dealt with 15 years ago comes back now and shows up on a TV show that I love…

I own you no apologies nor will I accept
Those apologies made for me by others.

If you dislike me? You dislike me not for
What I am but for what you are not.
By my own sweat, I have created a lifestyle
Which I desire for all men.

To the world I have shared my wealth and
Given my blood, not because of obligation?
But by my free will. I have fed the
Hungry of the world. Many bit my hand;
I used the other hand.

I defeated my enemies in battle, then
Pulled them up from the ashes of defeat.
Once strong, they again attacked; I turned
The other cheek. Though I am strong, I
Have never used my strength to rule others.
But do not misjudge me, I will not allow the
Fear of my own strength to become my
Weakness.

If you wish to rise, I will give you a helping
Hand. But by the grace of God, and I’ll
First be damned, if I’ll let you drag me
Down so that we may equal.

D. Ault