Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to loose…
(Janice Joplin, of course)
Well, the upside is I’m not laid off. Only one person in our section was laid off. The downside is an economic hit – we will only be working 4 days a week from here on out. Ouch. That’s $500+ a month GONE.
However, I’ll cancel my 401k investment – that will offset part of it. That will reduce my lost income to just over $400. Slightly better. If I were REALLY ballsy, I could cancle my work insurance – that would give us more available cash. However, that’s a bit risky. Life without heatht insurance is almost unthinkable to me these days – I’ve had it for almost 10 years now.
To me, the current situation has The End written all over it. It’s possible CEI will recover – all it would take is one or two large jobs. However, most of the big things they have been bidding are off in the future, around 4 months away. That would be a problem for the short term.
The problem as I see it, though, is that they will end up spending themselves into the ground. Even large layoffs now are a bit late – they should have started things like canceling matching 401k 4 – 6 months ago, when there was a serious dry spell on the horizion (and it was pretty visible – things ‘wound down’ over time, not all at once.)
Anyway – that’s the status of my job. Oddly enough, Lance will end up a little better off than I will in some ways. They threw him out in the field for a bit. He’s freezing his ass off, but, if he’s out in the field he gets 5 days a week, plus potentially overtime. But did I mention that freezing part?
Right now I’m setting at home, stuck. My truck will not start – put the key in the ignition, and turn… and the key don’t go nowhere. Seems like some ice must be stuck in the cylnder. I’ve got a heater in there now. Just checked it, no dice. Looks like something has gone south with the ignition lock. When Heabo gets home, we’ll make a run to autozone, get a new one.
Called the office, told ’em I’d be stayin’ home today because of this. No problem – time to catch up on some game programming. I just stuck a bottle of Bawls in the freezer to cool – time to become Hyper-Caffinated Programmer Man 🙂
After the scare yesterday, I went back and assesed the condition of a couple o’ the games that have been setting in my dev. directory. Gremlin Panic! has been mainly just waiting on a title character for ages now. Dumped the title character idea, changed the name, and increased the difficulty (the title character was what made the game harder.) Recorded 50% of the sound files for the game last night, and have it up and running. There’s not too many hours of work that have ta’ be done on it, so, I’ll start turning that one into cash.
To be quite honest, it’s THE most professional looking game I’ve done yet (not including Trajectory Zone). It’s slick, the SF/X sound good (instead of the various breaking sound and hitting things I recorded for BP!, or the various percussion instruments I used for TP!.), and it’s pretty unique – the rules chance continuously in the game. Something kinda different.
I already set up with my side kick, Eric, to get some serious work done on getting games out the door fast. After I complete this, my next task will be to complete the first BBS game, whatever it’s supposed to be called (the replacement for BlackNova Traders.) It’s already got a shitload of work completed on it, and mostly needs the client for it written. David “RM” Michael and I are working out terms for licensing Artifiact for the BBS, and I’m lookin’ for all sorts of Open Source games that could be used on the BBS.
Oddly enough, I’ll be getting access to a T1. We’re getting a ‘radio T1’ at work – basically a Radio link with slightly better than T1 speeds. Part of the BBS hardware will be running from there. I’ve got MOST of the BBS in place, except the chat module – now that I have someplace for a non WWW server, putting the chatter module online won’t be as much of a problem.
So, even if CEI does recover, I’m outta here. I keep making moves towards my own destiny, but, keep letting myself get hung up. No more – I’m tired of it. Two (completely different) songs are my current mantra…
Runnin’ out of self-control
Gettin’ close to an overload
Up against a no win situation
Shoulder to shoulder, push and shove
I’m hangin’ up my boxin’ gloves
I’m ready for a long vacation
….
When you can’t give no more
They want it all but you gotta say no
I’m turnin’ off the noise that makes me crazy
Lookin’ back with no regrets
To forgive is to forget
I want a little piece of mind to turn to
– Journey, Be Good To Yourself
If you think I’ll sit around while you chip away my brain
Listen I ain’t foolin’ and you’d better think again
Out there is a fortune waitin’ to be had
You think I’ll let it go you’re mad
You got another thing comin
– Judas Priest, You Got Another Thing Commin’