Jobs

I haz one.

Woot! :)

Monday arvo I'll be going in to finalize the contract. It'll the first time I've worked on a consulting basis, and I'm looking forward to the experience (though I did ask if there's a chance it'll lead to a permanent position -- the answer was "yes").

The company is Multiverse. In essence, they make a toolkit for building your own MMO.

Two great tastes...

...that don't go well together. Mint chip ice cream, and Pepsi. Bleah!

Saffron

In addition to being Mal's fake wife, it's also the world's most expensive spice. I just picked up some lemons and a bottle of poppy seeds from the store, so I could make scones, and noticed a 0.06 oz bottle of saffron on the shelf. Yes, 0.06 oz. The price per ounce? $308!

I didn't buy any. :)

I heard one of the cooks on the Food Network say that the stamens of 75,000 crocuses need to be harvested for a single pound of saffron. Yikes!

Jobs

I'm a bit depressed today, as this is the first time in some 15 years I haven't been able to attend WWDC. Steve Jobs' keynote is underway, and it's strange to be following it via blog, rather than by being in the room with the rest of the Apple Faithful.

Right now I'm watching for news on the new iPhone. I want!

Oh, I haven't yet commented on last Tuesday's primary, nor have I commented yet on Hillary's speech on Saturday. I expect I'll get around do that sometime within the next couple of days.

American Gods

I started reading American Gods a few days ago, and am enjoying it. I just read a piece of dialog that made me bust up laughing.

For those who have read the book, Shadow's wandering around the forest, lost, after having been nabbed. He comes across a deer carcass, and finds a feasting raven. They chat, and the raven flies off. A bit later it returns, to coax Shadow to follow it. Here's the dialog that made me start laughing...

"Hey," said Shadow. "Huginn or Muninn, or whoever you are."
The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side, and it stared at him with bright eyes.
"Say 'Nevermore,'" said Shadow.
"Fuck you," said the raven.

Heheh, exactly the thing I'd expect a raven to say when presented with that particular request.

Workers in yard == Stressed dog

During the winter storms, the support posts on the rear fence snapped at ground level. The fence leaned into the backyard neighbor's backyard, who propped it up with supports.

Today he has workers in the yard (my yard) replacing the supports. I'm not sure why there doing this from my side, except, possibly, for the fact that I don't have as many plants along the fence. Heh, good thing I removed all the bougainvillea shortly after I moved in. It was growing along most of the back fence, and I didn't find the inch-long spikes particularly friendly. PG&E had a crew here shortly after I moved in, topping the Italian cypress. The bougainvillea drew blood from at least one of them, which is ultimately what prompted their removal.

Of course, their being here has Toby in stress mode. I have to keep him inside while they're working in the yard, and he keeps shoving aside the blinds to look outside and whine. Twice they've rang the doorbell -- first to let me know they'd be back there, again to ask where they could plug in their Sawzall. Both times, Toby became barky dog.

Teh Decision

Saturday, the Rules & Bylaws Committee (RBC) made their decision, halving the Florida and Michigan delegations. A portion of each state was given to Obama, reflecting exit polls and assorted other metrics showing what the spread in the two states would have been, had proper elections been held.

Yet her supporters continue to fight for their candidate, saying she was robbed, that pro-Obama forces "hijacked" the election, and that Clinton should get the nomination as she leads in the popular vote.

Only, popular vote is not how we pick our candidates. Our candidates our chosen by elected delegates, and even discounting the super-delegates, Obama still leads by 116. His lead will grow Tuesday, as he's expected to win Montana and South Dakota.

Further, a lead in the popular vote is a lie the Clinton campaign continues to press. Her supposed popular vote lead discounts Obama supporters in Michigan, who didn't get the opportunity to vote, and Obama supporters in Florida, who didn't bother to vote after having been told their votes wouldn't count.

Further, it discounts Obama's numerous caucus wins, in which individual votes are not tallied.

After Tuesday, I expect Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Jimmy Carter, and even Al Gore, will publicly throw their support behind Obama, who leads in the pledged delegate count. Additional super-delegates will flock to Obama, pushing him over the new 2,118 count required to clinch the nomination, following the RBC decision.

And if Clinton's words hold true, she'll begin to campaign for Obama. It'll be interesting to see if a) this really happens, and b) if her supporters will ignore her request to support Obama in November, to defeat McCain. I'm disgusted by the hard-core supporters of either candidate, who say they'll vote for McCain rather than their candidate's opponent.

And yes, "the" is intentionally misspelled. :)