Economic teltale?

Just for laughs, I just sifted the Tucson want ads, not by IT the way I usually do, but by employer. I swear to you, it's 75% temp agencies and health care. Beyond that, private business seems to have fallen off the map.

Traffic lessons

Wow, it's been a learning experience of a day. Please note, for the state of Arizona:

• The information phone number on photo tickets does not necessarily dispense accurate information. They outright lied (through ignorance, I suspect, but it doesn't change the end effect) about why I had been ticketed. If you have to speak to these people, take down the names of the individuals you speak with. Apparently, the fact that two entirely separate people gave me the same wrong information does not indicate to the traffic camera people that they have a problem.
  
  
• You are not considered to enter an intersection at a stop line. You enter the intersection at the prolongation-of-the-curb line. If you can stop safely behind this line, you should, even if you're fifty feet past the stop line. If you pass this line, you will be ticketed. This applies at all intersections in the state of Arizona, regardless of whether they are policed by camera or not.
  
  
• Stop lines are, apparently, decorative. You're not meant to stop at them. You're meant to stop at the prolongation of the curb line, according to the nice prosecutor.

No one I've talked to has ever heard that the intersection doesn't start until the prolongation of the curb line or that you're supposed to stop there, not at the stop line. Even the wrong information given to me by the information line was based on the idea that you enter the intersection at the stop line. No traffic class I've ever taken has told me to stop anywhere but the stop line. If you're actually trying to judge whether you can safely stop at this prolongation of the curb line when the light turns yellow, and you're wrong, you're endangering a whole lot of people. But apparently, this doesn't matter to whoever decided to change the law. RH pointed out that if you're in the left lane of the particular double turn bay near our apartment, and you safely stop just before the p-o-c line, you're well into the lanes used by oncoming traffic.

What's more, if you actually stop with your nose 40 or 50 feet past the stop line, people honk at you and do not go anywhere until you pull through the intersection. I've watched it happen before.

I can't challenge the rationality of this law without becoming a test case, and real honestly, I don't have either the money or the constitution for that. I'm pissed enough that I wasted half a day based on false information and will still have to attend traffic school, on my dime, for following rules taught to me by traffic school itself fifteen years ago. What I can do is tell everybody I know, so that nobody else is driving ignorant. Maybe, if there's enough pressure from enough people, somebody eventually will decide to be a test case.

Question #8

Is it moral to make money off of healthcare? I'm not talking about healthcare professionals getting paid for their skills. I'm thinking more in terms of profit above that, or flowing upward from the provider and administrator level.

A couple wedding pix

Well, RH is still in the process of cleaning up some of the wedding pictures, but I'm going to post a couple that didn't need much cleaning in the meantime, because it's taking awhile.

The measure of the man . . .

Went to happy hour with two of my co-workers this week and we had our stitch-and-bitch. And during the course of the conversation, I discovered they'd both been in the hospital for stress-related breakdowns at one time or another. And I thought to myself, "Y'know, maybe I'm not really a wimp for that whole last long stretch at the last workplace. Six counseling sessions, insomnia, depression, panic attacks, migraines . . . but apparently, at that point, most people fall down. I didn't."

Mind you, I kind of wish I had. It would probably have been better for me. I mentioned this observation to RH this week, and he said words to the effect of, "You're just now realizing this?" Uh, yeah . . . guess I'm a little slow on the uptake.

If I'm made of sterner stuff than some, it seems like there's something better I ought to be doing with it.

My job sucks, part II

We've just been advised we need to expand our coverage hours by 28 hours a week. We=the four of us who do general tech support. The other tech gave notice in response. He was told not to bother coming in on Monday. I told my boss I can do some things in the short-term that I can't do in the long-term: my husband isn't employed right now, but when he is, it will be banker's hours--that's just how his industry works. We think we're not starting right now, since we're not short a team member again. We hope.

My direct boss is taking two days' PTO. I can connect to our VPN right now, but I can't remote into anything, so I know some piece of our infrastructure is down. But I don't have a building code, so I can't do anything about it until tomorrow morning. So it's going to be my problem first thing in the AM, unless the CIO beats me in. And if I were my boss (who is taking the PTO because he can't afford not to take it--he's way over-worked and over-stressed), I'd be looking at a better opportunity. Heck, maybe he is. It's not like he could say if he were.

I knew this was not a good long-term placement, but I've been just kind of coasting along while we wait to find out about RH's job. No more coasting now. Of course, I checked the want ads this week and they're abysmal. Fortunately, RH is waiting to hear back from both Oregon and Nebraska about positions next week. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Oh my dear gods.

You really must see this.

This is Stringfever, and these guys are amazing. Be sure and catch this one, too: The History of Music in Five Minutes.

Poorly acted, but cute.

Librarians live.

Quote of the Week

Overheard at work today:

" . . . and there's some stupid little messsage. And I click OK."

--source unknown

And ladies and gentleman, this is why IT has a job. Thank you for keeping me employed.

Honeymoon Pix

I know, I fell off the face of the earth again. Here's the nutshell version:

• honeymoon (awesome)
  
• confusion over promotion at work
  
• family reunion (great)
  
• re-strained injured shoulder on the way back from family reunion
  
• new position at work
  
• sitting upright hurts, so I'm not really on the computer except at work
  
• outrageous bill for test from last year has gone away
  
• traffic court scheduled for the 30th due to entering the intersection on a "red" arrow at an intersection where there is no red arrow. I hate being an idealist sometimes.
  
• having a great weekend

We don't have the wedding pictures cleaned up, yet, but we had some professional photos taken on the honeymoon that I'll share for right now.