Tuesday morning started poorly.  While working my way through the crowded server room at my office I snagged my favorite Cardinals shirt on a small metal tab.  The resulting "snick" told the whole story.  I had put a hole in yet another shirt.  Frustrating as this was I had no idea how much worse Tuesday could get. After swapping the backup tapes in the server room, and calming down from the shirt "disaster", I got on a support call with one of our sales reps.  Two hours later I had him up and running and I was wading through the myriad of voice mails that had accumulated during the call.  One voice mail was from the VP of Consumer/LCE sales who happened to be in the building that day.  I decided to track him down to solve his issue personally. While snooping around for the VP I was instructed that he might be in the conference room.  Poking my head in the conference room didn't turn up the VP, I later found out he was at lunch, but it did result in a sit down conversation with my boss, the president of the company and the HR manager who all happened to be in the conference room.  If you can't tell by the list of meeting attendee's the result of this meeting did not turn out well. As it turns out my company is merging with another and my position, among many others, is being eliminated.  Everyone who was about to lose their job was being pulled into the conference room one by one to be told the particulars of the decision to merge and the details of their dismissal.  Since I was busy on the phone for the previous two hours I had no idea what was going on.  In my meeting I found out that I am considered instrumental to the merging process and that they would like to keep me on till the bitter end, in this case until December 31st 2008.  The timing is a blessing as many people who are being let go are being given much less notice.  Some as little as 10 days notice. I have been reflecting on this turn of events for a few days and have come to a couple of conclusions.

1. Things like this happen, it is the way of things.
2. In general the people of the US have no idea what hardship is and are not prepared for it.
3. I need to publicly thank God for giving me 10 weeks to search for a new job.

The truth is if you didn't see this move coming at my company then you were blind.  My company, which I would like to keep nameless for propriety's sake, has been for sale for eight years.  Any time you combine or merge companies the duplicate job functions are eliminated.  This is the way business works.  I have known for over a year that my position would be a "duplicate job function" if we ever got sold or merged, but I stayed on in hopes that I could build up a nice work history in my burgeoning IT career before the penny dropped. All that to say I am in the market for an IT job and I will be available January 1st 2008.  You can view my LinkedIn profile here.  You can also submit any job listing for which you feel I would qualify here. As for me?  It is what it is and I need to find a way to make this opportunity work for me and my family.  Now I just need to figure out how. Oh yeah, and thank God I have 10 weeks to look for a job...seriously.  I feel God's hand in this in more ways than one. - Sean

While trolling YouTube this evening I came accross this rather creative MacBook Air video.  Enjoy! - Sean httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKQPpq2Mo8g

It isn't often that I am touched by music.  I find most music to be annoying at worst and tolerable at best.  Being in a room full of people playing SingStar can be excruciating. Apple created a cute commercial for their Mac Book Air's introduction.  The commercial features the song "New Soul" by Yael Naim.  My initial reaction to the song was typical for me...I ignored it.  Only after my renewed interested in the Mac Book Air, and all related media and information, did I rediscover this song.  The lyrics especially touched me.

"New Soul" lyrics by Yael Naim

I'm a new soul I came to this strange world Hoping I could learn a bit but how to give and take But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear Finding myself making every possible mistake

La, la, la, la (21x) La, la, la, la (21x)

See I'm a young soul in this very strange world Hoping I could learn a bit but what is true and fake But why all this hate? try to communicate Finding trust and love is not always easy to make

La, la, la, la (21x) La, la, la, la (21x)

This is a happy end Cause you don't understand Everything you have done Why's everything so wrong

This is a happy end Come and give me your hand I'll take you far away

My good freinds Gary and Dianna just had their second. Welcome to the world Noah and congratulations Gary and Di! - Sean

I typically stay away from political discussions.  Why?  Because today's politics seems to be rooted more in emotions than in logic.  I try to make decisions, especially important decisions, on truth and logic instead of emotions.  Emotional debates and commentary on politics has the curious effect of both boring and frustrating me at the same time.  Be forewarned the following post has truth and logic in it!  If you like to base your decisions on the same criteria as I do then read on and discover some surprising information about our candidates for President.  If you don't then please ignore this post and come back another day when I will be sure to talk about mundane topics like iPhone headsets and novel writing programs.  Topics that will surely upset no one. A tip of the hat to my brother who sent me this link via email.  Mr. Garrett (?) makes an eloquent case for an active populace when it comes to politics.  So much so that his blog post inspired me to write this post.  He encourages America to wake up and see the truth about the housing collapse, about democrats and liberals, and about our ever eroding freedoms.  I will add to his words an admonition to stop believing what television tells you and research things for yourself.  So often strong, emotional opinions are formed on little more than a cursory understanding of a biased news report.  A report that probably lasted all of 30 seconds.  Instead I urge you to look at the record for yourself.  Look at what people have done instead of what they say they've done.  Allow me to prove my point.  The news media is currently saying the economic downturn was caused by Bush and the Republican's economic policies.  Specifically they showcase the Democrats who blame the housing collapse on the Republicans.  However, if you look back a couple of years you can find out the true cause of the housing collapse. In 2004 the US Senate received a report from the Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight regulators outlining cronyism, huge payoff's to lawmakers, spurious accounting practices, and, most importantly, serious problems in the types of home loans being approved by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  See the video below for excerpts from C-Span's coverage of the hearing.  Notice how the Republicans were asking for tighter regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac where as the Democrats were bullying the regulator's and demanding that Fannie and Freddie be allowed to continue operating without any additional controls.  Also note that Franklin Raines, the Chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae and the one defending his questionable accounting practices et al, is the same man Obama has chosen as his economic adviser.  Look at the truth before you, use logic and common sense, and then tell me that Barrack Obama is the right choice in these troubling economic times.  I dare you. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs - Sean P.S.  In 2005 Senator John McCain introduced legislation that would have tightened the regulations on Fannie and Freddie.  The legislation he proposed would have averted the current financial crisis we are dealing with.  His proposed legislation was shot down by the Democrats.