patrick.net

“I’m ugly, nobody likes me and I need a beer”

Huh?

If he said "I need a bear" maybe I would change my mind. Teddy bears are so cute.

DinOR

11-99 foundation costs like $1800 so I've never seen it on a Jetta, my favorite stickers says "If I say I support law enforcement, will you still give me a ticket".

I thought about marketing a ribbon sticker that says "Support the Chinese ribbon makers" instead of "Support our troops".

I thought about marketing a ribbon sticker that says “Support the Chinese ribbon makers” instead of “Support our troops”.

How about a bumper sticker that says "Bumper stickers are for loosers" :)

(I am perfectly fine with bumper stickers and will get some leter.)

He even suspected that I had weapon on me.

Washington state allows open carry, right?

I guess sometimes I do look intimidating, but probably only to idiots.

I guess sometimes I look like a harmless idiot, so people are quite nice to me.

I’ve pretty much given up my dream of becoming a fox/deer hunter.

I may still learn to hunt just for the experience. But my wife will let me hunt only if a can find uses for all the animal parts. That is difficult.

Perhaps I will just play laser-tag with bears.

"Bumper stickers are for losers"

One time I was at a stop light and there was this guy with a mid 70's VW Rabbit (spewing noxious diesel exhaust) and he had a bumper sticker for every bleeding heart cause on the planet.

So we're sitting there waiting for the light to change and I said "Hey dude, if you had a job you could afford a car that didn't rely on bumper stickers to hold it together!" (Wife slides further into seat).

Nice post SP. Not preachy, not judgemental, not condescending; a window into how another group might think.

Seems like a lot of money from Real Estate is moving into Stocks. I guess stocks are prepping for a big fall, wish i had money to short some stocks.

That was regarding donations, a few posters got in there before I finished.

But a 47 year old applying for a Ajax or ROR “senior developer” job stands almost zero chance regardless of how good they are.

Most Forty-something that has senior developer jobs get their jobs through referrals, at least that's the people that I know. I agree with Randy that it would be difficult to just interview and get these jobs, lots of hiring managers favor young single people than those that have families. Funny a lot of younger kids stay late but they also get to work late, and they don't stay late on Fridays.

SP,

If the lay-off's at HP's Corvallis plant are any indication I'd have to say no. Another town lousy w/newbie realtors.

I believe that is called “sarcasm”, not a chance to get away.

A friend told me that a cop asked his friend, "You were as fast as a plane. Are you a pilot?"

His friend showed him a pilot's license. The cop laughed and let him go.

Otherwise, being honest and respectful gives you the best chance of leaving without a ticket.

I got let go because I told the cop I had just come from Krispey Kreame. He thought it was funny. It was actually true.

He then told me to keep it under 80 to not draw attention to myself.

Gotta love California.

I usually drive near or below speed limit.

" I know how to use a TRS80 and took a lot of classes learning how to program in Applesoft Basic, but I don’t include the skills on my resume since I know that they are about as worthless as the ability to use or program Lotus products…"

I would include that somewhere at the begining in your resume ... summary section.

Such as ... "Since my first Apple 2e programming in HS (197x) I have been...."

I would have guessed that. You seem like a mellow dude who would rather not spread himself out on the street.

SP

There are others, and many I'm not sure about or wouldn't know about.

You can find lifer techs in all of the telcos and in many vendors in the telecom universe. There are usually a good number in banking in the big banks' IT centers. A lot of those are in SF, Chicago and NYC. Also in defense and security related companies.

The problem with the tech companies is often they're too dynamic, and end up spinning out old techs, and the workers along with them. Even so, there are a lot of older guys at places like Sun and Oracle, and increasingly Microsoft. But many of these guys grew up with those companies so it's not certain how that will all work out. Same thing in computer games; there are tons of 30 something and early 40 something game programmers, but we'll see how many are left after the next business cycle in games since most of these guys got into it after the last major cycle.

As a digression, a have a theory that India will not fare well when their gargantuan crop of techs ages. Their system will need to go through some traumatic liberalisation to rival the US' dynamic "flexible labor market". I rather think as all those workers age they'll demand enormous support and protections.

"5. Y!"

So your statement would be true for any company whose name starts with a Y...

For those of you who were as clueless as I was about the whole '11-99" thing:

11-99 Foundation License Plate Frame - Culture of Corruption?

Or the 'I support law enforcement' decals. That's the trailer park version of that 11-99 thing I guess.

A lot of those types of charities are scams BTW.

I believe the ticket was voided because I haven’t heard from the court since.

Go clear it up. You do not find out later that you have an outstanding warrant.

And welcome back, SQT!

Another reason I'm against donating to any kind of public servant related charity is the chance for corruption and abuse of power, real or imagined. If we want to compensate these people for their great job, we should do it via good pay and benefits, not through quasi-bribes.

Another reason I’m against donating to any kind of public servant related charity is the chance for corruption and abuse of power, real or imagined.

Ideally, one should have his/her own foundation. This is why it is important to make money first. Foundation administration is not cheap and it takes a larger amount for it to be worthwhile.

If we want to compensate these people for their great job, we should do it via good pay and benefits, not through quasi-bribes.

Agreed. The idea of paying $1800 to get a 11-99 wallet "badge" and license plate frame basically screams "bribe to avoid tickets for life". If it's really all about the charity, then why all the conveniently conspicuous "road bling" that just happens to be strategically placed right where you, uh.. need it. Wouldn't a "thank you" plaque, subscription to CHP Weekly and donation slip for the IRS do just fine?

DinOr says:

(Wife slides further into seat).

Gee, that sounds like prelude to oral ........

For those of you who were as clueless as I was about the whole ‘11-99″ thing:

I actually wrote an email to the Mercury News, Mr. Roadshow called the 11-99 foundation and they vehemently denied that they let speeders go because of that, it seems simple to me, just don't issue license plate and license holders if that's true.

Wouldn't it take a avoiding quite a few tickets to pay for the $1800? It doesn't seem like a very good value proposition it that's the main motive.

In my opinion, personal action beats collectivism. If I help Habitat for Humanity, my resources go directly to the person in need, and are not skimmed off by layers of bureacracy. If want to help with “global warming” (pollution and wasting natural resources is a bad idea, global warming hoax aside) I can best do so by driving a fuel efficient car and bicycling or walking when I can. I can help the poor best by being productive and thrifty enough to not be one of them. I can stay in shape to reduce the load on the health care system.

Well said.
FYI: for those interested in seeing how much of a given charity's collected donations goes to bureacracy, fundraising & overhead, you can look them up here: http://www.charitynavigator.org/

You have to admit GC, some of those performances are so bad you would write a check to not see them.

@Malcolm,

For some people, $1800 represents a month's worth of speeding tickets.

Wouldn’t it take a avoiding quite a few tickets to pay for the $1800? It doesn’t seem like a very good value proposition it that’s the main motive.

I don't think money is the motive, the ones that I know have the license plate frames are the uber rich stock option (include the billionaire CEO). It must have something to do with getting their license suspended if they get too many speeding tickets.

For some people, $1800 represents a month’s worth of speeding tickets.

They should have their licenses revoked.

Man, those people should not be on the road. I happened to get two in one year and I received a very nicely worded letter from DMV describing some negligent/wreckless operator concept that applies if you get 4 in one year.

And please don’t forget to rank goods from MSFT among the quality ones.

I am so happy with Word 2007. It even has a real-time word count! That feature alone already worths the upgrade.

I would rather work the system for a disabled parking permit. I know a girl from Russia who pulled that one off. Interesting lady, her dad was in the KGB so I guess she was used to privilege.