Bullet points

A couple oddities:

• My mother has a sheet music book named 100 Giant Christmas Songs.  As a linguist, I boggle: what is giant modifying here?  Neither Christmas nor the songs are being called giant; the book is.  (Challenge for conlangers: figure out a rule that allows such NPs.)
• Sometimes it takes a kid to point out the oddity of some everyday thing.  Our Brazilian niece, seeing a common logo, asked “Why does the sign have a big 7 but it’s labelled ‘eleven’?”

As a personal note, several people have asked if I found a job, since I removed the sticky.  No, I was just tired of seeing the sticky and figured that anyone in a position to help had already seen it.  I’m still looking.  But I’m also using the time to write a book.

 

Ups and downs of unemployment

Most annoying thing: I finally have the time to travel, but– no income to do it with.  Oh well.  I think I’ll write a book instead.

Best thing: my bug list, that stack of notes on things to do, my MBOs, all the support stuff from the last few years of coding– all gone, somebody else’s problem now.

 

Need a programmer?

(I’m going to keep this post as a sticky for awhile.  New posts appear just below.)

Sometimes the news just comes alive, you know?  In this case: the economic downturn caused sales at my company to tank, and 30% of the employees were laid off, including me.

I actually got that job after posting a blurb on my rant page, so it’s worth a try: anyone need an experienced C#/C++ programmer, with excellent architectural skills, a passion for good UI, and the ability to write readable documentation?  Contact me: markrose at zompist.com.

 

Touting my brother

My older brother Terry has a website now, showing off his beautiful and painstaking paintings. They’re mostly water scenes, from North Carolina or Maine. Check it out and buy three or four.

Don’t miss the slideshows, which include pictures from his years in the Peace Corps serving in Ethiopia. Under “Coastal Scenes’ you can even find a picture of a rather younger Zompist.