I lost my job -- pop the champagne!

Sorry to intrude.

Thomas, I got your message. Please call me. Gee, I wish we had PMs.

Thomas, I totally missed this last month. Congratulations! I've been trying to get laid off for the last 6 months. Instead they lay others off and I have to pick up their work and take a pay cut. By the time they get around to laying me off there won't be any money left for severance.

Anyway, I think you might be interested in something called genetic programming. It's something I've been trying to find time to go into, and would if I were to get laid off.

How's your freedom feeling now, one month later?

Hi FreeDuck, and welcome to the party!

My freedom is continuing to feel wonderful -- thanks for asking. I have lost more than 10 pounds over that month. My blood sugar has become stable and almost back to normal, even without medication. I can finally practice piano enough to see some results in my playing. I drive up and down the East Coast, and hang out with A2K friends along the way. I participate in one run after another at the New York Road Runners Club, and with luck will finish qualifying in May for the 2010 New York Marathon. It's bliss.

There is only relict that keeps reminding me of my stressed out, menial past. Occasionally, way out of left field, I freak out over the thought that something I recently did in perfectly good faith was in fact badly, catastrophically wrong. But these freaking attacks (there needs to be a word like this) are getting scarcer and milder. I'll soon be over them.

Speaking of of driving up and down the East Cost: Sometime in the first half of April, I'll probably be in Atlanta to meet some people from one of my former employer's customers. The purpose of the meeting is what they call "an informal conversation". (Given the current economy, they're careful not to call it a job interview.) I'd love to have another coffee with you, your husband, your kids, or any combination thereof. (I still can't get over Ducklet not being blond anymore.) Would you be available?

Thomas

I've been following your thread with interest (and the vegetarian one).

I'd just decided to quit my job, as I couldn't cope with the unfairness in my work situation, when the idiot workmate, who was causing me all the grief, announced her resignation.

Apparently the stress we've put on her - expecting her to work - for the last month, has made her sick. I wanted to pop the champagne, too.

That's funny.

You have no idea how relieved I am! Until they replace her, I'll have the additional work load, but....significantly less aggravation.

HALLELULJAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's wonderful, margo!

That would be great, Thomas! I'll be out of town the week of April 6th for spring break, but will be around any time before or after that. In fact, I have a very convenient furlough day (goes great with my 4% pay cut) on the following Monday, the 13th. A trip to the aquarium might be fun if you're around.

That's cool Margo! Too bad you won't get to quit your job now, but getting rid of your idiot workmate is a very decent second-best.

I'll see what I can do.

Meanwhile, about this genetic computing business: I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it reminds me of stuff we did in college 15 years ago. From the Wikipedia entry, my impression it's about evolving parse trees of computer programs. Back in the nineties I minored in computer science working for a professor who evolved Lisp programs. (That's pretty much the same. As you probably know, Lisp is really just a straightforward, flat text representation of parse trees.)

At the time, the idea seemed extremely sexy to me, and delivered some neat results under laboratory conditions. But it but was too cumbersome for solving real problems -- the ones you would actually run across in practice.

Have they picked up in real-world usefulness yet?

That's basically it except that you can do it in any language, I believe. The only real world problem I think people currently get paid to solve is the problem of how to copy someone's idea without infringing on their patents.

I have a friend who is experimenting with it but needs a problem to solve. It's more of a hobby/interest to me, but one I very much wish I could explore. If only I didn't have this pesky job! Unfortunately it comes with a pesky needed pay check.

Why am I getting the feeling that that's part of your pesky job?

Nah, mine is much much much less interesting. But it's a short commute, which is why I'm still there.

Well I'm sure glad the job isn't interesting enough to keep you away from A2K. It's always a pleasure to run into you.

Likewise. And I'm jealous of you for getting laid off.

Hey, if you want me to tip off your supervisor -- anytime!

Margo -- just out of curiosity, may I ask what your line of work is? I had put you down as a teacher; but it just occurred to me that I have the same problem as ossobuco: My brain has you and Ms Olga registered as the same person, and it's Ms Olga who is a teacher. So if you're not a teacher, what are you?

I can differentiate Msolga and Margo, descriptively and re interests, but I trip up on their a2k names. V. embarrassing.