Carl Setzer

My e-chum, Veronica , recently returned from a trip to the Phllippines . This picture is part of her trip, and just made me howl.

clipped from www.who.int Swine influenza, or “swine flu”, is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several swine influenza A viruses. Morbidity tends to be high and mortality low (1-4%). The virus is spread among pigs by aerosols, direct and indirect contact, and asymptomatic carrier pigs. Outbreaks in pigs occur year round, with an increased incidence in the fall and winter in temperate zones. Many countries routinely vaccinate swine populations against swine influenza. How can I protect myself from getting swine influenza from infected people? To protect yourself, practice general preventive measures for influenza: Avoid close contact with people who appear unwell and who have fever and cough. Wash your hands with soap and water frequently and thoroughly. Practice good health habits including adequate sleep, eating nutritious food, and keeping physically active. What is swine influenza?  

Another piece of the Free Roxana campaign . A nice piece of work by James Buck .

After I left my magnanimous former employer, I was out access to Photoshop. Now, I suppose I could manage with the Vista built-in tool, or Picasa. But I'm not one to do things the easy way. I chose to mess with Gimp , the illustrious open source image editing tool. More specifically, especially since I have a PhotoShop background, I went with Gimpshop , which gives me a Photoshop-esque experience. Better, I suppose, than downloading CS3 from bit torrent or something. Though I'm not a power user, I find the thing quite nice. Some day, I hope that I'll be able to turn the most grotesque face into a supermodel. We all have our dreams, eh?

I had a lovely interview this afternoon and feel good about how it went. However, this is balanced with the knowledge that many others have also been interviewed. Though it is for a position that I would be excited to get, I'm not all angsty. I'm just not too worried about the whole unemployed thing right now. However, that's due to luck, and some skill (I guess). Savings will hold out for a bit yet, and my wife works...and it's quite unlikely she'll loose her job (she teaches junior high special ed...I shudder at the thought). Our worst case scenario is a radical lifestyle shift. Perhaps losing one of the cars (and it's payment), and dropping such things as cable (the horror!). And I'm not so hell-bent on working. Work, for me, is more about contributing and making an impact. That, truly, is a luxury. Reminds me of my grandfather. He was "retired" (acted upon him, not of his choice) when I was about 12. His life was wrapped up in his job. He was i...

Ah, this fits me sometimes. from xkcd

Update: This clip was pulled due to terms of use violation. Thus, I've pulled the link