Email: Fish or cut bait [AS]

I go back to Word 1.0d and PageMaker 1.2. And to platforms before the Mac and PC. I've used or reviewed (and in many cases, taught) nearly every program on the market. I thought it was odd how the PC people kept pooh-poohing the Mac's mice and windows for years, until Windows 3.0 came out; then suddenly they couldn't stop singing their praises. Partisans all...

I've been in situations like yours where the reasons to stay vs. leave are fairly muddy (and only become clearer after taking a step backwards and choosing what's best for oneself as opposed to the position). I advise you to be practical and remember that doing the right thing by yourself is more important than an unrequited loyalty to your employer. (One former employer claimed it was dedicated to its employees, but it was like pulling teeth to get $150 to take a business skills seminar; I later learned that IT employers typically budget $4,000 a year for their employees' career development.) Be sure you're in the place where you can do the most good, and which can do the most good for you. Avoid tunnel vision and keep your eyes open to the full range of remuneration that's out there.

Nostalgia: Never enough nog

Mm, they had egg nog left at the grocery store, so I'm having some with brandy in my Taz mug.

Email: Internet anonymity [AS]

I'd like it if everyone had their name on everything on the Internet; then no one could be skulking stalkers. But because anonymity exists, reciprocity is important in many contexts on the Internet.

I'm an idealist and an optimist, so I pretty much expect everything will work out fine [when Internet dating]. Not everything does, of course, but you are right to do whatever it takes to preserve your personal boundaries from those who would violate their propriety.

Email: Job scenarios [AS]

Some jobs are just more trouble than they're worth; the conditions are actually created to be so limiting, they're self-defeating. Only you can decide this; but I think it would help to picture a range of scenarios between very low-paying to very well-paying positions and then discern where you are in that spectrum.

Poetry: "On My Own" (Philip Levine)

[...] to you I'd have been
just an ordinary kid. Sure, now you
know, now it's obvious, what with the light
of the Lord streaming through the nine
windows of my soul and the music of rain
following in my wake and the ordinary air
on fire every blessed day I waken the world.

-- Philip Levine, “On My Own.” © Alfred A. Knopf.

Technology: Virtual keyboards

Urban Legends Reference Pages: "At the 2003 ITU Telecom World exhibition held in Geneva, the Tokyo-based NEC corporation displayed a conceptual $30,000 prototype of what they dubbed a 'Pen-style Personal Networking Gadget Package,' or P-ISM."

(Fascinating to see for “real” since I envisioned and wrote about this in 1996.)

Weblogs: Got sun?

Words: anisotropy, anisotropic [MW]

(From the Greek aniso- "unequal" and tropos, tropikos "place," this is a technical term in geological and oceanic modeling, but I would define it as "anise place" or Anisette Heaven, filled with Italian pizzelles -- a snowflake-shaped, melt-in-your-mouth, anisette-flavored holiday confection that seems theologically incapable of containing calories.)

Main Entry: an·iso·trop·ic
Pronunciation: "a-"nI-s&-'trä-pik
Function: adjective
: exhibiting properties with different values when measured in different directions

Words: apace [MW]

Main Entry: apace
Pronunciation: &-'pAs
Function: adverb
Etymology: Middle English, probably from Middle French à pas on step
1 : at a quick pace : SWIFTLY
2 : ABREAST -- used with of or with

Email: Go Longhorns! [AS]

Adult Swim even ran a UT hook-em "bump" last night.

Email: The Humberto Eco cachet [DB]

You should enjoy Humberto Eco then too. At least you look smart when you carry his books around! :-)