Crazy Uncle Ryan's favorite quotes


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."— Arthur C. Clarke

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Pumpkins are Here!

So, here we have it. Ryan's record breaking 2011 Pumpkin Patch. In spite of the fact that this year there were only ten pumpkins I broke my own personal weight record, grew my first white pumpkins and produced my first truly successful Big Max Pumpkins. So without further ado, here they are: From Left to Right - On the Stove: Super-Sonic Sucker Punch (12.0 lbs), Megatron [This Year's "Big Mutha" and new personal best] (36.4 lbs.), My DHARMA Lady (10.6 lbs.) - On Chair: Starscream (26.8 lbs.) - On Shelf {Top Shelf}: Fighting Whitey (4.0 lbs.), Cookies (11.0 lbs), They Might Be Pumpkins! (5.4 lbs.) - On Shelf {2nd from Top Shelf}: Wannabe Softball (2.4 lbs.) - On Shelf {3rd from Top Shelf}: You Will Be Assimilated (5.2 lbs.) - On Shelf {2nd from Bottom Shelf}: Goobermeister Meistergoober (9.0 lbs.)

Monday, October 3, 2011

And We're Back

I suppose that most, if not all of you out there are aware of the fact that I am once again unemployed. A little after 4pm on September 20, 2011 my manager came into my office and let me know that they were going to have to lay me off. I was in a state of shock for a few seconds in which time though I didn't really think it was joke I did kind of hope it was. My manager was very upset about it as well and the next day she actually called me up with a job lead. Lisa, if you are reading this; thank-you.

So, for the past 2 weeks I have been working on trying to find employment. I don't really want to spend to much time on this but I do want to say that even though I didn't expect to be in this situation again so soon I am much more optimistic than I was back in 2008 when I got laid off before. I know a lot more about how to effectively job search so I won't waste nearly as much time as I did before.

So, in order to help myself not to get too stressed out I have prepared a list entitled: The Top 5 Ways that this Unemployment is different than the Last One:

5. Last time I was out of work I referred to that period as "The Dark Time," borrowing a phrase from Star Wars. This period of unemployment shall be known as "The Second Darkness." A phrase borrowed from The Lord of The Rings.

4. While I search for jobs I get to listen to the same annoying, noise-making toys as I did last time. This time however, they are being played with by a different kid.

3. Alisa is not working this time. This is a down side in that we don't have her income but it is a plus since this means I can devote more time to job searching and networking and less time chasing babies.

2. I have two more years experience in shipping now than I did then.

1. There is no way in $&#@ that I will allow this unemployment to last 14 and a half months!