It's been a frustrating week. More to come? Maybe...maybe not

Can't help comparing this adventure to figmo's, except she got a much shorter end of a much more crap-coated stick.

When I gave my notice a week ago, I had been promised by my recruiter at Volt that all my paperwork was done, and I could start at the QA department of MSTV on Moday at 9:30.

He had not checked.

Long story short, today was my official start date, and I still am not in the system to get an ID badge. But I do have an email address and login.
( Long story, long, behind the cut )

It's only red tape. Everyone wants me to be there, everyone has been very supportive through this ordeal.

To add insult to injury, this morning while I was home I decided to pass the time by downgrading the iPAQ from 5.0 to 2003 so I could run a restore from the backup and use the folder transfer method to back up all the ebooks and stuff Steve had left on there. I was connected via a USB hub, and the install died halfway. Nothing me or tech support could do was able to bring it back. The PC sees the hardware connection, so does the PDA, but not the install app. And it won't turn on except to give a very faint logo and firmware version. So I'll have to send it in and pay $49 to get them to flash the ROM for me. They said UPS will bring a mailer Monday, but with my England trip August 3, I doubt it will be repaired in time. Oh well, was planning on taking my laptop anyway.

It is way too hot. At 8:30 pm the thermometer on the patio said 81F. I wish there was a mall in bicycling distance. Maybe I'll bike to the movies, though there really isn't anything playing I haven't seen and want to see. Nacho Libre looks godawful stupid from the trailers, Click stars one of my three least favorite non-actors of all time, and I just can't see the kind of humor Little Man promises.Saturday night I will go to Santa Clara Players and see the reader's theater production, a couple of friends are involved.   I really ought to go to Pear Ave Theater and volunteer my services, they are 2 blocks from MS, and now that I'm off the phones/pager I can do theater again.

Conflicts in Israel

Seeing the news coming from Israel is only part of the story for me because I have a ton of relatives there. My big sister and her hubby moved there in the 70's, and have been attempting to re-populate the country since then. Their five children have so far produced 10 babies, two of them in the past week, one more on the way. And youngest nephew is still single, though he just finished his Army duty 2 weeks ago and is looking.

Which raises a point about how Israel views the current unpleasantness. Rafi was in the tank brigade, and like all Israeli boys he was drafted and served his mandatory time, and his unit's required time was up just about the time the kidnappings occurred. His unit was released on time, and he is not even in active reserve status. Which tells me Israel is definitely not looking at this as a precursor to a regional war. They believe their usual standing military force can handle the job. Which makes me less nervous, just a tad.

One of my nieces is married to a grand-nephew of Elie Weisel, the famed Nazi hunter. His family lives in Haifa. Their firstborn son arrived a couple of days ago, and his family traveled to visit him. Had there not been a Blessed Event, they would have toughed it out in Haifa, despite the missiles falling.

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I am angry at Israel's horrible over-reaction to what should have been an isolated incident, but I don't think we're looking at a regional all-out war. Syria would have stepped in by now. Iran has never been an on-the-ground enemy of Israel - they have stuck to financial and rhetorical war since the beginning. I don't see them changing their tune now. Iraq is out of the picture. Egypt is too - they are almost as much a victim of the terrorists now as Israel. Jordan's new King is too pro-West to rattle any sabers. Besides, he doesn't need the kind of refugee problem it would bring. Saudi Arabia just sits there on their crude and shrugs it all off when not holding hands with W.