An unemployed Linux sysadmin answers your questions about being unemployed
 

Go ahead, ask away.

Pooka was just asking the other day if you ever got a job, or what?

You don't have to answer the or what part if you answer the other part.

Unless you want to. And I guess you already did, in the thread title.

Or the other part, or whatever. Anyways, nevermind. Thanks!

What's your level of commitment here?:

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/0...unemployed.gif

Dear Unemployed Linux Sysadmin:

Have you seen my other blue sock?

I never did get hired, but I have a lead on some long-term IT consulting that could earn me about 3/5ths of what I was getting. It's part-time stuff so I can continue to look for other things.

Other blue sock: just under the bed.

My level of commitment: 3, although I was at that level while employed.

Oh, but I have a serious question!

Does Linux have an internet, or an email thing? Can you do AOL to check your MySpace?

Oh, and can I download YouTubes? Because that's a deal-breaker and I heard Macs can't 3G the right end-peg drivers.

Also, is there a good book I can read to become an expert on Lexus, because I heard they got mega jobs if you can program web pages.

The answer, simply put, is yes. Linux can do all that for you. But you'll need to hire a helpful IT guy on a retainer basis.

Dear Unemployed Linux Sysadmin:

I lost my retainer. Have you seen it?

is it possible to get tired of Ramen noodles?

cd /lostandfound

Retainer: just under the bed.

My body rejects ramen noodles, but I have been known to eat an entire package of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat!

How does your garden grow?

just watch out for the weenies and beans--they'll get ya everytime!

any experience setting up a caldav server to run on a linux box? I've tried, and managed to screw it up pretty badly. I want to move from simple iCal publishing on a webdav folder to a true caldav setup for our home calendar, so that my wife and I can use it to sync everything, iphones, laptops, everything.

garden is a whole nother thread!

I've only done the simple iCal publishing. But being unemployed, I find it easiest to sync my calendars by not having any actual appointments.

Oh, my freind showed me once how this is because you don't have your Yahoo on that screen! You have to network your screens.

I don't leave my yahoo screen open, because of viruses. if it's open in a window in the background, you can't keep an eye on it, and don't know if it's downloading itself as a virus on your memory drive.

Then the only other thing it could be is the wrong IT address.

is that the aol keyword IT address? on my internet?

But it's the MAC address if you're not using win zip. The zip code isn't the same on those. You have a Linux Apple, right?

no, neXT.

Then use the scuzzy cable.

dude, I still have a huge collection of SCSI drives and cables. There are STILL keyboard companies that use SCSI interfaces to attach sample drives.

Ridiculous.

My last site had DLT tape drives attached via SCSI. Joy, those. Wouldn't say I had a huge collection... Haggis!

The niche technology industries apparently have warehouses full of archaic equipment they have yet to unload.

and you can't just dump them in a landfill, because they're all toxic.

Ooh, I have a question. Is it lye-nux or lin-nux? Long I or short I? I've never actually heard the word spoken.

I could have used you to translate the Armenian usenet thread I had to read to fix my freetds->unixodbc->mssql issues earlier.

Around these parts it's lin-nux.

Oh bugger - I got that wrong then.
Oh, and, have you got any use for an unemployed Russian translator?

I've always heard it in my head as linux, sounds like Linus. I thought Linus would be a good picture for it, if I had any clue what a linux was, or is, or whatever. And how come nobody ever names their kid Linus? Answer that, ULS.

Dear Unemployed Linux Sysadmin:

What do you do with all your free time?

I divide up my time as: 1/4 reading the entire internets, 1/4 Cellar-fying, 1/4 learning new things that may help me get a job, and 1/4 feeling sorry for myself.

Dear UnEmSysAd,
I know it is the leading fad but is this unemployment thing really so cool that everyone should be doing it? I mean at some point someone has to work, no? Or was that a meme started by the man to keep us from taking our cubicles down?

You can have my cubicle when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

And thanks for the time Cellar-fying, UT. :)

An unemployed Linux sysadmin named Toad
Answers your questions about being unempload
As if you need telling
A subterranian dwelling
Is his quarter-time virtual abode.

(My question: What's the deal with the pinchy economy? Where's the jobs at Mang?)

I would rather work than not work. There are definitely more cool things about working than about not working. The money is the coolest part. I mean, it seems like I have free time and could just about do anything, road trip to Vegas etc. but since there is no money, I can't do that anyway.

Work gives us a scaffold to organize our lives around as well. Good luck bro, it is rough out there.

The other thing is that unemployment definitely gives you an incentive not to work, and that is this:

they give you half your previous salary

and therefore you will not take a job that pays 3/5ths of your previous salary. Let's see, $100 more a week to do shit-level customer support work... no I will stay out, and use my time to look for something better.

And there is some incentive not to take things that pay 4/5ths, although I would certainly take that... because if you become unemployed at a new lower salary, you will only get half of the new level salary, yuh see.

This applies both to me, well-paid IP expert, and to the boy, 22-year-old unskilled laborer. In the good economy he could do construction for $14/hour. But now he could only get, say, landscaping work at $8/hour. That's not a good deal because he would be laid off at the end of the landscaping season, and then his unemployment would be truly pathetic, instead of the tiny amount he gets now.

Dear Unemployed Linux Sysadmin:

How do you plan to control your CO2 emissions under the new Cap and Trade policy? Any plans to sell them on Ebay or the Cellar?

Dear Unemployed Linux Sysadmin:

What do unemployed people eat for dinner on a regular basis? Have you considered growing your own or raising chickens to supplement your diet?

Being unemployed has lowered my carbon footprint as I drive far less and consume less. I'm going to save them, and use them up with a big celebratory barn burning.

Ownership of farm animals is prohibited in my township's residential zoning, but there will be a bumper crop of tomatoes, squash, and sunflower seeds this year.

Shawnee, actually I do know someone who named her son Linus. She is an e-mail friend of mine, actually one of few I've actually met in person, and she lives in Cologne, Germany. Her son's name is pronounced "lee-noose."

But yeah, I'd also imagined Linux like Linus from the Peanuts.

Going with what UT said -- I'd rather work than not work too. I do a lot of trash-talking about how awesome it is to freelance, but if my devotion to motherhood did not prevent me from getting a regular full-time job, I'd jump on it in an instant. If anyone would have me.

Oh, they would have you alright...

I can't DOS this statement. It's kernel is missing an unknown parameter or something. I'm going to begin a physical memory dump now.

LJ, that makes no sense.

A physical memory dump only fixes a kernel parameter if the standard output is bounded.

Did you check the recycle bin?

my question is this:

Does it keep you up at night, or roll you out of bed at the crack of dawn? Are you constantly thinking about it? Or have you become accustomed to it? Is it a source of stress?

Are you doing everything you can possibly do to correct the situation?

I used to get up at the crack of Dawn.

she left you?

Get up, go down. Whatever it takes, man.

There are two kids called Linus in my kids school of 480 kids. That's nearly half a percent. That's like having three Shawnee123s in the cellar. Or something.

I'm still chuckling at your thread title but I know you're bummed out.

Sorry that things aren't working out for you at the moment.

I'm highly offended that people are more interested in your misery than in my thread.

Also, we're all pulling for you, UT.

Really? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone named Linus except for Linus Van Pelt. I like it.

Three Shawnee123s is two (or three) too many.

Seriously? No upper limit? In my state it's also technically a percentage of what you made--maybe it's half, but I don't actually have any idea because it also caps out at about $7 an hour, no more.

Also, about the Linux pronunciation thing, I've heard that it was originally supposed to be LEYE-nux, because the guy who created it was indeed named Linus. But the reality is everyone (everyone I and my sysadmin husband know, anyway) says LIN-ux now, and they would laugh at anyone who said differently.

I stopped by the Jug Handle Inn tonight and watched an Unemployed Linux Sysadmin rock out with his......bass out.

When I arrived they were in mid 'Enter Sandman' and faded into War Pigs.....then.....SOBER by tool...and Tony was beating his bass like a red headed stepchild. buh duh, buh dump......buh duh....buh duh, bah dump. They closed with Comfortably Numb. Had been playing since 3:30, and the crowd was still paying attention....so....i give them props.

then they tried to stop, but crowd demanded an encore!

Rock n Roll by Led Zep.

the new singer is a big huge 300 lb-der.....and he hasn't got all the words memorized just yet....but he has range and power...and he's not scared.

they play there again on mischief night. locals should attend.

It is painful to be in this situation but somewhere amongst my many failures I learned how not to dwell on things. Especially during the divorce, because if you dwell upon how shitty your situation has become, it is quickly overwhelming. I found that, sometimes, you just have to set it aside in your mind, agree with yourself not to think about it for a while.

That's especially true of blame. I blame myself nine different ways for losing my previous job, but at the same time there was little I could have done with the politics, and certainly nothing about the economy. So I just set that blame aside. There's ways to blame myself for not finding anything by now, too, but again, there's only so much you can do, so I set that aside.

The stress comes from other places. There is a certain level of uncertainty, which is what happens if I don't get something before I run out of unemployment, which is to happen in about 5 months. There's a level of stress added without having regular money around.

Yeah! I saw LJ, went over to talk with him, because our set was done... and people just kept on saying ONE MORE SONG JUST ONE MORE, and they hadda call me back. I felt good about LJ being there because the last time he saw the band, we kind of sucked... kind of, we were rather new as an act. Our shit has come together a great deal since then.

Lucky too that LJ arrives in time to see my one show-off song... I really get to ham it up and play full throttle on Sober. Yeah, I slap that thing around and treat it with no respect. I've that bass six years and it's only just now broken in.

Cool UT.

I'd love to come up and see you guys play one of these days.

As far as unemployment goes, I got tossed out on my ass this spring after ten years. No hard feelings - they just ran out of work and I cost too much to make copies.

My advice -enjoy your time off. A lot can happen in five months. This could be a great summer if you let it. And you don't need money to have fun. Make music - work the garden, spend time with your lovely wife.

When you do rejoin the ranks of the working stiffs, you'll miss the time you had. I know I do. Don't be in such a hurry to get back to work. 5 months is long time. Make a deal that you won't worry about it for two more months.