Monday 31st August 2009: 10.25pm. Well the summer is almost over - Dad comes back from his holidays on Thursday which is the usual signifier of being back to work, and the weather is definitely becoming much cooler - I had to turn on the heating a few days ago because it was getting too nippy even under a blanket.
This month, much like last month and the month before it, has once again very little evidence to show for its passing. I have my ZEO cluster running as you can see if you like on deepereconomics.org or lowenddedi.net though in fact at the present time it actually consists of just one lonely and very puny Celeron D processor until the tax office return from their holidays and give me my VAT number. I have finally got the latter site up and running despite having languished for such a long time - I bought the domain itself maybe two months ago, but it needed some custom Zope datatype programming and teaching myself how to do that swallowed a week just on its own. Meanwhile, very, very, very slowly, deepereconomics.org is finally at a point where I can start adding some content as I have nailed one pernicious bug after another.
Once again I wonder where the hell all the time went - how can one invest ten to twelve hours a day every day and get almost nowhere after two months? I was even getting up early as Megan got herself a summer job teaching English to foreign kids so I was dropping her in early and collecting her fairly late. I haven't had the time to release TnFOX as I usually do each summer, and the Radio over IP work I did in July was done before even the last entry. Furthermore I didn't need to drive Megan to and from Mallow daily anymore as she failed her test so that yielded even more free time. I am also very sure that I have been pushing myself hard because my mouth ulcer opened itself up again, and that only happens when I'm getting very run down - moreover, I do feel knackered and I do know I keep forcing myself to work just that extra hour or two per day. I almost wonder if I should start keeping a time and motion study!
At this present time it seems unlikely that Megan has obtained a teaching job, and the TEFL one has ended so she has a lot of free time on her hands. She has a her visa application to make, and I suppose she needs to start thinking of non-teaching jobs and activities which make her the network of contacts requisite for getting a teaching job such as voluntary work and interacting with the teaching unions. She also needs a slew of further qualifications unfortunately, but it's a dog-eat-dog world out there and even a Masters is fairly worthless nowadays. You just gotta have that PhD.
Speaking of which, I will almost certainly write that crib book for Economics students first and after begin writing my PhD with an intent to submit it for PhD by Publication which a few of the UK universities nowadays offer. I am hoping to have it done by Summer 2010 though if I keep up this low level of accomplishment then it'll probably be Summer 2011 at this rate. Once I have the PhD, many opportunities open themselves not least the possibility of a US work visa.
So that's the plan. If we're ever going to make any sort of progress in life like getting married or having children then we gotta get some money from somewhere. Money sucks and the system stinks, but time is running out before oil and food starts to seriously rise in price - hence all those governments buying up agricultural land recently. And then the shit will really hit the fan. Be happy!
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