Life is life. (La-la-la-la-la!) Sorry to have been scarce of late. Lots going on in Chez Kitty, and in the kitty-kranium.

Okay, biggest news - changing jobs. Same ultra-large company, different department. If anything, this job is going to have even worse work-life balance. It's so bad, this department has policies in place to address the issues. It's got to be bad when management stops pretending it doesn't exist and actually mentions their mitigations in interviews.

Still, it can't be any worse. I'm not a programmer, not the way my current job expects. I am a programmer, yes. I like to automate my way to solutions. However, the level at which I want to program and the tools I want to use are not the same as the demands of my current job.

The new job is operations. It's a throwback to my first job in the professional workforce - a systems administrator, almost. Instead of keeping the operating system and hardware running, I am at the next level up - keeping the service software going, and looking into issues when they arise.

Issues arise. I think that's a given in any software-as-a-service. I can't say from experience, but given what I've seen in most of Corporate America, margins are sufficiently short that the standard operating procedure may well be to expect humans to pick up the slack, and rely on those humans to request more resources.

Anyhow, that's work. I'm moving my office three floors down. No big deal. I still have a window office, which isn't really what I want - I would like more wall space to hang posters and whiteboards, as well as less glare.

The team I'm moving into is the same I currently release software to, so they are my customers. I love them, and I fight passionately for them in my current spot. I expect we'll all get along fabulously. Here's hoping, anyhow.

--

Turns out I have another sister, a full-blooded one. She may be alive, or not. Family legend is rather sketchy on this. My mother didn't tell me much until her deathbed, when she was sometimes not completely grounded in reality.

At any rate, she may have been adopted out, or may not have survived infancy. Either way, because of my congenital heart condition, I'll be searching her to warn her to get her heart tested. Of course, if she didn't survive infancy, then that's rather moot.

--

Off to the Bay Area to visit friends and family. My half-sister is there, and I'm looking forward to spending time with her. She's a blast. I am sad I didn't have her in my life while growing up, but also glad that she's here now.

She and her family work very hard. She does two jobs, and her husband does two more. My half-brother-in-law wakes up at three or four in the morning to deliver produce, then comes back, takes a nap and works another four or five hours in the evening collecting realtors' signs. Not an easy life.

My brother-in-law is a good man. He's in a tough job, in a tough field, in a tough area. He's a high school principal in a thuggish high school. The community is, like many others in California, taking a downturn. California has not funded its education system for years, so the schools are already falling apart, and that's when property values were high and homes filled.

One of my two best friends from high school just underwent a religious epiphany, one similar to one I had shortly after high school. We'll see how things shape up for him - more details to follow.

I know times are sketchy, good wishes scarce. Still, if you've any to spare, above are some good people who can use them well.

Of course, this world right now is full of good people in need of good wishes. Let's hope it turns around and soon.