Back on May 2, 2016 I mentioned that I had three interviews with large technical recruitment firm, a large on-line retailer, and a medium-sized software company. None of these panned out, except to start my new collection of what we used to call "FOAD letters" back when they came in the postal mail. "FOAD email" doesn't have the same ring to it. Of course, the communication is excruciatingly polite, in the manner of all Human Resources template comms in the 21st century. The interviewers enjoyed getting to know me and they appreciate my interest. I was a very strong candidate but after careful consideration, they will not be moving forward with an offer. Now, reassuringly, they will keep my resume on file so that I may be considered for other opportunities in the future. Heh—nothing like some pipe linking* to work off the residual bitterness.

In health news the deep venous thrombosis in my thigh seems to have released, diminishing the pain in my leg but not the swelling. In fact my ankle and foot have gotten worse, yielding a new diagnosis of Postthrombotic Syndrome (PTS)**. I can walk fine now, but my left shoe doesn't fit. I'll write something about PTS once I learn a bit more. My new fashion accessory will be a compression sock for the foreseeable future. Yay. But at least it's not something truly awful, and testing to date suggests that this adventure is not being brought to me by the letter C, so I'm grateful for that. It's easier to deal with an annoyance when you consider how much worse it could be. Of course I'm grateful that I'm not going through anything as traumatic as The Custodian's adventure in Bariatric Surgery 2016 either, and I wish him strength in that battle.

So my "extended vacation" continues, though I had two decent HR-led phone screens on Tuesday, and I am cautiously optimistic that one or both will yield an on-site interview. In the meantime I'm wrapping up an on-line course in project management and eyeballing the Scala books I picked up at the library as my next project. Meanwhile, the SciFiQuest 3016 story that Leeves, the Yard Valet was the prep-work for stubbornly refuses to jell. Not so much writer's block as my inability to make it flow. This, in turn, blocks me from coming up with anything for Miniquest #2, and then I go off and read io9 and nothing at all gets accomplished. Feh.

mauler's The State of the Race poll doesn't allow me to choose "I live outside the United States and am deeply terrified of most possible outcomes," so I chose other, which became funnier when the CBS Sports poll that omitted the Toronto Raptors led to the day-long paroxysm of #WeTheOther outrage in Toronto. TheAnglican's ongoing updates about the 2016 United States Election are a great read for me, offering a perspective I don't see from my available Canadian media sources. Ah, but how I wish we could have dannye's unique perspective on those same doings.

Up in the north, our "sunny ways" Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in hot water for manhandling opposition MPs during a fractious vote, including elbowing MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau aside. Thus our heretofore affable Prime Minister displays a most non-parliamentary truculence which has set the twittersphere alight. Sadly the nastiness has also completely pushed the progressive transgender rights bill and the Komagata Maru apology right out of the news cycle, when both deserved additional coverage and national attention. At least in central Canada, even our fascination with the ongoing Fort McMurray fire takes a back seat to this unexpected and bizarre occurrence.


* I'd like to thank the invaluable "link view" for its assistance with laying pipe links in this writeup. It also shows several opportunities to spin useful factuals off of the hard links in this writeup!
** Wow. e2 may have a lot of odd gaps, but it sure knows a lot about different syndromes (but apparently not about the The Incredibles villain).