Bubbles in the Bathtub

For those of you that haven't heard yet, I am moving to Duke University. A step even farther back might be necessary for those of you that don't know me. SEATURTLE.ORG is not my job, more a labor of love. I have a real job working for NOAA's Biogeography Program. I came to this office as a seagrant fellow more years ago than I'd like to admit, with no intention of staying as long as I have. But it turned out to be a great experience working with great colleagues, one thing led to another and I ended up with a full-time job working for the US government.

In any case, I wasn't really looking for anything, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I have always kept my ears open for other opportunities. I like what I do, but working for the government has become burdensome. It seems like lately I spend most of my time fighting the hierarchy just to get the tools I need to do my job. I should rephrase that as "keep" the tools I need to do my job. We have always had them, but with the internet being the contrary beast it is, the "government" has found it necessary to lock everything down, making it difficult to continue business as usual. For security reasons they are centralizing all network activities, taking away many of the resources we have taken for granted, despite the fact that we have nothing on any of our computers even remotely resembling information that needs to remain secure.

Oops, I have digressed and gone off into a half rant, and now I must go. So, more later...