Friday, September 08, 2006

Not Dead Yet


When last we left our heroes, Fly-by-night Inc. was in a tremendous nosedive. Would they manage to pull out of it, rising to the occasion against all odds to right what was wrong and seize victory from the arms of defeat thereby taking us to the promise land? Or would apathy and gross incompetence prevail, sending the accelerating fireball crashing to its explosive and ultimate doom?

Somewhere in between.

Today was the previously announced drop-dead date for the company. If the magic money from the magic investors did not arrive by today, the doors were supposed to be closed and those of us remaining would be sent packing. Sure enough, the money did not arrive. However, we were not sent packing. The apathy seems to be not quite rampant enough. Don't get me wrong here -- us wily engineers stopped working earlier this week, but our hapless leaders are still trying to work deals that will keep the company alive.

I cleared out my office.

This situation offers an interesting risk-reward proposition. If I continue remain employed and show up at the office semi-regularly, the back pay will continue to accrue. I do not have to do any work, mind you, just show up. One might claim this to be grossly unprofessional and generally a slimy thing to do. I though that for a moment also. However, what the company really needs is not to have the product further developed; no, what is needed are human props for when they bring potential investors through the office and try to say with a straight face "oh yeah, you should give us millions of dollars -- we're a sure thing!" They have to have butts in the seats and something resembling computer code on the screen. So what will I be doing, you ask? I will be doing two things. Number one, I will be trying to find someone to pay me to do something. The big number two is that I will be working for my company -- you know, the one I started with J. Thanks, Fly-by-night, for sponsoring my new business. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


So that's the upside. The downside is that it is very likely that all this back pay being accrued will never be paid. I've got a bead on a couple contract opportunities to hedge my bet. If I don't land one of those bye bye house of sausage, hello top ramen.

My mood about all of this has oscillated wildly from shitting-my-pants-scared to giddy-with-excitement. Period of oscillation: ten minutes. At this minute, the needle points to pleased-that-everyday-will-be-like-the-weekend-for-the-foreseeable-future. I'm sure that at about 5 a.m. it will be where it has been for the last week solid: get-out-of-bed-[fucker]-and-work-or-you-will-starve.

No pressure though.

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