I was recently made aware of an interesting problem that was exposed by the unusually high number of retirees throughout stage government as a result of the State Employe Retirement Incentive Program (SERIP). The problem is best explained with a real world example. Our organization’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) had come to our organization from another state agency and had only been with our organization a few years before retiring (though, not via SERIP). The problem is our organization was responsible for paying out the vacation and sick time he accrued even though he’d been at the other...
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Iowa’s Retirement Problem
Qualities of a “Family Man”
In my last installment called, "Ending My Douchebaggery" I discussed a simple yet practical way to better yourself that I stole and modified a bit from an experiment Benjamin Franklin tried. While he was trying to achieve what he called Moral Perfection,...
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Ending My Douchebaggery
Of late I've come to realize at the age of 36 I can be, quite often, a douchebag. My friends and family might find that revelation a bit harsh but people outside that group, particularly those who I have had some sort of...
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Boat for Sale (again)
Seems like it was only a year ago and I was selling my Spectrum boat. Err, wait, that’s because it was. Well now I’m selling my Pro-V 1800. Call...
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Make the Outdoors a Priority
I was recently talking to a friend of mine about the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. Every Memorial Day our family celebrates with a trip to northeast Iowa…God’s country. I...
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Changing the Default Browser for Adobe Air Apps under Ubuntu
I use TweekDeck as my Twitter client and recently I had to rebuild my Ubuntu Linux desktop which meant trying to remember all the “tweaks” I had to make....
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Getting Flash Sound to work under Google Chrome and Ubuntu 9.10
I’ve been increasingly frustrated by Google Chrome’s ability to play Flash minus sound. I don’t know what Flash plugin they are using but, luckily, the fix is easy. I...
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Comparing Propel and Doctrine
I’ve recently decided to make the switch to Doctrine as the ORM of choice for any new PHP projects we work on. I didn’t make this decision lightly as,...
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The Arenas Effect (and Gun Control)
Gilbert Arenas has made a complete ass of himself, the Wizards and the NBA by knowingly taking guns to “work” as a “joke”. The fact he made an ass...
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Street Smarts for the Woods
For the beginner, hunting can be an overwhelming experience. Nevermind that one may not know much about firearms, understand the gear needed or how to use the right call....
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How to Stop the Hunting Tradition
Hunting is an archaic activity that does nothing other than give its participants an excuse to bear arms and hurt nature’s creatures. Stopping these senseless traditions is as easy...
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Moving On
My guess is this will largely go un-noticed but I felt a formal blog post was in order for announcing my decision to stop contributing to AptitudeCMS and Geeklog.
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