One evening after attending the theater two gentlemen were walking down the street when they observed a well-dressed, attractive young lady walking just ahead of them. One turned to the other and said, "I'd give 50 bucks to spend the night with that woman."

To their surprise, the woman turned and said, "I'll take you up on that."

She had a neat appearance and a pleasant voice, so after bidding his friend good-night, the man accompanied the lady to her apartment, where they immediately went to bed. The following morning the man presented her with 25 dollars as he prepared to leave. She demanded the rest of the money stating,
"If you don't give me the other 25 I'll sue you for it."

He laughed, saying, "I'd like to see you get it on these grounds."

The next day he was surprised when he was served with a summons ordering his presence in court as defendant.... He hurried to his lawyer and explained the details of the case.

His lawyer said, "She can't possibly get a judgment against you on such grounds, but it will be interesting to see how her case will be presented."

After the usual preliminaries, the lady's lawyer addressed the court as follows:

"Your Honor, my client is the owner of a piece of property, a garden spot surrounded by a profuse growth of shrubbery, which property she agreed to rent to the defendant for a specified length of time for the sum of $50. The defendant took possession of the property, used it extensively for the purpose for which it was rented, but upon evacuating the premises he paid only $25. The rent is not excessive since it was restricted property, and we ask judgment to be granted against the defendant to assure payment of the balance."

The defendant's lawyer was impressed and amused at the way the case had been presented. His defense was therefore somewhat altered from what he had planned.... This is what he said:

"Your Honor, my client agrees the young lady has a fine piece of property, for a degree of pleasure was derived from the transaction. However my client found a well on the property, around which he placed his own stones; sunk a shaft and erected a pump, all labor being personally performed by him. We claim these improvements to the property are sufficient to offset the unpaid balance, and that the plaintiff was
adequately compensated for the rental of the said property. We therefore ask that the judgment not be granted."

The young lady's lawyer's comeback was like this....

"Your Honor, my client agrees that the defendant did find a well on the property, and he did make improvements such as described by my opponent, however, had the defendant not known the well existed, he would have never have rented the property; also, on evacuating the premises, the defendant moved the stones, pulled out the shaft and took the pump with him. In so doing he not only dragged his equipment through the shrubbery, but left the hole much large than it was prior to his occupancy, making it easily accessible to little children. We therefore ask judgment be granted."

She got it....

 

You're not a lawyer are you? I just sent this to my brother (he is)

 

Lawyer??? Heck no! I push buttons for a living.

 

What are you into exactly? Sounds like IT, you're in Cali right? I miss Cali a lot. I was there for 8 months (San Fran) but suffered the consequences of major mistakes by senior management - like 500 other people from my old company. I'm still trying to find the right place and even though I'm now in Texas I would go back to Cali in a blink for the right thing. Now anyone looking for a DBA/PM with not much experience and an Oxford MPhil degree? I expect not, the market is really tough everywhere. I love your Submarine BTW. I was not quite brave enough to get that color (I had not seen it in the metal when I was buying and I alreay loved sliver) but have since thought about it many times...

 

When I started, we had the only ethernet in the region, and it all ran over frozen yellow garden hose. A year later, IBM finally released PC-DOS 3.1, and we started hooking up PC's. I could go on about the introduction of thin coax, 10-Base-T, and all of the other goodies that these damn kids take for granted today. :-)

Anyway, I'm now responsible for a room full of UNIX/Linux servers, fiber between every building, 4000+ user accounts, and a campus-wide wireless LAN that's been featured in the NY Times and other press for the revolution that it started 6 years ago. I get to work a lot with bleeding-edge technology, and coming up with practical uses for it before most people in the industry even hear of the stuff.

Even though I get all kinds of fun toys to play with, the pay absolutely sucks. If I told you what my gross pay was last year, you'd probably be wondering if I didn't steal my TT. I'm seriously thinking about jumping ship if the right offer comes along.....

 

Stability is more important than you know right now. I would be tempted to jump too (if I had your level of experience) since I'm sure you can make more in the 'private' world. Having said that, I was in that world and was laid off 2 days after almost killing myself and my team to finish out project. Hang in there until you see the right thing and enjoy the stuff you're working with in the meantime. I'm still looking for work...

PS I would have replied sooner but I could not accress the forum for some reason. The old link I had (www.audi-tt.org) is not working. Now I'm on http://forums.audiworld...etc

 

...with the *right* offer, I'm off like a prom dress. Six-figures and underwater stock options won't attract me to a company that's not showing a profit and that is being run by techies with no idea of how to run a business. As pathetic as the pay is where I'm at now, at least I don't have to worry about my pay check bouncing. Besides, I have 5 weeks paid vacation and 72 sick days in the bank. Oh, and I haven't had to wear a tie to work in 15.75 years..... :-)

 

Although I learned a lot and have not regrets I now see that many management mistakes led to the demise of my former company. They had the best people and a great product development idea - just in the hands of the wrong people at the top. All it took was one early success to make them sign a whole bunch of contracts (thinking they could hire and train enough people to get the work done) that they did not deliver on. Funding flew away, stocks went down the tubes and...well you get the picture.
I got a lot out of the whole thing, not just tech experience but up close business (mis)management lessons that I hope to take to hole!

 

Hope the job hunt goes well for you.....

 

Hunting, yeah I just bought some nightvision! illusive little critters those job thingies ;-)