Exciting stuff last week. I gave my notice at the University and accepted a new job that pays a lot more. I'm graduating from education for the second time. My new employer will be the MHIC ("the Mick"), a health information non-profit (www.mhic.org) that works like a for-profit in that it is totally funded by contracts with hospital and medical associations. It's in Augusta, about the same distance as my present commute but in the opposite direction. Their databases don't talk to the web yet, and that's where I come in. But first I'll work in their present system of using Delphi to make Windows applications that communicate with the databases. The language behind Delphi(a Borland visual development environment) is Object Pascal. Pascal was the first language I learned way back and never thought I'd have opportunity to use professionally. My former students will be amused. I'll start the new job in about 2 weeks. There are 25 people in the company, and they seem to be very health aware. While I was there one day, an announcement sounded and the whole company gathered in a central space for the twice daily ergonomic stretching.

One of the projects I have to finish up for UMaine is the online Admissions application. It breaks up the huge form into small chunks, lets you work on it in any order over any amount of time and keeps track of what you've finished. When you're ready to submit it, my little Java module sends it over to the student information system that lives on a mainframe. Yeah, the projects are cool, but the pay and the politics suck. Change wakes up your brain.