Currently looking for small Drupal projects

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I'm currently looking for Drupal contract work. In particular, I'm looking for smaller projects, short-term work. A smaller project can be an entire project start to finish for a site that is well defined in terms of features and can use most of the modules that currently exist (that is to say, minimal custom work); or a part of a larger project. The small part of a larger project appeals to me, as I enjoy working in groups and seeing parts come together into a fantastic whole.

My resume is Drupal heavy as of late, and I'd like to continue that. I am not, however, opposed to other PHP work. I'm good with PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, browser Javascript (drifting towards jQuery), integrating sites together (consuming APIs, so to speak), and Linux/Apache/SSL site setup.

Please do contact me if you have a Drupal project (or maybe another project that could be otherwise interesting, no sense in limiting myself to just Drupal!).

Every Single Pencil

Scalzi Story

Wherein I take a band name from Scalzi’s Next Band Name list, and spend no more than 20 minutes writing the story with the band name as a title.

---

“What do you mean every pencil is gone?”

“Well, gone isn’t quite the right term for it,” George replied, looking back at Murphy. “And you don’t need to panic it.”

“I’m not panicking about it,” Murphy answered, glaring a moment at George. “I’m just, uh, concerned at this moment. And what do you mean by gone not being the right term?”

“Well, the pencils are all technically still here, they just don’t have any graphite in them.”

Murphy looked down where George was sitting, not saying anything, his mouth pursed. “So we have a lab full of pencil hollows?”

“Well, I don’t know if that’s the correct term, either…”

“Hollows, blanks, empty pencile cartridges, I don’t care what they’re called, I just want to know what caused this and how this happened.”

George sat looking up at Murphy, before lifting his shoulders and inhaling. In a large exhale, he sighed and started, “Well, you know the focus of Margaret’s latest research is carbon sequestering in simple life forms…”

“Yes, I know that.”

“Well, she had a break through of some sort on Friday…”

“Okay,” Murphy said when George didn’t continue.

“Uh, she fed the latest round one of the pencils when it became apparent they could absorb carbon easily.”

“Okay.”

“It, uh, ate the pencil.”

“The pencil.”

“Well, the graphite in the pencil, and some of the wood, but not as much wood, as it doesn’t seem to like the celluloid structure of the wood, and pencil wood is particularly dense…”

“And what happened,” Murphy cut him off, his hand moving in circles in a universal gesture to hurry up.

“As near as I can tell, Margaret didn’t leave the pencil she stuck in the box actually in the box.” George paused.

Murphy waited for him to continue.

“She put it on her lab table.”

Murphy didn’t say anything.

“Uh, her pencils were all blanks when she came in this morning.”

Murphy’s eyes grew big. “Every single pencil?”

George looked down at the floor, then back up. “Yeah, as near as we can tell.”

“How bad?”

“At least all the labs on this floor.”

“Every single pencil from every lab on this floor.”

“Yes.”

“Has been gutted by a carbon sequestering bacteria that has escaped the confines of its experiment.”

“Yes.”

Murphy continued to look down at George. He was quiet for a bit before saying, “Any idea how bad this is going to get?”

“Sorta.”

“And?”

“The trees just outside the lab are bare now.”

“It’s June.”

“Yes.”

“So, very bad.”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Where is Margaret,” Murphy asked.

“Near as I can tell, half way to the desert. She left a note before she took off this morning.”

“Let me guess, written in pen?”

“Yep,” George replied.

Murphy sighed, and turned back to the laboratory door. “Every single pencil,” he was muttering, “every single leaf… Every single pencil…”

Hooker Socks

Scalzi Story

Wherein I take a band name from Scalzi’s Next Band Name list, and spend no more than 20 minutes writing the story with the band name as a title.

---

She stretched lazily out on the bed, feeling how delightfully comfortable the sheets were. She had arrived early to change the sheets to these sheets and was, at this moment, happy she had done so. They were so much nicer than the ones normally on the these beds.

Rolling over, she looked over at the young man lying next to her. He had been a lot of fun, but their time was nearing its end, and he was starting to look uncomfortable. She knew the expressions, knew some of the thoughts going through his head, wondered if he’d say anything, and, idly, what questions he would open with.

“So, uh, I was okay?”

Ah.

That one.

“Yes,” she answered, and moved closer to him. She lifted up his arm and snuggled close to him, pretending, but only pretending, that this moment could last longer. “Yes, you were.”

He lay on his back, with her tucked until his arm, his hand absently stroking her hair. Just as she was starting to relax, he shifted. She knew what that meant, and pulled back. He turned, and threw his feet off the bed as he sat up, his back to her.

She looked at the length of his back, the well-formed, lean muscles tightening as he shifted for a bit. She smiled, remembering the last two hours. She was sure the two of them had made enough noise to cause house-keeping concern, but she didn’t mind any longer. They knew her as enough of a regular, knew her “antics” as the front desk called her visits, that they no longer knocked on the door in the middle of her sessions.

“Look,” she started, as she watched him, “I know this is your first time, so, well, we have the room for another hour, why don’t you jump in the shower?” He looked back at her, hesitating, his face full of questions.

“Is that okay?”

“Sure it is, baby.” He cringed a little bit. Maybe “baby” was the wrong term of endearment, she thought. He was young.

“Uh, so, how is the money handled?”

“Ah,” she realized the source of his discomfort. It wasn’t being naked in front of her now that they were done, it was the money. Nearly always the money. She smiled. “It is your first time, I forget these things.” She smiled bigger. “The money is put into the socks afterwards. That way, we can pretend as much as we’d like that this all,” she gestured around the room, the move encompassing the empty glasses, the clothes strewn across the floor, the condom wrappers, “wasn’t a business transaction.”

He looked relieved.

“Oh, okay,” and stood up. He went to the bathroom and closed the door. A few minutes later, she heard the shower start. She continued to lay there as he showered, goosebumps on her bare back from the breeze of the airconditioner, a sheet across her legs and ass. When the water turned off, she moved off the bed and started gathering the items on the floor.

She put his items into a neat pile, arranging them a bit, then gathered all of her items. She’d move her items into the bathroom when he stepped out, and shower after he left. This seemed to work best, she’d determined after a few trials.

He came out of the bathroom, bare chested, towel around his waist. She smiled, and touched him as she walked past him into the bathroom. As she dropped her items next to the sink, she hear him start to dress. She returned to the room to watch him put on his pants, then put on his shirt, then sit down on the bed to put on his socks and shoes.

“Ouch,” he muttered under his breath as his foot hit the roll she had dropped into one of them while arranging his clothes.

“Yeah, the socks are easier to put on if you pull that out first,” she commented, before turning back to the bathroom. “You can let yourself out. Thanks again, honey.”

Remembering a meltdown

Blog

Today I witnessed the complete and total meltdown of a four year old. He was upset about something or other that I suspect neither he, nor his father, actually remembered. The wailing, the tears, the destructive moment, the pounding, the air-hitting, all of it warped into a

And I thought about the number of times I had done that as a child. I recall only a few, but certainly not because I had only a few. I'm sure I had a lot more than a few, with that certainty coming from my grumpy face in more than a small number of family photos.

Actually, of the photos of my childhood that I actually have, my nose is red from crying more often than it is not.

I was clearly either a frustrated and / or frustrating child.

After seeing the meltdown, I texted both my mom and my dad and apologized, once again, for being such a horrible child. I'm not sure I actually was any more difficult than any other child, as a whole I couldn't have been too bad: I didn't use drugs, I enjoyed going to school, I had good grades, I had good friends. There's a difference, however, between being a good kid and being an easy kid.

And I know that I wasn't an easy kid.

Both my parents responded.

Outbreak of Horses

Scalzi Story

Wherein I take a band name from Scalzi’s Next Band Name list, and spend no more than 20 minutes writing the story with the band name as a title.

---

Wherein I take a band name from Scalzi’s Next Band Name list, and spend no more than 20 minutes writing the story (so forget about any editing), with the band name as a title.

Beth walked into the lecture hall, thankful it was still mostly empty. She was nervous about this talk, which was odd for her, she knew. Of course, most of her talks didn’t have the personal element this one did, so, okay, she’s cut herself some slack today. Some. Probably not as much as she should, though.

Behind Beth, Mike lumbered carrying the large flat boxes with the posters that she had finished last week. Jeff was carrying the easels behind him. Beth looked around the room, and back over her shoulder, suddenly completely convinced that her posters were inadequate for the enormous space.

“Did they have to put me in the biggest room?” she asked back to Mike.

“They did, yes,”

Beth stopped walking. She turned around to Mike, who had stopped just as suddenly, but jerked forward as Jeff ran into him from behind. “Oh. Sorry,” Jeff muttered, as he gathered the easel back into his arms.

“What do you mean, yes?” Beth asked Mike.

“Pretty much everyone is interested in your talk, according to the pre-conference survey. This was the only room that comes close to fitting everyone.” He paused to look around. “Not that everyone will fit. Might be tight. Standing room maybe.”

Beth stared at Mike.

Mike shrugged.

“Can I put these down?” Jeff asked?

“Uh, yeah,” Beth said and stepped aside.

Mike and Jeff continued to the front of the room and began setting up the posters. Beth followed, a little more big eyed, and a bit frustrated at her response to the large room. This was exactly the venue she needed to present her work. Her work was solid, though the results were completely bizarre. That she had managed to time her work as well as she had, that she had been in the right place at the right time, that was a bit of luck that happened only once in a lifetime. She was happy it happened to her, even if the end result wasn’t as happy as she’d liked.

A year ago, Beth had been volunteering at the free clinic on the other side of town, when her laboratory focus changed. She had wanted a place away from the academics in their ivory tower, and away from the privileged college kids who didn’t understand hard work, or how many doors opened for them just because they were at the college. She wanted to help people who needed the help most, and the clinic satisfied that want.

Moesha was the first inconsolable kid who came into the clinic crying of horses; her mother unable to figure out why, but more concerned about the fever and chills the child had been having for a couple days. Beth ruled out bacterial infections, diagnosed a viral infection, and gave Moesha’s mom tips on helping making Moesha as comfortable as possible.

When another child had come into the clinic with the same symptoms, including crying for a horse, Beth was amused. It was the first time she had heard a small boy wanting a pony. “A horse,” the crying child corrected her. “I want a horse, not a pony!” before dissolving into uncontrollable sobs.

It had taken Beth months to find isolated cases outside of her district. She had eventually tracked down one case where the child had died of a Takotsubo cardiomyopathy while crying out for a horse. That was when Beth knew she wanted to track this virus: it was something new, another virus influencing behaviour, much as Toxoplasma gondii had been show to do so years ago. This one, though, was very specific and very consistent.

The consistency in the pleas for horses had intrigued Beth. That she could trace this virus’ outbreak by searching for Facebook posts about kids asking for horses, and following up with the parents, had caused her colleagues to hold her in derision hadn’t deterred her from her research. It was a tool none of them could use in their research, but Beth could, and did.

And here she was.

Here, setting up to present her paper on the effects of Toxoplasma Equinus on human behavior.

To the largest audience in her career.

Beth had just managed to calm herself while reviewing her slides for the hundredth time today, when a noise from the back of the auditorium caught her attention. She looked up to see press cameras.

“Oh,” she thought, “Horses.”

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