Don't send me email at work.

I'll admit to having a bias against using email ever since the company I work for was bought out by a large corporation, and our perfectly useful, secure imap server was replaced by an Exchange server that we have to run Windows inside a sandboxed VM in order to access it. (Unintended consequences strike again. Thanks, Sarbanes–Oxley.)

I'm not kidding.

Before the merger, to read my email, I fired up my client and read my email.

After the merger, to read my email, I:

• establish a VPN connection to the local office, using my "local" credentials (local ldap id/password)
• run remote desktop software to access a virtual machine running Windows 7 inside the office network
• establish a VPN connection to the corporate office, using my corporate credentials (secure token + pin)
• launch Outlook (as a contractor, I must use the full client, not Outlook Web Access) and sign in with my corporate ldap id/password, which are not synced with the local account.

On top of that, I probably have violated some policy just by posting this.

Any relationship between this byzantine process and batteries catching fire on airplanes is purely coincidental.

Last night, I dreamed of trains. Specifically, I dreamed that I was walking next to trains and train tracks.  Then I ducked to get under some branches, and someone tried to take my wallet, so I stabbed them with my pliers.

It's clear that my dreams are telling me to move to Portland. Or something else.