Well, around the first Monday of March, a bunch of job-hunt irons I'd had in the fire all got hot. I picked up a short term contract with a consulting firm I'd interviewed with at the end of February and responses on four jobs I'd applied for.

No perm offers yet, but I'm keeping my head above water and have one interview scheduled with another likely to be scheduled. And both of those positions are interesting roles with cool companies. Really hope one turns into an offer.

Lunchadoodle has just launched.

Basically, it works like this... The wife and I were drawing doodles on our oldest son's brown bag lunches. We thought some of them were funny or cute enough to share with our friends on Facebook. They seemed to like them. So we're blogging them at Lunchadoodle.

Stop by and check them out.

Got this a couple of days ago, getting through my gmail spam filter:

How are you? I represent Dealmax LTD Personnel Dept. and I'm responsible for
headhunting among the candidates for the open positions with our
organization. We have read with interest your information disclosed at
Career Builder site detailing your relevant work experience and
qualifications and want to offer you a well-paid part-time job opportunity.
We believe you can be considered as a successful candidate for the vacancy.
If you are interested in our company and in more information on this
position, feel free to contact the HR.

Thank you for your consideration and have a nice day.

Aside from the standard "if it seems to be too good to be true, it is" and the standard caution against unsolicited recruitment offers from Hotmail accounts (this one came from Hermione Z. Jefferson - ven4456medema@hotmail.com), the biggest red flag is their return address.

The reply address was Recruitment@DealmaxLtd.com. The domain DealmaxLtd.com was registered on February 2, 2011. Yes, just 5 days ago. If you've got dirty laundry older than the company's domain, that's a HUGE red flag.

Be careful of these folks.

Making a recumbent bike "desk" with off-the-shelf parts for under $400. Is it possible? I'm finding out.

I've needed to get back in shape for a while, but I'm working full time, then add 3-4 hours a day for day-care pickups, dinner prep, baths, bed time stories, etc. Then add another 60-90 minutes after the kids are off to bed that I have to be at home because the wife's still at work. The only way to get to the gym is to go at 10 p.m. or 4:30 a.m. The rest of my day is mostly booked.

But I'm sitting at my home office's desk right now, writing a blog post. I'll be sitting at it tomorrow, working on my novel. And I'll be sitting at it next month, working on learning Flash and programming a game. So why not get in some exercise while I'm sitting at my desk?

I could do a treadmill desk but they run pretty expensive, in the neighborhood of 2-4k. Additionally, the point of an exercise desk is that you exercise slowly enough that you can still concentrate on work, but you end up putting in more time because you do it for a few hours.

So, because it was cheaper, lower impact, and it looked more comfortable for putting in hours per day, I picked a recumbent bike. But when I went looking for an office solution, there was nothing. There were some hobbyists and a cheap upright bike with a desk. There were some stand alone pedaling thingamajobbers that go under your desk, but there were no solutions with completely "off-the-shelf" products that guaranteed I would not be bumping my knees whenI pedaled or having to sit too far back from my desk to reach the keyboard.

I started looking for something that I could fit over or around a recumbent bike, adjust to accomodate the movement of my legs, and maybe tilt up a bit in back and down in front to make it more friendly.

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