So I just talked to the medical consultant I've been working with since 2001, another ex-boss, and he was really bummed I was leaving. He said he's going to call my new boss tomorrow and talk to him. That was nice. I don't know what good it will do, but it is sweet that he wants to call. He said he's going to recommend that I continue to consult with the company for as long as possible, because I helped to develop the product.

The medical consultant, he's a gastroenterologist actually, told me he knows someone high up in management at the new company, and that he'll put in a good word for me with his friend. Isn't that sweet?

This doctor is really nice, tough and a little difficult to work with, but really, really fair. He doesn't get along with too many people, so I think he is truly sorry to see me go. I'll miss him too. This guy was really smart, and despite his sometimes gruff manner, very, very easy to work with and for.

So I resigned from my job today. My boss was really nice about it, and I'm not one to burn bridges so I offered them my consulting services until they can hire someone else. I told my boss, "I don't want to leave the company in a lurch, and I want to make my departure a win-win situation for everyone." My boss thought it was a good idea, and we're going to go over more stuff tomorrow morning.

He was so weird too. He said "I was just thinking it was working out fine that you were working at home in San Francisco", and I'm thinking "yeah right". But I said, "You know if the new job doesn't work out, I can always come back right?". And he laughed and said, "Sure." I think he was glad to see me go, but he wasn't going to say that either since they still need to me to get some work done.

It would be so much fun to burn some bridges, but it's not good karma and I may need to come crawling back to them if the new job doesn't work out.

I start my new job on March 17, St. Patrick's Day. It's a 30-day contract to perm arrangement, but I've spent every day since last Wednesday talking to my new boss that it feels like I already know her very well. I really like her, and I think that's a good thing.

But I am freaked out! This job hunt thing has been happening so fast. I just started applying for jobs on February 6, and by February 27 I was offered a job. A friend who's a recruiter in Silicon Valley told me that I should feel so incredibly grateful that I was able to get a job right away. She said it's a very tough job market out there. I even got a 6% raise in pay, and that's a miracle considering the horrible economy right now.

And I am so grateful, but I'm dizzied by the speed of the events. I don't think what just happened will sink in right away, probably not until I'm in my brand new office building in downtown San Francisco.

I really need to write out my metaphorical reading of Mel Gibson's "The Passion" movie. In my own mind, it's kind of like vewing The Passion of Christ from a christian mysticism perspective. Like how would Bernard of Clairvaux or St. John of the Cross view Gibson's movie, if I could be that presumptuous.

I'll have to google the Net to see if somebody has written a christian mysticism interpretation of this movie. That's how I see this movie anyway.

With all this job stressorama going on in my life, I haven't even thought about voting and tomorrow is primay election day in California. Super Tuesday, as the media people are calling it.

I really like John Edwards, and I'm almost tempted to vote for him. I'll have to look at the polls to see where Kerry is at. I'd love John Edwards to be Kerry's VP, but not to be at the top of the ticket.

Then there are also those state and city measures to vote on. I'll look at everything tonight, fill out my absentee ballot and hand it in to the polling place tomorrow.

Wild weekend starting Friday.

I got a job offer on Friday, and I'm just trying to finalize the details. I'll blog more about this when it's more concrete.

I saw "The Passion of Jesus Christ" on Friday, and I cried the whole way through. I don't know why people are saying the film is anti-semitic, because Jesus is jewish, so is his mom, and his disciples and his followers. Or have people conveniently forgotten that part of JC's life? Jesus had a bar mitzvah and had to read Torah in the temple, get over it! For awhile, Christianity was on off-shoot of judaism until the religion broke off and went its separate way.

I've been reading reviews of the movie over the weekend, one movie critic said that it's the kind of movie that will illicit an individual reaction in each person.

I totally loved the movie. I didn't think it was too violent, gory yes, but not too violent. I knew JC had been scourged, but I didn't really know what scourging was really about.

For me the movie was about the the journey of a believer of God, and JC showed the way. If you truly give up your life to follow God's plan for you on this world, there are certain consequences that will happen. Maybe not as bloody as JC's, maybe you don't have to physically give up your life, but there will be a death of the ego.

I was really inspired by the movie because it showed JC making the ultimate sacrifice for God's plan in this world. It made me think that what I have to give up, if I'm following God's plan for my life, is nothing compared to what JC had to give up. And JC is of course, the ultimate role model.

The Satan character was spooky! The character was very androgynous, neither male or female but both. Not sure what that meant. The Satan character said it's not worth sacrificing for the stupid human people, that it's never been done. JC says no, it's worth it because it's his father's plan.

The parallel to the Torah/Old Testament story of Father Abraham willing to sacrific his son Isaac is made, but taken one step further. Father Abraham had so much obedience to his god that he would sacrifice his own son. God has so much love for humanity, that he would sacrifice his own son, and Jesus had so much obedience to his father, his god, and he loved humanity so much that he would sacrific his own life.

I've got a whole metaphorical way of looking at "The Passion of Christ", where each character or group of characters in the story represents some aspect of humanity. I'll have to write it out someday when I have time.

It's an interesting way to look at the story, because then the Jewish elders, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, become the part of ourselves that resists change, that will kill the messenger, that will resist anything new and unknown. You have to ask yourself when have I resisted something new and unknown, when I have I hated change so much that I have in my mind killed the person who was instigating the change.