Moving On, New Guilty Wastes of Time

For those that don't know, I recently quit my last job (in one of the most happy days of my life) and took a new one. The job function on paper meant it was a slight step backwards, but we all know paper doesn't tell the story. That previous job was a terrible little medical device company that treated their people like disposable resources to be ridden hard, put away wet, then given to the glue factory once they stop being better than the next horse.
Doubts? When I joined in Feb 2009 the engineering group (HW, SW, Mechanical) was 11 people including managers. During my 1 year there I saw something like 13 people quit or be fired. Possibly more, it's hard to keep count when the turn-over is greater than 100%. They put an incredible value in the number of billable hours you logged each week as opposed to the work you did. If I was given a task and finished it flawlessly in 40 hours and went home, I was given a talking-to because I clearly had a "bad attitude". If I instead stayed an extra 2 hours every day and just goofed off during those extra hours, I'd then be praised for having a good attitude. Same amount of work, same quality. Any and all promotions and raises were based on that same attitude scale. It became clear pretty quickly that I'd never be judged on the quality or quantity of my work, but rather how willing I was to give up every other facet of my life to provide them with more hours to bill against their government grants. And so as soon as a better (meaning any) other offer showed up, I took it and ran.
And now that I have that better job, I finally have a life again. I can work a full day, hit the gym, and still be home before 6:30. And best yet, since work is no longer a soul-crushing exercise in survival I actually have the motivation to do other things! I'm sure everyone realizes that means watching more sports on TV and playing more Wii, but the point is that I now feel like doing it. And I plan on actually building all the various projects I've been cutting out of Popular Science and Mechanics. Persistence of Vision clock, solar cell phone charger, various wood-working projects, etc. Just look at today. I worked 7:30-4:30, hit the gym for an hour, hit the beer store to get some stouts and instead spent some time hanging with the beer guy enjoying some great, rare microbrews. Now I'm home with a belly full of grilled pork chops and I'm working my way through a 4-pack of Murphy's Stout.
And speaking of tonight...I have a new guilty waste of time. The show "Human Target". It's not good. It doesn't have alot of action, acting, or plot. But it's just good enough to hold my attention for an hour. Every time I say it's just not very good and I'm not watching it ever again. And yet every time I stumble across an episode I invariably end up watching it. As I'm doing right now. Fortunately they've added a rather attractive co-star to go with the roving hot girl of the day. And so even though I have new DVDs from Netflix for both Ghost in the Shell: 2nd gig and Gundam: The 8th MS Team, I'm here watching a show that's not nearly as good. Lucky for me, I still have some Murphy's in the fridge and a Blackhawks game coming up at 10pm. Giggity.
I'd also like to give some props to my buddy Javy, who seems to be the only person reading and commenting. Javy, next time you need someone to smack you in the head with a 9" pie tin, you just let me know.
And now, time for more Irish Stout!