da | Gratifying

I wish I understood why it never rained but always poured. I mean, really understood, instead of shrugging and winging it each time. My leading hypothesis is a trickster god. (It's funny when one squirrel falls out of a tree onto a friend, but my money says it's gotta be staged when the second squirrel falls onto her a few weeks later. Do you know anybody who's been hit by two squirrels?)

Since I've taken the full-time job at the University a month ago, I've gotten a gratifying number of requests for my time to do small programming gigs (small as in 15-30 hours worth). The notable feature is that they travel in groups- three one evening last week, two this evening, both which I'd have probably taken six months ago.

I would really like to spread some of this karma around- does anybody know good perl programmers looking for small gigs? I've been directing people to the perl jobs list, but I'd like a bit better connection because these are all for friends or colleagues who I'd like to do the right thing by.