After 2 1/2 years as a techies.com employee, I have been laid off. I had just begun a leave that would have lasted for three months, and as I really didn't figure my job would be around when I got back, it wasn't much of a surprise. Now I am officially unemployed. This is to be my dot com swan song if you will, the end of a journey to the end of a rainbow whose pot of gold turned out to be a tuna fish sandwich and an unemployment check. Not a terribly unique or exciting story, just another page in the book of dot com stupidity.