After my whirlwind tour of three letter acronyms that has been my last few months transitioning from chemistry to software development, I am now Gainfully employed! I just wanted to thank everyone for the comments earlier. I'm employed by a consulting firm in the Chicago area.
for historical references here's my previous posts.
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=84247
http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=84173