Why not mention that is it Thursday

Why not? I mentioned several of the other days of the week this week. Amazing, that I have four days running on here, and nothing to say. Actually, I think Americans are pretty good at running at the mouth while not saying a great deal of anything, if we weren't there wouldn't be nearly as much talk radio as their is. We had another really nice day, and I managed to get myself in gear and hike the loop trail over at Discovery Park. I still need to get better about getting out of the house on nice days. I mean, yes, I got out of the house, but I didn't manage to get myself in gear to do so until 3 p.m., but considering I did some job search and unemployment stuff today, I can't beat myself up too much. Tomorrow I still need to send off those resumes, which even though I looked at stuff today, I tend not to do until Friday. Sometimes, that is a good thing, because in rereading the notices, I discover that something is part time rather than full time. I am sure I would have discovered that at some point, but best to not be taken by surprise on something that significant.

Wednesday, by golly

Wednesday and a pandemic in imminent according to WHO. I am pleased that I don't have any plans on a trip to Mexico, though I am planning on riding the bus to go to some GLBT networking event, which means at some point I should probably create some personal contact cards, but I am not quite at that stage yet, and I am not quite sure what information would need to be on them. Anyway, as much as anything else, I need to get out of the house, and this is a fine excuse.

I have actually come to a few conclusions this week, but only time will tell if I manage to keep up on the follow-through. Conclusion number one, is that job hunting has to go a lot better when you feel pretty good about yourself, and currently, I am feeling rather sluggish and out of shape, so if I can improve that, then I should be able to improve how I feel about the former, as I don't really want things to get to the panic point, where I am out for any job I can get, because I simply need money.

The second conclusion is that I need to find activities that get me out of the house, because too much time looking at these same walls will eventually get me down. Also, if I get out and do things, I will hopefully have a better chance at finding that serendipitous opportunity that leads to a job that I enjoy. (And that means I could just have a brainstorm while out walking, or I could meet someone who has a need for transportation/logistics skills.)

And of course during all of this, I am reading Camus' "The Rebel" and actually looking forward to reading some of the letters exchanged between him and Sartre after this book was published, as Sartre took great exception to it, and their friendship broke up because of it.

Tuesday's bit of something

And bit of something is about the best description I can possibly come to regarding today's stellar activities, or lack thereof. Aside from laundry, and some push-ups and sit-ups, today's big accomplishment was making brownies. Inexplicably, IE7 on my desktop decides that it really needs to crash on a regular basis, and does so, normally while I am trying to do the job search thing. It did it this morning, and I managed not to go back and work on the job search thing any more today, though I did make some progress in reading Camus' "The Rebel," which is so far rather interesting as he analyzed the works of several writers/philosophers (Sade, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche) and the effects of their works on the twentieth century. Not really just the effects on the twentieth century, but his interpretation of their works, then how others interpreted them (particularly Nietzsche) after their publication. Next he is moving to regicides, which the touched on with Sade, and how in killing the French king, ruling by divine right, the French also could be construed as having killed God. It is something to get my mind working, and no matter how much I may enjoy Lord of the Rings Online, reading is a bit better for me, so I need to spend more time reading, less time playing the game.

such a beautiful day

April has been anything but showers this year. Gorgeous mild and sunny weather seem to have been the predominant theme, though maybe that is just the last two weeks, and I have conveniently forgotten the early part of the month. It doesn't really matter, as right now I am sitting on the balcony typing away, trying to think of something interesting. The whole job thing is more depressing because I am not sure what field to look in. While sending out resumes is required, there isn't much heart in what I am sending out. Oh well, that is just the way of things I guess, and since I don't make the rules, at minimum I need to follow them if I want the benefits.

Ugly sort of job thing

I honestly think the only reason the "Employment Security Department" (Washington state's unemployment office) really expects you to send out resumes and such is so that you can see, on a weekly basis, how few new jobs are posted in your field. Maybe I am being too cynical, as I know there is a good reason to make sure people stay actively searching, though the problem is that one can easily throw up their hands and call it poo. The harder part of the job thing, at least for me, is determining what it is I care to continue doing. I fell into a job in a familiar field and I did it. The funny thing was, I found it and accepted it after spending time looking for something that I thought would be more interesting. This should be the ideal time to look for what I want, at least after I figure that out. I think Dave is right and perhaps I should write more, as it does a marvelous job of sorting things out, though I don't know if he thinks I should blog, journal, or try something in the creative vein.

Weekly Chores

Winter seems to finally be over, and the wonderful dampness of Spring has arrived. It also seems that Thursday is my day to finish up stuff for the unemployment thing, as I have managed to get my jobs applied for and my electronic form submission done today. I guess I should be happy that it is now that I get to do it, and not the old fashioned find the unemployment office and go there sort of thing. Coffee and job search are a nice combination, or at least an adequate one. I doubt I could ever get organized enough to do things on specific days and have my life compartmented like that, but I can sometimes be envious of those who manage it. For me, I think I just need to be busier, as I seem to get more done when I have less of what is perceived as free time. Oh well, someday I will learn the trick.

Another Echo

I wonder, truly wonder, just how much that we expect from main stream media will still be there at the end of 2009. With cities and towns losing their newspapers, just what is Google going to compile on their news service? This is just one change, I can't help but hope that AIG and the banking sector get transformed as well. It is quite obvious Detroit is getting a makeover. One thing though, can anything be done to aid those out of work? For every journalist out of a job, there are pressmen and custodians and secretaries that also go when the newspaper closes. For every factory that closes, in addition to the blue collar, there will be white collar jobs lost--as well as design and engineering. Somehow and some way, we will get through this year, but I hardly think the country will be the same, though I also believe that it is too early to tell if the change will be positive, though retraining all those out of work isn't likely to be done in a year, and shipping them overseas to fight in a war the administration is trying to end is also not a good solution. Change is inevitable, but considering how quickly it is happening now, there is no reason to figure out what is next, because next might be different in twenty-four hours.