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.

Not much really

I have spent the day doing little things, scanned craigslist, deposited my unemployment check, and caught up with some folks on Facebook, including a few of my favorite teachers. I guess I shouldn't expect instant knowledge as to my next move, and to be honest, I think most of these posts will be on the dull side as I ask questions out loud, only to answer them. After three months of inactivity, I can hardly expect any peanut gallery will be there to comment, but all sorts of surprises happen.

Oddly Detached

Having been laid off a bit over a week ago, I have made the odd realization that I don't much care. The income was nice, but I really didn't like the job. Make sure that is clear, I didn't like the job, though I did enjoy the camaraderie of my colleagues, as they were a great bunch. Now that the Seattle phase may be over, I am having trouble deciding what is next. When I moved out here, it was to be for five years and then a decision was going to be made as to whether I should stay or go. I am a few months shy of that five years, but nothing has presented itself yet as to my next destination, nor has a compelling reason been given to me to stay here. I think in truth, where I go is less important than what I decide to do, but I do believe there is some connectedness between the two. [Dave tells me I need to write more.]

Instant Topic

Well, as long as I can't seem to get pictures to load on this, I have an instant, if repetitive, topic of conversation. Actually, I also think it would probably become a dull topic--really, how many different ways can one expound on the situation. It isn't a matter of blaming one or the other, since I don't know if it is my laptop or blogger that is having the issue. The combination of the two definitely doesn't work. I guess I could go to my windows machine, but that isn't nearly as comfortable as typing while curled up on the sofa.

The work week is finished, and I was very ready for it to be done, even striking up pointless conversations during the last half hour of the day, because the business at my desk was just not calling loud enough. Now I have to figure out the weekend, but that generally works itself out, though dinner tonight is my immediate concern. If I follow up on my thoughts, it will end up being the fourth night in a row I go find food outside of my kitchen. Ah well, the stomach is growling, so before this devolves further and further into what my appetite would like me to write, I will wrap it up.

Yet Again...

Another day that blogger is just not agreeing to accept photos. Oh well, aside from that, there is a fear that is rapidly being realized here, that of having nothing to write. Yes, I could lament the sun being down by 4, or that I haven't found the perfect gift for all those who need gifts this season, but that all seems so trivial. Not to mention, problems here don't always need to reflect problems facing the general populace, besides, aren't gift cards the end all be all of don't know what to give you gift giving. Aside from a general belief that those things aren't always great for everyone, I like to try and think some gift giving out, and keep that status of best gift giver that I somehow have managed to attain with my sister's kids.

The water is about ready for tea, so this is a good pause point. (Moroccan Pomegranate Red, if you are curious.) While Fred Meyer has the Celestial Seasonings Teas on sale 10/$10 this week, this purchase was not made as part of that. I bought a few, but do to limited space in my cabinets, I opted not to purchase more than a couple.

I guess that is about it for the night. The lack of fodder, as who really wants a continual update of the inanities of work, is the biggest deterrent on getting the magical 100 posts, which of coarse is just magical because I have decided it is. I could try for eleventy-one posts, but since there aren't that many days left this year, it would involve a several days with multiple posts, and with nothing to write about once a day, then my blog could well become Seinfeldesque in its coverage of nothing, which is of course better than nothingness, but that is Sartre, not Seinfeld, though the two are probably affiliated, perhaps with some L. Ron Hubbard thrown in.

Will I hit 100 this year

In January, I had hoped to do better than last year in quantity of blog entries. At some point, I had a good chance of doing it without going into overdrive at the end of the year. Now of course, too much screwing around with video games, I need to go into overdrive, though I am not sure that I am all that gung ho to do such a thing. I am a little irritated that blogger & tiger don't seem to get along well, or perhaps it is some other aspect of Apple's software that blogger doesn't like.

Tonight, I uploaded some pictures from a bit ago, and was going to upload one for the top of this, but it just didn't want to upload. Amazing how that is my re-occurring problem here, and, even more amazing, is that is isn't happening when I am using Vista. I don't think I have written any entries here on my Vista enabled PC, though I do know I have written about my Vista experiences. Consider this my complaint about Apple software post, though, more accurately, it may be a complaint about blogger/Google software, since their stuff seems more aimed at the Microsoft market, because Apple users have no need for internet based word processors.

Superfluous in Words

Only today did I read the comment on my October 29th post, and I wonder, is it that what is said about me is dull, or is it that I am just superfluous. It could be that I just don't fit. Odd, though, is the feeling, lately gaining momentum, that I don't have much of a place nor much of a focus as to where in the world I should go. Now, I am being edited out of places in other's writings. Hardly do I take offense, though I find it funny that several people found me to be the extraneous element in places the author identifies with me. On the other hand, if I find out that I am edited out of Sovata or the All-Saints' Day Bus ride to Targu Mures, then I will know the Purdue English Graduate Program Staff has it out for me, and intends to excise me from all my best friend's writing efforts.

(I can't say that Ozzy Osbourne did justice to the Beatles' "In My Life.")

Now that those things I hadn't intended to write about have been written about, I guess it is time to figure out what I planned to write about today, but it is too late. Thoughts have vanished, and I should take Twain's proposed advice to Fennimore Cooper, but I haven't always been known to take good advice. Actually, I managed to spit out a journal entry today, and I don't transcribe them, for some reason, the electronic and the written tend to stay in their separate stacks. If I can merge the electrons and the ink molecules, perhaps I can create something, and if I toss on a bit of paint, perhaps I will dub it Cubism for the 21st century.

What I really need to merge is my attention and focus, as they wander where they will generally taking my time with them, all over the place, but one thing they don't take is production or creation, and that is what is bothering me, but paint, write, or some other of the muses' blessings, it doesn't really matter, just do something.

The title of many of my blog posts start with "Wednesday"

Lately, Wednesday might as well be any other day of the week. Too many days for me are becoming inter-changeable, with the main difference in being where I choose to eat dinner. Tonight was The Peoples' Pub, yesterday the Old Town, and Monday, well, then I went to Zayda Buddy's, where I can happily say they now have an 8" pizza which works for one. I do with that more than dinner differentiated my days, but that is what things have been reduced to. The passion of youth burned up in charging to the moon and paying off that trip before I hit 35. The next round of passion and energy just doesn't seem to have arrived, and life is holding onto the the steady drone of bi-weekly paychecks and regular hours, all the while making me wonder what I have done wrong. How can people not remember the passion of youth, when the world was going to change and the greatest minds of our generation were not going to stare blankly in the mirror wondering what happened, but were going to create that something, and maybe they have, but instead of poets and artists the greatest minds of this generation are coders and entertainment people, if this is the case, then they have succeeded in refocusing the gaze of the masses in ways which would appall the artists, not of old, but of 40 years ago. Life's zest denied by debt and then silly perceived necessity of maintaining a job.

Not even trying

to post a picture today. I am not really in the mood for it. I don't know why, but tonight my mood is pretty wretched, and it wasn't a bad day at work, that was yesterday. Oh well, sometimes life is just like that, and it tells me that what I need to do is add more things to my life, but not acquire more things because this things is activities not physical objects. Truly, I doubt I need many more of those things in my life, though other things it might be nice to add. Oh, the variety of things out there is truly amazing, and if I am lucky, perhaps I can add a few of those things to my life, but not the other things, which I have too many of already.

Facebook has been an interesting new toy, as I have found some people I had lost contact with. Some actually use Facebook, and others, I am sure, joined because someone told them that they had to. Either way, it can be interesting. It also has the ability to become a nightmare if you are truly paranoid. Look at all this information they have, they know who I know, etc. Yes, there is the potential for that information to be misused, but, in everything, there is that potential.

Pictures aren't go, unlike Thunderbirds

I do with I could figure out why Blogger accepts pictures somedays with no problems, then on others it just goes on uploading for an eternity. I am sure there is a very good technical reason, but when it doesn't work, I don't really care what that reason is.

It was another really nice autumn day here, sun and temp in the upper 50's lower 60's, I think. Like yesterday, I decided that staying in the house would be a bad idea, so I walked the loop trail at Discovery Park again. Unlike yesterday though, Kip came over and we tried our beer, which like the first batch, is pretty darn good. Someone at work once said that homebrews tend to smell skunky, and I have to say, neither of our batches have had that odor, and while the first had a better nose, this one has a slightly stronger flavor.

A really nice day

Really, you would think that Ballard Blandmark wouldn't be the best name for a building, but this fabulous new thing is indeed that, unless, of course, that fancy "B" in the middle is supposed to stand for Ballard.

Today was a great day. I enjoyed it tremendously, as I got out of the house and walked over to Discovery Park, seeing a sea lion at the locks looking for meals. Imagine my delight in discovering that at Discovery Park there is a 2.8 mile loop trail. While I doubt that I will be taking a 45 pound pack there to get a work out, the fact that I can walk there and do a loop, and by the time I get home, I would have covered over 5 miles is a good thing. Today's walk in the woods was nicer than thirty minutes of cardio any day, though I am sure I never quite got the appropriate heart rate and such.

I have been putzing around in Facebook lately, and it is interesting to see who I know and don't know. It is also nice to reconnect, electronically at least, with some who I have lost contact with. Those I never lost contact with, but who have been negligent in calling, well, it is nice to harass you as well.

Keeping the flow going

Hey, it is time for the really have nothing to say post that I am posting because, well, I have the urgent need to fill in the space. Filling in the space. Making sure the gaps between entries this month are few and far between, which of course means, in the predictable nature of making such comments, that I won't be typing any more this month here, though I could, but it could only be once or twice more. Conversely, not Nikely, I could spew way too much pointless dialogue that does not reflect positively on my mental capabilities, but then again, I am more of a lemming than a maverick. All that being said, tonight is the beginning of my three day weekend, which seems to be the nature of things for the foreseeable future, at least until the strike ends, and no one is predicting that until later this year, or perhaps January. What's a lemming to do?

A little something before bed

I think I mentioned sometime in September that they were installing this public art along the overpass leading to the Ballard bridge on 15th, and if I didn't mention it, I meant to. All of these have lights that shine up the middle, so there is a glowing sort of effect. If I went out at night and took pictures, some of these might make more sense, but there is a nice bit of enigma with them and the daylight.

One more day of work this week, but the high muckity-muck is over-reacting (his mantra sometimes seems to be why react when you can over-react), and a flurry of directives was issued regarding the purchasing department today, so it remains to be seen if there will be more work days next week. The most disconcerting thing that happened is that people who don't know what my job is assigned someone else the responsibility of doing that which I spent two weeks doing after we turned off outstanding orders. Of course, there was a trigger for it, and part of that trigger had to do with parts we wouldn't have stopped anyway because no directive existed to stop them until possibly yesterday, after they had already been returned to us. If I am lucky, perhaps my boss will get me working on whatever project he assigned last week but has yet to explain or detail, which he said he would do near the end of work last Thursday.

Distractions and such

Something about trying to type an entry, chat, and listen to Tom Waits and his gravelly stories that makes this difficult. I managed to be on the mostly story disc, causing me to listen rather than type. It normally doesn't take me quite so much time to come up with something, but today, I can't remember what I was going to say, aside from my fingers vacillating on the "put in cart" button for complete Appalachian Trail maps.

By the way, politics and Wall Street will play out the way they will. In truth it is so absolutely perverse I am sure some creative novelist will write some sort of greed porn out of the whole thing. The election is coming up, and I will do what I can then to create change in Washington, since regime change (at least Bush) is certain, since he isn't running. Exasperation and absurdist acceptance is my general feeling. I am trying to understand the macro-economic reasoning behind the whole thing, though because of the continued idiotic behavior by those being bailed out, there is no sympathy, rather I would like to see some hefty tax audits.