Category
Unemployment Diary
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09.08.09182 daysGive or take a few holidays and weekends (though after a couple weeks every day felt like Wednesday), that's how long I've been out of work since being laid off in March. Last week I started a contract position in downtown St. Paul--an interesting project with good technical challenges to chew on, and a much-needed boost to the cash flow, but not exactly a return to full employment: the measure of my success will be how quickly I program myself out of a job. The return to a schedule regulated from the outside is a little jarring. Summer was ...
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07.21.09showing what you knowLast night I participated in the Board of Review process for a new Boy Scout troop founded by the graduates of the Cub Scout pack my sons belong to. It was the first time that I've been on the delivery end of the Board of Review process--I went through plenty of them myself as a Scout a quarter century ago--and it was an interesting experience. The purpose of the Board of Review, held when a Scout has completed the requirements for his next rank badge, isn't so much to quiz the Scout--that's for the Scoutmaster to do, and ...
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06.18.09the days are just packedCalvin: Do you know what day it is? Hobbes: Nope. Why? Calvin:Oh, no reason. I was just curious. . . . I sure like summer vacation. Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes In the spring, the great beneficiary of my employment situation was the dog. She was guaranteed a long walk every morning, in addition to an evening stroll, and had someone with thumbs available to open the back door whenever she found herself on the wrong side of the barrier. Now it's the boys who benefit from having me at home. Not that they're at home much; since school ended, they've been ...
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05.27.09Oft stubborn, peevish, sullen, pout, and cryOft stubborn, peevish, sullen, pout, and cry; Then nought can please, and yet I know not why. As many was my sins, so dangers too, For sin brings sorrow, sickness, death, and woe, And though I miss the tossings of the mind, Yet griefs in my frail flesh I still do find. Ann Bradstreet, The Four Ages of Man There are plenty of reasons to be peevish about searching for a job, especially in a sour economy. The "opportunities" disappear as quickly as they appear, owing to budget changes, project plans, drastic changes in direction or stultifying fear. Interesting jobs attract many candidates in ...
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04.27.09Spare these, and let thy time be when it willAt thy contagious darts, that wound the heads Of weeping friends, who wait at dying beds. Spare these, and let thy time be when it will; My bus’ness is to die, and thine to kill. Gently thy fatal scepter on me lay, And take to thy cold arms, insensibly, thy prey. Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea It's hard not to be of a somewhat macabre mind when looking at two disasters that are converging this week: if, in a novel, the swine flu outbreak had arrived in the midst of a global financial crisis, the reader would either (a) dismiss this as a preposterous coincidence, or ...
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04.24.09yet what grim society. . . Peterson's calls them 'social creatures,' yet what grim society: identical pilgrims, seed-like, brittle, pausing on the path only three seconds to touch another's face, some hoisting the papery carcasses of their dead in their jaws, which open and close like the clasp of a necklace. Ants by Joanie Mackowski It's starting to feel like summer now--Minnesota springs are a short and unpredictable affair--and one of the sure signs that things are warming up beneath ground is the sudden activity of ants. At the bus stop this morning, I noticed a swarm of them running along the seam in the sidewalk. When the kids joined me ...
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04.23.09Directed as by madnessI saw a ship of martial build (Her standards set, her brave apparel on) Directed as by madness mere Against a stolid iceberg steer, Nor budge it, though the infatuate ship went down. Herman Melville, The Berg (A Dream) The Titanic has been a major topic of discussion at my house for a couple months. I'm not sure where the interest in all things shipwreck-and-iceberg related came from--these obsessions are often a mystery to me--but the boys have devoured every book on the Titanic from the Minneapolis Library's children's section, and a fair number from the adult section. They know all the facts ...
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04.21.09a solace of ripe plums. . . They taste good to her You can see it by the way she gives herself to the one half sucked out in her hand Comforted a solace of ripe plums seeming to fill the air They taste good to her William Carlos Williams Reading the Confessions of a Bailout CEO Wife at Portfolio.com without giving in to boiling rage is a good exercise in the sort of ...
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03.31.09Unemployment Diary: thousands to his bidding speed. . . But patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, 'God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.' The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton (Modern Library), Sonnet 19: On his blindness March 30, 2009 Jack and Peter (especially Peter) have lately been fascinated with playing hearts. Peter is starting to catch on to the strategy of the game, and he mumbles under his breath, Rain-Man-like, ...
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03.31.09Unemployment Diary: A Mob of Solid BlissThey storm the earth and stun the air, A mob of solid bliss. Alas! that frowns could lie in wait For such a foe as this! Saturday Afternoon by Emily Dickinson March 27, 2009 Today was a good day. There were no "leads" from recruiters, no "updates" on "opportunities" that had suddenly dried up in the harsh sun of fear and trepidation, no new job postings on the Internet. Instead, I spent the afternoon with a bunch of second graders. In the boys' classes, each student has a week of being the "star," which culminates in a visit from a family member. Usually, Kelly ...
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