The Aerie
Seeing as I apparently don't blog any OTHER time, it's arguable that I am indeed blogging for my troll. Ah, but these days and weeks when I'm between jobs all start to fade into each other to the point where I look in my sock drawer, and they're all gone, and I look in my laundry hamper, and there they are all worn and I don't remember the intervening couple of weeks going by.
So I have Chet to thank for reminding me to get on here and post something! Thanks Chet!
But really, what's to blog? I wake, and if I'm ambitious I head to the gym with my spouse, and afterwards I throw myself into my classwork, grateful that I have something around which to focus my job-free days. This senior-level one-night-a-week seminar has SO MUCH reading that I can spend as much time as I like on my classwork and still never get it all done. Last week, for example, I had eight chapters to read in two different books - Senge's "Fifth Discipline" (70 pages) and Burke's "Organization Change" (150) - plus a 17-page handout and 22 page case study. That's 260 pages of reading dense text on business management. And then I had to complete an assignment based on that. Whew!
Job prospects move slowly along. I've had two interviews for one place and should get a third pretty soon. This one I'm likely to get, and I'll be well pleased if I do. The other opportunity is a permanent position which I'm not sure about. This one has been a trip: first they gave me a standard intelligence test. Then they gave me a modified Myers-Briggs personality test. THEN on a phone interview they e-mailed me code segments and asked me to identify the security vulnerabilities. Whew! That one had my head spinning, particularly since I started by telling the fellow that I stopped being a coder back in 1996.
Anyway I've got some prospects, and that's good. The other good thing is that my taxes are done (another advantage of not having a job) and I'm getting a substantial refund. This is due on the one hand to having paid taxes as if I was going to earn X dollars, and then actually earning X/2 dollars; and on the other hand due to the college education tax credits resulting from my paying for the twins' college bills and my own. The refund will, in a pinch, keep the mortgage paid for another month, and if I actually GET a job, will go towards paying down our truly impressive credit card debt.
So that's the latest! Thanks again to Chet for reminding me I need to blog. Gosh I might stop blogging completely if it weren't for him!
Posted by Albatross at February 11, 2010 10:03 PM | TrackBackHey Bob,
I'm flattered that I've prompted you to blog again - maybe I can get off my negative tip and actually engage in a regular dialogue. Before I saw this new post, I was already thinking that I wanted to comment again tonight that I'm sorry to hear about your job situation and hope that things turn around for you quickly. Now you share that you have twins in college on top of everything else? I hope your efforts bring you back to work soon! My dad was downsized from his job when I was in college, so I can relate to the pain.
Thanks! Yeah, before they started we had about enough put away to pay for a year of college, and I thought "Okay, good, that should get us across any extended unemployment across the next few years." Then my job was cut on August 31st. Hilarious!
It's not so bad though - I'm a contractor, so these things happen, and we'll weather the storm and clear up the financial debris later. But I appreciate your consideration.
Okay, off to bed!
Posted by: Albatross at February 11, 2010 10:47 PM