Day 3

It sounds like the Iranian Hostage days – doesn’t it?

…as feared…..

I’m having a brain fart and not thinking of anything interesting to blog.  Right now I’m blogging in my head during the day, but nothing to computer.  But my mornings aren’t in place yet and my evenings are decompression time.  Night time is trying to settle down for 4-5 hours of sleep.  I wish I could do more, but right now I’m too wound up I guess.

It’s like being back at my old job.  In bed at 11a.  Awake at 4:30 and out of bed at 5:15.  My first day commute was 21 minutes door to door.  Yesterday, due to closing of two lanes of road, it went to 50.  But I wasn’t preparing for 50.  I have one big pet peeve:  being late.  I could care less if other people are late (to a degree), but I cannot stand being late.  Especially on my 2nd day of work.

So, I’m planning on an early leave today….which you just know I’ll get there in 15 minutes and have an hour to kill before I’m supposed to be there.

The Mayor of Simpleton

I was with my last employer for 11 years – a huge organization where I knew most everyone. Or knew of them, at the very least. A peer of mine would call me ‘the mayor’. While we’d walk to lunch, usually a few dozen people would say “hi” to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve been ‘the new guy’.

But yesterday wasn’t bad. I met everyone who works at the office. Mind you there are only 60 people who work in this office as opposed to 13,000 who worked at my old place. There are only 600 people in the entire company, instead of 33,000 in my last.

Cleary the corporate culture cannot be the same. During my interview with the CEO he confirmed that by saying something that just kind of stumped me. Actually a few things.

• Failure is accepted. As long as you pick yourself up and keep going.

NEVER would such words be uttered in my prior organization. Even if you had never failed – the fear the executive staff put out there if you did was palpable.

• Backstabbing and/or gossiping is not tolerated.

Though I won’t say doing those things were officially encouraged in my previous enviornment, but no one ever put the brakes on loshon hora. In reality they normally hit the accelerator. It’s how many many people got ahead.

I’m hardly exempting myself from that behaviour, but right or wrong – it is what one did to survive. It was a learned trait and it will be nice not to have to use it as a method of advancement. Or used against you.

If the day wasn’t so so so so so grey, I would have taken some pictures of my 25th floor view. When it gets a little brighter and clearer I will do and post.

This is going to be an interesting chapter in my life. I have to live it. You only have to choose to read it.

It’s a New Dawn…It’s a New Day

…and I’m feelin’ good.

Today is my first day of work. Well, first day since October 2006.

I have to tell you – these last two weeks I’ve been more nervous and out of sorts than my entire unemployment.

As predicted in September/October 2006, I would start getting bites on new jobs after the first of the year. Any business tied to January fiscal calendar start was not going to be hiring the last quarter of the year – so I had to wait. I mean, I didn’t wait – I looked, but got nowhere. But come early January, things started moving.

I don’t want to look a gift-horse in the mouth or sound like I’m complaining – I just got three decent nibbles all at once. When I only had one, I was thrilled with it. When I was into that process and got a second one, I started questioning my own decision making. The ‘what-ifs’. The “if/or”. Add a third contender to the mix and I became paralyzed with fear, insecurity and downright panic. Part of my apprehension was financial. Part revolved around benefits. Part was the devil you know. And part was what would be a really cool job. For me the stress was horrible.

For added discomfort, it really came down to timing. Jobs offered, jobs proposed and a late contender from left field. Logistically I was trying to figure how to put off A until I hear what C says. Then B upgrades from a proposed job to a real real one and naturally they need to fast track it. Fudge (but I didn’t say ‘fudge’)!! Turns out there is no easy way to do this with out pissing someone(s) off.

I somewhat hedged my bets and let company A go. Though they were the most lucrative, in the long run I don’t think it would have been the best fit. Company B was the devil I knew. Promises of great career advancement and projects at which I could excel. But I had to really remind myself of the environment that existed before. I felt I was blinding myself to a job prospect and the end of my severance.

Ruckiry (not Jon’s boss), company C was very cool with everything. They entered late into this picture and I was very up front where I stood in my processes. They stepped up to the plate, getting me in earlier than anticipated and putting out an offer as soon as possible.

It’s not my nature to strong arm this way. I know people do it to press for an answer and make themselves more desirable, but as a hiring manager those tactics never worked on me…why should they work for me? I was up front about that too. But they came through. Though financially, it was the lowest offer, it is the best job.

I am excited about the job. I’m nervous about the job. But unlike the previous two weeks, it’s good nerves.

My blogging habits are going to shift here I’m sure. The job entails 50% travel and I will have to adjust to not having my entire day free. But you will hear from me.

Ye Olde Photoshoppe

Where do I even begin with this?

I assumed a friend of mine had gotten a new Macbook Pro and was fooling around, much like I’ve done many-a-time in Microcenter. But no – he’s had one of those for quite awhile and still fools around with it. Obviously.

Isn’t it just a little scary to know that he (the top fellow) has been a faculty member at art/design college and also runs his own photo design studio.

(click image to enlarge)

I can tell you that both ‘models’ represent much better in real life. But really……how could they not? However, you might want to see references if you hire him to do your portrait photos.

*please note – no names, institutions or states were mentioned in this post.

Is Death Funny?

Kind of. Sometimes. And in the right context.

Take two recent instances:

1. I was driving down the street near a local funeral home, where more than once I’ve been caught stuck waiting for a procession of dozens and dozens or cars to end. Some dead people are either really popular or people are really checking to see that the bastard is dead. Probably no in between. Not so much this time. A funeral guard pulls out into the street to let the hearse get into traffic, only to be followed by one car and one pick-up.

On one hand it was kind of sad. On the other, it kind of made me smile, for a couple reasons. One was that the folks thought enough about the deceased to have the entire funeral. By the same token, I was thinking ‘why’? At that point have a graveside service. I guess these are not weddings when you know how will be showing and roughly how many. Catch as catch can.

2. We were at my parents the other day and they are the kind of folks who probably shook their heads at the Beatles and their mop tops. For the most part, if it wasn’t Rodgers & Hammerstein, my parents stopped purchasing music that was made when Benny Goodman died.

So during the course of the evening my mother put on some music I grew up having been forced to listen to and never enjoyed. Some song came on and my mother had commented that she used to be able to play it on her……..wait for it…………………..ukulele.

That stopped me in my tracks for a few seconds. I said, ‘you played ukulele?’. Replying that she had and didn’t I know about it, I had an immediate response, but held off for about 16 seconds (which is an eternity to me!) while I tried to gauge the room.

“These things would be nice to know for your eulogy.”

I’ll give her his, she laughed and laughed.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (I don’t)

Ok. That last part is a lie.

So I had to go to the local grocery store yesterday. It is the one where everyone shops – including furry gay men (it’s a long story…don’t axe).

I knew that Megamillions was getting up there, but I never hear if anyone ever wins. Though most the stores sell tickets and have these placards to tell how much is in the jackpot, if anything is ever written in to begin with, it is usually a few drawings old. They just do not update.

Well I don’t bet regularly. Usually it has to be in the eight digit range to get my attention. I mean – who can retire on $53 million?? That’s crazy! But the kiosk is on the way out of the store, so I stop and ask ‘how much Megamillions is this week?’.

Can anyone guess what the answer was? I know one person who can. (Actually, I know four.)

As g-d is my witness, the clerk replied, “It’s always dollar.”

Since this has happened to me before and has been a running joke for 16 years (yes, January 1989!), I could not help but laugh. She realized the error in a nano-second, but I probably made her feel bad due to my laughing. Honestly I wasn’t laughing at her, though she didn’t know it. I’ll make it up to her when I cash-out the big pay day.

(on a completely unrelated note – I woke up with Depeche Mode’s ‘Black Celebration’ playing in my head.)

HPV

In an odd way, I’m really enjoying the discussions from states and citizens concerning the mandatory use of a drug that could deter cervical cancer in women.

Naturally, one of the sticking points is that the Human Papillomavirus can only be transmitted sexually. And to get the vaccine would be condoning sexual behaviour in teens and pre-teens. Or so say concerned parents. The other thorn in the side is the term ‘mandatory’. The vaccine can also saves lives.

Each year in the U.S. about 61,000 women get cervical cancer and 3,700 die from it. It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women around the world. The vaccine protects against four HPV types, which together cause 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts.

I can’t argue or agree with the science of the drug or the testing methods to get FDA approval. Opponents are quick to point out the adverse reactions and the issues that occurred during clinical trials. That’s fine. But is it fair? What I continually don’t see in similar studies is how those same talking points compare to other drugs on the market. It might just be the standard – for better or worse.

Citizens, and so far the only ones I hear about are in Texas, are up in arms and think that the government has no business in telling people what should be done to their bodies. 10 to 1, these are the exact same people who say that the government should be allowed to tell certain people what to do with their bodies by banning abortion.

The ‘mandatory’ thing means absolutely nothing. Each parent can opt out of having their child participate. And you know it is better for the kids to get cervical cancer than it is for them to be sexually active….because getting the vaccine will automatically make their kids sluts and whores.

I agree the dealings with Merck and Texas are a little shady on how they got this all going, but in healthcare terms, how is this not like inoculations for Polio and all the other things for which we got boosters? Those saved suffering. Those saved lives.

Beautiful Red Dress

I have a friend who has a sister. She is a bit more conservative than said friend, but is the most liberal of his other family. As they visited and discussed potential 2008 nominees, the sister said she didn’t think Hillary should be elected as that no woman should be control of ‘the button’ – due to their emotional state, not their logical one.

While I assume that Aunt Flo stopped visiting Hillary a several years ago, I was kind of taken aback that people still and really felt this as being a legitimate reason – pre or post menopausal. With me being a man who has four sisters, it never occurred to me as being rational thinking, and yet this was coming from a woman.

‘The button’ isn’t under a glass case that one just flips up and pushes. It’s not Commissioner Gordon’s phone to Batman! It’s not the Easy button from Staples. I don’t think these things can be pushed at a whim, cramp or hot flash!

There are legitimate reasons to question Hillary’s candidacy – but riding the cotton pony isn’t one of them.

The exchange got me thinking of a Laurie Anderson song, “Beautiful Red Dress” from her album, Strange Angels. The red dress isn’t a dress at all. It’s a metaphor. …and please plant tongue, firmly in cheek.

Well they say women shouldn't be the president
Cause we go crazy from time to time
Well push my button baby here I go
Yeah look out baby
I'm at high tide

Shopping w/Blobby

Yet another installment in the drudgery that is everyday shopping. The camera-phone makes it a bit more fun – though I get looks whenever I take pics of products. Like I care what people think!

I want a second opinion.

Spinach pancakes?  As if the real things didn’t give me Icky Pancake Feeling (or more commonly known as IPF).

The picture does not provide the best representation of the product.  The ‘pancakes’ are as green as Yoda and look just as edible.  Icky, indeed!!!

RECORD OF THE MONTH

I figured I’d do a monthly ‘what I’m listening to’ kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it’s my blog! So there!

These may or may not be newly released disks. They might not even be a good disk – just what is been in heavy rotation in my car (as usually the iPod is playing anywhere else).

30 yrs old!!! Can you frickin‘ believe it?

Rumours is 3 decades old this month. Arguably it is one of the best recordings in rock and/or roll. Inarguably, it is one of the most successful – spending 31 weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 and selling more than 8 million copies in 1977 alone and 18 million to date. It was, I believe, the first pop album to have four top 10 singles. In my lifetime I’ve owned three vinyl copies and am now on my second compact disk version. I played this record to death!!

Regardless of its age, the disk holds up. And well! People will say that there isn’t a bad song on it….but I would disagree. I continually, and always have, skipped right over “Don’t Stop”. This was a pain in the ass with pre-laser technology. Pick up the needle and set down on the the next song – ugh! Though voting for Clinton in 1992 was never not an option, I loathed the fact that he used it as his campaign song.

The songs are very band driven (save basically solo efforts by Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie on “Never Going Back Again” and “Songbird” respectively) – though in reality most were pieced together over a year’s time. The vocals are good and the harmonies tight. I’m still a huge fan of “The Chain”, “Dreams”, “Oh Daddy” and “Gold Dust Woman”.

In 1985, Warner Bros. rushed out a very inferior CD version of the disk. I bought it because, well, I rarely used my turntable. Vinyl actually held more highs and lows, sonically, than the compact disk. Finally in 2004 a remastered copy appeared on the market (hence my second CD copy). The sound is so much better, but naturally they couldn’t leave well enough alone.

The album is now two disks long. The second disk is mostly outtakes, demos and alternate versions. Honestly, I think I’ve played this once. Though somewhat interesting, there isn’t much fully formed that one would want to hear over and over. The almost acoustic version of “Gold Dust Woman” isn’t bad, nor is the outtake from “Oh Daddy”.

But they even fiddled with the main disk. Back in the day, I loved “Silver Springs”. It was a track that was deleted from the vinyl disk because of time constraints (remember when records could only hold 45 minutes or so of music?) and slapped it on the b-side of “Go Your Own Way”. So ‘they’ inserted it here – taking the disk out of original sequence. And they had to mess with the song itself and remix the hell out of it. You’re better off hearing that song on The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, which is even different than The Chain: 25 Years of Fleetwood Mac.

Oddly enough, as much as I loved this disk, it wouldn’t be a Desert Island Disk for me – even though I pretty much financed their coke habits with the number of copies I have purchased over the years. If I had to pick a Fleetwood Mac disk as a DID, it would be Tusk.

30 years. Do you feel old now?

But if for nothing else, the cover of Rumours has brought us this: