A slight sense of motion
My main accomplishment thus far post layoff was leveling Jacopy (my World of Warcraft pally) up to 80- yeah, it mainly was a matter of applying (read: wasting) time, but given that he's been pottering around in his mid 70s for the better part of a year, it was time well spent, at least on a personal level. Frontline has a somewhat scary program available about the current generation's feckless and attention starved ways; in it they go on about WoW and how otherwise socially introverted kids these days manage to form fairly elaborate social relationships in the game. Well n good for them, but the only reason I've not been booted from my current WoW guild is that I'm in good with the Guild Mistress, the gracious & most sagacious Lady B from the halcyon days of the Old Masters. Even among social misanthropes, I stand out. Whee.
I keed, I eked. Mainly, I've been doing some shopping, sprucing up my wardrobe and my working tools by acquiring stuff that's 'useable, useful, durable', as Bruce Sterling put it so nicely in that talk I linked a good while back. Not 'cheap' either, but that's where the first two points come in handy; keeping focus helps in winnowing out the chaff, as it were. It really is remarkable how much stuff our culture produces that barely meets one of any of these criteria.
It's also exceedingly hard for me to visualize any way in which I can make as much again as I used to make (which is part of why I never quite could bring myself to stop suckling on that corporate tit on my own...) , but I'm still OK with that, mostly. I mean yeah- way back when, my Dad explicitly walked away from corporate life (or at least it's redneck equivalent in the oil field) in order to chase his personal dreams, and...
Well, it didn't quite work out so well, tho not entirely for reasons he had control over. But thats part of why you take the risks- most of us with a vested interest in the matter like to think that he's happier for having followed the less secure path. Happier in some sense of the word, anyway.
Speaking of Dad, he's supposed to be getting out of the hospital today, after checking himself a week ago because of blood sugar & respiratory problems. At least, we're hoping he's getting out, as one of the docs treating him is talking about checking Dad into a long term care facility for up to a two month regimen. Other docs disagree, and he was supposed to get out yesterday, but that got moved to today, according to a short SMS dad sent me late last night. Here's hoping.
Up this weekend: a Saint Patrick's day camping trip out to East Texas, and recompiling my resume. Wish me luck.
I keed, I eked. Mainly, I've been doing some shopping, sprucing up my wardrobe and my working tools by acquiring stuff that's 'useable, useful, durable', as Bruce Sterling put it so nicely in that talk I linked a good while back. Not 'cheap' either, but that's where the first two points come in handy; keeping focus helps in winnowing out the chaff, as it were. It really is remarkable how much stuff our culture produces that barely meets one of any of these criteria.
It's also exceedingly hard for me to visualize any way in which I can make as much again as I used to make (which is part of why I never quite could bring myself to stop suckling on that corporate tit on my own...) , but I'm still OK with that, mostly. I mean yeah- way back when, my Dad explicitly walked away from corporate life (or at least it's redneck equivalent in the oil field) in order to chase his personal dreams, and...
Well, it didn't quite work out so well, tho not entirely for reasons he had control over. But thats part of why you take the risks- most of us with a vested interest in the matter like to think that he's happier for having followed the less secure path. Happier in some sense of the word, anyway.
Speaking of Dad, he's supposed to be getting out of the hospital today, after checking himself a week ago because of blood sugar & respiratory problems. At least, we're hoping he's getting out, as one of the docs treating him is talking about checking Dad into a long term care facility for up to a two month regimen. Other docs disagree, and he was supposed to get out yesterday, but that got moved to today, according to a short SMS dad sent me late last night. Here's hoping.
Up this weekend: a Saint Patrick's day camping trip out to East Texas, and recompiling my resume. Wish me luck.