as the sunlight fades
drifts over faded rose petals
the evening air cools
Author: Carl Setzer
A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.
Jimothy!
Yesterday, I came across this post about Jimothy, something of a celebrity here in Seattle. The official description of him is simply that he’s a “deformed and belovedly bedraggled raccoon”. Perhaps he’s something of a mutant. I’m no biologist, so we’ll leave it there for now.
For me, though, the most delightful part of the story was brought about by Matt Inman (of the Oatmeal…yeah, I have a well-documented love for his work) this morning.
Ah, I thought it was perfect! Jimothy has made it as a Seattle cultural icon!
So, I hope that this gives you a positive energy boost to launch you into the weekend.
Amusement for a Submariner
First, welcome to the middle of the week! And, for that matter, the middle of the month.
If you’ve read enough here, you’ll know that I served in the US Navy aboard submarines. As such, I have a penchant for sub things. Thus, this Far Side delighted me more than (I’m sure) most folks.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one. And that your week is going well.
Economics, Austerity, and Dignity
I recently discovered Amy Kim, a creator posting on Instagram about Korean culture and history. As a black belt in Taekwondo, I have a deeper exposure to Korean culture than many folks in the States. But I still have a lot to learn. I had never heard of Korea’s IMF bailout in 1997.
For me, the most powerful lesson here is one of awareness. As something of an analyst, I can easily get immersed in numbers and spreadsheets. So much so that the impacts of decisions, the HUMAN impacts of decisions, can get abstracted away. I understand, at that abstract level, the value that this bailout and the ensuing austerity brought. Yet there were huge human impacts on people. Lives lost. And a rippling trauma that still haunts the Korean people.
So, the bold question: how do we manage things like economies, societies, and all that while recognizing human dignity? I wonder if there was a way to implement this solution in a way that mitigated the social destruction? Communicate, in some way, that the impacts upon these folks’ lives were not their fault, not a reflection upon their worth and value. That, in a project of this scale, managing the social impacts is just as valuable, perhaps even more so, than the economic ones.
Some wisdom from the Oatmeal
Just a quick bit this Friday.
I’ve long loved Matt Inman’s “The Oatmeal” (for instance, he’s long held the top spot in the Webcomics section of my blogroll). Most of the time, his work is pee-your-pants funny. Sometimes, though, it’s incredibly insightful. Today is one of the more insightful moments.
Anyway, I highly recommend subscribing. He doesn’t spam and, again, does great work.
And yet more thinking about AI
This morning, I read a LinkedIn post by Bryan Creely, who writes about career management and job hunting. (I highly recommend his work, btw).
I feel that this quote summarizes the whole thing:
They spent the last 3 years scaring us into believing we were about to go the way of the dinosaur.
And now they’re walking back that narrative and beginning to rehire for roles they eliminated due to AI.
That’s what pundits do, prognosticate, then shift, following the zeitgeist where it leads. That’s the case with AI. When they were selling AI to corporations and investors, it was all about replacing workers. That most jobs were going to be replaced by AI. But, anyway, as I expected, AI’s costs turned out to be more than estimated. I believe the abrupt rise in costs caught many companies completely off-guard, though I don’t think it was hard to predict. I wasn’t exactly right on my reasons, but I expected that token costs would have to go up. So, yay me.
Not too surprising, but we haven’t heard these pundits acknowledge their error or overestimation. Yet they are quietly walking back a lot of the hype. Better than a bursting bubble, though I’m not sure we’re out of the woods on that possibility yet.
One additional thing: I think those hyping AI were stunned by the way the public went negative on them. They seemed truly stunned by crowds of college grads booing them, by protesters at hearings for proposed data centers, and by the bipartisan nature of it all. But, really, your messaging leaned on the redundancy of most of the working population, and not-so-subtly hinted at mass unemployment and other such things. Add in electricity costs, and how the price increases are being pushed onto the communities these things are in, environmental costs, and it is so obvious that this was going to be the outcome.
So, it makes me feel better that we’re stepping back some from the irrational exuberance before this thing exploded. Yeah, I’m not convinced we’re free of the bubble collapsing, though my hope is that it’ll gently fizzle and deflate. I can be hopeful, after all.
Let me end with this comic from Pascal Bornett.
For the love of writing
I came across the image above via my Pinterest feed. As I love writing and its glorious accouterments: typewriters, journals, pens, stationery…all such lovely things for me…this image sung to me.
It makes me think of Kerouac, typing madly upon his spool of paper. Poets, journalists, writers of years past, clicking these keys magically. Yeah, I know these folks didn’t Bullet Journal, but at least the book has a classic style.
So, that’s how I started my day. How about you?
Some Additional Thoughts on Rebranding Myself
If you’ve read this site for a while, you’ll know I’ve been considering comms as a formal career path for ages. Here’s some additional background into how I got here.
I started studying photography back in junior high. I fell in love with writing in high school. These are the related things that have lingered in my life the longest. They’re also key things that brought me into blogging, though my love of technology also helped with that.
Over the years, I’ve spent time creating web content, creating and managing social media accounts, writing strategies, blogs, Google and Bing business pages. I’ve created social media audits. Crafted press releases. Google and Facebook ads. Flyers, postcards, billboards, Facebook pages, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram accounts.
And the web! I built and managed websites on WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. I also used Microsoft Front Page and FTP. And, holding an ATA in web design, I’ve built sites with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Also, I’ve managed newsletters. Back in the olden days, I wrote mailings in Quark, Publisher, and InDesign. With that, I loved my design classes focused on InDesign and Photoshop. I created email newsletters in Outlook, but have also used Mailchimp extensively. I’ve also used several CRM tools and built many types of campaigns within that.
Video? Yeah, I’ve created and edited videos in Premiere Pro. I’ve run cameras, audio, and media for live events and livestreams. I’ve streamed them via both YouTube and Facebook.
There are the basics: creating decks in PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Mediashout.
I did public policy and advocacy work for AARP, where I created postcard mailers, flyers, and t-shirts for a telemarketing campaign in Montana.
I worked for a printing company, where I got to do paste-up and other press assistant work, as well as bindery and bulk mailings.
So, I have an extensive background in this stuff. And it’s all stuff I’m proud of. I guess I see this as not so much a pivot, but as a focus. It’s where I’ll focus my skill growth and development. For instance, I’m leaning towards working towards a Communications Degree through WGU. I also want to spend some time diving deeper into data analytics, as I think that’s a crucial part of comms going forward.
AI, Communications, and Career Explorations
I watched this video yesterday from Network Chuck, and went and followed his advice.
Basically, I asked Claude Fable Five to consider my resume, what I’ve posted on my blog, and social media, tell me what kinds of themes you see, what I’m missing and what I should be doing. I was expecting something about project management, perhaps IT, maybe admin work. I was not expecting this summary:
- You’re a translator and a noticer, not a builder
- You’re a steward of place and memory
- Attention is your actual discipline
Nor was I expecting this: “Careerwise, that points to communications/digital stewardship for mission-rooted local organizations (which you’re already doing at EWC and Trinity, and which the web-consulting lane extends). Lifewise, it points to the writing.” So, I’ve long loved writing. It’s what I do in order to process life, whether that’s my haiku, or longer journaling, it’s what my soul loves and needs. Way back when, I quit a computer science major to study writing. My heroes are writers. It makes sense in so many ways. And, as Claude points out, I have >2k subscribers of this blog. I guess I’m doing something wright, er, right.
I’ve spent so much time exploring career options, trying to find the right place for me in this career world. Years of work, really. Even so, this was an eye opening exercise.
Writing has long been highly important to me. As such, it is also a focal point of my insecurities. I nickpick myself hard. Needless to say, it’s very affirming to read this from the AI luminary Claude Fable Five. I still have work to do to quell my insecurities, of course.
So, related to this, Claude suggests the following for my work: “Aim the job search at communications and community engagement roles, not IT or PM”. I’ve been working with it today to build a plan to move forward. I’ve started by tweaking this website, as well as my LinkedIn profile. I’m not in a raging hurry, so I’m fine with baby-steps.
It’s also recommending WGU’s Communications Degree as a pathway for growth, which is something I’ve played with. My hope is for an employer to cover that via tuition benefits. However, I might want to start that on my own, as neither of my roles offer that right now, and are unlikely to offer that sooner.
So, years of work, both exploring opportunities as well as writing/creating, I’m pleased to see this alignment coming forth. As I plan this pivot into something that aligns nicely with my interests and experience, I see a LOT of work on the horizon. But not a sense of dread. Looking forward to the next wave in my career.
Tonight’s Haiku
a gentle rainfall
cooling the summer air
calmness fills my soul