We’ve had quite enough of the wet stuff, I believe. The Snoqualmie Falls below aren’t, generally, this full. Both impressive, and scary. Glad I don’t live that close.
Category: Personal Reflections
Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection
Thoughts on the job search
There are times that I hate this whole job-searching thing. All the customizing resumes, tweaking searches, poking around random websites, trying to gauge what recruiters are seeking, finding ways to bring my resume to the top of the swarm…yeah, fun. Of course, one of the most fun parts of all this is explaining what kind of career I’ve had. What a long, strange trip THAT’s been.
That path has been, as Gary Erickson (founder of Clif Bars) would put it, has been upon a white lined road. While journeying in Europe, he found a map that differentiated the main, heavily traveled roads with red and the smaller, lesser frequented ones with white. In his book, he uses that analogy to explain the path his business has journeyed, as well as his viewpoint on decisions. My winding career, though, makes it hard at times to describe what I am, at least in terms of my career. Perhaps it’s easier to talk about my foci right now.
I am seeing my deepest gifts as administrative, if not as an admin assistant or secretary. What I’ve called “executive baby-sitting” is not my calling. Those executives that I’ve admined for successfully have been quite self-sufficient and needed my assistance for more project and team centric work. Anyway, this really means that I work best in team support roles.
Right now, my main focus is on landing something close by; aka: eliminating the commute. My past few positions have had long ones. Now, I haven’t really minded them. In some ways I like having the down-time. However, I am finding my role as household manager to be rather core to my being. Proximity to home is needed to maximize my effectiveness there. The challenge? My local network is pathetic. I am well connected in Seattle and Bellevue, but South Snohomish County? Not so much. Needless to say, I’m working on that.
We do have several large players around here: Boeing being mammoth, but also Premera and Philips have significant operations here. Then there are the smattering of biotech firms landing in Bothell (an ever growing list). With my love of public-side work, I’m also poking around local government.
It’s been rather quite the past few days on the replies from hiring folks. I’m confident that will change soon. My home-side work is keeping me both busy and happy. In the last stint of unemployment, I was a bit unbalanced with job-seeking. Ironically, it was when I started focusing on balancing my life that I found work. This round I’ve been focused on balance: health (exercise, mostly), expanding my knowledge of both key skills as well as the local area. Anyway, that’s another post.
~Peace…
Some Ideas About The Future Of TV
I’m watching G4‘s Attack of the Show. I’ve checked out the show, and the network, a few times since they merged with TechTV. I’ve not been too impressed with G4’s programming work, as it seems to mostly consist of reruns of COPs.
They may be silly & goofy (The show is not for everyone. Shall we say it’s a tad bit ribald?), but I think they have glimpsed the future. That we’re expecting to be interacted with, not just fed. We have something to say about a broadcast, and that others are interested in engaging with each other. It’s an interesting experiment, and bears watching. Hopefully, G4 can do something interesting with the concept. If not, someone else will.
Mickey Hart and Global Drum Project – NatGeoMusic.net
I first came across Mickey Hart years back in the early 90s with the first iteration of Planet Drum. Listening left me in awe; the combination of global rhythms into this amazing blend of rhythm and harmony. Speaking to the core of my being, I constantly cycled that cassette. Eventually stretching and warping the poor thing.
Besides the quality of the work, I also find Mr. Hart’s equal footing with the “other” percussionists to be great. Shows me he is a musician to the core of his being.
I’m not sure how long this has been up on YouTube, but it still is delightful. National Geo does fantastic work.
Coffee and Fast Food
This morning got away from me. Took much longer than normal to get out the door, thus got my son to before-school care right about time for him to go meet the bus. While there, the director (a long-time friend) told me she was having issues with her printer (which I had installed last week). So, more time before I finally get breakfast. At moments like these, I’m sorely tempted by McDonald’s breakfast. Today I succumb. I decide to take advantage to this moment and finally try McDonald’s coffee.
You see, I worked at Starbucks back in 2007 when Consumer Reports decided McDonald’s had better coffee than Starbucks. CR dropped in my esteem after this. It seemed crazy to me to compare Starbucks, a coffee roaster to McDonald’s, Dunkin, and Burger King…coffee buyers. On top of this, coffee is procured from a myriad of vendors. Adding to the fun, one of the many companies McDonald’s & Burger King buy coffee from is Starbucks (or its sub-company, Seattle’s Best). I thought it would be hysterical if the CR gang were comparing Starbucks to Starbucks.
Perhaps because of my annoyance noted above, and/or commitment to my (then) employer, I never actually tried McDonald’s coffee. So, here we go. It wasn’t too bad. Well balanced, smooth, a little tangier than I usually go for. With a little sugar, it has a flavor much like soda. Clearly Latin American beans, very light and balanced. None of the earthiness of Asian beans, and no African notes, either. Not horrible, not bad; a pretty “middlin” coffee.
No, I won’t be dropping my regular stops at Ladro or Starbucks. However, I’ll drop some of my annoyance at McD’s. I’ll keep my condescension at Consumer Reports, though.
College Majors
Oh, I feel this pain…
I Love xkcd
Courtesy of my friends at xkcd.com.
Sharing Stories
Starbucks created this video featuring LA Artist Brady Smith, which I discovered here. Very nice piece.
Mental Clarity and Purpose-Filled Living
One must clear the mind. Empty the random, blistering fast data stream and its withering pace, grasping calmness, tranquility. This mind-place crucial for grasping truth, the “real”, reclaiming values. Reactive living uproots tranquility and derails the purpose-filled live.
Made where?
This shirt, "100% cotton, made in Malaysia" gave me pause. Was the shirt
sewn in Malaysia? Or was the cotton grown there? Curiosity…gets me all the
time.
Sent from my Windows Phone