Intellectual Poison

Posting to the blog has been irregular of late because I've been as busy as I've ever been with work, with looking for work, with side work and, last but certainly not least, my family. Oh yeah, and getting some hours at the pre-school co-op as the school photographer which has been an interesting and occasionally aggravating experience.

Amid it all I am trying to get my bike rides in to keep the tenuous grip on what passes for my sanity these days. I can't complain too much though. Weather reports had us ready for a wet and indoors weekend but we didn't get so much as a drop and today ended up being quite nice out. I got a ride in first thing yesterday morning, nothing special, just a couple of loops on the slough paths. But it felt good to get spinning again nonetheless. Today was more of a surprise ride. I came home from a couple of photography appointments, that went very well, to find an empty house. Rather than ask where everyone was, I loaded up my bike into the car and headed up to Santa Cruz. I parked outside my old house in Seabright and enjoyed a slower paced warm up pedal to the base of Delaveaga where the real riding began!

It wasn't a super long ride, maybe ten miles total, but it really felt good to get back on dirt and mud and enjoy some of the nature that's been hiding behind sheets of rain for weeks.

This next week promises to be busy too. Two schools tomorrow, the second going into the early evening. One school or department each day the rest of the week with the photography make up day at the pre-school towards the end of the week. Also in the mix is an evening of computer work at one of my office manager's house and an open house at Grady's new kindergarten school.

One of the few benefits of my semi-employment in the school district is that I can basically choose whatever school I want my son to attend. The school we are assigned to is an under-performing crap hole, to be indelicate. The school he is going to is one of the best performing and most highly regarded schools in the area. The only other school regarded higher is one of the other schools I work at. Yes, I do take some measure of pride in working at two of the best schools in this district.

The downside is that the school is in downtown Watsonville. I don't particularly like this town very much, I don't care for the mentality, the gangs and the general fuck-you-gringo attitude I get alot of places. But to make the best of a pretty crappy situation, this school is it.

I guess I'm rambling now. I'm writing this while running tests and anti-spyware on an XP laptop I've been working on off and of for the last week. It does some stuff no problem and then totally freezes up and crashes with other stuff and not necessarily the same things each time. One thing the recent work I've been doing on Win machines has taught me is how much I hate the XP operating system. It is utter crap, like it was designed by a drunk monkey or something.

Give me my Macs and don't go yapping at me about fan boi shit. My Macs just work and work well. These Win XP machines freeze up, slow down or just plain lag ass all the day long.

Anyway, I need to get this party wrapped up so I can get to bed at a reasonably decent hour so I can hit the ground running tomorrow. So much to do, not enough time. Always.

I think I might try to plan an IP universe update post. I've been writing to several of my other blogs lately and think it might not be a bad idea to toot my own horn, as it were.

For now though, time to feed the dog, get the coffee machine ready and call it a day.

Labels: microsoft, school, update, work, xp

My job is, at its most basic level, to solve other people's problems. Most of those problems could almost certainly be solved by the people who have them but it is easier for them to have me do it for them regardless of the fact that I've got a pretty ridiculous tasklist.

And sometimes I feel the ponderous weight of that tasklist on my shoulders and get a little short with people that can't be bothered to try and resolve some of the simple problems they face. Like inserting footers into a Word doc or figuring out that double clicking menus in Word makes them stay open.

But what really starts to grind my gears is when people get testy with me to come and fix their computers that they fucked up by not following clearly written instructions. I.e. don't plug this computer in or start it up unless you are a district technician. Doing so mangles the set up process and means I will have to spend an hour or more undoing your stupid mistake. When those people start getting peevy on me, I have no problem flat out telling them that they screwed up their computer and they have been moved to the absolute bottom of the list. I'll get to your machine in March, maybe.

I get it, I know the district is over-taxed, underfunded and teetering on the brink of total collapse thanks to year after year of budget cuts. What none of these people realize is that I was cut out of the budget as well and have only been able to come back as a contractor without benefits. Which means if I get sick or hurt, my family is in serious, serious trouble.

Which also means that I am and have been in full-on job hunt mode. And when I land another job, I will quit this one without a moment's regret. No wait, that's not quite right. Of the four sites that I regularly work at, one is a massive clusterfuck. The other three are good sites with good people who need help. I will likely try to stay on at two of them because I genuinely like the schools and the people.

But, as it is, I've got far too much work, not enough time and more distractions than is reasonable for someone without ADHD much less me and my fly-away brain.

Some other thoughts. Part of the problem with this school district is that departments tend to think of themselves as standalone entities. That is, there is very little non-codified cooperation between them. If one department has an excess of some technology asset and another department has a a dirth, there is no mechanism or desire for the one to pass along the stuff to the other. And sometimes that surplus turns into junk while it sits in a closet being hoarded somewhere. It drives me nuts when I am told by my director to not even look at another computer when I'm on his time but that I should fix his dept.'s computers when I'm working for other sites.

This system is broken and in the initial stages of collapse. There are too many punchclock employees that could give a shit about anything but getting one day closer to their retirement.

Why yes, yes I am a little tired of the mentality I have to deal with every day I'm here.

But hey, at least there aren't thugs in the parking lot with guns today, that's a plus.

Labels: work

I did not magically expect 2010 to come charging in with all the answers to our many problems. I wouldn't have minded, of course, but I certainly wasn't expecting it.

We've rolled into a new year which means we've cleaned out calendars, thrown out as much 2009 stuff as we can and are working towards packing up our house for an expected planned move in the next month or so. We don't have a place to move to yet which is sort of holding up the process.

Here's a quick rant about the ad spammers who waste time posting garbage rental listings on Craigslist. Please, go wander off somewhere and die. You are wrecking a valuable and needed resource with your spam posts for fake rentals at ridiculous prices. It seems like Craigslist could be doing a far better job of shutting down spam accounts but they seem pretty content to play whack-a-mole with the ads as they crop up and are flagged by frustrated users like me.

Anyway.

The new year and decade have started off pretty much where the last year and decade left off. Which is to be expected since the changeover is more cosmetic than cosmic.

I am still pursuing a better job, still pursuing a less expensive place to live, still pursuing what measure of Kyani dream I can (maybe more on that later but no promises), still working to improve our current lot, still pursuing a better school to place our boys in, still pursuing a new rentor at the hair salon, still pursuing on all our fronts and making slow progress across the board.

And that's just the first line. There are too many secondary projects to even list but are also important to keep propelling forward or they risk stagnating and dying on the vine. I don't know how other people are able to keep on top of the ever-growing piles of things they need to get done. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to get lost under the avalanche of crap to do.

But we plug on, we push forward, we make inroads, we cross off minor goals on the trail to the bigger completions. But sometimes it is nice to take on a short project just for the satisfaction of seeing it from start to finish in one go.

It is going to be a busy 2010 for us. How about you?

Labels: new year, projects, tasklist, work

“Most look up and admire the stars. A champion climbs a mountain and grabs one.”

1. 95% of the people in the world say "Show me and I'll go do" Champions say "I'll go do and show the world"
2. You can make excuses or you can make money but you can't do BOTH!
3. Competition is a myth, the only true competitor of you is yourself. Stop comparing yourself or your success to others.
4. True forgiveness is saying "Thank you for giving me this experience" and being grateful for the growth and experience that it brought into your life.
5. While we can't deny the struggles and setbacks, neither should we be restrained by them.
6. Discipline will lead you from discomfort to comfort.
7. Excuses allow us to justify the reality that we have created.
8. Always bet on yourself
9. Vision without action is a dream.... Action without vision is a nightmare
10. Aim for the moon, even if you miss, you'll reach the stars.

Labels: motivations, work

Perhaps rundown is a bad word to start Monday with. Its the start of the week, another week full of promise, opportunity and chance. What happens this week is, to some degree, within my power to control. I could slack off completely and not do my chores. I could get to bed earlier, get more quality sleep and be even better equipped to complete the myriad tasks I have before at the start of each day. I could set any number of goals for myself and work like a rabid dog to cross them off.

There are a thousand different threads going right now. So many different tasks and chores and errands and things to do that it is a chore in and of itself to keep a list of everything that has to get done. And some things just keep sliding off the table only to come back for more inattention later. I've been trying to apply the Getting Things Done credo to my days but find that too many tasks are more than 5 minute jobs and get added to lists.

I could slam out a quick list of things I need to do but I'm sure your list of things to do is as long, as complicated (well maybe not quite as complicated since I work for three different departments and support close to a thousand people now) and as overwhelming. But there are other tasks on top of these that are just as if not more important.

The hardest thing for me is to stay on a task, ride it through to completion and then cross it off the list. My ADHD medication is helping me tremendously but the very nature of my job and life is distraction after distraction impacting my process. It is very hard to keep putting down one thing to pick up another and then be able to return to the first thing and know whereabouts I'd stopped in the process.

I'm not sure if all of this is making too much sense but, if it is not, then maybe it gives you a tiny glimpse inside my mind and how disjointed it is in there.

Some of the things that I am looking forward to:
- Cyclelicio.us has asked me to ride and review a demo bike.
- Signing up several people as Kyani customers.
- Completing and crossing off the two wedding projects from the summer.

And I'm not even going to touch the tasks I have to do that I'm not really looking forward to. But suffice it to say (or write as the case currently is) that the lists are long and even then are the tip of the iceberg.

So now I should get back to work. I've been writing this while finally finishing up some serious problems with one of my teacher's PCs. It is, at this moment, about 98% done. Which is awesome since it was about 50% done when I came in to work today. Woot progress!

Labels: tasklist, work

So, among the many things I continue to learn about this current school clusterfuck that has seen me get laid off, lose my benefits, get hired back on a part time basis and the slow and painful metering out of my tech account permissions and authority, is that I have shot myself in the foot..

One of the ironic and maddening things I've recently learned is that, in order to save what job I now have, I completely screwed over the chance of getting back to the job I used to have which was out of reach anyway due to union bumping rules and seniority totem poles. Did that make any sense?

Let me see if I can slow it down and break it apart for easier parsing.

When I was laid off last June, I was told that I stood at an unlikely sixth position on the rehire totem pole based solely on the relative merits of the date that I was hired into the school district. Which meant, given the situation then, I was almost certainly not going to get hired back.

So, I scrambled a bit, worked out a deal with one of the schools that really likes me, we hired me back on a special contract basis that circumvented the union rules. The upside is that I have work and some money coming in. The downside is that I no longer qualify for benefits.

The even worse downside is that the special arrangement I worked out with my school has been replicated at other sites. So now other positions are opening up but they are all contract positions which cost the sites about half what the same position cost last year but deny the workers any chance of getting benefits because of it.

My choices were to leave the system as it was and not have a job at all this year or to create this new paradigm for my position and screw myself out of benefits. Both options kind of suck but at least the second one is going to allow us a little more breathing room to figure out what our next move will be.

It isn't ideal by any stretch and I'd better not get sick or hurt (unless its on the job) or we're in a very bad place. It sucks that the economy is in such a bad place that our district has had 10% budget cuts the last two years and then was told to chop another $10 million by December. And, tomorrow, I'll be meeting with another group within the district that is looking to hire me for a couple more days of the week. Which is great and all but I'd be alot happier about the whole situation if I could get some damned health insurance and benefits.

Labels: snafu, work

Just a little peek inside my busy little mind of the things that are going on in there.

State Park closures - I was speaking a lady over the weekend who mentioned that some of the pending State Park closures California is considering would include some of our rather magnificent beaches that are run by the state. I think this would be an absolutely horrible idea to try and shut down the beach. But then, I think its a ridiculous idea to allow our forested State Parks to turn into massive hobo camps if they close them to the public.

Seniority and Bumping - its great to be a part of a bureaucracy if you are sufficiently high up the totem pole to be doing the bumping. It sucks if you are fairly new and easy to bump. I checked with my school district's HR office the other day and found out that I'm 6th on the totem pole of site techs to be called back. I'm not holding my breath.

Fictionarium - I've been on a roll creating new words lately. From my recent post about the development of a Twitter lexicon to random new words, I think I'm running at about two or three new words a day right now. Which means my brain is working pretty well.

Cycling - I've been making more of an effort to get out on my bike lately. I've averaging about two rides a week right now and am trying to push that number up to three per week. I find my body is happier, my brain is happier and it just makes me a more balanced guy. The one or two downsides are that my bike is in bad need of a major (and expensive tuneup) and I need to get some good cycling shoes with stiffer soles. My feet are starting to get really sore during the long descents down the backside of Nisene Marks. But I'm still loving my rides more and more.

Kyani - Our business is starting to really get going which makes the likelihood of my having to go back to a full time job less and less which is just fine by me. You are welcome to check out my blog that I've started about my experiences with Kyani and network marketing.

More to come as I'm headed out the door with Nande and the boys to go for a walk at the dog park.

Labels: catchup, cycling, Kyani, work

It is, as I start this, 8:00 am on the dot. I should be at work, turning on computers, cursing the after school guy for not cleaning up the mess the kids make while he ignores them and surfs Cartoon Network's anime movies. If I'm lucky then I'd have one of my favorite students in the computer lab helping me out, requesting some Johnny Cash on iTunes so she can rock out a little bit.

But none of that is happening and only partially because school is out for the summer. For one, summer school is kicking off and, for some ridiculous reason, it starts earlier than regular school even though it has a shorter day overall. No, I do not understand who thought this would be a good idea.

I'd originally applied to work summer school and keep doing my tech support that I've been doing. But, upon some thought, it didn't make sense to do it. The pay is barely above what I will make on unemployment and I'd have to get up even earlier to work. So, after discussing it with my wife like any good, smart man should do because making monetary decisions in a vacuum is a good way of getting in big trouble, I decided to concentrate my energies this summer on our network marketing venture with Kyani.

To that end, we are going to be spending the summer working on our local prospects, taking trips up to the east bay and possibly beyond with the end goal of building out our business to the point where we are earning the same (though, honestly, we'll need to earn more to compensate for my lost benefits) as from my full-time work in the school district.

I've been laid off before but never with such a great opportunity to generate our own future and I'm not really going to miss having to get up before 7 to get to work on time. Though I will miss the teachers and the kids quite a bit.

Labels: layoff, paradigm shift, work

I thought this week was going to be a pretty easy one, unplug some computers, clean up the computer lab a little and enjoy the last few days of employment peacefully. But, as it turns out, there's a crapload of stuff to do and not anywhere near enough time to get it all done.

I'm going to get as much done as I can but there's definitely going to be things that should have gotten done but didn't get done. And they'll likely not get done until midway through next year as there will be no tech support to get them done.

I do not envy those that are left in a system as it slowly grinds itself apart.

Labels: tasklist, work

And another opens. The closing door is my work in the school district. It has been illuminating, exasperating, depressing and, sometimes, really gratifying. I will be leaving with a much improved technical support skill set, I've gained a huge amount of knowledge of how networks function, how to fix all manner of computer problems, how to manage a massive pile of disparate work at several locations. I've also learned some of the ways to work within a massive and often idiotic bureaucracy.

The exasperating part is seeing how deeply under funded education is and seeing how the cuts effect the school's ability to instruct children, seeing how much of education is smoke and mirrors and duct tape, that the system is so badly strained that it feels very close to snapping and unraveling altogether.

The gratifying aspect comes from being able to resolve a teacher or administrator's pressing technical problem. Or from being able to help propel some student's educations a little further along through the application of technology. Or getting kids turned on to educational sites that are fun but also teach them something worthwhile as opposed to the game port sites that let them play Sonic or Mario or some other time waster with no redeeming qualities.

In the end, I have enjoyed my time in the district, I've met an awful lot of very cool, very dedicated and good people. I've made a good number of friends, I've made a huge number of contacts and I've helped lots and lots of teachers, staff and students out with their problems.

But this isn't the end, this is just the beginning to another chapter. And, if we are able to grow out our Kyani business then we'll be in a great place by the fall. Having the summer to get it going will give us the opportunity to make it a success.

Labels: education, opportunity, work

In ten business days I will be officially unemployed again. While I have some natural angst about this sea change and all of the subsequent changes it will incur in my life, I'm also looking forward to it on several levels.

Don't get me wrong, I like my job quite alot. I like working for teachers who are grateful for the assistance. I like helping kids and I find great satisfaction in resolving computer problems. And I'll definitely miss the excellent health benefits

But I will not miss the bureaucracy, I will not miss the false protection of the union, I will not miss the ever-present layoffs, I will not miss the yearly cuts and the massive stress they create. I will not miss seeing highly qualified teachers and staff released back into the unemployment wilds while more senior staff is kept on solely because of their time served, not because of any other merits.

I also will not miss the increasingly capricious internet filter that blocks sites I would like access to but leaves kids will access to stupid garbage sites like iCarly, FPS shooter game sites (that's first person shooter), Barbie.com, Wambie and a whole host of other sites with zero educational content. Sorry but, in my mind, there's little reason for kids to be able to play video games in a school setting, they have XBoxes, PS3s and Wiis at home for that (though, in the school I'm at today, the kids are far more likely to have game consoles at home than to have computers, that makes me kind of sad).

Other things I will miss are the comradery of the staff and faculty. With a few notable exceptions, people who work in education have great hearts, attitudes and support for others. It is a very nurturing and supportive environment, unlike much of corporate America.

And I totally will not miss the jackass who does the after school program at one of my school's. He used to really bug me but now he no longer matters and I don't care that he's complete ass.

And, finally, I will miss several students especially since I've gotten to know them a little bit and like to think that I've positively effected their schooling.

Also, I'm really looking forward to going camping with my family. Grady asks to go camping nearly every day right now and it'll be fun to get away for a couple of days and enjoy 100% family time together.

Labels: layoff, work

I've got a ton of things going on these days, I'm either out working every night or out at presentations. I put in a 12 hour plus day of work yesterday and won't be home tonight until probably 9 again. Needless to say, I'm starting to get worn out and, on occasion, cranky.

But I know that my clock is running out and that soon I'll be among the unemployed or underemployed since one of my school sites is able to hire me outside of the school district and union rules. It won't be anywhere near enough but it will help to have some consistent income.

Our current reality isn't especially rosy and its hard to think about what is going to happen if things don't start clicking in the right way for us. I'm trying to use the pending reality as motivation to get our network marketing business up and rolling. It all sometimes feels a little overwhelming and sometimes I just feel like crawling back into bed and pulling the covers over my head even knowing that doing so won't keep the boogeyman from coming and demanding payment for bills.

Sometimes, well, alot of times, being an adult and parent really sucks major ass. And its much worse when the economy has tanked and the job market is flooded with other people in the same boat.

Labels: burnout, layoff, reality, work

We had a good weekend with great weather, I got a good bike ride in, took a bunch of pictures, Nande got a good long run at the dog park and I even planted some tomatoes (Early Girl hybrids!). And, of course, lots of chores got worked through, lawns got mowed, laundry got processed, glue spills on the carpet got steam-vacced up, office spaces got cleaned (some). Oh yeah, I also got to gorge myself on some fan-fucking-tastic In-n-Out burgers on the way back from Pleasanton yesterday.

And I'm looking at a rather nice three day work week as the district goes into spring break mode.

But getting to the break is going to be a slog through the mud. From a mostly meaningless one year job review later today to a 2+ hour staff meeting tomorrow morning to a meeting with HR tomorrow evening to breakdown who's going to "bump" me from my job.

This bumping is a curious process. It takes away control from the school campuses and allows anyone with seniority to decide which school they want to work at. And it also means the junior site tech gets bumped, either to another school or out of the system altogether. Why yes, it does suck balls to be a junior tech. Don't get me wrong, I understand why it is set up this way but that doesn't mean I have to like it. At least not until I'm a more senior employee with bumping capability. And even so, I'd still feel like a big tool for forcing someone else into the unemployment line. Most especially now.

Not that I wouldn't do it, I've got a family to feed, bills to pay and all the rest of it. But still, the system is geared to create divisions within departments rather than a unified front. This is, I suppose a defense against the unionization aspect of education and an effective one at that.

By the way, my job review is effectively useless because there's a wage increase freeze across the entire district. With the grotesque exception of the "leadership" people who voted themselves a raise last October and then further voted to make those raises "untouchable" in the coming budget cuts. This is not leadership, this is ugly coffer-raiding before the coffers are emptied and it thoroughly disgusts me that they did it. And then they justify it with bullshit like retaining "top talent". Its crap and they know it.

So, the skinny is that I'll have a spring break to kick my job hunt into high gear as I'm pretty much expecting to get bumped out of work tomorrow night. Know anybody that needs a computer tech with public relations and marketing skills? Drop me a line.

Of course, if our Kyani starts to take off then this is all moot. The opportunity is there, it just takes a little kicking to get it started and rolling.

Labels: education, employment, work

There is a rather crazy amount of angst in my school district, as there is likely across the state. I've learned recently that the federal stimulus money meant for our district is being redirected by Governor Asshat Meathead Schwarzenegger for some other purpose. He's decided in his asshatter brain that the $7 million slated for my district would serve a better purpose than the one it was intended.

One of the very real possibilities of this move on his part is that I, along with a whole shitload of other people, will lose our jobs. Even with the money it wasn't a done deal that I'd keep my job. But without it, the odds just went way up for me to get tossed, again. I lost my job last year but got hired back in short order.

Pretty much everyone in the district is talking about it. There's been so much hand wringing over the potential job cuts that real work is suffering. Can you blame people for being worried? Can you blame people for losing track of what they're supposed to be doing?

I can't and I won't. Its hard to concentrate on doing a good job when that job is perilously close to being liquidated in the interest of saving a paltry $45k.

One refrain I hear from most people I talk to is that the highest paid people in the district, the administration, should take a 10% across the board paycut. It would save a crapload of money, it would show some solidarity with the rank and file.

And I just found out that all of the site tech positions have been, officially, liquidated in the name of saving money. It doesn't mean I'm out of a job though because the sites can choose to recreate the positions. It does mean that there's a whole heckuva lot of ambiguity, uncertainty and anxiety everywhere.

This is a really bad time to be looking at a layoff too. But I'm trying not to let the shitty economy and decrees from asshats in ivory towers get me down...too much.

Labels: work

My job is, quite literally, on the line again. Along with a whole host of support staff in the school district. Something about a nearly $20 million shortfall over the next 18 months to two years.

We are looking at some serious cutbacks including the removal of all sports programs, half of the custodial staff, closing of all libraries and a freeze on any computer lab installations (and likely the loss of computer room teachers). Which, of course, bodes horribly for the education of our children but it seems that turning out a well-rounded and capable student is the least of Governor Meathead's priorities. He seems to favor prisons over schools, primarily because it offsets the costs for a dozen years or so.

Anyway, people are struggling to keep their jobs. Or, most people are struggling to keep their jobs. Some people I work with tangentally do the absolute minimum they can do to keep from being sanctioned and, eventually, fired. And sometimes they don't even do that.

It kind of blows my mind to know that there are people who's job it is to collect trash and vacuum rooms and they just don't do it. They skip rooms entirely for days and weeks at a time. Or they collect the trash only to deposit it in the trashcan just outside the door.

The school system already has an enormous number of stupidities in it that keep it from running efficiently and adding into it disgruntled or just plain unmotivated workers adds even more drag to the whole system. And, in the end, it does an even greater disservice to the children in the system.

Labels: bureaucracy, education, work

Aside from a rather chilly working environment, my lab was a decidedly not toasty 50 degrees when I left this afternoon, today was a good and productive first day back to work.

I succeeded in cloning the lab computer to do some repairs on the other machines in the lab. I also surplussed a whole crapload of obsolete equipment. By surplus, that means I filled out a bunch of paperwork, copied down serial numbers and used my knife to peel up the district ID tags which were then collected on a sheet of paper and turned into my department so the numbers could be returned to use. And, by a whole crapload, I mean nearly 70 machines! Not all computers but all had to be processed by hand, in an arctic chill. I ended up not sending an old Apple Stylewriter II to surplus because I just couldn't bear to let it get recycled yet. Its such a nice little printer and still works well.

I also fixed an annoying and stupid problem with one of my big laserjet printers that had, until today, refused to print from its internal paper tray.

There were a few other things that got crossed off as well before it was time to bust out early because the later shift janitor wasn't coming in and the alarm system had to get turned on early. So I had to bug out a little earlier than expected which is never a bad thing, ya know?

All in all it was a pretty good first day back. Tomorrow should be more of the same and then, on Wednesday, I'll finish up imaging the lab at one of my other schools so that they are ready to rock and roll when the students come back next week. And Thursday means a trip up to San Francisco to go to MacWorld! The only bummer is that no Steve Jobs but the keynote's tomorrow anyway so I'd have missed either way.

Labels: old technology, productivity, work

Herein are some personal, professional and family resolutions.

Personal:
Continue to battle the middle-aged spread.
Less time on the computer, more time with my family
Try to keep in mind that the internet isn't nearly as important as I think it is
Stop being too sexy for shirt because it hurts
Ride my bike more, drive my car less

Family:
Less tv time, more play time together
More bicycle riding together
More Lego time
Less "don't" and more "do"
Recognize that "me" time is just as important for my wife as for me

Professional:
Expand revenue streams beyond straight work.
Monetize my other blogs to generate some added income.
Keep adding to my tech support repertoire including the unholy hell that is Windows.

This is a good start. I reserve the right to add to these resolutions as they occur to me or life demands it.

Labels: family, personal, resolutions, work

The old saying "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" holds true when it comes to working with me. I do not respond well at all to demanding, rude and annoying people. More so when they are asking me to do something for them and being rude about it. Even more so when the asker can't be bothered to follow my department's established procedures.

If this is an obtuse post then I apologize as I'm really just venting some frustration in having to deal with people that don't see manners as anything but a waste of their time.

If you are asking me to do something for you and you actually want it to get done then you'd best put on a happy face and use your manners. Otherwise you get nothing from me.

And I should note that I'm not the only one that has a bit of a problem with this particular teacher. Her colleagues stopped trying to help her out years ago because she was so ungrateful, demanding and downright kind of nasty about it. And I have plenty of other things on my plate from teachers that can follow procedure.

Labels: kvetching, work

This might not make a whole lot of sense, it doesn't to me, but just try to nod along every so often and maybe it'll magically end up at something resembling an understanding.

So I just had my five month review, supposedly two months after I'd become a permanent employee with six months of service. Did that make sense? Maybe not. Let me slow down a moment.

I was hired on a full-time basis by the school district on the 5th of February. Previous to this, I'd been a temp. According to my obviously flawed mathematical reasoning, six months after February 5th is July 5th but via the use of the maddeningly obtuse bureaucratic mathematics, six months after February 5th is November 1st.

Does that make the slightest bit of sense to you because it doesn't make any sense to me at all.

What it breaks down to is six months of work is 130 working days. I need to go back through my calendar and see exactly how it really breaks down but, how I see it, the district gets an extra three months of keeping me at a lower pay scale through some creative accounting.

And, in the process, they have gone a long way to convincing me that I need to ramp up and turbo-size and afterburner-ize and supercharge my job hunt for a real job without the stupid ass bullshit bureaucratic hoops to bash up against.

In addition to all of this, I found out that I'm not allowed to take the after hours support job at one of the other schools because of union and payroll problems. It is actually illegal (not sure if that's law or union laws) for a school to hire me as a contractor for the same position I currently hold. Which is, to say, I am unable to earn additional money on my free time.

To call me a disgruntled and pissed off drone is massive understatement.

The problem with all of this is that the bureaucracy tends to weed out better employees through the application of stupid policies like these. Because a better employee has more options available to them and crappier employees do not. Once a crappy employee is entrenched in their position, they are all but impossible to remove and all but impossible to get them to do their job effectively because they have no incentive to do so. They get paid almost no matter what they do even if what they do is absolutely nothing at all.

However, in a depressed economy, decent jobs are harder to come by and the competition for them is substantially harder. But something in this situation has got to give, I just hope it isn't my sanity.

Labels: bureaucracy, stupid, work

I have, at this moment, four local schools depending on me to maintain and upgrade their campus technology. What this means is that I have four competing tasklists each with high priority items.

And every day I go to a different site, reload for a whole new set of problems, teachers, students and support staff. And everyday I have to reset my expectations for what I might be able to accomplish.

My tasklists are dependent on more than just me to complete items and therein lies the rub. When I am at a site once a week, I need my support tech to actually respond and help me get things sorted out on-site. Otherwise things sit for another week and another week and another week. Which does nothing for my credibility at the site even though it isn't my fault I can't get my support tech out to the site to, you know, support me.

I know my support techs are even busier than I am and I try to cut them as much slack as possible. But I can count, on one hand, the number of times one has said they will be at my site at a certain and they have actually shown up. This is a problem.

Especially when I know they are compulsive email checkers and never let their cellphones get more than five feet away. I know they are getting the messages, they are just choosing to not respond immediately and keep doing whatever it is they are doing.

I don't necessarily blame them but it gets a little hard not to when you're asking for the same support assistance again and again and again.

I like working with the schools, I like what I do but I really dislike having to labor in a dysfunctional bureaucracy that attempts to squeeze too much out of everyone in it and leaves too many too drained to actually do their jobs.

Labels: bureaucracy, work

I am looking ahead to a full day of regular work, a couple of hours of afterschool supervision extra work. Then, after work, I've got a meeting at another school to see if we can work out some additional tech support in the margins, on evenings and weekends.

And then, after that shortish meeting is done, I'm scheduled to head to Grady's preschool for some parent/teacher meeting of some sort.

The skinny of it all is that it will easily be a 13 or 14 hour day when its done. The upside will be another job, this one outside my regular hours and for another elementary school in the area. That will bring my stable of schools up to 4 and my hours to something like 125% of regular time. Shame I don't get overtime for the extra hours because that would make it quite worthwhile but the devil is in the requisitions and budgeting.

Either way, I'm sure I'm going to be pretty well wiped out by the time I'm officially off the clock this evening. And it sure helps to be coughing up the many varied shades of lung butter I've got as my allergies come further and further under control of my generic Claritin.

Labels: allergies, long day, work

You know how there are some mornings when you wish the coffee maker was in your bedroom and not all the way downstairs in the kitchen? That's about how my day started.

The coffee goes in, the eyes start to crack open and the day starts to really begin.

I'm finding that my formula of late nights and early mornings isn't working as well as I might hope. One of the two is going to have to change and I don't see the mornings flexing very much so that means I've absolutely got to get to bed earlier.

I've now got a thermos full of coffee in me, ready to get cranking on my big list of tasks to try and tackle today. Funny, I don't see a nap listed on there anywhere.

Bummer.

At least the commute was painfree and fast. Now I just need to do a little wardriving at lunch today to find a non-firewalled Wifi signal to keep on top of a couple of other projects.

No more kvetching for now, time to put feet to pavement and resolve some problems.

Labels: kvetching, work

I knew it was coming, I knew the office manager at one of my schools who continually tried to get me to do things that are outside of my job specs would start trying it again. And I was not disappointed.

Today she tried to turn me into her office assistant. Just got run off a copy for each student, put enough for each teacher in their boxes, okthanksverymuchbyebye.

Let's get this straight, I'm a computer tech, I don't make copies, I don't do site administration, I don't do office work. I fix computers on campus, I create a curriculum for the students to adhere to during their free time access to the computer lab and I tend to the computer lab.

Of course, she couldn't care less about what my job is, she's an overbearing and bossy lady who's used to people jumping to attention when she barks at them. And the patent fact that I do not and will not thoroughly pisses her off to no end.

I have a meeting coming up with the principal and assistant principal on another issue but I will also mention this, let them know there's a history and that I won't be pushed to do work that's outside my job specs. They aren't paying me near enough for any above and beyond work.

The only way I'm doing two people's jobs here is if they pay me two salaries and that ain't happening.

Labels: work

By the end of the day today, I am/was pretty wiped out. That utensil? Its a fork and it indicates that I am done.

I will be enjoying a very cold alcoholic beverage or five momentarily.

And no, I will not be responding to any work related emails for at least forty eight hours. I'm really happy its the weekend and I can get a few days to not have to worry about dozens of computers needing my immediate and urgent attention. Though Monday and the rest of next week, which includes the actual start of the school year, will come all too quickly and will bring a whole host of new problems, issues and attitudes to deal with.

But, for now, it can all wait. Maybe I'll get my beer and go soak in the hot tub for a little bit.

Labels: work

There's something comforting about starting back up to work again in the same place that I ended the school year. My workstation is set up the same, mostly. My bookmarks are all there though several are no longer going to be used (My Yahoo replaced by my iGoogle, Bloglines replaced by Google Reader and my department's Wiki replaced by Sharepoint) and the room has been slightly rearranged for cleaning.

Oh yeah, and the 32 Emacs in the lab have been on for at least the last three days and possibly more like the last three weeks. As a result, the lab was around 100 degrees when I first got in, kind of like stepping into a hot kitchen only without the food or ovens.

Right now I've got the windows wide open, the door open and a fan sucking in cool air to bring the room to a more reasonable level. There's still around a 20 degree difference between inside and outside but at least I can breathe again.

Students don't come back until the middle of next week which is good as there is alot to do here and at my other sites to prepare. Plus I need to get a signature from the principal at my new school to (almost) complete my work calendar. I say almost because I've got a 50% school, a 25% school and the new one is a 20% school which leaves me with 5% unaccounted for. Which works out to every other Tuesday afternoon having nowhere to go.

Labels: work

Today is the last day of my contract with the school for the year. Which means tomorrow is the first day of my summer vacation. Only it won't be much of a vacation because I will be either working on projects or watching the kids so my wife can work on projects.

I spent about ten minutes listing out some projects I'd like to tackle during this break and it quickly spanned the length of the page. Not all of them are things I can tackle, like the electrical and plumbing work, but the majority of them are going to be all on me. Which is totally fine.

But the list will have to wait until Thursday at the earliest as we are going up to the city tomorrow to do a zoo and Exploratorium day with the boys. It will be a good break to get away from the house, go do something fun as a family and I've heard nothing but fantastic things about the Exploratorium (with the exception of the fact that it gets crowded but everything does these days). We're also going to be staying at a cool hotel for the night which will be fun too. And I think there are some cable cars in the schedule as well.

It really has taken a huge load of my shoulders to know that I've got a contract for the fall. It doesn't necessarily mean I'll be working full-time but it means I have options open to me and I can pursue other avenues without the taint of desperation hanging over me (which makes any sell about ten times harder).

Not that I especially want to change jobs but I owe it to my family to keep an eye out for a better paying position back in my regular line of work. I am looking forward to possibly being able to sleep in a bit more as this whole getting up well before 7 got old after about two days (and yes, I know I could be setting myself up for an even earlier wake up time with a new job).

Labels: break, projects, summer, work

I had a meeting with the district HR department this afternoon. I figured I was either going to get in trouble for something or I was going to get good news about my job for the fall.

I got good news about my job for the fall. Due to some sites finding extra funds for my position, the layoffs in my department were being, effectively, rescinded. Not in so many words but that's the end result. I'm not sure about the other guy in my department yet but he may also escape the chop.

The funny thing is, earlier this week my buddy at one of my schools cornered the superintendent for our zone, he used to be the principal at the school and my pal has a good relationship with him. Well, he bent the supe's ear for a while and talked me up but good.

And then, a few days later, this news hits and I'm rehired into the district. Coincidence? Maybe but I kind of doubt it.

As of right now, my contract stands at 50% time but that'll increase as other schools re-up their site tech positions and more time becomes available. I can guarantee that I'll get one more school since that's the one where my buddy works and they won't fund the position unless they get me back. Which is a pretty strong endorsement if there ever were one.

I'm really pretty happy to be able to stay despite the financial concerns. I'll get a pay bump in July and will be eligible for another on in February. More so, my benefits aren't going to change and that's really good news for my whole family as they are excellent. Some of the other perks are also pretty darned nice too. Like the fact that I can choose which school in the district I want to send my children to. Oh yeah, and they don't get to take my delicious MacBook Pro back either!

Plus, I'll be back at my main school from the start of the school year which means I'll be able to get some student projects going early.

Labels: employment, school, work

There are three full days of school left in the school year here in my district. And then three and a half weeks of project work on-site before I become unemployed, again.

Each of my schools is a constant flurry of activity, cleaning desks, classrooms, events, graduation ceremonies, retirement parties, thank you parties and the frenzied attempts to wrap up projects before they fall apart until the fall.

From my own perspective, I can see how broken the system is, how badly the patches are holding to keep the entire school district from descending into chaos. It does not make me look forward to my own children entering this incredibly flawed and stumbling bureaucratic clusterfuck.

Don't misunderstand me, the people I've worked with, by and large, have been outstanding individuals toiling under difficult circumstances to deliver as much education to the children in the system as possible. It isn't the teachers, staff or support staff. Its the bureaucratic swamp they all have to toil in with ever shrinking budgets and ever growing classes.

I am of several minds in regards to my pending layoff. I'm seeing it as the closing of this chapter of my life, my short stint working in education and getting a close up look at how it works (or doesn't). I'm seeing it as an opportunity to go back into the private sector and make real money again with merit bonuses, raises and no ridiculous union rules keeping shitty workers on the books and forcing better but less senior workers out the door.

This week has been bittersweet and I expect it will continue until school lets out and everyone moves on to their summer schedule.

Labels: bureaucracy, layoff, school, work

With each day that passes, I get one day closer to being retrenched again and I need to be compensating each day pushing me out the door with an effort to get another door opened.

I've been working on my materials, my resume, cover letters and the like. It isn't very much fun but I don't expect it to be fun. Hunting for a job is work, work that pays really badly but its work nonetheless.

And what have I learned from my daily and sometimes hourly perusal of job boards? That things are very tough all over and that it is most definitely an employer's market right now. I'm seeing help wanteds offering a ridiculous $15 an hour for skilled employees with master's degrees. Let me be the first to tell you that you are not going to be able to pay your bills AND have money left over to eat with at $15 an hour.

Unless you are somehow able and willing to work 80 hours a week, which I am not nor am I willing.

The good thing about this pending layoff is that I can see it coming, I can prepare and make it a stepping off point rather than a laying off point. So there's some good. And I'd be pretty hard pressed to find a job that paid less than what I'm making now so that's good too, sort of.

There isn't a whole lot of good in this pending layoff but there's some and I'm going to try and focus on the good and leave the bad behind. I probably won't be a hundred percent successful but I think its the effort that's important rather than the outcome.

Labels: employment, layoff, work

One of the most difficult aspects of job hunting for me is trying to narrow down my search into a single job title. Professionally my experience pegs me as a Public Relations/Marketing wonk but the lines between my PR/Marketing skills blur considerably when you toss in my recent and relevant site tech support work, my previous data analysis and regurgitation, the conferences I've organized and run, my photography experience and a dozen other skills that are relevant but make me harder to pigeonhole.

Add into my experiences, the intangibles that I bring to the table, my creativity, my positivity, my drive, my ability to either step up and run the show or work in the background, my inherent geekiness and love of technology, my evangelism and innate curiosity and I end up in a pile of possible job titles that can be applied to me but none quite fit me as perfectly as I'd like.

My ideal job position at this stage would be to work as the business equivalent of the sweeper position in soccer. The sweeper can go to where he/she is needed the most, either in direct support of the offensive effort or getting back and providing extra horsepower on defense.

My ideal job title will be a mouthful: PR/marketing/tech/advertising projects leader generalist with evangelism, training and tech-passion.

My ideal company would be: a smaller tech-focused company just on the cusp of greater things, in need of workers with vision, flexibility and capability to shepherd multiple concurrent projects.

Oh yeah, and to top the whole work thing off. I met with my boss on Friday and he was happy to tell me that there will very likely be a job for me in the fall if I'm still looking for work. Which is nice to know. It won't be at my current schools as two of the three have lost the funding for my position but that's alright. At this point, I'm going to keep my current job in my back pocket and hope I don't have to play it though its nice to know I do have it, sort of.

Labels: job title, work

We had a cold and windy (some might even say blustery) weekend but we also had a good portion of my family visiting from New England. And anytime I get to see my family is a good time. Even more so when Grady and Sully get some family time with their cousins, aunt and uncle and grandparents.

Add in a trip to a windy beach with four little boys, a stop at a playground on the way out and then a totally kickass sushi dinner and you've got the makings for a pretty excellent, if short, visit.

I do wish we lived closer to my side of the family because I really do enjoy their company, they are interesting people with interesting lives and, of course, I love them. But its just that 15 month long New England winter I COULD hack, I just choose not to. I like my two wheeled toys far too much to stare at them for most of the year.

And now its back to work, back to trying to suss out whether I'm on the shortlist to get pink slipped (i.e. notified about my contract not getting renewed for next school year) and back to helping keep the technology of the educational system running as smoothly as it can given the obstacles put in our way by the Governator and Shrubya.

Labels: family, weekend, work

Unless you've been completely unaware of what's been going on in the California educational system you're already well aware that there are layoffs taking place all over the state due to the 10% budget cut proposed by Governor Meathead.

Well, it appears that I may not have escaped the layoff sniper's scope. I may also not get tagged and retrenched but there's a reasonably good chance that any layoffs in my department will kick me to the curb as one of the newer recruits.

Nevermind that we're understaffed as it is, it certainly doesn't mean squat to anyone else.

Anyway, we've got another departmental staff meeting tomorrow and I'm sure there will be some discussion of potentialities and how they may affect the grunts like me.

Labels: budget, layoffs, work

I am a very small part of an enormous academic machine that serves the Pajaro Valley. We educate thousands upon thousands of students, support hundreds and thousands of teachers, keep thousands of computers up and running as best we can and operate under ever-decreasing budgets and looming pink slips.

It isn't an easy or fun situation from time to time. The inertia of the machinery can become as much of a burden as the mental toll of coping with the bombardment of help requests from, well, everyone.

But the situation is exacerbated by internal inertia, general crankiness and worker bees doing almost nothing but filling up their seats and pushing ever closer to retirement and the benefits promised for a lifetime of "service" that ended ten years ago.

I have limited experience in the system but I have a decent body of experience from the professional world to compare and contrast to. For what is standard practice in this educational bureaucracy would get you shit canned in a New York minute. Things are just basic common courtesy are lost in the joy that is a bureaucracy based on absolutely nothing beyond seniority. Not job performance, not response times, not anything but how long your ass has been filling your seat.

Which means that there will always be cranky people approaching retirement who are literally in their job for no other reason than to run out the clock. Which means that they couldn't give a damn about doing a good job, they just show up, duff through their day and go home and ignore the parts of their job that require them to do actual work.

And I know that I need to adjust my expectations are I will go completely insane. But I want to get a few minutes with my boss to properly set my expectations in line with his. That way, when another codger dodges my support requests, I'll kick it up the chain per my boss's procedures.

But hey, I did just invent a new word to describe what its like trying to work in a bureaucracy (and no, not the easily made up bureaucrazy). Unertia - the non-movement one finds in trying to get small changes cleared in a bureaucracy.

Labels: bureaucracy, inertia, work

So in the last two days I've gotten major props from one of my principals and my tech liaison at another school. The principal has recommended me for a promotion to another position in tech. The liaison made sure my boss knew just how much he appreciated my work and what a great job I'd been doing.

Which, as you might guess, makes me feel pretty damned good about my job, my work, my schools and more.

Sometimes getting external recognition is more important than knowing you did a job well. And its alot more likely to result in raises and/or promotions.

Labels: feedback, work

I got a note from my mom this morning alerting me to the fact that my site is not reachable at present. Which is great, its about the last thing you want to hear just before you have to leave for work. When I won't be able to do anything about the site for a whole bunch of hours.

But the upside is that today is this week's Friday! I get a little mini-Spring Break action, nothing too crazy but a four day weekend shouldn't hurt too much.

And today I'm back to the schools I've been hitting the last two days. Today we're mounting the new Xserves which'll be fun because we'll have powertools!

I have been having a more and more difficult time writing and publishing posts lately, not sure whether its just the time of the year, the combination of work duties ramping up or other things impinging on my blogging but I'm just nowhere near as interested in it as I have been for the last six years. Maybe it'll pass, maybe it won't, I can't say, I'm just noting the feeling.

Other good stuff, baseball has started up again although the Japan start with the Red Sox and A's is stupid and unnecessary as the Japanese are loony for baseball already. And who watched the first game live anyway? Not me. But that's alright, I'm going up to Opening Day Monday after next and expect to have a pretty darned good time even if I end up rolling up on my own due to pal-complications.

Labels: baseball, random, work

My schedule is pretty decent overall. I get to work at 8, I leave at 4:30. I do it from Monday to Friday with the rare after-hours event/job. And I like what I do.

On Saturdays I take care of our two boys so my wife can work at her salon or work on her online store. These days are usually a little longer but I have alot more freedom to choose what we do, where we go and such.

But this leaves just one single day out of each week where I do not have pre-scheduled commitments. It is the one potential day a week that I can go out for a long and needed bike ride in the woods. It is the one of the week that I should definitely be able to sleep in as late as I can.

So what happens when that one potential free day of the week has other activities scheduled on it? I get annoyed and feel like I'm stuck without any free time at all. Like this coming Sunday. Its Easter Sunday which means absolutely nothing to me since I don't buy into the Christian mythos about resurrections and crucifications. Sure, the egg hunt is fun and ham dinners are nice but the underlying reasons for Easter are founded in a belief system that I refuse to subscribe to. But it is a family day with my wife's side of the family and there's an expectation that I will attend, regardless.

And I am faced with either sucking it up and doing the family thing which involves driving up to the East Bay and making happy faces all day with my wife's family. Or bowing out and getting guilt trips about not leaping at the opportunity to spend a fun-filled day with her family. And then Monday comes and I go back to work without ever getting a break and my stress levels continue to rise.

I need the downtime. I need to be able to unplug and not have to be working all the time. I can feel the burnout trying to get me. I can fend it off with my pre-work workouts, my post-work bike rides and the occasional get togethers with my pals. But the patent reality is that I absolutely need to get my downtime to recharge myself to better cope with the next week's frustrations.

Labels: play, religion, work

I started working at my first new school yesterday. I'll start at the other one today. For an hour an a half and then I have to leave for a several hour tech meeting. And then back to the new school again.

Today was interesting, atypical and kind of cool. Atypical because the school was getting cable installed, that is, ethernet and fiber optic throughout. And the hub of activity was my office, which had been used as a kind of closet and was in the process of becoming the server room. It had at least ten Imacs, the kind with CRTs, on each flat surface and doubled up where they could. And lots of dust. Loads of fun.

It actually was a pretty good day. The teachers, as at my first school, were thrilled to have some computer support available again and a couple remarked on the progress I'd made yesterday in clearing out the office and making it usable again.

Wednesday will be fun and I might just be coming home with a new(ish) laptop and a new district paid-for cellphone too. That'd be fine!

And I'm looking forward to getting comfortable with the new schedule so I can start riding my motorcycle and not spend 45 minutes commuting less than 15 miles like yesterday morning.

Labels: benefits, work

Today is my first day on the job as a full-time, benefited and permanent employee of the school district. The first adjustment I had to make was getting to work a half hour earlier which is actually kind of nice because I get here well before the kids start arriving and that means I can get the lab ready without rugrats underfoot.

And it means I can get a few minutes to get myself sorted out for the day, think about what's going to need to happen today and then what's going on for the rest of the week.

Part of my week is still very much up in the air since my work schedule is still undergoing negotiations between three schools. And that's nice, it makes me feel wanted.

Also, I can jam music for a little while before the kids start rolling in. That's nice too.

I will be supporting the computers at three area elementary schools. Predominantly Macs and mostly in the computer labs but there are computers all over each other campuses that teachers need to get and keep in running order. I don't know how each of the other schools will shake out but I'm pretty confident that I'll like being at each of them as well.

The pros outweigh any cons by a good margin but I'm sure I'll have my complaints moving forward. But for now, I'm happy to be working full time again, locally. Now if I could only get some heat in this computer lab, its a crisp fifty degrees in here this morning.

Labels: employment, work

I'm heading back to work today after a long holiday break. The kids don't actually start back to school until tomorrow but tomorrow is my trip to MacWorld so I'm going to go put in some time today.

I've got a bunch of ideas I want to see about putting into practice to make the lab more usable, more fun and more educational.

I'd also like to complete the hiring process so I'm a full-time worker rather than a temp for the security reasons, the benefits and the ability to get pay raises and promotions. As it is, I'm barely scratching the surface of the good stuff in working for the district.

It will be nice to get back to work though. I hope my lab isn't as icey as it was leading into the break but the weather's changed so it should be better.

And I'm actually pretty jazzed about going to MacWorld tomorrow even if the surprise closet is mostly empty (i.e. Apple won't be introducing the next category killer tomorrow). Any trip up to the city is fun and this time its all about Macs which is just cool by me and, who knows, I could win myself a new iPhone, that'd be fine!

Labels: school, work

So, it may be news to some readers that I am now employed as a computer tech support and instructor at a local elementary school. I am presently a temp but am working towards a full-time (read that, with paid time off, great insurance and some job security) position.

This is my first ever foray into the hallowed world of academia and so far I've found quite alot more pros than cons.

Some of the cons are easy to list off: my computer lab is a balmy 51 degrees right now and, if I'm lucky, it'll hit 65 by quitting time.

But really the pros are outweighing bad stuff by a good margin.

The teachers are grateful to have a positive and helpful tech again after the last guy, who was a grumpy jerk for the most part. The last guy also burned his bridges badly when he left by emailing the entire school district with his resignation and then descending into personal attacks with curses and other stupidity. I understand not liking your job and quitting because of it but I cannot, for the life of me, understand why he felt the need to burn every single contact in the district. That's just short sighted, stupid and demonstrative of a piss poor worker.

I've also gotten a little bit of insight into the workings of the public education system which has been interesting and welcome. More on those later.

Right now I'm closing in on my first paycheck since I started working here almost seven weeks ago. And yes, this is my first real and substantive gripe about the position. One, I dislike being paid once a month. Two, I made sure all of my payroll paperwork was completed and turned into HR well before the deadline because I wanted to make for damned sure I got my paycheck as soon as I could.

The only problem is that my paperwork wasn't processed for ten full days after I turned it in. Five days too late to be processed for the current pay period. The solution they offered? Just wait until January. My response was polite but quite firm that No, I needed some damned money now, not next month but thanks for trying to weasel out of your laziness in not doing your job very well by screwing me over. Thanks ever so much.

With just a little prodding the issue got kicked up the chain and, with some luck, will be resolved later today by the special drafting of a revolving check. The HR director was very helpful in blasting through the red tape and getting this done and I'm appreciative of his help.

Because working for nearly three months without so much as a penny to show for it is absolutely crazy and it would have given me an awfully strong reason to keep my currently idling job search process going at full speed.

As it is, I'm looking forward to the holiday break but not looking forward to no income during that time so I'll be doing what I can to keep the duckets rolling in.

Overall, I really like my job, the kids are great, the teachers are grateful and very nice, the administration is open to suggestions and the hours are really pretty sweet. Oh yeah, my commute is whopping 3 miles which totally kicks the buttocks and I'm looking forward to riding my bike to work soon (once the winter weather has gone away).

Labels: education, employment, work

Movin' On Up: 5 Signs it’s Time to Call in Sick via the Express Personnel blog. All of the reasons below are expanded upon over there.

1. A high fever
2. A very sore throat
3. A cough
4. Stomach problems
5. Pinkeye

The best reason to call in sick is to help get yourself better, of course, but it should also be noted that keeping other people from getting the same flu or cold is just as important. A small office can be pretty well stopped dead in its tracks by a nasty flu.

So how do you keep yourself healthy during the runny nose season?

1. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
2. Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth after coming in contact with anything else (i.e. touch these gateway places only after washing your hands or having just used a hand sanitizer).
3. Keep hand sanitizer handy and use it often.
4. Disinfect common areas and surfaces regularly.
5. Get enough sleep to give your body a chance to fight any attacking microbes.
6. At the first sign of a cold or flu, start really loading up on Airborne or one of those zinc based remedies. If you can shorten a cold or flu by even a day or two, it'll be worth it.
7. Get a flu shot.
8. Be aware of potential hot spots for germs (i.e. door knobs, toilet handles and any other public common use area) and make sure to disinfect or wash your hands after touching. I sometimes go so far as to use a paper towel to open doors that I know get a lot of traffic.

The best way to stay healthy is to become a compulsive hand washer. I wash my hands at least six times a day now and use an instant hand sanitizer after any contact with the regular computers in the lab. I know they're crawling with nasties so I murderize them every time. I am also starting to kill them en masse by hitting up each machine in the morning with a liberal dose of Lysol.

Labels: employment, sick, work

There's something kind of nice about seeing a job you wanted, interviewed for, interviewed again for and then they end up giving the job to someone else, there's something kind of nice about seeing the job posted again a month or two later. Meaning that the person they did hire ahead of me didn't work out. There's some measure of vindication in knowing they choose poorly and have to restaff the position again so soon.

And there are the three or four people who've taken on my old job at the research company since I quit. That's less than six months each, if you want to keep score. It was the opposite when I saw an ad for the place that laid me off earlier this year. Not that I'd consider going back and definitely not now that I work at the school.

I am, of course, keeping my options open and would not have a problem taking a better job if it were offered to me. But, for now, I'm enjoying my current job and that's pretty unusual for me.

Labels: employment, work

There's nothing so long as waiting to hear about a job offer. Especially if the interview was on Friday and there are more this week. And doubly especially if its a job that you really want and need.

Hopefully I'll hear some good news from the job prospect that I really want. But I'll keep beating the bushes in the meantime.

If you want to, keep your fingers crossed for me to get a call earlier in the week and that they'd like me to start working later this week. That would be a nice birthday present.

Labels: employment, waiting, work

The local news did a quick bit this morning on the average numbers of hour worked by folks in various countries and it was interesting enough to pause it and write it down for you all there.

Hours at Work:
US - 1804 per year
France- 1564 per year
Norway - 1407 per year
China - 2200+ per year

Yes, Chinese workers average 400 more hours per year than Americans. They've got to keep up with demand for badly designed and lead painted toys for kids, ya know?

And I will try to do my part to get to 1804 hours next year since there's no way, no how I came close to that this year.

Labels: labor, work

Oh boy, what a great follow up to yesterday's crazy blockbuster yard clean-a-rama! Today I got to go rent a trailer, load it up with crap twice and dispose of it at the city land fill and then at the much closer drop-off in town.

The old fence? Gone. Along with its snails, nails and rotten timbers.
Yard debris? Gone. From the area along the road and inside the fence, enough to fill a 5 x 9 foot trailer about 3 1/2 feet deep.

All in all, we got rid of about 550 pounds of trash today. Not counting the bits that went into my eye.

I also got a good amount of work done on my photography site. Not enough to post the URL here yet but it is closer than it was yesterday, by a long, long shot.

And Grady had a pretty decent birthday. The part I was with him for, at least. I expect he had a pretty great time visiting with our friends up in the east bay. The pool was a big, big draw. I wish I could have gone too but it just didn't make sense to go when I had so much to do here.

Oh yeah, I even made cupcakes for his birthday, with green and red sugar sprinkles and funfetti frosting!

But now I'm going to bed as my body is weary and my eye is bleary and teary.

Labels: cleaning, trash, work

I reported to the WorkForce office in Watsonville yesterday morning for my don't-show-up-late 9 am job training appointment. I made it in with several minutes to spare and then found out that the don't-show-up-late part was more a guideline than a hard and fast rule.

But that was fine by me. I got to sit and play my Clie for a few minutes but I do wish I'd brought my coffee. Especially when the receptionist told me the training usually went to 11:30.

When they brought us into the training room, a woman in the corner broke us out into Spanish speaking and English speaking groups. The Spanish speakers stayed in the room we were in and the gringoes followed her into the room next door. Oh sorry, did I say gringoes plural? I meant me. I was the only English speaker there.

Which meant that I was going to get some free, state-required job training and information. And some of it is useful info for someone like me, I'm not a noob to the job market, I have a college degree, I have business experience. I'm not the typical unemployed person in this town and the lady I was working with understood very quickly that I am on top of the process, know all about the web aspect of job searching and, instead of two and a half hours, I was done in under 45 minutes.

Which is how I got to go riding yesterday.

Labels: career, training, work

Because I was laid off in February and have been recieving aid from the state, they have decided to make sure that I have some job skills to be making applications to get off their teat.

So, later this morning, I'll be headed to the local WorkForce office to report for job training assistance. I hope they have somebody that can teach me some higher graphing functions in Excel but I'm not holding my breath.

Also on the job front, I came across Indeed.com, a slick and quite cool job search engine aggregator with custom RSS feeds for searches. What that means is that it is really easy to set up some auto-run searches while you're off doing other stuff and then check your feed aggregator (Bloglines or Google homepages are good ways to do this) and you'll be kept up to speed on all the latest developments.

Anyway, I've got to repost my services ad on Craigslist, send out some good news emails and get myself ready for some edu-ma-cation!

Labels: work

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and concern in the wake of my most recent work layoff. I am doing alright, just spending alot of time offline with my family while I can. Yesterday we went down to Monterey to go to the aquarium because our passes are just about ready to expire.

Grady has a set trail he hits at the aquarium and he ran from place to place at speed. My wife enjoyed the trip far more because I was doing the chasing and she was enjoying the relative calm with Sully.

I won't lie and say that I'm thrilled to be out of work but it is not the worst thing that could have happened. I am most bummed about not being able to be on the frontlines with my clients especially since one of them is poised to change how we all "internet" and to take some of the advertising thunder back from Google and put it back in the content creator's pockets, which would be nice.

But I definitely do not miss my morning slog to Scotts Valley on these cold, wet days.

Tags: offline, layoff, work, family time

Labels: offline, work

The big day of work was everything it promised to be, a big day with a good briefing, a good meeting with a client and then a tasty sushi lunch.

And, with about an hour to go before the weekend and two hours before my client was going to have dinner with one of his absolute heroes (and a rather luminous personality in technology), it was then, an hour to go, two hours for the dinner, that I was called into our operations man's office.

In pretty straight fashion he told me I was getting laid off. The recent departure of clients combined with the lack of a strong pipeline to replace them equals hasta la vista.

The topper is that I talked with my client after his dinner and it was awesome, he had a fantastic time and really made a connection with him.

I've been told I'm allowed to get angry about getting laid off but right now I'm just kind of bummed I don't get to do the PR for this company that is going to kick ass.

But at least maybe I'll get a couple of bike rides and a few mornings sleeping in out of this layoff. I wish I could write code as I've got a website that needs to be developed.

Tags: work, layoff

Labels: layoff, work

Today is going to be a big day, hopefully it will also be a good day. My CEO will be in the office for a long meeting and some lunch. Later on today he'll be having dinner with one of his top editorial folks ever. And yes, he's pretty jazzed on the prospect, so much so that he changed his travel plans to stay an extra night in California.

But I appear to be keeping all of the balls in the air right now, I'm still working on doing it gracefully though.

I will be excited when the end of the day comes and I can deflate just a bit and relax. This has been a short but very, very tough week. At least we'll have a really good lunch today.

And now, in addition to the rain, we've got a nasty cold snap coming through for the next couple of days. Whee!

Tags: work, crunch, meetings, editor

Labels: work

I can't imagine anyone who doesn't love a three day weekend. But the short week ahead has at least 25% more to do because of the missed day. And there was already alot to do.

But, with some luck, it'll be a good week.

Though I'd be lying if I didn't say that I could very easily go back to bed for another fifteen hours of sleep.

In good exciting news, I found out that a couple of friends are expecting a new baby. Its very early in the pregnancy but we are really excited for them to have some babies. So yeah, that's pretty awesome.

And we did have a nice weekend. It was chilly but we got some sun and got alot of stuff around the house done too. Still plenty more to get done but we made a little dent in the pile.

We've also got to get our passport applications taken care of so there's no crunch come June when we're heading to Mexico for a week.

Happy Fat Tuesday and Happy Pancake Day!

Tags: work, catchup, pregnant, Mexico

Labels: catchup, pregnant, work

Today is the one year anniversary of my last day at my last job.

Today's the day I walked out of a job just before four complete years of working there. An eternity there. One other employee had been there longer.

I don't really know what to say about it. I'm still very pissed off about getting shafted, I have yet to see my old boss in the street but I'm sure it will happen eventually.

I'm still pissed off that she dealt me so poorly and I'd love to know if she regrets her actions. I kind of doubt it, she never struck as one for personal reflection.

If it were happening now, I would do my best to hold on and stay until Sullivan's birth three months later, that's right, today is Sully's nine months birthday. I would do my best to suck it up, swallow my pride and stay for a few more months to get six weeks of paid time off. But that's an impossible dream, I couldn't have done it then and I don't think I could do it now. She had sapped every last drop of my willingness to toil for her.

And, in the interim, I've welcomed another son, spent alot of time with my family and dog, took care of a whole bunch of house projects, got another job making more money though I have a commute and the jerky neighbors had to leave because the dad was being forced to pay child support to his daughter who he was somewhat abusive to. Oh yeah, and we just got a cat.

On the company's side, they reaped the financial rewards of my putting on a great conference, hired three people in series to "replace" me and are working on the last one right now. They canceled the next conference the week it was supposed to begin and moved the February conference to April. Oh yeah, they've also gone through a whole bunch of other staff in the process. Not the least of which was one friend I managed to rescue and bring along to my new place of employment, which she absolutely loves!

So Happy Anniversary? You bet. Some regrets but that's to be expected. And believe me, I enjoyed every setback I heard about. We've got an after-work beers night coming up soon, I hope to get some good dirt to report then as well.

And if I remember any particular dirt that needs airing now, it will be aired.

Oh yes, check out the Women of Mensa Playboy edition November 1985. My boss is one of them. Nothing like working for someone you've seen naked but with her lowcut tops, pretty much everyone sees her boobs quickly anyway. That and her coffee fermented dragon breath, not a good combination.

Tags: anniversary, quit, cheap boss, retrospective

Labels: anniversary, work