some thoughts from today

I was looking at some of the books on my bookshelf today and decided to take To Kill a Mockingbird down and flip through it. I've had that book for years and read it a number of times. It also accompanied my sister to her English class in high school where she had to read it too.

As I flipped through the (clearly) well-loved pages, I started getting excited to talk about it with my kids in 10 or so years. Then I looked at the other books on that particular shelf, all of them exciting that I'll get to share them with my little clones.

That's when I had the realization that I'd been kind of looking for. Every time I've gone through a job search, and this is probably true for most people, I think a little bit harder about what I'm passionate about. What kind of work would get me out of bed in the middle of the night because I couldn't sleep? What do I feel passionate about to the point where I would actually try to convince someone who didn't like it that it's wonderful? I feel that way about books. I have very few emotional connections with things, but books are one of the things I'm most passionate about.

I know some people say it's a dying industry, replacing these piles of paper and ink with digital text files you can read on a low-power device that'll hold thousands of books. Amazon even announced that they've started selling more Kindle versions of books than they have physical books. I don't think books are going away any time soon. No one has the same emotional connection to a digital file as they have for a physical object. Pictures of your family seem more real when they're printed on glossy paper than they do on a computer screen. Don't they? People have no compulsion about deleting old MP3 files but we hang on to the old LPs we have because by touching them, seeing them on the shelf, we reconnect with that person we were and the people we were with when we put those records on the turntable years ago. Never mind that you don't have a turntable anymore or that you have a digital version of the album. The same thing goes for books. By thumbing through the pages, you remember the journey you emotionally went on as you smell the same pages and feel the paper in your fingers. You see the notes you wrote in the margins, the highlights you made years ago and smile at the things you thought were so important. It's like a flash of vacation pictures from the trip where you floated on the Mississippi River with Huck and Tom in an instant.

The other reason I don't think physical books are going away is that there's a status attached with having lots of books. Some people pay big money to have libraries full of matching, leather-bound volumes just for the symbol of having lots of fancy books. So what if my shelves are full of paperbacks that I've had to masking tape back together? It doesn't change the fact that there are books on shelves. What's better, I've actually read mine. In any case, there's a social currency in having lots of books and I don't think that's going to change soon either. It's much more difficult to show off your collection of digital texts when you have people come over to your house. You can't have your digital copy of Ulysses staring at people from the shelf in the corner while they admire your Ayn Rand collection of text files.

I'm realizing that I should probably be looking for something having to do with books, since they affect me so much. And apparently Kanye says he does just fine without them. Exasperating.

Business cards, part 2

I've been thinking about them for a little while now and had just recently asked a designer friend of mine to help me come up with something awesome so I can sound like this guy.

Not really. No one should sound like this guy. But I'm still pulling together ideas for a contact card. I don't want my cards related to a specific business or job, just something I can hand out if someone wants to find me somehow. Not that I don't have an online presence, it's just that physical reminders help me remember things better. That's one of the reasons I'll never get rid of my 14th Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, but that's another story for another time. I realize that business cards seem to be moving into obsolescence, but if they're done well, they can be really great. Progress on my cards isn't coming quickly, but so what? I'm not in a rush. Also, it gives me a chance to work on getting that job title I really want.

So while I'm collecting ideas, what kinds of things have you seen on business cards that you've liked and what things should I absolutely avoid?

My thoughts on Twitter and food

One of the most common complaints about Twitter from people who haven't used it much is that it's mostly completely banal things like "best ham sandwich ever" or "Who doesn't love ice cream?" You'll also find the same thing on Facebook with people's status updates. After thinking about it for a bit, I've decided it's because most of us don't have completely thrilling lives. For most of us, the delicious food we eat is the most exciting thing that happens all day. Most people like the food we eat and we generally like to share food that we enjoy. It's one of the ways we bolster our relationships. How many parties do we go to that don't have some kind of food or tasty treats? Not many.

It's also a safe thing to send out to the world. It's a form of self-censorship. Not many people are going to send things out to all the internet things like "I totally drank myself stupid and have a wicked hangover. I need to stop doing that," or "my girlfriend did some crazy things to me in bed last night." Not the kind of thing most people want to share in polite company. Or on the internet either. The internet has a long memory and it can resurface any time, usually at the wrong time. So by posting about culturally safe things like food, people can still have a presence without posting things that may come back and bite them.

The last thing I thought about posting about food is that it's one of the regular things that happens to us all that has relatable emotions attached to it. We may not be in a relationship, not have kids, don't share the same political views, have the same hobbies, but we all have to eat and whether or not you want to admit it, we all have emotions connected with what we eat. That's why there's even a term for "comfort food." If we didn't feel anything about our food, it wouldn't comfort us.

I, for one, am fine with people posting things about their food. It keeps me from having to see uncomfortable posts about "I did something with the thing and it was fun!" or getting way more information about people than I ever wanted to know. As Robert Frost said, "Good fences make good neighbors," and in the case of the internet, I think that information left unshared makes good relationships.

I have trouble gauging things

I just realized that I forgot to write a blog post yesterday. Have I mentioned that I'm crazy busy without a job? This isn't what I expected, but I'm pretty sure I'm alright with it.

I had an interview yesterday with a recruiter and that meeting made me realize some things I think most of us have trouble gauging. While we were going through my resume and talking about what I do in the course of a week or so, she said "So you worked full time, go to school in the evenings, help the Scouts and do things at church and then you have a family that you spend time with? Do you sleep?" I didn't think I was quite that busy. I mean, yes, I'm busy but I don't feel like I'm insanely busy. I just chalk it up to the fact that we don't watch TV, which leaves me with some extra time. I just assume that everyone works as hard as I do, which they apparently don't.

The other thing that I'm not particularly good at gauging about myself is how much I'm worth in the marketplace. The recruiter and I were talking about salary requirements and I said I was looking for something roughly close to what I was earning at Ancestry. She looked over my resume, at the other information I've sent her and said, "Okay, but for someone with your experience and skills, I think you're worth more than that." I'm thinking that I probably have no idea how much I'm worth on the market because I don't have to set the price very often, and the last time I did, I didn't have quite the same set of skills.

It's nice to be able to get feedback like that from someone who sees all kinds of resumes and meets with tons of people on a regular basis.

Holy busy!

I hadn't expected to be quite so busy this week, but again, that's where I am so we're going to move forward with it. The picture you see is from my adventure yesterday. If you hadn't heard already, I went to see Paul McCartney in concert at Rio Tinto Stadium. My friend Jeff came down to see it with me and I got to spend most of yesterday with him and part of today. Here's hoping it's not another 8 years before we spend time together again.

Back to Paul McCartney, the concert was fantastic! The weather was beautiful, the venue was nice and the experience was pretty near incomparable. How often do you get to spend time with someone who completely changed just about everything in their field? It's rare and I'm so happy I got to see him perform yesterday.

The job hunt is going pretty well. I've got lots of suggestions of jobs I should look into and just haven't had the time to look into them very closely yet. I'm hoping to get around to about 4 or 5 more because they sound like they'll be good opportunities for me to grow some more. What I'm finding in all of this is that I may have been wrong about my networking skills. I clearly have some, since I've got more suggestions at the moment than I have time to work on. I think I need to reconsider my definition of networking. Sure, I still have to fill out the applications and send out resumes and do the work, but the ideas and suggestions have largely come from other people. (Thanks to all my friends goes here more than I want to spend time writing up right now. Accounting homework's waiting.) As a result of all the love you've been showing, I'm still feeling very optimistic about this. Something really good's about to happen, I just have to find it.

There are upsides

As awful as it is to not have a job, there are upsides. For example, I didn't set my alarm clock to go off this morning, didn't get dressed until about 9:30 this morning and I get to wear my Spice Girls T-shirt all day. My friend Jeff is driving from Idaho today and I was going to have to get together with him after work today, but now I get to spend most of the day with him. I get to spend the afternoon in Salt Lake, which means I'll get to spend time with my friend Christian (with whom I don't get to spend enough time).

I've got plenty of time to do my accounting homework and do a few of the things around the house I just haven't had the time to do recently. But in all reality, my full-time job at the moment is to find a new job. I've decided to dedicate the time I would normally spend at work to finding a job.

Just not today. Today, I'm spending a decent chunk of the day with Jeff and going to see Paul McCartney in concert. I'll definitely have updates on that for you tomorrow. And regular updates on this blog is another upside of not having a job at the moment.

Free agent

I have totally neglected this blog, which I apologize for. I know that all three of you were holding your breath, hoping that I'd update it soon. Well, this is your lucky day. And you may wonder why today is so blessed.

I lost my job today. It went one way, I went another way. I had no idea that today was my last day, but it was and that's where I am. Sure it sucks but on the positive side, there's something else out there that's exciting and will be a better fit for me. I plan on working hard to find that new job. So if you hear of something that you think I'd just be excellent at, let me know, will you?

Between now and the time I find that job, I'll definitely be more regular about writing these blog posts. I have to allocate time to completing homework for my accounting class, but I'll make time for this too. Why am I in an accounting class? you may ask. The answer is that I've been accepted to the MBA program at UVU and I'm finishing prerequisites so that I can start the actual Master's work.

Tomorrow, though, I'll be doing something purely fun and not feeling at all bad about it. I'm going to see Sir Paul McCartney in concert in Salt Lake! Uh, yeah. Way excited about that. I'm going to have some dinner right now, but I'll definitely see you soon.