Changes

I am sitting here at my desk in my office on my last day of work for the summer. I'm listening to the Giants playing the Braves on my iPad (a rare 9 am game time) and am trying to get a few things wrapped up before heading out on a few weeks break.

Tomorrow we are headed off for a few nights of camping with my wife's niece and her family. Should be a, hopefully, peaceful break with some inner tubing and boating fun mixed in for spice.

We've got a few more camping trips on tap and a bunch of house projects to try and move forward. And some revenue projects that could use a little love and attention.

I'm just looking forward to sleeping in some, going to the beach and trails with my wife and kids and having a little fun before the school year kicks back into gear! And my kids will be starting junior guards next week so they'll be getting all beach ripped!

Where Does The Time Go?

Today is the end of the second week of the summer school session. I'm halfway to being totally free and clear for the rest of the summer. And let me tell you, these four hour work days are HARD! No, not really. Yesterday I worked the Help line that was set up for district folks to call in with tech issues. I answered five calls in four hours.

But even with that low call incidence, the day ripped right by. I got in a decent workout after work with a swim which always helps me feel more settled and balanced out (though I'm rather irritated that the gym has now seen fit to literally lock up the kettlebells to keep non-Crossfit folks from using them. That's lame and kind of stupid but I'll just have to buy or make my own kettlebell to get those swings in (kettlebell swings are fantastic for strengthening your core).

Whoa, Fell Off the Wagon Something Fierce There

Yes, he meant to do that. And he landed it too!

You know its been a long time since you've blogged when you get an email from your mom asking why there haven't been any new posts in a while. And then I swing through here to see that we're going on three weeks since the last peevy post about stuff I'm over.

What's been going on? Work. Lots of work. Combine that with two boys play tee ball, working at least one and usually two nights a week and then also trying to get in workouts and that equals something gets squeezed out.

For now that has been this blog which is okay. It doesn't mean I don't enjoy blogging any less and don't find value in doing these posts. I certainly do but the more immediate nature of Twitter is distracting me from posting. As well as all of the other hats that I have to wear in a given day.

Let's do a quick scorecard to catch up, shall we?

This Message Will Self-Destruct in One Hour

Some good news to pass along, not surprising news as I've been expecting it and even kind of expecting that it would be undertaken in an 11th hour kind of rushed way. The good news is that, as of midnight tonight, I am a fully employed worker bee with benefits and all the other nice stuff that goes along with it.

I'll know more tomorrow morning but for now I'll be doing the same job I've been doing just at a new site and for alot more hours every week. And yeah, I am complaining just a little bit. I'd been looking forward to going for a good bike ride tomorrow but will instead be working. Which is fine, I guess. I mean I know there are a million people or more who need jobs.

Wednesday Afternoon Wrap Up

It is that time of the week when I retrace the last couple of days and make note of some of the good stuff we've been up to.

Newest Obsession - Words with Friends, a casual and semi-sporadic game of Scrabble on the iPhone. My wife started playing it, got me to start playing and now I'm trying to get as many other iPhone users to get in on it too. Want to play me? Download the free version of the app and then search for "fenriq" and start up a game!

Good Ride - I was finally able to align my universe and get out for the weekly mountain bike ride at Wilder Ranch with the MBoSC crew. Had a good time, met some new folks, rode some new trails (a wicked plus!), shot some photos and got home just a little bit later than expected.

iPhone 4 - After almost a week of no news (which isn't always good news), the order status page updated yesterday morning and my shiny new awesome iPhone 4 is on its way to me! The estimated delivery date is today before 3 but its also showing that it is still in Fort Worth, Texas so I'm thinking it'll be here tomorrow instead. And not a moment too soon. The microphone on my worn out 2G has stopped working and the button on the bottom is becoming increasingly cranky and requires some drop therapy (that is, I drop my phone on the carpet a couple of times to get it to work properly again).

Lessons from Loss - My wife lost or left her iPhone in a place where it was taken by someone else yesterday. It pretty much took the plan for the day and shredded it since she was upset about losing it and we spent a large chunk of the afternoon at the park where she last had it. Now the big question is whether to try and reactivate her old phone that's wonky, get a new one on order or wait a little bit longer to see if the finder responds to the text messages sent to the phone. But the kind of scary thing is just how dependent she is on her phone. Without it there's almost no way to get in touch with her which makes me a bit more loathe to see her heading off on long drives with our kids. If she breaks down then how's she going to call for help?

Boardwalk Tuesday Nights - We made our first family outing to the Boardwalk last night. On Tuesday's all summer long, rides at the Boardwalk go from being a ridiculous $3, $4 or $5 each to a single ticket $1 each. Yes, I get that the individual ride prices are set high so that visitors get the unlimited ride passes but a $5 ride that lasts 3 minutes would cost $100 to ride for an hour. Anyway, we had fun, the boys had fun, we got to ride some rides all together but the boys wanted to both ride with me on the Sky Ride over the Boardwalk. Oh and Sully loved the Dragon (a little roller coaster with surprisingly aggressive corners) while Grady was not a fan at all. One of the highlights for me was taking a bunch of photos from the Sky Ride which will, hopefully, be made into some quality tilt shift miniatures.

Work - Still no news on the pending full-time positions. My contact in HR says there's no pending paperwork, nothing in the hopper so I'm a little confused. I was under the impression that July 1st was going to be the launch date for a frenzied 3 months of work at a new site with a massive pile of new tech to install and configure and a massive pile of old tech to wade through, surplus some and hand down to other sites with other stuff. But nope, nothing going on there yet. I do have an inside line on what would be a great, great new job with the county. But that's still a ways off as the position won't open until the current occupant retires and then there's no guarantee that the position will be restaffed given budget issues locally, at the state level and nationally.

Update: My new and awesome iPhone 4 has arrived! It is at home charging up as we speak and will be ready for primetime in a couple of hours. Initial thoughts? It is a heavy little phone. The famous Apple un-box was pretty anti-climatic, just remove the cellophane wrapper, pull up the top and there it is, in all its sexy turned off glory.

The Mara-Kvetch Express

Yes, just yes, yes, yes. Gina Carano kicks ass!

There's a bunch of stuff going on in the world, some good, lots bad, some that I just can't be arsed to give a shit about even though many, many other people are quite literally dancing in the streets. Plus, there's a Domo-kun you can print out and make, really, click the More link below, I promise.

Yes, the Lakers won the NBA championship again. Big whoop-de-do. Basketball sucks. Its a game for the freakishly tall, of which I am quite clearly not. Kobe Bryant wins another ring. Yeah for him, I wonder if he's going to celebrate by sodomizing another pretty white girl (against her will or not)?

The World Cup is going on and is accompanied by the angry buzzing sound of something called a vuvuzela. Until a week ago I had no idea what those incredibly stupid annoying things were called. They don't bother me though because I'd rather watch the "No signal" text bounce around my television screen than watch 22 grown men play an hour and a half long game of keep away. Seriously, soccer is the most watched sport on the planet? Are we really this lame? No, don't answer that.

Obstructed Employment

I'm in the rather peculiar position of wanting/needing a full time job with benefits and having one of my sites wanting to hire me on a full time basis or close enough to qualify for benefits.

So what's the problem?

If the department submits the paperwork to human resources for the position then that position gets offered to a totem pole of other folks in my department based on their seniority. It will also be offered to recently laid off workers who get priority rehire treatment for 39 months after being laid off.

But the site doesn't want to fill the position with anyone, they want to fill it with me. But they are not able to actually choose who they hire, they can only choose that they hire someone. Everything else is out of their hands. Which is, of course, ridiculous. Sites and departments should have the final say-so on who works for them and should be able to reject any prospect they choose. But the sites are unable to do this because of collective bargaining agreements, bumping rules and all the other things that unions put in place to protect the most senior members at the expense of the most junior.

So I'm stuck either staying as an unprotected contract worker or opening up the position the tender mercies of a bumping lottery.

In the end, nobody wins. The site gets short changed because I've got one foot out the door at all times, I am and have been on a constant job hunt. If/when a job is offered to me, I will take it and they will have to start from scratch with a new employee.

The education system in California is seriously broken and in need of a fix, not continuing budget cuts and furloughs. And there really needs to be an amendment to the collective bargaining agreement that returns some of the local site administration to the local sites. Running school sites by unionized bureaucratic dictums is backwards at best and directly detrimental to the smooth operation of school sites and districts at worst.

At the end of the day there is really a pretty simple calculation to run. Do we want to have to build more prisons or do we want to have to build more colleges? Underfunding education at the primary school level means we are going to be building more prisons to house an uneducated and unemployable populance. If it were up to me, I'd definitely go with funding education. It is a long term investment that strengthens the state on all levels. Prisons just weaken us all and cost an insane amount of money.

Fund Education Now or Build More Prisons Later

Planning is Stewpid

Last week and the two final days of the week before were spring break in my school district where I work. The district offices were blissfully quiet and empty and I was able to get a bunch of work done which was nice.

Fast forward to today and there is construction or something going on in the building which requires them to cut into the walls every couple of minutes. The noise and vibration are echoing through the offices and are incredibly loud, distracting and annoying.

This work could have and should have been done last week when it would have been least disruptive. But no, they are doing it now and driving me and everyone else in a hundred foot radius up a tree with the non-stop noise.

Sometimes I do wish I was working for a company that needed to do things efficiently and smartly. This bureaucratic education stuff can get old because of the built-in dumbassery.

Snapshot

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.

Work Kvetch

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.

New Year, Same Issues

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?

Ten Traits of a Champion

“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.

The Monday Morning Rundown

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!

I Have, Metaphorically, Shot Myself in the Foot

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.

Things on My Mind

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.

First Monday Off the Clock

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.

So Much for Coasting

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.

One Door Closes...

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.

T-Minus 10 Days

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.

Insert Witticisms and Snark Here

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.