Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Sir Willem De Kay

Yay! Somebody notices me! Now I truly is somebody!


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Reunion with my blog

OK, I tried to write a very heavy and profound blog entry yesterday, striking all the somber tones one does when re-entering the bloggosphere after a long furlough. And today, I was going to edit the draft version, perhaps to put a slightly brighter tone to the morose opening phrases.

Then I read it.

And then I said, "NAH!"

IT was shite. Pure drivel. So if you were kind enough to read even this far, which would make you very kind indeed, I won't bore you with that maudy tripe.

More to the point ... am I back?

Maybe.

The tough part about sitting down to write when you are out of work is that you feel guilty doing it because you are out of work. Aren't you supposed to be doing something more productive, like going to on-line university and learning to play the mandolin in subway stations for a touch of the ol' filthy lucre?

It is 'reinvention of the employable self' time in all media outlets --- perhaps because even the media monsters may be out of a job soon as well --- and we are all being advised to give up on the old engineering grind or the market trading yoke, and become organic farmers or hair stylists. I think that if you filled out one of those on-line questionnaires evaluating what you should do now that the sky has fallen and taken your office building with it, the web response would advise you to take a 180° turn, and in the immortal words of The Firesign Theater Company; "... cut off the soles of your shoes, move into a tree and learn how to play the flute."

Sage advise, that. I would particularly enjoy it, because throughout my adult working life (even when I was president of a small company), whenever I would hobnob with CIOs, Venture Capital Angels or other wheeler-dealers and be asked to commiserate with them over their labor related peccadilloes, I would take great glee in annoying them by saying stuff like, "Hey, don't ask me. I'm a commie."

Not that I was a commie, mind you. I just had reasonable relationships with union guys throughout my industry because I knew I needed them for anything to actually work. Not that only union workers could crew on as stagehands, lighting grips and riggers, camera operators, etc.; but that from city to city, I could only depend on union locals to provide qualified and trained personnel to get a lot done in a very short time.

And so, wouldn't it occur to a lot of people now that perhaps unions could be of some assistance in bringing the work force back on line? Since they have training systems for workers already in place, which corporations provide only at the most minimal levels AND with a gun to the CEO's head?

Ooooo! Scaary! Unions in offices! Boogah!

OK, the commie rant is now over. My more conservative pals can put away the long knives for the next cocktail party.

BUT, it does feel good to RANT! So maybe I'll do this once a day again, just like I used to. To feel like I am actually doing SOMETHING. While waiting to do something.