Life is What Happens

Life is what happens when you are not paying attention. There's no practice, it's just happening all the time. We're always on - always in it. So every day is a whole new ball game. Such is the theme of the Life Without Practice Blog.

Good day to you, new reader perusing this ordinary life from your monitor wherever you may be sitting and surfing today. Reading this blog will not get you deep insight into the latest news or buzz. No sports update, or commentary on tech gadgets. Nope, just an ongoing view of the little, minor projects in the life of one bit player on the stage of life. It's been spewing into this particular bucket for months, and will continue

A case in point, Project 2, P2 for brevity. Just one of the projects you'll see itemized in these annals. Onward goes P2. As summarized in a recent post, I'm moving forward on this project to move into a fulltime engagement with a purveyor of employment, rather than my rather spotty gig of consultatory interaction. Another call on that topic today. Me thinks my premise of a rising boom in the economy is being shown to be rather accurate. But candidate number 3 is still my desire. An interesting engagement in an exploratory and open-ended position for which I seem well suited.

This new opportunity has arisen, focussed mostly on one element of the engineering of new products for folk. A bit focussed for my liking, but I shall continue to explore it and see how the details manifest themselves. Nice to be still getting calls - even without circulating new cv's. They are very much like seeds planted. I once grew a banana tree - still have it growing actually. The seeds are much like resumes. Lumpy, unexpected things with indeterminate germination periods from a month to a year or more. One of my plantings sprouted in about a month, another sat forgotten in a pot while other things were later planted. A year or so later - pop, up comes another banana tree. Resumes are like that.

Another Project - Finances!
There's always another project to add it seems, on which I've been contributing on-again-off-again as the bandwidth allows. Call this Project 16 shall we?

Since my young years in highschool I followed the stock market, and thus a number of years later I have many hundreds of transactions behind me, folders full of statements and (luckily) a paper trail to allow me to recover everything that I did in building my 50 or 60 company portfolio.

Trouble is, knowing exactly how I've done. On an individual basis, sure each equity, I've bought and sold, I've scrutinized before buying, followed as an individual element of my portfolio, and occasionally delved back into, checking it's vital signs or making decisions about when to cahs out or cut my losses. But to see a good picture of the forest and the shape of the trees is more difficult. Come tax time, given a recent sale, calculating the exact cost and capital gain is a challenge sometimes, and often results in a late evening and lots of scribbled notes, and searching through statements.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I've got the statements neatly filed away chronologically, so I can find them. But the paths are often convoluted. You buy company a company like "poco petroleum" in the 80's. Later you might buy a bit more - now the cost per share is a bit more complicated, but manageable. Then it gets bought out by Burlington resources. Okay no biggy. Then they change the symbol of the stock. Then Conoco Philips buys them out, and gives COP shares for each BR share, as well as a chunk of cash (in US funds) for each share as well - and the COP shares are doled out in a 18:25 ratio. Well, what's the cost of each COP share when you sell it and get a capital gain?

You see my point. Simple math, but a long paper trail. A while back I set about recording all transactions for all equities I own or owned. A single big spreadsheet to search through when I need to check something. But it was a big job, prone to errors, but at least I had most of the data in there. A few statements were missing, but the data reconstructable.

I've just launched a new phase of the clarification - capturing a company-by-company summary of what happened (wha' 'appen' for the Mighty Wind afficianados out there). So I pour through the big spreadsheet, re-confirming everything that happened to each company. Things that are sold and gone, summarize how I did. Those that are still in my portfolio, summarize the current position and the exact cost base.

Whew - Makes me feel like an accountant. What a dreamy, exciting career that would be, if only I hadn't gotten distracted by physics. Sigh.

So thus goes my P16 enjoyment. Strangely it is a bit exciting. Like a good book, I want to see how it all works out. Am I ahead after all those years of investing? What if I had just stuck the money into a mattress? What if I had just put it all into a bank account earning 2% interest? Well, I'll be getting an answer to that, assuming my computer doesn't die or something. I'm concious of that possibility. I'm backing up the file that collects so much work - many days have been poured into there. I would NOT want to try and capture all this again. It's rather mindless and it would seem such an insurmountable challenge. I shall have to stick it onto a CD or something when finished. A tiny sub-meg file likely, but chock full of statistcal goodness.

Wrap
Okay that's about it. Your assignment - for these assignments are what draw so many of you to come to this fascinating look at mundaneity (mundination?, boritude?) - your assignment is to write down all your debts and all your financial assets on a sheet of paper and see where you come out. Do you have a number? Keep it to yourself, burn the paper and think about what it's all about.

Hallowed Halls

My curiousity crossed the threshold today for the first time in a while. Oh hey - is this a noted project? Yeah, okay - I suppose it's an element of P11, but relates to some familial research. Digging into a prominent relative who was in WWII. I've been conversing with a WWII historian & author who's father knew my guy, and wrote a bit about him in letters home from the front, well overseas anyway.

So anyway, I kept thinking about the city directories and wanting to look some stuff up in the early 20th century Winnipeg and Toronto directories. A resource that's still not online, and frankly, until there are massive high-volume optical readers I don't think you're going to see these things online. Perhaps with a thousand low paid typists who know English in India you might plug through a few of them, but it's a ton of data in a dense book, published every year for every city.

Anyway, that was enlightening. I also wanted to quickly look at a London Times article from 1943, so walked into the microfilm room at the Archives and realized I'd need to know the box numbers to pull the microform stuff. Do you think I'd could find out that? It's one of the worlds most prominent newspapers, I'm in the national library and archives of our country. Man - I've seen military exercises that are more straightforward. Lots of searching online by a reference librarian with no luck. She looks for someone else, while I go try the computer search with no luck. Then someone else finds a binder of newspaper reference numbers for Canada (But England should be in there too) That gives them a long number which can be typed into a search field, then something cryptic comes up - just click on the first numeric string, don't worry what it is, then you get a hit for the newspaper (it doesn't come up if you just type the paper's name in the search box). Now enter a date range, and hey - there it is, but it's not in the room full of microfilm, it's got to be brought up from the basement and will take about an hour.

I could just drive over to the University and get it from the cabinet marked "London Times" in that time, I commented. I did drive over to the Public Library nearby to check something else out about my neighbourhood. They don't carry the London Times there it turns out. I came back to find the Microfilm had made it up - and the microfilm was on the spool backwards, go figure.

So I had to install it backwards, and back-up to read it - but found the article I was looking for. Interesting, but containing no new news about my guy. I didn't know there was a Times article, but I got that from one of the writer's dad's letters. He read it when it was still on paper and easy to pick up and read.

Whew.

Tools
Looking over outliners and mind-mappers. One a friend showed me called Scrivener looked pretty cool, but wants OS X 10.4 to load. I'm on 10.3.9 still, and not likely to upgrade until my next Mac. I did download FreeMind, which is pretty good. But like someone commented online, CMAP produces nicer maps. CMAP though is a bit obsessed with client/server operation for sharing. It's not clear that it will also work without the server thing. It probably will, but I haven't tried it yet.

I also tried a barebones note-taker. Probably can't call it an outliner, but for a simple hierarchical note taker, DeepNotes is fine.

But I did download the trial version of Avenir. It lets you launch it 30 times before dying, then it's only about $30 I think, so I'll try stuffing one of my manuscripts into it and see what happens.

Ice
The ice on the pond is still 1cm thick. Gotta drain that thing again. Tomorrow sounds warmer. Amazing it's not thawing in spite of above-zero temps. But I'll pump her out tomorry.

Wrap
That's it for me today. Hey - your assignment for today is to grab the nearest paper and sketch out a plot of a novel - first idea that comes to mind. No, don't sit there thinking about it - you're going to throw it away anyway!! Just sketch out a really rough plot with a beginning middle and yes, an end. Got something down - okay fine, it's junk, just throw it away.

Having trouble tossing it out? Well, maybe it's got enough to the idea that you can sketch out a few scenes. Give it a try and see what happens. Let us know your progress. Did you manage to throw it out?

Crisp Weather Clears the Air

Ice on the pond water - yeah I emptied it already, but record breaking rainfalls have refilled it and cold weather has crusted it up. Yesterday it melted by mid day, today, in spite of a few degrees on the positive side the ice has remained all day.

I anticipate a slight warming trend for the week,and so I'll have to bring the pump out again and drain it yet again.

With the cold air comes increasing clarity. Remember P2 pursuit? (see projects list at the left, by the way, if you're wondering) Well, yet another interview, this one with an HR person for the number 3 company I've been talking to. No offer yet, and though the HR lady put on a brave face about some interviews still going on etc., I get the sense that the hiring director just found me, wanted to hire me almost without an interview and has told HR go ahead with it. So we talked about background stuff, I projected some platitudes and philosophical observances of the industry. We got onto salaries, benefits etc, and I even prodded a bit on holidays (the 3wks to start is fine with me) willingly receiving lack of negotiability, and options (extracted admission of negotiability). The latter is best reinforced by not pushing on the former, creating a sense of reasonableness.

Anyway, I'll take almost anything for the opportunity to work on this project which at least seems interesting with good growth opportunity. It may well turn out to be different, but with a good paycheck rolling in for a while, I can put up with almost anything and at worst I can continue looking from the comfort of a paying job.

Carpenter Bob Reports
I finished the hall table. A spiffy little number with three drawers and a tippy bin for hats and mitts etc. It's quite narrow, providing more clearance than the old one. Not sure if the colour is right - white sail - but for now we'll live with it. I think a more antiquey white might be better. We've considered distressing a bit, but I'm not sure I'm up for that look. Could sand into the wood then rub some stain in and clearcoat perhaps. We've painted our cherry mirror to match as well - it's looking pretty good. Let's see how it goes for now.

Other Project Wrap Up
Whew, some other projects could use an update. Lets scan thorugh the list.

P12 - I'm doing pretty good with avoiding procrastination. Getting things like this carpetry done is a good sign.

P11 - made contact with a chap who's father wrote home from the war and mentioned my famous great uncle somewhat. Nice fellow - perhaps rather on in years. But the notes have been fantastic. I've done lots of archival research and the results are mostly pretty dry. Seeing records of casual interactions is so interesting. What a great contact.

P8 - My SO made one of the worlds best dishes again. Morrocan lamb and sweet potato casserole. It's a lot like a tajine dish. Spinach, sweet potato, rich sauce with prunes and cranberries. A yummy concoction. We've noticed a new Ethiopian restaurant has opened another good food opportunity we hope.

P5 - Still working through Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler. It's an entertaining read from a stylistic point of view, a personality point of view (Toffler, and to an extent his generation), and a futurist point of view. To address each of these, the style is funny in that it's got a real grouchy old man undertone. "Things are changing, and I don't like it, dammit." The late 60's sensibility is funny. The shock at things which are so commonplace now is great, and the futurist read of these is quite enlightening. Comments about how there are rental car places at many airports, and even in Europe you can rent cars at some airports now, he exclaims. Similar comments about how there are many brands of things like shaving products and detergents is also entertaining.

The premise regarding brand proliferation was that there were getting to be so many consumer choices that just picking something was going to be a big chore in the future. Choosing a car, to paraphrase one rant, was getting to be something you might have to consider for a whole day. The number of options and models is amazing. Again, there was that undertone of "This is new, and I don't like it!"

So you can imagine the element of Toffler's personality being an entertaining one. He's got a bit of a Grandpa Simpson vibe going there. The futurist element is interesting, because during this era the 'year 2000' was so far in the future that it was still held up as a distant robot-maid and flying car era. So I read this sort of book explicitly for such perspectives. There are many of them, so I'll leave you to read and get the enjoyment of finding them. One future vision element was how school curricula was evoloving away from the old rigid teaching approaches. His extrapolation was that with this evolution, by 2000 children will be learning at home from big computer-controlled information databases. Insightful for 1969, but like most futurists, the fundamental element of the Internet that was missed is its characteristic grass-roots quality. Anyone who got close to forseeing its emergence foresaw it as a big government or corporately created and managed service. No one foresaw free, ubiquitous, massive and broadly heterogeneous (in terms of accuracy, quality, and content).

Just of half way through, but enjoying it in spite of it's quirky style. The author has a funny and slightly creepy way of injecting a bit of sexuality here and there. Rather than seeming broad-minded, edgey or jocular, it's got a bit of a dirty-old-man feel to how it shows up. As each topic is treated I find myself waiting for the slightly seedy mention of how new sexual proclivities fit in. Rarely more than a word or two, but entertaining none the less.

P13 - language study has been a bit lax. Looked at a bit of Japanese yesterday. I haven't lost the kana recognition (though katakana has probably weaked somewhat... damn that "so" and "n" differentiation) but the kanji learning still hasn't been addressed. Plus I need some good Furigana sources. Wish I could find a whole novel with furigana to decode.

P4 - My walking has been poor with all this rain. A few nice days, though crisp, so I've been out for a brief walk two days in a row. Today I even let myself have a do-nothing moment or two by popping into a Bridgehead for a pot of tea and to read a paper!

Wrap
Well, let's not get too wordy here. That's a wrap for today. Biggest issue remains P2 closure. If it' goes south now, it will be a big let down. All the signs of have been positive, and I should know by the end of the week, but we'll see. Fingers crossed, positive thinking.

Heck, that's my assignment for you, dear reader, for today. With every ounce of effort you can muster, try to wear a smile and be overtly positive for the rest of the day. That's some number less than 24 hours depending on when you read this. Can you do it? How often do you say something negative? Challenge yourself and see if you can make it. A few hours out of your life, is it really an insurmountable challenge? Let me know how it goes.

Trees are Dense Here

You know the old adage about seeing the forest? When the trees on this hill are rather dense, and I can't tell if I'm getting near the top. But that's just par for the course in the Life Without Practice.

This is referring again to the project 2 stuff, of course. There were the 3 positions I was looking at, you'll recall? When busy, busy. I did tell #2 to take a hike - politely of course. Not an attractive role at all. Number 3 however has gone well, with another interview and an interesting group in a large firm. It was tough to tell what I was interviewing for, but I requested a job descripto and got one the next day in the bitstream. They seem to be interested. I almost thought I was hired during the interview. Very fuzzy experience, but the subject matter is engaging, so I hope they are going forward with an offer. I'm already working on a few explorations in the subject area of this company, so I can hit the ground running. Lots of apparent room for exploration and vision in this role, and a small team to manage, with an overseas component to be added as well. So I'm hopeful.

Tap, Tap, Whirr, Whirr
Yes, Project 15 is still moving forward. I'm working on that hall table, desk, commode, or credenza whatever you want to call it. Narrow, with 3 drawers, one tilty-door/bin, and an open shelf. It's been off and on as I get job on the brain. Waiting for the P2 thing to come through.

But I've made all the pieces, and the biggest chunk - the carcase - is clamped up and glued. Just need to do the top piece with it's requisite bit of moulding around the edge, and prime and paint so that I can put the drawer glides into position on the carcase. Rebates/holes for the tilty hinges, and holes for the glides are there. The other side of the glids are in place on the sides of the drawers. I urethaned the drawers and bin, but whew, what a stink, and too cold to open the windows this time of year. I'm stopping after one coat, and will add another in the sumemr, perhaps.

Also, i've switched th plan to latex paint so I don't have to stink the place up again. Probably not as durable, nor moisture resistant, but the other option is too smelly. Didn't help the migraine that showed up yesterday evening.

Gilded Garbage
Did some electrical work on an old decrepit garage - replacing a dangerously old lightswitch, adding a receptacle... and then pulling down an old crappy motion sensor and spotlight to replace it with a better one and a halogen spotlight. So all that done as darkness decended yesterday and it works fine.

I'd rather rip down the garage, but that's only scheduled for when we add on to the house. So a while yet until financial circumstances are more shiney.

Wrap Up
Your assignment this time is to go buy a compact fluorescent bulb and replace one of the incandescent ones in your home. You've just saved a bit of energy, so go celebrate with a nice tall cold one... which effectively cancels out the energy savings, since it had to be trucked to your local bar... but what the heck. At least you're breaking even.

Cresting the Hill

That symbolic hill I described earlier seems to have crested sooner than I thought. Oh sure there is another peak still looming over this one, but I got a bit of a break today it seems. On the P2 front the three jobs incubated for a while. The one I really was hopeful for, evaporated as the VP who was doing two jobs decided he liked the one I was interviewing for best, and so he took the job himself and the position disappeared.

Number two has turned into three interviews, but that job has changed too. Similar story, someone internally threatened to walk, so they stuck him in the job I thought was going to be offered to me, and now they are buttering me up to take a backfill management job that sounds like crap. I'll decline that one.

Number 3 went silent after the first interview, but it's a big company. They suggested in the i'view that it might be a bit junior for me, and the bigwig who called today says there's another new project they'd like me to consider. This last one sounds good so far, and will make it even easier to tell #2 to take a hike.

Such a rollercoaster, this process. Are you interviewing for a career change? You know what I'm talking about then. Up and down. I don't take anything for granted, even when an i'view looks like it was great. So, not counting any chickens yet, but I'm hopeful for #3. Why do I get the feeling that there's a big gulley between this peak and the next one, and sometime next week I'll be wallowing in the emotional shallows again.

Oh well, I'm glad I had a few days lead-in to the i'view3 with #2. I did a lot of thinking while doing my P15 project (which I'll get onto shortly) and realized I can continue to enjoy this un-structured life I've been leading, if I persevere in imposing the appropriate structure. A few days in a row of low-motivation really kills the spirit. If I'm still at this for another few months, I'm up for it.

I would like to do Xmas in NY thought, so settling it sooner would be best.

P15 Carpentry
So the hall table project continues. It's been joinery for the past two days, making drawers and a tippy-bin. The 1/4" MDF is quite an interesting material. Very dense, it makes decent stuctures, if you can avoid it's pitfalls - which are likely trying to do any fasteners at all - nails, screws etc. So a box-joint technique of interleaved fingers works great. No splitting or mushrooming of the material, which is great unless you stick some metal into it.

Joining boxes to drawerfronts, I'll do something a bit innovative too I think - dowel pins and glue.

I have to think about finish as well. I want to do a white or near white finish. Perhaps an oil-based topcoat to get the best moisture protection. Being near the entry, the winter track-in snow will mean a bit moisture around. And MDF no-likey the moisture!

Wrap
Remembrance day tomorrow, and we're going to maybe go to the big Ottawa ceremony... assuming it doesn't rain too much. Seems weenie to bail if it rains, considering the experience of sitting in a WWI trench in the rain, with felt and wool clothing, and the mud etc. Well, if nothing else, we can watch it on TV.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, right this minute, is to go to Google and enter: +yourcity +"World War I" then click the feeling-lucky-button and read what comes up. Remember for a moment or two those that gave so much of themselves - whichever side they were on - in such a senseless period in human history.

Desk Cat

Cat on my desk. I think this is a pretty common thing, from what I hear. Late in the afternoon, I usually get a couple of cats making the rounds, and relocating to the top of the desk, and exploring all the bits and bobs on the desktop. This one's just found an elastic burried under some bulldog-clips and paper clips and post-its. She's batting at it and trying to yank it out with little nips.

P2 is getting me down today. Not much happening, though I got a call from the 2 interview twits, saying they've re-orged and want to talk to me about another position, but it sounds like it's backfilling for someone who ended up in the one I was originally talking about. I want to tell them to take a hike, but paying job would be nice. Not sure if I'd like to ratchit back my career at the door and pretend I like the role though. Yeesh, this gets me down.

Maybe I should just let it go and keep looking. The fact that I got 3 interviews in a couple of days should mean something is out there. Just don't know if I'm going to be happy working my way up from 1st level management jobs again. It's not the work so much as reporting to people with less experience and ability. That's pretty soul-killing.

Expanding Project List
Just realized I need a P15 - furniture making. I haven't done much lately - well for about a year I guess, when I made the fireplace for candles. Well, now it's hall table, and it's coming together pretty good. After looking at a few crappy ones in a store, I figured I'd just make my own. So far it's cost me $2.49 - for some dowel pins I was short on. I might buy some paint as well, rather than use the latex stuff. It's in MDF though, so I don't want to get too carried away.

I have a chance to do a brief P6 project - Montreal. The SO is headed that way with work, so I might use her hotel room with her and get to spend a day there. She'll probably take a train, so I'll just drive. What is that - about one tank of gas - so about $50, plus probably $20 parking in downtown. That's not too bad. Gets me a Schwartz's lunch anyway. Plus there's a bit of Geneological stuff that would be nice.

Exercise
Standing in a workshop all day for 2 days is hard on the feet and back - so keeping up on P6 (exercise) is important too. After the annoying P2 phone conversation, I went for a good long 6000 step walk. I had a morning headache as well. Super sensitive to alcohol these days, so just a glass of beer can do it. But outside the cool air almost totally takes it away. So a nice long walk was good. Perhaps another reason to consider the P6 opportunity.

Wrap
Well, I should think about supper. Your assignment for this time is to grab a dictionary, and leaf through it until you find a word that resonates with you today. Don't lookup a word that comes to mind, just browse the dictionary until you find one that sounds good. Send it to me, or enter it as a comment. As always, this bitplayer in the life without practice can be reached at lwopractice(at)yahoo.ca. The word I picked with a brief browse was "paradoxical" - that one grabbed me and seems to make sense today.

Crossing Hills

I feel like I've been walking up a hill for several weeks, and it's a bit of a struggle. This P2 effort weighs on me. With 3 interviews and positive feedback, comments about a second interview for 2 and an actual 2nd interview with one, I was feeling pretty confident for a while, but the lack of professionalism in the hiring process these days makes me cringe. I'd never keep people on the hook like that. Have they moved on with their hiring and not even sent me an email? Am I still in the running, and their just too busy to close on the process? Don't know.

I guess I'll have to send some emails or make some calls myself next week. But meanwhile, I got back on that horse and started some resumes circulating. Did an in person drop off to follow up an email. That seemed to work well in the past, so I hope it does again. How do you communicate that evenone you worked for sang your praises when you are still looking? Oh well.

I guess by my sense of the situation that I am actively looking for a job, rather than pursuing the consult thing much anymore. Perhaps I can do a few things to push on the P1 point of view again.

What ever the path forward, I feel like I've crested a shoulder on the hill. But on Monday, I was really slogging straight up a steep slope. The past few weeks I've been doing stuff that I would regret not having done if I was once again full-time engaged - hence the P14 stuff.

Sitting in my office surrounded by clutter, I decided earlier in the week to do a blitz through the mess and get some order in place. I have some good desk surface, a pile of recycled papers and records in better order now, at least. Still some work to do, but clearing up a bit helps lift the spirits.

Finances
The government has moved as I expected and snapped a tax in place on Income Trusts, so that equity option has now lost it's shine. Of course, there was an immediate hit on the one's I hold, and I didn't care for that. The net impact on my portfolio wasn't a huge one. My stocks were generally up the days preceeding, so I am about where I was last week, but it really ruined a bunch of individual investments. Typical amateur move from the clowns in parliament.

It will take a few months now for those vehicles to figure out what they're doing. I suspect some will convert back to a regular public corporation. But basically they were all solid companies and so at the end of the day, the value should still be there, in spite of a shift of tax burden.

Wrap
Supper time - let's wrap it up. Your assignment, dear blog reader, is to get out your old tax returns for the past 10 years or so (if you've been around that long) and graph your net taxable income. What shape is your curve? Mine used to be logarithmic, but the past 4 years it's crashed - kind of like the tech economy.