Unemployment

Started: 2002-10-01 13:31:00

Submitted: 2002-10-01 13:53:00

Visibility: World-readable

Let me go on the record saying that unemployment sucks. Abjectly. Just in case any of you out there were wondering about it.

For some odd reason, I feel compelled to type up a few random thoughts while sitting on the couch opposite from Ziyal. (Ziyal ended up where she is now, on the southern wall of the alcove, so she would be opposite from the couch so Gem and I could sit on said couch while watching movies on Ziyal.) Gem is currently using Elssbett for her class (which she discovered she was actually three minutes early to, not three minutes late), thwarting my thoughts of using it for my own personal use. So I borrowed her Targus Stowaway keyboard which she acquired yesterday at CompUSA for US$53, with a US$30 mail-in rebate; I'm tempted to acquire one of my own and use someone else's address. (One per household. I'll see if I can fool them.) I've plugged the keyboard into Vigor and am now squinting trying to see the screen in the currently slightly-less-than-adequate lighting conditions.

My main point for typing this little babble is in hopes that it will have some sort of cathartic effect. I had a fun-filled and action-packed lunch with my dad today. (He decided that we should go to lunch once per week until I get a job so I can report on my progress, or profound lack thereof. Now that I also get to give nightly reports to my parents, I have no shortage of government oversight.)

Dad and I went to Java Hut, next to Office Max on the south east corner of Walnut and 30th. The food was good, but then we lapsed into "tell me what great job-searching progress you have made" mode. Since I haven't made much progress, this means I didn't have very much to report. Which got Dad to try to convince me that my job searching really isn't futile. Which nudged me out of State 1 into State 2. (State 1 is blissful ignorance -- I ignore the fact that I'm basically unemployed and go about my life happy. State 2 is horrible paranoia -- I start to evaluate the situation and realize that I am screwed out of my mind because I don't have a job and the economy is going to hell, especially if certain dock workers on the west coast have anything to say about it. State 3 is the state my parents expect me to be in -- vigorously pursuing every lead, without bothering to double-check whether it's actually worth following up on or taking a moment to run a cost/benefit analysis on the problem.) When I'm in State 2, I naturally want to transition back into the blissful ignorance of State 1, since there's no possible way I could end up in State 3 on my own. But with my parents dragging me into State 3, we compromise and I remain in State 2, which makes me mad until I can retreat and slip back into State 1 while no one's watching.

I wonder if I should actually explicitly assign this to my parents as required reading, or if Dad is going to run across it before I point him to it. I think I'll just wait for him to read it. Of course, then we're going to have another epic discussion about my attitude (we've been there before -- I'm the only one who can change my attitude, etc) and maybe I'll actually end up worse off.

(For the record, I asked Gem how long she could go before getting annoyed that I didn't have a job. She thought she would be fine through at least Christmas. Then she'll just need to write me an epic ranting e-mail and everything will be ok.)

(I think I'll count this time as attitude improvement study time, since that is the whole purpose of this exercise.)

Dad did say one thing that made a little sense -- I have the option of waiting around for some job to fall in my lap, or I can vigorously pursue every lead (and shade of a lead, I'm sure) and maybe get a job I want a little sooner. This Python opportunity in the Land of the Salsa seems like it fits the former category much more than the latter category.

(Dad said one more thing -- the Land of the Salsa is the second-best place in Texas to live, the first being Austin, which in conveniently nearby.)

Ok, I've rambled enough.