newprotest.org: Stuff about Me

Stuff about Me

It's like myspace. Only not quite so myspace.

Curious about the way my brain works? Yeah. Me, too.

This section of my blog is a collection of things I'm into, and things about which I wonder. It's kind of a catch-all category.

NEW ADVENTURE

2021-07-12 10:08:39
by: jovial_cynic
Today is my last Monday at the current job with Washington State.

It's weird to have changed jobs during Covid. Twice. The first job was as a Sales Leader with Allstate. Early in the pandemic, they transitioned to work-from-home, like many jobs, and my office became the space around my laptop. It worked out quite well - my family and I lived on a 51' boat, which meant that my office was really anywhere along the Puget Sound waters - sometimes in Poulsbo, sometimes in Tacoma. We didn't make it to Canada or Alaska like we planned (due to travel restrictions) but I'll still argue my office was nicer than anyone else's.

When I left Allstate (or Allstate left me? It's complicated) and picked up a job with the State of Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner, my office view didn't change. We still lived on the boat at the time, so my adventure into state government employment didn't feel like much of a change. My "office coworkers" were still my wife and my kids, and aside from being on the phone a lot more (my job involved talking to consumers who complained about their insurance companies), my routines were pretty similar. Another key difference is that I was a supervisor. Having subordinates has been a little strange in a remote environment. True story: I've never met 5 out of 6 of my subordinates, except by Zoom. Aside from little "how was your weekend" chats as the late-arrivals would log into virtual meetings, I can't say that I know much of anything about my team. And I think that's why transition out of this current job feels so odd. I'm saying goodbye to people I've never met, and due to lack of time and face-to-face interaction, there's not really any emotions about it. I think the only emotion that I've had is this growing feeling that a state government job isn't for me.

If you know me at all, you know that I like to tinker. I like to create things. I like to come up with creative solutions to problems, and really push the borders on what is possible. I crave adventure, exploration, discovery. So as you might imagine, being chained to policy and procedures and paperwork and the correct crossing of "T"s and dotting of "I"s has been, in a word, torturous. It has been soul crushing for me. Not to be thwarted, I *did* impose some change on the way the office was run. I set new expectations on my team that encouraged my subordinates to ask more questions and to look for solutions in novel ways. But some borders are functionally immovable; policy and procedure documents could take months... YEARS, even, to change in meaningful ways. I just don't have the patience for that.

At some point, I polished my resume and updated my LinkedIn profile. It was, in fact, my LinkedIn profile that caught the attention of a head hunter who was eager for somebody with my background. They were looking to create a new Sales Leader position in the Northwest, and having already been a Sales Leader with 17 years of insurance experience, I was exactly what they were looking for.

Initially, I was not interested. I mean, it's a bit of a contradiction to suggest that I'm creative, exploratory, and always looking for new adventures when I've spent nearly half my life in a single career field. All in insurance! I told the recruiter that I was hesitant, and that quite frankly, if I was going to accept any interview (seven separate interviews with the company, as it turned out), I wanted it to be very clear that it was I who would be interviewing them, and not the other way around. I needed to make sure that there was a philosophical alignment between myself and the company. I previously chose not to reapply with Allstate due to philosophical differences; I wasn't interested in tying myself to another company with whom I disagreed.

In the end, I decided that the new company was acceptable to me. The interviews revealed to me that the company is very interested in new ideas, changes, new ways of succeeding, and that in my role, I would have a seat at the table for these discussions. Additionally, the role would give me a tremendous amount of freedom. Freedom to solve problems, and to look for efficiencies. The structure is basically, "Here's your territory, here are your resources, and here is the goal. Go get it!" I love that. I thrive in that. And it's for that reason I accepted the job and am eager for next Monday.

I'm very excited about this. No mixed emotions at all. Just a sense of wonder as a new adventure opens up in front of me. I can't wait.

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GOOGLE CAR

2011-12-01 17:11:46
by: jovial_cynic
A lot of people have seen the Google Car driving around in their towns, taking pictures of everything. And a lot of you have taken pictures of the Google Car.

Here's my picture:



I managed to catch the car at a local gas station, and like most of you, I simply couldn't help myself.

But what's even MORE interesting is that I managed to actually talk to the Google Car driver! That's right. So instead of simply taking a picture of the car, this driver agreed to let me snap a shot of the both of us in front of the car.



Turns out that Google gets their drivers from a hiring agency. This driver has been cruising around the area since June of this year.

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GOING THE DISTANCE

2011-05-10 21:48:55
by: jovial_cynic


I've always hated running.

I started this year off by committing to run a mile every day, a plan that lasted about 3 weeks. It wasn't because of laziness or inability to commit. It's because I hated it. Every second of it. From the moment I tied my shoelaces to the final gasping breaths as I dragged myself back into my house, the entire experience was horrible. For each morning I would run, I would feel like I had less energy that day, and the thought of doing it again the next morning was de-motivating.

My asthmatic wife, on the other hand, took up the same challenge, and after several weeks, had increased her distance from a single mile to upwards of 3 and 4 miles. And stranger yet: she LOVED it. Running made her feel better, which further encouraged her to run more. Today, she can run 5 miles at a 9-minute-per-mile average.

Weirdness.

Tonight, I made an important discovery. I decided run again (after a little prodding by my wife), and instead of going at the pace I typically attempted in the past, I decided to back down my speed to see how that would impact my distance. This made a world of difference.

Typically, I would run until I couldn't do it anymore - I'd get to the point where my lungs were burning, and my heartbeat could be felt in my ears and eyes, and my body was on the verge of shutting down. You know... that point where if you take another step, you're just going to puke. By slowing down my pace, I was actually able to mentally monitor my heart-rate, and discovered for the first time the correlation between heart-rate and my body's freak-out threshold. By keeping my heart-rate down, I was able to keep running.

I ran for 2.4 miles - the longest I've ever run. And in fact, I probably could have kept going, but because I'm just now getting over a cold, I figured I shouldn't overdo it. I'm pretty sure, however, that hitting mile #3 in the next few days isn't out of the question. It's all about keeping a reasonable pace. And over time, I should be able to increase my pace as my body builds up more stamina for running.

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DANGER

2011-02-26 15:15:26
by: jovial_cynic


At the local WinCo grocery store, they've got these neat straight-from-the-hive containers of clover honey, orange-blossom honey, and blackberry honey. Fresh honey is awesome.

This is also awesome:




I'm sure it's a gimmick, on account of the huge liability (folks w/ bee allergies and all that)... but it sure does conjure up all kinds of amusement.

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COOKIES: GOOD FOR THE EYES

2011-01-29 14:35:27
by: jovial_cynic


My middle child decided recently that it was cool to wear glasses. She recently learned that the only way to get glasses was to have trouble seeing, so she decided that everything looked blurry. This, of course, prompted one of her teachers to advise us that we needed to have her taken to an optometrist.

Not wanting to spend money that I didn't need to spend on an unnecessary eye exam, I found a simple online eye exam to see if there was anything abnormal about her vision.

On the first letter, my daughter told me it was blurry. That's right. That giant E that's always at the beginning of eye-charts. The next letters were just as blurry to her.

:: sigh ::

"Honey... if you get all the answers right, you'll get a COOKIE at the end."

And miraculously, her vision was suddenly 20/20. 100% accuracy on the remaining letters.

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2011-01-04: CURIOUSLY 2010-12-24: LUCKY 2010-06-05: IT'S HEATING UP! 2010-05-15: COUNTDOWN 2009-12-17: THE MIST 2009-11-17: 100-WORD FICTION 2009-10-23: AFTER SEVEN YEARS 2009-07-13: FISHING BOAT 2009-05-11: PLAYSET 2009-02-25: LENT 2009 2009-01-28: CHATEAU D'CYNIC 2009-01-08: SOCIAL TRACKING DATA 2008-12-29: TRACK EVERYTHING 2008-12-21: SNOW FORT 2008-12-20: UNIQUE LITTLE SNOWFLAKES 2008-12-20: LET IT SNOW... 2008-12-07: WHAT'S FOR DINNER? 2008-11-27: A DAY OF THANKS 2008-11-12: OGRE-LIKE MIGHT 2008-10-21: GAGA FOR GOGGLES 2008-10-09: ETSY 2008-09-15: NEW AVATAR 2008-09-05: FUTURE PLANS 2008-09-03: ON LIFE INSURANCE 2008-07-28: LAKEFAIR FIREWORKS 2008-07-24: THE SHRIMP 2008-07-24: KINETIC VISION MEDIA 2008-07-16: SOMETHING LARGER 2008-07-09: PLAYHOUSE COMPLETE 2008-07-07: THE PATIENT FISHERMAN 2008-07-03: MY TIDE CHART 2008-06-26: SIMPLY DANCE 2008-06-17: BEAUTIFUL PLANET 2008-06-15: OH HAPPY DAY 2008-06-11: MAYBE KNOT 2008-05-23: PLASTIC BAGS: BIODEGRADABLE! 2008-05-06: AIR JELLY 2008-05-05: MYANMAR PERSPECTIVE 2008-04-22: BUFFALO 2008-04-19: AFRICA - SOUTH AMERICA CONNECTION 2008-04-02: BEAUTY 2008-03-28: THE RESISTANCE (IN OHMS) 2008-03-25: 11,000 2008-03-12: GEEK WIFE 2008-02-29: GOODBYE TO THE CLUBSIDE? 2008-02-11: NAMDAEMUN BURNING 2008-01-28: HAPPY LEGO DAY 2008-01-15: DUAL BOOT 2008-01-01: FRETS ON FIRE 2007-12-28: NVIDIA PROBLEMS, ADOBE PROBLEMS 2007-12-06: SOME TWEAKING NECESSARY 2007-12-03: AND THEN CAME THE FLOODS 2007-12-02: WIND AND RAIN 2007-11-15: AWKWARD/UNCOMFORTABLE SETTINGS 2007-11-13: KITTY 2007-11-07: THE ARTIST 2007-10-28: GUTSY GIBBON 2007-10-22: CAFFEINE OVERDOSE 2007-09-29: SO A HAWK AND A STARLING FLY INTO A BAR 2007-09-03: ANY CRASH YOU CAN WALK AWAY FROM... 2007-08-28: HELLO, UBUNTU (PART 4) 2007-08-28: HELLO, UBUNTU (PART 3) 2007-08-28: HELLO, UBUNTU (PART 2) 2007-08-28: HELLO, UBUNTU (PART 1) 2007-08-14: TENTING IT 2007-08-03: AUGUST TO DO LIST 2007-07-09: HOLDING A BABY HOSTAGE 2007-07-05: I'M SO GOING TO DO THIS 2007-06-26: NEVER-ENDING PROJECTS 2007-06-11: THIS EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES 2007-06-07: V-DAY 2007-06-06: NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH PLASMA 2007-05-30: 300 (THE MOVIE) FIGURINES 2007-05-03: LIFE AND DEATH 2007-05-01: SANDRAIL FOR A MOTORHOME 2007-04-29: NEW TABLESAW 2007-04-27: RANDALL MUNROE MISSING? 2007-04-20: STARTING OVER 2007-04-13: MAKING STUFF 2007-04-07: WELCOME HOME, CHARLIE 2007-02-11: OSTINATO RIGORE 2007-02-09: GIFT CARDS! 2007-01-29: GLASS ELDER 2007-01-27: FASHIONABLY LATE 2007-01-26: 800 POUND MAGNET FOR YOUR EYE 2007-01-22: DEAL... OR NO DEAL 2007-01-15: KING OF MY OWN TRASH 2007-01-07: AMIE STREET MUSIC 2007-01-07: RIP, MR. INSTANT RAMEN 2007-01-03: $2000 SUIT 2007-01-01: 2007 - A NEW ADVENTURE 2006-12-16: AND... POWER!!! 2006-12-16: NO POWER, DAY TWO 2006-12-15: POWER FAILURE 2006-11-29: CAN'T SLEEP 2006-11-25: PERPETUAL SATURDAY 2006-11-23: ILLNESS KNOWS NO BORDERS 2006-11-21: KOREA FUN FACT: CORRUPTION! 2006-11-21: KOREAN MARKET 2006-11-20: CROSS COUNTRY TRAVELS 2006-11-17: DRIVING BY THE DRAGON 2006-11-16: IN KOREA: DAY 1 2006-11-03: ICKLE 2006-10-30: COMMUNICATIONS 2.0 2006-10-13: TINY DINOSAUR THEORY 2006-10-05: BONK 2006-09-30: EATING HABITS OF A TWO YEAR OLD 2006-09-28: BREAKFAST AND BATTERIES 2006-09-26: BLOGGING FROM ILLINOIS 2006-09-25: LONG-TAIL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 2006-09-24: AT 14, I WAS INSANE 2006-09-22: MY LIFE AS 1'S AND 0'S 2006-09-19: YAR!!! 2006-09-18: NINJA ATTACK! 2006-09-18: PARENTS OF TODDLERS 2006-09-18: PIMPING DARREN 2006-09-15: SO HELPFUL 2006-09-13: SPELLCHECKER 2006-09-05: YOUTUBE 2006-09-01: FASTER THAN EVER 2006-08-31: WHAT WOULD YOU TRADE FOR A MOTORHOME? 2006-08-31: YOU REALLY SHOULD STOP SMOKING 2006-08-28: DISTORTION 2006-08-05: HORROR FROM THE PIT 2006-07-18: OH, THE BLOOD... 2006-07-15: BUSY BUSY 2006-06-29: JOURNALISM 2006-06-26: HEAT WAVE 2006-06-25: IN THE MOVIES 2006-06-19: FISHING FOR SOMETHING 2006-06-15: ON BEING A VEGETARIAN 2006-06-14: CATASTROPHE! 2006-06-14: THE BUSINESS OF BUSINESS 2006-06-11: THE LEGO EXPERIENCE 2006-06-09: WORLD CUP 2006-06-05: SO A MAN WALKS INTO A LION CAGE... 2006-05-31: GOOGLE ADS 2006-05-30: WHAT TO DO WITH THESE GROCERY BAGS... 2006-05-28: GREAT JOKES 2006-05-26: PERSONALITY DNA 2006-05-24: TOWEL DAY 2006-05-24: KIRBY TIME 2006-05-23: ... 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LOVE STRIKES AGAIN 2005-10-01: MORE CATASTROPHE DUTY 2005-09-27: QUANTUM SLEEPER 2005-09-15: CATASTROPHE 2005-09-08: BEATING UP 12-YEAR OLDS 2005-08-18: FETUS-MART 2005-07-12: NEW BABY = NO SLEEP 2005-07-08: ALL WE, LIKE SHEEP... 2005-07-06: KINGDOM OF LOATHING 2005-07-01: NEW ARRIVAL 2005-06-07: THE MOST AWESOME AND TERRIBLE DREAM 2005-06-07: MOST DIGITAL MAN 2005-06-02: LION OF THE SERENGETI 2005-06-02: HALF BAKED PHILISTINE MAN 2005-05-26: VEGETABLES: THE OTHER GREEN MEAT 2005-05-21: MY STAR'S TURNED TURQUOISE 2005-05-16: ONE PROBLEM AT A TIME 2005-05-10: BUDDYBUZZ 2005-05-03: POTTED MEAT 2005-05-02: URHINES KENDALL ICY EIGHT SPECIAL K 2005-04-19: DEAD FISH 2005-03-07: NEW DIGITAL CAMERA 2005-02-03: MOTORHOME MANIA 2005-01-02: BEING SICK SUCKS 2004-11-16: WE'RE HAVING BABY #2! 2004-11-02: 3D GAMING 2004-10-13: SWAP MEET WITH THE IN-LAWS