Well... the outfit I work for is desintegrating around me... announced : 16/12/03
So I do as the nomads, when the water runs low (but before the well is dry) : Time to move on, to other and better places. Insh'allah.
It's a period when it is much better to be a rat than a captain. Amongst rats, it is totally acceptable to be leaving the ship. A captain cannot leave. A captain is no longer a captain, without his ship.
But that moving on process takes a lot of energy, and I have less time for tribing... and writing...
Right... time to log off, get to my lunch/interview. 8 days into the process, second preliminary offer... going fine... fun, really. just like writing : no idea where this is going. surprising myself.
Not that I care. All I need is a 60000$ rat-level job with a company car and a laptop. Whatever it is about.
See, I don't care about what I'll do because a job is only there to keep me alive. My real interests are elsewhere... I'd better not explain that during the lunch, right ?
So I do as the nomads, when the water runs low (but before the well is dry) : Time to move on, to other and better places. Insh'allah.
It's a period when it is much better to be a rat than a captain. Amongst rats, it is totally acceptable to be leaving the ship. A captain cannot leave. A captain is no longer a captain, without his ship.
But that moving on process takes a lot of energy, and I have less time for tribing... and writing...
Right... time to log off, get to my lunch/interview. 8 days into the process, second preliminary offer... going fine... fun, really. just like writing : no idea where this is going. surprising myself.
Not that I care. All I need is a 60000$ rat-level job with a company car and a laptop. Whatever it is about.
See, I don't care about what I'll do because a job is only there to keep me alive. My real interests are elsewhere... I'd better not explain that during the lunch, right ?
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Belgium
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Re: change weblog
Thu, January 8, 2004 - 6:31 AM
Ylmar.
You have a very good head about this. Geeze...Seems like people everywhere are struggling. My sister just got laid off in Austin, I'm living on an amount per month in NYC you'd LAUGH to hear, Bing, Rob,EVERYONE!
The tough thing is , for some a family is involved, kids et al.
Keep creating though...NEVER lose that!
Your tribe Mom,
Ve.
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Re: change weblog
Thu, January 15, 2004 - 9:04 AMso... complete chaos here... it has been announced that the site closes down, but that's it. Some people may stay, some must go, no names, no dates. I think the management is so disorganiszed they won't be able to close down in a legal manner. Fun, really
I'm keeping busy with :
a. writing stories
b. posting CV's
c. doing interviews, getting known by the headhunters
d. shoving any work away in any convenient direction, that is, towards people who want to look busy, hoping they'll be allowed to stay
e. going over the servers for useful data.
right. I'm going to run out of d. and e. quite soon. Think I'll do some studying, or develop some software -
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Re: change weblog
Mon, January 19, 2004 - 10:54 PMso... did this IMPORTANT interview yesterday, all went well. will have news next week, that's not too long, but it's much too long, naturally.
if this works, it will work FAST. I'll be transerring part-time in a week or two. Have to get the remaining mess cleaned up.
Let me explain. We never do things 100% right. We don't even try. I get at 95% in proposal, and 98% in contract. the 2% remaining mess gets hidden till project execution.
But now I don't want any corpses falling out of closets, when I'm no longer there to shove them under the carpet. Best thing to do is the get rid of all closets.
and meanwhile, in case this does not work out (always possible), I'm preparing another interview, end of this week, and sending out more cv's... -
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Re: change weblog
Tue, January 20, 2004 - 6:15 AM
Good on ya'!
(I like the way you think,Y.
And I CERTAINLY like the way you write!) -
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Re: change weblog
Tue, January 20, 2004 - 10:53 PMah... >20000 in your network... grew to that all by itself...
now if everybody of those would spend five dollars a year buying my novels from Lulu, I would be happy.
But that is not a extremely probable future.
Nevertheless, it's a nice, cherishable thought, it goes well with a morning cup of coffee. ~~leans back, sips from the coffee, cherishes the thought, smiles~~
Ok, back to business as usual.
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Re: change weblog
Mon, January 26, 2004 - 11:53 AMmore nice things...
I got myself trapped in doing a new project, crazy, a kind of dare... : someone says : 'I tell you there's no solution'... I walk away thinking by myself 'I can find a solution. I always find solutions. One week.'
I found one, naturally. (said so, right ?) I found 2 classes of solutions, two main variant sets in each. Hehehe.
And meanwhile continuing the "Lorend" novel, where, now that it approaches the set limit of 30-40 kwords, (no, I'm not an artist... I am a pragmatical guy) I'm starting to think about : HOW TO END THIS ?????
Think I'll do the " reverse engineering" thing again" - write a cliffhanger, and return from there to where I am now... most practical, probably... the cliffhanger is easy... it is free-floating, you see...
Oh.. It takes my mind of the fact that I'll get news this week about the job I'm really after... can't believe it is only a week since the interview...
Ylmar -
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Re: change weblog
Tue, January 27, 2004 - 11:00 PMSo... bad day yesterday, will get worse today.
Our lovely, always happy, commercial assistant will have to leave us in a month.
She did not expect it.
I did, and I tried to prepare her for it, started to discuss what she would do next, but she kept insisting there was a future for this company, after the down-sizing.
Kicked in the ass by reality, so to say. Such a kind girl, it is a pity. I wonder if she'll turn up today.
She's the only thing I'll miss when I'm gone from this outfit.
Oh, and I can stay on till july. that is 5 months or 100 days at 2000 words a day (well, you have to get through the day somehow.) makes 200.000 words. 3 novels, right ? -
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Re: change weblog
Wed, January 28, 2004 - 8:59 AMSo you are there until July...
But which NEW job did you get? (re:Interviews) -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: change weblog
Fri, January 30, 2004 - 6:34 AMwell, to be honest : no job. A slight disappointment; it will be digested by monday. anyway, there's a guy I must call wednesday, for another interesting opportunity.
and why : very simple : the other divisions don't want to help our division manager to cut the costs of the downsizing
it will costs on average 120.000 $ to fire someone... money that has not to be payed when the people are mutated.
so I'll just fall back on some good advice I got a while ago: to change and learn new things might be better than carrying on.
meanwhile, chapters 12 and 13 of Lorend are done, (almost - 1 linkage paragraph to go, in the middle of 13), and I started chapter 11 (that's no typo... that's advanced application of chaos theory)
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Re: change weblog
Fri, January 30, 2004 - 6:40 AM
Be brave,Ylmar...keep trucking on and writing too.
Meanwhile your old tribe mother is here listening. -
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Re: change weblog
Fri, January 30, 2004 - 6:07 PM....and I've been lurking in on this conversation.
Ylmar has a great attitude. He'll be just fine.
Cheers to you Ylamar!! -
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Re: change weblog
Thu, February 5, 2004 - 4:13 AMso, back at it again. crazily busy week. Prepare a proposal for DME, from scratch. Prepare a proposal for ACA, from the stuff we got in the freezer. that all before the tenth. yeah, 02/10.
Given that each tasks would take two weeks, normally, and we just started, so there will be a big drain on the virtual time reservoir and the multi-rabbit-hat. Include into next week a one day trip to Geneva (more exactly, to the airport of geneva building - I don't intend to even take a coat), and two job interviews, and those need a lot of preparation.
Meanwhile pushing Lorend ahead, (I want chapters 11-12-13 on the web by Valentine), and starting another world. Mind you, all these storylines are interconnected. Simple is not fun.
It is occuring to me that I might be a little teeny bit adrenaline-addicted.
;)
Ylmar
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Re: change weblog
Thu, February 12, 2004 - 10:51 PMSo... friday again.
had a great day at the Geneva fair, and some ineteresting interviews yesterday. Guess I don't have to look for a job any longer. Nevertheless, I keep looking; Nothing is signed yet, it won't hurt to keep teh process going.
Project Manager for an industrial (petrochemical) engineering company ; Not bad, really. And they'll wait till I'm free; which means I can collect a year's pay as a let-go premium.
But its not done, not signed yet.
And then there's this guy who is starting up an e-book site and wants to publish my stories. I'll read the contract carefully first. As we use to say, good contracts make good friends, bad contracts make good lawsuits.
shit.. on reading my mail, I think that some people are actually still expecting me to do some work too.... I don't have time for that... really... the idea
;)
Ylmar
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Re: change weblog
Thu, February 26, 2004 - 5:21 AMso... this job hunting goes rather slow. That was to be expected. I cut in when lots of new openeing were created i, injanuari, and it takes lots of time to process them.
Well, I don't really care. Two options : one, I have a new payroll position by 1 july. No Problem . Second, I don't. I'll take any temporray job that comes up. There are lots more of these, as nobody wants them.
Manwhile, I have instaured a nice discipline : send out 2 applications a day. Bill be blessed for such things like the web-based job listings.
And I'm writing. It goes well, the only thing I'm lacking is readers.
Sunday afternoon - you know what they are like, sunday afternoons - I thought of posting something like this :
Dear tribenet acquaintance
We got somewhere connected, I made you laugh, I made you think, we validated each other's existence.
The fact is however that the level of satisfaction in MY existence would be immensely greater if somebody bothered to READ what I write.
www.fictionpress.com/~marcgyver - click, make my day...
Mmyeah... the situation is not quite desparate enough for this. If I were a pre-emptive guy, it would be different....
;-)
Ylmar -
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Re: change weblog
Thu, February 26, 2004 - 5:29 AMPatience, Ylmar...
You do make me laugh...
AND I'll read the story...
AND I'm interested in what YOUR take will be on WOMEN! ;->
Ve. -
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Re: change weblog
Tue, March 16, 2004 - 4:36 AMjust a thought I wanted to share, about a great job hunting perk :
I spend lots of time alone in a room with a nice young lady, who listens intently when I talk about myself.
;-)
Ylmar -
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Re: change weblog
Fri, April 16, 2004 - 7:13 AMSo. Jobhunt ended. Remaining time 12 weeks
I got a fair proposal, better payed than what I have now, interesting prestigious job. But it's a small company, and it might require more effort than what I do now (I could end up having to work full days, imagine.)
Next week, I'm expecting one (sure) or two (probably) other proposals, about the same or even better conditions, bigger companies, less interesting work, zero prestige, but partly working from home, therefore more time for side activities like writing.
So, why don't I feel happy ?
Basically, because I have no idea which one to choose... and that mainly because I disagree with my wife on the subject.
She thinks I should take the easy job if it pays the same. Worse, she thinks (and she knows me - she even worked with me) that I'm not good at some of the things I'll have to do in the prestige job. I'd hate to admit that she might be right.
Allright... so there will be still 1 difficult half week ahead, and then I'm on holiday again.
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Re: change weblog
Fri, April 16, 2004 - 7:16 AMhmm. I just read this thread over from the beginning.
gives me stuff to think, too.
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Re: change weblog
Fri, April 16, 2004 - 7:38 AMYlmar! Swallow your pride about this...YOUR WIFE is MOST LIKELY CORRECT!!!!
And reMEMber...FREE TIME TO WRITE!!!!!!! attractive... -
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Re: change weblog
Tue, May 4, 2004 - 6:56 AMwell, the situation changed a bit again... I have a job proposal from the prestigious job, and a "we'll call you back" from the other one... (and a third possibility in hold... you never know).
So it's final. Took me 4 and a half months to get a new job, including a 10% raise. quite good result.
Now all that's left to be done is to get fired at my actual job. (being actually "potentially redundant", see ?)
Before you ask, the diffrence between quitting and being fired is a year's wages... about 60000 $... (before taxes..)
As to writing ? well, basically, these last four months have not been very productive. Too much stress, I guess, and a strange kind of depressed mood...
But there will be time enough on my new job, especially as my usual procrastination (tribing, yahell chat, following the iraq news) will be more difficult... I'll have to write to get the day filled...
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Re: change weblog
Tue, May 4, 2004 - 8:20 AMAll RIGHT!
I'm glad things are getting back to RIGHT for you, Ylmar!
I'm GLAD,too, that you will have little time for WEB visits...
and more time for WRITING!
Wish I could have the same happen for me!
I spend WAY too much time on WEB visits...none on writing!!!
At least visit HERE and update us from time to time!
TribeMother
Ve. -
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Re: change weblog
Tue, May 4, 2004 - 11:48 AMyou could consider putting a timer on the power supply of your modem, Vera...
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Re: change weblog
Tue, May 4, 2004 - 2:26 PMHA! yes...I can see it now...timer shuts me down...I curse *@#%$@*+
Then I turn computer on again...*for 5 more minutes*...and I'm on until 3 in the morning! AGAIN!
hehehehheheheeheheheheh -
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Re: change weblog
Wed, May 5, 2004 - 12:17 AMnono, you need the kind of timer they use on bank vaults... no cheating... -
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Re: change weblog
Wed, May 5, 2004 - 4:45 AMhehehehehehehehh
Anything I can program and initiate...I can shut down...! I THINK!
What I need is another PERSON to watch over me and the mechanism!
Truthfully...sounds like an excellent idea, Y.
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Re: change weblog
Tue, May 18, 2004 - 11:06 PMok,job hunting is over.
I took the job which will give me most what they call "job satisfaction". It's a job you can retire on, too. Where getting older does not mean being outdated but only being more experienced. (such things are to be taken in consideration.)
Not as much time for writing ? maybe yes, maybe no. I'll be driving on highways a lot, will give me time to think; there will be time eneough. Certainly if I refrain from following the international news and the related tribes.
The other job proposals (got 3, finally - nice luxury problem) would have put me in a position where being succesfull at publishing (which is not the same as bneing succesfull in writing) would have been a necessity. Now I can afford to keep it as a hobby. Much better like that, no ?
From this past phase in my life I have also concluded that I write better when I'm feeling good. (meaning I did not do a lot between januar and march). So trying to write in combination wtih a job where I start with a basic unhappy feeling, that would have been disaster.
Weblog ends here ? I guess so... let's just start another one about the new job. A diary, just for fun. -
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Re: change weblog
Wed, May 19, 2004 - 8:31 AMLooking forward.
Glad things are smoothing out, YLMAR.
P.S.
We are DETERMINED to weed BUSH out of the Garden !!
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