What I did on my summer vacation.

edgarblythe PM'ed me today. Was wondering where I was and all...

Well, here's the scoop.

I'd been spending more time on a2k than with real people, getting deeper and deeper into a cyber hole, avoiding interaction with meat-world folk. (You know, the ones who don't type...) And found myself having less and less time. Mrs. SealPoet was getting jeolous.

Also, I was spending way too much of my employer's time talking with you guys. Work was getting very oppressive. I liked the company I hired on with, but my tiny department was sold to a subsidiary with a very different managment style. Our 'supervisor' had no idea what it was we really did, and showed her face in the lab once a month if we were lucky. I nominate her for the title 'Miss Management'. At my annual review I asked the head of the new company (subsidiary) what I could do to get ahead in my job/career/his company. He looked at me and said 'Talk to your old boss. He liked you.' I did, but there was nothing for me at the time.

So I got out while the getting was good. I left one day before they moved the lab to a new room. (Maybe more about that later.)

Went to a small company nearby. Thought I could be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

Lesson learned: a small companay run by a large family? You ain't nuthin if you ain't family. and boy-o-boy it's not a family I care to be part of! Very right-wing (I, as you may recall, am not)... one brother I would honestly describe as fascist.

My role there pretty soon deteriorated to just-another-inspector. Hard to tell someone that a something is wrong, and they need to fix it, if the answer you get is 'Who's name is on the front of the building?'. (The answer to that question is 'Mine! I just changed my name to Fire Exit'.)

So, I had my resume on Monster and looked at the classifieds. Got a lead on a good job with a good company, a half hour in the other direction. so I wrote my 'old boss' (remember him? He liked me...) and asked for a reference. He wrote back immediately: Are you available? We have need!

So, I'm back at the company I worked for for eight years. Liking the people and the work (much more interesting, and a much better boss: expects the world, but doesn't tell me how to get it.) Bonus! After a year (July '06) I get my seniority back!

On the personal front, been involved pushing our little UU church forward: committees, choir etc. Been writing. Been singing. Haven't been drawing enough, yet. Mrs. SealPoet is away this weekend, and if I don't find time to draw a half dozen finished pics of the Seal, I'm going to be very dissapointed.

A good friend is a retired geek (got out of Digital while the parachutes are still golden is a story I hear a lot around these parts... the other story is DEC-HP-Compaq-and who will I be laid off from next year, but i digress). Anyway, he is interested in setting up SealPoet.com.

Watch this space for futher announcements.

anyway, signing off for now.

Pax
-SealPoet