How can you tell when you need to quit your job? December 1, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Mike , add a commentA moment in the life of a worker who needs to quit:
Paul Barkin is a typical human. Been working at the same place long enough to know his job by rote. Creativity has left him and he sees his world as a cage he needs to escape. This is one of his typical morning moments:
Paul places the small bronze key in the left inside desk lock, he vomits in his mind, “God, I hate this”. Turning the key; he sees it turn a thousand times before, “One half turn up, insert with the ridges down… was it down…or up.” Leaning forward with elbows on knees, it’s the most comfortable he’ll feel all day.
Repeating the process to the other side, he opens the upper right drawer fishing for his favorite pen. Not sure what he’s going to do with it but wanting to feel its familiar smooth cool metal surface with the curled thumb grip. He extracts the pen from the menagerie of markers, pens, scissors and rubber bands that always seem to end up in the pen section of the plastic divider entangling themselves to the frustration of anyone wishing access.
Looking up at the P.C., “PROCESS 41 IS COMPLETE”. He marks the next state to be processed. “South Dakota”. With experienced hands he flicks the sliding keyboard into position from under the desk and whacks the keyboard a dozen times “D: [TAB] [TAB] \temp [ENTER] [F8]“.
Selecting Dakota, he completes the command initialization and is gone. Vaguely aware of what he’s doing, he sees tall grasslands flowing and ebbing in a symphony of winds. Each wave carrying him through luscious fields, across old wooden fences, neat, well maintained and weather worn to a soft grey.
Images of riders wearing Hudson Blanket styled jackets, swede brown with matching wide -brimmed hats. And hair. A woman. Gold-yellow hair. Moving like the rolling hills, swept back. Her gaze; solid; blue-green; penetrating; turn to meet his.
“BEEP!” He snaps back. “PROCESS 42 COMPLETE”. Feeling his heart beating the way it was meant to beat, he knows he has to get out of here.
The point is: When you find your days are like Paul’s, a mix of daydreams and repetition, its time to get the fuck out.
How to succeed as a hamster November 28, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Mike, Productivity , 1 comment so farI once had two hamsters. Had them in a box in the garage. They had their own wheel, bowl, lots of cedar chips and fuzzies to play in.
I’d go out everyday and see them, pick them up and play.
One day, one of them stayed in the corner. Just hunkered down and tucked his head in. The other would jump and play and stand on his little feet sniffing the air when I came over saying..”play with me! play with me!”.
I tried to engage the other one, but he just looked up at me in an I’m busy yet sad type of way, like he was left out of the fun and no one wanted to play with him.
I’d see him eat occasionally so I knew he wasn’t sick, but he’d just go back to his sad little corner and bury himself and his head back down into the cedar chips and kinda shiver.
Everytime I’d go to scoop him up, the other would rush over and jump on my hand, and snuggle in, and wanted all the attention, so I’d play with him. I felt so sorry for the other little guy.
Then one day I come home and go into the garage, and they are gone.
No one was home and there were no cats around and I could not figure out what happened.
I fished around and it turned out that little frail scared hamster was digging a hole in the box while the other kept me busy. The fuckers.
Moral: Just keep working even if you feel like a caged dying animal, for that’s the way out.