Category: Jay

March 14th, 2008 Getting laid off is a lot of work

Or, how I’ve stayed busy thus far, in no particular order.

• Created a resume and sent it out (building a useful receiver list is actually quite time consuming)
• Created another resume that is intelligible to smart folks who happen to not have a background in telecom
• Sent that one out (much easier… just reused the previous receiver list)
• Answered most every email that came back in response
• Mailed rebate for new T-Mobile phone (easy)
• Mailed rebate for new laptop (hard… somehow lost the receipt and had to drive back to the store)
• Was conquered for the first time in my life by a piece of technology, my new T-Mobile Dash phone. I fought back, and I think I won, but it took quite a bit of time.
• Got my laptop set up the way a laptop should be set up.
• Filed for unemployment online
• Called unemployment office to discuss the set of questions that were impossible for me to answer honestly. Here’s how it went down. Question: did you receive wages this week? Answer: Yes. Question: How many hours did you work for these wages? Answer: Zero. Oops. Zero isn’t a valid answer. But my job related activities were to all cease the day I was laid off. And I’m still on payroll for the time being.
• Started jumping through hoops in support of unemployment insurance, whenever it does kick in. Pretty easy, really, as I was already doing all sorts of job searches and job applications and was keeping a journal of all of it.
• Did all sorts of job searches and job applications and kept a detailed journal. Wrote cover letters where possible.
• First went to the hospital at which all my children were born and then the county clerk’s office. Got a birth certificate for Josiah (already had one for the other kids).
• Used birth certificates and tax returns to prove my dependents are really my dependents so they stay covered on my insurance (for the short time I have it). I call this the new “No (love) child left behind” except, of course, they are trying to leave (love) children behind.
• Had the first killer migraine I’ve had in a couple years. Really bad. I’m at a loss as to what the trigger was, given that I generally get migraine’s from emotional stress.
• Canceled lots of services, including my broadband card with Verizon Wireless.
• Desperately tried to pay off my Verizon account, but no one would take my money since, you know, my account was canceled. Like this was a new situation they had never encountered. Eventually had to drive to an ATM, get lots of cash, then drive to a Verizon store and hand the cash to them.
• Sent in various signed pieces of information to various locations to secure my severance package.
• Went on bike ride with my dad, a round trip from Valley View Park to White Rock Lake. On the way, we were pushing into 70 mile an hour wind. I don’t remember coming back, as the 8 miles went by so quickly it was a blur, what with a typhoon blowing us home.
• Worked most nights very late into the night / early morning looking over job posts and responding to email.
• Pretended Friday was Saturday (you can do that when you don’t have a job). In the morning, enjoyed a wonderful grandparent’s day program at the Covenant School. Then spent some time weeding the yard and hanging out. Even flew kites with the kids at the nearby elementary school yard.
• Will probably end up pretending Saturday is Friday…

March 8th, 2008 Laid off

I was laid off Thursday by Alcatel-Lucent. At one level, I’ve known this was a very real possibility for some time now. It still came as a shock, and the initial information given me regarding the package was quite ugly. By Friday, however, I had a complete picture and was glad to discover the package was actually very equitable. So I’ve got some time to find another job.

Thursday was spent dealing with the initial emotions and panic. I was walked within an hour of being notified, sans my laptop and phone (both owned by my employer). I still have three boxes to unpack. Friday gave me a chance to work through the details of the package, talk a good bit to HR, and begin the slash and burn of our ongoing expenses.

By Friday evening I had also figured out that I did not want to put my job search at risk by performing it from the kitchen (where our home computer resides). I immediately began looking for a good deal on a phone and laptop, both of which I purchased on Saturday, after having a long discussion with my daughter about the concept of “it takes money to make money” to give her the chance to understand why I was spending money on a computer while cutting all sorts of other costs.

I’m now sitting at a table in our local library using their free wifi with my new laptop writing this post, listening to Royal Hunt and other obscure euro-metal bands on Pandora Radio. I’ve got a rough cut resume done, and an ever-growing checklist of stuff to do (sign the termination package, send in laptop rebate, etc.). My goal is to enjoy a day of rest and worship tomorrow, and then spend Monday morning putting together a job search strategy, as well as starting to tackle that checklist.

I leave you with the Psalm that came to mind for myself and Tricia (independently, I might add) on Thursday, and then showed up in an email to me from one of the deacons at our church the next day.

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February 17th, 2008 A bar too far

Let me set the scene. You are a few years shy of 40. Up to and including college, you were in fighting shape, and could throw down 30 or 40 dips then drop to the floor and do 50 or so push ups. You decide you want to humiliate yourself. What should you do?

I found that buying the Creative Fitness Door Gym was a great approach. Because, you know, I thought pull-ups would be a nice addition to my in-home workout. Works flawlessly as advertised. The only problem being I don’t work as advertised anymore.

February 14th, 2008 Anniversary of Sinus Surgery

Yes, I had surgery last Valentine’s Day. It has been one year since I had my sinuses and nasal passages sliced and diced as well as my septum moved over a bit. Did it work? Let’s compare my health before and after. Prior to the surgery, I had averaged a round of antibiotics roughly once a month for two years. This past year, I’ve kept a log of all my illnesses. Here’s the list:

• 2007-02-14 Surgery (okay, not an illness, but the starting point of the log)
• 2007-03-30 Cold for several days
• 2007-04-30 Very bad cough for several days
• 2007-05-27 Bad cough for a 2 days
• 2007-06-23 Cold for 2 days followed by bad cough for 2 days
• 2007-08-28 Cold for 2 days
• 2007-11-19 Mild cold for a week. Turned into sinusitis. Healed quickly with antibiotics.

What does all this mean? Put simply, I just completed my healthiest year in probably the past decade. I still got sick now and again, but there were two huge improvements. First, I didn’t get sick as often, and successfully fought off several illnesses. Second, I actually got better without antibiotics. Previously, I almost never fought off illnesses and almost all illnesses eventually resulted in some sort of bacterial infection (sinus infection, bronchial infection, strep throat, ear infection, had all of them numerous time).

Two other factors were in play, though both of them were present prior to the surgery and didn’t seem to improve my health. First, I finished off a couple years at a maintenance dose of immunotherapy for my allergies. Second, I started doing a sinus rinse a couple times a day (using this wonderful device). My allergies are very obviously doing much, much better, and the sinus rinse shows significant help when I start to come down with a cold. However, prior to the surgery it just wasn’t enough.

So, although the surgery made my top 10 list of worst experiences (please bear in mind that is a crowded list as I have had 10 other surgeries, some of them major, as well as spinal meningitis, malaria, blood poisening, staph infection, and other ailments), it has been well worth it. If you are capable of sleeping while breathing through your mouth (it turns out I cannot in any meaningful sense), it would be a significantly easier experience though still very unpleasant.

January 28th, 2008 Well, I WAS Going to Wish Him a Happy Birthday Today…

…but after his latest post, I’m not so sure.

Still, it is pretty nice to have a big, brave man around the house to take care of such things. I love you, Jay. Even if you did just drive away most of our gentle readers with your disgusting picture. Happy Birthday.

December 11th, 2007 Feel the Love

This was the shirt I should have bought to begin with.

October 23rd, 2007 Shocking

A couple weeks ago, I did something I thought I would never do. Never. Not now. Not ever. It’s all rather shocking. I’m shocked.

I now own this shirt.

That’s right. I have farmed out my upper body as an advertisement for a political candidate. I paid money to provide advertising, on my person, for Ron Paul. I’m still a bit shocked.

It now sits, freshly washed and folded, on the top of my stack of white t-shirts. I haven’t worn it yet, but that day is coming.

July 30th, 2007 Monday morning haiku

the watermelon
a sweet red juicy delight
meets frugality

May 17th, 2007 Think Inside the Box

All my (adult) life I’ve dreamed of finding a quality box wine. It just makes more sense, as it allows lower product and shipping costs as well as an open storage time of a month or more. Lo and behold, this past month I have been thinking (and drinking) inside the box.

February 21st, 2007 More on that surgery

Here are some events in my life that were worse than the experience of this past week: malaria, spinal meningitis, spinal fusion, staff infection in my heel bone, 3 of my 6 reconstructive foot surgeries. I’m pretty sure something just got displaced from my top 10 bad experiences list… somewhere around number 7.

And it wasn’t on account of the pain, though there was that. As it turns out, I cannot sleep if I’m not breathing through my nose. Most nights passed in a blur of pain and confusion broken up by 15 to 30 minute intervals of sleep. I think I maxed at about 1.5 hours of sleep for the first 6 nights following the sinus surgery on the 14th.

Briefly, I had my septum relocated, my inferior turbinates shaved (not hair but flesh), and a general roto-rooter job done on my sinuses to reshape them, clear impediments, and open them up. But all that was really quite manageable, except I couldn’t breath through my nose. It turns out a tasteless world of no sleep is no fun.

I did have exceptional support. As Tricia mentioned, I convalesced for the first 3 days and 2 nights at my parents, which was a tremendous boon. I came home to a wonderful welcome and more wonderful care from Tricia.

And yesterday, I got my nose back. Here’s what they pulled out after removing some stitches (they were stitched together through the septum)… and after cleaning them up (they were gross).

The removal procedure was uncomfortable but manageable. What came next as I had my sinuses cleaned out with a suction shall not be mentioned, but I ended up taking as many narcotics yesterday following the procedure as I had taken the previous few days. I had Nicolas along to watch, so I got to show him Daddy being tough, no whining or complaining, just a tear leaking out of the eye that felt like it was being sucked back into my skull as I sat perfectly still in the chair.

Anyway, I slept for six glorious hours last night, and am breathing more freely now than I did before the surgery in spite of the ongoing bleeding and post-surgery congestion. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and concerns.

January 28th, 2007 Happy Birthday, Jay!

Wishing a blessed birthday to my sweet love and and my best friend. May God grant you many, many more. I love you.

November 10th, 2006 Car Audio

I bought a used Acura TL back in November of 2004 when the head gasket gave out on my 12 year old Acura Legend (for the second time… had already footed an insane bill once to repair the same thing). I immediately took apart the dash, put in an adapter that converted the CD changer input to a couple of RCA audio jacks which I then ran through the dash into a little cubby/storage slot. After adding a gooseneck PDA holder, I had an iPod-ready car.

For my birthday in January of 2005, I got a set of Polk Audio DB6500s on the cheap off eBay and installed them myself. This involved taking the doors apart, cutting out portions of the doors, and yes, sticking a knife in my leg. For the next year I had fantastic audio in the car minus any bass whatsoever. The car had come with a subwoofer, but it was horrific, so I disconnected it. Great music sans bass. Until my next birthday.

For my birthday in January of 2006, I got an Infinity Basslink, a self-contained small profile 10-inch subwoofer and amp combo thingy (again, courtesy the fine folks at eBay). This time I had Best Buy do the install, and they did a great job. Since then I’ve been enjoying a wonderful audio “experience” as I motor around town. The subwoofer takes up very little room in the trunk and provides a terrific sound, though it is designed more for quality rather than quantity. I can’t entertain neighboring cars with heavy beats.

I really do recommend the approach of putting a solid pair of tweeters and mids up front coupled with a subwoofer. I mostly fade out the back speakers so they are inaudible in the front seats and just provide a bit more sound in the rear seats. You end up with a great shape to the music and by putting all the sound in front it maximizes the illusion of the bass originating from up front as well.