What an odd combination

During this vacation period, I guess like many people I had the opportunity to watch a lot of films, starting by 1984 (based on the book by Georges Orwell), then Fight Club (that I've seen for the first time), and yesterday Idiocracy.

This end of the year feels weird to me, very depressing actually ... the weather first, it's way too colder than usual, and I don't feel going out at all.

On the news, the whole shebang about wikileaks and the insane reactions of the leaders to shut it down - This is an outrage ... I mean, for the first time in history (in this kind of scale) the public has access to informations, and it's a big progress for Democracies.

A progress that could be pursued in a big step forward where governments would have to be reliable for their actions, and have to be transparent.

But the immediate reaction is the opposite, it's not 1984 but it feels that way a bit.

Fight Club, is another blow straight in the face, and a nasty painful one, self destruction ... and what the hell was that ending ?

Idiocracy is a bit lighter, a comedy with a little twist, quite good - couldn't help laughing at the sight of the President of the USA pro-wrestler and porn star.

If this is the future God helps us

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 9

Continuing the exercise 31 Days to Start Freelancing
Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills
Day 2. Examine Your Freelancing Resources
Day 3. Set Your Freelancing Goals
Day 4. Get Inside Your Client’s Head
Day 5. What’s Your Story?
Day 6. Quick Check on Your Competitors

Day 7. Make Your Menu of Services

Day 8. Set Your Freelancing Rates

Day 9. Your Day to Shine 

Writing my Unique Selling Proposition or USP

I believe that finding your place in the world is very important.
For me to be the right person at the right place doing what you like to do is the best feeling ever (compared to people doing reluctantly a job they hate).

You don't even need to convince people you're good at doing something, because you like it they just see that in your manner and it feels easy.

When I see a tech trying quick-fixes and having no clue on what the issue is - I see red, I take a pride in being able to explain what I'm doing and also why I'm doing it.

Having said that, the USP would be :

I can fix your computer,  teach you how to do it yourself, and help you to become a power user.

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 8

Continuing the exercise 31 Days to Start Freelancing
Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills
Day 2. Examine Your Freelancing Resources
Day 3. Set Your Freelancing Goals
Day 4. Get Inside Your Client’s Head
Day 5. What’s Your Story?
Day 6. Quick Check on Your Competitors


Day 7. Make Your Menu of Services

Day 8. Set Your Freelancing Rates

- Troubleshooting computer (preferably mac)
75$ per hour (because I work fast!)

- Personal Mac or Linux Training (possible installation and customization)
50$ per hour

- Wed design (training, assistance or basic setup of blog, website etc ...) 
Could really be different from one another but - if the customer wants to have assistance from start to finish - it's probably costs around 2000$ because the amount of work can span over a month (and sometime more).

Diet

After my Internet diet, I just started a real diet - but I'm not actually craving so much for food.

Here's how I'm doing it - basically after 4pm I won't eat anything until the next day's breakfast.

It has so many benefits :

•  no dish washing required
•  no cooking required
•  I don't have stomach burn during the night
•  I sleep a lot better
•  I can't wait to get up in the morning, because I'm hungry
•  I've lost weight after 1 week (about 1 pound)
•  I don't have bad breath in the morning

Internet diet

Hey I'm back ... I did this little experiment to control my use of the internet in order to see how long I could resist to the urge to "get online" !

I could stand 2 weeks, but then I had to come back ; it's actually funny how many things you can do if you're not connected and constantly jumping from one thing to another ... like exercising, meeting real people, going outside.

The hardest part was the lack of mail and chat.

Interesting video about Failure
Failure is an indication of progress

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 7

Continuing the exercise 31 Days to Start Freelancing
Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills
Day 2. Examine Your Freelancing Resources
Day 3. Set Your Freelancing Goals
Day 4. Get Inside Your Client’s Head
Day 5. What’s Your Story?
Day 6. Quick Check on Your Competitors

Day 7. Make Your Menu of Services


- Troubleshooting computer (preferably mac)
- Personal Mac or Linux Training (possible installation and customization)
- Wed design (training, assistance or basic setup of blog, website etc ...)

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 6

Continuing the exercise 31 Days to Start Freelancing

Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills
Day 2. Examine Your Freelancing Resources
Day 3. Set Your Freelancing Goals
Day 4. Get Inside Your Client’s Head
Day 5. What’s Your Story?

Day 6. Quick Check on Your Competitors

checked ... ;)

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 5

Continuing the exercise 31 Days to Start Freelancing
Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills
Day 2. Examine Your Freelancing Resources
Day 3. Set Your Freelancing Goals
Day 4. Get Inside Your Client’s Head 
Day 5. What’s Your Story?

What were you doing before you started freelancing?

I was working in a call center as tech support

Why did you think of freelancing? What motivated you?

The benefit of being my own boss, and to be creative

How did you get started freelancing?

Create a blog, then spread the information around my friends

How did you get good at what you’re doing now?

Training provided by my previous employers, then self study, and trial and error mostly documented (because I write a journal)

What are your goals? What drives you to work so hard?

My goal would be to be financially independent, and to gain recognition

What does success look like to you?

Being autonomous, creative, independent, famous and helpful to the community

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 4

Continuing the exercise 31 Days to Start Freelancing
Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills
Day 2. Examine Your Freelancing Resources
Day 3. Set Your Freelancing Goals
Day 4. Get Inside Your Client’s Head


Who wants your services
- People that would like translation from French to English and vice versa
- People that need basic internet Training
- People needing to setup a basic Internet website
- People starting on the net, and would like some advices


Who Is Your Target Client?
- Could be student
- Elder person, who wants to setup a blog, or write their memories
- Mother at home, who wants to make their first steps on the internet
- Traditional writer, who wants to put his book online (eBook)

What Does Your Client Want?
- Get Training, assistance, and confidence for his internet experience
- Training session to answer specific questions, not general topic lecture
- Hands-on Training, with real answers to their specific questions
- Be informed on the opportunities and danger of being part of the worlwide web

NB : So far, the exercise is really good, I have to confess I was a bit skeptic first, but now... I'm convinced on the benefits of this 31 days to Start Freelancing, ... tomorrow I'll talk to you about my story (Day 5)

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 3

Continuing the exercise 31 Days to Start Freelancing
Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills
Day 2. Examine Your Freelancing Resources
Day 3. Set Your Freelancing Goals


Specific

• Grow the number of visit on my blog
• Grow the number of customers, followers, ...
• Get better at writing (marketing, new ideas, style)
• Gain experience, to be able to avoid mistakes, and be able to teach
• Write down as much as possible to be able to write a book about the experience
• Learning new skills

Measurable

• Learning one new skill each month
• Write a blog post at least per week
• Gain 1 new follower each week
• Read one new book each month (in English)

Attainable

• one new skill - to be able to write about it
• writing one new post each week, (currently achieved)
• Getting new follower and more visit (I still have to figure how)
• Reading is definitely something I should do

Realistic

• If I could write a book about the experience and publish it that could make an income
• Offering Freelance job for web-design
• Teach in small class or offering small training at home could be done too

Time-bound

• Getting a least 500$ net (bare minimum) per month after 6 months (March 2011) otherwise it's not worth it.
• Would like to still be able to enjoy week-ends.

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 2

Continuing the exercise 31 Days to Start Freelancing


Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills
Day 2. Examine Your Freelancing Resources

• the office equipment, software and materials you already have : a mac-mini
• how much money you have at your disposal to invest in your freelancing business : None
• people who can give you support : 2 friends
• how much time you can devote to freelancing : 4 hours a day

31 Days to Start Freelancing - day 1

Freelancing is an attractive option for unemployed, and it make sense to consider it.
Having little idea on how or where to start, I was lucky to find what looks like a solid list, here on the Savvy Freelancer - 31 Days to Start Freelancing | The Savvy Freelancer:

Because I'm serious about this business, I'll post my answer (or as much as possible) on my blog, making it public, will certainly help (I hope)...

Day 1. Make an Inventory of Your Freelancing Skills

• Speaking/Reading/Writing English
• Speaking/Reading/Writing in French
• Experience with PC
• Experience with Mac
• Experience with Linux
• Basic knowledge in development (java, C, Basic, html, php)
• Knowledge of Office suite (spreadsheet, word processor, database, powerpoint)
• Writing blog post
• Writing white papers
• Reading technical documentations
• Able to deliver training session
• Good experience of the call center environment (not that I want to be back there though)

That's pretty much it, really

Expendables

Just finished watching "The Expendables", the comeback movie with Stallone by Stallone, firsts impressions : mixed, it's like Rambo (the last sequel) all over again - basically a mercenary operation to destroy completely a stronghold (not Vietnamese this time, but from an island named "Vilena" don't search for it on google, you will be surprised!)

Anyway, the operation is just about kicking ass, planting explosives, and kicking more asses ... pure testosterone. The kind that has been made a gazillion times

But there's a message delivered by Mickey Rourke (Tool) about how they were losing their soul, that keeps coming back with an echo along the movie, there's Jet li complaining that he hasn't got any family, the big super villain that says later that he's "empty inside".

What transpires out of this traditional movie, is tired heroes, and that something is cracking about the good old logic of making moneys no matter what, and losing his soul in the process, ... that makes the film watchable.

Also there's a very good chemistry between actors (all veterans of the genre) special mention for Jet Li, and Jason Statham who are especially both good
Another special mention to Hale Caesar's weapon... impressive.


In a nutshell (warning : spoiler)
There is an issue in an Island governed by a corrupted General, Stallone's (Ross) mission is to eliminate him - he goes there, fall for the general daughter's comes back home, think about the situation and finally decides to rescue her (very similar to the last Rambo, if you ask me). He comes back home, no casualties, everybody's laughing ... The End.

But that doesn't explain the title at all - mercenaries are expandable canon fodder ? not in this movie, they're just pretending to be tired ... and want to fight for a good cause.

Click and Priority Inbox

What an odd coincidence, last week I finally watched the movie "Click" (2006) with Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale and Christopher Walken ...  An amazing movie, of course with some hilarious (gross) jokes (Thanks to Mr Sandler) but the topic being quite heavy ... setting Life's priorities correctly... it was quite good to have an easy laugh here and there.

Is there anyone on his death bed, that would say "I wish I had spent more time at work" ? I mean ... really ?!

At first in this movie, I thought the main subject was to build a collection of Adam Sandler's gag with the "universal remote", and making some cool effects, fast forwarding in your life, having commentary, changing the volume, jumping chapters ... etc ...

But when Christopher Walken explains that skipping chapter has consequences and that we're on autopilot during that time, it rings a bell - it's actually true, to feel that we skipped some days, week, months maybe and then realize ... wow! what happened which day are we ?! is it already September ?!

And then this trick with the "universal remote" which acts according to your past actions and preferences, well spotted too - same thing, we live according to our habits, the habits we built when we were younger, the habits we inherited from our parents or relatives, great metaphors.

We should be more aware of our habits, they could be really mischievous.

And then I stumbled upon this Gmail new feature to setup a "priority inbox" ... according to our preferences, and then I thought ... that next giant "universal remote" could be Google someday?!

Gmail - Priority Inbox

Thougths

Outside the weather is getting gloomier and gloomier and my memories goes back to these early morning, waking up tired, having breakfast, jumping in the shower, taking the bus, walking a bit in the cold, and finally arriving at work and starting to warm up ... doing a job I hate.

This is the normal life, this is what I've known for 15 years, and ... always felt there was something wrong with it. Basically most of us are living a lie, pretending that having a crappy job is normal, because everyone has to work and everyone is miserable.

The truth is ... taking a few steps back and asking ourselves the right questions is harder, way harder and therefor we prefer the norm.

What do I really want to do in life ?
What makes me happy ?

And then I thought blogging is the way, and then you might be wondering "Why blogging is so vital when unemployed ?" - because it helps staying focused, it helps keeping the mind edgy.

The other good thing is it allows to receive feedback, because honestly being unemployed it's so easy to become isolated ... it's also a way to express the feelings and an opportunity to raise our voices, an opportunity to show courage and stands for what we believe in.

That post  Are You a Courageous Blogger?,  inspired me these few lines ...

Digg Vs. Reddit

Like I said, previously I'm unemployed and a redditor ; (which tend to lead to some exaggeration on the time I spent browsing ... but that's not the point today).

Today I want to talk about Diggg - it seems that our natural enemy (I'm joking of course!) has made a catastrophic v4 release - ahah!

I've got to confess, I've never quite like digg.com, it looks like facebook filled with comments from youtube, (I found worse once ... mixx.com (just awful).

Therefor I've always been faithful to reddit. And it seems that the glorious day of reddit has finally arouse since digg.com is losing his traffic.

Here's 2  charts to rest my case :

Source : Digg Vs. Reddit: The Numbers – Chitika Research

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
Napoleon Bonaparte

Reddit FTW!

The Tourist and the Fisherman

Here's a little story for the people still in the "Rat's race", it's called :

The Tourist and the Fisherman

An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.
Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."
The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."
The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."
The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."
"But what then?" asked the Mexican.
The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions?...Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Borrowed from reddit (thanks guys!)

5 reasons why working at home is awesome

Did I mentioned in a previous post how awesome it was to work from home (checking ... yes, I did) ?

Here's what theoatmeal came up with  :

1. No more waking up at 6am (or earlier) in the morning
2. Less time spent in the car commuting
3. Fewer interruptions from silly colleagues
4. Less eating out crappy food
5. Enjoying a flexible schedule

My little list was quite the same, but for some reasons, seeing it illustrates on Oatmeal just made me feel even better about it. See the full stuff (lack of vocabulary starting to hit me hard) directly there Why working at home is both awesome and horrible.

Now I'm about to read about the horrible aspect of ... Oh Gosh, ... yep, that is true, ... yep that also ... yep ... sure ... darn, they're good!

Unemployed CEO(s)

It seems that the unemployed rank will get a new recruit soon, please welcome Mark Hurd the former HP CEO ... clap, clap, clap!

Well, HP was generous enough to give him a head start by letting him go with $28 millions, that should be enough for a while, I guess.

Lately, if I remember correctly another CEO from BP was let go, ... but he managed to get a pension plan for £60 millions - not bad either.

These big companies really, they're so nice with their "fallen from grace" CEO, it's really touching.

And now this!

Well, the first Starcraft was introduced back in 1998 and took about 4 years of my life to recover from it ... guess what happen tomorrow ?!

Unemployment Benefits

There's a list of things that I enjoy while being unemployed, I'll make a list:

• Not having to get the car in the morning to go to work
• Not having to drive into the traffic-jam at the same time as all other people
• Not having to have smalltalk with colleague about what I did last night
• Not having to pretend to work, and instead browsing reddit all the time
• Not having to eat fast food in 30mn and pretend that it is okay for my health
• Not having endless meeting with a boss, that has nothing but hatred toward his employes
• Not having endless training session and trying to stay awake as the trainer is talking about licensing mode of a product.
• Not having to fill worksheet on how I spend my time at work (and cheat)
• Not having to answer customer calls and forcing myself to stay quiet, while I listen to their complaints or rants.
• Not having to use Windows Vista (corporate official OS)
• Not having to use Outlook, or Internet Explorer (because they're mandatory corporate tools)
• Not receiving "confidential mail" with actually no information or no content worth the time to read them
• Not being part of a stupid corporate environment that made me feel empty and dead inside
• Not having to drive back home at the same time as all the working force on the whole planet, participating to the environmental pollution once again, and pretend it's okay because everybody do that.

And it's only from the top of my head ... I bet I can do better ... Yes, there's one more :

• Actually being able to open NSFW links from reddit during the day

But yeah, I missed receiving a paycheck.
I guess the old saying is true "you can't have one cake and eat it too!"

I've got a confession to make

As you may know I'm recently unemployed and so got a lot of spare time ; I really wanted to set my priorities and start from fresh my new life with new (good) habits and was thinking naively that the first thing to do was to define what I really wanted to do in life (that was my last post anyway) - I've even pushed the gusto by writing that I would come back with optimistic answers.

But since then nada, ... and I want to explain why and make this confession :

I'm hopelessly addicted to Reddit.

This began about a year ago, I just registered (because I've seen that little tiny alien head on a Wired.com article) and I even if I was used to social community website (like StumbleUpon or digg.com)  I knew from the very first day that this one was different.

Because there was a twist, something that get you hooked and that's the mix of being part of a community that for me is very representative of the internet (in all it's craziness and glory).


Basically it's like in Matrix (the movie featuring Keanu Reeves) you have the internet you see - and then you have the unseen internet, with hidden comments and upvote that only the reddit community can access.

Reddit is clever, it's smartly build and full of hilarious people (and trolls).

Let me share with you my daily addiction :

First I open the reddit page (having a look on the side in case my little envelope would be orange, telling me that some redditors have sent me a note).
Here on the main page is displayed all articles with a score for all subreddit I've joined.

Now the process starts, I would check the witty titles and the little picture on the left and immediately upvote Linux related subjects (maybe I shouldn't say that).

Next I open a few links and read the comments (also upvote the comments) and it feels good to reward people that makes you smile or laugh with karmas - sometime I put a little comment too,,,

And after 30mn (that looks like 5 minutes), I close reddit - do some important stuffs and incidentally when I got into a website that can be potentially interesting I would automatically submit the link to Reddit - to see what the other members would think of it.

And that's were I fall into the all read and upvote phenomenon for another half an hour.

Why is this so addictive ?

The killing feature is that instant feedback from others, also the fact that you'll always wonder what will be the reactions to the link you've just posted - (and the disappointment when your score is 0 ; man I hate when this happen).

Thanks to Reddit I've been able to overcome my fear of talking in public, I've been informed on many internet meme (which got me to witness Narwhal wrapped in bacon at some stage) ; discover many websites I wouldn't have found otherwise (xkcd.com is one of them).

But I want to put a stop to that ... Because I feel spending 3-4 hours a day for it, is getting in my way of doing what I really want to do.

Conclusion, I think ... I will have to delete my account at some stage*sob*

The risk of not knowing "What You Want"

I'm still struggling to find the big plan and there's a trap I'm trying to avoid as much as possible lately and it's to be busy doing things, not knowing why I'm doing them for on the big picture.

Being without a real job means my spare time is like a blank sheet of paper and for mysterious reason I don't like emptiness - which lead me into filling the blank with doodles - that in real life means I'm getting busy or getting distracted doing unnecessary things ... The ugly fact is that it keeps away my mind to answer the most difficult question I'm struggling to find : What do I really want to do.

A few things I'm considering are :
Start painting again
Start learning a foreign language
Freelancing
etc ...

And after 5mn of introspection I found myself "googling" after something and inevitably ending up on reddit, facebook or again watching youtube videos and wasting my precious time.

Reading this post : Defining Success: If You Don't Know What You Want, You Won't Know When You've Gotten It - Helped me to put some ideas on paper - next post will be more optimistic

Time to ask the right questions

In my previous entry, I wrote that I'm starting to focus on my projects - because now I've got time to think about what I really want to do.

Funnily enough answering this simple question isn't very simple - I guess because probably as far as I remember I could never really ask myself such questions, events or people (parents, teachers and later bosses) would always push their agenda onto me.

But since I'm now out of job, for the first time I can confront with these questions, What do I really want to do in life ? 
What is it that makes me happy ?

And then I found some clues in this blog, and it make sense to me - because I've experienced those moments

 "when you become so absorbed in what you’re doing that an hour becomes a minute and a day becomes and hour. You blink and it’s time to go home, but you’d kill to be able to stay just a little bit longer."

But it was ages ago, when I was developing in Turbo Pascal ; I was so into it that  I would skip a meal.
Blessed time, but I will have to find something else, because TP isn't much of use nowadays ...

Frugal living

On my last post, I explained I was unemployed ;  been working in a call center for a big company
Choosing to quit a job that made me miserable, I had to make some changes in 2 steps.
 
First step for me was to find a way to reduce my expenses, funnily enough without the need of going to work - (hence the joke - you're going to work to buy a car to be able to go to work).

Anyway, I already made substantial saving, because now I cook and eat at home, and have no need to go elsewhere so I'm also saving a lot of time each day.
 
My wife is more relaxed, and I can take care of my kid and share domestic chores.

Check that website with loads of good tips for a Frugal living The Simple Dollar

 
In a second step I had to find a way to get busy - and since I've had to struggle before to find time for my many projects - I'm gratefully lucky now to get to work on them (I'm writing small stories, learning how to paint, learning a new language, and later my goal is to make comics).

So now instead of my old habits of going to a work I hate and be miserable, I'm working on my own projects and I'm happy.

Fool me once

On my last post I explained I was unemployed because I quit my previous job in a big corporation, where the work was getting worse and worse.

Now that all this is behind me, I made resolution - not to work for a big company ever again.

for me it was the second time, and a similar experience, first month you receive training, the next year you struggle to find your own pace and learn, the second year you start to get comfortable with the job and usually get promoted, the third year you start to see how the management is squeezing you, and the fourth year you can't take it anymore - you just need a break.

I forgot to mention I worked in call center. Quite possibly the most messed up job environment. Everything you do is monitored, and you're just a replaceable asset.

So my little tip for you reader : Don't ever stay more than 2 years in a call center - please just don't.

The financial Crisis held as an excuse

On my last post I explained I was recently unemployed ; I forgot to mention that I had to quit.

Probably not a smart thing to do, giving his resignation letter in the middle of a worldwide financial crisis - but trust me, I didn't had any other option, basically to summarize the feeling, I couldn't stand to work there anymore.

Nowadays, the financial crisis is taken as an excuse for unacceptable management decisions (salary freeze, and finding way to squeeze more of each employee - that should stay grateful because the company is keeping them). 

Employees are kept in the fear of being laid off, and would accept unpaid overtime, working on Saturday, extra work, extra responsibilities etc ... and with the only hope that someday the situation will get better, and they may finally get the recognition they deserve.


Accidentally I've stumbled upon this post on slashdot, which basically is describing the same situation.

Getting Paid Fairly When Job Responsibilities Spiral?

I will end this post by quoting Dilbert : 

A team leader is being interviewed by the team manager.
The team manager asks, "How do you reward your best performing employees?"
The team leader replies, "We increase their workload until their performance becomes average."

That's exactly what happened to me, I had to laugh ... but I cried a little bit inside too.

Unemployed

I recently became unemployed, and it's an interesting experience. Being your own boss for a while is something I believe everyone should try. The freedom that comes with it feels really good.

However, there is the issue of money, which will eventually become a concern. But for now, I'm enjoying the journey because that's exactly what it is – a ride, just like Bill Hicks famously said.

This morning, a memory came back to me right before my interview with my last employer. In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to that little incident. While waiting for the bus, I unknowingly stood underneath a plastic barrier that was opening. You know those barriers that block off parking spaces for taxis. It wasn't heavy or particularly dangerous, but when it came down, I saw stars dancing.

Speaking of my last employer, let me tell you something about corporations, especially those big companies. They often promote big marketing messages like "Create, Protect, and Care," usually accompanied by images of happy, smiling people with perfectly white teeth. But deep down, these corporations can be a rotten hell of exploitation and backstabbing. Just look at recent economic events – banks declaring bankruptcy and causing global turmoil, oil companies polluting the oceans. It wouldn't surprise me if we soon discover that major fast-food chains are using dog poop in their hamburgers or recycling oil from the ocean in their sodas. Who knows? Clever engineers looking to save a few bucks might find a way.

From time to time, I think about what Matt Damon said in "Good Will Hunting." (Watch this.)

Lately, I've been watching South Park in the middle of the afternoon (as I mentioned, being unemployed can have its perks). You shouldn't underestimate these cartoons; some of them are pretty good. (Watch this.)

Hopefully, writing this blog will help me maintain my sanity.

2002

The year 2002 from a worldwide view perspective:

2002 was a mighty interestin' year on the global stage. One of the biggest events was the aftermath of them September 11 attacks that shook the world in 2001. The United States, was still dealin' with the aftermath and workin' through the implications of that tragic day.

Internationally, tensions were runnin' high as the United States continued its War on Terror. Over in Afghanistan, the U.S. military was workin' hard to combat terrorism and stabilize the country. And there was talk of a potential invasion of Iraq, (which would eventually come to pass in 2003).

Meanwhile, the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City brought athletes from all over the world together. It was a chance for folks to showcase their skills and compete for medals. The Olympics always bring a sense of unity and pride.

In the entertainment world, movies like Spider-Man and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers were makin' waves. People worldwide were flockin' to the theaters to see these epic stories unfold on the big screen. And the music scene had its own share of hits, with artists like Eminem and Avril Lavigne toppin' the charts and captivatin' audiences.

So, from a worldwide perspective, 2002 was a year of resilience, sportsmanship, and cultural moments that brought people together.