Doing a little remodeling here.

Just a quick post to let you know I will be revising some of the of the pages I have links to such as the "Interesting employment opportunities" plus adding a few more. I'll also be adding a list of my skill if for any other reason, so that I can keep track of them (a little self-promotion doesn't hurt).

As for for the holiday funk I was in, I am getting over that. I am definitely looking forward to 2009, and the potential for some great new opportunities. Whether those opportunities mean I stay in the Seattle area or not is still up in the air.

I'll try and post more of my thoughts over the next few days, but for now I want to wish everyone out there a "Happy New Year" and best of luck to you all.

Psst! It's all right to leave a comment now and then too :-)

Lessons from the resilience of bamboo.

The Puget Sound region has been hit with snow for over a week now, and this has impacted everyone's travel including mine. Being unemployed I really don't have any where to go, but it is nice to get out now and then and being stuck at home has contributed to the funk I have been in lately.

Staying positive while being unemployed during the holidays is hard, and it's really hard when there is nothing but bad news and you are stuck at home. I have tried to avoid letting the news get to me, but I'm sort of isolated and without much of a support network, so my funk hit me hard during the last week.

During the last week I did make one observation though that has given me a new outlook, and I would like to share that observation here.

Each time it snowed, the bamboo in my backyard would bend over due to the weight of the snow and then as the snow would start to melt the bamboo would start to spring back. The bamboo went through this process several times over the week, and now that the snow is starting to completely melt the bamboo is standing tall again.

The resilience of my bamboo gave me inspiration to spring up every time the weight of all the negativity starts to lessen, and keep on growing.

I know there is a really bad analogy to my bamboo being bent over, and my being unemployed, but I am not going to go there (Sorry I needed to throw in a little humor there :-)

With determination and a little humor to fertilize my inspiration I plan to keep springing up and stand tall just like my bamboo.

(I added this image to this entry several days after I originally published it. I wish I had taken a picture of the bamboo when it was snowing to accompany this one, but as it is this image stands on it's own)

So what to do with this blog?

This blog is just one of a number of blogs that I have, and like several others it has sat dormant for much too long.

I've decided that I will use this blog to chronicle my career goals and how I want to implement them. I know that posting about ones career goals and changes in a public blog may not be the smart thing to do, but I need to make a change and pursue what I believe to be the right choice for me, and I need a place to put my thoughts. By posting on a public blog I am hoping that along the way I may meet others who are following a similar career path and maybe we can help each other.

I have over 25 years experience in testing and repairing electronics, and while I still enjoy working with electronics, I am finding that just testing electronics does not satisfy my creative needs, I think I have found something that will satisfy those needs.

I want to start learning all that I can about web hosting, development, and management. I have briefly worked at a web hosting company and have quite a bit of experience in maintaining my own SOHO network. I have also done quite a bit of web content development for my blogs and sites using a WYSIWYG editor. Given my experience and desire I now believe it's time to move up a notch, and utilize my experience and resources to build a web server and run it internal to my own network as a tool to develop the skills I need to move forward.

I am laying out a study plan and plan to start on it shortly. If anyone who stumbles upon this blog is considering or has done something similar then feel free to comment with your suggestions.

That's it for now ~ Jim