The mood darkens

Quite the change in tone here in the last 48 hrs huh?

Well yesterday I lost my job
Today I got hit with a $16,000 tax bill
Sunday I shall do as the Lord doth command and rest
Monday I talk to lawyers to see whether we'll be deported

Then it's a flight to New York to talk potential new role
Before coming back to the poorhouse - okay, okay the poor loft - to work things out.

Only real concern is the Visa as it would mean Jude also getting the boot.
It would also send us off on a 3 month - round the world adventure that might prove to be ill-planned

We shared lunch today... how long before we have to?

Another day, another life experience

I lost my job today. Well when I say I lost it, rather it was eliminated. I wasn't expecting it - which given the economy and the fact that the people I'm working for are cutting huge swathes of employees was pretty stupid. And so walking into a room that had the head of department and a strange woman wasn't ominous at all. You see I was looking to negotiate by disappearance from the company.

We're moving in June to Montreal; I was hoping to work through to May and then take a bit of a break before starting to look for something interesting to do up there. I'd been open with everyone about this and that had been my "downfall"... the company was looking to lose people, I was leaving anyway why not bring the two dates together.

I'm glad actually that I was honest. Because it means that someone who needs the job for their family gets to stay in it - and that I have a month with no income to worry about. That's not really a big deal in the scheme of things - we've made enough, saved enough and have put ourselves into a position where that kind of thing isn't really a worry.

Plus I'm meeting with people in a different office of this company next week to talk about an arrangement that is close to my dream job. That was always planned. Things have been moving along and Thursday / Friday may see us seal the deal on that. So it may well be that I end up doing exactly what I've always wanted to do, with the people that I like most in the company, owning a slice of my own life again and working from wherever in the world that I want to work. Just wish that I'd had that meeting today rather than next week, timing is off but hey, better position than most people, huh?

The object of my affection

I'm really wanting to buy the old Minolta Beercan lens. It's well built, pretty sharp, good in low light and has a decent range. Once I have it in the bag I'm pretty much covered for most occasions.

Of course a friend had told me to buy the camera body only. That once I'd sniffed out a decent old Minolta lens I'd sneer at the included Sony Kit lenses - with their lightweight construction and use of plastic. I bought the kit lenses anyway - they were part of a deal that meant that they were very close to free... but he was right. I have two Minolta lenses at the moment and I'm looking to add a third.

They have great color. The build quality is good. And they're faster than the included Sony lenses, while being a lot cheaper than G series or Zeiss lenses. This will be the last lens for a while and I'm currently trying to outsmart the people in E-Bay in a bidding war that's pyschological as well as being about being willing to pay more.

It's a big old lens. And it's heavy. But it would be the last one that I needed. And in a world were size and weight are second only to provenance it will buy me acceptance - or at least end the questioning.

6 hrs to the end of the auction... how high should I go? Prices are through the roof at the moment - part reputation, part Sony DSLR taking off, part rarity, part seller greed, part buyer stupidity. I'm just too late for bargains, but just the right side of investment.

What to blog about...

These days I'm finding it hard to keep my mind straight enough to Tweet, let alone to blog.

Part of this is down to pain - and to the drugs that have come along with the pain.
Part is a winter hibernation in Michigan
Part is this is the large part of me that's permanently distracted by the thought that I could be out taking pictures.
Part is the fact that the next 4 months are limbo months - we move in June; what before then?
Part is a temporary lull in the workload
Part is passing 1000 posts here

Some is having the computer upstairs and the people and things I love downstairs
And a large part is me still self censoring.

A couple of trips on the horizon may help change that.
Let us see....

Time for implants

I've mentioned here before that there's nothing more shaming than opening a British mouth to an American dentist. In fact I think that in the 1001 posts on this blog (yup we're up to 1001, how many have you read?) I've mentioned just about everything, but the dentist is a reoccurring one.

Well this week has been one of emergency dental treatment. It started when I went to see the hygienist. As she scrubbed I noticed that the bridge I have back left was loose. She sent me to a dentist. He removed the bridge using some weird old equipment and a pair of pliers



Under it he found one tooth that was decayed. So he filled it, replaced the bridge and made appointments for longer term solutions to be discussed.

Sunday hit and agony. Temperature hurt. Pressure hurt. My ears ached. I paced. I swore. I lost focus. I downed hard to get Codene. Youch. And double ouch. And aye-yeye-arggghhhh.

So today I go back - we remove the bridge again. Root canal, temporary rebuild, warning that it's going to hurt like hell post anesthetic, and then an appointment to discuss implants. Which cost between $3,000 and $10,000 a tooth but will last longer than me and 'survive cremation'. That appointment is March 10th.

Come back to look at implants and find this image which I have to say I rather like. There's something about hellboy implants that makes me think 'hell yeah'...

Does that make me odd? Probably. But hey if you're going to get silicon chest implants why not get ones that get you noticed.

It's also a great motivator to stay in shape... you're going to want to show that body off.

Anyway that's been my day - pain, dentist, gym, queasiness, internet, nausea, blog.

Feverish Scribbling

I'm finally sitting down to write my book.

Well actually it's taking shape in a weird way.

It's a book on Advertising Shapes - the 20 shapes that can get people to look at a problem again and with a fresh set of eyes

It could be why it's wrong to look for insight, or new places to look

It could be looking again at how conversations work or deciding that it's time for a little less conversation, a little more action.

So I started by writing the titles of the 20 slides - in powerpoint
I then went back and changed each one - making them a tad more interesting

Once I'd done that - and still in powerpoint - I wrote the single paragraph synopsis of the idea.

I then printed that out and hand drew the diagram that explained the synopsis.

After which I added some pictures and presented to a bunch of people.
Tape recorded that as it was full of annecdotes and examples that I'd forgotten I had.

Added those to the powerpoint

E-mailed the audience for other examples that helped prove my points.
Added those.

Am about to post the whole thing to a planning board - to get more feedback.
After which I'll take it all to Word.

An odd way of working - but it is working and I should have a draft within a month.
Cool.