(Yet Another) New Beginning...

In my last few published articles here, I'd stopped promising a brand new start, regular updates, and the rest of it, because I knew better. I started to feel like someone in a doomed relationship swearing "No, really, baby... I can change," no matter how obviously insincere it was.  I resolved to produce new content when I could, without forcing it. This, obviously, meant that I didn't produce much of anything at all in almost the last year.  So much of what I was interested in was something I'd already covered here, and I didn't feel there was anyone clamoring for yet another Minecraft article, weight loss update, Humble Bundle or any of the other topics I've exhausted here. I'm here to say that nothing has changed, and everything has.

...and I'm not just talking about dropping over 100 pounds, but
while we're at it, Hoo-raw.

I'll still be writing in this space, when inspiration takes me or when I really have something to say on a subject.  I have some new insights on a few different games, comics and films, as well as additional perspective on geek culture issues and challenges facing the unemployed or under-employed.  (On that front, I've returned to gaming/comic/hobby retail, part time at the moment, but I won't be renaming the site yet again.)  However, I need to rebuild and to set my house in order. Part of that is getting back to producing and sharing content for the people who have supported me so far. Those hopeful folks who are still checking in daily or weekly to see that the last update was weeks or months old, you are appreciated and have not been forgotten.

In addition to the new job, hitting weight loss goals and playing Magic Competitively (as alluded to in my last update here,) I still play video games. A heck of a lot of video games. For those who are more interested in sci-fi, tabletop, fantasy novels, TV and/or comic books, I'll roll out some new contents in this very space. This other thing isn't so interesting to you if you don't care about Magic or Video Games.  I'd  toyed with methods of producing content online beyond just blogging, and I noticed the sort of content I was consuming online had moved to something more audiovisual, whether podcasting or YouTube or Twitch.tv videos. Younger geeks often can't be bothered to read more than a paragraph (get off my lawn!) and video is the only way to engage with that growing audience.  I still have a message for those people, but the medium... that might need to change.

In the short term, I've launched a Twitch channel for streaming here, and have begun testing some "Let's Play" style content. It'll be a bumpy ride as I upgrade, purchase and replace hardware for this purpose, including a webcam, better mic and maybe a PC upgrade when funds allow. For the moment, though, I'm practicing playing games, as I do, with a running commentary (and learning no not hate the sound of my voice on playback.)  My best experiments in this area will go up on YouTube, and anyone who joins me on the livestream will be able to chat live, interact with others also watching the experience as I play games from my Steam Library, experiment with interesting Minecraft servers and play Booster Drafts on Magic Online.

It'll be a different sort of content than what I'm used to producing online, but one where I don't have to wonder: "Did I screw up and use a copyrighted image?" "Is anyone even reading this?" or "What am I bringing to the table that can't be found in a hundred other places online?" There aren't so many gamers this close to 40 and married making time to make this sort of content, and that's my niche. Maybe this'll be the next thing I try for a while and then lose interest in... but in the meantime, I look forward to producing this kind of show for myself, even if no one at all watches. Join me, if you like.

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Blog Gadgets

A New Daily Grind, and Fitness Questing with Fitocracy.

Way back when I started falling into a routine based on habits and the goals I'd set for myself when I was out of work I talked a little bit about what a typical "day in the life" for me was like back here. Looking back on the last few weeks, as I do my best to adjust physically and mentally to a new daily grind, I've started to think about the differences and similarities between those schedules. I'll give a brief rundown on my new routine as a lead-in to talking about a website that has started to play a major part in helping me keep to a part of that schedule. (This post won't be entirely "OMG my daily rut is so interesting," so bear with me while I get it out and onto the page for a moment, and then I'll get into the details concerning Fitocracy.)

On a given day, I'm likely to wake up to two alarms, one on a clock radio and one on my phone, set for 4:59AM and 5:00AM, respectively. I manage to get out of bed before either triggers the first snooze alarm, most days at about 5:03. Then I start the morning routine, which is comprised of more ritual than most portions of the average Catholic Mass. Breakfast, e-mail and checking social networking sites, followed by a shower and getting dressed, at the approximate same times, clothes on by 6:00. I make my sack lunch for the day, pour a cup of coffee and allow myself time for some morning PC gaming until about 6:45 AM (this will drop back to about 6:25 when there is snow) and then I brush my teeth and get in the car. My commute is long, over an hour daily but with the help of my iPod and at least a few minutes daily of a vaguely amusing morning talk radio show, I manage.

My work day is highly structured as well, as work at a therapeutic day school must be. Every day, I clock in, get another cup of coffee and attend the morning meeting. I head to my classroom and prepare daily attendance and behavior tracking paperwork and wait for students to arrive. I'm going to vague it up a little here to avoid coming within even shouting range of confidentiality issues, but each day is broken up into standard high school periods including arrival/breakfast, Gym and Lunch. I can say that Gym and Lunch are together under the current schedule late enough in the day that by the time we survive the chaos of Physical Education, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Once the last student has left the building, I have enough time to finish any required paperwork before 3:00PM. The commute back is a solid 90 minutes or more on any given day unless I get really, really lucky with traffic.

Once I make it home, I have a little bit of time for decompression before dinner (working in writing a blog post where I can somewhere in here) and after dinner I need to get ready for either the night's Progression Raid in World of Warcraft or the trip to the YMCA for a workout. Either one of these activities takes me close enough to bedtime that maybe I can sneak in a few minutes of gaming before I have to sleep at 11:00PM to catch six hours of sleep before doing it all over again. This is, obviously, a far cry from what I'd adjusted to between the months of February and October of this year when I started this blog. I was used to sleeping when tired, eating when hungry, and being on the PC the rest of the time. The effects of that inactivity pushed my weight up higher than I like, which is the primary reason for gym workouts occupying three of the four nights I don't raid, giving me only Saturday nights free of commitment.

With all that, it is really, really easy to find excuses to skip the gym. I'm a master of that, as evidenced by the fact that I went to the gym all of a half dozen times in my entire term of unemployment. I allowed myself to get sidetracked by hobbies and, of course, any number of the various games I filled all that time with when not looking for work or blogging. The number of tagged articles with "video games" on them spell it out. I find myself too easily drawn into various games. Fortunately, I found a way to convert the addictive qualtities of questing, leveling and highly structured rewards found in the RPGs I play into a way to keep myself motivated in the gym. I'm playing another game. Fitocracy, as recently featured on Penny Arcade, combines the addictive qualities of social networking with the quests, achievements and levels of any MMORPG to focus the gamer's Obsessive/Compulsive qualities into a way to keep going to the gym.

The interface mostly looks like Facebook, or a similar social networking site, and there are plugins to link your Fitocracy account to both your Facebook and to your Twitter. You automatically follow the progress of whoever invited you, and you may choose to have the program find friends from your personal social networks. Excercise, record ytou workouts on the site and recieve experience points toward the next level. Bonus XP can be gained from completing quests which start out simple (do 20 crunches, or play sports for 30 mins) and get progressively harder. Quests also encourage the user to try excercises that they might not normally ever give a shot to in a normal workout, and the bonus experience is enough to maybe try a freeweight bench press instead of the standard half-hour or hour on the elliptical, bike or treadmill.

Your friends and members of groups you join can see your progress as you earn experience, levels and achievements, and give "props," which are essentially the same thing as upvotes on Reddit, likes on Facebook, +1s on Google+, etc. The site seems well laid out, though more variety in the specific types of exercises that can be tracked would be nice in some spots (There is, for example, an entry for "video game dancing" but nothing for, say, WiiFit, and many weight lifting exercises that use machines are absent.) The amount of experience required to gain the next level and the progressively more difficult quests do a good job of subtly encouraging more excercise, and I'll admit, I've gone out of my way to do a little extra on a non "Gym day" to knock out a quick quest for bonus experience. The amount of free content on the site is impressive, and if you want to support the developers, it is possible to subscribe to get access to titles and at least one bonus achievement when you become a "Fitocracy Hero." I'm only Level 3 at the moment, but I'm just getting started, and since I don't get to run back if I keel over, I'd like to be able to make it to endgame.

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Blog Gadgets

The Times, They Are A Changin'... and so is this blog.

NOTE: The text of this article was originally set to publish September 30^th, but I couldn't publicly announce a few things until after a phone call I had just last night. I've changed some dates and updated a few events to reflect the change in publication date, but this is the article that should have gone here. The last few weeks have been incredibly busy for me, but I've managed to keep to my rigorous 5-day a week publication schedule here. This past weekend, I took the Foreign Service Officer Test, and next week I recertify to return to work with troubled kids in a therapeutic day school. I will be shortly rejoining the workforce, while I go through the process of trying to get a government job. This would normally be the place where I announce that this blog will be shuttering its doors and joining the many, many sites that don't make it a full year once life gets in the way. I promised way back here that I wouldn't be doing that, and I meant it. My studies and responsibilities have limited my time to read and comment on other blogs, and for that, I'd like to apologize to longtime supporters and faithful readers. I hope to make some time real soon, but things are going to get worse before they get better.

My XBox Live Avatar, inpiration for this site's FavIcon.

I have to make a few changes. For one, I'll be swapping to a different template for the blog to make it look a little different. Bloggers who have played with the new "Dynamic Views" have a pretty good idea of what this page will look like in the near future. The title "Unemployed Geek" will be kind of inaccurate by next week, so I'll be keeping "What's Next?" but changing the rest shortly, and I'm open to suggestions, though I'll muddle through if I don't get anything that really grabs me. I also will have to adjust my self-imposed publication schedule, as five days a week while holding down a day job and preparing to transition to a new career isn't realistic. I've had a few articles where I felt I kind of "phoned it in," and I don't want that dip in quality to become the new norm. I'll be shooting for Monday-Wednesday-Friday as of 10/10 and will see how that works, and if I absolutely have to, I'll move instead to Tuesday/Thursday, but I'd like to avoid that if I can.

I started this blog on a very personal note, nearly all text, before I figured out that pictures break up walls of words nicely and that my writing was at its best when it was about a subject with wider appeal than...well, me. In the last seven months I've had two guest posters, 165 articles and almost 100,000 pageviews, and I learned a lot from working on a project that was originally something I thought no one would read. I started it to, as the URL says, "Get my head on straight" and maintain some sort of schedule and preserve my sanity while figuring out what to do next. This post feels like a goodbye, and in a way, it is. I've figured out what I want to do, I've started doing it, and this blog has to change along with me if I intend to make good on my promise to keep doing it. I've also recently started putting up shorter articles as a writer over at Technorati.com (my first published one is here,) but writing for another site doesn't affect this blog in any significant way. Eventually, I plan to add a custom domain address, but continue to host and publish through Blogger.

I imagine the site will look something like this sometime next week.

Starting over this coming weekend, October 8-9, I'll start rolling out visual changes to the blog. (Safety Tip, this site looks weird in a few of the dynamic views, but I think it looks AWESOME in "Magazine".) I may not officially change the title until I go in for my first day of gainful employment to give myself the longest possible time to get it right. I also will likely do something I haven't done at all since starting this site back in February. I may take a week off. Then, content-wise, we're back to business as usual with tabletop roleplaying, board games, video gaming, fantasy novels, comic book, tech and science fiction/fantasy/horror TV and film reviews all turning up, just a few less times per week. To not risk offending anyone by leaving them out, I won't be too specific in my thanks, but I'd like to thank everyone who has turned up to read this blog since the start, and hope you'll bear with me as things shake up a bit.

Sincerely,

Josh "Docstout" Brown – The Unemployed Geek, October 2011.

The current "classic" layout for the site, for posterity. Let me know if you prefer this to the
slick site redesign. It may not change anything, but I'd like to know.

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Blog Gadgets

Adventures In Foreign Service Testing.

So, this should be my last full-length article on the subject for some time to come, as the process of becoming a Foreign Service Officer takes many months, but I'd like to report on how the event I've been preparing for since here actually went. This version, also known as the long version of the story, is one where I don't think even my wife has all of the details. For those unfamiliar with my other posts on the subject, I have decided that what I really want to do in terms of long-term career goals is a position in public diplomacy with the United States Foreign Service. It may not be the immediate next job I take, but I plan to keep going after it until I am there or they make me stop applying. The hiring process takes 12-15 months, and the first step is a written exam. I've been studying for the test over the last month or so, and I went into this past weekend feeling woefully underprepared. I had trouble sleeping the night before, got up groggy, showered and dressed, made coffee and poured a bowl of Frankenberry cereal for breakfast.

The actual test room is a cross between something like this and a police interrogation room
straight out of Law and Order or The Wire.

I'd gotten my directions the night before, and the expected travel time was 37 minutes according to Google Maps. I mention this detail because it will shortly become important. I left at 8:00 AM for my 9:00 appointment for testing. Traffic was normal, but I started to feel nerves kicking in, muscles in my shoulders knitting themselves into intricate celtic knotwork patterns and I felt vaguely lightheaded. Despite no serious delays, I noticed that I had several turns left in my route at 8:35 AM. Twelve minutes later, I could at least see signs for the college where the test would be administered. My stomach was boiling with acid, Frankenberry suddenly seemed a very poor choice, and I realized that it wasn't clear at all where I could park. At 8:53, I overshot the turn for parking and started shrieking obscenities like an heiress on meth. Panic was overwhelming me, as every road had a concrete center divider and I couldn't turn around.

One marginally-legal U-turn later, I screeched into the parking lot that is about 1.5 blocks from the college at 8:56 AM. I grab everything and immediately break into a run, which is not a graceful or easy process for a man my size. I hoof it up stairs, across a walkway and past a desk where I wheeze out my name for a guard who tells me I need to go down the hall to the left and around. Amazingly, I enter the small room out of breath in the closing seconds of 8:59 where people ten years my junior are filling out paperwork. There is a guy standing at a desk while a distracted heavyset woman has her back to me, trying to work out something on a computer for him. She eventually turns around, apologizes to him for the wait, and seeing me for the first time, marks my arrival as 9:01. I protest weakly, but drop it, take my arrival paperwork and knock it out. I have to lock my phone in a little locker with a borrowed quarter and my stress level hasn't gone down, I'm officially late and still hyperventilating.

The prisonlike facility that is most definitely not 37 minutes from my house.
Damnit, Google Maps.

As the computers are set up for my testing, in polite conversation I realize everyone else taking the test in my group is a college kid who doesn't seem particularly serious about the process. Several computer glitches later, we're all seated at old-looking PCs in a room monitored by cameras and microphones, with a little whiteboard and a Staedtler Lumocolor marker (love those things for D&D battlemats) as our only aid. I wince as I see how slow the network moves and glimpse a flash of "Internet Explorer" as the test environment loads. The timed test will be accepting my answers and logging them at a speed slightly above dial-up internet from 1996. I'm answering multiple choice questions about politics, culture, economics, history, geography, management and basic computer skills, and I'm likely disturbing the college kids as my hyperventilation has turned into a deep, wet-sounding cough. The section goes by pretty quickly, and I have to guess in the spots I feared I'd have to, nail the questions I thought I would. I really need to read "Economics for Dummies" or something.

On to the next section with plenty of time. This one is one of those "rank from agree to disagree how you feel these statements apply to you." No problem. I got this. I have tons of relevant skills and experience and don't plan on being modest. I realize with horror that 2/3 of the questions will make me elaborate in 200 characters or less. My wide qualifications are backfiring as I'm running out of time. I type furiously as the time is running out, frequently running out of space and having to edit my responses, finishing with about 2 minutes to spare. Next up is the English Grammar section... here I get a breather. I'm good at these. The most annoying thing is that I am asked to correct sentences in a paragraph, then later read the whole sample for content and answer comprehension questions. Problem: my edits aren't featured in the sample, so I have to read it for content as written, errors and all. Still, no worries... I'm done coughing and finish with 17 minutes to spare. Foolishly, I don't take a break, I've been here over 2 hours already testing and watching the delay between clicking "Submit your answer" and the software updating the page. I really should have stretched my legs or something.

What I imagine the test center computers recently upgraded from. This,
or a series of Speak-n-Spells bound together with twine.

The essay. Oh, God. That damned essay. I went into this preparing to write a 5/5 structured argument and really blow them away. (5 paragraph, 5 sentence, with an introduction, Three points and a conclusion.) I see that I have 30 minutes and one prompt, and the prompt is a complex issue. I take it on head on, road less-traveled with a complex position and my structure in mind. I make notes on the dry-erase board and start typing. I re-word for clarity and get an awesome first sentence for my three points paragraphs and a great five sentence introduction structuring my argument with those points in mind. I write and edit my first two points, and glance up at the time left... 4 minutes. OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT... The pressure is on, and I fear I may not actually finish, might blow the test right here. My third paragraph is weak, and only three sentences, but mostly coherent, and I have 1:39 left.. I type as fast as I can "In conclusion..." and follow with a messy sentence each restating my previous three paragraphs. With less than 20 seconds on the clock, no time to proofread, Dr. Jones... I hit submit and pray that the test accepts the undercooked essay before time runs out.

In retrospect, I don't know how well I did. I suspect if I bombed it, I either missed too many in the first section or my essay turned out as total crap. I'm still getting used to the idea of being able to read for pleasure or play video games without lingering guilt. I was so brain-burnt after the essay and the adrenaline leaving my system that when I got home, I wandered about aimlessly. Everything seemed too hard. I couldn't play games, surf the internet or read. I turned on the TV, flipped around, stopped briefly on "The Jersey Shore," realized I'd gone too far in the other direction and settled on "Women of Ninja Warrior" to let my overheated brain return to functional. I'm mostly better now. I'll get my scores in 5-7 weeks, and then I have to prepare for the next phase if I made it. Luckily, this part is simple pass/fail, with scores being meaningless. If I didn't make the cut... well, there's always next year.

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Blog Gadgets

T-Minus 14 Days and Counting...

I've mentioned before that I've decided on what I'd like to do, long term, even if it takes years to successfully start the career. I've been studying for the Foreign Service Officer Examination to start the career path toward becoming a diplomat for the U.S. State Department. I've gotten my testing date, which is two weeks from tomorrow for my first attempt at passing the written examination. The reading list is extensive, varied in content and so long that there is little hope of me finishing even half of it before the test. I'm supplementing my cultural education by researching as many topics as I can on my own online, and trying to catch the basics. This has divided my attention a little bit, so I've struggled to get full-sized articles out five days per week for the last few weeks.

My course of study has already taught me a lot about the interaction between my country and various parts of the world as well as historic perspective on events I'd thought I understood. It makes me realize that I have a long way to go, but I'm confident that I can pass this test, if not on the first go, then within a retake or two. Here's some of what I'm currently reading: (Partial List)

• Racial and Ethnic Relations. 7th ed.
  
  
• Nation of Nations: A Narrative History of the American Republic, 5th ed.

• The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. 3rd ed.

• A People and a Nation: A History of the United States, 7th ed.

• The Politics of United States Foreign Policy. 3rd ed.

• The Heritage of World Civilizations, 7th ed.

• Guns, Germs and Steel.

• Modern South Asia: History, Culture and Political Economy
  
  
• Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001.

• A Peace to End All Peace.

• Understanding Contemporary Africa,

• The Two Koreas.

• Americans in Waiting, The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States

• Economics and Public Policy

• Management and Human Behavior

• The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.
  
  
• Fundamentals of Management: Core Concepts and Applications, 4th ed.
  
  
• Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations, 8th ed.

• Managing Across Cultures, 2nd ed.

In addition to these books, I'm working on current events by keeping up with Time and Newsweek, trying to get a solid refresher in World Geography and browsing the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy journals. Luckily, I'm fairly solid on elements of formal writing (more formal that what I write in these articles,) so I don't need a crash refresher on the Elements of Style to add to the list. I expect to be confronted with a Biographic Questionairre, a test on English Expression, and a Job Knowledge Test, plus the dreaded essay test.

If I pass these tests, I'll be called back for a session for oral testing which will involve some sort of scenario-based testing both individual and in a group, and a traditional panel-style interview which will determine whether or not I am offered a position in the Foreign Service. As the test looms, I will endeavor to continue to post every week day, but shorter articles may well pop up from time to time, or even late postings, so I'll occasionally do one of these as an update on my progress in this area. I intend to do this, eventually, and as soon as they'll have me.

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Blog Gadgets

From the Trenches: The Unemployment Office and Finding Direction.

Getting a letter from the Department of Employment Security is never fun. They don't write you ever to tell you “Everything's going fine, just checking in,” or “Surprise! You have a job now!” Usually, every envelope from that office contains a week's worth of stress and anxiety. Frequently, the letters themselves are sufficiently panic-inducing, as they seem to be cobbled together automatically by a computer cut and pasting various sections that seem relevant onto a single page, even if the various sections contradict one another. If you need information, the letters direct you to call your local office for more information. This is a bad joke told by someone with a particularly dark sense of humor. For my local office, at least, you'll navigate an automated menu, sit on hold for 15 minutes, hear the phone ring, and then get a voicemail box after 5 rings. This is, of course, assuming the system doesn't just hang up on you mid-call.

I think I'd be happier waiting in lines like this if there were coffee and donuts, and if men still wore cool hats.

Recently, I got one of these letters. It was filled with scary sounding words and cryptic phrases. I'm the sort of person who can puzzle out most legal documents, I've had to decipher written communication from people with terrible penmanship, a limited grasp of language, even mental and cognitive deficiencies which make effective written communication difficult. I pride myself on being able to discern the meaning of all these esoteric and confusing pages of text. The letter I got made no sense. In one sentence it states that it has been found that I haven't worked since August of last year. Further down, it shows my earnings from wages for 4^th Quarter 2010 and 1^st Quarter 2011. It tells me I am not eligible for benefits, further down it says that a new benefit claim has been automatically filed on my behalf, and yet further it tells me how much I can receive, but only if I contact the local office RIGHT AWAY.

Any hope of assistance online or via phone is foolishness, so I have to prepare to physically go down to the local office. I've been down there once before when a clerical error told the State that I'd never worked at my last job, so I was dreading the process. The office is crowded, dirty, filled with people who are stressed out, worried and confused. Not a single person in that building, staff included, seems pleased to be there. The atmosphere is one of desperation, shame, sadness, a resignation to the idea that things are bad and don't seem to be improving any time soon. I was prepared for a long wait, a confusing time explaining what is going on without really understanding it myself, and possibly wondering where any money is coming from in a few weeks. I looked around the office, saw all the other people there, many seemed vaguely uncomfortable, as though they felt guilty at anyone, even someone else going through a rough patch, seeing them there.

Not a fun door. Even less fun than the DMV, but it beats starving.

I am pleased to report that this particular story had a good resolution for me. The wait was shorter than I'd feared (meaning I overpaid for parking) and I explained my situation to one of the most competent and friendly people I've ever met dealing with this agency. Several moments on the computer, and I was told: “You're all set.” My eyes bulged from their sockets in surprise. “There will be a wait week where no benefits will be paid, but after that, you'll receive more.” Turns out, the cryptic letter was based on something called a benefits year, where the government has to recalculate benefits based on a more recent period of wages. If you made more in the more recent period (as I had,) you've paid more into the system, so they have to pay more out to match. I left the office with the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders.

In the time I've been out of work, I've applied for hundreds of positions. I've tried every field I've had experience in, every related field I could think of, and had friends and family keeping an eye out and an ear to the ground. I've tried to get in to new fields such as private investigation, process serving and warrants. I've written in for jobs I knew I wasn't qualified for, and others I knew I was overqualified for. The only up-side to the complete lack of response has been that I haven't had to waste a ton of expensive fuel to run the car out and about. My diverse set of experiences and skills in some cases works against me, and I've been searching for that one position that uses all of them and I think I may have found it, but getting this job will be the most difficult thing I've ever attempted.

With a background in improvisational acting, convention management, employee supervision and training and crisis intervention, it seems like there isn't a single job that could possibly use all those skills. I've also taken between one and three years training in the following languages: Spanish, Japanese, German, French and Russian. I can barely speak a word of any of them having not used them in nearly a decade, but I pick up foreign tongues quickly. I wish I'd thought of this sooner. Yesterday, I registered for the exam for the US State Department's Foreign Service Office – Public Diplomacy Division. I am going to start the process to become a diplomat for the United States. I've read a lot about the qualities they look for in a candidate, and they describe me nearly to the letter.

I don't think I can count decades playing this game as "relevant experience,"
but damned if I won't use skills practiced whilst playing.

I have no illusions about how difficult this will be. This is going to be the ultimate test of everything I think I'm good at, and that is scary. I will not be surprised if even after weeks of preparation that I find that I'm not ready. Jobs in the Foreign Service tend to attract a lot of people just like me, well-read in a lot of areas, fairly bright and personable, with a wide range of skills and talents. The competition for a spot isn't against a pack of directionless young folks looking for their first job, some of the people I'll be up against will have degrees in political science, sociology or economics. I fully expect to be smeared on my limited proficiency with the languages I've studied. I need to brush up on US policy, economics, current events, terms and practices concerning media... I've read some sample test questions and tips on surviving essays and oral interviews, and what I've seen terrifies me.

However, even if I don't make it the first time around, this is what I want to do. This might answer a part of the question I've posed to myself from the first day I started this blog back in February. “What do I want to be?” "What's Next?"  It took me almost six months to figure it out, now I have just under two more to prepare for my first opportunity to make the cut. If I could coast through completely on by verbal and written communication skills (which are decent,) it wouldn't be so scary. That's not enough. I have to review all my training materials for Verbal Judo, which is the program that got me through working with troubled kids and generating voluntary compliance with words. I have a LOT of reading and studying to do. Best get to it.

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Blog Gadgets

So... What *is* Next, Anyway? - This Blog, and Other Projects To Help Me Not Starve.

I've been thinking a lot about the question posed by the title of this blog... What's Next? For anyone who hasn't been with me from the beginning, I started this project not really expecting anyone besides me would ever read it. I wanted to sharpen my writing through daily practice and cope with losing a job that had meant a lot to me. The URL “Getting My Head On Straight”, referred to my original first post, the text-heavy biographical introduction in those days before I learned how to include images and links. Don't worry, this article won't be me whining about my situation in a desperate play for sympathy. I'm happy with where I am, but I posed a question to myself about where I'm going... and that one isn't quite answered yet, so bear with me as I talk about upcoming possible projects, the future of this blog, and I'll be back to writing about specific bits of geek culture tomorrow.

Traditional wisdom says not to blog about yourself very often, as you aren't the most interesting
person to the average person in your audience, they are.  I do this rarely, so here's a picture of the man behind the blog, and the wife behind that man... smushing my face into an unusual shape.

When traffic and readership started to grow quickly (I've only really been doing this since late February, though it feels like longer) a question I was asked quite a bit was “So how long can you keep this up?” and the corollary “That's neat, but what are you going to do with it?” I've got plenty of ideas left in me for articles, I don't see that becoming an issue anytime soon. If I got a traditional job tomorrow, I'd no longer be "The Unemployed Geek", so what would happen to this site? Someone suggested that my new career could be “blogger”, and I joked that if this became my job, I'd no longer be unemployed, so I'd put myself out of work... Then I'd be eligible to start again in a never-ending recursive cycle.

I plan to keep this blog going indefinitely, regardless of what my situation is. I might post less frequently if I had less free time, but I'd like to believe that I have the discipline to continue regardless at near my current pace. As for making a living writing for my own site five times a week... it is a pleasant dream, but one that I'll only believe in once I have evidence that it is possible. Once daily traffic gets to a certain point, I'm not above adding a PayPal donation box, but until I'm satisfied that I provide sufficient value to a large enough audience to justify it, I'm holding off on that. If I bring in a few dollars here and there from this someday, that'd be nice, but it really isn't about the money.

Credit to Blaugh.com on this comic, hits close to home(less.)

So... What is next, then? I have a few projects that I've been kicking around, and the last time I wrote something like this, (about being unemployed) I talked about non-traditional methods of income. I suspect that if I can finish one (or more) of these ongoing projects, I might be able to carve out something resembling an income before I've run out of unemployment benefits. Here's what is currently on my plate:

No fewer than three longer form writing projects, one a collaborative effort with my wife. In no particular order, they are:

• A fantasy novel told from the perspective of an elite squad of investigators called in by royalty to handle crimes that the typical City Watch strategy of holding a torch aloft and yelling “Who goes there?” can't solve. (Think: modern investigative crime show a la CSI meets Lord of the Rings.)
• A horror/fantasy novel set in a world with industrial/steampunk elements (though most of the technology runs on toxic fuels with nasty side effects) featuring an agent of the Council Government who specializes in dealing with religious cults who stumbles down a path that has already claimed the lives of thirteen individuals trying to stop an ancient horror before him.
• A tongue-in-cheek semi-autobiographical work talking about how, when I was a single man, I learned to talk to and attract members of the opposite sex using ideas similar to those “pick up artists” use, only translated into gaming concepts and a lot less sleazy. (Think: Neil Strauss' The Game meets World of Warcraft.)

When any of these are finished, I'd like to release them as e-books for the Kindle store, taking advantage of generous royalty options. I figure talking about my ideas publicly gains me more in gauging which ones are legitimately interesting, over the typical new author's fears that letting the ideas out subjects them to possible theft. I'd be disappointed to learn someone stole one of my ideas and made a fortune off of it, but I have confidence in myself to continue to come up with and develop creative concepts.

I also have a three-quarters finished design for a board game where each player hires a team of mercenaries and equips them, and competes to be the first team to establish a base of operations and take down a Warlord in a Banana Republic. I'd need to start a Kickstart project for funding to complete this one, at least to get it to the prototype stage, with rewards for supporters including naming a Merc after someone who donates a certain amount. The concept is most like “Jagged Alliance meets Arkham Horror.”

One of my favorite games of all time, and I think hiring mercenaries in a "Questing"
style boardgame is one I'd like to play, so I'll have to make it.

Regardless of what I pursue to completion, I'll also be quietly working on a redesign for this site, as I have enough articles that people keep coming back for to justify a magazine-style layout someday, maybe making the jump to a custom domain name at the same time. Anyone find one of the things I'm working on to be of particular interest? Someone think I made a horrible mistake by putting unfinished concepts out there where someone could steal them? This is one I'll be eagerly watching the comments on. If there is enough interest in one or more of these projects, I could post status updates here, or in a second blog expressly for that purpose. Your input, please.

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Blog Gadgets

Thinking Outside the Maze – A Rat's Perspective on the Race.

When you are out of work for more than a few weeks, thinking about the system and its implicit promise of a stable place in society in exchange for hard work and a willingness to follow the society's rules is natural. As population swells, technology modernizes and eliminates certain jobs and people live and work a greater number of years in developed countries, the system strains a bit. Rather than play the blame game, or fish for “hang in there's” that I don't really feel I need at the moment, I want to talk about what some other people have done in trying to “opt out” of the traditional school-work-retire-die plan that society tells us to expect. Let's try to understand that plan first.

A cliché image, maybe. An appropriate visual metaphor for sure.

Some of the criticism of the system here in the United States comes from the feeling that choosing a “default” path leads to massive debt which requires repayment in such strict terms that most people are forced to take whatever work they come by that is enough to keep themselves solvent. These careers are often taken independent of personal goals, individual aptitude, skills or training; leading to job dissatisfaction, lack of personal growth and stagnancy. The people trapped by this “gotta pay the bills” mentality represent well over half of the American workforce, and low morale keeps productivity only high enough to not lose jobs that workers need, but don't want. The critics of this system have termed it “wageslavery.”

For many positions that pay what American society would call a “living wage”, individuals are expected to have a college degree, as competition for jobs makes secondary education as a condition to “thin the herd” of applicants seeking a particular job. In the United States, this means that young adults are likely to start with significant debts to pay back through educational loans, without any guarantee of a career capable of doing so. As jobs become more scarce due to the inevitable march of technology, homes also become more scarce due to an increase in global population. More private loans are needed to finance homes whose prices are driven higher by supply and demand. Well before getting into any of the economic problems with credit or the recent mortgage crisis and housing bubble that caused an economic recession, it is little surprise that some people want to look for alternatives to the path society assumes adults will take.

Moments before head explosion from financial worries.

Some people have dedicated themselves to the concept of sustainable living, popularized as far back as 1978 along the fringe of American culture. The book “Possum Living” by Dolly Freed (18 at the time of writing) talks about her experiences living for five years with her father on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia without traditional sources of income. The book describes a life of living off the land, raising rabbits and chickens for meat and growing produce, making much of what is necessary for life, and trading for a lot of little luxuries that cannot be self-produced. Despite some unusually bad (and illegal) advice concerning resolution of disputes with “city folk”, the book, and the philosophy that followed it make for an interesting read. The life presented is very similar to, and some ways better than, a typical middle class lifestyle, providing that one is willing to eschew technology beyond trips to the local library for internet access. Perhaps not the best choice for the modern geek.

The life of the entrepreneur calls to others who want to drop out of the “rat race”, and starting personal businesses, making money online and developing as many streams of income as a person is able defines this strategy. Many, many books have been written on this subject and more than a few blogs are dedicated to nothing but this. It is difficult to separate the true success stories from wishful thinking and those who want to make this life a reality by selling promises of how to achieve success. Professional bloggers would fit into the category of the modern entrepreneur, as would those lucky few artists able to make a reasonable standard of living from their creative endeavors. The downside to this approach is easily apparent, with a lot of competition and great personal discipline required for any measure of success. It takes a lot more than writing a few hours a week and tossing around buzzwords like “SEO Optimization” and “Online Content Marketing” to make income capable of supporting a family like this.

No offense to the legit SEO/Marketing bloggers out there, but some people
seem to think that there are magic words you put on a webpage, and people give you money. 

Science Fiction titan Robert Heinlein wrote “There Ain't No Such Thing As a Free Lunch” in his 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and criticism of those who write in dissatisfaction of the current state of the world says that people expect something for nothing. Libertarian sci-fi from the 1960s aside, I think that application of the Law of Unintended Consequences producing a large disaffected working public is more likely than a majority of people harboring an unrealistic set of expectations. People in general seem to be willing, even eager, to put in effort and time in exchange for financial security, but a complex set of problems denies many that opportunity, and even more are denied the opportunity of a career that is fulfilling in addition to “just paying the bills.”

I've done a lot of reading and thinking about this, one really interesting article from a professional blogger (who falls into the “entrepreneur” category, naturally) named Steve Pavlina way back in 2006 discusses the merits of a non-traditional income here. I wonder how many different ways there really are to be 'unemployed' but capable of living without collecting unemployment or any other sort of financial assistance, and if one of these ways is right for me. Is anyone out there making a living using one of these, or a method like it? Maybe you know someone who does or did. If nothing else, it is something to ponder and dream about while looking for a new place back on the traditional mouse wheel.

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Blog Gadgets

Jumping Through Hoops – Unemployment Benefits

Today before sitting down to write, I wanted to check on the status of my accounts. Before joining the ranks of the unemployed, I suppose my income put me solidly in the category of the “working poor”. We lived check to check, but I look around, see 2 computers, video games and an iPod for my wife and I, and don't feel too bad about where we were, from a wider perspective. That said, keeping an eye on remaining funds when you know you could run them out is an important maintenance task. Ironically, since I've been out of work, frugality and the lack of a commute (with these gas prices) has put my wife and I less on the edge, money wise.

I checked the status of the unemployment funds on the state website, and it looked like I had a deposit settled today. Great. I go to check the balance on the debit card issued me for these funds... no money. There was a brief moment of panic, not because I'd starve or have a utility turned off without that money RIGHT NOW, but when your financial future is in doubt, the small amount of funds you do have access to is vital, and potential interruptions of those is scary. So, I go to call the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Busy signal. More light panic, but I persist, get through, wait on hold for a seeming eternity and eventually determine that all is well. I just need to wait a few days for normal processing that I likely never noticed a delay in before.

All this got me thinking about the process of getting these few dollars. I've talked about what unemployment isn't, and who pays for it, but not really about what it means to go through being on it. Making a claim for unemployment benefits is, mercifully, easier than it once was, at least in the state of Illinois. Rather than having to wait in line in an office or even on hold on a call center's line, making a claim and certifying for individual weeks of benefits can be done online. There is an application and several questionnaires to fill out, best started right after a job is lost, and frequently benefits may be placed on hold if there are any eligibility questions that a phone interview or supplemental paperwork is required to resolve.

For all my complaining and ranting... this is what it used to be like to get a few bucks for groceries.

After a waiting period, either a direct deposit (which I should have done) is started, or they mail you a debit card and there is more waiting. Every two weeks, you load up the archaic, almost quaint website that refuses to work in browsers other than Internet Explorer (more on that in a moment) and answer a number of questions about your situation that mostly will not change unless you've come into some money or something unusual happens that could affect any payments. Name changes, deferred payments, change of address, payments from social security or other disability or any number of other uncommon events that I check “No” to weekly. Then, within a few days you will receive funds averaging about 30% of what you used to make, plus a small additional sum for dependents.

Any changes to this process are difficult, as the bureaucracy involved is typically sprawling and byzantine, they prefer to communicate through the mail, as I presume their carrier pigeon service has been discontinued, but they are working on mastering the telephone. But they have a website you can turn to for help! It is optimized for Internet Explorer 6. I didn't mistype that last number, or accidentally flip it upside-down somehow. I try not to ever use IE unless a website makes me, but I don't think I EVER had IE6 installed on this machine. I learned about the issues with the website the hard way when I tried to switch to direct deposit, I had to fill out a series of online forms, and at the end of the process, got an “oops, can't save your changes” error.

High Technology, from the crazy future world of 2001.

While you fight with a website that is barely a generation above a Geocities page from 1996, get archaic forms presumably penned with a quill from the local post and collect the few dollars they'll give you for the trouble, you have to do a few things. First, register on another website that asks you to input your skills, experience and desired work schedule, salary, etc... a process that takes a few hours. The skills match website takes all your hard won life experience, calculates it... and tells you there are no jobs because the economy sucks. I half expected a “Please Try Again”, like you find on a yogurt lid when you haven't won a contest. Also, you have a form to document your search for gainful employment with no instructions on the expectations for its completion and vague fields to fill out. I can only guess that no one ever looks at 99.999% of these, even though you are required to keep them around for a year after you're done claiming unemployment. Every once in a while, I'd guess they pick a name at random and ask for these forms for laughs, as the instructions are so vague that just getting picked to be checked up on, I'd guess, means you're screwed.

So, this is a part of my adventure that doesn't involve swords or lightsabers, but does sort of involve shadowy cabals, scrolls with arcane symbols and the fickle hand of fate. I'll jump through hoops while I keep at it, and admit to myself that a whole lot of people have it a whole lot worse. Anyone else on “the dole” from a different place with maybe very different hoops to jump through? Tell us about it.

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Blog Gadgets

A Ship In Search of a Rudder

One of the reasons I started this project was to document my search for a new direction. I've become increasingly disillusioned with what most people have resigned themselves to accept as "things the way they are." Getting up and going through a pointless routine 5 days a week to make someone else a pile of money, and the bulk of your day is spent (even if you have a necessary and fulfilling job) doing small tasks that are completely meaningless, aside from the fact that if they are not accomplished, you cannot prove that you have done your job.

I know. That's the way the system works. (If it works.) The idea is, you participate in society, follow its rules and jump through its hoops and are rewarded with a stable place in that society. Thing is, as jobs get outsourced or digitized, that "stable place"... isn't.

I'm not saying that I'm going to subscribe to the unrealistic notion of "breaking the chains of wage slavery" or anything like it. Maybe I just need my next career to be interesting enough that I don't think about it so much.

I tried performing, both in garage bands and (as mentioned in earlier posts) as an actor and comedian. To be brutally honest with myself though, I probably enjoyed more success than my level of effort warranted, and stopped trying when any notions of a career weren't moving as fast as I'd hoped. I guess maybe it is time to give it another shot, not looking for fame and fortune, but just hoping to become a working actor.

That dream, of actually making a living as a performer, sounds like something different from the daily grind. I've contemplated other careers, but escaping that feeling of "I do this because if I stop, my family suffers, even though I've grown to resent it," is vital.

Maybe a few auditions here and there while looking for whatever else there might be out there that fits the bill.

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