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12 | § ¶I Like My Job, For the First Time
-- Not Bored Anymore
For the first time in my life I can say I truly and completely like my job. Especially, since I do not have a job!
I have worked since I was in high school (summers only then). I have help positions from mail clerk / mail-database programmer on a government bureaucracy to Principal Consultant for a huge software company. I always found something I didn’t like about my job – and most of the time I felt bored. Not necessarily bored because of lack of work to do (although it did happened frequently), but bored because what could be done was of no interest to me. The paycheck and the bills it paid kept me interested enough to do a good job at it, however.
The thing I love the most about my consulting practice is that I can decide what I want to do and how I want to do it. I can’t blame anyone for failure, but at the same time success is more in my control than ever. Sure, I am restricted as to what I can do by the functionality that my clients need me to build for them. The end result is defined by someone else. But the mechanics of the day to day work, as well as the decisions about what direction we want to follow are not taken by someone else who has no interest in my personal wellbeing – they are taking by the person who has the most interest: me.
11 13 | § ¶White Mountain Hiking over for the year
-- Tasmania Next
Past weekend (Oct 21) we did what is probably the last hike of the year in the US. A pity we didn't had enough time to do more. A busy year for sure. A leisurely paced hike up Nancy Pond and the falls that reward the summit-less hike. No backpacks this year... not since the Canyon cross last one. Hopefully we will somehow make sure we are in shape for the Overland Track in Tasmania over the holidays.
- Mt. Webster - Mt. Jackson Trail – September 28, 2007. Very nice views on either mountain. Extremely windy on Mt. Jackson the day we climbed, which didn't made it all that enjoyable. Good balanced terrain that keeps the interest.
- The Wildcats, September 22, 2007. Via the ridge trail (AT at portions). Sunny and moderately windy day. Was enjoyable. The 6 or 7 miles shown in the map deceiving, mostly due to difficult to navigate terrain.
- Mt. Hale and Zealand Falls – Sept 9, 2007 – Unimpressive Mt. Hale that isn't worth climbing unless peak bagging the NH 4,000 footers. No views. No difficult terrain. The $2 bottomless soup at Zealand Falls Hut is always welcome.
11 9 | § ¶What do people approve then?
-- What do people want?
Today I read on the news that Congress approval ratings sits at 22% (CNN). University of Michigan puts approvals ratings for Bush (US President) close to 25% when you show all of the different news channel polls (USA Today also has an article).
It seems people are not happy with their Federal elected leaders.
The President ratings was no news to me. Although I sympathize with many of his beliefs, nobody can deny that the guy has not executed on things I do care about: on things like reforming Social Security, revamping Immigration, and enticing Americans to invest more (albeit I am very happy for the tax cuts, which I believe fuel the economy and do entice investment of those who are smart enough). It should not have been a surprise to see the Congress ratings (majority Democrat, minority Republican, but almost evenly divided). However it was. All of the attention was on the monkey faced President we have, and I almost forgot there was a Congress that wasn't sending any good bills to him. The war that both the Congress and President approved doesn't help the ratings either.
The question that remains in the back of my mind is... What would it take for the people to increase the ratings of the Federally elected officials. It is no news that the current President can't be re-elected in 2008. Someone new will take his post. And with almost all certainty, anyone will be able to get a better rating than 25%... Or will he/she?
I never thought that a newly elected Congress would have gotten so poor ratings (or I should say a newly elected 1/3 of the Congress, but a newly elected majority situation). I wonder if people would be able to elect anyone that they will approve of!
Could it be because people expectations are too high? Or because elected officials capacity is too low? A combination? Do people know what they want? Do people know what they need? Do people care as much as they tell in the polls? Yes, these are rhetorical questions, but they represent a grave concern in my mind: "Do people know what they want/need?" being the most important.
16 20 | § ¶Two Blogs
-- Anes Weblog and Money and Investing
For those who have not noticed, I stopped posting Money and Investing stories on this weblog. The Money and Investing weblog is completely separate from this one.
On the Anes Weblog you will find stories about what I do on my spare time, what I am thinking, and my views on current topics.
On Money and Investing you will find information about finances, career, self-employment/entrepreneurship, independent consulting, stock trading, saving, investing, and retirement. About half the posts is about things that I have done (for what it may be worth), and the other half is sensible (but without guarantees) financial advice. I invite you to check that site.
9 15 | § ¶Another Bagged
-- Mt. Madison - 5367ft.
This weekend we continued to climb the White Mountains Presidential Range (part of the New Hampshire 4,000ft and above list).
Mt. Madison(photos) – September 9th, 2007
We climbed through the Air Line trail. This is marginally more difficult than the Valley Way, but has dramatically better views. It is a bit more exposed, however, and not the easiest one on inclement weather. It brings you to the Madison Spring Hut first, half a mile before the summit, but a great place to catch your breath, buy some snacks or warm up with the soup they make at noon.
The day was very cloudy, and by the time we reached the summit it had already started raining. Visibility was around 50 feet at best, and from there until the time we where able to get below the tree line (about two hours and a half later) it was a slippery, cold, wet way down through Watson Path (RMC). Once under tree cover it was a good day. On a sunny day, it is probably a great view of the northern part of the forest from the mostly exposed Watson Path.
15 13 | § ¶New Adventure Begins…
-- Again...
For the 2nd time in my life I am going into independent consulting. Today I quit my steady job and will dedicate myself to pursuing consulting and software development projects – some of them going on for a while, but none producing a single cent yet. Will also dedicate some time to some things I have neglected in my personal life. The big difference between now and the last time is that I am not moving from a steady job into a consulting project right away. This time I will truly depend on savings until such moment I can collect money on invoiced gigs.
Last time it was just a test that I could find a profitable use for the skills I have taken over 11 years to acquire. This time it is a test that I have the courage to do something without any assurance, and the discipline to keep it steady even when things don’t work out perfectly.
Today I am happy. Today I am concerned about my future.
I also feel some level of sadness. I truly enjoyed working with the people that will stay behind on the company for which I worked. I did learned a lot from them, and I think they will be successful – it would have been great to continue being part of that success.
Now… it is time to build something greater. Time to build Me version 2.0.
14 14 | § ¶A Man and His Grill
-- What a Beautifull Thing
Or so thinks my wife, who gave me a new grill for my bDay, in advance. She is a smart girl, and she decided to advance it before her birthday so that I could grill great steaks for her during the summer and at her birthday party.
Unfortunately, the old grill gave up on us last year and we had been grill-less for a while. The new one has stainless steel burners, and that should help it last a bit longer (lesson learned). I am absolutely looking forward to cooking on this grill very often.
15 25 | § ¶Cheap as Cheap Gets
-- China Imports Tainted Fish
Today, the news in CNN say that the FDA finds a widespread case of poisoned fish from china. Earlier in the month, they discover tainted toothpaste.
For a long time the US economy has enjoyed a long period of extreme consumerism and low inflation. Traditionally the more people buy of something (more “demand”), the more price rises for it (about the same “offer”). In an interesting phenomena, manufacturers have found ways of increasing “offer” and the margin earned at the same time by shipping the manufacturing to countries where manufacturing costs are lower. When lowering salaries, real estate and utilities costs is not enough, the next to suffer are quality controls. Nothing new there….
For a long time consumers have learned to tolerate cheaper quality as long as they can buy more. People have bigger and more of almost everything: clothes, shoes, electronics, furniture, house wares, etc. Under normal circumstances, lower quality on these items can only affect their durability (which still exceeds their use, since in a consumerist society they will be replaced very soon by a newer model).
Then cheap and inferior food starts appearing on our supermarkets. In our efforts to buy more and more of the same goods manufacturers look for lower quality food as well. As if US produced food wasn’t of bad enough quality and included questionable ingredients like genetically modified food, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, and radiation, we now have lowered the bar a couple notches lower. Tainted/poisoned food started to arrive from China and other countries. (Where “poisoned” is a relative term… Europeans believe that genetically modified food is almost as bad as “poisoned”, while the US is happy about it. US also tolerate radiation in food, which many people think as poison. Apparently China food manufacturers are tolerant about “poisonous” ingredients on their food as well, just not the same “poisons” we accept in the US.)
Can we trust food from other countries? Certainly. We always had. We can continue to do so. We may have to put into place stringent controls to assure that they do not contain any contaminants, but we can continue to do so. It increases variety in our diet and keeps costs down – for us, and for them, as we may be able to ship some of our extra food to them as well. However, we may have to recognize that there is a point where we can’t just keep cutting costs. We may be able to compromise on labor, real estate, and utility costs… but as soon as we make the production process less quality-focused (just as we have done with other products), we start to suffer.
Maybe this is a good reminder that we should try to buy a bit more quality, even if we must consume a bit less. We may even loose a bit of weight and have a healthier life.