When Is A Good TIme?

A couple months back I was talking to my mom and somehow our conversation touched on work. I told her I was going to quit (only being half serious at the time) and she told me that now was not a good time to quit. That got me pondering if there ever really was a good time to quit.

Now for one who has a plethora of skills, talents, papers hanging on the walls from various institutions of higher learning, and the ability to bullshit their way through an interview, I am sure anytime would be fine for them to quit, maybe not ideal but they would get on just fine. But for one who has very limited skills, only one paper from one of these higher learning institutions that is starting to brown on the edges, and the lack of bullshitting skills that will easily get them through an interview, I doubt there is ever really a good time to quit, especially when that said person is getting paid far too much to do nothing for seven hours a day all while losing any knowledge acquired at any learning institution (including elementary school). Finding a job to maintain their standard of life would be almost impossible.

There is never going to be a perfect time for anything in life, let alone quitting a job, but the first group of people should have little trouble finding employment elsewhere in the event they are unhappy at their current employment no matter how poorly the economy is doing. The only hindrance will be the qualities of the new employment these people are looking for (an extra week vacation or a parking spot close to the doors or a corner office or just an office with a view or maybe even the ability to work from home on occasion). The second group of people, on the other hand, will always struggle to find employment no matter how well the economy is doing, with perhaps the exception of low paying and low experience type jobs (working the fryers at McDonald's for instance).

While people in the first group sometimes have great jobs fall into their laps, so to speak, (via headhunters) the people in the second group will never have jobs come to them. Instead these people need to work endlessly to find new employment that will maintain their standard of living or at least one acceptable to them. They need to constantly be aware of their current sitaution so they can get out before they become stuck at a dead end job that would make them even less appealing to other employers. The people in this group who find themselves unsatified with limited opportunities have to decide: remain unhappy at their current job and keep their standard of living or leave the place of dread and lose some comforts of life in the hopes that they will find another job that will be, at the very least, tolerable.

Unfortunately for me, I fall into the second group. I am short on skills, lack knowledge needed to advance, am terrible in formal interviews and selling myself, am miserable and bored at my current job, and may have stayed at my current job too long to be appealing to others. It appears that I have come to my fork in the road: should I stay or should I go? Some would stay and some have left to become much happier than those that stayed. The main obstacle in my way is my financial obligations. Do I remain unhappy and overpaid or do I trade that financial security for happiness and perhaps sanity? For me the answer is obvious.....

Ask and You Shall Not Receive

While strolling to the washroom I hear this indecipherable voice behind me. After a prolonged moment of contemplation, I decided to find out who was behind me and turned to see my coworker John coming towards me and I slow down (which was hard because I was walking so slow I’d lose a race with a snail) to make it easier for him to catch up to me.

“Busy, busy,” John commented. Or was it a question?

Unsure if it was a comment or a question I remained silent.

John tried again, “are you busy?”

“Not at all,” I replied.

John continued the conversation with “I’m crazy busy.”

“Let me know if you need any help.”

“I should be okay,” John concluded before I turned towards the washroom.

It is no wonder why I am so freakin’ bored at work when I flat out ask for stuff and, despite everyone else being “crazy busy”, I receive nothing. There is only so much message board idiocy one can dull their senses with before they go insane. Ah well, back to the never ending debate on whether field lacrosse or box lacrosse is the “real” lacrosse. Maybe it’s time to switch sports and find out how many Jays fans think Hallady got shafted at the All-Star game lat night by only pitching one inning. Better yet, time for food and a 4 hour nap......

Say It Ain't So

The brief two days of freedom have come to a quick end and the beginning of another five long and agonizing days of the mundane are upon us. I so need a vacation.

Close Enough

I'm outta here! I will just have to walk slower en route to the train.

Only 10 Minutes Left...

After wasting away over seven working hours in a day, one would think wasting a mere ten minutes would be a simple task. Unfortunately, that ten minutes feels like a century when it is the day ten minutes of a workday, before a weekend. I thought today was going to be easier than most as I had a late afternoon meeting but the meeting did not last as long as I had hoped and I had to find ways to amuse myself for the last hour fo today. There is nothing as painful as staring blankly at a computer screen waiting for time to pass one by.

Now down to 6 minutes and it is not getting any easier...

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

June 2008 Quotes

the Creator made women so men would not find life too easy. - Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)

Panic is highly contagious, especially in situations when nothing is known and everything is in flux. - Stephen King (Wizard and Glass)

...we're all in our private traps--clamped in them. And none of us can ever get out. We--we scratch and claw, but only at the air--only at each other. And for all of it, we never budge an inch. - Psycho (1959)

Some said that turnabout was fair play, but she had never believed in fighting fair. Either you fought, or you did not, and it was never a game. Fairness was for people standing safely to one side, talking while others bled. - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

I guess that’s what this maturity thing is about, growing up and being able to face being what you are. - Claude Brown (Manchild in the Promised Land)

Patience is a virtue that must be learned, but we must all be ready for the change of an instant. - Robert Jordan (The Great Hunt)

Only fair treatment can make men friendly and of one mind. - Francis MacDonald Cornford (The Republic of Plato)

I have every reason to give Him thanks because, never having any obligation to me, He has nevertheless given me those few perfections that I have. - Rene Descartes (Meditations on First Philosophy)

From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork. - J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

If you go out alone you’re a hero. Take somebody else with you and you’re dogpiss. - Stephen King (The Body)

Lost within my plans for life,
It all seems so unreal.
I'm a man cut in half in this world,
Left in my misery.
- Pantera (Cemetary Gates)

And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
- The Eagles (Hotel California)

That's the thing about women...If one says no, there's always another will say yes. - Robert Jordan (Winter's Heart)

Complex plans had many ways to fall apart… - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

Sometimes, pain is all that lets you know you're alive… - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

Change what you can if it needs changing, but learn to live with what you can't change. - Robert Jordan (New Spring)

…and that even when our life is harsh and inexplicable, we may still make it into a worthy and heroic destiny, provided we maintain the invincibility of the mind. - Gilbert Highet (Man's Unconquerable Mind)

But the heart must call for its rights, too, and a man or woman who doesn't listen is a fool. - Stephen King (Wolves of the Calla)

You needn't die happy when the day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end… - Stephen King (The Dark Tower)

A man did what he could. What he had to. - Robert Jordan (Crossroads of Twilight)

Maybe it's better not to brood…Sometimes-especially when you know a thing's going to be hard-it's better just to get on your horse and ride. - Stephen King (Wizard and Glass)

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike… - J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

There's a moment in every man's life
When he must decide what is wrong and what's right

You could wait for your dreams to come true
But time has no mercy
Time won't stand still for you
- Bryan Adams (Into the Fire)

Whe'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes,
Oh! how I long with you to pass my days,
Invoke the Muses, and resound your praise!
- Alexander Pope (Summer)

We weep from our eyes, it’s all we can do, but on that evening I felt as if every pore of my body were weeping, every crack and cranny. - Stephen King (Bag of Bones)

There’s always a choice. That’s God’s way, always will be. Your will is still free. Do as you will. There’s no set of leg-irons on you. But…this is what God wants of you. - Stephen King (The Stand)

Duty was a mountain, death a feather… - Robert Jordan (New Spring)