"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

So, I cam to an interesting realization today. Not earth-shattering, and perhaps not even a surprise to people who know me and are more observant about me than I am about myself, but interesting nonetheless.

I've long recognized that one of the things that motivates me is information. I love knowing things, and I love discovering things. And I love sharing what I learn. Anyone who has spent time around me has probably had to endure innumerable instances of my prosing on about something or other I've just learnt about, like the Time Ball on Calton Hill or just recently "Hurry Up" Yost. This underlies my fascination with history and with foreign affairs.

I love analysis; or, to put it in simpler terms, I love figuring out how things work. The amount of effort I'm prepared to spend on a problem is proportional to the amount of interest I have in the underlying subject. Reading a wiring diagram, yes; reading a relay logic diagrams, maybe not so much. This has a lot to do with why I find simulation and gaming so interesting and why I know a little bit a bout a variety of information technology subjects (but not a lot about any of them). I've picked up tiny bits of environmental engineering, of cost accounting, of export regulation from different jobs that I've worked and always found them interesting.

And I like order. I was never enough fascinated by the philosophical aspects of it to study advanced logic. But I do like sorting and organizing. I enjoy diagramming and mapping processes and (sometimes) purging and cleaning code, because it makes it tidy and orderly and that makes things work better.

But what I've not consciously acknowledged before is how much I love stories. Reading stories, watching stories, listening to stories, telling stories. Fiction, nonfiction, history, biography, jokes, ballads--I am addicted to collecting, experiencing, enjoying stories. I like losing myself in them; I like seeing the structure to them; I love the emotions that carry the audience through them and make the characters real. I love intricate, complex plots and simple, silly jokes. I can read or listen to the same story over and over again through many years, either finding new things in it or simply appreciating its elements anew each time I come to it. Maybe I remember all of it and great it's parts like old friends. Maybe it's all passed out of mind and I can have the fun of discovering it all over again.

I don't know quite what to *do* with this realization, but as I think about where I want to go and what I want to do with the rest of my life (which, believe it or not, I do actually do from time to time), it seems as if it will be useful information. Especially if I try buying into this "work at what you love" philosophy. I've always been a bit skeptical of it as seeming like too idealistic. But the more I think about how much of my life I spend working (eight hours out of twenty-four, plus time spent facilitating it), the more it seems foolish to devote that much effort to anything other than what one finds fascinating and fulfilling.

Never let it be said that government employees are not literate.

In the course of one afternoon, one colleague invoked Tennessee Williams in explaining the timing of a joint report we manage ("As Blanche DuBois would say, we depend on the kindness of strangers"),

And another quoted Faulkner's line, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." Then, when I mentioned the previous reference, he said, "Well, it's the government--Southern Gothic is, well, kind of appropriate."

I enjoy my colleagues.

I do love working in an office where conversations can go from why Maryland is the wrong shape to whether rabbits are kosher in the space of just a few minutes.

If you're currently unhappy in your work, it's not uncommon for you to have the desire to make a career change. Lots of people are going through this right now, with the changes in the current job landscape. A career change makes a lot of sense, especially if you've been at your career since you graduated from college.

These days many people have outgrown their current career. You're a much different person in your early years of working than you are five to ten years down the road. Maybe you were told by others at an early age what career path you should take. It may not have been what you wanted, but something you did because you didn't want to disappoint anyone. You can only go so far in a career that does not fit your needs before you finally hit a brick wall.

Once you hit that wall, it's often hard to face the fact that you need a career change. This can be scary for a lot of people. Many will remain in their comfort zone and stay unhappy rather than muster up the courage to try something new. Although it's scary to break out of the mold, once you start doing it you'll find that it's not as scary as you thought it would be.

As the Monopods would say, "They couldn't have put it better."

The good: I've made some excellent dinners lately (a nice honeyed chicken and clapshot, some delicious steaks that I finally managed to pan-broil without either burning them or undercooking them). I have two projects almost finished at work that I've been working on for a while. Em and I went out to Wolftrap last night with some of her friends fromm school to the "Sound of Music" sing-along, which was good, clean, silly fun.

The bad: Our contract at work didn't get renewed, so I will have to find a new job in the next few months. This is bad but not ugly because there is plenty of work available in the company, and almost all of it is closer to where I live than my current job.

The ugly: Coming back from the show last night I hit a pothole (in DC? would you believe?) and shredded a tire. The same one that I got in July to replace one that blew out in the District after going to a works party of Em's. And the shop isn't open Sundays, so I'm without a car today and have to take time off Monday.

Stopped at home after getting my car serviced, and our creek was in full flood from the huge rains we're having today.

I shudder to think what this will mean for the trees across the street in the park. It's not that they're shallowly rooted, but that floods like this simply heave the topsoil away by the bucketload.

Not directly related, but... it took me three hours to get home last night (major accident with loss of life on the Beltway pretty much shut down most VA to MD car traffic). I need to either get a new job or a new home...

Life in the world of retail lunacy

I remember people like this, back when I had a customer-facing job. Apparently they're still out there...

I got a letter of commendation and a nice bonus at work!