Category Archives: Job Hunt

August 1, 2014 · 22:17

Platitudes

As I said yesterday, “I understand that getting my hopes up about job interviews can lead to a crash when they don’t pan out.” Yeah, that. Let’s keep a positive attitude here, folks! Remember…

  1. “Missed it by THAT much!” (Maxwell Smart, CONTROL Agent 86)
  2. “Fall seven times and stand up eight.” (Japanese proverb)
  3. “It’s not how many times you get knocked down that count, it’s how many times you get back up.” (General George A. Custer, US military officer)
  4. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” (Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister)
  5. “If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” (Claire Cook, author)
  6. “Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.” (Charles Swindoll, Evangelical minister)
  7. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” (Henry Ford, inventor)
  8. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” (Thomas Edison, inventor)
  9. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” (Wayne Gretzky, hockey player)
  10. “Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth.” (Julie Andrews, movie actress)
  11. “If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.” (Mario Andretti, race car driver)
  12. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” (Babe Ruth, baseball player)
  13. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” (John Adams, American revolutionary leader)
  14. “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.” (Vince Lombardi, football coach)
  15. “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.” (Chinese proverb)
  16. “The best revenge is massive success.” (Frank Sinatra, entertainer)
  17. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” (Martin Luther King, civil rights leader)
  18. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” (George Addair)
  19. “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” (Dalai Lama)
  20. “Do or do not, there is no try.” (Yoda, Jedi Master)
  21. “Failure is not an option.” (William Broyles Jr & Al Reinert, “Apollo 13” )
  22. “Failure is ALWAYS an option.” (Adam Savage, mythbuster)

The sun will rise tomorrow, I’ll drive the fancy convertible car in a parade (it’s a long story), and I’ll go back to being stubborn and persistent.

It’s something I learned running marathons.

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July 31, 2014 · 21:51

Nantucket Sleigh Ride (Episode 1 Of N)

A “Nantucket sleigh ride” was a 19th Century whaling term referring to the ride that sailors would be taken on just after a whale was harpooned. The injured whale, attempting to swim away, would drag the small whaling boat at high speed (up to 35 mph, which in the 1800’s was really flying) for miles and miles.

More recently the term has become slang for a period of time in which things have seemingly switched into a higher gear as events, deadlines, and daily milestones seem to flying past at an accelerated rate. (It’s also the name of a 1971 album by Mountain that I remember fondly, but I digress.)

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a Nantucket sleigh ride for me, and I’m referring to this as “Episode 1 of N” because I’m thinking (and hoping) that it may be first of many to come.

Part of it is the fact that the Younger Daughter is here for about ten days, her first visit home from Asia in two years. Part of it is that activities at the CAF have been busy. Not bad, just busy. Part of it is a series of household plumbing issues and some car issues that have been (almost) all conquered, even though at least one of the high-adrenaline problems was solved when I stopped being a freakin’ idiot. (I hate freakin’ idiots — I really, REALLY hate it when I’m the freakin’ idiot!) Part of it is a couple of employment opportunities that have finally started to potentially be real and exciting, really good employment opportunities.

We’ll see. I understand that getting my hopes up about job interviews can lead to a crash when they don’t pan out (been there, done there, got the T-shirts) but I still get excited when something exceptionally good pops up. Getting through the process, I just got to keep “The Astronaut’s Prayer” in mind.

With some patience (I’ve gone through several 50-gallon drums of it), faith (I’m trying, I’m really, really trying), and maybe just a touch of luck (I’ll take whatever I can get) we may get to exchange this “long national nightmare” or something much more exciting and enjoyable, if not necessarily less stressful and exhausting.

Yes, I’m being a bit vague. Those of you who know me personally know what I’m talking about. The rest of you, I promise that I’ll keep you updated.

 

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Filed under CAF, Family, Freakin' Idiots!, Job Hunt

April 20, 2014 · 23:08

Telemarketer Wars, Round Three

I’ve recently ranted (and that’s all it really is, I’m well aware that in the big scheme of things, if this is the worst problem that I’ve got going on in my life [and it isn’t], then I’m pretty freakin’ lucky) about possible suggestions on how to deal with telemarketers.

We’ve pretty well established that the BEST way to handle telemarketers is to not answer the phone if your Caller ID doesn’t show you that the call is coming from someone you know and want to talk to.

Having said that, sometimes that’s harder to do because you might be looking for a job and sending out lots of resumes and filling out a lot of online job applications. (I am!) While you’re putting your cell phone as your preferred contact number, the home number is on the resume and needs to be filled in on many of the online applications. So maybe it’s someone calling about a job?! (Hope springs eternal, despite the odds against…)

Or you might have your own situation or phobia or neuroses. Maybe it’s a hospital calling about someone who’s been in a car accident. Maybe someone really liked a blog post and wants you to write for them, or it’s an agent wanting to know if you’ve got a book you’re shopping around. Maybe it’s really, really that Nigerian prince who’s trying to give away that fortune of his.

Or maybe you just were warped and scarred at a young age by nuns who instilled an unhealthy sanctimonious vengeance response into your brain stem and you feel the need to PUNISH those assholes, just because! (I used to know someone like that. Yeah, that’s it! Someone I used to know…)

Anyway…

At first, I couldn’t figure out the paradox of how these scammers could stay in business, because I didn’t see how anyone could fall for their blatantly obvious bullshit. Well, at least in some cases, it seems that it may be a cultural issue, or a generational issue, and they prey on people’s fear.

Then I had a fortuitous accident and came up with a possible scheme to potentially confuse, befuddle, and waste the precious time of telemarketers, thus (hopefully) disrupting the efficiency and automation which are the core of their business model.

These posts have generated some lively conversations, both with people I know and with friends of The Long-Suffering Wife. So, in the interest of thoroughness (and the fact that my brain is all screwed up after the Kings’ second embarrassing loss tonight to San Jose) here are a few more ideas and suggestions that have come in:

  1. Just take the phone off the hook. Period. Anyone who really, really needs to reach you should know to call your cell phone. (The argument against this in my case is that my mother doesn’t know this, and our son overseas in the military always calls on the land line, so maybe there are issues with this approach.)
  2. Someone sent a link to an online anecdote from a confessed telemarketer with a situation that stopped him dead in his tracks — the person started singing, belting out a whole song while he listened, laughing. I’ve given this a try and it does work, at least in the sense that it gets rid of the telemarketer, stunning them with kindness (or at least surprise) instead of cussing them out. I started singing “The Star Spangled Banner,” which has the additional benefit of being really hard to sing (listen to anyone at the beginning of a ballgame) so if you suck at it (I do) it’s just what everyone would expect anyway. Emotionally, I would like to start belting out the chorus to Julia Ecklar’s “Temper Of Revenge.” (“Find me a horse as red as the sun! / Find me a blade that will make their blood run!”) Don’t know the song? You should! You can get a copy of the album from Prometheus Music, highly recommended.
  3. Someone at the hanger suggested just holding the phone out away from your mouth and saying something like, “Are you running the trace now, officer? It’s one of them again!”
  4. Someone suggested, if asked to let them speak to John Doe, to say something like, “He’s not here right now, but if you give me your personal cell phone number or home phone number, I can have him call you back when it’s most inconvenient.”
  5. Someone suggested just saying, “They’re dead,” and hanging up.
  6. I actually prefer a variation on this if you need to practice your acting and/or improv skills. No matter who they ask for, start stammering and crying, “You… You haven’t heard? You don’t know?” Sob, sniffle. “They died last night!” See just how much BS you can shovel, sort of like the way the guys got dates in “Animal House.” (“She died in a horrible kiln explosion.” “What, I talked to her just the other day, she was going to make me a pot…”)
  7. You can always just say, “Hold on, I’ll get them” or “Hold on, let me get to the other phone,” put the phone down, then go about your business. They’ll hang up, eventually. Then your phone is off the hook and you’re back to #1, above.

The gist of it is, don’t let the bastards get under your skin, and if you can turn the situation on its head, turn the tables so that you’re in control of the situation, so that you’re using the opportunity to get what you want or need (even if it’s just a good laugh at the expense of someone who deserves it), then take the opportunity and take back your life and your time.

Or you could complain to the police, the FTC, or your congress-critter. After doing so, please get psychiatric help if you think any of them will actually do anything about the problem.

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Filed under Farce, Freakin' Idiots!, Job Hunt, LA Kings, Moral Outrage, Paul

April 7, 2014 · 20:30

No Day So Lousy That…

In Colonel Chris Hadfield’s wonderful TED talk last month (see it! see it! see it!) he says that astronauts know that in space “there is no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse.”

Sounds coming from the other side of the desk are telling me that there’s no day so lousy that it can’t be made worse by…

…hearing the cat making that “gnnuuuurrchh”, “gnuuurchhaaa”, “gghhhaaaaurch”, “splat” sound.

…getting your tax returns from your accountant and seeing all of those zeros in the amount you owe in eight days.

…hearing the thirteen-year-old, arthritic, lame dog in the back yard suddenly tearing around at 100 MPH, going “OOOOWWW, WOOOOW, WOOOOW, WOOOOOOOOW” in the dark as she turns into White Fang, Dog of the North — and then you smell the skunk.

…reading the comments on any Internet news story.

…hearing your computer hard disk make that “click” sound, followed by a rhythmic “click-click-CLICK-click-pause” over and over, while on your screen you get some error message that you’re now too panicked to read.

…kidney stones.

…getting the “Thank you for applying, but after careful consideration of your resume” generic email on a job you really, really wanted.

…a phone call checking up on a deadline that you completely, 100%, totally forgot about.

…hearing “your” numbers called as the lottery winners, only to realize that after having tickets with those numbers every draw for the last ten years, you forgot to get a ticket for tonight.

…getting a call from the IRS about the aforementioned tax returns.

…NOT hearing the cat making that “gnnuuuurrchh”, “gnuuurchhaaa”, “gghhhaaaaurch”, “splat” sound, and then finding the “splat” part in your bare feet.

The good news is that the sun will rise tomorrow, and it’s got to be better than today.

Right?

Please say, “right.” Please?

(For the record, only one of these things happened today. But two others have already happened this month. I’m hoping none of the others do.)

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Filed under Cats, Computers, Dogs, Health, Job Hunt

April 1, 2014 · 23:03

Well Played, Tricksters, Well Played

I’m not talking about Loki from the “Thor” movies, I’m talking about Loki, the Trickster archetype in Norse mythology, with an assist from the Coyote from Native American culture. Tonight they might have been getting an assist from Murphy.

I’ve said before that the day I go without posting here, it won’t be because I didn’t have anything to say, or even that I was on a cruise or a flight to Australia or something. It would be because “something came up” and I just forgot.

After being up until 1:00 AM last night writing (a good thing!), little sleep, a busy day at the hanger, an interminable drive home (three of four lanes blocked with no viable alternate routes), and a busy evening filling out job applications (including one in particular which sounds really interesting and I would love to have a shot at), I finished my chores and was this close to hitting the sack. Of course I had posted something, I had been on WordPress for the last hour!

Wait…

I was on WordPress looking up articles and putting links to a few choice posts into my cover letter for that really interesting job. They want to see some examples of my writing, and while many days (like today) I sort of blather on and attempt to be sporadically witty, some of the stuff I’ve written (such as the simple astrophotography series, in this case) I think aren’t half bad. So there was lots of digging and linking and searching, and now I’m about-to-drop tired and I’m done with everything for the day. Right?

Misdirection. Camouflage. Hiding the obvious in plain sight. The old three shell monty performed with the to-do list. With this, the demigods of chaos and made their play.

Not tonight, guys. Tonight I can bitch about your mythical presence for 314 words and I win.

At least for tonight.

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Filed under Astronomy, Job Hunt, Writing

March 31, 2014 · 23:27

Word Herding, Number Wrangling, And Opening Day

Today has been a good day, with many fears faced and hurdles attacked. As expected, the fears and hurdles are ahead on points, but the day isn’t done yet and I’m still swinging.

Many numbers both small and large have been herded into order so that my income taxes can be prepared. Given the last year’s employment (or lack thereof) situation, I’m not looking forward to getting any good news when all is said and done in the next two weeks. At this point, if the news is bad, at least that will mean that the news won’t be really, really bad.

But it’s necessary at times to realize that there aren’t any good alternatives, or at least none that you’re going to like. Even then it’s possible and generally necessary to distinguish between the bad and the catastrophic, choosing, and working to live with the bad and move on.

In better news, I’ve also herded many words today, something that’s also been put off for far too many days and weeks. There are always plenty of excuses to not get it done, when what is needed is a single reason to get it done anyway.

Today, I’m at 2,308 words on my way to 3,000, so it has been a good day.

More importantly, I was reading over the Chapter Six I wrote weeks ago, in order to get my head back into the story for Chapter Seven. And I really liked what I had written. It was making me laugh reading it and I was almost having trouble believing that it had come from my brain. I really like the characters, I really like the wacky, madcap, slapstick story I’ve got going.

I’m still a very green novice, groping my way through this process, but that feels like it’s a good sign.

Through it all today, it’s “Baseball New Year’s Day,” opening day for most teams. (We won’t count those two games last week in Australia or last night’s gala opening game in San Diego.) Even if your team didn’t win today, there are still 161 games left. If your team won today — don’t get cocky, kid.

As Crash Davis said in “Bull Durham” (truly one of the finest movies ever made):

“Some days you win. Some days you lose. Some days…it rains.”

That’s still some really deep stuff there.

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Filed under Job Hunt, LA Angels, Paul, Writing

February 16, 2014 · 22:11

Mood Triggers Out Of Balance

Tasks that should be simple and quick turn out to be more complex and take longer.

Every time I get one thing done, it seems like three or four more pop up.

Something that should be a joy is suddenly turning into a source of stress.

Something that’s been a serious source of stress for well over a year is getting worse, not better.

Something that I thought would be routine is turning to real work.

Something that I’m doing to get away from some of the other stressful things is turning into the exact same type of stressful things.

26% of Americans believe the Sun orbits around the Earth.

I’m trying to obey Wheaton’s Law (“Don’t be a dick!”) but it’s getting harder by the day.

Some people I admire and yearn to be compatriots with are again this week demonstrating that they haven’t read Wheaton’s Law.

Then they’re doubling down on stupid and toxic — like that ever worked.

That’s all enough to put you right off of your fresh fried lobster. The hopeful, good, uplifting things I need to balance them out?

Saturday Night Safety Dance.

Occasional funny videos passed on by friends.

Spring training’s under way.

The LA Kings’ players in Olympic hockey are playing well and Team USA is playing well.

Writing.

No pressure guys, but I’m really going to be needing to see another Stanley Cup and another World Series victory if this shit keeps up. A Super Bowl next year wouldn’t hurt either.

And no, it has not escaped my attention that in that list of the Forces of Good, one of these things is not like the others.

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Filed under Job Hunt, LA Angels, LA Kings, Paul

January 25, 2014 · 20:29

It Doesn’t Get ANY Better Than This!

When you get up in the morning, you never know where the day is going to take you. I did something today that was a life-long dream, with absolutely no idea that it was going to happen until it did.

For a card-carrying space cadet since my father dragged me out of bed at Zero-Dark-Thirty in 1961 to wait hours for Scott Carpenter to launch, I’ve always loved anything that flew.

Here in the 21st Century, the ultimate #1 coolest thing that I would sell my soul for is a trip to orbit. Soyuz, Virgin, Dream Chaser, Boeing — none of that matters. ISS, Bigelow, someone else — totally irrelevant. I want to someday see the planet Earth in my rear-view mirror!

#2 on the list, not too far down the ūber-awsome list, would be a chance to ride with the Blue Angels (F-18) or Thunderbirds (F-16). Ground level at 400 knots to 10,000 feet in under a minute, please, with the full aerobatic program to follow, pretty please with sugar on top!

#3 in my fantasies, again just a small step down the awsomesauce scale, would be flying in a P-51, the fastest and most feared fighter of World War II. I love seeing them scream by at air shows, I love hearing their 1500 horsepower engines turning fuel into noise.

Just like this one:
20140125-203611.jpg

Man O’ War is a P-51 that is flown by the Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. Aside from flying it at airshows and other events, we generate income by selling rides. The rides are not hellaciously expensive — but neither are they cheap. It was something high on my to-do list when I had earned a really expensive treat for myself, but it wasn’t going to happen soon.

Then about three months ago I noticed the CAF Southern California Wing needed someone to run for the Finance Officer’s staff position. I’m a CAF member, I had the experience, I had the time available, so I ran and got the job. It’s strictly a volunteer position (still have to find that paying job), but I get to work with a lot of great people, I get to help out a great organization, it gets me out of the house, it lets me keep my skills sharp, and I get to be around some awesome planes three or four days a week.

It turns out there was a chance at another perk.

Today I was doing accounting data entry and reconciling bank statements, routine stuff, learning the ropes there. One of our P-51 pilots came into the office. He needed to get in some proficiency flying time and was asking if anyone wanted to go up with him. It’s a pity to leave that seat empty…

Don’t mess with me, man! That’s not cool!

They weren’t kidding:
20140125-205650.jpg

OH. MY. GOD!!

If you’re anything like me and you ever get a chance to take a ride in a P-51, TAKE IT!

When you get up in the morning, you never know where the day is going to take you. Many days are routine, a few days really suck, and occasionally the karma fairy will dump a bucket of I-don’t-believe-I-get-to-do-this all over you.

That’s why we should get out of bed with a smile every morning. Today might be the day you get to fly a P-51. Or an F-18. Or go to orbit.

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Filed under CAF, Flying, Job Hunt, Photography

January 18, 2014 · 22:54

Twitter Humblebrag

First, a little background…

I got a Twitter account two or three years ago “just because”, but didn’t start using it on a regular basis until early 2013.

My initial opinion of Twitter when I first heard about it was low – just for use by teens to see what the latest gossip and BS was from the Kardashians and Justin Bieber. That opinion changed pretty quickly once I started using it regularly. It’s a tool, just like any other. Yes, you can use it to follow movie stars and bubble-brained airheads who are “famous for being famous”. You can also (as I do) follow:

  • the New York Times
  • CNN
  • the Los Angeles Times
  • NPR
  • dozens and dozens of NASA accounts, including astronauts currently on ISS
  • reporters covering astronomy and the space programs
  • planetary scientists
  • astronomers
  • writers such as John Scalzi, Chuck Wendig, Seanan McGuire, Richard Kadrey, and Neil Gaiman
  • musicians such as Amanda Palmer
  • favorite sports teams and the beat reporters who cover them

You get the picture? There’s some absolutely amazing, creative, intelligent, and hilarious stuff going on there.

I am a long, long way from being a “big name” on Twitter by any stretch of the imagination. As of this last Wednesday morning, I had all of thirty-one people “following” my account.

I’m still enough of a novice and wannabe on Twitter so that I have all of my notification alarms turned on. This means that my phone goes “boop!” any time someone responds to, “favorites”, or “re-tweets” anything I tweet. It doesn’t happen often — two or three times a month might be a “big” month.

I occasionally will comment or react to some tweet or another, and on a handful of occasions I’ve gotten a response, a “favorite”, or a “re-tweet”. The “high point” of my “Twitter career” I think was when I once responded to a tweet by the NASA Morpheus Lander account and it got two or three “favorites” and maybe two “re-tweets”. I’ve gotten a couple of local LA television reporters to respond to tweets I’ve sent their way.

As they say, “Big whoop!”

Then came last Thursday night when I was busy writing my entry for Chuck Wendig’s “Flash Fiction Challenge”. As usual, my Twitter feed was up in a window on the other monitor. (I use the Janetter client most of the time on my desktop.) A bizarre little tweet caught my eye as it popped up:

16-Jan-2014 Twitter 01Assault and attempted murder using a squirrel as a weapon, eh? There’s something you don’t necessarily see every day!

16-Jan-2014 Twitter 04The Bloggess is a writer & entertainer who is followed by many of the people that I  respect and follow (three of whom you can see listed there), so I started following her some time back. She can be very entertaining, often in a really thoughtful and weird sort of way which I enjoy and respect. As you can see, she has many, many followers.

16-Jan-2014 Twitter 02Now there’s a response that I like!

16-Jan-2014 Twitter 07Apparently other followers of her were equally enamored.

I often find my muse slipping out and making snarky, snappy, (hopefully) witty comments in tweets that I shoot off into the Twitterverse. 99.999999% of the time they go ignored and unseen.

This was that 0.000001% event for me:

16-Jan-2014 Twitter 03About thirty seconds after hitting “send” my phone went “boop!”. Then “boop! boop! boop!”. Then “boog!boop!boop!boop!boog!boop!boop!boop!” And it didn’t shut up for a while.

The Bloggess had “favorited” and “re-tweeted” my post to all of her 365,613 followers. They’re not all online every second watching every word she types, obviously, but a decent percentage of them are, and they seemed to think my tweet had an appropriate amount of snark, so they started responding, “favoriting”, and “re-tweeting”. Then The Bloggess started following my account (hi there!) and others did as well. (Am I supposed to be clever and funny all the time now? No pressure!)

The “boop!boop!” chorus subsided after a while, although there were a few more yesterday, and even a couple today. The current totals are:

16-Jan-2014 Twitter 06I haven’t done an exact count (maybe Twitter has a stats function somewhere that I could check, but I don’t know where it is) but I would bet that the 10 “retweets” and 29 “favorites” on this tweet exceed all of the “retweets” and “favorites” combined on every tweet I’ve ever done. And the number of my followers jumped from 31 to 38, a 22% increase overnight.

Let me assure you, I’m not having any delusions of grandeur here. This is neither rocket science, brain surgery, or high finance.

On the other hand, one of the things I’ve done in the last year is to actively try to establish my “personal brand” using this blog and social media. That’s why I’ve set up accounts and been using Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Instagram. I’ve been active on Facebook for years since it’s been extremely useful in keeping in touch with friends in SF fandom and high school classmates that have scattered all over the country. I keep seeing articles and advice that says that such a “personal brand” will serve you well in job hunting, particularly on LinkedIn. (Well, we see how well that advice has worked.)

If I am able to establish some sort of career as an author, either part-time or full-time, such a “personal brand” and a solid presence on social media will be invaluable. So when that happens, you can say you knew me when. “Yep, I read his ‘Twitter Humblebrag’ blog post when it first came out. I was one of Paul’s fans and readers before it was cool to be one of Paul’s fans and readers!”

No egoboo here — just me and my self-satisfied grin. (Don’t worry, The Long-Suffering Wife will knock me off of this pedestal I’ve erected for myself, probably immediately after she read this. In four, three, two, one…)

 

 

 

 

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Filed under Fandom, Farce, Job Hunt, Paul, Writing

January 5, 2014 · 22:02

IMSAFE

Damn, I miss flying. There have been a lot of adjustments and compromises that have come along with the last year’s worth of job hunting, but that one’s high on the list. I was thinking about that this evening when I’m feeling even more fricasseed than I was last night.

Maybe it’s that the holidays came in the middle of the week this year. One of the things I’ve noticed without the requirement to be in an office on a regular schedule is that the days of the week tend to blur together. That’s one of the reasons that I’ve tried my best to impose some regimentation and discipline on my schedule.

Maybe it’s that The Long-Suffering Wife has been on vacation and at home with me for the last week. Her regular work schedule has been a help to me by proxy even if I don’t have one, but that’s been gone for the last nine or ten days.

Maybe it’s some potential medical issues peeking over the horizon. I thought I was okay, but maybe it’s bothering me more than I thought.

Maybe it’s yesterday’s football game. Yeah, I’m passionate and had my hopes up, but I really do realize that it’s just a game. There are a lot of other higher priorities in life. Again, I thought I was okay, but maybe it’s bothering me more than I thought.

Maybe it’s some other issues that sort of lobbed themselves over the horizon in the last day or two. I am dealing with them and things seem to be back under control, but it’s one more thing on top of all of the above, so maybe it’s having more effect than I had thought it would.

Remember the scene near the end of “Revenge of the Jedi” when Luke faces off with Darth Vader, just before he loses his hand and Darth has his big reveal? Luke thinks that he’s ready for the battle, but Darth starts tossing equipment and debris at him. Luke fends of the first, and the second, and the third and fourth, but then they start coming faster and faster and two at a time and three at a time and bigger and faster and more and he’s overwhelmed.

I think I’m feeling just a bit like that. One thing I can handle. Two things, no problem. Three things, I’m feeling stretched thin. Four, I’m hanging on. Five, I’m in trouble. Six…

Anyway, with my brain and body feeling a bit like I’ve used way too much adrenaline in the last forty-eight hours or so, I was thinking about flying and wishing that I could go up again.

Then I realized that right now, even if I was current on my medical and proficiency, I would not be a good pilot.

Pilots use a lot of mnemonics and shortcuts to remember everything. One that’s fairly new (I think it was just starting to be used when I was doing my training about five years ago) is “IMSAFE“. It’s a checklist to take a look at the human factors in flying a plane, not just the plane’s mechanical factors or the weather.

  • Illness — Are you sick? Don’t fly!
  • Medication — Anything new? Anything unapproved? Anything that might make you drowsy? A plane definitely qualifies as “heavy equipment”…
  • Stress — Going through a divorce? Your boss is all over your case? Your wife is expecting any day? Is your focus going to be on the plane, or somewhere else?
  • Alcohol — Seems obvious, but if you’ve been drinking, you shouldn’t ever be flying!
  • Fatigue — Haven’t had a good night’s sleep? New kid screaming all night? New puppy? Burning the candle at both ends? Going to fall asleep in mid-flight?
  • Eating — Your schedule sucks so you grabbed a doughnut and coffee for breakfast, a granola bar and soda for lunch, and now you’re really starving and maybe a bit hypoglycemic but you’re pretty sure that you’ll be okay. Would you like to reconsider?

On that basis, I’m okay on at least three of the six and I thought that I was in pretty good shape on the other three, but given the battle I’m having at times to keep my attention span from being described as “puppy-like”, today (if I were flying) would be a classic example of when to recognize that something’s “off” and you need to step back and reconsider.

I bring this all up not just to have something to pontificate on tonight, but because this can also be a good check if everyone’s everyday life. It might not be quite as critical and you might have more slack to allow yourself if, say, you’re driving a car rather than flying a plane. But what if you’re driving for six or eight hours instead of just down to the grocery store? What if you’re driving a large truck?

Tonight I’ll do my best to get a good night’s sleep (Jessie, no 3:00 AM bathroom breaks, please!), get back on a weekly schedule, get proactive about dealing with the job thing and some of the other new stuff that I’m dealing with, and maybe make sure that I’m a little more aware of what I’m eating.

Tomorrow will be a better day. Keep it that way for yourself as well. If you have any doubts, step back and make sure you can tell yourself IMSAFE.

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Filed under Distracted Driving, Flying, Job Hunt, Paul