Another bout of cold. It was -32 C when I shambled into the pre-dawn light for a short drive to feed a horde of cats. I'm cat-sitting for some friends currently in Maui. Boy, did they ever pick the right time to take a vacation, even if there are some COVID travel related hiccoughs. It's supposed to warm up a bit today, and more tomorrow, and Friday might actually be civilized enough to go outside voluntarily.
As a side note, I had never really realized what a dainty eater Celina is. These three cats make the most disgusting noises as they gobble it down. I've heard quieter pigs at the trough.
I'm not sure why it's been a week since I last blogged. I seem to be really busy just lately, and the days zoom by.
The film experiment has been moved to my other blog here. I'll post a quick update after hitting the publish button.
I think I'm really retired now. First thing this morning I had a previous employer contact me and ask if I wanted a short contract doing Maximo stuff. When my stint with them ended on cordial terms, there was some discussion of followup work, but for whatever reason that never happened. That's common in the contracting world. It's sometimes a giant game of chicken and egg, trying to get the project and budget approved, and trying to line up the people you need, which drives the budget and specific project planning, depending on the skills of the people you do get. To get the people you have to agree on a price, and usually the people you want are already working, but might be persuaded to leave, or you can tweak the project timing around their contract end date. Sometimes you can't get the project unless you get specific people. And around and around it goes. Some days it's amazing anything gets done. I've often thought that in the oil and gas world someone with lots of stroke and budgetary authority finds a project manager and tells them to get a project done in a hurry and here's lots of money but try not to spend it all.
There was a time when I would have snapped up this offer in a New York second. I've had times when I was looking for work and was willing to be extremely flexible about the whole thing. My theory is that employers know when you're desperate and need a job. They can smell it. Often it's the kiss of job offer death, or they'll low ball you just because they can.
But then after leaving Penn West (now called something else that doesn't come immediately to mind) I wasn't fussed about looking for work. Several people had talked to me about projects, and I was interested because of the people involved. However I did not go looking for work. It found me. Those 2 projects came to fruition. A contact from one of them hunted me down while on vacation in New Zealand to bring me on board for one of their projects. Now they've reached out to me again.
It's flattering, and I admit I almost said yes out of habit. In the contracting world one usually says yes, unless there's a compelling reason to say no. Already working is the usual reason, and being retired is getting more common. Most contractors have a little list of people and organizations they they would really really prefer not to work with again. But the thing is you never know when the next project might come along. For most contractors it's better to be working than not working. It's nice to be getting paid near the top of your scale, but better to be working at the lower end, than not working at the top end.
So anyway, if I'd taken it, I'd have had to change my plans about shutting down the company, which is in progress. It would have changed a bunch of financial planning stuff, and my finance people would have rolled their eyes at me. That last one was a year at my top rate, so it was worth it. A friend of mine had this to say "When you have a great ski run near the end of the day, you stop and savour it, rather than taking one more when you're tired and more likely to injure yourself."
As a blog note. Right now I have one blog notification mailing list, and I send it out when either blog gets updated. But if you'd like to be notified only about this personal blog because you don't care about the film experience, let me know and I'll tweak the blog mailing list. I want to keep my readers happy!
Because it's so cold, here's some more frosty window photos.
1.
Of the Day
Driftwood
Peony
Lily
From the south side of Fish Creek park, looking north.
I find images 4-6 more successful than the first 3. The first 3 have dark black lines around many of the needles, which suggests overprocessing and I find distracting. If you can afford not to work, then by all means don't. Time is much more valuable. Cheers, Sean
ReplyDelete