Sigh. I’m sorry, I don’t actually want to be a cynic and suspect scams everywhere, but I think last Thursday’s “Courage Night” may have been one. Ostensibly, the event was about gathering money and attention for the fight against breast cancer; however, I have serious reservations about the tenor of the event. Key guests were [...]
Archive for October, 2009
Magical thinking
Posted in books, current events, local, tagged activism, cynicism, health, humboldt, local, science, society, women on 27 October, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Leaves on the sidewalk
Posted in local, Personal, tagged humboldt, local, Personal, photography on 26 October, 2009 | 2 Comments »
A picture I took yesterday afternoon in Eureka. I loved the contrast between warm and cold colours.
Career: Project management
Posted in employment, Personal, work, workplace, tagged Career, excellence, management, Personal, planning, work, workplace on 23 October, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As in many other technical disciplines, it’s a frequent career path for engineers — almost required — to move from on from pure technical work (design, analysis, number-crunching, etc.) onto project management. A long time ago as an undergrad in civil engineering, my course concentration was in construction project management. I learned the crunchy part, [...]
Career: What I changed
Posted in employment, Personal, work, workplace, tagged Career, Personal, planning, work, workplace on 22 October, 2009 | 2 Comments »
As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts this week, I’ve been reflecting on career matters, including what I’ve changed in the last year and a half. First, I read up on job search and career management, and the difference between the two (this is the theme of the week). I thought a lot about what I [...]
Career: Opportunity and stumbling blocks
Posted in employment, Personal, work, workplace, tagged Career, Personal, planning, work, workplace on 21 October, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m not one of those people that life doesn’t throw anything at you which you can’t handle, or that everything happens for a reason. I think that’s the kind of thing we say to other people to make them and ourselves feel better, but in reality things just happen without predetermination. History unfolds as we [...]
Career: Piloting, not drifting
Posted in employment, Personal, work, workplace, tagged Career, Personal, planning, work, workplace on 20 October, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday I mentioned that I have noticed a cycle in my career consisting of periods of intense, feverish learning and growth alternating with slower, less focused periods. I also mentioned that my latest period of rapid growth started with my layoff in May 2008. Corollary: that must mean I was in a slow-down period when [...]
Career: Cycles and seasons
Posted in employment, Personal, work, workplace, tagged Career, Personal, planning, work, workplace on 19 October, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Having received my first annual review at this company in early September, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my career trajectory. Looking back over the last 22 years since I graduated, I am beginning to see a pattern: periods of intense, roiling, boiling learning where I soak up information like a sponge and [...]
Port of refuge
Posted in current events, local, tagged humboldt, local, Personal, photography on 15 October, 2009 | 2 Comments »
The Hawaiian Chieftain, a ketch, took refuge at the Bonnie Gool public dock in Eureka Tuesday and will probably leave today. We stopped by last night to snap a few pictures with the camera-phones; I have 14 of mine posted online here but this was my favourite. I’m quite pleased with the effect. The Hawaiian [...]



