First, a musical interlude:
After 1/2 century in the American Workforce, 21 of them at Oracle, I am retiring.
Some of the places I’ve worked: Tabachniks Deli, Emory Computing Center, Continental Phone Company, DeVry, Technicon Data Systems, Arthur Young, Knowledgeware, CRG Consulting, Apple, Golden Gate University, NeXT, Fireman’s Fund, ODK Inc, Golden Gate, BEA, and finally Oracle.
Time has come to move on and do something else.
Time to allow the new ones to come on as the old ones go.
With the new found freedom from the shackles of having to fit into a Corporate-Worker Bee mold, I plan to:
- Pursue my original career of music; computers were always a hobby – it’s just that my hobby paid me way better.
- Get good enough that I can get a paying gig as a lounge/hotel pianist – whether I actually take the gig is a different discussion.
- Spend more time as Kitty Koncierge to my two Bengals.
- Spend time playing VR and flat screen games. and (possibly) build 3D animated models for VR starting with the Jefferson Airplane House in San Francisco.
- Spend time at the local library – I loved my my library time in high school and college – would get locked in at night and have the stacks to myself. I may even volunteer to “read the shelves”.
- Watch the wife excel at pickleball.
- Take a degree in building guitars and bases from the local community college.
- Learn Italian.
- Discover new shared interests with my wife.
- Play Bridge w/friends.
- Begin attending local city council meetings.
- Do whatever I want whenever I want with whomever -or not – that I want.
Closing Thoughts and Aphorisms:
‘You’ve got to find what you love…
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish”
– Steve Jobs
I loved being an in-class instructor. When Oracle University stopped teaching in that form, I knew my days were numbered – yet I managed another 10 years.
I look forward to continuing doing both but in different venues.
“My Dear, Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover.-Falsely yours”
― Charles Bukowski
Recipe For Happiness Khaborovsk Or Anyplace
One grand boulevard with trees
with one grand cafe in sun
with strong black coffee in very small cups.One not necessarily very beautiful
man or woman who loves you.One fine day.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Look for me there – probably playing a piano.
And, my (only) original thoughts
Keep your eyes open and be willing to act on opportunity
You can’t make it happen and you can’t prevent it from happening.
Be aware of and willing to be in the “Goo” :
A swan dive into the Goo! (Friday, September 9, 2011)
Recently talking about how it is to live in the undefined region.
No definition to relationships. No definition to life situation.
No definition to work.
All undefined
Open
Changing
Referred to it as “the goo” – the place where it is all undefined. Like a chrysalis.
Like certain Grateful Dead Jams – where there would be a period of time when they weren’t really playing any one song – or all their songs at once – and then a melody or rhythm would appear and the song would form.
Caused by a particular band member or played through the rest of them?
Sometimes hard to tell.
And, the longer I stay in the Goo the better the outcome.
As if choosing, forming, deciding, creating too early stifles what is yet to come.
This can be very hard at times. I get the feeling of wanting to pick…well, anything, just to have finally made some thing form, exert some type of control.
To let that go and patiently wait for fullness.
One of the hardest things I’ve done.
Friday, December 5, 2008
One Day
On a day that may have come and gone
or never was or never can be
a bird may be singing,
a raindrop slides down a window
a plate breaks
a cat brushes your leg
you pick up your keys
or turn on a light
and
you will forget to remember to be you
and
in that moment, everything will change even as nothing changes
you will be you no longer
but ever more so
Final thoughts:
So, being smack in the middle of the Goo – I don’t know what is next. Maybe a year of doing absolutely nothing.
Maybe it’s time to stop focusing on what’s next so much and learn to reduce, if not eliminate, the self-referential internal narrative – my inner “Wilson”.
All the shoulds, all the things I have to do – and sometimes more importantly – not do – to be liked, valued, wanted, important, Be Someone, Be Employable. A being defined is a being confined. Falling apart is an art.
While I’ve said it feels like finishing my sentence and being released from prison, I’m reminded what happened to the white haired fellow in Shawshank Redemption – Brooks and others like him – and how they left their mark. It is a very complex transition. It’s not like it is in the books and there is always a catch.
Still, I look forward to the unknown.
Should you feel so inclined, you can reach out to me at: joedg@joestechland.com
