It's that time of week - another issue of Weigh-In Wednesday. Today's number of horror is:

221.0

I still don't understand. Five days at the gym last week, with cardio every day. At least it went in the right direction this week, but still. I feel like I should be losing more.

Perhaps it's all the weight I carry with me because of the world we live in. My daughter had a Spanish project based on part of a movie, where a character explained, "Spain is not just this place, or that cultural reference, it's also this other great thing (something that people don't consider)." I don't remember the exact verbiage. Her project is to state the same about the United States. How people perceive it, but what they miss. We worked quite a while trying to come up with something truly good, but something people would miss that is unique to the United States.

"The United States isn't just guns, and obesity, it's also...." Corn? Hollywood? A mix of cultures that many Americans want those from the culture to abandon? Racial overtones that we're still fighting against? Cultural appropriation without respect for the cultures, or what makes a culture unique? Art with no respect for the artists? A variety of weather patterns? The newest colonial superpower? Runaway capitalism?

I mean, you can go for the vanilla response, and say, "It's also the people who make it great!" but for any culture, or nation, or region that is "great" couldn't you say the same? Buffalo is the city of good neighbors. We are known for being friendly, helpful, charitable, genuine... but not everyone here is all of those things. We have criminals, and Nazis, and greed, and generally bad people just like everywhere else in the world. There is no Utopia, and not everyone is a good person, that's just a fact. But generally speaking, people make a place great, or not great, and when the good outweighs, and has a louder voice than the not good, that is what makes a place desirable to be.

The United States certainly isn't a shining example of what a nation should strive to be. I don't think it ever has been. The balance right now is pretty even between the empathetic, the apathetic, and self-serving. There is a tipping point to that balance that has to happen eventually, and until we tip further toward the good, it's going to be a rough ride.

This literally weighs on me. I want this nation to be a shining example of what a nation should be. There are too many people that think that shining example should be led by money, and stock markets, and how successful a very small minority is, or how many people own guns, or how much money we spend on our military...

So what is so uniquely wonderful about the United States that people from outside of the United States might not see?

Still on the job hunt, obviously. A growing annoyance with job-hunt spam is messages that say, "Look at this NEW job opening that is totally within your skills set with (name of reputable company or government entity)!" So, not leaving stones unturned, I click on it. That click takes me to a page that says, "Oh, so sorry, that job has expired, but would you be interested in being a long-haul flatbed truck driver based out of Boston?"

Yeah. Yeah, that's really closely related to Information Technology, team management, or photography.... sign me up!

My current job probably doesn't help with the weight-loss thing. Although I do go for two walks a day, generally, and climb as many stairs as I can. The job is uninteresting, not challenging, and I sit around a lot. That doesn't make for good health. Good luck to me in getting a standing desk, or having a better work/life balance as long as I am on this contract, too. I feel pretty far outside of the everyday norm at this office, and not part of any team. Not exactly where I want to be in my career at this point, but we do what we have to do.

Not looking for sympathy here, but I am looking for referrals. Both for more photography work, and for any local (or remote) businesses that are looking for someone who brings leadership, a wide variety of technical knowledge, and skills, as well as creativity, and broad-based experiences, and skills to the table. I'm networking as much as I can at this point, so maybe a few written asks such as this one might cast a larger net? One could hope.

It amazes me how some people fall into their careers, seemingly by chance, and without even trying. That has rarely been the case for me, and when it has, it has been without permanence. The traveling implementation/project management contract I so often have written stories about in my blog was probably one of the few, but it didn't last nearly as long as I would have liked. It was indeed a highlight of my career - rapid recognition of leadership abilities, paid well, challenging work, the benefits (and horrors) of frequent travel. I quickly became the go-to guy for both the vendor, and the contractor. It was a great feeling.

I would love to be back in such a role where I could be the technical lead between a business, and their clients, taking on the challenges of making technology work correctly, organizing projects, leading presentations, developing programs, and policies; all of the things I was doing in that role.

Know of any? Feel free to message me about it! You can even use my contact form here: CONTACT