She Said: Second Chance

"Life may not give us do-over, but it does give us another chance with each new day. It's up to us what we choose to do."

Pointing Towards The Sky

I need air.

This week has been building in a good way up until to today. There has been a good bit of positive energy with the week kicking off with a second round and strong potential. My days have been fairly busy with a lot of productive networking and calls. Today was a bit different because I woke up at my normal time but I had no motivation to grind out another day. I am tired of it all, just tired and I know this is not good only being a month into this. More so, everything seems to be at a point where I am waiting. I suppose there is a point where you can only do so much. I am just hoping everything shakes out next week.

As much as it seems like there is always another company to contact or research, I realize that you can only do so much. I need some air. I need to get back in the sky and work this out. It's been over a month since my last single jump and maybe November since I have done more than one at a time.

Danny

Gotta get me one of these one day.

January Passes Along

Two weeks down and the third is almost in the books for the new year, however, somehow it feels like we are two months into the year. I have managed to get a lot done in a very short period of time so far and the job search is in top gear. I am pursuing many, many things right now but I would be wise to remember the length that previous searches have taken.

The conversations that I have with senior people have all been good and positive, but it's their own perception of the market that I really find interesting. You ask people about the job market and everybody will say things are better and 2010 will quickly turn around. Then asked about their own company and how things are and if there are jobs you will get stories of lay offs and hiring freezes. So my collective knowledge from hundreds of calls and emails flies against their perception. All that I can do is keep moving forward as best I can knowing this could turn around at any moment for me.

I am constantly reminded that no matter situation I am in I have to do more than everybody else. The unemployment rate for black men with college degrees is TWICE that of of white men with comparable levels of education. The disparity in the unemployment gap grows as the level of education increases for black men. This shows that closing the education gap does not close the unemployment gap which is completely counter intuitive. I am not getting on my soapbox about this, it's just a fact. It's a fact that we don't want to talk about in our presumed successful post civil rights, race neutral world. But this is the reality that I am waking up to every morning.

What's For Dinner: Baby Back

Day One

Well that's what is left of Norton all boxed up and moved to an empty office to be shipped off. I will consider this the last look over my shoulder before moving on.

So tomorrow is the first business day of the new year and kicks off my new search. First order of business for me is going to go through everything that I am working on and set some priorities. There are some interesting things before me that could be strong gap fillers or maybe lead towards full time opportunities. It's all different this time around in that the ante for risk vs reward is upped even more and my game is higher stakes. If anything the risk side of the scale could be tipped against me, however, it is way too soon to opine on what might happen. These first few days will be all about getting things in order.

Game plan, check.
Film study, check.
Chin strap, on.

Christmas 2009

Has it been a year already? I suppose that it has been a year since I have spoken to many of you. I hope that this update finds everyone and your families doing well. For the most part, I am doing well despite some challenging times and life is ....well its good. Things are good for me here in Houston and I am glad that I can say that. On the surface, the unfortunate end of 2009 would seem to betray the good that they year has brought my way, but that is not the whole story. So where have I been? What have I been up to? Glad you asked.

I took a moment to look back at last year's Christmas note from 2008, and then I looked back at the one before that from 2007. They both share the common fact, as is true this year, that I am looking for work. Yeah, three years running, but I will get into that in a moment. Shortly after I posted in last year with you around Christmas, I got a call from Haddington Ventures, a small private equity shop here in Houston. With the Federal announcement of hundreds of millions of dollars flowing towards the energy sector through grant and loan guarantee programs, they had a need for somebody to research and apply for those programs. I have split my year with two of the Haddington start up portfolio companies leading this effort seeking DOE funding. I wrote a $27.5 million grant for the biofuels business and also a $30 million grant for the renewable power project, Norton compressed air energy storage. For Norton, I also worked on part one and part two loan guarantee applications to secure DOE guarantees for about $280 million in debt.

Over all it has been very interesting working in private equity and I have learned a lot in several areas. I got a chance to dig into the biofuels industry and learn a lot about how feedstocks create long term value in that industry. I am also taking away a lot about what it takes to put together a project finance and the right way to negotiate with the DOE when it comes to raising funds. All of that is a huge plus for my energy career. So why am I in the market again looking for a job? Well, Norton was sold to FirstEnergy early December. I had hopes that we would capitalize the company, finish development and EPC, build the project and there would be a role for me there on the team. But that was not to be, and there is no work for me going forward at Haddington. Things have ended on an amicable and good note with respect to my contract which is good. As always there is more to the story, but I won't dwell on any of it here. Buy me a beer and I will tell you the whole story. I certainly can't hide the fact that this is very hard to go through yet again.

Mom is doing very well and her medical situation is much, much better. The doctors are very happy with her recovery and I hope and pray all of that is put to bed for good. As for me, I am doing just fine. Not a lot has changed with my day to day life in Houston. I am still pretty active at Texas Children's helping out with the foundation. My on unit participation has slowed with them taking a very guarded approach to H1N1 and protecting the patients. As for fun stuff, unfortunately there were not a lot of fun get away trips this year to report on and that two week vacation that I have been waiting on remains elusive. I have been very focused and busy at work on many applications so that has taken a lot of time this year. Easily one of the best get aways that I did make was an all too short three day trip to Cabo for a wedding. This year was also my Kellogg 10 year reunion so I went back to Chicago to catch up with the Kellogg Family. The "just for George vacation" will have to be on the list for next year.

Having the contract job this year allowed me to get active again skydiving after tapering my jumps off end of 2008. Because of the contract job not providing much long term security, I did not commit to a four way team at the beginning of 2009 for the entire season which was a disappointment. Fortunately there was plenty to do in the sport other than membership on a team and I have logged just over 500 skydives to date. I obtained my coach rating which is the first instructional rating allowing me to work with some skydivers just starting out. I also was asked to fill in as a substitute for a couple teams that were training on occasion.

By far the coolest thing I got to do in the sport was compete at the USPA Nationals which was held at my dropzone this year. It's difficult to convey the magnitude of the event in a short explanation, however I would best sum it up by saying the event attracts the best skydivers from around the world. During the two week competition I would estimate that there are well over 6,000 individual skydives made across all of the disciplines. I participated on a four way team that competed as a guest team because of our international members from France. We did quite well given that we did not train and had not previously jumped together. I wrapped up the year jumping at the Ballunar Festival at Johnson Space Center which was lots of fun. It's not often that you get to jump at a place that you have previously worked for two days in front of hundreds of people.

Well that sums up much of the update from me on the year. Please stay in touch and post in from time to time. Let's see where 2010 takes us. Closing it out with some video of my skydives from this past year. You will note that some of the video is first person POV made with a GoPro mini camera mounted on various locations on my harness or helmet. You can find me in the rest of the larger formations in black with black/red/gold container. Have an awesome Christmas with you family and loved ones.

The Friday Feeling

It's back. Maybe I am just having a bad day (and I am certainly allowed that), but the frustration that I remember on Fridays during my job search is back and bigger than ever. This is hard. I don't know how much I have in my tank this go round. I can only hope that this will be over quickly.

What's For Dinner: Dr. Pepper Braise

Bigger

Yes I'm grounded
Got my wings clipped
I'm surrounded
All this pavement
Guess I'll circle
While I'm waiting
For my fuse to dry