Tempestuous Fury

Things are looking up, WAY up. I’ve turned in my two weeks notice, and am going to camp on the 25th. I’m all set to move out of here as well, and that will be finalized next weekend with the bed and such leaving. Today I will focus on packing and organization of all the stuff around here.

Camp looks like it’ll be a blast! Most of the staffers from last year will be there. Everyone will be awesome, and there’s even a staffer coming from Taiwan under some sort of exchange program. I chatted with her online experimentally because she wanted to improve her English, and she seems like a great person. Plus, I landed a position in Mountain Man, where they have THE best food in camp. And to top it all off, I got a raise! Yes indeed, dear reader, I get paid $225 a week now instead of $200! Freakin’ awesome!

Don’t know what I’ll do when I get back. Sysdamin? I’ll want to evade a survey job entirely. Maybe go to skrool for an MCSE? Move? Army? I don’t know. But I DON’T FREAKING CARE! I’m going to CAMP! Whoo! (Sensibly speaking, there are actually a couple of people at camp with real jobs as computer techs and sysadmins. I’ll talk with them about that job concept) And someday the investing thing will work out! Whoo! This week using new procedure in simulations, I actually ran a sizable profit! Wow! I haven’t done that in the real world or in simulations EVER over the course of a week, except for once on dumb luck! And I had a clue as to what I was doing! Yes!

On a less euphoric front in my life, I have picked up and read a new book which caught my eye in Border’s, called Damage Control: Why Everything You Know About Crisis Management Is Wrong. It’s an extremely interesting book which really opens your eyes about crisis management, and it cites alot of examples from recent history to make its points, both of successful and unsuccessful crisis management situations. I actually knew of somewhere between three quarters and half of all the cited events in some way, and was extremely interested and surprised in some cases by the more in-depth details of the events and how they were resolved. I’d recommend it as a thoughtful, insightful read, although the moralizing reader might take a warning: this book is very dark sided. There aren’t good guys and bad guys and happy endings; it’s about winning and making the crisis go away. The Nixon case is mentioned, as is Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial as an example of a particular successfully managed crisis. In this book, what’s “right” doesn’t necessarily triumph… It’s about taking on the crisis and winning, whoever you are. The coverup, supposedly the quintessential “evil” thing, is even mentioned as one of the more important tools. As I said, the book is definitely dark sided. The case studies are just too compelling to ignore, though. I’d recommend the book very highly.

Tum tee tum tum… I don’t think I was this happy when I got out of college, you know that? Life is grand again.