Monday, March 22, 2010

The Unemployment Chronicles: Week 13

In the world of income searching: First and foremost I took a big step. I blind carbon copy emailed a whole lot of people telling them about Janzen Gear, and asking for money. Well, it's more than just the money. I asked for other things and had a lot of responses from people in web development or networking to other possible opportunities. This was a big step for me because I do not like to ask for help. I realized that in one email I might have asked more people for help than I have ever asked in my life. It was humbling. The verdict is not in about how "successful" it was yet but things look good. If you want to invest in Janzen Gear email me.

I applied for eight different jobs, none in Colorado. It's not that I have to stay here. I just like it so much I don't want to have to vacation here I would like to weekend here. Also, I have never lived in the northwest and I wouldn't mind trying that. However, I also like the sunlight and Seattle doesn't have the greatest reputation for lots of sunny days like Denver.

I went to a Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce cocktail hour at the Bradford Washburn Mountaineering Museum. I was invited by one of the members who started his own company and was formerly one of the head people at Quest Communications. I talked to some people and was in a little bit of awe. Jefferson County is kind of a big deal. The members of the Chamber of Commerce are not little people like me. As I looked around the room I saw two things in all of the people: people who get it done, and people who are afraid of the future. Sure they acted confident, but I kept seeing stray glances of fear. Someone would look at someone else, as if he or she had something to say to that person, but not go talk to that person.

My documentary is down to 82 minutes. I have a few more places where I can edit it down. What is the big deal with length? People getting bored is the biggest concern. Then to get aired on PBS it has to be less than 56:40 for a one hour run time. To be considered a feature length film at the Vancouver Film Festival it has to be 60+ minutes, mid length 20-60 minutes and short 20 or less. To get into the Banff it seems like either feature length at 70+ minutes or short at 15- minutes. So I think I might end up leaving it at 70+ minutes but then make a short/preview of like 10 minutes or less (YouTube max length) and perhaps submit that to film festivals. The reason I have a hard time making it shorter is that I was behind the camera the whole time. It all matters to me. Also, there is no repeating of actual frames. I have two helicopter evacuations, but that's because I was around for four of them.

In my world of pure fun: I ran 71 miles had one workout and one race. Every Tuesday I've been running this 6k route as a fartlek either one minute hard one minute easy or two minutes hard two minutes easy. This week I was 19 seconds faster than last week and that week was 17 seconds faster than the week before. So I'm getting faster every week which is nice. I ran a 10k race in Denver on Saturday. My time was 38:14, because more than 37 minutes of that was on ice and snow. I just could not go faster. That is the slowest 10k I have ever raced by about three minutes. The half marathon I ran in November was much hillier and I ran faster than that twice in a row. It's no problem because I just wanted to get in a long anaerobic tempo and I did.

I toured the Colorado School of Mines Metallurgy department. They have fantastic facilities! I've been considering a Ph. D. for a long time and seeing their facilities motivates me even more to go for it. I still have not decided if becoming a doctor is what I want. It is a hard decision. On the one hand you get more respect, you learn more about research, and you publish papers; but on the other hand people treat you differently because you are a doctor, the actual opportunities that you have are very narrow to do something in the same field as your doctorate, and it would take me three or four years. 2014 is a long way away. I am not sure what I am doing tomorrow let alone the next four years. Like I said when I commit to something it's 100% so I'm taking my time to commit to PhD school. Also, long term what I want as a career is not a degree offered by any university. I want to go to Mars. Since I'm the only person at the moment, or at least the only person I have ever met, that has that goal I feel like I'm writing the book for how to do it.

Who knows? I mean if I die today I have already done so many things that it would be okay. I am past the point of "he died so young". I just do not want to waste my time. There is so much I want to do, yet all of it seems so far away sometimes.

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