Careers... Who need them?

It is finally time to share some information about my career decisions. Since this job mostly sucks life out of me, I have been considering what career I would find to be fulfilling. It has been my dream for some time to open a large scale recreational facility and sports complex. Before I can do that, I should try to manage a similar facility, before I can do that, I need other management experience. My solution was to apply for Brunswick Bowling to be a general manager of a bowling center. Since I have bowling center experience, I thought this might work out. I’ve been having phone conversations with HR people and Regional Managers for the last 2 weeks. Alas, on Monday I had an interview in Baltimore with a Regional Manager and GM of a specific center. I nailed the interview, and it seems that Zackery is on his way to managing a bowling center! Or not. At the end of the interview, we were discussing the normal schedule of a bowling center GM. As many of you may know, a bowling alley is open 365 days a year. The problem with this fact…. Sundays. I told the interviewer that I may have a problem working Sundays and asked if that would be an issue. I would only have to work 1 Sunday a month, but it is corporate policy that every GM work 1 Sunday a month. NNNNNNNOOOOOOOO! The interview ended and he left me to think about whether I could work Sundays or not.

I immediately called Liz after the interview and told her to potential problem and discuss. One of the things I love about my wife is her ability to be blunt when she knows the truth about something. Some times it is a little harsh, but to get things through my thick skull, people need to be harsh. Instead saying to me “what do you think about having to work on the Sabbath” or gently slaying “it might not be a good idea” Liz went straight to “No, you can’t work there.” OUCH! It was hard, and I wanted to fight it, but alas, she is right, I shouldn’t work there. It took me 20-30 mins to calm down and think about it, but in the end, despite having higher pay and the hope of a job that I enjoy, God commands us to rest on the 7th day. To be honest, it felt like a burden at first, like I am being held back by God’s law, but he knows what is best, and it is obvious that I am not suited to work at a bowling alley. I’m thankful for my wife that won’t allow me to justify sin, I am confident that it will be better for me in my current position or somewhere else, I just have to figure out what that is.

Here is my biggest dilemma. Most recreational and entertainment facilities are open on Sundays. In today’s society, it is hard not to since a lot of family entertainment business is done on Sunday. What does that mean for my dream? Must I find a new dream because the nature of the industry? Or can I find companies along that path that won’t be open on Sundays. Another question: even if they don’t require me to work on Sundays, is it wrong to work for a company that demands other people to work on Sundays (ruling out industries that require Sunday work like dairy farms and hospitals)? I want some feedback on this one.

Wheewww!

Just when you thought I was going to become a blogger, bam! No posts for nearly 2 weeks, and what a crazy 2 weeks it has been. Work was madness last week. Tuesday and Wednesday included an 11 hour work day and a 13 hour work day. The majority of this work involved pulling data out of files and verifying that it was recorded correctly. Very, very boring. The only fun parts were seeing how much money people have saved up at the end of their lives and working with some fun people from my office that made doing this mindless job fairly entertaining. By the end of the second day, we were so tired and going mad from staring at these files that we were laughing at anything the other people said. It was like staying up really late, only it was early evening and we were losing our minds. It was a good time despite the long hours. In the middle of all of this madness, the hard drive of my computer completely crashed. It just stopped working, I turned off the computer and it never came back. I lost all the work I did on Tuesday, and had to spend time talking to IT people and arranging meetings to get a new computer and have it updated to all of my settings. Once the job was finished and I re-did all the work that I did on Tuesday, I had the fun task of finding out what other work I lost that I didn’t save to our network directory and catching up to where I was before the crash. It took until today to finally get everything caught up. In the meantime, I have 2 major projects I’m working on right now, and I can honestly say that I am busy at work, no more boredom for the moment.

In the middle of those long days, I found myself staying at a really nice hotel near West Chester. After a succulent dinner on the company bill at Outback, I was able to give my good friend Keith Becker a call to hang out. To my complete delight, he came a calling with Pat Brown and Rich Howell along side. I literally skipped with glee across the parking lot to meet my long lost friends whom I haven’t seen in a few months. Though there visit was fairly short, it was really great to see them all. I had so much to tell them about my life, that I didn’t really get a chance to ask about their’s. To compensate, I have decided to spend the next weekend at West Chester to spend some more time with them. In fact, I might spend the following weekend their also. Liz is going to be out of town both weekends with her friends allowing me some quality guy time. Gitty-up!

A Dream Worth 5 to 10

After a long post yesterday about my boring life, I feel the need to write about something more entertaining to keep the reader’s interest. I have a number of topics in mind, but I will only choose one for now. I need to pace my self a little bit with these blog posts.

Question: Have you ever realistically killed a person in a dream?

In reflecting on the memorable dreams in my life, people have been killed, but normally not by my hand. I’m only a witness to something bad happening, and not actually causing the death. There have been times I have slain in my dreams, but it is normally like a PG-13 action movie where you know the person died, but don’t really see any details.

My wife and I have been reading the book “Eragon” together. It has been an enjoyable activity, especially since I have never read a fiction book longer than a standard Goosebumps. I was reading to her before bed while we were camping in Ricketts Glen last weekend. In the chapter I was reading, Eragon was given a sword, and it was described in detail. Later that night, the sword appeared in my dream.

My companion and I are in some kind of Chinese Den when the enemy suddenly burst into our potion to engage in battle. There are ninjas and what not, and again, standard PG-13 action. When the fighting is over, the evil master walks in accompanied by this brute fellow that has obviously been trained to smash people since he was a boy. I find a quick exit, as I know I do not want to mess with this guy. He pursues me, and to my amazement, he is lightning fast! I have my sword, but it will probably stand no match to his hammer and shield. He is right on my heels and I realize that I am not going to get away. I decide to run backwards to continue my get away while fighting him off (ridiculous, I know). My feeble jabs of the sword are no match for his speed and the strength of his shield. In fact, the arrogant prick is laughing at me while we battle, for he knows as well as I that I am no match for him. Thankfully, two men appear who also have shields. They run into the street to assist me in battle. I duck to the side as the brute plows through the first guy like a linebacker charging through the defense. When he gets to the second guy, he knocks him over, but trips in the process. I am standing next to them with my sword and I’m about to run away when I realize he would probably catch me again, so I strike. This is not PG-13. It is as real as I could possibly imagine killing a man with a sword would be. I stab him in the back, just below the shoulder blades. I feel resistance from his skin and fat as the blade creates an indent in his back just before piecing. As I run him through, the blade moves easier than I expected, you can tell that it is well sharpened. The tip exits through his upper chest and even catches a bit of his chin. I leave the sword in, take a step back, and wake up.

There hasn’t been a day since that the feeling of killing that man hasn’t passed through my mind. I don’t expect to ever kill something with a sword, but if the event were to occur, I suspect that it would feel similar to that.

Have you ever had such a realistic moment in a dream of killing a person? Did the memory of that stay with you? Have you actually murdered a person with a sword? Does the feeling of running that person through stay with you?

Another Day of Surviving

The day I made my last post, I had only worked a small portion of my day and spent the rest participating in such thrilling events as playing with a ball and staring at a wall. It was sad to know that it wasn’t my most unproductive day, for it was merely foreshadowing today. For today, I…. Have…. Done…. NOTHING.

Let me back up a step and explain a simple truth about my job as a consultant. All of my time is spent working for other companies. I don’t make anything to sell to customers, I provide a service to clients. This service takes time out of my day and therefore it is best to charge these clients money for every hour I spend working to provide the service they require. Simply put, I sell my time to other companies. What does this mean? Time is very important! I must keep track of every minute of my day, so I know which minutes to charge to which clients. The more time I spend working for clients, the more money my company makes. Guess what??? Posting in my blog is not considered chargeable time, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.

I keep a daily calendar next to me to keep track of my chargeable time which must be posted at the end of everyday. Today, my page is blank. I have had nothing to do, and can’t think of anything to do. I am back to playing with a ball and starring at the wall. I have also read some scripture and posted in my blog. I guess the day hasn’t been completely wasted. As you can see, I am clearly a bored man.

Question: What do you do when you have 8 hours of nothing to do, but are confined to a 3 walled cubical? People often walk by, so I can’t get away with playing a game.

For a while I filled my time creating really cool spreadsheets to keep track of things in my life such as my running times, personal finances, and poker statistics. I also created a sheet that counts down the years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds from now to a specific time in the future. It also counts up in the same way from a moment in the past. I enjoy plugging in the minute of my birth and watching my life tick away. That may seem a bit melancholy, but it is a visual representation of what my work life does to me. Sometimes it inspires me.

Why do I feel that I am merely surviving life? The simple answer is because days like today when I watch my life tick away because I have nothing to do at work. That certainly isn’t living life! To make the answer more complex and more justifiable, even when I have work to do, it is in no way fulfilling. Why is it not fulfilling??
1. Since I am always working for other companies, I feel no sense of dedication to my own.
2. I never complete an entire project, but work on a portion of it, so I feel little satisfaction in seeing a project completed.
3. I mostly work off of templates leaving little project creativity.
4. I do some crappy jobs that people above me pass off because they don’t want to do it.

Since I am not fulfilled in my job, I have little motivation to do my job. Most of the time, I do just enough work to get by without getting fired, this is reminiscent of my days of school. This is also the #1 reason why I am surviving life and not living life. It is clear that I need a solution to this. The good news is, I may have found one! Details of that will be provided in the next couple days.

The First

This being my first post, I'm inclined to post information about me and why I have decided to create a blog and more importantly, why you should read my blog. I would love to see people reading this, but let's face it, who am I? Why would you want to waste a portion of your day to read about this guy? I hope because you too are bored and have nothing better to do. I don't need to put stuff about me, you can just read my profile that I just updated and that will make up my first post. It is just after 5:00 which means I can get out of here. In the last 8 hours of work, I did about 1.5 hours of actual work, created a blog, stared at a wall, and played with a ball. It wasn't my most productive day, but as shameful as it may be, it wasn't my least productive day. I hope to make a more legitimate post in the next few days, but for now, I'm going home to my wife.