Blogs April 2007

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check out the Mane the Mean swicki at eurekster.com

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A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.

(Goethe)

April 2007 

Sunday 07-04-01 

Magnificent desolation Buzz Aldrin

Unemployed 

Suddenly, I am unemployed. Something really strange happened on Friday. I was having a meeting with sorting machine suppliers when I was called to another meeting. I went there, found my boss, the HR-boss and the local ombudsman. They told me that the Finland Post Corporation (FPC) will not offer me permanent employment. Since my trial period would have ended only at 4pm, they were allowed to fire me with no reasons. I left the building at 1.25, took taxi home, and headed to the unemployment office, then to a bar, another bar, and still a few bars. Mostly those cheap bars, which the unemployed frequent. Got drunk, well and happily. 
I do not know what happened. My boss says she was happy with my work, her boss was happy as well. The program manager, in whose program I was the systems architect and the IT project manager, was happy with me as well. As was his boss. All of them promised to recommend me and help me in finding a new job. I had received no prior warnings, no complaints, only praise until 1pm on Friday. Before 1pm of Friday, I had been negotiating with the machine vendors for 10 hours every day for 7 days in a row, managed and designed a few SW-projects on the side, and written meeting minutes on the fly, preparing slide sets, etc. Done the work of several persons, without any complaints. 
Strange things happen. Sometimes, doing one's job almost perfectly and cultivating good personal relations to all related parts of the organization are not enough. Most likely the best would have been not to do one's best, to produce nothing, to ask no questions. Then again, for me it is impossible not to do my best, not to use all my skills, experience and education. And it is not how a professional systems architect works. 
So, I am unemployed. I am interested in any systems architect, technical project manager, VP of engineering, CIO, CTO, or similar jobs, in Finland and abroad. If you know any company, which would need a very experienced systems architect, systems architect team leader, with a MSc in engineering and management from MIT, please let me know, e.g. by sending email to kinnunen@sloan.mit.edu. See my resume for more. 

Long time since 

It is long time since I was unemployed. It was in the summer of 1987, after finishing the high school. Actually, I remember that I resigned from my job as tractor driver on the 12th of June, 1987. It was a relief, for tractor driving was clearly suitable for me. By the way, I have never worn a wrist watch ever since, and never will. Only slaves of time do. 
Maybe being unemployed for a while, say a few months, will be fun. But I need to keep busy, for having nothing to do drives me nuts in no time. I will observe myself and blog my feelings, changes in thinking, etc. Interesting times ahead. 

Things to do

Being unemployed, I have some 10 extra hours for interesting things daily, given that 4 fours a day, on average, might the enough for finding a job. So, what to do? 

• Reading. My average this year is 15 books per months. Now I should be able to read maybe 20 per month. 
• Having a lot of exercise: walking, cycling, weight training, swimming. Since I should lose some 15 kg of fat, just to keep my blood pressure withing healthy limits, exercising would be wise. 
• Writing: articles (for free, for an unemployed must not work according to the Finnish law), letters to the editors, blog, drafts for books I have wanted to write for a long time.
• Starting systemsarchitecture.org, finally. 
• Learning how to paddle a canoe. Learning to draw. 
• Meeting friends, making new friends. 
• Learning about energy technologies, reading the MIT-sanctioned books, doing the exercises. :
• Learning new programming languages, superficially at least: php, Ruby, python. 
• Dendrology, fenology 

Weekend 

As well all know, the stereotypical unemployed drinks too much. I tried it for one night. It was fun, but 10 pints of beer and 2 double whiskies reminded me of my mortality, next morning was less sunny inside my head than outside the bedroom window. Better not to try this way of killing my time too often, or it will kill me. 
On Saturday evening, Olli, Maritta, Mikael, Liisa and Aili paid us a visit. We had a very nice dinner. It was very nice and imporant to meet friends, to talk about the strange things of Friday, to laugh it all away, to discuss politics, to just enjoy the company of good friends. 
Today, sleeping late, having a long walk, drinking coffee by the sea, cooking, preparing for the job search, reading. Sunny, some 6C, not windy. An excellent spring day. 

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