Day #145 2/25/14

A New Approach...
"Send me your acct #. I am a Nigerian Prince forced out by rebel forces. I have $20,000,000 American dollars in my pants and will send it to you. Please save me and my family. We like America, especially the NFL. "

I've asked a few bloggers about the success of monetizing their blogs.  The best advice came from The Lazy Farmer who indicated that no one reads his blog and he probably messed up the monetization.  He's pretty insightful with a welder and a 3 lb hammer.  Often we need to determine how to use the tools with which we have skill to solve our problems.  As a recently unemployed C-level executive I have few skills other than talking, doing strategic planning and "making tough decisions."  Thinking differently I realize that I have a lot of tools and ideas, all of which I could apply to blog monetization:

• A microphone.  I could speak extemporaneously for a long, long time.
• A few markers or cans of spray paint and a blank wall (or Visio 2010) so I could put a process map together.
• One of my many chainsaws (or an excuse to buy another).
• Inkscape.
• Humor.  Preferably with some really pruney (sp? prunnie? pruny?) people.
• Just making stuff up.  My father's father had a great sense of dry humor and I think he just made up stories that he enjoyed.  I like that.  

"Send me your Blogger user name and password.  I am a Nigerian Prince forced out by rebel forces.  I used to have $20,000,000 in my pants which I accumulated while helping monetize blogs.  If I monetize a few more, my family and I, who live in a shipping container, will pay off the Somali pirates and move to America where we can the life of great Americans like the Democrats, Republicans and the NFL."

Practical Issues...
2/24/14  More snow removal.  Fortunately my neighbor had the 7' drifts.  I topped out at 4'.  The newer snowblower is making some weird noise.  I'll thaw it out and see if that solves the noise issues.  Once again the -5F reminded me of my decision to purchase the blower w/o heated handles.

2/23/14  Digging out of a 27-year backlog of paperwork.  Found two un-cashed checks, one from 2008 and one from 2007.  The companies were pleasant about re-issuing them. Getting ready for taxes.

Watched the "Bachelor" with my wife.  I need to have a South American accent.  My wife asked me when I was going to be on the bachelor.  My response was that I lacked a South American accent and that I'd be better on  a TV show where I either 1) killed bad people or 2) drove people crazy.  It was unnerving that she agreed with that assessment.

Networking...
Dialogues scheduled for this week. 

Day #142 2/22/14 That went fast

Extended Excuse
After about three weeks of a head cold, sinus issue, coughing, drugs, fever, fatigue, etc., I believe that I am almost recovered.  The three week illness is my excuse for missing about twenty-five daily posts.  As a former executive it's well within my abilities to let a three week excuse cover twenty-five days.

Midwest Weather
Earlier this week I spent two days removing roof snow and ice and blowing snow.  Upon completion we received another 12" of precipitation, first as rain, then freezing rain, followed by wet snow, dry snow and three days of winds.  Areas south of here had seven-foot drifts.  Our 'up north' place had comparable weather and I'm headed out SUN or MON to do battle with that mess.

Job Pursuit
The large commercial construction gig is a moot point.  They're looking outside the industry for their new IT person.  There is another consolidated firm that is implementing an Oracle ERP solution and I have good connections there so will pursuit a contract option.

Networking
There were several conversations about a collaborative online forum for construction industry IT executives but this fell apart during my three-week absence.  This week I'll reconvene that group.

#118 Lost Time

1/29/2014 unrecoverable lost day
1/30/2014 unrecoverable lost day
1/31/2014 unrecoverable lost day
2/1/2014   unrecoverable lost day
2/2/2014   unrecoverable lost day
2/3/2014   unrecoverable lost day
2/4/2014   unrecoverable lost day

Excuses

• small business demands
• ill spouse
• ill me
• Helping Putin get ready for the Olympics
• Propane shortage
• PR for Governor Christy
• Never-ending snowfall
• Twitter compulsion

Networking

Two days ago I had lunch with my former (long-term) boss and company owner at Matt's Bar in South Minneapolis.  They're famous for the Juicy Lucy burger which contains about a pound of hot, melted, oozing and squirting cheese.  Normally a shower and clear clothes are required post-dining.  I don't have a job so wore jeans and a black shirt and left looking no worse than on arrival.

Conversation was about opportunities and challenges in the AEC industry and each of our pastimes (car racing and 'up north' activities).  Interestingly the front page article in the Tribune was about workers over 60 who really have little chance of finding employment.  The unemployment rate for people over 60 is the highest it's been in 25 years.  Jobs require diligence and networking.  Many are simply giving up of taking 'bridge' jobs to get them to Social Security.

Pursuit
I did communicate with the headhunter who has the exclusive listing for one of the two commercial construction firms that I would consider.  Each of the previous CIOs were from outside the industry, one coming from an oil refinery who had some success and some bad timing on major initiatives.  The second worked for a software firm and was responsible for customer support.  His tenure was much shorter at five years.  He was widely known in the IT construction world but marked with fewer successes.

While there was no encouragement to pursue this I do know a number of people at that organization and will probably work around the headhunter a bit.

Professional Skills & Growth

• wrote an outline of an article on e-discovery in the cloud/converged network world
• re-built a Windows PC and a Fedora Linux PC...this is not something that I would ever do but one has to understand the challenges of the people that do
• revisiting open-source options
• checked out a Warehouse District cloud storage company...might be a good option for a bridge job
• going to revisit the Google Apps company that ignored me