The poor Are Undercapitalized

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

I hate to admit it but a politician (Mitt Romney) got me thinking.

But first, mentioning the name of politician amidst today’s inclimate discourses requires disclosures. No. I don’t follow politics. But there’s no way to avoid hearing about it until after the election. Yes. I vote. “We the People” doesn’t have any meaning otherwise. And. No. I am not an R or a D. I am an extreme moderate I. I am certain (extreme) that the practical solutions require compromise (moderate) and that none of the parties represent my philosophy (independent).

OK, back to my necessarily interrupted first paragraph. Mitt Romney got me thinking about the 47% which for me reinforced the anniversary of the 1% & the 99%. Romney and Occupy made me think about the delineations we have within our society. We are proud to be a democracy, though really we are a republic, and we’re frequently labeled as capitalistic. If the delineations are based on money, then maybe we are emphasizing the last of those labels instead of the ones that started the country. Which got me thinking. If we are becoming primarily capitalistic and yet operating from our Constitution (Happy Anniversary there too), is there a way to use that to help “We the People“? Conventional Wisdom declares that one of the ways businesses succeed is to begin by being adequately capitalized. That suggests that the secret to our nation’s success could be adequate capitalization. The poor are undercapitalized. There are solutions for that, aren’t there?

The American Dream includes the concept of the self-made success. Someone with nothing can try to become whatever they want. That continues, but at stockholders meetings, in the news, and even in some personal contacts I see evidence that we are attaining a stratification similar to what we tried to escape when we revolted against England. If the rich were rich all of their life they don’t understand the poor. If the poor have never been rich they can’t understand the rich. My favorite insular wealth anecdote is the suit at the stockholders meeting that was complaining about his water bill. It was far too high. Of course it was for one of his vacation homes, the one where he had the landscapers install a rich, green lawn  in the desert. He was required to attend the meeting but he just stood in the back socializing. His level of passion appeared far out of proportion to the plight of people outside the building. I also know folks that have never had much and who can’t understand why people with money could have any problems.

I started near the bottom, having to sell my textbooks to pay the graduation fees; then prudently saved and invested and becomed a millionaire (DINKs have potential); and now am in the midst of a wild slide to a near-zero net worth as a consequence of a confluence of bad luck. (If you want more details, buy my book Dream. Invest. Live. and then read more of my blog.) If nothing else, my experiences have provided me with many personal perspectives and introduced me to people all along the delineations.

A steady income that pays a bit more than the bills is a wonderful thing. Someone with zero net worth can live a long and healthy life if their basic needs and a few luxuries are affordable. “Enough” liquid assets is a wonderful thing. “Enough” being a large enough asset portfolio to either draw down or to use to produce a sufficient and steady enough income. I’ve seen why the first million is the toughest, and how compound interest can take over magnificently. Combine a steady income and a large enough portfolio and ease is possible – but not assured. Money and emotions can be tied together, but good emotions don’t make money and money can’t buy truly good emotions. Money is external. Emotions are internal.

The American Dream provided for the possibility of the self-made success by allowing anyone to own their own business and live their own life. A successful citizenry would create a successful country. One of the tenets of business is that sufficient capitalization makes success much more likely. If the poor are poor, maybe it is because in general they are under-capitalized. If the American Dream is based on self-made success, and success is enabled by sufficient capitalization, then perhaps it follows that providing sufficient capitalization to those who don’t have enough would be an effective way of improving the monetary and emotional wealth of our nation.

The Occupy Movement voiced discontent, disillusion, and even disgust with the current system. They defined the distinction between the 1% and the 99%. It is catchy, but I think it has the same problem as any generalization. There are billionaires who live humbly and give generously. (Hey Steve, where’s that link on your blog about the frugal billionaire?) There are people in the 99% that are unethically taking advantage of the system, but it isn’t 47%. Some of the Occupiers want to eliminate the current system. I know many folks that would love to find an alternative economy that wasn’t based on currency. As in any movement, many of the Occupiers would probably be satisfied with keeping the existing system, but changing it. Our Constitution even acknowledges the need for regular change. My current situation would change dramatically if currencies vanished, and that is true for everyone except those that never had currency. Merely reinstating certain financial regulations would greatly restore my confidence in the stock market, though I can’t begin to reinvest until I find a steady enough income or a large enough asset portfolio.

My business, with its many ventures, is undercapitalized. Mostly that is because for years it was secondary to my main source of financing, which was my portfolio. When my portfolio grew enough I looked forward to funding my business better, but at the time the returns from my portfolio had much greater potential than the returns from my business. I put the money where it could return the greater investment. Oh well, welcome to the risk part of risk and reward. Many of the ideas I have are stymied by lack of funds. It takes money to make money and much of my money vanished as almost every stock in my somewhat diversified portfolio dropped by more than half. (My Semi-Annual Exercise) Things are beginning to turn around, partly because I’ve finished my five year project of photographing Whidbey (shop online or at Raven Rocks (until 10/3) or at the Open Studio Tour (10/6-10/7));  and partly because the word is getting out about my consulting business. (Two recent quotes: “That was amazing!” and “It’s all Tom Trimbath’s fault.“) As for those other ventures, well, they may succeed too, if I can find sufficient funds. (And yes, I am checking out Kickstarter, etc.)

I suspect my subconscious has been considering this ever since the poverty numbers came out for Washington State. I was surprised by the following data (which I subsequently posted in facebook.)
“In Washington state, the estimated poverty rate increased from 11.5 percent (774,000 residents) to 12.5 percent (854,000 residents) between 2010 and 2011.”
From Wikipedia: Population of Seattle = 620,778
In Washington State more people are living in poverty than are living in Seattle. Picture it. We could empty Seattle and Tacoma, fill it with those living in poverty and still have to find room for 20,000 more people.

Seattle is a powerful city. Imagine the potential impact of adding another Seattle to Washington State. Imagine the impact across the country if the idea spread. We invested hundreds of billions to help out industries and institutions. Why not do that for undercapitalized people? We wouldn’t be worrying about the poor. We’d be celebrating the We Aren’t Poor Anymore.

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Free Fridge

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

A second piece of good luck came my way. The first was a free iPad back in July. The second was a free fridge last week. Tangible good luck. I needed that. In the last couple of years there have been very few offers that sounded too good to be true. There have been too many events that turned out to be too bad to be true, yet they were. Ah, but good news begins to filter through. It is hard to believe, but believe I will, that good times will return. I have a big, white, daily reminder sitting in my kitchen.

This small house is the best home I’ve known. A couple of years ago it looked like I’d soon be able to give it the treatment its 45 year old self deserved. DNDN was bouncing along at $40 as if it wanted to pop another $20, as soon as earnings were announced. AMSC was massively successful in China because of the wind power industry, and AMSC’s main division was about to enter the marketplace. MicroVision finally launched a product and the updated and profitable version was due out within months. If all of those succeeded I could hire prime architects and customize this home to me. If two of them succeeded I could afford major upgrades with a wonderful level of comfort. If one of them succeeded, or if any of my other stocks succeeded I’d be able to pay the bills and launch into a series of DIY projects. The roof and updating the fireplace would have to wait. Regular readers know that none of them succeeded. What were the odds of that? What were the odds that they would all succeed? I hadn’t expected that either. But I had dreamed, visualized, imagined that possible future.

My home is for sale because the financial litany continues outside my portfolio. I’d like to fix up the house to make it easier to sell, and as a courtesy to the next owners. I’ll do some painting. Sorry folks, but that’s what I’ve got. And then I got a facebook message from a friend. She’d just received a free fridge. The topic sounded like something that should have been caught by the spam filter, but it was legit. I did nothing. Then she posted her story on her facebook wall. I did nothing. My kitchen is so old that it is so small that I can’t find appliances to fit. That’s why the renovation would be so expensive. Walls would have to be moved. Surely they couldn’t find a replacement for my fridge. Then I won an iPad and thought maybe good things can happen again. I called. (Appliance Recycling Center of America 1-877-341-2314, which seems to be operating the program for Puget Sound Energy)

It is an interesting program. Old refrigerators are inefficient. That’s no surprise. The power drain on one household may not be much, but there are so many in the area that the local power company realized the old fridges required their own power plant. Replacing every old (more than 20 years old) fridge for free was cheaper than building a new power plant, and was a lot simpler too. Site selection, environmental impacts, community engagement, and the risks inherent in construction were much more complicated than giving things away for free. Okay. Sign me up. The light switch was broken years ago. (I strung LEDs on the inside with a battery pack on the outside.) And it’s been making weird noises for a while.

They sent out an inspector. That makes sense. He had a two hour drive, got stuck in the ferry line for over an hour, was led astray by his electronic navigator (that didn’t know the bridge was out) to finally find my address. He walked in, said hello, opened the refrigerator door, said “Yep, its old enough.”, handed me a piece of paper, pleasantly said good bye, and left for his two hour drive home. His time and gas alone probably added up to a few hundred dollars.

A few weeks and a few missed phone calls later, two delivery guys arrive on time, measured a few things, took out the old fridge (bye!), rolled the new one into place, and happily headed home for what I guessed was more like a three hour drive through Seattle’s rush hour. How much more did that cost? The business side of me continued to calculate and ponder.

Before they left we learned one thing. The fridge fit in so many ways, except for opening the door. The aisle is too small. But, hey, that’s a small price to pay for free. Imperfection gladly accepted.

As I dutifully filed away the warranty and paperwork I came across the price tag. They’d given me a $720 fridge. That about two years of electric bills. I guess years of payments had merely been an appliance replacement savings plan. (I wonder what else I’ve been paying into all these decades.)

Situations like that are fodder for pundits. It would be easy to highlight the imperfections and argue that the program doesn’t make sense, but it does.

There are so many people and houses that any program has to choose between occasional inefficiencies or pervasive micro-management. Accepting imperfections can be far cheaper than guaranteeing that every action is financially reasonable. The bureaucracies that we complain about exist because someone complained about imperfections. We attempt to impose perfect order on an imperfect world. Perfect public systems sound like good ideas until we’re sent back to the beginning of the line, or back to menu #1, or put on interminable hold because we didn’t fill out every box exactly correct.

I’m glad and surprised to see such wisdom come out of the local utility. Thank you Puget Sound Energy.

What are the odds that such a program would exist? What are the odds that my string of bad luck has finally turned? I don’t know, but I do know that on certain days, like last week when GERN went down 50%, or when I heard that I didn’t get the nice job in downtown Langley, it is nice to have a tangible piece or two of good luck. The tangible good luck reminds me of the intangible good luck that pervades the rest of my life: community, health, friends, family, and experience.

So, I asked the universe and powers that be for something tangible, and it was delivered. I was thinking in terms of cash, you know, so I could pay all of my bills. After the fridge was delivered I realized that almost all money now is electronic. Does that mean that money isn’t tangible, and that wealth isn’t tangible? Okay universe, either in cash or in the appropriate intangible, I need enough to maintain, sustain, and eventually thrive in my life. That’s called living.

Life continues to surprise. As the delivery guys moved out the old fridge, a piece of art was found. Now, I am curious. Who was Kelly O’Shea and does she want her art back? Help find Kelly O’Shea. Maybe she needs a tangible bit of good news. (#findkellyoshea)

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Social Media For Artists In Action

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Yes, I mean “in action”, not “inaction”. Here we sit, my class and me producing a set of example posts proving that we’ve learned how to post, link, share, and have fun. Say hello to Hope Ryder and Kristiana Nielsen. Ok, time for me to jump back into instructor mode.

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Mumbling Through

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Watch the old Popeye cartoons. Skip the regular dialogue and try to follow what he says between the lines. There’s a lot of mumbling going on. A friend is amidst dark and empty times and described moment-by-moment existence as “mumbling things through”. In the darkest times what else is there to say? All we can do is mumble through. I know the feeling. It was late. We were chatting on facebook. I went to bed; and the wordsmith in my head turned on and played with the rest of the alphabet. Evidently these are ‘umbling times. (Insert your favorite ‘umble letter: f, m, h, t, r, j, b)

My story goes back to fumbling wealth by trying to be prudent, trying to reach consensus, then getting a divorce, then buying a home at the wrong time (financially), then trusting to institutions, rationality, networking, and hard work. What I need and could use is more good luck; like those fumbles in football that result in touchdowns.

I am living a very humbling experience that challenges conventional wisdom and pithy sayings. I watch the political parties from the periphery because their platitudes sound hollow and false. Great credentials can be a hindrance. The courage to engage in passionate and adventurous ways of life can feel silly if they don’t work. Successes spawned by passions are great stories, but the term “starving artist” exists because there are so many examples of passions pursued that end in struggle. Parents advice about day jobs is based on experience. Listening to the litany of “I told you so”s or “What you should’ve done”s is half of a moot conversation that is frequently endured.

A course of inauspicious events tumbles a person. Where there was an expectation of a solid step, there was instead a slippery board. Reach to a structure for support, and the arm finds a door or a window instead of a beam. String those together for months and the video is slapstick and a pratfall that will be funny from a distance or in retrospect.

Stress builds and rumbles are audible. Some people think I am hungry, but usually when they hear my stomach it is not from lack of food but from lack of relief. Disappointment, regret, and worry must be sounded out sometime and somehow. If it isn’t through voice, at least for me it is through my gut.

Attempts at a variety of solutions leaves my head with a jumble of thoughts. Would’ve’s, Could’ve’s, Should’ve’s, swirl amongst themselves and through Will’s, Can’s, and Should’s. Failed plans and missed opportunities compete for attention with more plans and possibilities.  There are no probabilities because the success rate in the past has been zero, or not enough; and the success rate in the future is academic. There’s no way to know what bit of hard work, networking, innovation, serendipity, or good luck will finally win through. The possibility of never seeing success again is demoralizing, and makes it difficult to find confidence in any plan.

Bumbling happens, and is one way that people meet serendipity. Traveling without a plan, bumping into whatever appears, may be all that is left. If planning in the past hasn’t succeeded, maybe not planning is the thing to try. If doing the right thing is unsuccessful, maybe doing the wrong thing (in the right way) will succeed (so I’ve been advised.) Pick a general direction and intent, trust the universe, and see what happens along that path. A toe may get stubbed, or an elbow bumped, but a little less grace may allow much freer progress.

This is word play, but it is also a view into the shadowed aspects of many lives. People who just smile and say little because the answer to “How’s it going?” doesn’t fit into polite conversation. I do either depending on the day. Today’s not one of the better days. I missed out on a job that made me eager to say Yes. Many people assured me that I’d get it. Who else would have better qualifications? Evidently, someone.

This post is inspired by my stoic and dismayed friend, but my news for today brings these issues to mind with emotion instead of abstraction. As writers know, writing from the heart is different than writing from the head; so, I let it happen.

Coincidently, the entry level version of my old job at Boeing popped up in today’s job search. I applied. It also popped up last fall, and I applied, and I didn’t get it; but, maybe yet.

Tomorrow is my Social Media For Artists class. (Which is one reason I post this on Friday instead of Saturday.) The class was inspired by the Whidbey Island Open Studio Tour and even requested by a number of the artists on the Tour, but the only people who have signed up are writers from off-island. Drop-ins are welcome. Maybe a dozen people will show up at the last minute. If they do, I’ll try not to fumble the intro. Or mumble. And I’ll humbly thank them for attending. And deliver a hopefully coherent tumble of words, ideas, concepts, and stories. And we’ll see if my stomach rumbles. And we’ll try to keep the cords from becoming a jumble. And somehow we’ll bumble through. Evidently, it is what I do.

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Social Media For Artists

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

What do you do when someone calls you a name? Sometimes it makes sense to wear it. Someone called me a facebooker extraordinaire. Cool. What in the cyber-world is that? I doubt they gave it much thought, but I like it. My twitter following is growing slowly. No one knows what’s happening with Google+. LinkedIn has been intriguing, and has generated some interesting leads. My YouTube channel had some recent rapid success thanks to “Two Guys Walk Around Port Townsend“. My Klout score is 61, not that I really know what that means, but my score is in good company. And this blog continues to gain subscribers, generate more traffic, and extend its reach. Okay, maybe I’m not an expert but evidently I’m getting somewhere. So, thanks to the suggestions of some of the artists from last year’s Whidbey Island Open Studio Tour I’ve decided to teach a class in, “Social Media For Artists.” Hey, that makes me a teacher. That’s a familiar name.

If the social media universe appears overwhelming, then congratulate yourself on excellent perception. Check out this historic graphic, and I mean historic because it must already be out of date. If you want something more entertaining, look at xkcd’s version – and then look at the revision. The first is from 2007. The second is from 2010. They look fun, but they are actually accurate too. The areas represent the size of each community. I can’t find the Facebook patch in the 2007 version, and by 2010 MySpace has possibly vanished. I hope he maintains his three year cycle and updates it next year.

I don’t try to follow it all. I simply feed my accounts on facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and twitter; ignore several other accounts that I was required to join for various temporary endeavours, and avoid diving into the rest until absolutely necessary.

But why do any of it? Scroll back a couple of centuries and ask, “Why go west?” One answer is, “Why not?”, but a more pragmatic answer is, “Because the frontier is inhabited by opportunity.” Americans and immigrants moved to the Western half of North America because where they were was too constrained and crowded. (By the way, about a fifth of my web traffic is international, so please pardon any unfamiliar geographic references; but, hey, everyone’s seen Westerns, right?) They looked for opportunity and freedom. They didn’t expect guarantees. They did expect hardship and hard work. Today’s frontiers are no longer geographic. Today’s frontiers are cultural and electronic.  The types of opportunities, risks, and work are different, but the impetus for artists, entrepreneurs, and businesses remains the same. People use social media to be social; but, the business models of the sites rely on commerce. Something is paying for those “free” sites. People have always mixed business with pleasure. Social gatherings are well known as places for networking and getting the word out. There is no black and white to social media, online or offline. There is a lot of opportunity available for little money and a bit of work.

Facebook, despite its fall from grace within the investment community, is still a $44,000,000,000 corporation. That’s $6 for every person on the planet. Whether I think the valuation is appropriate or not, (I prefer to invest in smaller companies, much smaller companies) FB’s price is one measure of how important social media has become. Another measure is the size of its community. There are over 900,000,000 accounts registered. Even if many of them are fictitious, the remaining ones exceed the population of the United States. One businessman was afraid that something they’d post would get out of control and be plastered across the accounts of tens of millions of strangers. Um, and in business, is that a bad thing?

Social media is appealing to me because it is appealing to a major portion of the population of the planet. For some reason, millions of people want to connect. That’s a good thing. A counselor helped me work through my divorce. I asked him if I was nuts or crazy. He chuckled and said neither. I just had a very thin support network. We all do, at least relative to a stereotypical fifty years ago. He pointed out that once upon a time stereotypically men would hang out in the local bar, or hunt, or fish to smoke, drink, and complain with each other. He pointed out that women stereotypically gathered for card games or afternoon teas and would do the same thing. Today is defined by No Smoking, and Don’t Drink and Drive, and Women in the Workplace, all of which are things to celebrate, but we haven’t replaced the support networks and connections we lost. I think I see a bit of that returning on facebook. Rants and raves are common. People find support.

Just like back in those mythical times, there are now places where we can announce small or large celebrations to friends, family, and acquaintances. Back then announcements went out to everyone within the range of a loud voice. News was limited by geography. Now, announcements may not reach the people next door, but will reach people drawn by similar interests and passions.

I use social media to talk about my art, my business, my volunteer work, my speculations, my observations, and much of my life. I don’t use social media for everything, just like I don’t walk into a crowd at a party and shout out intimate details about my life. There is an etiquette to social media because it is social.

I am glad we are getting together any way we can. Social media is particularly good for opening lines of communication without having to define those lines or pay for them. Posting something to this blog makes my contributions available to those who want them enough to visit my site. It is a pull more than a push. The people who engage are the people who want to engage. I like that a lot more than buying ad time to push a message.

Pull rather than push is why I think social media is good for artists. Artists create art that attracts attention. Artists are natural at creating pull. Social media is a natural tool for artists – if they know how to use it. Unfortunately, social media is created by technologists, not artists. The sites are created by businesses that may have different ideas about intellectual property, security, and privacy. It adds immense complexity to an overwhelming selection of possible sites. That’s why I keep it simple and that’s why I think there’s value in passing along a simple path that I think might work for many people.

Here’s the irony. I am teaching a class about Social Media for Artists and using social media to spread the word. That’s a bit like teaching telegraph operators how to use the telegraph. So, in a very social sense, I ask you to pass along the word to your friends, family, acquaintances, and compatriots who may not be electronically connected. We can enter this frontier one step at a time and follow a trail that already exists.

Here are the details.

Social Media for Artists

The seminar will describe the basics of how to get started – and how, why, and if to connect the various sites.
The workshop will be a working session so bring along your laptop. We can spend the afternoon tweaking sites and jumpstarting each other’s networks.

Social media is powerful, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating. Let’s remove a bit of the mystery.

September 15
Seminar: 9am – noon          Lunch: on your own          Workshop: 1pm – 4pm
Bell House in Freeland (contact me for directions)
Cost: $80

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Long View Advice

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Let’s see how well I follow a friend’s bit of advice. Steve Smolinsky (excellent corporate consultant and accidental chronicler of travel and culture) visited Whidbey for a few days and pointed out that I should give my most prominent projects their own posts instead of lumping them all into one. My life and workday may have them all jumbled together, but maybe my readers would be happy to read deeper. A wise man is he, even if he does try to carry firewood past paranoid TSA screeners. This weekend isn’t nearly as jumbled as the rest because it is the culmination of a five year project. Twelve Months at Double Bluff, a photo essay of Whidbey’s nature premiered last night at Raven Rocks Gallery. An evening of wine and cheese and friends is followed by this post which will be followed by me hanging out at the gallery for the afternoon. Local artist on display. It took me a long time to get here. And that’s true of much of what I do. Art reflects life.

I take on long projects. I take on big projects. Think about it. I bicycled across America and walked across Scotland. (I can hear Steve now. You’re diffusing!) So, when I decided to photograph Whidbey Island I knew it wouldn’t be just a random series of photos. A proper Trimbath project has a structure and a theme while also maintaining fluidity. At least that’s my goal. Eight years ago I started my series of Twelve Month series. I visit a place a few times a month for twelve months in a row. I fell into the habit by running out of inspiration for finding new adventures and found a new type of adventure. Instead of trying to simply see and visit every corner of the world I started to experience and sense specific places. Most guidebooks guide people to a place for a sunny summer Saturday. I witnessed that and also had the contrast of a mellow mid-winter Monday. It is the difference between a one-night stand and a long-term relationship, or so I’ve heard.

One lake didn’t define a mountain range, so I visited three in the Cascades: Barclay on the wet west side, Valhalla at the high and dry divide, and Merritt on the dry east side. Whidbey may be an island, but it is longer than the Cascades are wide. (Books available on amazon.) I knew a proper portrayal would require more places; so, I picked five: Cultus Bay at the southern tip, Admiralty Head at the mid-latitude, Deception Pass at the northern tip, with Double Bluff and Penn Cove nicely filling the gaps. At each place I’ve learned things that weren’t obvious for the first few months. (Patricia Duff wrote a marvelous article describing the project.) I’ve also learned things that weren’t obvious for the first few years. Each place has its own palette. To some extent the geology tints the plants that grow in those soils and the animals that camouflage themselves amongst the plants. The land defines its inhabitants.

Long term projects are somewhat out of fashion in today’s world. I know that I am producing a five year project that has five long chapters broken up into twelve paragraphs each; but, I also know that people viewing (and hopefully buying) my art see individual photos. A few times I’ve been touched by people who grouped images that represented the commonality of a place, whether they knew it or not. A certain corporate coach may point out that creating one thing when people are buying something else may be a bad business model. Maybe. But most art is created for one reason and appreciated for other reasons. The artist’s inspiration does not have to coincide with patrons’ appreciations, though without sufficient monetary compensation the artistic expression necessarily stops. I see the impermanence of our constructions. Someone else sees an appealing pattern that they can’t describe. Unintended consequences permeate the experience.

So why do it? Why document something that hasn’t been documented? The Cascades have plenty of adventurers and the Seattle area has plenty of writers. If none of them have chronicled Washington’s year-long wilderness why should I? Maybe they know something I don’t. Whidbey has so many artists that it has layers of studio tours. None of them consciously compiled their images into year-long treatises. Why should I? Maybe they know that most people only care about one image at a time. I have to agree that the patron most likely to buy many images from a series would be someone enamored with the island and photography, maybe a corporate client that has the wall space and regional identity to accommodate more than an image or two. Fortunately, I understand both worlds, the small house that only has room for one or a few, and the corporate world that needs to create ambiance across an entire wing of a building.

Innovation helps. Just because something hasn’t been done is sometimes the very reason to do it. Inventions wouldn’t exist otherwise. Maybe my Twelve Month format will begin a trend. I’d welcome such a trend. (Innovation is one reason I have some of the images printed on translucent satins. Houses are built with more windows than walls. Sometimes the light is appreciated more than the view and a translucent window hanging is a way to improve the view without losing the light.)

Our lives are scattered and our attention spans are shortened. As Steve and others have pointed out, sixteen projects is a lot of projects for one person. Trust me, I’ll winnow them down when a select few begin paying my bills. Until then, hello Rule of 7. I edit my YouTube videos (tetrimbath) down by a factor of eight or more because I know that I don’t want to watch the tiny screen for too long.

Yet I maintain a long term view whether that is in investing (LTBH), Langley’s Renaissance, our technological advances and cultural shifts, or the planet’s climate. My recent financial turmoil hasn’t significantly changed my opinion of long term investing, though the possible causes of my turmoil have diminished my trust in certain institutions. Current hardships and chaos are examples of pervasive transitions, but they are unsustainable and therefore temporary. Every increase in our awareness of them increases the chance that we’ll positively influence our future.

Increasing our awareness of our situation is a major inspiration for me. I don’t take pretty pictures to sell to people purely for profit. I sell the photos to pay for the photos and my bills: value received for value delivered. My identity is not based on being a photographer or a writer. My passions are people and ideas. My photos and words are ways for me to bring people and ideas together – for people to see the beauty that exists around us every day, not just on the primo opportunities when the lighting is exquisite and the subject is iconic. I rely on my camera, my intuition, and serendipity rather than Photoshop and technical expertise. (Though we can all thank Joe and Nancy at Fine Balance Imaging for removing the dust spots from my photos. I’m not very good at keeping my equipment clean.) I don’t move things. I don’t use a flash. I accept what the world provides and present it without artifice. The world doesn’t need makeup to look amazing.

Personal perspective produces a wider range of impressions than any contrived production. Standing one way over a beached jellyfish creates an image that mimics the universe. Wait a while and find another one that creates its own smile.

Time reveals many aspects and insights.

My exhibit of Twelve Months at Double Bluff is on display (and for sale) at Raven Rocks throughout September. In October will be the first time when all five years of photos will be on display (and for sale) in one physical place at one time. The Whidbey Island Open Studio Tour is October 6th & 7th. And of course, you can always view all of the photos from Whidbey and the Cascades on my online gallery. (Which is where you can even customize your order to the point of making cards or other more convenient art.)

So, Steve, how well did I follow your advice? I may have touched on a few other things a bit, but hey, that’s the way my world works. I mean, I didn’t even mention the consulting or the teaching or my home being for sale or my job search status or the fact that I’m going dancing tonight at the return of Janice Eklund’s Second Saturday dances. And then there’s the work I’m doing with NRM and WCLT and Sandra and and and . . .

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Operators Are Standing By

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Operators are standing by. Two phone numbers. No waiting, at least right now. I have a lot of lines in the water and I’m waiting for action on many of them. Jobs, projects, clients, students, real estate agents, patrons, are all possible reasons behind the next ring of the phone. I’m even waiting for a call from the power company for a free fridge. Let me check – nope, the phone isn’t ringing as I type. Waiting isn’t easy. Anticipation can make a person eager, but my current financial situation makes me anxious. But I also know that one, two, or three of the right phone calls (or emails) could make life much better financially and reduce an immense amount of stress. So I wait.

I suspect everyone in similar situations thinks that they too have waited long enough. Waiting is almost always necessary. Except for precipitous events like the lottery, everything takes time. Job applications must be reviewed, then followed by interviews, then followed by internal and external discussions, and finally arriving at an offer that leads to the first day of work. Then there’s the wait for the first paycheck. When I started at Boeing I had to wait so long that I ran out of money and ate old cinnamon rolls that I stretched out over meals for weeks. It probably wouldn’t have worked except for the massive dose of preservatives that were in store-bought pastries in 1980.

Friends point out that I’ve never really retired despite having reached that goal in 1998. I’ve been working at my business and art ever since, waiting for that success to arrive, first as a backup to my retirement plan, second as the primary way of life since my portfolio succumbed to my Triple Whammy. It has been a very active version of waiting that now means working almost every day (My Rule Of 7).

I haven’t followed the political debates or the conventions, except what I see on Google News, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Much of the debate isn’t really debate. Much of the discussion is merely declaration. Almost all of it describes initiatives that will take years to create an effect in individuals’ lives. My money is running out now. My bills are due now. My health insurance goes up this month. (From last year to this year I am about 2% older but my insurance just went up 10%. I don’t even use it because the deductible is too high.) Waiting for the government’s good news is not an option.

My personal good news is that I have been working all these years. I’ve built a business that provides a lot of opportunities and potential revenue streams. Someone asked me if I built that. It took me a while to realize he was keying off a political commentary. The only person that can take sole credit for building their entire life is someone that was miraculously born without parents and raised themself from whatever they found in the forest or field. Even Romulus and Remus needed help from a wolf.

The waiting is tied to those things that are out of my control. Jobs wait on people who are hiring. Projects wait on collaborators (though I do have a few action items there). Clients call at their convenience, which is appropriate because the focus is on their life and projects. Students can call to register, but really all I can do is wait and welcome them when they show up for the classes (Social Media For Artists – September 15th). Real estate agents will call when they have a buyer. (Home For Sale Alas) Patrons can call to buy my art whenever they are comfortable (but come on by to the premiere of Twelve Months At Double Bluff this Friday at Raven Rocks Gallery).  Maybe I could be more aggressive, but I’m not a hard seller. Every time the phone rings I guess which one it will be. The political pollsters get a short, but polite, response. Friends are definitely welcomed. Life is more important than business, but those pesky bills do swing that balance.

The maddening calls are the ones when I answer and there’s nobody there. Someone from an 877 area code has been calling almost every day, but they don’t respond when I answer the phone. I hope it isn’t the free fridge people. (The local power company replaces fridges for free if the fridge is over 25 years old. I’m waiting for them to call and schedule the delivery.)

As an optimist I know that every moment holds the possibility of the turn to a better life. Even as an investor I know that any moment a press release could be released that announced magnificent news that skyrockets a stock, especially for small companies where I invest. (Come on MVIS. Come on DNDN.) Optimism is one way to hold a head high. One day I had a sore neck and a wise health care provider pointed out it was probably because I’ve been holding my head up for so long through force of will that my neck muscles are tired. I can believe that. But if I don’t keep my head up I may not see opportunity stroll by.

Earlier this week I posted “Operators Are Standing By” as my facebook status. It was an interesting exercise to read the responses. One person even included a reference to my eBay poster sale (Pixar’s Little Green Men). I posted it as an invitation to a friend to call, but it inspired others’ responses and my introspections.

Operators Are Standing By made me realize how much we rely on each other, how much we are intertwined, the ways we move forward by working with each other, and how much time is spent waiting. A business or an organization doesn’t exist without people as advocates, employees, recipients, or customers. Operators Are Standing By is another way of saying communications are welcome. Living isn’t a solo event. A business or community won’t survive if it only includes one person. Goods need to be bought by someone. Services need to be performed for someone. Even buying and selling stocks involves other people selling and buying stocks, even if they are invisible behind the internet.

It’s a gorgeous September mid-morning. Maybe a call will come in, but I can’t put my life on hold while I wait for the ring. I’ve missed my exercises amidst the chaos of the last few days. I think I’ll go for a run to re-invigorate myself before I launch into a few things that need to be done. There are people waiting for me to call them with information and results. Oh, and if you call while I’m out, leave a message. An operator is standing by, thanks to technology.

PS Another wise friend pointed out that I should focus each post on one business venture. That sounds like a good idea; especially, now that I’ve passed along this insight. Let’s see, I have at least 16 projects. Posting two a week means eight weeks of posts just to describe what I’m working on. Where to begin?

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Two Guys Walk Around Langley

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Vacilando, that’s a word most Americans don’t hear every day. It describes traveling for the traveling. And yet, travel right and arrive somewhere fascinating. I’ve had destinations and goals, but traveling through life has been equally fascinating. Where is it going, and what’s going to happen along the way?

I am not conversant in Spanish. I keep forgetting the word for beer. My friend Brian is the one with the vocabulary that includes multi-syllabic elements of Spanish philosophy. He runs a family owned herbal apothecary in downtown Ballard (Dandelion Botanical), but before that he lived on a boat and had a lot more free time. Back then, so did I. Once a month we would take urban walks through Seattle’s neighborhoods just for the sake of discovering the unlikely while talking about how we’d solve the world’s, or at least our own, problems. He called the walks vacilandos. Okay by me. The name isn’t as important as the experience.  I believe him and wrote about them in the early incarnation of this blog (Vacilando). We even produced a manuscript of our travels and observations. Fancy neighborhoods are really owned by the housekeepers and the landscapers. The people doing the work are the ones that enjoy the views and are surrounded by the elegance of the unoccupied second, third or forgotten house. (How many houses do you own?)

It has been years since our last vacilando. Their business is growing and consuming his time. He moved off the boat that was beautifully situated on Lake Union in downtown Seattle. I moved to Whidbey and have been scrambling for the last year to recover from my financial turmoil.

I liked the book idea but in today’s electronic environment I realized that there were other options. Video came to mind. With today’s gas and ferry fees local came to mind. Brian was busy, but another friend was available and interested. Wynn Allen (cohort in Madrona Workshop Troupe, the producer of self-publishing workshops) is also an actor and a neighbor. So, we grabbed my trusty point and shoot, found a nice enough day, and walked around one of our favorite towns: Langley, WA – the Village by the Sea. After a fun day and a lot of newbie mistakes we produced a YouTube video called “Two Guys Walk Around Langley“.  There are other videos out there, many of which are aimed at convincing the wives to take a vacation. We decided the guys needed a slightly different perspective. If it helped, great. If not, well, it was fun and didn’t cost much.

That was months ago. Since then we’ve also made videos of Coupeville and Port Townsend. (Do you want us to come to your town? Give us a call.) We’ll keep doing this even though we don’t know where it will lead.

Here’s one place that it’s led. This morning someone attached this comment to the video.
“You two are just wonderfully informative, thought provoking, and such a gifted duo! Also, crazy! LOL Thanks to you two my husband and I are thinking of moving there! Looks like a lovely place. Hopefully, we can meet you for a helpful tour soon. Thanks for the video.”
Well, shucks. That’s a nice way to start the morning. Give us a call.

My financial turmoil means my destinations and goals have to be flexible or at least include a significant detour. Living a frugal life for a few decades means I am aware of my values and my resources. They are what got me here. Understanding them makes it easier to realize that my situation is a consequence of bad luck and timing rather than a major character flaw. It is too easy to obsessively look for flaws when unemployment and unprofitable ventures have become too common.

I can make videos like this because I know that I have sufficient time, energy, skill, and support to take that first step. Taking the first step makes it easier to take the second step, and to do so with less stumbling. Maybe we’ll get better equipment some day. Maybe someone will pay us to do this on a regular basis. Anything can happen on a vacilando.

Much of my life has been led by intuition. I aimed at a career where I’d work on the next generation space shuttle. The first one launched as I was becoming an aerospace engineer. It was obvious that we’d need something better within my lifetime. I wanted to work on it. Maybe I should have been more explicit. I got to work on it, but we decided not to build it. The work was fascinating, but paper studies don’t colonize space, and careers based on innovative designs can become dead ends if the designs never become products. (2011 My Space Remorse)

In my twenties I never expected to retire before I was forty, yet that happened. I never expected to have almost all of it deflate, yet that has happened. I don’t know what to expect but I do know that, in the words of Douglas Adams,
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

Time ensures that life is lived whether goals or destinations are involved. I maintain dreams of goals and destinations but I also maintain flexibility. That may be particularly valuable in these economic and turbulent times.

Two guys walking around Seattle resulted in two other people considering moving to Langley (as my home is for sale, and so is Wynn’s.) That is probably just one of many consequences. Any action, even small ones (Butterfly Wings), can cause significant detours through magnificent experiences.

What else will transpire from two guys walking around Langley?

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Scattered Routine

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

Routines change. Years of blogging have engrained a Wednesday schedule. That won’t work today. There’s too much going on, and that is good even if it is exhausting. In times like these, when there’s not enough, too much is better than too little. That should change too as I step towards enough.

Wednesdays usually start with breakfast while watching The Daily Show online and checking for jobs. Then the main event was launching into the blog, spreading the news via social media, and getting a run in before lunch. Simple and nice. Today is more complex.

Today includes some eagerly anticipated events that overrule routine. But I had to write something so I did two things.
1) I posted to facebook.
“Busy day ahead. So many things going on that my brain’s aswirl. (Blogging, key interview, collaborations, uninstall art, pick up new art, drive up and down the island – will I have any energy left for dancing at Bayview?) Think I’ll start the day with a cup of tea at South Whidbey Commons. Maybe I’ll see you there.”
2) I decided to start the blog now and chronicle the day. It is an example of what life is like as an entrepreneur presented with opportunities during uncertain financial times.

It begins at home. Breakfast, shower, then catch up on drewslist and jobs while watching The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Sitting at home and trying to time the trip to a job interview would be a constant look at the clock and repeated calculations of how long it will take to get there. Skip that. The interview is in Langley. Langley’s a fine place to hang out, and I need to make a deposit at the bank. (Consultations happen. Yeah!) To the Commons I go! But first pack the car with everything needed for every chore of the day, from resumes to empty portfolios to bags of recycling to to dance shoes to checks and such that need to be deposited.

The car hadn’t moved in days. And yes, there were cobwebs across the windshield again. (Cobwebs In The Car)

Langley is as sweet as ever. Dropping by early made it easy to double-check my interview time. Early is also quiet time in Langley and the time for catching up with friends. Maybe it is because of my blog, or maybe it is a common topic, but before my second sip of tea (Thank you South Whidbey Commons for good tea, nice ambience, and free wi-fi) I’d been in two conversations about money, 401Ks, and fundraising. Whether it is for a charity or an individual, there’s a balancing act to asking for money without sounding desperate or unenthusiastic. “Hi, I’m a vital organization that is really healthy, but we really need your donations because we want to keep the lights on next year too.” They ask more than once because they must, and because they know that most will say no, but probably enough will say yes. That sounds familiar. Let me check my list of collaborations that may eventually bear significant financial fruit. Oh yeah, some of them may, but because they haven’t yet despite months of activity, I am interviewing for a job. Luckily, it’s a job I like and never imagined would become available. Discretion means I won’t say more about it until I can tell you what happened. And yes, you know you’ll hear, or read about it here.

It is easy to imagine someone eagerly anticipating a job because of the paycheck. That’s definitely a major enticement, but there are other incentives. A job brings a new routine and much less uncertainty. When I had a full time job it was so busy that many meetings were “walk and talks” as I traveled between yet more meetings. But there was a focus to the day that was more bounded than my typical day as an entrepreneur. Analyzing data, planning and tracking budgets, drawing up strategic plans, and managing personnel issues were diverse tasks throughout a day; but, they weren’t nearly as diverse as switching between art creation, financial management, web site maintenance, marketing campaigns, organizing workshops, installing wi-fi or projectors, sending out thank-yous, and meeting with a string of collaborators who all have different projects, agendas, timings, requirements for discretion, and personalities. My procedural clutch gets used a lot. The bridge between the left and right sides of my brain gets a lot of traffic.

The Commons demonstrates my point. Sitting there blogging while waiting for the interview I also had tangential conversations about my self-publishing classes (thanks for the referrals) and collaborations in a new art form (Trends In Images).

My tea cup is almost empty. I’ll bus my table and then go for a walk through Langley to see what’s happening. Construction is in progress. The Village By The Sea refreshes itself.

Interview time! Excellent job. Helping a community retain its character while invigorating its economy is something too few small towns have managed. It is a treat to contribute to small town life. The interview was like going on a first date with nine people though.

But, hey, there’s time to catch my breath afterwards, right? Nope. My next meeting was in the neighboring restaurant and my collaborator was early. The good news was that we’re making progress and interest remains high. The bad news was that his funding source is in hiatus as it answers questions posed by the SEC. Oops. Well, it was a nice time and day for lunch.

Well, there’ll be time to catch my breath before the next meeting. Oops, hold it. There’s a message via facebook chat. Give me ten minutes, okay? Yes! Her various collaborations are stacking up too.

Almost an hour later and we’ve managed to sketch out some very appealing possibilities that don’t require drastic funding or dramatic machinations. The nice thing is that they fit in around the part time job I hope to get.

So here it is, a marvelous sunny summer day, I’m in long pants, and it is time to jump in the car to pick up my art. This might get sweaty. Minimal collaborations for a while but a fair amount of driving involved. Just to keep it interesting, one of my collaborators wants to include one of the people printing my photos. Is this a web or a network, or both? Add something to the day’s to-do list.

Oh wait a minute or five. I don’t have to jump up. Sit inside the library with its free wi-fi and air conditioning. Relax.

Okay folks, thanks for staying with today’s whirlwind tour of my life. Here we go again.

Welcome to Fine Balance Imaging, the printers of my photos, and the repository of photographic and graphic illustration knowledge; which is why one of my collaborators wants to hire them to help teach a weekend intensive workshop. Stay tuned because Joe said yes. Prints are in the car. (They are translucent satins that work well in windows and are archival quality.) The workshop emails will percolate out later. More emails will be launched as follow ups for the interview. But now, it is time to jump in the car and drive an hour to take down art that didn’t sell. So it goes.

It goes and I went. I went up to the other end of the island to retrieve photos that received months of compliments and no sales. Thanks to Karen at Wind and Tide for trying. We spent less time talking about the art than we did with trying to figure out the economy. We didn’t make much sense of it either; but, we did wonder whether it, and our sales, were being held hostage by the political gamers.

At least the ride to Oak Harbor gave me the excuse to drop in on Gerry Oak Gallery, a place I’ve heard about but never visited. It is a nice collection of talent and diversity. Maybe someday my art and I will be there.

Almost all of the driving is over. I’m at the dance, typing these few words while sitting in the car. The music has started but many of the dancers aren’t here yet. I’m going to sit here, try to catch my breath yet again, and then do something that isn’t networking or business. There’s got to be life in life.

Just past 8:30 and home again. And continuing to play out different answers to the questions asked during the interview. Did I tell them how I’d stick with the job? I only apply if I think I can see it through. Ah, but would that attempt at keeping it light be mis-interpreted? Like I said above, it’s just like any first date. What could I have done different? How long before they call? Will they call?

The car’s unpacked. The groceries are in the fridge. The art is back in my studio/office/spare bedroom. I’m still wearing long pants, which is a rare thing (unless I have a job or interview of course.) It’s time to unwind and herd the bits of my day into their respective cubbyholes. There are even photos of the dance to upload. I didn’t dance enough.

The day had no routine, and while this one was longer than most, its random nature is very familiar. Why would I want a job? In addition to what it says on my resume “A satisfying job that helps make the world a better place.“, and paying my bills, there is an anticipation of a routine. Even the most chaotic job I’ve had at least had boundaries that contained the chaos. Everything accomplished was directed towards a common goal, and that the effort was be positively reinforced with a variety of compensations beyond a paycheck. The life of an entrepreneur has no such assurances. There are always great potentials and opportunities, and they may be realized, but much of that life is based on hope and influenced heavily by luck. A job with irregular hours that can “take over a life” actually sounds more restful than a day like today. Stay tuned and see what happens to my routine.

PS As I typed this just before 9pm, the phone rang with a call from another collaborator wanting to schedule a meeting. Sure. At least as far as I can tell, I’ve got time, but my routine may change.

PPS A note about blogging versus twitter. Yes, I could’ve done this all on twitter, but sometimes a story shouldn’t be fragmented. The whole tells a different tale.

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My Jobs Report Month 12

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Tom Trimbath

I’m still unemployed. That’s not quite right because I’ve employed myself. I still haven’t found a job, except clients are signing up more frequently and I give myself a list of jobs everyday. I haven’t staunched the money flow, and that’s true; and I have the dwindling net worth to prove it. And yet I have hope.

Twelve months ago I began applying for jobs. I’ve been looking for over a year. Early in 2011 one of my largest holdings began a long slide. AMSC dropped 80%. I had a portfolio that I hoped was diversified and the companies were progressing, but the stocks were not except for AMSC and DNDN. As AMSC got bad news and fell I began talking about getting a job but didn’t do much about it. If a sweet job delivered itself I probably would’ve said yes, but I waited on DNDN.

Dendreon’s prostate cancer vaccine, Provenge, was approved by the FDA, was beginning to treat patients, and seemed to work better than expected. There were rumblings about the treatment’s acceptance because of reimbursement issues, but fundamentally the technology was sound and they would meet an unmet need. DNDN was trading at about $44, somewhat above its price from right after the approval but before they’d made any money. By August of 2011 they were on track to make hundreds of millions a year. At that rate DNDN could easily see a 20% or 40% rise within a few months. That exceeded my yearly credit card rate so I lived in optimism with a hint of caution and told myself to not fall into fear. The August earnings report could raise the price enough that selling a few hundred shares would clear my credit card debt and provide me with decades of frugal living expenses.

Dendreon made hundreds of millions, but only 80% of what the financial community expected. They missed earnings by 20%. The stock dropped 80%. (Triple Whammy) With AMSC down, DNDN down, and the others not rising to replace them (Hey MVIS, any time now) I had to scramble. (Tactical Scrambling) By the end of August I was sending out resumes regularly knowing that it might take months to find a job. But hey, even 20% of my original portfolio value gave me about a two year cushion. If I found a good job within three months things would be alright, or at least right enough. DNDN dropped another 50%. My cushion isn’t very cushy, and twelve months of using it to pay bills has left it very thin. I never expected the job search to take this long or for the stocks to remain depressed even as the companies grow their revenues by 60% a year. My credit card debt has swelled.

There is some good news. Prior to my last report (My Jobs Report Month 11) I’d only had two interviews. Both were for part-time jobs. One would only give me the job if I gave up applying for a full time job. The other was more accommodating, and I think I made the short list, but not the shortest list. The day I posted that report I received two calls for interviews. Two days later I heard good news from another application. Since then I’ve heard from another job or two. I even have an interview for a sweet job next week. Only one of the interviews was for a full time job. Fortunately, I live a frugal life and a part time job can go a long way. My next interview is for a job that pays enough to either make the mortgage payment or everything else. Any extra money will go to buying the luxury of paying down credit card debt.

People are finding jobs. Every job that I apply for and don’t get is probably another person moving out of unemployment because even if they were employed their departure opened another job. Eventually someone gets to pay the bills again. I will celebrate that, even if it isn’t me.

As I’ve written before, one of the aspects of this blog is to point out the reality behind the statistics. If I get a job, especially a sweet one, I will celebrate; but jobs aren’t equal. Most of the jobs I’ve heard back from are part time. Many of the jobs I apply for barely pay more than I made for pushing a broom in a steel mill outside Pittsburgh in 1977. I believe we’ve had a bit of inflation between 1977 and 2012. A part time job that pays half my bills would be a blessing, but I’ll have to continue searching for another equally large source of funds. People may have lost a job during the Great Recession, but they may have to gain back two or three to recover their finances. An unemployed aerospace engineer may get a job with the ferry system but he has to take a 50% hourly cut and only get 50% of full time hours. That 25% of his old salary may be a living wage, but it doesn’t allow nearly as much for savings, emergencies, or simple things like replacing old cars.

I am fortunate. My frugality means a reasonable part time job dramatically improves my situation. I am also aware of the value of a pleasant work environment. That steel mill job paid well because it was dangerous. Office environments can be toxic even if they keep the air clean. My portfolio is significantly reduced. Almost all of my DNDN is gone. But I continue to hold many shares of a half dozen other companies that are making progress despite low share prices. If someone buys my home for the asking price I can quickly become debt-free and have about a year’s living expenses too. My financial scenarios are definitely mixed.

My business is getting busier. I can’t remember the last time I took a day off. (My Rule Of 7) Income isn’t coming out of it yet, but some should be available after this big push for my next exhibit. (The premiere of Twelve Months at Double Bluff will be hosted by Raven Rocks Gallery in September. It is the culmination of a five year project photographing the overlooked everyday nature of Whidbey Island.)  The shows at Raven Rocks and the subsequent Whidbey Island Open Studio Tour are major events in my art business calendar. (You can also see and buy via the online galleries too.) I’m definitely heartened by the increasing number of people that are hiring me as a consultant or paying me as an instructor or speaker. My business is a healthy way to make money and have a positive impact on the world. It fits in nicely with a part time job. Others aren’t so fortunate enough to have years of effort behind their sudden need for finding income.

I take less for granted than I did before. Words of encouragement are nice. Connections have been appreciated. Incidental supplies like a bit of lumber to repair a deck, or some potting soil for some vigorous plants, even having dinner at my house instead of asking me to drive and dine out are all worth more than they may seem. I’m still learning to get comfortable accepting money for non-art and non-consulting things, but I do appreciate the help.

There are still days when I lay my head on the desk as I try to figure out how to pay bills. Mondays near the end of the month are the worst. But paydays, whether from sweet jobs in my community, enjoyable consulting jobs, passive sales of books and photos, and maybe even a recovered portfolio may finally arrive and add up to be enough for now, and then to build back to enough for a future.

Stay tuned.
Oh yeah, and I’m continuing the Find A Friend A Job category. Feel free to nominate yourself for an interview. Here’s Jennifer Hopper’s.

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