May The Force Be With Us...Dark Nebula Faces Its Future

I will be on a remote star at the southern border line of our galaxy on Tuesday when the Evil Empire strikes at our headquarters in the northern part of the galaxy. None of us know what weapons they bring, nor what their intent is. None of the attackers are members of the Guild of Educator Knights however, so right away there is the very high risk that we shall be executed on the guillotine of "business value added". The battle is set to begin at 10 a.m., and to last at least until noon. I must remain at the southern most tip of our galaxy until late Thursday evening, and I don't know if I shall return to only smoking ruins, or if by some grace of the force we shall be preserved. May the force be with us.

IRS Day...Doin' The Tax Boogie...

All day on taxes today. Grouchy. Irritable. Oh well *:-)

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

Finally home after 5 days on the road. Eyes hurt, headache, but got very good results and was able to drive safely and not hurt my back moving all the heavy equipment. The company I work for is going through hard times right now and during a discussion today via mobile phone with my boss he gave me a heart felt accolade for keeping my end of the game in play and for doing the best I can. I have a good boss, which is very helpful.

Tomorrow is "get the income taxes done or else" day.

Watched a good movie with my wife tonight, which even had a cute dog in it, which my wife loves *:-)

Nighty night.

Dark Nebula Cornered, Makes Decision

With time running out until the document that outlines the "final solution" for what previously was a service organization delivering preparatory learning to underserved populations, & with me delivering a public workshop on Monday, a decision had to be forced on what the proper words to say are on Monday regarding an offering that might or might not have been made available with the "final solution". My boss had to raise a ruckus, in tandem with an influential colleague, to force the unindicted co-conspirator, now the Interim Acting Executive Director to finally say, yes, you are right, we aren't going to be offering it. My boss required that the IAED notify the Big Biggies of a parallel organization of that fact. This was a big deal today, & consumed quite a bit of management energy. Now I know what to put on the PowerPoint slides *:-)

Dark Nubula Bosses A Mixed Bag Of Limp & Perky

The dumber the boss, the more perky they are, seemingly oblivious to the unavoidable permutations of what the Super Big Biggies have in mind. Oh well, I'm tired of talking about it. Let it be.

I shall be traveling North, then South next week, and then Way South the week after that, right onto the International border of the USA. Last time I was through there lots of machine gun toting Border Patrol were moving around, setting up camps, and also stopping and searching all traffic in some cases. I am not well enough informed to know if that is necessary or not, so no comment.

I am getting a chance to play a 49er Gold Rush era prospector next week, in front of some tough audiences. I got some perfect boots today, and my wife is helping a lot by getting other stuff together, and I believe it will look good. I had planned to play an Arabic Algebra scholar, but a white guy in a turban and full Arab style dress probably isn't a very good idea given the cultural populations in some of the areas I travel in. We'll just stay nice and white and look the part that we actually had in the 49er period. Better safe than sorry.

Dark Nebula Management Called To Corporate HQ

A sudden call for all Director-Level staff members to report to Corporate HQ for a sit-down meeting with the Super Big Biggies happened at the end of the day yesterday, and the Directors must be in the Corporate HQ at 1 p.m. today. They need to travel nearly 100 miles to get there, so it must be important, and it affects us all. Two of the Directors will have needed to fly to get there.

I will keep my antennae attuned for any detectable changes in the energy patterns around my employment situation when I next see those who attended the meeting.

A "vortex of not-knowing" is where the rest of us are left. Oh well, the Tibetans tells us that the death process takes quite a while, and that all sorts of weird images and weird sounds happen on the journey, so I am helping that along by listening to lots of didgeridoo sounds and watching old Charlie Chaplin movies *:-) I also occaisionally sing-along with children's educational tunes, just to keep the mix balanced. Seems weird to me.

Dark Nebula Recommends Death By Strangulation & Dismemberment

Wow. My eyes are open. There definitely will be layoffs. Change happens. Today I printed out the "Stages of Grief" for myself, and shared them with a couple colleagues. I am practicing compassion for myself & others by reading over the stages regularly, and checking in with myself to find out where I am, and then also checking where others are so I don't press the wrong buttons. Apparently our death will be slow, like strangulation, and then parts of us will be "sorted" and sent on either for rendering or repair/reuse.

I am still approved to spend the next several months traveling the state providing training and course enrollments to faculty who will be using our products to serve the underserved over the summer. I feel greatful to be part of this effort, and I appreciate Mother Lakshmi providing some income through my effort also *:-)

As a friend of mine says: More Will Be Revealed

Aggression, Denial, Resistance, Posturing & Child Abuse

Yuck, what an unpleasant work place at the moment. I am one of the lucky ones, because the statewide project that I am a part of got approved to go forward, so I am back on my horse starting Sunday, and am traveling to deliver trainings to faculty who will teach the underserved populations of high school students in this state who would like a chance to enter the University of Blueberry Syrup.

I have chosen the theme "The Gold Rush" as the thread running through all my trainings, because the particular subject I am training the faculty on has been widely identified as the "Gold" level curriculum item on the way to entry into college. I am madly building the trainings because the client moved the dates up, and also doubled up on training sites, which means I have several 12-hour drives ahead of me. No complaints here, because at least for the moment, I am employed *:-)

Our granddaughter was inadvertently abused by the pediatric facility nursing staff that her parents chose for her to get her shots from, and we are disappointed, angry, and wanting her parents to take the appropriate action to protect her medical history in case something results from the abuse (double dosages of immunizations). We have recommend several courses of action, one of which includes getting copies of the medical records and then calling Dr. Dean Edell on the air to ask if our granddaughter will suffer any long term effects of the abuse. We don't know what will happen, and we give a great deal of praise to our granddaughter's mom (our daughter in law) who caught the error and is doing a great job of child raising. We'll wait and see what develops.

Walking In The Redwoods, Bringing In Supplies

My wife & I were able to get away for a bit for a nice walk in the Redwoods *:-) We also had to spend quite a bit of time, and quite a bit of $$, to purchase the ingredients for the special meal that my wife shall prepare this week for the celebration dinner at our house for our daughter's birthday. It was a special request from our daughter, & we are happy to do it, and that means we will almost surely be able to have our granddaughter captive in our home for a little while *:-)

Dark Nebula Active On Weekend Too

30-minute spontaneous mobile phone conversation with a colleague who is not located in the HQ of Dark Nebula, as I am, was fruitful and helped to spread more information among and between colleagues who have been kept pretty much in the dark. Some of us have discovered that the Big Biggies became irate when they found out about the spontaneous meeting that was held on Thursday, a day before they came to "visit". Tienamen square comes to mind, because one of the outgoing managers was very courageous and loving to hold the Thursday meeting without approval. We all thought the meeting was approved, because the Acting Interim Executive Director showed up. It was not approved, and the Big Biggies are furious because their tanks were getting fueled and all set to roll over us on April 1st. My guess is that now that so much more information has been surfaced, and some of it published, that the Big Biggies will retrench and not meet the April 1st date, or will issue only a very watered-down version of what the future will hold.

Dark Nebula Hosting Big Biggies From The Dark Side

Probably just circumstantial, but it seems that the big biggies who come from the Dark Side to visit and preach to Dark Nebula staff are all white folks *:-) Hmmm, might be a good Podcast subject if they terminate me *:-) They are back again today, although I won't see them because I am hiding in my home office because today is a telecommute day for me.

A second level Manager from Dark Nebula stepped out from the shadows very early this morning and delivered 3 solid and serious blows, 3 each, to several of the Big Biggies from the Dark Side, and also some Dark Nebula managers who are protecting the Big Biggies. Very brave, very effective, very appropriate, and it will slow the "bulldozing (her words)" of the core values of Dark Nebula a little. We don't know if it will force a reconsideration of the planned gutting of the founding mission of Dark Nebula, as is currently planned. She is a true warrior, and does not want to see Dark Nebula die too easily, if at all.

My wife is far away today, learning fibrous skills that will deepen her ability to get her message out into the world through fibers. There is no mobile phone service where she is so that increases the perception of distance, and I think good thoughts for her to bring her back safely. She is upset because while transporting her loom to the workshop, one of the bungie cords broke and the loom shifted fairly violently in the back of the pickup, and although the loom itself is not damaged, a piece did go missing, but she did not notice it until the workshop began and so she is upset. I am hopeful that a replacement piece (it is an accessory tray) can be purchased for her.

Dark Nebula Needs Professional Help

Today I emailed to my boss a formal request for professional crisis intervention in our workplace. The emotional disturbance by the poorly handled double-stress hit is reaching dangerous levels and I am concerned for my own physical and emotional safety and the safety of my colleagues. I hear through the grapevine that one of the senior managers also asked for professional intervention, but her request was ignored. I know that management is forced to respond to a request from a non-management employee because of the threat of a lawsuit if I were to become injured after having made a request that was ignored. I heard later today that immediate action was taken and that some sort of intervention is being planned.

I am happy to hear that my granddaughter looks cute in the bib-style overalls that my wife got for her *:-) Our granddaughter is a sweetie and separation from her is painful, even though I don't get much time with her anyway. She gets to go to the snow with her mom and dad this weekend, and I hope they have fun *:-)

Didg! Didg! Smoothed My Brain *:-)

More like 5 hours of didgeridoo sound today. My body and brain are sucking it up as though starved. The atmosphere and environment in my workplace is very poisonous today. Much fear, doubt, posturing, slithering, resenting, avoiding, and anger. That stuff isn't mine, but it filled me up today. I am greatful for the didg sounds that have balanced and cleansed me from a lot of the poison. Change. Change. Change. Let me change easily into whatever form I need to change into to remain myself while being submerged in this river of emotion in the work place. I see myself in other fathers at work, who still have little kids at home and will do anything to protect them. They fight, sneak, and use every weapon they have to stay employed, and I did the same thing, so no complaining from me. I am them and they will be me *:-)

Very productive today, while plugged into the didg-blast from the iPod which helped me stay focused.

I am interested to see how my excess weight will leave me. I was going to one of my "all out" programs to forceably get it off, but that does not seem right at this time. Don't know what will happen. I will stay tuned.

Ten Thousand Pounds Of Depression

No worries, it is lifting now, after listening to 2 hours of digeridoo sounds and after morning meditation. I am sensitive, which means I pick up the vibes that are around me, and in my workplace right now it is a heavy dose of depression. I have learned that it doesn't belong to me though, and even though I am feeling it, it isn't mine and won't kill me *:-)

I wonder if I can learn circular breathing? I think so, because I used to play the trumpet well, and was almost ready to do it then. I want to participate in music and dance with my granddaughter, and so I am slowly infiltrating her house with gifts such as drums and tambourines *:-) Maybe if I show up someday and sit down and just begin playing the didgeridoo she'll get into it and begin her little dance that she does, and maybe she will bang on the drum. That would be cool, IMHO *:-)

Negra Modelo For Lunch...Nap Time

My work group got together for lunch today at a Mexican restaurant, and I had my usual Mexican restaurant meal of chips, guacamole & Negra Modelo *:-) I am feeling very mello at the moment and really had to work hard this afternoon to stay productive. I did plenty of work, so no worries there, but maybe I shouldn't have beer for lunch *:-(

I remember when I got my first real, and quite tough, job and it was as a structural steel draftsman in Ohio. Every lunch the old timers and I would go to the chili bowl eatery and most of the old timers would have a beer with their chili and soda crackers. I tried it a couple times but didn't like how I felt afterward, and had a real hard time in the afternoons concentrating on getting all the calculations done for the bearing loads on the beams I was spec'ing out. I remember I made one bad mistake and did not run the bearing plate out far enough on the end of the v-beam, and the contractor, when he was building the building, noticed it and the company I worked for got a big back charge, which I had to pay half of. Oops. Sorry.

Not A Fast 19 Hours, But A 19 Hour Fast

Ooo. I am grouchy and barky. Today was complete medical physical day, and I started fasting at 8pm last evening and ended up not being able to eat until 3 pm today. Also, I had a hand up my ass, and a person was playing with my genitals as well. Blood, lots of blood was taken, and I had minor surgery, complete with the old-fashioned hot iron cauterizing my flesh, causing the smoke and stench to rise above the operating table. However, it is predicted that I will live at least a little longer, and in some areas I am doing very well. Gee, only 30# overweight. Gee, only slightly slouched in my posture. Gee, I only need to make sure I exercise EVERY DAY with at least 10,000 steps taken during my work out. Good thing my wife and I already got the Nike & iPod thing going to record our walking workouts *:-)

Ok, if I am going to live longer, then I had better get some rest *:-)

EduChunk, EDUCHUNK, & educhunk [(c) 2007] Are Mine, All Mine!

Excellent. EduChunk (c) 2007 is not found anywhere on Google, or Dictionary.com, or Yahoo, or in any reference documents, or anywhere on the web *:-) Also, EDUCHUNK (c) 2007 is not found & I claim that too. Also, educhunk (c) 2007 is not found & I claim that too. I hereby claim them as mine, and I will use it in perpetuity and it is the sole property of me, and "me" is the blogger writing this blog at http://ourautumn.blogspot.com, and the user/owner of the gmail account that is linked to this blog. So There *:-)

Giving birth ain't easy *:-)

Dark Nebula Gets Bytten

The Big Biggie made it perfectly clear in his presentation that he wants obvious and easy to see change in the organization, so his bosses will be assured that he did a good job in cleaning up the "mess" made by the Former Executive Director. He defined which departments were "going away", and which would be "leaned", and also left some unaddressed until further study.

He made it very clear that the organization is NOT a service organization any more, but is now to be a Repository of compelling content that is easily delivered to anyone who wants to use it, and for free! Obviously, the headcount won't be as high as it is now, and also obviously, no new hiring will be happening. Also, the limits to what sort of content should be available have not fully been defined, but will still need to serve the ultimate goals of the University of Blueberry Syrup, and the taxpayers, who are paying for all this.

In addition, he demands that all content be formed into byte size pieces, so that users can quickly grab only the morsel they are specifically looking for, kind of like rats sneaking from the walls, grabbing pieces of excellent cheese from a fine French kitchen, then scampering off to their holes without paying, and consuming the tidbits there *:-) I've been doing that on the web for years, so no surprises there, but what tidbits to put in the kitchen? I have decided to call each tidbit that I will be creating an EduChunk (c) 2007, and will check to make sure nobody else is using that, then I will copyright it *:-)

Have Fun *:-)

Dark Nebula Hears Voices From The Future

One of the Big Biggies came to town today and spent 60 minutes providing a still vague outline of what we will be doing as an organization in the future. A firm promise was made to provide a very clear and written description of the strategic plan to all of us on April 1st. We shall see. I was not disappointed with the words that were machine-gunned at us, and I have no problem following the predicted return to core values and mission from which the organization had strayed far and wide under the captaincy of the Former Executive Director, who is now out on bail. What fun *:-)

Dark Nebula Gets Too Much Sun

Now that I have stopped ROFL, and the guffaws and snickers of my co-workers are no longer able to be heard outside their cubicles, I can tell the tale of too much sun.

One of our Directors was charged with the responsibility to create the PR spin paragraphs that would be issued to all of us as the official words that we are allowed to say when queried about our Former Executive Director, who is charged with evading arrest and embezzlement, and after many long hours of working with legal counsel and the Directors upline management, the Director had the final document ready to issue, which was based on mark-ups and changes that had been emailed to him from the legal eagles and his management. OK, then, ready to go. Not.

We received the covering email that said the attached documents were ok to use as the basis for our spoken responses, and also that if pressed, we could just email the spun FAQs directly. Ooops. I was one of the first to open the email, and when I clicked on the attachment, I noticed that a comment balloon opened up with a name as the author of the comment that I had never heard of. The contents of the balloon were not visible to me yet, because I had not taken the time to roll over the comment with the mouse. I emailed the Director and asked "Who is ______"?, filling in the name that I saw. The Director wrote back that that person is a member of the senior management team that reviewed the document prior to issue. Ok then, no worries, thought I. I printed the attachment out so I could have it to review while driving home, and guess what happened?

ALL the edits and comments, complete with balloons and authorship, were showing and in plain sight to everyone who received the attachments, which was the entire organization, including remote offices, etc. Ooops. I casually walked over to the Director's office, knocked, and asked if I could show him what I had found, which he might want to know. He said sure, to come in, because he was relaxing just a bit because it was the end of the day, he had just gotten his last big task completed (sending out the PR spin email), and he was leaving for Hawaii for two weeks the next morning. Uh oh. Maybe my timing was not favorable. Too late, I was already in the office. I showed him the printed attachment pages, which showed all the comments, some of which were of the nature "...maybe we are telling too much here. Let's cut some of that out", which of course a reporter would love to dig deeper into. He took the pages, read them, paused, and then, without raising his head but definitely raising his voice to a level that everyone in the office heard, shouted

"GOD DAMN IT!"

Have a nice vacation *:-)

Dark Nebula Entering Wierdness Asteroid Belt

Today, and yesterday, an energy flux of wierdness passed through Dark Nebula, affecting all humans. All of us became work-disabled and could not bring ourselves to work hard at accomplishing anything that might have long term impact. A floating, disconnected feeling, as though reality was yet to be defined. I chose to try to define my own reality, and hence could move a few things around and get a few things on their way to completion, but not much and not many. A few minutes from now, a quickly scheduled staff meeting will occur, of which we know nothing of the contents, nor the impact. I have chosen lots of dance and trance mixes to listen to, and my favorite one right now is U.F.O. Phenomena, which includes some of the actual verbal exchanges between Mission Control and the Eagle on the first flight to the moon. Exchanges, which BTW, were spoken using headsets manufactured by the company I worked for before the position I have now, and a model of which I have held in my hand. Cool. Wierd. Nebulous.

Late last evening I got a call from a former employee, who had a close relationship with the Former Executive Director, and this person wanted a favor. The Boss Man of the Former Executive Director (the Boss Man now lives in a different state, and has a very high position) wanted to use a backdoor to get some samples of the products we offer, and so tried to use this person to contact me directly, because this person knows I can make things happen. I was shaken by this experience, and did not quite know how to handle it given all the investigations going on, and the instability, but on the drive home from work, and after talking to my wife about it, I realized that this was something I needed to uplevel to the Directors. I did that using webmail (I had not taken my laptops home with me because I was tired), and immediately felt better. Boy, was that ever the right thing to do! The Directors met on the issue this morning, and contacted the person trying to use the backdoor on behalf of the Boss Man of the Former Executive Director and the person was informed that the demand would not be met and that one of the Directors was to be involved in all communications regarding this relationship. The person trying to access the backdoor called me later, and again asked me to just enable him to have internet access to one of the products, and I asked him "Don't you read the newspapers?" "Are you aware that we can't do anything here now without getting approval from a Director?" He said yeah, he understood, but felt that his request was simple enough that it would be ok. I told him I would take his simple request to the Director, and get a response. How do you spell c-o-r-r-u-p-t-i-o-n ? Have Fun *:-)

Dark Nebula Experiences Slight Refreshing Breeze

Last Thursday's meeting with the Big Biggie and the follow up meeting with local talent has turned out to result in improved morale and attitude, at least for the moment. Although some of the Directors felt that some of the employee commentary during the second meeting was "rude", with me being a primary target of being identified as "rude", I believe any perceived assault on the impervious dignity of the Directors is all in their minds only, because 100% of the employees have confirmed that the meeting resulted in a reduction of work-place tension, and that the session was badly needed by those of us who work for a living by producing "things". It has become very clear, through various subsequent-to-the-meeting emails from some of the Directors that several of them still don't have a clue, and also that some of them have decided to take all comments as being personally directed at them, which of course is an immature management tactic and implies lack of management experience.

True fear and concern do exist however, because we all know that some of us won't be here when the final curtain is drawn to reveal the "new and improved" organization formerly known as "home of the embezzler". Have Fun *:-)

Return To Dark Nebula

My current position as a teacher at the University of Blueberry Syrup is very enjoyable to me, and I believe I can contribute there for many years to come. It is unfortunate, but true, that current events beyond my direct control have exposed the corner of the employment universe I currently call my home to scandal, arrests, illegal acts, and the presence of the usual spin doctors covering the explosion with as many blankets as they can.

I am calling my work place "Dark Nebula" for now, because that is how I feel when I enter it. A dark globule of dust and non-luminous gas, which obscures the light coming from behind. I shall continue to work to see and follow the light *:-)

Tomorrow brings a return to Dark Nebula. May the force be with me.

Meeting, + Meeting, + Discussion Meeting

First meeting: Big Biggie and his assistant arrive on time. Second Big Biggie doesn't show up, but nobody seems to care *:-) Big Biggie is professional, open, honest, and does a good job of bringing all of us closer to an understanding of what is going to happen to our organization. He takes questions and is able to answer all of them satisfactorily except those that have to do with specific configurations of the organization, which have not yet been signed off on by the Super Big Biggies and the legislature. I make a brief verbal preso in the form of a question outlining the need for those of us who are professionals and need to get on with our careers needing to know the number of days, weeks, or months before our new direction is known, so that we can either get off this train and get on another, or stay on this train as it pulls out of the station for a new journey. He gives a very precise date in the near future and promises us a bright, shiny, new & beautiful train to ride *:-)

Second meeting: Big Biggie and assistant leave. We are left alone with our own management and the professional facilitator. Required question asking is attempted, by sending the management out of the room and the choice to us is either to write our questions on sticky pages, which will then be read by the facilitator to management when they return, or to wait for management to return and to ask our questions verbally. I do neither, realizing that the un-indicted co-conspirator cannot be trusted and therefore I keep my questions to myself. However, after having broken up into 3 groups later, and again without management input until we reconvene, we are given 3 impact issues that we are to develop responses to about how they have affected us in view of the recent event of our CEO being jailed for embezzlement. A group speaker is chosen for each group to provide anonymity, and so I participate fully. Once reconvened, this generated substantial discussion and presentation, with management present, and at one point someone in the audience asks our group speaker for specifics on one of the impact statements, which happened to be one that I contributed. Our group speaker states that these are anonymous inputs but that if the person who generated the input chooses to expand and clarify on the topic, that is fine. I take the bait, and deliver an impassioned speech detailing the impact on our client base that the removal of our CEO has had, and this gets both nodding and verbal agreement from those who actually speak to our customers at levels below management. When I sit down the person next to me said it was a brilliant speech *:-) I was so full of emotion that I cannot, then or now, recall anything that I said *:-) This meeting went much longer than planned, and we were all exhausted after it ended.

Discussion Meeting: This is interesting. We have a person who, with his young family, is a refugee from the Katrina disaster, where he had a job as a programmer for a small company. He is a white middle-American from Iowa, with the normal baggage that brings with it. He prides himself on his self-perceived ability to be "in the know" about everything that goes on where we work, but in reality he just isn't in the loop to catch the haps. So...after the Second Meeting, he steps into my cube and asks if we can go somewhere to talk so he can get clarity on some of the things I said during the two meetings, and which others gave nodding or spoken agreement with. I said sure and off we went to my training room, where we closed the door and sat for very nearly a complete hour, while he grilled me on details and looked for holes in anything I had said. He didn't find any, and when our meeting ended, which was prompted by another employee wanting to meet with me privately for about the same thing, he said that he was astounded by how much he hadn't picked up on, and left shaking his head in amazement at what goes on around him that he doesn't pick up on. He also was greatful for the additional clarity.

Onward, into the unknown...

Un-Indicted Co-Conspirator Still In Charge

Funny how sometimes the most guilty parties dress up the most, flair their speech the most, move about the most quickly, and also are the most suspicious of everyone else...I have been a guilty party myself, which is how I can so easily recognize the behaviors *:-)

Anyway, several Big Biggies have just arrived to hold a series of "emotional disturbance containment" meetings with any employee brave enough to admit that we are all pretty devastated by the arrest of our former CEO on embezzlement charges, and that the Big Biggies have left an un-indicted co-conspirator in charge of the operation. How much openness do they think that will engender? Answer: Only those who are blind, deaf and dumb to reality will fall into that trap.

We don't know what the future divisional configuration will be, but our spies have told us that 6 different scenarios are in the final running. I shall follow the wise advice given to me long ago, which I followed successfully in my previous position, which I held for 25 years, which is:

"DON'T QUIT, AND WHEN THEY LET YOU GO, DON'T CRY"

...works for me *:-)