“Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.” Those are the wise words of Mr. Lennon and Mr. McCartney from All You Need Is Love, and its true: I must be right where I’m supposed to be. I’ve not been particularly enjoying this involuntary vacation, but I’m trying to make the most of it. Its not where I would’ve chosen to be but here I am. Imagine if life was always exactly what you expected it to be. Why bother living it?

Maybe I needed some adventure. I thought I had some adventure. Did I need more? I’ve said it would be tough to top my last job and that’s proving to be true.

Damn it. Sometimes I hate being right.

I spent this morning mowing the lawn, as I wasn’t available to do it this past weekend and won’t do it this weekend, either. Then I surveyed the garage and sorted through all the stuff in it. Then it was lunch with my former coworker, Matt. So many projects I’ve been putting off due to work commitments. Though I allegedly have time now, I still can’t get them all done. One’s tasks will expand to fit one’s available time.

Saturday will be one month unemployed. I felt confident the first week or two and had my confidence slowly lag until …well, today. Today I felt inspired. I’m going to find that awesome job or else I’ll create it for myself.

I’m so very happy for a rainy weekend (even moreso that Kelly had the foresight to schedule Hallie’s birthday party indoors). Droughts make me worried. I think I’d rather have a hurricane or two than to deal with droughts.

I came up with a witty post Friday but didn’t get a chance to post it. I was going to hold the city hostage, threatening to withhold rain as long as I remained unemployed. With the inch and a half or rain we’ve had the past 24 hours, I lost my chance for the post. Joke or no joke, I’ve had the feeling that the rain drought and my job drought are cosmically linked. This rain is thus a good sign.

The rain drought has ended. My employment drought will end now, too.

Following news that toothpaste from China has been found to contain diethylene glycol, a common ingredient of antifreeze, FDA inspectors discovered traces of a toxic chemical in U.S. manufactured toothpaste.

“Nearly every sample tested was found to contain traces of the toxic chemical fluoride,” the FDA spokesperson said.

No recalls have been announced.

Its said that the quickest way to become a millionaire is to invest a billion in an airline. After today’s news story on Skybus and Allegiant Air, I have to think that’s true. While I’m all for more low-cost airlines, Skybus and Allegiant Air have made the boneheaded decision to charge people to check their bags.

Do what, now? Didn’t the airlines spend years petitioning the FAA to limit customer carry-ons to two bags in an effort to encourage more checked baggage? Now they want to charge extra for checked baggage?

Did anyone with any actual flying experience think this out? Did it occur to anyone that this stupid policy will only encourage people to drag more of their bags onboard, where the same bags will fight for bin space? Did they consider that all that extra carry-on baggage will almost surely translate into late departures and increased delays at security screening?

Skybus’s stupidity doesn’t stop at their baggage policy, either. Firstly, their hub is Columbus, OH, where weather delays and cancellations will likely be a problem. Planes don’t make money on the ground. If that wasn’t enough, Skybus has no such thing as a connecting flight: to get anywhere other than Columbus requires an overnight in Columbus.

The paper said Skybus’s backers are confident Skybus will survive based on its $160 million in the bank. It seems that Independence Air had that cash, too. See how long that lasted?

I’m sure other, evil airlines like Northwest love the extra-cost-for-what-was-once-free model. They’re probably thankful for Skybus for starting the practice. Once Skybus craters, Northwest and their ilk will happily jack up their fares again and keep nickel-and-diming their customers.

Is Virgin America here yet? Any airline that is vigorously opposed by airline dinosaurs like American, Delta, and Continental can only be a good one.

I realized today that I’m in a dilemma about finding my next job. While I am in no hurry financially to find my next job, I am in a hurry mentally. I want my next employer to be the place I stay for many, many years, so I don’t want to take just any offer for the sake of a paycheck. Still, though, I am motivated to be working right now. I’m not the kind of guy who enjoys being on the sidelines.

One thing I loved about my former employer is that it had a lot of room for me to grow. I could see myself being happy there for many more years. It was (and is) a wonderful place to work. Even today I have to fight the urge to pass along to them the great ideas I’m still dreaming up.

The perfect job for me is out there, I’m sure of it. The question is: do I have the patience to find it?

Once again, the News and Observer has found a problem to elevate to the EVERYBODY PANIC stage: speeding. This seems to be a theme with N&O researcher Pat Stith, whose last contribution was focusing on the world-ending problem of overweight trucks. In spite of Stith’s reporting, the sun did come up the following day and life went merrily on.

Now just in case you missed the point, the N&O has tried a different tack. Over the weekend, a car full of not-so-smart people crashed into a house at 3:30 in the morning. Many were killed when they were thrown from the vehicle. The driver is believed to have been intoxicated. Its a tragedy, sure enough, and I’m not making light of the injuries and deaths, but it illustrates a point.

The headline for this story was quite different Sunday than it was today. Today’s City and State section reads “Speeding blamed as 3 die in wreck.” You’ll note that this fails to mention that:

• Police suspect the driver was intoxicated.
• Those killed were not wearing their seatbelts.

So, was speeding really to blame for this accident? Or was the fact that the driver may have consumed a brewery’s worth of alcohol before sliding behind the wheel?

Ok, so then was speeding the cause of death? Tangentially, perhaps. The deaths may have been prevented if the victims had been wearing seat belts. At least two of the victims were ejected from the car. Why, then, did speeding get highlighted, if not to prop up the N&O’s speeding special report?

I’ll offer my own theory as to what really led to the accident. It goes like this:

1. Darwin’s theory of evolution – led to the driver drinking
2. Intoxication – lead the driver to speed and drive poorly
3. Speeding – lead the driver to swerve off the road
4. Newton’s First Law of Motion – “a body in motion will remain in motion.” This kept the car moving once it left the road.
5. Newton’s Third Law of Motion – “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The car hit the tree and the tree crumpled it.
6. Newton’s First Law of Motion, again – the car stopped but the victims kept moving

Speeding may have been involved, but it was not the cause of the accident. The driver being stupid was the cause of the accident.

I think speeding gets blamed more than it should for causing accidents. Speeding itself doesn’t cause accidents: being stupid does. If you’re driving faster than the speed at which you can safely handle a car (and others around you can handle you), you’re driving too fast and its only a matter of time before Darwin wins again.

It really has nothing to do with the speed. Safe driving all depends on the drivers and road conditions involved.

NASCAR drivers routinely drive 200 MPH. None of them die from speed. A race car driver’s cause of death is never given as “excessive speed.” Give those same drivers a few six-packs, though, turn them wloose on the track and guess what will happen. It won’t be speed that kills them – it will be them being stupid – drinking and driving.

Its crazy to hear in this nanny-state age we live in, but I think ultimately one day we may do away with speed limits on interstate highways, treating them much like the German autobahn. It would be policed the same way: if you drive faster than your abilities or conditions allow, you should be charged with reckless driving. I think that would put more personal responsibility on drivers, holding them accountable for their skills and judgement. Police would still patrol the highways but they would ticket based only on the situation. Drivers could even be ticketed for driving slower, if that driving presents a hazard to themselves or others. It all would depend on the situation.

I’d rather police get the bad drivers (or intoxicated ones) off the roads than going after the faster drivers who pay attention to what they and everyone else on the road are doing.

If there’s one good thing about being laid off, at least now my office coffee cup will get the washing its needed for some time now.

I woke with my head full of questions about the abrupt canceling of my product, trying to make sense of it. Since none of us were given exit interviews, this will serve as my thoughts as to why I’m now unemployed.

It was, and still is, a great product. None of the problems cited during our dismissal meeting were insurmountable. Either they were simply given to us to make us feel better about losing our jobs, or they reflected a profound lack of understanding of the product’s abilities on the part of upper management. Both of these options are concerning.
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There was no way I could spend yesterday feeling bad about being unemployed. Last night we had one of the most spectacular sunsets I’d seen in years. Also, our daughter was absolutely giddy about our first visit to her new kindergarten.

“This is the happiest day of my life!” she kept saying over and over. I couldn’t help but smile.