The last couple days have not proceeded as productively as I might have hoped. Certainly not a productive as my first 24 hours in Houston when I procured the bed and the bar stool I’m currently sitting on and many miscellaneous items form Costco. I went to many stores and even bought a few things, but have been most indecisive about procuring the things I need most to make the apartment quasi-functional. Items like an electric kettle, plates, pots and pans, a better place to sit, etc. I’m not particulary proficient at making these types of decisions for myself. I’m also not particularly good at prioritizing my needs. I hope this doesn’t bode poorly for my new career; the type of work we do demands prioritization and the ability to be “80/20.”

Well, tomorrow is another day.

Friday I got my first peek at the staffing process. Mid-day, during training, the staffing manager emailed me about a potential role. It was a fit in some ways and not a fit in others. There was back and forth between myself and staffing manager, between myself and my potential case manager, and finally between myself and various mentors. Ultimately, I decided that the case would be a great fit as long as it didn’t go on forever. I said as much to the staffing manager on Saturday and presumed have been officially staff by now–but as of this moment, I haven’t heard from either manager.

I know it’s only 3 days but I’m getting a touch anxious about what prospects my new life in Houston holds. The limited furnishings in my new place haven’t helped and that is certainly something I can fix in due time, but over the last 48 hours I haven’t interacted with anyone in any meaningful way (beyond retail transactions which are hardly fulfilling).

Feeling settled will certainly help so I need to stop being indecisive and stop fretting over money– “This is nice but can I get it cheaper elsewhere?”– and just buy the basics. I can take my time with less important items. But I need a functional kitchen and a place to sit other than this stool. Something I can plop into.

Onwards and upwards. Tomorrow is starting early which is already a sign that it will be an improvement over the last two. Cheers.

I’m writing this and resurrecting this blog in an effort to record my progression into my new career; perhaps the blog needs a new title? Inflection points or transitions such as these, times before routines have become habit, have been the most interesting times in my life– and I regret that before I have never been methodical about recording them and their impact on my life.  The slow and subtle change from new to old. In particular, moving to Japan after college comes to mind. So how I wish I would have kept a journal or diary during my first weeks and months there.

A little over two years ago, I was a teaching high school English in Monterey, California. The road from there to here has followed the proverbial long and windy road. I departed Monterey for New Haven in order to study business and environment as a student of both the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. It was a three year program, but I graduated in two years after jettisoning my association with the Forestry school– something I would never have expected when I arrived.

During my inaugural semester, I got caught up in the frenzy of recruiting and threw my name in the consulting hat. I had thought consulting would be a good fit and even wrote about it in my application essays, but hadn’t planned on pursuing consulting opportunities until the following year. A few months later, I had offers several firms and decided to spend my summer with Bain Dallas (the Houston office didn’t exist then). After a great summer, I decided– a touch decision– that two years was enough, and withdrew from the Forestry school.

Now I’m here. And now my battery is running out.

Hopefully, I can stay true to my intention and write each day as my new career unfolds.

Pollution

Yale 360 reports that India, like China before them, has announced that they will not agree to emissions’ restrictions. Obama has said that he opposes trade sanctions against countries who do not agree to carbon caps. From the Times’ article:

The House bill contains a provision, inserted in the middle of the night before the vote Friday, that requires the president, starting in 2020, to impose a “border adjustment” — or tariff — on certain goods from countries that do not act to limit their global warming emissions. The president can waive the tariffs only if he receives explicit permission from Congress.The provision was added to secure the votes of Rust Belt lawmakers who were wavering on the bill because of fears of job losses in heavy industry.

In the floor debate on the bill Friday, one of its authors, Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said, “As we act, we can and must ensure that the U.S. energy-intensive industries are not placed at a competitive disadvantage by nations that have not made a similar commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.”

In the interview on Sunday, Mr. Obama said American industries like steel, aluminum, paper and glass had legitimate concerns about competition from developing nations. But he warned that trade sanctions based on the extent to which other countries curbed carbon dioxide emissions might be illegal and counterproductive.

While I’m sympathetic to the economic positions of emerging countries– they argue that developed countries contributed most significantly to the current warming crisis and that they should have the oppurtunity to develop in similarly ‘dirty’ manner– I think both China and India need to make some concessions, even if only symbolic ones. Certainly, China and India should be given more leeway than developed countries in terms of their emissions, but at the same time they must recognize that a) they are among the most signicant polluters [China has been #1 since 2007] and b) their refusal to concede will undermine the legitimacy and, hence, efficacy of any international ‘carbon’ agreement.

So today, the Times has an article detailing how many credit companies are now settling their delinquent accounts at discount rates. The writers offer an example of a guy in Chicago who was able to clear his 5 grand debt with HSBC at half that price.

Personally this bothers me. Economically and financially I know this makes me most sense for everyone involved–even myself because of the collatorael damage of the debt system–but I feel the debtors are getting off too easy. They bought into the idea that they could have something for nothing, and I think they should suffer the consequences of playing that game of make-believe. It strikes me that the people who are being dealt the worse hand in this whole financial crisis are few-and-far-between ‘savers,’ the ones who didn’t rack up piles of debt and instead invested their savings in a market that went bust. Their hard-earned cash performed a vanishing act, whereas these reckless debtors likely still have their fancy flat screens and HD-DVD players. I’m not suggesting we reinstitute debtors prisons, but a little comeuppance should be in order.

Colbert was declared president-elect with Spider-man as his VP in the Marvel Universe, until the Daily Bugle offered a retraction when Obama emerged with the electoral vote lead:

The website is remarkably user-friendly and after clicking ‘make calls,’ you have a list of 50 voters within seconds. I decided to begin with voters in Pennsylvania because, after listening to a recent This American Life that featured some Democrats for McCain in PA, I was even more worried that the Keystone state might go red after all. After dinner, I dialed for Colorado. The calls tonight were not intended as efforts at persuasion; the goal was simply to provide registered voters with polling info and encourage them to vote. After introductions, the script suggests you ask them who they plan to support; if they say McCain or Other, you thank them for their time. If Obama or Undecided, you ask them if they plan to vote, do they have the polling info, specific questions like when they will vote [apparently these type of questions prompt them to formulate a specific plan and leads to greaer success in getting-out-the-vote] and then thank them for their time.

However, for the most part, my calling was an exercise in leaving messages: I would kindly introduce myself, provide the info, and then encourage them to ‘have their voices heard.’ I did talk to some people, perhaps a dozen out of the 60 of so calls I made, though most of these weren’t the intended targets, such as the parents of young voters. By far my most interesting call occurred when I tried calling Lisa, who, I was told, wasn’t home. Seizing the opportunity, I asked the roommate what plans she had for tomorrow. She wasn’t sure who she was going to vote for. I had found one of the mythical undecideds. I asked her why, and she responded that, “she was pretty conservative.” On what issues was she conservative? She was pro-life. I said I understood her position and that my parents in Tennessee feel the same way, but then I offered that I was impressed with Obama’s efforts to find a middle ground on this divisive issue; that no one is in favor of abortion, and that people on both sides of the aisle can work together so that there are less unwanted pregnancies. He went on to talk about the economy and national security as well. She understood what she wanted, but she just wasn’t sure who or what policies would get us there. Sadly though when I asked her how she would make up her mind by tomorrow, she offered that she might simply not vote at all.

The few assigned voters I reached had already voted, and when I asked if they would mind sharing who they had supported, I received rather surly responses and sudden goodbyes. I was only asking because it was on the script so I began simply thanking them for their time.

As the night wore on, I begin to appreciate how much both campaigns are inundating the people on these call lists, and I grew more and more hesitant to continue calling. I felt as though I was intruding in these people’s lives. I also worried that my calling for Obama might somehow sway voters toward McCain ought of spite; nonetheless I soldiered on assuming that the Obama campaign knew what it was doing. I would later discover from Obama’s website that by 9pm CST, volunteers had made more 710, 761 calls today alone.

One mother in PA–I had been calling for her son–expressed her frustrations saying I was the tenth call she had received that night, though I seemed to be the first live person to whom she had spoken. Apparently, the McCain campaign had put the robocall machine in overdrive. However, from the Colorado callers to whom I spoke, I garnered that there was significant overlap between the lists being given to Obama volunteers. One voter I reached, my last call of the night, told me I was about the 20th Obama volunteer who had called her. Twenty might have been hyperbole, but even 3 is too many; it just comes across as pushy. Having already voted for Obama, she was pleasant and even glad that the campaign was working so hard. Other people were much less pleased. One woman screamed for me remove her name from anything having to do with “Barack f***ing Odama [sic].”

Did I make a difference? I’m not sure I did, but I’m glad I made the calls. Introducing myself to strangers, even over the phone, is not my forte so I was proud of myself for overcoming that hurdle in order to contribute. Also, who knows. Maybe one of these people didn’t know where their polling station was. Now they do, and that information could be factor that gets them into the voting booth.