Cogito, Ergo Sumana for 2009 January 4

# 04 Jan 2009, 05:02AM: Short Takes: It is instructive and/or a buzzkill to watch the Psych episode "Gus Walks Into a Bank" and the Leverage episode "The Bank Shot Job" in close succession.

The most recent Muppets holiday special, Letters to Santa, features Jane Krakowski as a guest star and the US Postal Service as an uncredited guest star/sponsor. It is mercifully short at 44 minutes and makes more sense as an imaginary vehicle for Jenna Maroney than as a canon Muppet film. There are more things wrong with the film than right with it, including voices, dialogue, songs, plot, attitude, pedagogy, and geography. Just as Antitrust made me think, Couldn't you solve this problem with a post to Slashdot?, Letters to Santa made me think, Couldn't you solve this problem with a trip to the 24-hour post office near 34th and 8th? I suggest re-viewing the 2002 holiday special instead.

Leonard was quite excited that Hulu has Horse Feathers, one of the finest Marx Brothers films. Watching it led me to wonder: would it be harder to keep my bearings while conversing with Groucho Marx or with in-character Stephen Colbert? Or Muppets?

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# (1) 04 Jan 2009, 11:22AM: Boston Area Visit This Week: I'm in the Boston area this week, going there tomorrow (Monday) and coming back Friday morning so as to host a Very Special Guest Star for a few days. I think I've emailed all my Boston contacts to start arranging visits; please embarrass me by letting me know if I'm wrong and missed you.

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# (1) 04 Jan 2009, 05:28PM: What I've Taken, And What I Have To Give: As of right now, I'm looking for new opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area, greater Boston, and here in NYC, starting in the next few months. I'm especially interested in tiny startups (let's say fewer than eight employees) or nonprofits starting new projects with tech. I'm starting machinations to ask friends and acquaintances for the names of relevant folks I should meet during my trips to Boston and the Bay this month.

I love writing technical and functional specs, translating among QA, engineers, and businessy/world-facing folks, and recruiting. I'm looking for someplace where I can bring my writing, public speaking, rolodexing, and investigative skills to bear. I want to work with superiors I can learn from, emotionally and intellectually. And I want to help make services/sites/products that delight people - for profit or non.

I'm not a programmer but I can be a good abstraction layer for software projects. I'm looking for someplace where I'll have equity or ownership, or the possibility of rising to those -- a project where I can exert all my talents and pick up real responsibilities.

That's what I'm seeking. I couldn't go after this if I hadn't already found unexpected treasure.

One of the gifts of the Internet is that I can find role models for so many traits I wish to nurture in myself, especially ambition and discipline. Just to name a few, I have Benjamin Mako Hill, Beatrice, Leonard, Brendan, Kris, Ned Batchelder and Susan Senator, all my Systers, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Rachel, Rivka, and these days especially Mel Chua. Mel's speaking right to me on "coming from a place of abundance":

In order to have a sense of playful empowerment, one must be free to change, rewrite, scrap, delete, wreck, rebuild, and tinker with all aspects of the project at any time during its course.

We can play with the inessential things without anxiety if we know they're inessential and our heart feels safe. So what is my heart's desire? To feel useful, really. And this, right now, is how.

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