It's been about six months now since my last employer closed shop in August 2009. I'm not enjoying having to look for a new job/career. I've never had to do it. My last two jobs, covering the years of my life from age 18 to 38, weren't ones I had to go find. They found me. They wanted me. Now the story is different. I'm still the same intelligent, problem solving, committed, go-to guy with a diverse technical background, except this time I'm a silent nobody. I'm paper. I'm paper competing with other paper... and I'm not the competitive type in that respect.

Job hunting reminds me of online dating, and I wasn't the competitive type there either. Both can really mess with your head. I'd love to introduce Ms. "loves long walks on the beach" to Mr. "looking for motivated, self-starter." They seem like they'd be a great couple. Seriously, do either of those really need to be mentioned? Should I state "air-breathing human" on my application as well? Then there's the detailed list. The completely obscure list of nearly exclusive requirements the dater/employer must have in a successful candidate, like "Must love brown dogs named Mr. Fuzzles, and have time off between 2:17pm and 2:48pm every day to paint my nails with me, except during lunar eclipses" or "Must have 3 years experience with Completely-Obscure-Product version 2.47C that nobody on the planet ever bought or used except for our company." Good luck with that. Of course, if you're totally hot or pay well with full benefits, I'm sure there will be hundreds of applications waiting in line.

Some days I'm exhausted with online life and the electronic version of myself. It'd be nice to meet a nice girl the simple way... a chance meeting in the real world. It'd be nice to find a job the simple way... by knowing someone who happens to need your skills who also just happens to have a little shop just around the corner. It would be nice to dedicate your entire life to those people. Somehow I just don't think that's going to happen today. But is that what I really want after all? I just don't know. Probably not.