OddLife: Daniel Robichaud's unfinished work

Got my one month notice today. After April 30th, I will no longer be an employee with Umass*.

What does this mean? Financially, not much for the near future. The majority of my salary is paid through a small business (no, not writing; those paychecks are few and far between, actually) funded by a government SBIR grant, which still has some life left in it. It's a cushion that I've been preparing.

All it really means is the University will take my badge, suspend my email account, and glare at me should I venture into the private research areas of the campus. In the long run, these are endurable changes. At some point, I'll need to start looking for another full time job, but that is as expected.

Herein lies the difference between knowing you are prepared for an eventual end and the irrational emotional response said end achieves when it arrives:

Yeah, I'll be okay for a time, but the situational gravity remains quite sobering and more than a little terrifying (due in no small amount, I'm sure, to the boilerplate wording of that generic you-have-one-month-to-find-other-employment letter). That everyone and their brothers are asking me "What are you going to do, now???" is no help, either.

Ugh, I say. And again: ugh.


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*This is, of course, assuming I cannot find someone to pick up my contract here at the U.

hntrpyanfar challenged me to list 10 things I like, which all begin with the letter J. (She picked the letter, for the record.)

1. "Je t'aime!" Any variant of this uttered by a certain hntrpyanfar is genke with me. :) Yes, I am a sap.
2. Japan. For the language, the culture, the history, the entertainment, and many more reasons.
3. Mary Janes - cute shoes on the right feet and when paired with a cute outfit...
4. Jelly Beans! (Jelly for the love of God Beans!)
5. ...and Justice For All. The first full length Metallica album to feature Jason Newsted (not one of my favorite things, though; Newstead was the replacement bassist for Cliff Burton, who will ever remain the superior Metallica bassist in my not so humble opinion), includes such iconic angry pieces as "Blackened", "Dyer's Eve", "One", and more!
6. Jennifer Connolly. A talented actress, sure. But she's also quite possibly the second most beautiful woman in the world.
7. John Carpenter's The Thing. One of my top three favorite horror/sf films (if not number 1). The best thing director Carpenter has ever made.
8. Indiana Jones. A character that hearkens to pulp adventure, star of three movies that shaped my appreciation for adventure when I was a growing lad.
9. Joe R. Lansdale. Writer of suspense, westerns, horror, comics, and just about everything else. One of my favorite contemporary authors.
10. Justice. A marvel comic book from waaaaay loooong ago, set in their rather unpopular New Universe. It began well enough, as a fellow with delusions of being an alien Justice Warrior (cop) on our world armed the power to kill in one hand and the power to protect with the other. Then, it slowly became increasingly lame, yet I have a nostalgic fondness for it. I understand Warren Ellis is revisiting the character in the latest New Universals series. Haven't read it.


Comment if you want to do this list in your journal, and I'll give you a letter.