Unemployed Day # 30 ... sob sob sob

I am reading a book titled, Flight of the Creative Class. It's one of these new age books on economics much like Deep Economy by Bill McKibbon which I am also reading.

Flight of the Creative Class is one of the more recent books by the author Richard Florida who gained fame and recognition for his first novel titled Rise of The Creative Class.

One of the main themes he is always stressing is that quality of place is the most important factor in stimulating economic growth. That is why cities like NYC and San Francisco have such huge economies - because they are open cities where gays, immigrants, and people of color can feel comfortable. He argues entrepreneurs follow artists ... note the Silicon Valley after the late 60's and the Seattle boom after the Grunge scene in the early 90's.

I have to admit, I like his books and his insight as well. No more does a city need to focus on building an 'Arch' or 'Space Needle' or any other kind of symbol to seem important. Florida has stripped away the superficiality and said "Hey everyone, if you want a nice city with a great economy you have to make it live up to the American dream of everyone equal and party 24/7!" Perhaps that is why Memphis and Nashville never really took off? My image of those cities (especially after going to them) is of a vibrant arts scene, but then Cletus and Billy Bob are there polishing their shotguns on their front porches waiting to get the posse together! I'd like to think we've moved past those days?

But you have to wonder why Portland hasn't boomed quite yet? Surely we have an awesome arts scene in this town? Surely we have tons of entrepreneurial talent and all of us kids walk around feeling like this is such an open-minded city.

On the other hand, I think Portlanders are lucky to have mayor-elect Sam Adams who not only lives in North Portland, but also seems to have a strong grip on the issues at stake for our city. With his strong support of bike lanes and assorted issues he knows livability is tops on the priority list. He seems to have a strong grasp of the concepts of sustainability and acting locally and eating locally and although I don't know the guy, I think we are lucky.

I originally came to this blog center to write about Richard Florida's book Flight of the Creative Class. How I was reading it last night and saw European countries are giving scholarships to Americans to attend their universities with the hope that when they become business leaders they will strengthen ties with those European countries. After reading that I immediately ran to my computer and found a scholarship that pays you to study in Ireland for a year! Free! With a stipend! With a travel stipend on top of that!

See you later!

Errr, I mean, umm ... let's make Portland nice ... and stuff.

If you are still reading this give yourself a huge gold star. The only other interesting thing I wanted to mention about Flight of the Creative Class is how George Bush's policies regarding post 9/11 terrorism checkpoints at airports, background checks on people of non-European descent, and rejection of Phd candidates from overseas has really hurt our standing in the world, and also hurt our economy. Because those creative entrepreneur's are being rejected from living here and creating the next scientific breakthrough ... America has lost its standing in the world because these intelligent Indians, Chinese, and others are looking more towards Europe for openness ... or they are building universities in their countries that top ours. As the book points out the leading medical school in the world is in India, some of the top tech schools are in Japan ... by having an administration that doesn't embrace science we are crumbling at our very foundation.

Consider this: the biggest entrepreneurs of the silicon valley era are not Americans by birth ... they are Taiwanese, Bangladeshi, Indian, Chinese ... if there were ever a case to NEVER elect a REPUBLICAN(t) ever again - these failed policies crystallize that notion.

In other news I saw the Angelina Jolie movie "Wanted" last night and it was the worst movie I have ever seen.

mjp

Unemployed Day # too many to count ...

I feel like I am getting an education on things that people already knew 150 years ago.

Here is a list of the blatantly obvious things our society is having a hard time coming to terms with lately:

1. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels is expensive
2. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels gives power to bad guys
3. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels as fertilizers to grow our food is unhealthy
4. We feed enough grains to animals we raise for meat to feed the world many times over
5. We eat too much of our food in the processed form thereby not consuming enough nutrients.
6. We should eat more raw fruits and vegetables.
7. We should eat locally so we don't waste fossil fuels and we support our community.
8. We should choose organic so we don't eat fossil fuels.
9. Living in a community where you can walk everywhere saves energy.
10. We consume too many empty calories.
11. We should exercise more.
12. We should spend more time in nature.
13. We should spend more time eating and drinking with friends than watching TV or sitting in front of the computer.

All these things apply to me personally. Maybe they apply to you. How far do you commute to work and how much money do you waste to do so? How much fossil fuel? Do you know your neighbors? Where does the majority of the food you consume come from? South America in the Winter? Pork from the East Coast? Did you know some Pork factory farms create more sewage waste than New York, California, and Washington combined? What do they do with all that pig waste? Is it worth it to eat large amounts of meat when it wastes so much food and fossil fuel and creates so much pollution?

It's funny I say that because I have been a vegetarian my whole life and I have recently decided to consume a little meat. There is no doubt about the nutritional value offered by fish and chicken.

But I hope everyone continues to think about our place in the world. Not as members of the greatest country on Earth ... surely we are free, open, and accepting. But we are all world people.

Disregard the hype.

3rd Day Unemployed

Unemployed Day 3, Portland, OR

Man, being unemployed is pretty great except for the not having money part. Even so, I am finding some great things to do that aren't very expensive and that I didn't have time to do before.

Portland Futsol

Last night I went to SE 17th and played futsol with a bunch of guys I didn't really know. I must admit I was horribly out of shape and after 5 minutes I was seeing double and needed to sit out. Despite my lack of ability to dribble or even pass as sharply as I used to, I still managed some good plays. I even got an assist, not bad for someone who hasn't played in over two years!

One thing I realized is how lame having a 9-5 job is when I can't exercise! Seriously, I am probably about 15 pounds overweight and it is quite disturbing once I try to do something that would have been easy before. Just a couple years ago I would have been zipping all over the place and schooling those bastards - now I am one of the slowest guys on the field. I must change that!

Hummus from Scratch

I also took advantage of feeling poor by making hummus from scratch. Usually it costs a pretty penny from Fred Meyer (even worse at Zupan's or Whole Foods) but I gathered 3 cans of garbanzo beans, some garlic, some lemon, and 1/4 of a cup of tahini and made probably $30 worth of hummus for $3. It was awesome! I put too much tahini in ... so that is why I am not posting my recipe.

Communications Positions, PR, Portland, OR

I applied for more PR positions related to web strategy and communication today. I was so excited to see a fresh job posting that I shaved and ran down to their office to personally deliver my resume. When I got back home I realized they had just announced today their new hires for communications counsel. Talk about yelling the F word so loud my whole neighborhood could hear it!

Portland Timbers

Anyway, I am going to see the Timbers tomorrow night. I might have some yard work lined up and it will feel good to work a bit. It's only been 3 days of unemployment so I don't have to get my panties in a knot ... yet. da da daaaa.

TBC

First Day Unemployed ...

Today I begin anew as an unemployed social media enthusiast (and musician - that's a double-whammy).

I am going to write out the official business plan for Fenbi Media International and hopefully it makes sense.

So far I am hampered by several important developments:

#1 - I can't spend any money in the process because I don't have any
#2 - I haven't recovered any good programs since my hard-drive crashed 5 months ago
#3 - I no longer have access to Microsoft Office or Photoshop or Publisher or Powerpoint
#4 - When I need internet connection I need to hang my computer half-way out the second story window to try to tap into the neighboring coffee shop network (Thank you Adagio)
#5 - I am in another coffee shop and it's 10am and this hippy guy with a fedora is dancing to Indian music ... it's kind of annoying ... not an ideal work environment

At any rate ... this is the beginning of a new era and I hope to treat it as such. I hope to write blogs that actually have some relevance to people's lives and are less of a long-winded vanity rant ... ooops too late ...