Musings on Post-Pandemic Technical Writing

It’s been three months now of looking for a new life beyond the Pandemic. I’ve bounced from Tucson to Oregon, through Yellowstone just before the floods, back to Tucson and now to Southern California in San Diego County. All the while I’ve been applying for new work and trying to move beyond the pandemic. 

Gone to Oregon

Gone to Oregon for the summer, seeking what lies beyond the pandemic. The world has certainly changed, and it doesn’t feel like there’s a place for ‘writers’ and ‘thinkers’ anymore. Tucson stopped feeling that way or perhaps just robbed whatever I brought there. I stumbled upon fraud more often than not when looking for work, and I even got accused of fraud by the unemployment office. People latched onto an idea of me as their Uber driver not knowing it was only a side gig. Tucson just wasn’t working.

The Ironic COVID Vex

I finally got COVID during this Omicron surge. It’s much like a cold with a strange sore throat and now a little chest pain, not too bad so far which might be expected as I’m vaccinated. The irony here is that I know someone who had a close contact on Christmas Day. They weren’t wearing a mask and weren’t vaccinated, but they apparently never got sick.

2021 Passed

2021 passed. In a lot of ways this year was so much harder than the behemoth that was 2020. I’ve had this sneaking suspicion that this pandemic will take me, not by illness, but by shooting or some other stress-related condition, cancer or anemia or life blood illness or some such shit.

The InBetween Summer

Autumn has arrived in Arizona. I didn’t write a blog post the whole summer. I had a few abandoned ideas, but nothing came to fruition. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have much of a working life due to the pandemic. I was living off Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), and the staffing agencies that usually give me contract or temp work were amazingly quiet. Now PUA has ended, and I’m still looking for work. The staffing agencies are still quiet, and there are few other prospects, so it’s looking more and more like I’ll need a seasonal job of some kind for the holidays.

The New Subaru Feeling

The feelings that come with a post-modern automobile. I got to experience that for a day with a loaner car from Tucson Subaru while my 2014 XV Crosstrek was getting therapy for a plague of dashboard lights. The CVT had unraveled, held me for ransom even though the car was running fine, and for my troubles I got the latest new-fangled 2021 Outback for a day. A car that can’t be owned because it owns you.

Grand Canyon, That Sinking Feeling

I took a trip north with the idea of escaping the oppressive heat of Tucson. I found myself at Grand Canyon’s south rim on June 13th and decided to see if less adept hikers had canceled reservations at Indian Garden Campground due to the heat.

Star Trek Discovery Finds the Future

This is a review of Season 3 of Star Trek Discovery (DSC), and believe it or not it’s mostly positive. I guess I like this show because I’ve kept following it since the beginning, albeit complaining that it could be better. If you want to take a journey back into my writing about Discovery in this blog follow this Star Trek tag. The posts that have “Discovery” in the title contain my thoughts going back to Season 1.

The Pandemic Beard

I grew out my beard for the pandemic, and I gained some perspectives on beards and the self. I even wondered at one point if beard growth and the Capitol insurrection of January 6^th were somehow connected. Maybe it’s pandemic fatigue taking over, but growing facial hair might be a window into the soul or a connection to the beast within.

Purdue effing University Global

Strange experience yesterday. I have been considering getting some kind of online graduate certificate to enhance my resume and get some new contacts in an educational field where I could work from home. I found a certificate program associated with Purdue University, and I clicked the link to get more information.