Another Day

Neighbor dog woke me up earlier than I wanted to this morning. I'm not fond of neighbor dog, especially since I have been trying to sleep until 8 or 9. This dog has the deepest and loudest bark per pound of any dog I have ever heard (and he's actually barking right now). I love dogs, and I know it's not the dog's fault but the owners. I don't think they give this dog enough attention. I need to learn how to ignore the barking. I don't feel real comfortable with talking to my neighbors about it because over the summer they posted on our neighborhood message board that both of their dogs had been poisoned with rat poison (as determined by their vet). I'm sure they thought at some point that I did it. I would never do such a thing, and I don't think their other neighbor did it because he has dogs of his own. It happened right after they got back from a 2 week vacation (which they brought their dogs along for), so I think they got into something during that trip. I guess I'll have to deal somehow. Funny, their other dog is as quiet as a church mouse.

I did go for a run today and it felt great. The temperature was about 60 degrees, which was nice. The neighborhood is a real ghost town during the day. It's kind of scary, someone could rob somebody blind without too much trouble I bet. It was good to do something active again.

I finished the "We Got Fired" book and started on one called "Career Comeback". This one has a more practical kind of advice about job searches. I realized yesterday that when I do get a job interview I'm going to have to get a haircut. My hair is a little on the shaggy side. And I'm also thinking that I may have to lose my goatee, which will kind of suck. I think I look better with it, but I may look more 'menacing'. My upper lip hasn't seen sunlight in over 4 years, it's going to take some time to get used to seeing myself like that again.

I did have something bubble up from my subconscious today. I'm not materialistic at all, I think it's stupid to be concerned with what kind of car you drive and things like that. The company that I worked for was a somewhat large, public company. All this company cares about is how to make its stock price go higher. Of course the goal of any company is to make money, but there are different ways to go about it. I think I don't need to work for another company like my last one. If I don't care about making piles and piles of money how can I buy into that as the goal of the company I work for? Employees' well-being and concerns were not high on this company's priority list. It was everything for a buck. I think I need something that exists more to help people or provide a service, or a company that doesn't put the well-being of its employees as almost an afterthought compared to the greed of making as much money as possible. Sounds impossible, but there are companies out there where this is the case. I think this is a good sign, maybe without the pressures of the daily grind I can learn some more things about myself and want I really want.