I just finished reading The Green Collar Economy: How one solution can fix our two biggest problems, by Van Jones, founder of Green For All. It was excellent! It was filled with great ideas and inspiring examples, including some I am particularly interested in from the (relatively) nearby neighborhood of the South Bronx. Two organizations, Sustainable South Bronx and the Green Worker Cooperative, have been doing some great work combining clean green development with needed jobs and training for the community’s unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled laborers. Not only do these types of projects infuse the local neighborhoods with money, but they raise spirits and morale as men and women find good jobs that can lead to careers. At the same time, they get to be leaders in the green movement – taking ownership and pride in working to retrofit our buildings, clean up damaged sites, plant green roofs, and more. I’m excited to get involved and help to promote projects like these!
Cat Wisdom Wednesday
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 8:37 am (Yawns, cat wisdom)
It’s Wednesday, so I figured it was an appropriate time to put up a new Cat Wisdom. I’ve chosen this quotation by Helen Keller:
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
Here’s to living the daring adventure!
A new career direction
Sunday, March 1, 2009 at 4:07 pm (New York City, about me, academia, career development, science, women in academia, women in science)
I’m extremely pleased to share that I may have found a new job. A regular day job, with a salary, benefits, and vacation time. It even has a 35 hour work week and a good helping of holidays. What I’m most excited about is that it’s doing something good for the city of New York! So what is it?
Well, I’ll tell you this. It is in environmental engineering. This is a shift for me, as I’d studied a broader, related field. I’ve found myself wondering, over the past year, why I chose to study the field that I did. And the answer, most clearly, is that I love the material covered in it. But in choosing that field I neglected some other factors that are important to me: societal impact and geographic location of jobs.
I’ve always felt that the fundamentals of the field were principles needed and worthy of understanding and study, but the ends to which these principles are put to use left me feeling something lacking. While society could not function as it does without practitioners of this field, they most often are found in corporations working towards profit, profit which is mostly seen by shareholders and executives. Meanwhile these corporations often have large lobbying components and are parts of industries that I see as being corrupt or under-regulated.
So as I dove further into the subject and the field, I found myself drawn towards continuing academic study or teaching. By working in that part of the field, I could work in a city (industry jobs are largely in rural or suburban areas, where there is land for the sprawling corporate campuses and industrial plants, but I am uninterested in living outside of a city). By working in academia or teaching, I could make an impact by helping future generations, or by moving the edge of science along. But I found that I don’t like much of the culture and requirements of academia, nor do I care for the scarcity of jobs and low salaries available in teaching. I came to this realization mostly over the course of 2008, when I left graduate school and, in the fall, taught lab courses at a local college. There were parts of that which were great, but, as a full career, I’m not sure that it’s quite right for me.
In December, I found myself looking back at a year in which I’d seen a lot of changes. Husband and I, working hard at our startup company, were living sparsely. Bill collectors were calling often, we were constantly declining when our friends proposed nights out in the city, and we found ourselves once again unable to share more than love, friendship, and thanks during the season of giving. We had, and always have, our love and companionship, and I was still happy. But I was also tired and stressed, and by the end of 2008 I finally felt like it was time for me to start planning what was next.
I was in the fortunate situation of having multiple directions to choose from, and I barely knew where to start. I perused job postings and the career website from my Alma Mater, looking at a few different career paths that seemed possible and at least somewhat interesting. And I discovered that environmental engineering might hold what I was really looking for – the interesting topics, rigorous problem solving, and teamwork that I found in my previous discipline, but with the important added aspects of a positive societal impact and jobs in urban areas. On top of that, the field looks poised to grow as the green movement gains strength and political support. I’m enthusiastic about the potential in this new area, but I still only know a little bit about it.
Nonetheless, I had the good fortune of a successful job interview a little over a week ago, and now have a tentative job offer, which is going through the steps of paperwork approval. It even appears I negotiated for a top salary in the department for my position! I’m very excited and immensely looking forward to learning about this new area for me.
Readers, does anyone have any advice about the field or great books to recommend?
You can’t live on $500k in this town? Bull.
Monday, February 9, 2009 at 9:27 pm (American politics, New York City, apartment living, business, politics)
Tags: Obama
I just read this article in the NY Times, on the effect that a plan by Obama to cap top executive pay at $500k for banks accepting bailout money will have on these executive’s lifestyles.
And I just had to write a post, because nothing pisses me off more than some of this crap. The author nears the article’s conclusion with this:
The total costs here, which do not include a lot of things, like kennels for the dog when the family is away, summer camp, spas and other grooming for the human members of the family, donations to charity, and frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity, are $790,750, which would require about a $1.6-million salary to compensate for taxes. Give or take a few score thousand of dollars.
I read a NY Times magazine article during the election season on Obamanomics, and found that I really felt good about his economic policies, ideals, and views. His positions are probably the closer to my own than those of any other politician, and certainly any president or even major presidential candidate, ever. One of the things in the article that stood out to me was the tenet that society functions the best, driving production and increasing economic success, when the top executives of a company make about 25x more than the bottom employees. So if the lowest employees at the bank make $40,000 a year, then the top employees should make about $1 million. In that case, the $1.6 million/year that the article is claiming is needed to lead the common lifestyle of a bank executive is roughly 50% more expensive than it should be for all of the employees and the company to perform their best.
The article goes on to explain the need to fit in with other bank executives:
Does this money buy a chief executive stockholders might prize, a well-to-do man with a certain sureness of stride, something that might be lost if the executive were crowding onto the PATH train every morning at Journal Square, his newspaper splayed against the back of a stranger’s head?
The man would certainly not feel like himself on that train, said Candace Bushnell, the author of “Sex and the City” and other books chronicling New York social mores.
“People inherently understand that if they are going to get ahead in whatever corporate culture they are involved in, they need to take on the appurtenances of what defines that culture,” she said. “So if you are in a culture where spending a lot of money is a sign of success, it’s like the same thing that goes back to high school peer pressure. It’s about fitting in.”
My response? Ok, but the point is, your bank failed and is looking for a government bailout. You need to suck it up. Top executives are supposed to earn the pay that they receive, and banks that need bailouts, regardless of how common that may be, failed in their jobs. So what’s the harm in instating laws to encourage them to work towards success in order to earn the money they make? That’s what capitalism is supposed to be about. When they’re able to give themselves huge salaries regardless of whether they lead their companies towards success or complete failure, capitalism isn’t working the way it was meant to, and I’m pretty sure that’s not the capitalism that people like my father hold so dear.
Even if they’re rare, there are a number of chief executives who lead successful companies without living such extravagant lifestyles. As far as I know, Warren Buffett, one of the most successful men in the world, is one of them. Obama’s plan would be hoping to help change the culture of the self-absorbed members, not trying to sink companies in need of a bailout by sinking the self-esteem of their chief executives. Maybe when they lead their companies to overwhelming success through good decisions and leadership, they can start making over $1 million again.
These people can’t live on $500k in this town? I live on $50k in this town. Maybe I should be teaching them a few things.
Credit Cards and a Credit-Land Review
Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 1:40 am (Yawns)
I sometimes mention my financial situation or write about something related to personal finances, and on that topic, today I’m going to review a site that I’ve looked at, Credit-Land.
Credit-Land is a website that offers comparisons between credit cards as well as other useful resources relating to credit cards. You can search and compare different cards based on intro APRs, regular APRs, annual fees, rewards, and more. So if you are thinking about applying for a credit card, I would recommend comparing the options to determine what really is best for your needs, and the service at Credit-Land can help you with this.
Credit cards are widely used in America today, and I personally have a love-hate relationship with ours…I’ve actually both hid and cut up cards only to order another copy a few months later when I saw no other options for obtaining needed staples like groceries. Unfortunately once said card is back in my possession I find it harder to abstain from using it in situations where I’m tired or hungry and the card offers an easy and quick way to fulfill my needs, be they food, clothing, entertainment, or other such things. Husband and I both have been doing better at this over the past few months, but not without significant effort on our part.
So you won’t be surprised to know that I was most interested to read the articles available under their “Credit Education” section (in the left-hand Navigation Bar, down a ways). There are resources there on repairing your credit history, building up your credit history for the first time, choosing a new card, or using a credit card for a balance transfer.
I read some of the articles on repairing your credit history, which is something I’ve researched before but have not yet accomplished for myself. Despite some minor yet distracting grammatical errors, I found the information there to be helpful. At least one of the articles even had some ideas that I hadn’t seen, such as using an installment loan to bring your score up. If you are like me and have dealt with credit issues, you may find it useful or comforting to check out the information in this section.
Meanwhile, many people will find the information and comparisons available at Credit-Land to be useful. Clicking on the card image below will bring you to the site, so go check it out!
Things I want to do in the next decade
Friday, January 16, 2009 at 3:24 pm (Yawns, about me)
Last November, I found myself thinking a lot about the future, and saved this writing prompt for a future post. Over the past year, there have been many changes in my career plans, and I found myself thinking about the future in more general terms. It began when I thought of something that I wanted to do in the future, and then I thought…what else? What else do I want to do, which ones can I reach and which ones will remain daydreams?
Here are a few things I’ve come up with:
- Keep a constant stock of wine
- Return to Amsterdam (possibly for an extended stay)
- Visit San Francisco
- Move to a different part of New York City
- Have a baby. And another…
- Launch a professional site for my skating coach services
- Try a job in industry or consulting
- Make new friends
- Sew more
- Compete in Adult Figure Skating Eastern Sectionals
- Advance from Sectionals to the US Figure Skating Adult Championships
- Pay off our credit card debt
- Get better furniture
- Find a career that challenges me and is flexible enough to let me live life the way I want to
What do you want to do in the next decade?
Obama has some geek cred
Friday, January 16, 2009 at 2:10 pm (Yawns)
I found this article on a friend’s facebook page, and I fell a little further for Obama.
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 10:35 pm (Yawns)
I just wanted to wish my readers a very Happy New Year!
Season’s Greetings
Thursday, December 25, 2008 at 1:40 am (Yawns)
Tags: holiday
Merry Christmas/Happy Solstice/Happy Channukah/Happy HumanLight/Season’s Greetings
Take a moment to enjoy the season!
Cat Wisdom Wednesday: Skating
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 at 11:31 pm (about me, cat wisdom, figure skating)
One of my greatest pleasures is the feeling of gliding across the ice, legs and arms gracefully extended, able to feel the energy stretching out to my fingertips. Or spinning quickly on a blade, laying my body back and stretching my arms up above me while my hair blows about with the speed I’ve created.
These are pictures of me, about 7 years ago:
This winter, I began teaching ice skating lessons at a rink in the area. It’s an outdoor rink, and I teach basic skills. I’m really enjoying it. It’s helped me to remember why I fell in love with skating in the first place – around 17 years ago.
Certainly, it was enchanting – the feel of the brisk air around you, as you jump and twirl on the edge of a blade. And the daredevil, athletic side of me loved the idea of jumping around, as my brother would call it, “on frozen water with knives on my feet.” But it was more than that. Whether it was performing for a crowd or skating on a practice session with no spectators at all, skating was the most fun sport I had tried (and it still is). I love the challenge, to strive to always be ever so perfectly balanced, but not to let on how difficult it is.
But much preparation went into it, and at practice sessions I had to try again and again, learning how to teach my body the exact movements needed to land a difficult jump. So that’s why I’ve chosen this as the new quotation for my Cat Wisdom Wednesday series, from George Bernard Shaw:
I learned to speak as people learn to skate or cycle, by doggedly making a fool of myself until I got used to it.
