A Quick Programming Note

Attentive readers may have noticed that one of TNB’s writers is rarely around during the day to bolster or defend any arguments made on his posts. The person is me, there’s a good reason for that, and that arrangement is about to change.

For more than twenty years I have held down two jobs. I work as a technician for a large corporation and I am a seller of autographed and rare books. About ten years ago I added “husband” to my list of positions, then shortly afterward, “Daddy”. About a year and a half ago, “blogger” was heaped on the pile.

One of those is about to go away, and it’s the corporate job. Large-scale layoffs have been striking multiple divisions within the company, and while my position is safe at the moment, my group has been watching for the axe to fall on all of us. We are not expected to last more than another year.

This is not due to some paranoid fantasy about illegal or legal immigration, nor even to the asinine trade wars initiated by the President. It’s due to the changing direction of the company, whereby the leadership feels that some large assets are no longer profitable and seeks to divest itself of those assets.

Meanwhile, a group of technicians that works with us was just informed that they face a cut of just under half of the group – almost three dozen people. The people affected all have at least 19 years with the company, and some are only months from becoming eligible for retirement.

I am offering a resignation at my “daytime” job, which will allow one of the people who would otherwise be affected to simply shift over into my position. My last day of employment there is expected to be in late January.

Because of the bookstore (and my wife’s online rare DVD/Blu-Ray store) we should be financially sound through this period… but it will require me to ramp up operations significantly. For perspective, I currently have about 1750 distinct items listed online and typically bring about 1000 others with me to convention; meanwhile, I have another 20,000 or so that are not available for sale. While I cannot make ends meet with the current sales figures alone, we are close; it seems like a reasonable extrapolation to think that I will be able to do so if I get all of the inventory listed, particularly as we are looking to shift to multiple sales platforms.

What all of this will require is time, planning and effort – the same things which are always required for any reward. We are prepared for this.

The effect you will likely see here is minimal. I will be commenting more during the day, but not much more – if a requirement is that I get things listed, that is to be the #1 priority every day until we are safely accruing, rather than depleting, savings accounts. I will likely be posting more breaking news stories, and I will be around during the election season to aid Tiff and Beth (and everyone else who writes here). Expect some extra distraction on my part, wish me luck, and if you decide you’re looking for a signed, rare or even simply hard-to-find used book keep in mind that there’s someone you can contact on Twitter about it.