“…Turn, and face the strange changes…”

This past Tuesday, with head spinning abruptness, I and my long time employer, Comcast, parted ways.

Rumors were rampant for a few days beforehand that Dec. 8th would be the day, and the day before our little group of programmers were warned that we might be impacted.

By the end of the day, our number had been reduced by almost 1/2, including me. Throughout our division, it is believe that headcount was reduced from approx. 7,000 to approx. 5,000. Because I was IT, and could actually do damage with a few keystrokes (hey, let’s give a different random .1% of customers free cable each month!), I was not allowed back to my desk, and after the hour long meeting with HR, I was escorted from the building. The acting director of IT packed up my personal belongings so I could pick them up at a later date, which I did yesterday.

The severance package is generous. Very much so. So I’m ok. The shock is wearing off. Bouts of depression and/or sadness have been mild and short lived. I’ve been reaching out to my fellow former co-workers so we can encourage and support each other.

I’m determined to use this time to re-assess my working life. I hope to figure out some way of combining my vocation with my avocations. I’d like for this next phase of my working life to be a joy. I believe I’m done with work being a daily grind, and I believe I have the skills and background to make this a reality.

The organism called Comcast did not mean to, but, it gave me a rather rough hewn birthday present, which I intend to carve and polish into a thing of beauty.

I’m actually feeling pretty empowered, even optimistic. I do, however, have my work cut out for me.

If you’d like an idea of what skills I bring to the table, please see my LinkedIn profile – http://www.linkedin.com/in/marlinmay

If you happen to hear of any career opportunities, I would greatly appreciate you passing them on to me.

I wish you Happy Holidays, peace, prosperity and happiness in the coming year.

The following was originally published on http://con-news.com on 11/02/2009

Well, as promised, or threatened, I’m back for part two of my Gaylaxicon 2009 recapitulation. Thank you for returning for more. You know, perhaps this isn’t really a recap, because, part of the definition of a recap is “concise”, which this isn’t. Synopsis doesn’t fit either, for the same reason. Call it a wordy review. In any case, on with the whole ADHD soaked show!

Gaylactic Jeopardy! 1 of 2 – Drew Post with contestants David Kaplan and two others still to be identified.

Gaylaxicon has it’s own game show, Gaylactic Jeopardy, played just like the television show, except that the answers are all at the very least, genre related, though not necessarily BGLT related. Drew Post was ebullient as the master of ceremonies, exuding that bit of Canadian-ness required to be a Jeopardy! host. Nersi Nikakhtar kept everyone honest by keeping score and a young gentleman named Richard Martin who gracefully revealed the answers. Dave Kaplan and others (please help me out with names) were faced with topics like; Author! Author!, ABC (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke), Twilight and Comic Book Movies. And what was the general consensus?
A) The whole thing was damned funny.
B) Gentlemen, you need to read more.
C) Sparkly vampires suck, and not in a good way.
D) Shy geeks who read need to not be so shy, so get up and participate.

Just sayin’.

Spectrum Awards – Rob Gates [M], Carl Cipra, Warren Rochelle
The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards honor outstanding works of science fiction, fantasy and horror, that include significant positive explorations of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters, themes, or issues. (more…)

This convention re-cap originally appeared in Con-News.Com (http://con-news.com) on 10/26/2009.

The 11^th Gaylaxicon was a convention with a difference… and what a difference! Even Marlin was surprised, and he’s used to REAL conventions. With apologies to Monty Python.

This is, of course, not quite fair. Gaylaxicon – http://www.gaylaxicon.org – is a real convention, a small but well run convention, which travels about North America, and is run by local chapters of the Gaylactic Network, an organization of BGLT (or LGBT, or GLBT (I’ll use the alphabetical)) science fiction /fantasy/horror/gaming clubs. And that, my friends, is quite a difference, a difference which makes me tingle all over, makes me willing to brave airport security, makes me shiver with… anticipation. There was no way I wasn’t going to go. Hey, this was a meeting of my tribe within a tribe.

The trip to Minneapolis from Manchester, NH was uneventful. I have come to believe that that working out, having a buzz cut, and wearing a tee shirt with an NYPD patch on it (purchased right after 9/11) helps. Plus, you get to surreptitiously check out who’s surreptitiously checking you out. I have reason to believe that this will work for women too. Just sayin’. During the ride, I put a serious dent in Iain Bank’s The Algebraist, which a seriously engaging but seriously dense space opera. I still have about 100 pages to go.

Anyway, I arrived in Minneapolis MN (my first time ever in the state and city) the day before the convention tired but happy. My roommate for the convention, artist and bon vivant, Rob Allison, soon joined me. Now, normally travelling leaves me tired and grumpy, but I am unable to watch people struggle with lugging heavy objects, like a giant, gold ribbon covered rocket, without lending a hand. Suddenly, I was volunteering. I slept very well that night. Yes, I turned in early & did not join the evening’s (or any evening’s for that matter) bar crawl through what some thought was the best of what gay Minneapolis had to offer. As far as I was concerned, Gaylaxicon 2009 was the best of what gay Minneapolis had to offer.

A lot more after the break.
(more…)

Well, I’ve posted the second 1/2 of my Gaylaxicon 2009 review, http://bit.ly/1UkTFN – I’m missing a few bits, but i should get them shortly.

You can find the first on Con-News.com, until I post the second half next week. At which time, I will post the first half here also.