The exit strategy....

So I have put last week's interview fiasco behind me--just trying to view it as good that I managed to get an interview in January. I've gotten interviews during the winter months this past year, which is a positive. Last year that period was basically completely dead as far as job prospects.

Assuming this last thing doesn't pan out, we're thinking about my moving back to my original home state and my wife will have to join me later on. We thought about my trying to move to more economically viable areas of this state, but a quick scan of Craigslist reveals that things don't seem much better there than here for someone like me.

There is one government job I am probably going to apply to, and I may visit and job hunt later this year. I have mixed feelings about moving back. I will enjoy being closer to family, but I dislike a lot of things about my home state. I will put up with it if it means being able to restart my career and possibly having a better, more stable life.

Finished a great book about the Comanche called EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON. I like how it doesn't flinch from the brutality on both sides of the Indian wars. I am Indian and I get tired of the politically correct treatment of Indian people, as if they led some kind of perfect divine existence and were not warlike, violent, etc., until they were corrupted by the whites. Some tribes actually perpetuate this today, the principal chief of my tribe likes to talk about how there is no word for "competition" in our tribal language. Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean the concept does not exist.

Anyway, EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON is fascinating reading about the development of horse warfare among the Comanche [who developed into what many believe to be the best light cavalry in history] and about Quannah Parker, one of their last, most prominent leaders.

I'm going to have to clear the deck of books pretty soon, there is a lot of stuff in transit. I will probably drop the book on Stalin, although it's entertaining, it's also pretty repetitive, lots of killing and betrayal for nearly 600 pages. It sounds more interesting than it is--usually it happened in a very bureaucratic fashion. Still, might be something I pick up again later on. I've started doing that with some of the longer history books.