I haven't had so much free time on my plate in about... eight years or so. I spend a lot of time job hunting, reading other folks' blogs, checking out music news, writing business plans, researching, watching the news on tv (horrible, horrible addiction), and finding useless things to do with my time... reevaluating my credit card interest rates and figuring out the best way to compile my debt so that I'm paying the least in the moment and over time.

Why?

God only knows.

I can feel myself developing compulsive tendencies the longer I remain unemployed. Some days, I am productive and feel like I'm doing things that are fulfilling and others, nothing. I want to hang out, watch ER and not care about anything that is happening in the world.

I feel like such an American.

I drive down the street and see people working on lawns, people working at car washes, in restaurants, in positions they don't want to be in, but are doing it anyway. It's not to say that my productive days aren't really productive, it's just that the lazy days are so miserable, unsatisfying and relentless. Trying to overcome that is certainly the most challenging thing about unemployment. Scobleizer wrote a very useful blog about What To Do If You're Laid Off in a Recession back in January. I'm trying to stick to these rules, but it doesn't always work, every day. And it's okay.

State of the job market: Slow going this Monday. Updates later in the week; job posts are down, considering that it is Monday, though the Midwest shows promise for a better week this week. Job posting cycles have begun to make a shift to the later half of the week in the past month. Keep an eye on Wednesday and Thursday evenings for more job posts.

That said, I've just had a brilliant idea for organizing computer cables, so I'm going to go work on that prototype.

Labels: business, jobs, state of unemployment, websites