First blog on the run!

Trying out a new app on my iPhone, so far, so good! Was pretty heartened by an article I read in the Forethought section of this month's Harvard Business Review talking about a post-growth society - relieved this idea seems to be catching off. That would be my 'tip of the hat'...'wag of the finger' today goes to Jiffy Lube for doing a poor job of disgiluising the fact they're trying to push me into spending more money...yeah I know the slight incongruence of the two but unfortunately I can't quite get away from car ownership, at least not yet.....

Have you thanked the moon today?

Finally got to watch "Fly Me To The Moon" from the CBC's Doc Zone. I might have heard this before and forgotten, but was struck by a brief mention that our beautiful moon was quite possibly instrumental to life arising (and surviving) on Earth. And what are the chances you're going to have a huge satellite (huge relative to your planet) orbiting you, along with all the other conditions necessary for life? Not very good according to the Rare Earth hypothesis - check it out on Wikipedia here. Helps explain the Fermi paradox. Gotta love the people that use information like this to argue that there has to be an 'intelligent creator' out there. If we didn't happen to have just the perfect conditions to be here - we wouldn't be here asking these questions :) Also the universe is huge - it's simply a numbers game. So who knows, maybe we are the only game in town?

The "problem" with renewable energy

I'm currently reading "Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster" by Peter A. Victor of York University. It helped me realize what the real "problem" is regarding renewable energy, from the perspective of the energy industry.

The problem with moving from a fossil-fuel based economy to a renewable resource based economy is not due to the level of investment required - it is due to the fact that it will be much more difficult to maintain the high level of profitability we currently see in the energy industry. Installing solar or wind-power generation does not prevent other people from installing it, unlike with the oil sands for example - either you have the rights to some of the limited amount of tar or you don't. When you do, you prevent other people from having those rights.

Not only is renewable energy, well, renewable, which means there is an endless supply, but there are relatively low barriers to entry. It's difficult to keep your competitors from opening up a windfarm in another locale. Also we will move from a centralized system to a more distributed energy system (with many people perhaps creating and consuming their own energy, or even feeding back into the grid). Energy companies obviously have vested interests in trying to prevent this.

Too many crises to keep track of

Wondering what happened to the "global food crisis"? I was. You can find some info here:

Fuel from food- The feast is over - Associated Press

I wonder if the US government realized we were all getting a little too fatigued from the continual fears over terrorism, so now they're freaking us out over the food supply, the economy, etc. I'll put a plug in here for Naomi Klein's recent book "The Shock Doctrine" - highly recommended if you haven't already had a chance to read it.

The War for Talent vs. the Global Economic Crisis

I've been wondering lately, with the "global economic crisis" bearing down on us, that has already resulted in tens of thousands of jobs lost (over 50,000 in the last month or so in Turkey alone, according to the Hurriyet, a national newspaper), how this ties in with the "war for talent" we've been hearing so much about the last several years. As someone who will very likely be on the job market herself in the near future, either voluntarily or involuntarily (I'm not sure which), it is a very interesting and timely question. My intention is to seek a job back home, should I end up seeking one. Canada's economy has so far weathered the storm pretty well compared to most other countries due to our solid fiscal underpinnings - we were ranked first out of all OECD countries on the strength of our banking system - but still it's probable the worst is yet to come, so what does that mean for young people on the job market?

Don Tapscott, author of a book "Grown Up Digital" and reporter/blogger for reportonbusiness.com, writes blithely "the disaster doesn't change the demographic fact that a few years from now, Boomers are going to retire and there won't be enough young people to replace them." But can young people starting their careers really afford to dismiss the current crisis so easily?

Maybe so. Rob McGovern, CEO of Jobfox, a career website that matches candidates' job skills to job requirements of employers,recently wrote a whitepaper entitled "The Recession: A Silver Lining for Corporate Recruiters". Although a recession invariably means job losses which may make it easier/cheaper for companies to hire talent, McGovern says "After a period of reactionary cutting and freezing, hiring activity will return to a level of normalcy that closely replicates the hiring levels experienced during the first half of 2008. Hiring is largely a function of 'job churn' and we see no evidence that churn will do anything but accelerate in the coming quarters." Both Tapscott and McGovern, however, may be biased towards this particular viewpoint given their interests in the messages they are delivering.

After an admittedly somewhat cursory search, still, I am somewhat reassured about the labour market and my prospects within it. But I guess time will tell.

Flashbacks

It's Republic Day here in Turkey. You always know it's a national holiday when the flags come out - and by the little icon of the Turkish flag and Ataturk displayed in the corner of the TV screens :) We have the day off, and we had yesterday afternoon as well. I plan to spend some time today considering my next steps.

If this return to blogging seems abrupt it's not really - I've been writing quite a lot since I've been here in Turkey. I've just been keeping it to myself :)

Watched an episode of Mad Men this morning (S01 E08). For those of you who watch, you'll be familiar with what I'm talking about (and for the others, I strongly suggest you start watching, from the beginning). We see some more of Don's flashbacks from his childhood in this episode, this time about a "rider of the rails" who stops by his family's farm (I use the term "family" loosely). Young Don tells the guy he's a "whore son" and the woman he lives with isn't his mother (we already kind of knew the latter). This situation really resonated with me. The bum tells little Don about the codes they use to tell each other how things are at the homes they visit - we learn Don's father is a "dishonest man" by the mark left by this traveler as he goes on his way.
I leave out a lot - again you should go and watch it yourself - but I love this show because like all true art, it selects pieces of the human reality and puts them up for our consideration. It really relies on us (the audience) a lot to connect the dots and to interpret them as we will, in the context of our own lives of course. I thought back to some of the memories I have from my childhood (been doing that a lot lately) and wondered, what makes us remember some things and forget others? Do we also select our own memories to be interpreted as we wish? Do dreams help us do this as well? More broadly - is life a collection of experiences put forth for us to build our own story, from which to infer deeper truths? What stories will I have built by the time I come to the end?

After a slightly inauspicious start, my first day at Microsoft was really good. I was late getting to work because the person from AIESEC Istanbul who was supposed to take me slept in and didn't come to pick me up until over an hour after he was supposed to. Then neither he, nor our cab driver knew exactly where Microsoft was located! Fortunately, we finally arrived and my boss was very understanding - she knew it wasn't my fault.

Today was mostly about orientation. First we had to pass through a metal detector and check in with photo ID. I got a security card that I will have to use about 20 times a day to pass through different sets of doors etc. The bathroom doors are also locked and you need to know the code to enter them. Suffice it to say that I feel very safe in the building! I met my boss in person and she was very welcoming. There were even flowers on my desk for me!

My laptop wasn't quite ready so after talking with my boss for a bit I went upstairs to see the IT guy, who is (somewhat ironically) not actually from Microsoft - they outsource some of their IT operations to Siemens apparently! He was also very helpful and gave me a "welcome present" in the form of a wireless mouse. My email account and system username was all ready for me as well.

Besides touring the building and meeting a ton of people, I participated in 2 conference calls and reviewed a bunch of materials to orient myself as to what I will be working on. I'm still not clear on exactly what it is I need to do in the next little while in terms of the bulk of my job description, but I'm getting a good idea of the scope of it, what CPE does, and how. I know for sure that it will be a good job with real responsibilities.

I went for lunch with 2 AIESECers, Matthias and Emel (Matthias is also an intern while Emel is a 'real' employee). Emel recognized me from when I was in Turkey the last time - we were at the same conference. I found out that Microsoft will provide a card to use for buying food that should cover at least all my lunches while at work and probably more. It only takes about 20 minutes to get to/from work on the public transit. They are surprisingly pretty relaxed there, more so than I expected. Many people were wearing jeans and they are not really concerned about when you come to work etc. Holidays should not be much of a problem either as long as they don't interfere with important dates etc.

Alright, I'm going to stop there - I haven't seen the confidentiality agreement yet! :) Tomorrow I have a teleconference with an external consultant to learn more about the project, and then in the evening I will have 2 parties - Microsoft is having a New Year's Party and then later the interns will have a goodbye party for one of my roommates. Oh, and life in the dorm has improved as I was able to move "downstairs" last night so I have a bit more privacy. I also discovered I can get the internet (kind of) from my bed. Sweet! Also my contact at AIESEC Istanbul told me that a woman (she's a lawyer) called them wondering if they had a native English speaker in town who might be interested in helping her to improve her English, which might involve payment of some kind or at least nice dinners out. And it never hurts to know a lawyer! I am the only native speaking intern in the city these days. So we will see what that is about. Overall it was an interesting and productive day!