On the tail of good news comes bad news. The day after I go visit my new nephew, I find out I am no longer employed.

I've been hinting around here at the fact that a budget was coming down from our new owners which was threatening to gut our department. Well, it finally came through and on one year to the day of when I got my job, I was let go.

They say it wasn't because of any lack of ability on my part, and I believe them. The quality of the site in general skyrocketed in the last year and the readership grew in leaps and bounds to match it.

It still doesn't help me cope with the feelings of utter uselessness that haunted my sleep last night.

It's a measure of how grown up I've become that I come near panic every time I think 'I have no job'. I have no employment. I have no way to bring money home.

They were more generous than they had to be in the termination. One month severance pay and the services of a 'Career Transition Consultant' for that time. That's a lot more than most get.

And I know I'll be fine. I have a whole month to get a new job. I have rent for April and May locked up. Lisa is working. Everything will be fine.

It just doesn't feel that way right now.

Damn it all, I loved my job! I finally managed to find the niche where my skills fit perfectly. A mesh of my journalism training and my web skills. A place where I dealt with entertainment news on a daily basis. A place where I got to see movies for free! Everything I always wanted and they PAID me to do it!

And now it's over. Now I start applying at design houses and large corporations to wrangle a place in their design teams. There is no other big media powerhouse in Calgary to turn to.

Fuck.

Over in the forum:

Debunking UFO's
Still on panhandlers

Let's go back and see the baby picture again.

How goes the job search?

Take me home, big fella