Census
We're finally in the computer age! I had got my mailing and temporarily laid it aside, dreading to complete the long questionnaires I have come to expect. Instead, I got a URL and a sign-in ID to use. (I'm sure there's a workaround for people without computers/smartphones and/or Internet services, but I haven't checked it out.)The motivation is your participation acts to get your state/community's fair share of US government fund transfers, yeah, a real talking point for us libertarians #sarcasm. Anyway, this year's interactive survey was relatively painless (at least for me as a bachelor with no dependents) and only required a few inputs, mostly contact information, DOB, gender, members of the household, and ethnicity--with a novel twist: this is the first survey where I've been asked to identify my (French-Canadian) heritage under the category of "white person". I suspect it's more complicated for my siblings and their children because nobody married someone in our heritage (well, one sister's husband can trace his surname heritage to France).
Pro Wrestling Notes
Well, it's been interesting seeing how WWE has responded to the COVID-19 crisis; they've resorted to taped, no-audience performances at their Orlando facility. I've noticed they are running a lot of canned, old wrestling match clips, which I personally find boring. Maybe matches without audiences aren't going over well with TV audiences. Even though sitcoms for ages have blended in audience laugh tracks, I guess they won't split in audience clips, etc. or think it might require explanation during the crisis. They have retained a certain sense of humor, such as when Stone Cold Steve Austin, a former major babyface, appeared a week back and showed him playing to an audience of one show host rating him (less than 10) during his promo lines; you just knew he would end up eating a Stone Cold stunner.I don't know what the hell they've been doing to Kevin Owens, one of the most gifted wrestlers and talkers (promos) around. During his NXT champ reign, he was built as an unstoppable monster with a devastating pop-up power bomb, someone who would turn on his best friend Sami Zahn. After a couple of brief championship reigns on the main roster, he's mostly been relegated to the mid-card, serving as hapless fodder for strongman Braun Strowman and jobbing matches. I can't recall the last time he won with his patented power bomb and he's now copies Steve Austin's Stone Cold Stunner finisher. So last night, Seth Rollins, who I believe was the first NXT champ, slated to face Owens in the upcoming Wrestlemania, was in a promo war with Owens and came off as more effective, claiming that he made NXT (and Owens' former reign). He also mocked current NXT talent (like Gargano). Someone on Twitter raved about Rollins' performance, and I replied something to the effect that I would like to see NXT run a Nexus angle on Rollins' ass. (The tweet has gotten a lot of impressions since then.) For readers who don't know, Nexus was formed out of participants from WWE's reality series promising a wrestling contract to the survivor and basically terrorized wrestlers with swarming wolf pack attacks.
It seems now that this year's live Wrestlemania has been canceled, they are going to run the event on separate weekend days (Saturday and Sunday), also from the Orlando performance center. I don't care much for the matches announced. Drew McIntyre, the Rumble match winner who took out WWE Champ Lesnar in the process with his signature Claymore kick (an alternative to Sheamus' broque kick), is up against Lesnar, and Goldberg meets Roman Reigns in a battle of spears. It never made sense to me why they booked Goldberg, who rarely appears on TV for matches, into taking the Universal belt off Bray Wyatt. In the meanwhile, they've booked Wyatt into a Wrestlemania revenge match against part-timer John Cena.
On the other hand, I was wondering how they would take the title off recent International Title holder Braun Strowman, and the answer is Strowman accepted a handicapped match against Nakamura, Cesaro, and sycophant Zahn. The good thing is they finally put a title on Zahn, a former NXT champ. It isn't clear where they are headed with Zahn's first defense; I can't imagine Nakamura is thrilled with the outcome. We should see soon.
Not a fan of spears or kicks as finishers; Shawn Michael's "sweet chin music" is an exception, but Michael was a very gifted technical wrestler.
Timing and This Bear Market
I did break a personal rule in investing over the unprecedented past 2 weeks which has seen the broad indexes lose more than a third, literally years of hard-fought gains in my retirement account. So I recently liquified most of my positions at steep losses, In part, I think the news will be a lot worse before it gets better, because the shutdowns are ongoing. Yesterday MD GOP Gov. Hogan ordered the closure of non-essential businesses, and Houston has just announced a stay-at-home policy. The only question is whether the market has already priced in some of the worst economic numbers since the Great Depression. I don't think so, but invest at your own risk It seems the Dow is up 8% as I type, with other indexes also up strongly. Of course, you're always going to second-guess your timing. In my case, it's possible I'll need to tap into retirement to meet my bills. So today's activity which seems to be related to the probability of Congress approving coronavirus spending legislation is probably a dead cat bounceA Changing Job Market
A few years back, one of my former high school coed friends was urging me to relocate back to Texas and live off the grid. She couldn't understand why I couldn't due my IT professional work remotely, off the Internet. In part, a lot has to do with security safeguards for enterprise databases, particularly given the Internet. In reality, I rarely work in the server room and especially in government locations it's not easy getting access. A year back I had to replace a defective disk, and I had to jump through hoops to do it. (Don't ask me about the red tape of dealing with defective disk itself.)I would say about 95% of the opportunities presented to me require on-site presence, nearly all of them requiring my physical relocation. Of course virtually all opportunities have been frozen over the past 2 weeks or so. In fact, I was scheduled into two interviews that never happened, not even a courtesy email or call the interview had been postponed or canceled.
So inevitably, especially with the Indian recruiters I hate to deal with, I'm pestered with relocation questions of start dates in person, moving logistics. All of these are complex because I don't know if or when I'll find a new apartment, can rent a U-Haul and/or hire over helpers. Never mind complications like Gov. Hogan shutting down non-essential businesses.
What I have noticed, at least on anecdotal contacts this week, some employers seem willing to negotiate initial remote work and more flexibility on relocation as the economy recovers.
