Eastward Bound
The completion of the PhD has in fact led to a new employment situation, and I'm delighted to announce that your humble blogger has accepted an institutional research position with an up and coming four-year university on the other side of the Mississippi. I’ll post specifics later, but within a few weeks I’ll be loading up the car and catching the freeway east. x4mr is leaving Arizona after 26 years.Last week I met my future co-workers, terrific people, and it will be an honor to be part of this team. The team is x4mr certified "cloth free." We’re in the administration building just two floors from the university president. The IR Department runs top of the line SAS and SAS Analytics on Windows XP with first rate Intel boxes running two 21 inch monitors each. You run the statistics on one screen and write to the other. The extremely sharp database analyst tells me that once I taste the dual screen MO, I will never tolerate single screen use again.
How ironic that in a certain respect the self-serving Cloth did me a favor. In a month I’m Dr. x4mr conducting institutional research for a university. Compare that to the incessant hostility, criticism, adversity, and financial carnage in the clothiverse at the bloody hands of swine who resent hard work and results. The new paycheck isn’t quite that of a Clothmeister, but it’s just fine, and I earn it. Far more important, the IR position makes a real difference helping others make a real difference with real people. I’ll take that any day over being a naked butt ugly emperor held aloft by empty rhetoric and back door swindles.
I honestly don't know what the "new reality" means for the blog, but quite possibly nothing at all. Without getting into details, the engine that runs this place shows no signs (none) of stopping anytime soon. I foresee only one development that could usurp its output.
I haven't met her.
posted by x4mr at 2:44 PM
16 Comments:
AWESOME. JUST AWESOME.
I knew this blog post was coming. Even in this economy I knew someone was going to grab you.
You know better than me, but if I understand correctly, after a couple years or so becoming a SAS God, you're set.
Congratulations, Dr. X4mr. Is that building at the university that hired you?
Your journey has been amazing, X4mr. I think that all of us who read your blog always knew that you would be fine, and that you were positioning yourself so that the "Clothmeisters" would never again be able to destroy your work.
Good job, and congratulations.
I just hope that you don't show up in one of Snell's TREO brochures as one of his success stories.
All the best, Dr. X4mr. I hope you don't vanish completely from the blogosphere.
Me hat's off to you, sir ! Doctor Sir, at that !
May you never work another day in your life, but always attend life as you make it bend to your will.
(I wasn't kidding about buying you a beer should you ever come back west.)
(Also, if you deign to provide a list of attributes that might be linked to the unknown "her", you never know what might show up at your door. *veg*)
I first encountered this blog after discovering x4mr's "Something Else."
I started reading, and it was so "real" and fascinating. Then I got to the "year" chapters, 1993, 1981... They blew me away.
That was when I realized this was really "Something Else."
In the first year chapter, a man goes before "God" and is asked to express his life as one and only one word. He freaks out, panics and struggles, but after a deeply soul searching experience, he discovers his own personal truth, and he says, "Growth."
That was written two years ago, and what have we witnessed since?
Bravo, x4mr, and best wishes. As a human being, you have demonstrated that you are infinitely beyond the selfish thugs that destroyed your training institute for their own short term profit.
You have clearly navigated a challenging turn few in their forties would have the courage to attempt. Congratulations.
Institutional Research at a university? Brilliant.
IR is a PhD packing bunch of number gurus smart enough to translate huge amounts of data into policy recommendations for university presidents. They are near the center of the brain running the brains.
In such an environment emperors without clothes (clothmeisters Snell, Lyons, Shelko, etc.) would be fired before lunch.
It is a perfect choice for x4mr.
Lest Joe Snell, Larry Hecker, Glenn Lyons, Steve Lynn and the other Weavers take any solace in x4mr's imminent departure, x4mr does not need to be in Tucson to keep this blog alive.
You cannot hide from the Blogosphere, Roach!
Wow.
I'm almost speechless. Remember our first conversation outside the cigar shop in November of 2003? I think I'm right that my suggestion led to your entering the PhD program in January 2004.
I had ZERO to do with your writing "Something Else," but when you did, your distinguishing "the Cloth" brought tears to my eyes. You gave a name and a face to what I have hated for decades. There is a lot of cloth at Pima Community College. Ever attend a meeting of the Workforce Investment Board?
The "cloth" has entered the public discourse, and every time I hear it, I have a priceless inner "ka-ching!" moment for which I cannot give enough thanks.
Congratulations, x4mr, and seriously, thank you.
...yet.
Haven't met her YET...
When you do, may she be supportive enough that the blog still exists... and probably takes some new directions.
I think that X4mr, with "Something Else" as well as his relentless posts, brought whistle blowing to a level that Tucson will never see again.
However, there is a point where the enlightened ones need to take the ball and run with it. That is where we are.
Frank Antenori certainly sees the huge void in leadership and he is making the effort.
However, these are bipartisan issues and it is very difficult for Frank to not be strongly identified as Republican. That is the issue that I see there, how to keep this bipartisan.
The whistleblowers can only take you so far, and X4mr has far exceeded that point.
People need to step up.
Congratulations, Matt! Extraordinarily well done. Been reading, watching and cheering. All the best to you and godspeed.
The thrill of new beginnings. Sweet. Bitter-sweet. Enjoy the journey!
Congratulations Matt! I hope the job provides everything you desire, with no TREO equivalent in sight.
Tucson will be worse off without you.
Good Luck and GodSpeed!
Do try and keep us updated, letting us know that there is a world out there that values education.
Sadly, the AZ Legislature is working to see that AZ is not numbered among them.
Thanks so much for the kind words, all. They are most appreciated.
The guys at the cigar shop bought me an Opus X, which I have never had.
That is one serious stick of tobacco. Very intense.
I look forward to having a real job again. First on the list is a Blu-Ray (with an iPhone close behind).
After a few months, I replace the computer and get a serious monitor, or as has been forecast, two monitors.
The blog will continue.
In all your success, don't go clothy on us, not that I think you will. Congrats and best wishes in your future endeavors.
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