I love my job. Back in my days of working 60+ hour weeks at the world’s worst print service bureau, or faking it as a graphic artist, I never thought I’d be typing those words. At least, I never thought I would be saying them without sarcasm.

Massage therapy has been a very rewarding career for me. Not financially, well, I mean, I pay my bills on time and never lack for things, but I’m not making the big bucks by a long shot. In terms of personal satisfaction, however, it just can’t be beaten! People come in to see me with soreness, tight muscles, tension headaches, insomnia, and a host of other problems. I work with them and they feel better. The praise I receive makes me feel like a hero, and knowing how effective massage makes me feel as though my job is actually making a difference.

Doing massage, even 20-30 hour weeks, is very taxing. Repetitive strain ruins backs, shoulders, elbows, and thumbs. We learn ways to keep ourselves safe, but so many of us ignore those tips and wind up sidelined. A commonly-cited figure holds that most therapists practice about three years before burning out (injuries are only one reason, among the others are low pay and dissatisfaction with the actual practice of massaging people).

The second day of April marked the seventh anniversary of my massage practice. If you count massage school, it’s been nearly eight years…and I love my career more than ever.

Lately, however, there have been a few dark clouds looming on my horizon, so to speak. The deep joint of my thumb (the so-called ‘saddle’ or sellar joint) has been aching. My shoulders often hurt and sometimes there are fiery pains in my forearms. I recently heard that seven years is another peak for massage therapist burnout.

This is a little bit scary...or sobering at least. I really don’t do anything else very well. (No, I don’t. I’m not just being silly or self-effacing here…read on for explanation…) I’m one of those generalists who does a whole lot of things adequately and one or two very well. I’ve definitely never had a job I’ve feel such mastery of. Not to say that I couldn’t be as good at something else, but it sure would be a long path to get there.

In my career, I’ve met a few exceptional massage therapists. One has been practicing for 28 years, several others for well over 10. One of our local clinics has a man in his 80s who is still massaging, and apparently does a heck of a good deep tissue massage.

So, I have resolved to be careful. I recently took a “Safe Hands” course that gave me tips on preventing injury and protecting my body for a nice long career. I have been putting ice on my shoulders and wrists, soaking in Epsom salt baths, resting, exercising...last week I got a (great) massage from my colleague, Kate. That helped a lot.

I dream that some day people will tell their friends: “You have got to go to Massage Envy Frisco…they have this 75-year-old therapist, and he does SUCH a great job!”

Notes from the Surf

If You Like Tennis
http://imgur.com/tzJWT.jpg
Better than pong.

Confessions of a Hiring Manager
http://www.experience.com/alumnus/article?channel_id=technology&source_page=home&article_id=article_1173383927084
You agonized over the different sections and you stressed about the tone, and here I am, the hiring manager, and I read 1/10th of your work in 30 seconds... Here's a good example from an imaginary resume: "Proven success in leading technical problem solving situations". This line tells me nothing. Yes, I know you're trying to tell me that you're strategic, but there is no way you're going to convince me that you're strategic in a resume.

Bill Watterson's "Rarest"
http://www.platypuscomix.net/otherpeople/watterson.html
Interesting look behind the mind of Calvin and Hobbes.

Just War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elB3v1ulQcc
Games without frontiers, war without tears.

Veterans Affairs Statistics Show a Third of Women Sexually Harassed
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/42939
For more about "killing yourself" by putting an M16 in your mouth, see August 4, 2008.

Opposition Win Greenland Election
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8080434.stm
Socialists lead with 44% of vote. Center-left in second place with 26%.

Marx Makes Headway in "Mainstream" Media
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/15701/
"Marx saw, just as many contemporary Americans are beginning to see, that the struggle for control of the financial system is part of the fundamental fight for democracy."

Russian Economy Drives Unemployed to Take Over Mayor's Office
http://www.mosnews.com/society/2009/05/20/pika/
"there is currently a famine in the city and residents have been forced to eat dogs."

Venezuela: Armed employees learn to defend themselves
http://links.org.au/node/1088
I wouldn't say everything in the article sounds good, but this I'd encourage others to spread: "The proposals made have emerged from the depths of the working class. I did not come here to tell you what to do! It is you who are proposing this."

Argentina: FASINPAT a Step Closer to Permanent Democratic Control
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1875/1/
"On April 8, 2003, during the most recent eviction attempt, over 5,000 community members from Neuquén came out to defend the factory."

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Below is a Markov chain based on all of gate's writeups generated by me. If you would like your writeups chained, just enter
e2d2 process my writeups in the chatterbox while the bot is online.


I'm at the dawn of civilization and it makes little difference. Deflation raises real wages, which are both difficult and costly for management to lower. This frequently leads to murder. Do we get more chance to make the environment sucked or technology sucked, then population would already be another boy - ah the expectation, ah the perils of the nodes on "Cool Writeups". Wasn't that the point at which I needed for my car tomorrow. Then I would lie for you. You deserve that person. You make me think of as he gets older.

Hello. It's me. I'm back to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the nickel gets head, the boy and a single pen. Tear the paper so no more representative of Bolivia get involved. The young soldiers on the politics of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the bottom of it - by the media of the quote is that "it's two wolves and one sheep deciding what to do it." There are far less precious things I have willingly given you - I'm sorry if sometimes it does seems to be harboring agents of the world. The sky in motion ...if the world around us forms the feedback loop from our fingers crossed that they'll make it last forever. I am just rambling. I just found out noders aren't allowed to use Netflix. He's almost one year old now.

Arg! Human beings are a cancer! =) It's more than simply being attractive that made me feel guilty, wanting to do it to the voting public. Considering how often capitalism and how much is due to the command center of Benson's forces. Hours later, the first person to pay off the interest of other minerals, - such as a stream of subtitles before his eyes, and his mind. This shocked him into silence once again here - that you do. I hope I'm not sounding too serious? OK, I never wanted truth from my old world was getting larger.

It must be funny, please! I'd even give you work on an assembly line, you could branch out into other areas, or help out a peer who is campaigning for Kirchner and says she's a Peronist. Freddy, along with milk and eggs said, "In 2005 China exempted over 2,000 companies involved in that area, whether it's from government or non-government forces." A quote at Wikipedia at one point, but has since been deleted: "REMF : rear-echelon motherfucker." Widely used in the name of saving the overall campaign. Rarely do the actual people in more production of luxury goods. The result is unemployment in developed nations for the public good. He has in that they are no longer had anything to lose. Vengeance gave them a legal case to take ownership.

"I'm God As A stream of subtitles before his eyes, and once again, those with more repressive nations closer to the rest of mankind - Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the Congressional Directory, will find out =). The plane flight to China at the start of the nodes on "Cool Writeups" wasn't the point at which I needed for my source to sync. Then all the things we need to spend - you get something like economic democracy. Everyone has an equal salary, that is similar to the economic bands which have connected them with another, and to just be the ones I don't know the cause. Some possible explanations: A hacker broke into the middle of the three way once as a superhero? She knew how.


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