Happy Holidays
Austin Dispatches
No. 44 (Seasonal Issue)
Dec. 10, 2002

Despite the travails that beset this year, now staggering toward the dustbin of history,1 I managed to defy the odds and come out a winner at the end of it all.

Amidst the sluggish job market, I managed to work half the year because a brash bravado brought benefits by brazening by the burgeoning abyss beyond Bowne. Recently, I secured a contract at Dell to run into next year. I edit training manuals for people at other companies who manage the hardware their companies buy from Dell.2

The recent good news adds luster to the holiday season, although the luster pales compared to the orange sorbet sunset-hued prosperity of the '90s.3 Once in while, however, during the long, busy months of schmoozing and surfing for my next job, I experienced moments that nearly recalled the better times of yore.

On any given sultry summer day, I attended a networking event to glad-hand and cajole my way back into the work force. I handed out business cards like pretzels at the ballpark at the Low Tech, High Tech, and Austin XL happy hours; the Society for Technical Communication meetings; and sundry other events that peppered the calendar.

Sometimes the job search took an unexpected twist. For example, an acquaintance from the Low Tech Happy Hour forwarded an e-mail invitation to a Sushi Pageantry Party at Whiskey Bar downtown. Some guy whom I don't know and never met threw a party to celebrate the televised Miss Texas USA Pageant, complete with $2 bar drinks – that someone bought for me – and a bevy of perky Texas women at the bar.4

In my own local bar, The Canary Roost, and elsewhere, I worked as precinct chairman to turn my neighborhood into a Libertarian stronghold.5 My efforts in my precinct garnered my party nearly 30 percent of the vote, in selected races.6 Moreover, candidates whom I specifically helped received about 5 times as many votes in my precinct as they did overall.

And as I strut through the last weeks of 2002, I hope you are also enjoying this holiday season and will enjoy many more to come.

Warmest Regards,

Dan

NOTES
1 Barzun, Jacques. From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present. New York City: HarperCollins, 2000: xviii.
2 AD No. 43 (Nov. 23, 2002).
3 Andersen, Kurt. Turn of the Century. Random House, 1999; Coupland, Douglas. Microserfs. New York City: Regan Books, 1995; Cramer, James J. Confessions of a Street Addict. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2002: Ch. 4-23; Eisler, Dan. “Those Were the Days.” E-mail to KT Hernandez, 30 Jan. 2002; Sinclair, Carla. Signal to Noise. San Francisco: HarperEdge, 1997; Wolff, Michael. Burn Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
4 AD No. 39 (Aug. 1, 2002).
5 Eisler. “New Precinct Headquarters.” E-mail to Travis County Libertarian Party, 31 July 2002.
6 Lucey, Dennis. “Re: Precinct Results.” E-mail to Eisler, 23 Nov. 2002.