After I was laid off in 2002, I wrote a lot of stuff in this blog about the experience of losing my job, searching for another one, and returning to the ranks of the employed. The same thing happened again this year, but I didn’t blog much about the process this time around. Mostly that was a good thing, because I covered that ground pretty well in 2002-2003. But it’s unfortunate that I didn’t write anything about those events, because I sometimes use this blog as a reference when I need to know the exact date of a major transition in my life — like the day I started or left a particular job.
When I was using Blogger, I had to find that information by skimming through the archives. But thanks to Movable Type, this blog now has a search function. So I want to go ahead and note a few dates for posterity.

• On Tuesday, 7 June 2005, I was informed that my contract assignment at IBM Retail Store Solutions (RSS) would end the following Friday.
• On Friday, 10 June, I finished cleaning out my desk and left IBM.
• On Monday, 18 July, I started a new contract job at John Deere in Cary. However, it became apparent after the first day or two that they had nothing for me to do. (It was a odd internal misunderstanding at Deere — the manager who brought me in believed his team needed a writer, but his people eventually admitted that they had misjudged their requirments.)
• On Tuesday, 26 July, I left Deere, having “worked” there for only seven business days.
• On Thursday, 1 September, I started a new job as the sole technical writer at Openfield Solutions, a small startup company in North Raleigh.

There, now I don’t have to worry about my faulty memory. If I need those dates three years from now, I’ll be able to find them here.