Since I had so much time at night to kill while I was in Tucson because I was up late and my parents didn't have TVs or a computer in their new house, I read. For some reason, before I left, I picked up a handful of books at Borders on Silicon Valley, and I polished them all off before the weekend was done.

I don't know what it was that drew me to that subject, especially not at this particular point in time now that the entire scene spectacularly imploded a while ago. But it was interesting to see how things were "back then," when the Valley took on a life of its own and everyone had their grandmaster plan to get rich.

I used to be a bit player in that scene. I worked in high-tech public relations for several years while the whole boom was going on, and I fell victim to the implosion and was laid off when the industry collapsed. Not only did I have to drink the Kool-Aid, I had to pour it for others. And when I was finally laid off, I swore I'd never go back to that scene unless I absolutely positively had no choice. Which is why it aggravates me so much when my parents called tonight to say that among their mail was a notice from the City of Los Angeles for a job interview opening for some DWP (Dept. of Water & Power) PR position way the hell out in some place I'd never even heard of, and they kept pushing me to call and see about getting an interview even though the window for interviews had passed a week ago. I have a job that I haven't been laid off from (yet), I like my job and even though I'm not being paid much, I'm not going to leave it simply because it doesn't pay that well. I hated PR that much. I may have been good at it, but I still hated it.

We had some people come by our building to demonstrate a product to us last week, and I went down to see the demo. I got to talking with one of the guys who, after I asked a question, deferred to his partner because he said he was really just a PR guy and didn't have the answer. We chatted for a while about PR, and when I told him that I had worked in the field for several years and had jumped the fence to where I was now, I could hear the envy in his voice when he told me how things were going for him. He used all the lingo that I used to use with my PR friends to describe a not-so-great situation: "it's a sweatshop," "drinking the Kool-Aid" and so forth.

I may have moved to the state where Silicon Valley is, but I'm not a corporate shill. And I hope never to be again.