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Long Days and Nights in an Alaskan Oilfield

Every now and then, someone comes along with a job that, unless you work in that field, you’d never realize existed. And then, when you find out it exists, it’s still hard to imagine exactly what that job entails. Jack Winslow is a Petroleum Engineer, working twelve-hour shifts on an Alaskan oilfield to make sure the drilling stations keep running smoothly and safely. Remember the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year? Jack’s team is responsible for avoiding those kinds of disasters on the North Slope. Sound stressful? Wait until you hear the rest of it.

Growing up in rural Alaska, Jack wanted to be a writer, but only in a vague sort of way. He attended the University of Alaska, Anchorage right after high school, only to drop out immediately. He worked odd jobs for a while, then re-enrolled at Anchorage for a year before transferring to the English department at Boise State University. Jack studied English with a concentration in Technical Communication, “Because the first advisor I came across when I first got there was the head of the Technical Communication section of the English department…His take on my SAT scores (which were high in both math and verbal) was that I'd be really jazzed about his pet major, and I pretty much was - although there's not really inherently any math in it.”

Jack graduated with plans to become a technical writer, but after graduation, he and his then-wife moved back to Alaska to be near her mother, who was ill. Jack wasn’t able to find work as a tech writer – Alaska didn’t exactly have a wealth of job opportunities for English majors – he “decided to pursue basically anything else than what I went to school for.”

Jack’s experience trying to find a job in rural Alaska is similar to what many recent graduates are facing all over the nation in today’s artic economic climate. “I did all the things they always tell you to do. I applied for everything, and I also dropped off resumes to anybody I thought employed tech writers, whether they were hiring or not. I applied for graphic design jobs, any kind of document production/generation work, basically anything that had even the most tenuous connection to anything I'd studied in school. The closest I got was a job creating some kind of monthly real estate newsletter for a professional association (I was first runner up).”

After months of temporary odd jobs and anxiety, Jack got the tip that would shape his career. “My brother-in-law got a job working on the North Slope, as he had returned to Alaska at the same time we had. He told me that it paid well, although it was long hours and grueling work. It seemed to be paying about how much they told me I'd be making when I left school, so I applied.” He was accepted, unsurprisingly: “The initial job is so unpleasant that there's enough turnover that they can hire pretty much anyone who applies…For some reason, I stuck it out in that first horrible job for two and a half years.”

Jack eventually got promoted out of the difficult and dirty first-line work on the oilfield, and after about six years he was working as “what's loosely termed a Petroleum Engineer in the group that includes the supervisors of that first position I had taken - which is one of the brass rings for most of the people who stick around up there.” The hours are still long, and his life is complicated by the fact that after his first marriage ended in divorce, he met and married his current wife, who lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Jack lives on the oil field half the time, working twelve hour shifts, seven days a week, for two weeks at a time. Then he has two weeks off to go back home to Portland. “I end up missing things because they happen to fall during the time I am at work, and it's just unrealistic to try to adjust my schedule for everything I might want to do. I can get really special occasions scheduled (I went home for my wife's college graduation) but in general, if I'm home when something happens I can go, and otherwise too bad.” Jack doesn’t have children, but he recognizes that the members of his team who do often miss important milestones. Still, the pay is good, and he gets half the year off, albeit in two-week blocks.

So what exactly does a Petroleum Engineer do for twelve hours at a stretch? In Jack’s words,“a typical work day starts at 4:30 (am or pm depending on if I am working days or nights). The guy who does my job for the other 12 hours fills me in on what happened during his shift. We then attend the first meeting of my day, with one of the other work-groups, as they often require the services of my team. That runs for about half an hour. If I'm working days, I then go to the morning meeting of our larger team. If I'm working nights, that meeting marks the end of my day. During that meeting, we start by discussing safety issues, then we quickly go over the work that was completed over the prior 24 hours and how it might impact others in the group.”

“Then breakfast, and after that I catch up with the dispatcher of my work group. I supervise pumping services, which is a collection of two-person teams who run pumps the size of tractor-trailers, which can move fluids at rates of 5 barrels per minute at pressures of 5000 psi. The rest of the day consists of coordinating the pump crews to work on our priority jobs, as given to us from our other work groups, the Operations team, and town. Our other work groups give us work that is basically in support of their jobs. Operations gives us work that supports the day-to-day operations of the wells. Town gives us work that generates more production or is used to evaluate the wells for the safety of the operation or for compliance with State and Federal regulations.”
And there are plenty of regulations. “There's a certain amount of required yearly training. Most of it is OSHA compliance stuff -- first aid/CPR, etc. I'm required to be trained in how to manifest waste that is injected in disposal wells - that's an EPA requirement. I'm required to take what's called Well Control school. It's a biannual week-long course which teaches (or reminds) the engineer how to deal with blowouts. It also covers various pressure-control equipment. There's a lot of math.”

If you’re interested in becoming a Petroleum Engineer, Jack recommends either being prepared to put in your time as a contractor and come up through the ranks or getting an engineering degree or some kind. And to really succeed, you’ll need to hone your creative problem-solving skills. “We're constantly being asked to figure out how to find and eliminate the risks before they cause an incident - which can be difficult when so many eyes have been looking at a task already, or when the tasks have been done so many times that they've become routine.”

Jack also has advice for recent grads just starting out. “If you can manage to do what you love, that's great - but the world needs a lot more fry cooks than it has people who love to do that. I'd advise working for a little while before going to school, if that's going to be a goal. I'd also recommend not settling down into a job for very long. It's probably not great for employers, but if you can shift from job to job every six months or so, I think you can get a fairly good idea of what that line of work holds for you. Try to invest a good chunk of time in something creative, whether it's got anything to do with what you want to do for a living or not. It might be writing, or painting, or music, but it might be gardening, or small engine repair, or cooking. Find something you really love to do, and spend time doing it every day if you can. If you can figure out a way to incorporate any of that in what you do for a living, you'll be miles ahead and you'll get a lot more out of your work.”

You Shoot Like A Girl: Interview with a Frag Doll

Can you imagine getting paid to play video games? I’m not talking about a job where gaming is considered “research” for the work you eventually produce, like play-testing, games journalism, or (potentially NSFW) working for the ESRB. I’m talking about a job where your main responsibility is to be awesome at video games. That’s what the women of Ubisoft’s Frag Dolls do, and I was able to talk to three of the Dolls via e-mail to learn a little bit more about how they became professional gamers and why it’s the perfect job for them.

According to the official Frag Dolls web site, “The Frag Dolls are a team of professional female gamers recruited by Ubisoft to promote their video games and represent the presence of women in the game industry.” This means that they compete in tournaments, attend gaming conventions and industry events, and advocate for women in the gaming industry through public appearances, blogs, and social networking. In other words, they live and breathe video games. Can you imagine anything better?

There are currently nine Dolls on the team, and since their debut in 2004 (in which they won by shut-out at the Rainbow Six: Black Arrow tournament), competition for any vacancies that arise has been fierce. I received replies from Ann-Marie Wilson, Krystal Herring, and Lanai Gara, also known as Spectra, Siren, and Fidget, respectively. Of course, nobody is born a Frag Doll – and Siren noted that “As a team of 8, every girl has different backgrounds and education.” Spectra has a communications degree and worked in the film industry and as a flight attendant before she answered a casting call to be a Frag Doll in 2009. Siren worked as a professional makeup artist, doing makeup for runway shows, weddings, photo shoots, and retail. Others have backgrounds in fields as divers as art, computing, psychology, and human resources.

So what does a Frag Doll do in a day? Spectra replied, “currently I spend most of my days working from home on my computer. I have a number of projects to work on for our website and social media outlets. On certain days of the week I have gaming events I need to be online for, I have conference calls and other administrative jobs to do for our team.” Fidget’s schedule is similar. “Normally I wake up, get onto the laptop, do emails, update our social networks, play video games whenever we have community game nights or Frag Doll Fridays and work on videos that are coming up.” All the Dolls write blogs and participate in community events, and they travel all over the country to compete and participate in conventions as needed.

Being a Frag Doll sounds like a full-time job, but many of the Dolls have other responsibilities on top of their team duties. Fidget balances her work with being a mom; Morgan Romine, the team captain, is a full-time graduate student. Faith Harrison’s official profile reveals that she juggles a job as a computer technician, working for the Dolls, studying for her bachelor’s in Computer Science, and being a mom to her four-year-old son.

The Dolls all have two things in common: they all started gaming at a young age, and they all love their work. But it’s not without drawbacks. I asked everyone what the worst part of their jobs were, and Spectra gave this surprising response: “Not having enough time to play video games. I would love to spend all day playing one game. Being able to spend my time to master it and be the best. Before I got this job I would have long stretches of time off devoted to gaming. Now I have to schedule my game time. It’s hard to be really good at any one game. I have to play a lot of different games and I never have the time needed to reach the level of skill I feel like others expect from me. It can be frustrating.”

How do you become a Frag Doll? When the group began, Ubisoft issued a casting call and women gamers from all over the country competed for eight slots. Now, however, there is a Cadettes program, sort of a professional gaming internship for women. As current Dolls “retire,” their replacements will be drawn from the available pool of Cadettes. This is how Siren was hired; she played with Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers, an all-female group of non-professional competitive gamers, then was accepted into the Cadettes for a while before being hired as a full-on Frag Doll. Her advice? “Learn as much as you can from anyone willing to teach you, be persistent and

make great contacts.” And Spectra noted that while “being a Frag Doll is a great position for any dedicated female gamer looking to get into professional gaming or wanting a career in the game industry. But it isn’t the only way. There are lots of opportunities out there…the really talented and motivated will create their own opportunities.”

Fidget offers similar advice to anyone pursuing a new career: “- Be determined and never give up, no matter what people tell you.” Additionally, she believes in going for a career you want to be in for the long haul. “Do something you enjoy and can see yourself doing 20 years later in. Don't do something just for the money.” And Spectra offered this encouragement: “think about what you are good at, what you enjoy doing, and find a job that lets you do that. You would be surprised what you can make a living doing.”

This article would have been impossible without the help of Morgan Romine (AKA Rhoulette), who distributed the questionnaire among the team and endured my ceaseless nagging. For more information on the Frag Dolls and to see when they may be coming to a city near you, check out their web site at www.fragdolls.com. Image courtesy of Ubisoft.

Linguistics Professor Linda Lombardi Quits Job, Joins Zoo

“I threw away a tenured professorship to work at a zoo and pick up animal [poop],” Linda Lombardi told me on the phone last week. Then she launched into a winding tale of her search for a fulfilling work life that began with a fascination with Medieval music and ends with the publication of a murder mystery. Here’s how it unfolded.

When she was in junior high, Linda decided that she wanted to be a musician. “I wanted to specialize in early music,” she recalled, referring to the music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But there was one problem: Linda didn’t play any instruments. “I came to this later in life than most people,” she said, “but I decided I wanted to be a singer, which is one thing you can decide to do later in life and be OK.” So she talked to a teacher about her dream, telling him she wanted to sing and learn to play the recorder. He responded, “That’s good, someday you might sell out a phone booth.”

“Which, I have to say, was very prescient,” Linda said, “because my whole career has been doing things that have a very small audience.” She did learn the recorder and continued to study music, and around that time she stumbled upon a PBS series by Leonard Bernstein. “He took the Noam Chomsky generative language forms and he applied that to classical music. So I was watching this series because I was interested in music, and I got all excited about language, so I went to the library and started reading about linguistics.” And she fell in love.

When it came time to choose a college, Linda applied to schools that had both good music programs and good linguistics programs, and she “ended up at a place where you couldn’t really do either one well.” She also learned exactly how rigorous studying music could be. “You don’t double major in music and something else – not if you want to be a musician.”

“After about a year into college, I realized I was making no progress in either direction, so I dropped out,” Linda said. She worked a few odd jobs and then returned to school at another university, majoring in “linguistics with a lot of psychology.” After finishing her undergraduate degree, she worked in a research lab with a woman who did psycholinguistics research for a while before applying to graduate school. She obtained her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and took a temporary job at the University of Toronto before finding a permanent job in Maryland.

Linda describes being an academic as “almost like being a sports star, you have to have such a passion for it you can’t see yourself doing anything else.” Professional academics have almost no choice over where they live – they have to go where the jobs are – and competition is fierce. There might be three or four job opportunities for a psycholinguist in the whole country each year, and hundreds of applicants for each. “You have to have such a lust for knowledge that it’s the only way to satiate it…You know what lust is like, you can’t think straight and you make ridiculous decisions.” So she moved to Maryland and, in an effort to meet people in her new city, starting volunteering one day a week at the National Zoo.

Linda was thrilled to have her academic job at first. She was hired to build a program in her area of study for the university, but “after one thing and another it didn’t happen, so I was isolated in a department where nobody really cared what I was doing. There was nobody in my department or even nearby to share ideas with, and I was settled in the area and it wasn’t that easy to move.” Finally, after ten years, Linda decided she wanted out.

“When I got sick of it, I said to a friend of mine, you know what I want to do, I want to write mysteries. I really want to set a mystery in Venice Calif, which is where she lived, and where I wanted to live…and I thought I could vicariously live there through the book. And she said to me, you idiot, you should set a mystery at the zoo.” So Linda started drafting the first version of what would become The Sloth’s Eye and began to see her part-time volunteer position at the zoo with new eyes.

One day at the zoo, one of the permanent employees asked Linda to do “some nasty and strenuous job, and she said, ‘I kind of hate to ask you to do this.’ And I said, ‘I’m thinking of trying to do this for a living, so I should probably try and find out what the worst parts of the job are really like.’ She stopped and stared at me, and I think she really said, ‘Wait here, I’ll be right back.’” The zookeepers knew Linda as a committed volunteer, “somebody who had been doing this for ten years, who had been doing this as a hobby on the side of having a regular job.” So whenever a new full-time position opened up, they didn’t even mention it to Linda because they thought she’d be insane to quit her “real” job at the university to clean up after animals.

And yet, that’s exactly what Linda was considering. The zoo had an opening for a temporary keeper, which was supposed to last three months, “so I took a leave from my job at the university, and it was the most fascinating thing I had ever done. I not only never called in sick from the job, I would hope that they would call me in on my day off so I could work. It turned out they needed someone for more than 3 months, so I decided I would stay. So I asked for another semester off, and my academic department started giving me a hard time, which was all bullshit. I had tenure, I could have strung them along for as long as I wanted. But it looked good for my job [at the zoo] becoming permanent, and there was a lot of Woe and Intrigue going on, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and resign my job at the university, because I wanted out.”

The position at the National Zoo position expired a few months later, leaving Linda without a job of any kind, supported by her husband, who she affectionately refers to as “the Technical Staff.” Not the housewife type, Linda continued to pursue her dual-purpose career as a zookeeper/writer. “For the next couple of years, I was trying to write the book, trying to get the book published, and at the same time I was trying to get other zookeeper jobs…Whenever I was thinking of grabbing an opportunity to do something, there were both things going on: ‘oh, this will be really good for my zookeeping résumé,’ and ‘this will be really good in the book.’”

Linda worked for the zoo in Baltimore, a guy who kept poison dart frogs, another frogkeeping job, and again at the National Zoo. “I came away with a lot of reasons where people at the zoo would want to murder each other. It was a good setting, but there was a lot of interpersonal stuff that I never would have known about if I hadn’t worked there.” Meanwhile, writing became a more important part of her career as she also pursued non-fiction. “There was a point where I could have gotten another permanent job at the national zoo,” Linda recalled, “and I said, ‘No I’m trying to do this freelance writing thing.’ I had just sent a bunch of queries and got some really good responses, and then the economy crashed and it turned out to be the worst time ever in history to try and become a freelance writer.” Linda did write for a time as the pets correspondent for the Associated Press, all the while continuing to work on getting her novel finished and published.

The end result was The Sloth’s Eye, which was released last week by Five Star Press and is now available on Amazon.com. It’s a tale of intrigue, murder, and romance that takes place in a large zoo, full of creatures (and minds) great and small. (You can also read a preview of the first few chapters at Linda’s web site, http://www.lindalombardi.com/books/.) And if you’re interested in writing fiction as a career, Linda also has some thoughts on writing novels in general.

Linda stressed the importance of intensive research. “I’m very hesitant to write about anything that I haven’t done. I would never have written about the zoo if I hadn’t worked there. That’s one of those things about being an academic that carries over into the fiction writing, I have a very high standard for how much research should go into writing about something. I actually lived this, there’s a lot of day to day detail in it, and that adds to the plot and character development. I won’t even write about a species of animal I haven’t worked with, because once you know all the details you know how easy it is to get them wrong.”

Think the story’s over? Not by a long shot. Linda has a nonfiction book based on her blog that is due out this fall. Tune in a few months from now to see how her nonfiction career developed on a parallel, but surprisingly separate, path.

Happy Mother’s Day from Professional Detours!

Mothers, whether good or bad, have more influence over our lives than any other single person we encounter, especially when it comes to our choice of career. And, as any mother knows, having children can completely alter a woman’s career trajectory. In honor of all the mothers who have encouraged, inspired, and advised their adult children, and in recognition of all moms with young kids who are currently balancing work and family, Professional Detours is proud to bring you a collection of thoughts about and by moms from all walks of life.

Mothers are our first teachers, instructing us about our world and our place in it. Sometimes they advise us directly:

Imagine my surprise when, after a lifetime of teaching me to keep personal things to myself, Mom insisted my drawings were the start of a comic strip for millions of people to enjoy.
Cathy Guisewite

Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living.
Ethel Merman

[My mother] never had really tried to guide my career or really had any say in my life as an adult, but this was the one time she said she would never speak to me again if I quit acting.
Mark Ruffalo

And sometimes they lead by example:

Even when she didn't have a paid job, Mom did volunteer work and was involved in the church, and I got to see her interacting with other adults and using her mind and her skills in creative ways.
Jamie Lynn Dunston

I think one of the things that's made the biggest impact on me is what my mom compromised on in order to balance her professional career with being a mom: music…She said when we were little, when she got home from work in the evening she had to choose between practicing and spending time with us, and time with the kids won every time.
Elia Nelson Desjardins

My mother was a great example for me. She was a working mother with a good career.
Andrea Jung

My mom was a source of strength. She showed me by example that women, regardless of how difficult life may get, can do it all.
Gloria Estefan

Mothers support us in our career choices, even when times get tough:

My mom has a good way of engaging me in a conversation about the choices I make, listening, being objective and open-minded, and respecting those choices so long as they don't put me in danger.
Casey Affleck

My mom is definitely my rock.
Alicia Keys

When I was 10 or 11, my mom was the one out there catching passes for me. She was my prime receiver.
Joe Theismann

They teach us important life lessons:

My mom is always telling me it takes a long time to get to the top, but a short time to get to the bottom.
Miley Cyrus

My mom never taught me to be waiting for some prince on a white horse to swipe me off my feet.
Tyra Banks

My mom always said that there would be haters. Not everyone can love ya.
Joel Madden

And they make sacrifices for us:

My mom and my dad wanted my brother and I to have a better life, you know, better education, better jobs. It was probably harder, much, much harder, for my parents. When you're a kid, you can learn a language much more easily; I learned English in less than a year.
Mila Kunis

For me, already being part of a single parent household and knowing it was just me and my mom, you'd would wake up times and hope that the next day you'd be able to be alongside your mother because she was out trying to make sure that I was taken care of. But all I cared about was her being home.
LeBron James

And even if we lose them, their legacy lives on:

No one was more important than my mom and dad. I know they are watching from a place up in heaven here today to make sure all their kids are doing good.
Eddie Murray

Sometimes our mothers’ careers have a profound impact on our upbringing:

My mom is the reason that I'm a nurse today. She is the best nurse I know. She taught me to work hard and do work that means something to you.
Megan Downey Dunston

My mom was a pianist, and she taught piano out of her house. I was just so excited, being a little kid and having all these other kids come to my house twice a week. I thought it was a big party.
Vanessa Carlton

My mom is two people to me. She's my mom number one, and then she's this lady most comedians know as being a legendary owner of a nightclub that's responsible for starting a lot of heavy careers.
Pauly Shore

But moms know that having kids can have just as strong an impact on their careers as well. After all, being a mother is challenging enough even without outside work:

There is nothing better than being a parent. It is the most challenging job one could ever ask for. I love being a mom and I love being a friend to my children as well.
Marlee Matlin

There is nothing like becoming a mom to fill you with fear.
Arianna Huffington

And finding balance between work and family is challenging, even at the best of times:

Being a working mom is not easy. You have to be willing to screw up at every level.
Jami Gertz

When you become a mom you just learn how to function sleep deprived and you do get used to it. I came back to work when Finley was three months old and the first few months were rough. Then somehow you learn to exist on no sleep and now when he does upon occasion sleep through the night, which is like a full six hours, you're pretty sure he's suffocating. So you don't sleep anyway.
Holly Marie Combs

I'm a mother, I'm a journalist, I'm an American; I'm all of those things, and it really complicates your job when you have all these things come into play.
Paula Zahn

Kids can change your perspective on everything:

Becoming a mom put "working" and "career" into perspective for me and helped me to be a hard worker to be able to take care of my daughter but not a workaholic and miss out on my daughter.
Leslie Kohli

It's the best thing ever - I love being a mom. This is my only child. My career was a priority earlier in my life, but now my son is definitely the priority.
Stephanie Mills

Before I was a mom I used to think that parents who worried about their kids watching MTV were just clueless. Now that I'm a mom, I see what the fuss was all about!
Martha Quinn

But it can also fill us with a confidence we never thought we’d have:

I know how to do anything, I'm a mom.
Roseanne Barr Arnold

Now you tell us: how has your Mom influenced your life and career choices? If you have kids, how have they influenced your career path? Post a comment and weigh in!

PTA to DOL: Alice Leopold's Kids Kick-Started Her Career

Many women feel they have to choose between having a family and having a career. Others struggle to find balance as they try to have it all. Some choose one path, only to find themselves unexpectedly thrust into another role. Alice Leopold never meant to be anything but a stay-at-home mom, but the simple choice to get involved in the Parent-Teacher Association at her sons’ school quickly led to her appointment to a federal directorship in the U.S. Department of Labor. Here’s how it happened.

Alice got married in 1931 at the age of 25. After completing a double major in English and Economics at Goucher, she worked as the personnel director of a department store for several years before marrying her husband, an ad executive. Less than 10% of women attended college in the late 1920s, and from 1920 to 1940 the average age of a bride held steady at 21, so by the time she tied the knot, Alice was already different from the other housewives in her quiet Connecticut suburb. But she was determined to put her career behind her and focus solely on raising her young sons.

But then her oldest son entered elementary school. Alice learned that there was no hot lunch program for the children, and she was outraged. She contacted the PTA, which in turn appointed her “hot lunch chairman.” She organized a group of mothers to cook large amounts of food every morning and carry it to the school in kettles every day at noon. The project gained widespread approval, and Alice was a shoo-in for the next president of the PTA.

Her appetite for public life whetted, Alice began working with the League of Women Voters, writing pamphlets to inspire women like herself to become more involved in politics. “I fell for my own propaganda about participation,” she later recalled. Her convictions about political participation led her to accept an invitation to join the Weston Town Committee of the Republican Party. From there, it was a short leap to the Republican nomination to the Connecticut General Assembly, an election she won in 1949, serving on the education and labor committees.

As a state assemblyperson, Leopold authored two important bills -- a minimum-wage bill and an equal-pay bill -- both of which passed in 1949. She served one term before being elected Connecticut’s Secretary of State and then, in a whirlwind of political fortune, ended up on the short list of “notable Republican women” for consideration as federal appointees under the Eisenhower administration. Alice got the nod to become the Director of the Women’s Bureau, answering directly to the Secretary of Labor, in November 1953.

So, in less than fifteen years, Alice Leopold went from being a stay-at-home mom to a federal bureaucrat, all because she cared about her kids’ nutrition. Her career grew up with her children, taking on more responsibility as they grew older, until she reached the top just as her youngest son was turning 18 and going to college. She served until 1961.

It's safe to say that, had she never married had children, Alice Leopold would likely have spent the rest of her life in HR at a department store. But because she cared about her children's school, she got involved in public life and ended up in a position to make policy that would impact several generations of working mothers all across the United States.

Are you a mom whose children shaped your career or helped you find a new one? Tell us about it in the comments!

Sources:

http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/college.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005061.html

http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/bitstream/1840.16/79/1/etd.pdf

Eleanor of Aquitaine: How NOT to Balance Work and Family

Is this you?

If you're like most working moms today, dividing your time between the house and the office, you probably spend a lot of time worrying about getting the balance right. Or feeling guilty because you don't think you're getting the balance right. Or exhausted because you're trying to handle the dual full-time challenges of pursuing a career and managing a household. Or all of the above. But take heart. However badly you think you're doing, your family is almost certainly better off than that of one of the most powerful and successful women of the pre-modern era: Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Eleanor had quite the CV. She became Duchess of Aquitaine, a large semi-independent principality in southern France, at age 15 in 1137. Three months later, she started climbing the ladder and became Queen of France when she married Louis VI. After having two daughters, she wasn't content to sit at home being queen, and went on an extended business trip to the Middle East with Louis, otherwise known as the Second Crusade.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Of course, everyone knows that, to get ahead in your career, you sometimes have to switch jobs. Well, in Eleanor's case, since her career was really tied to the family firm, it was a little more challenging. She got an annulment from the Pope not long after the Crusade (it was not a successful trip), and, leaving her two daughters in their father's custody, married Henry, the 9-years-younger Duke of Normandy, a scant eight weeks later.

This was a bold move, a very risky move. Not only did she take a serious pay cut and a definitely lesser job title, but technically, her new husband even worked for the old one! But she could see that Henry was a man who was going places, and her gamble paid off. Henry went places, all right. He went to England and, with Eleanor at his side, defeated the armies of the King of England (who happened to be Henry's first cousin once removed - and you thought your family holidays were tense!), and "convinced" the king to name Henry the heir to the throne.

So Eleanor's gamble on the spin-off venture paid off, and she shortly became Queen of England (the only woman in history to be queen of both England and France). Henry became Henry II of England, and in between battles that freed Normandy and Aquitaine from all hint of French control, he reformed the English justice system, laying the basis for the common law system still in place in both England and America today.

After 21 years of marriage and eight children, five of whom were boys, things started to fall apart for Eleanor personally, though. Henry started flaunting a young and beautiful mistress, and several of his grown sons had gotten tired of waiting for their turn to run things. With Eleanor's encouragement, three of their sons, including Richard The Lionheart, started an unsuccessful rebellion against Henry. The revolt was put down, and Eleanor spent the next 16 years in captivity at Henry's command, although he sometimes let her out to join the family for special occasions like Christmas. Eleanor did not regain her freedom until Henry's death.

A good son?

Richard became king, freed his mother, and promptly set off on the Third Crusade, leaving Eleanor behind to run England in his absence. He also left his ambitious youngest brother, Prince John. (Whether he actually sucked his thumb is not known to history. We're pretty sure about the mommy issues, though.) Richard returned from the Crusade eventually, but died during a siege in France. Eleanor then watched John take the throne, her second son to do so.

She lived to be over 80, actively involved in ruling England until almost the very end. She was one of the most educated, beautiful, powerful, and wealthy women in history, but she wasn't able to find that balance between career and family we all strive for. You could even say she failed in spectacular fashion. So, the next time you feel inadequate because you didn't feel like cooking after a long day on the job, relax. It could always be worse.

The Making of Me: The Mom Behind the Man

Nancy’s son was in trouble. At nine, Al had already been kicked out of two different schools, and now his new teacher was saying that he was “unteachable” and “slow.” She knew that her son was smart, but the teachers had no patience for his boundless energy and endless questions. So she did what she felt she must: she pulled him out of school and taught him at home.

Believing firmly in his potential for greatness, Nancy encouraged Al to explore the laws of physics, nature, and chemistry and to figure things out for himself. She let him set up a laboratory in their basement, and he had full access to all the books in their home. When he exhausted all the reading material there by age eleven – including an extensive collection of classic literature and the works of Shakespeare – Nancy took him to the public library. Al decided to begin with the last book on the bottom shelf and systematically read his way through the entire library. By age 12, Al had read Sears' History Of The World, Burton's Anatomy Of Melancholy, The World Dictionary of Science, and a everything he could find on chemistry and physics.

Even though she had six older children to care for, Nancy didn’t give up on her son. That fateful day in 1854 when she decided to homeschool Al quite literally changed the world. Although he had special educational needs, probably ADHD, and was hard of hearing, Al – short for his middle name, Alva – went on to invent the light bulb, the phonograph, and dozens of other important electrical components that laid the technological foundation for the computer you’re reading this on today. Of course, by now you’ve guessed it – Nancy Edison was the mother of Thomas Alva Edison, The Wizard of Menlo Park, and she was essential to his success.

As an adult, Edison would recall, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint."

Was your Mom a Nancy Edison? Did she teach you lessons that shaped your future career? Tell us in the comments!

Sources:

http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Thomas_Edison.htm

http://borntoexplore.org/edison.htm

http://www.thomasedison.com/biography.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1632102/posts

http://www.patentdrafting.com/edison.htm

Three Bands, Thirty Five Students, No Regrets

When you think of a professional musician, you probably picture one of these two scenarios: a fabulously wealthy rock star, riding in gold limousines and surrounded by screaming fans, or – if you’re a little more pessimistic – a starving artist who sleeps all day, plays all night, and probably still lives in his parents’ basement. But there are thousands of working musicians all over the world who, like Dan Huber, live somewhere in between. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to make your living as an artist, read on – Dan, via email, was kind enough to give Professional Detours some insight into how he makes it work.

Dan started taking piano lessons in grade school and switched to guitar and bass later, but it wasn’t until high school that he really started to get serious about music as a career. “Maumee High had an excellent music theory course,” Dan recalled. “That started me on my current path.”

Dan went to Ohio University and studied music. He took advantage of a program that let him “[design] my own music major which I called Versatile Musicianship. Ohio University was the second school in the country to allow student to pick their own courses, and for this I am very grateful. This meant I could take women's history, African American poetry, kayaking and whatever else I damn well pleased.”

Still, the vast majority of Dan’s classes were in music and music theory. “I studied primarily under David Messina, bassist for the West Virginia Symphony, as well as with several great jazz instructors and radio host Bill McGlaughlin was once guest conductor of the orchestra at this time. I played in the school's jazz ensembles, orchestra, and always played in at least 2 rock bands as well.” A versatile musician, indeed.

After graduating from Ohio University in 2002, Dan moved back to his hometown and worked a day job as a house painter while playing gigs on weekends. In 2004, after having “seen New York city and wanting a larger environment in which to flounder,” Dan moved to Chicago. While he took a few part-time jobs in Chicago to help make ends meet, he tried to choose jobs that met a certain criteria: “that they help someone directly (such as a homeless shelter) or are enjoyable (deckhand on a boat) or good exercise (dog walking).” But for Dan, It’s always been about the music. “The primary challenge has always been making any money whatsoever while spending as little time working non-music jobs as possible.” In other words, instead of working full-time elsewhere and squeezing in music in around the edges, music has always been Dan’s focus, and when time allowed, tried to make some money on the side.

“After 6 years of working part time jobs and playing music and teaching in Chicago, I finally had gotten to the point where I had enough students to quit other extraneous work,” Dan said. So what’s a typical day like for a professional musician? “I sleep till 9, get up and practice bass or guitar until I leave for teaching lessons, which is around 3 PM. I drive an hour through Chicago rush hour to teach in the suburbs at a small music store, A Sound Education, which has been in business 10 years; I have been there 5+. Then after that I go to band practice or drive to a gig. Two of my bands, Old Shoe and Antony Ablan, are very active and play anywhere within a 6 hour drive, although I have on occasion flown to Arizona or farther to play with Mos Funnel.”

Dan works with thirty-five students and twenty professional musicians, so keeping track of everything is challenging at best. And, of course, as with any freelancer, finances are often a concern. “You have to decide if you care about money or not,” Dan noted, “because as a musician only a very few will make any significant money, and if so it may take decades. So, if you want to be middle class and still full-time, you are wise to start teaching lessons, and developing your ability to play songs by ear and read music.” Teaching, in fact, has been critical to allowing Dan to quit his outside part-time jobs. “If you become a music teacher, you no longer need to be concerned whether each gig pays. In fact, you may find most don't pay very much at all! When I get paid, I consider myself lucky and each dollar is precious.”

Although having an education in music is important if you plan to teach lessons, “the main thing people need to do is play as much as humanly possible, with as many different people, styles, etc, and listen to a wide variety of music, and support local music whenever possible…The main thing is focusing on the art,” Dan said, “because a lot of other musicians will fall by the wayside, give up, all sorts of relationship and money issues will get in the way, but the best thing to do is either play as much as possible or develop a business plan. I prefer not to plan. I never have money to invest in my bands, so I have to earn my keep by being [expletive] excellent.”

Dan’s success has by no means peaked, and if you’re interested in learning more about his bands, there are plenty of opportunities to do so. If you’re in the Chicago area, keep an eye out for Old Shoe’s festival in September. “We are inviting all the best bands from the entire region, all the ones we have shared festival bills with, some incredible talent.” Old Shoe is also playing several other festivals in the Midwest, including Hoodilidoo in Lacota, Michigan; The Grateful Garcia Gathering in Black River Falls, Wisconsin; the Field Trip Festival in South Elgin,Illinois; and Widow's Peak in Earlville, Illinois. Other shows and gig information can be found on Old Shoe’s web site.

If you’re not near any of the festival locations, you can buy Old Shoe’s first album at this link or check out Dan’s YouTube channel for tour highlights. Old Shoe is releasing their second album on July 23; check the band’s web site for details. And Dan’s other bands are releasing albums this summer as well – Joseph Messing and the Wise Men’s new album is coming out in July 2, and Antony Ablan and the Tramps has an album coming out on July 22. All three releases include release shows at Chicago venues; check the individual band web sites for all the details.